Book Baton
Savi passed me a book baton.
Number of Books on the Shelf
A lot! Got two shelves in my room with most of the books i’ve owned since I was about 13. So there’s everything ranging from my old Archers and Forsythes, cricket books, wildlife, general fiction and my old university texts. That excludes my beloved Asterix and Tin Tin books which ammi gave away to a kids home!
Last Book Purchased
HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Book Reading Right Now
Monkfish Moon - Romesh Gunasekara
Last 5 Books Read
Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Distant Warriors - Channa Wickramasekara
Beach - Alexander Garland
Colpetty People - Ashok Ferry
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi
Books that mean a lot to me
Once Upon a Tender Time - Carl Muller - A lot of Muller’s books mean a lot to me but if I had to choose one it would be once upon a tender time. It’s an excellent piece of writing about childhood and Sri Lankan society. It’s got Muller’s characteristic writing style, the wit, the sharp details and Singlish thrown in. Any book that can make me want to cry and laugh within the same chapter will be right up there in my rankings.
July - Karen Roberts - I love books that are close to home, and July hits very very close. I wasn’t born when the ‘83 riots occured, July took me the closest i’ve ever been to that horrible horrible time. The story also dabbles in love and was really well written and presented overall.
Man Eater of Punanai - Christopher Ondaatje - A true story about a Man Eating Leopard in Eastern Sri Lanka in the 1940’s. I have the hardcopy and it’s brilliant. Got lots of great photography, nice writing and a chapter on my favourite place on earth Yala. There’s nothing like a good thrilling adventure story!
The Critique of Pure Reason - Emmanuel Kant - I did a finals paper on Kant and the Critique is the most difficult book i’ve ever read. I used to spent several minutes trying to get to grips with each sentence, and the Philosophy is so so abstract and difficult to grasp. It helped that I had a brilliant tutor (quite a hottie too). So the Critique means a lot to me, not for reading pleasure but for a feeling of conquest.
In general, I love books that can make me very sad or make me laugh. Most of the books I mentioned are sad ones. For laughter, nothing beats Carl Muller (of course), Oscar Wilde and P.G. Wodehouse.
