Books/Novels Discussion Thread V1: Literary Gems

Faun

Wahahaha~!
Staff member
Finished Lamb by Christropher Moore -- humor rife with wisdom or is it the other way round ?

Almost 75% done with Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep ?. So far it's riveting tale with pretty good twists and a moral view on man vs machine. Almost fell in love with an android.
 

jackal_79

Get Digit ized
We have IMDB to check out movie/ tv ratings and reviews which are accepted universally ( to an extent!). Is there any similar sites for books?
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
*i.imgur.com/vnCaM72.jpg
Out of nowhere, this was such a pleasant surprise. Actually not badly written, this is everything Meluha could have been and more. It manages to descend to the levels of some generic love at the coffee shop / Chetan Bhagat type books only a few times, and only during the mandatory despo - lecher packaged as a woozy romantic scenes. If you ever wanted to know exactly why ancient Asian/ Oriental/ Indian texts are called science, this will easily make sense out of it. The things covered are simple, grammar, rudimentary maths, astronomy (not astrology), meditation, mantras, morality and keeping time in around 600 AD. It shows how ground breaking even simple things like the invention of zero and the discovery of zodiac movements were, and had effect on mundane life. And suddenly it dives into philosophical questions and the genesis of mysticism. Events are centered around Xuanzang visit to Nalanda University. Everything is written in a simple language, even children can understand, but the topics covered are more on the mature side. Every single thing is well researched, and you actually learn real historical things and understand their meaning, not some made up stuff that sounds glorious. It shows Yindians were around even a millenium ago, and how their lame decisions are haunting us to this day. And it is checks out scientifically too, maybe because an astro physicist wrote it. Genre wise this is speculative historical fiction, neither fitting into sci-fi nor fantasy.

Introduction is better than any review of this book on the web, so posting

The seeds of Zen Buddhism - the concept of the emptiness of reality and the practice of meditation - emerged in India as Yogachara philosophy. Xuanzang (also known as Hiuen-Tsang/Hsuan-Tsang) came from China to study yogachara in Nalanda, the biggest monastery in the ancient world, in the 7th century, CE.

Tantric Buddhism developed in secrecy in India circa 7th century CE. Historians have speculated whether Xuanzang knew about it but did not mention in his records. Years later, he wrote in a letter from China that he lost some books in the river Indus on his way back from India.

For reasons unknown, ancient Indian scholars dismissed a crucial astronomical discovery, of the precession of equinoxes, circa 6th-7th century CE. As a result, most south Asian calendars ran slower than the seasons. Festival dates are now offset almost by a month.
 

Faun

Wahahaha~!
Staff member
Finished reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Power of Myth

Reading The Book of Disquiet and Metro 2033
 

ashs1

Padawan
Public library? Here the public libraries keep only Bengali books :/

sadly no.. there are no decent public libraries here in nagpur..
I issued it from my college library..

The best Public library that i've been a member of is Murugan Library in adyar,chennai..had all sorts of books from comicsC( DC, Archies, tinkle) to Novels ( Tamil as well as english) and magazines as well.
 

tkin

Back to school!!
sadly no.. there are no decent public libraries here in nagpur..
I issued it from my college library..

The best Public library that i've been a member of is Murugan Library in adyar,chennai..had all sorts of books from comicsC( DC, Archies, tinkle) to Novels ( Tamil as well as english) and magazines as well.
Same here, no public library keeps English books. Sadly, my college as well as my current company only keeps study books :/
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
Gave me sad suggestions for Michael Moorcock, probably because nobody writes like him
but might work for you people
What Should I Read Next? Book recommendations from readers like you
 

sling-shot

Wise Old Owl
Is there a similar website like GoodReads Share Book Recommendations With Your Friends, Join Book Clubs, Answer Trivia with an Android application if possible which is not majorly girly?
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
There was some RTI which showed that BSNL payed exorbitant rates to Tier 1 providers
RTI Reveals BSNL Pays Exorbitant rates for bandwidth
 

tkin

Back to school!!
Now reading Rama II by Arthur C Clarke. I am not loving the direction it's taking, too much background story for a Hard Sci fi novel.
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
Rendezvous with Rama was good. I like to think of it as a standalone book.

After that it starts going haywire. Rama II is still ok, Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed just go insane.
 
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