I read a lot of books, and I have bought even more. Other than computer science and mathematics, my interest in books ranges from philosophy, antropology, economics, sociology, history, political science, political biographies, popular science, logic, essays, popular fiction, short stories, classics, comics and a few more that I cannot classify. I have an exhaustive collection of Readers' Digest Magazines dating back to 1942.
A few of my favorite books (read treasured possessions):
My reviews of a few of these books (more reviews coming up as and when I read these books again):
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
"Intensely lyrical and wildly funny" - Time
Humbert Humbert - "Lolita, the light of my life, the fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta."
This is how the tale begins; This is how the wordplay begins; This is how the fantastic fun begins. Nabokov has created poetry in Lolita that's in the guise of prose. I am not done with the book yet, am reading it slow, and I dont want it to ever end. I will finish this review after I know what happened to Humbert. Till then, gentlewomen of the jury, do not be offended by the theme of the book; grab a copy and get enthralled in the incredible first person account of a fallen hero.
I am now done with the book, and oh! what a book. I am now on the hunt for The Annotated Lolita, to figure out whatever Alfred Appel Jr., the mysterious Nabokov Scholar, points to.
Here is my not-so-earnest imploring self begging you to read Lolita. And here, I wonder what an alternate viewpoint might read like.
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
My very short review of Shantaram tells almost nothing about the excitement, elation, and sheer joy of fiction-reading that I felt when I read it. Its a mammoth book, but runs like a springbuck.
Godfather - Mario Puzo (1969)
Romantic. Powerful. Just. Exciting. Philosophical. And more. The Godfather has it all. Its not just about the Mafia and the Italian community. Its about why men become what they are. And what makes them as human as anyone else. Its about what loyalty, principles, vengeance, lust, love, fear are all about.
The book starts of with a very detailed and well thought about introduction of all the characters. Except the Don himself: Vito Corleone. The whole book has to assimilated to really know what the Don is all about. There is very little detail about what the Don really thinks and believes in. There is very little known about what motivates him. The whole book is a testament to what the Don has built and what he is. And other characters go about describing him to us by what they speak about and what they do. But after I finished the book, a couple of times or so, I knew the Don. Well, somewhat....
The book is organized into 5 main parts. Book one gives us introductions and builds up to a great family dispute. At the end of book one we know the family structure and other details that are important to the whole book.
Book two talks about how the Don became the don and more importantly how he became the Godfather. This part has awesome details about how people react to fear, and how a threat is never uttered, and what people really are. The section where the don contempates the power of Fannucci gives you a glimpse of how the Don must've operated to get on top of all the New York Families.
Book three is extremely romantic and is a very good read. This is the section where Michael Corleone spends two years in exile in Sicily.
Book four gives us an insight into how Las Vegas works. This is unarguably the most boring part of the book. Takes away the pace from the narrative and is totally unnecessary. Could've been removed. No wonder this part is not a part of the Godfather movies.
Book five is about how Michael becomes Don Michael. This introduces new characters and finally the end itself tells us the crux of the book. You could actually read the whole book as the journey of a young man from being a conscientious war hero to finally ending up as the most feared Mafia Chief in the country.
The book is full of delightful characters whose shades of gray have been very well brought out. There are attitudes of people that leave you wondering whether people could ever live like that. Death becomes cheap. Life's goals are ridiculously simple. Male chauvinism is taken to new heights throughout the book. There are glorious one liners like "Revenge is a dish that tastes best when cold". "You should always have friends that underestimate your virtues and enemies that overestimate your faults"......
Design Patterns - Gamma et al. (1994)
I came across this classic pretty innocuously. Some colleagues suggested a design patterns study group and from that day, I was hooked. This book teaches you more about Object Oriented programming than all the other OO books combined.
Each pattern opens up another facet of Object Oriented programming. Once you are done with all the patterns, and then, done with them again, and then, done with them again you feel the euphoria of having understood something so abstract, but at the same time so tangible and visible around us. Be it Java, C++ or any other OO language, your design ideas and orgranizations become incredibly elegant and simple. This, is something you learn and appreciate only if you have gone through this book. And, here, by "done with them", I mean a thorough study, sample implementations, production implementations and the ability to recognize that pattern with its subtle variations.
The GoF book (Gang of Four) is structured as a manual of sorts, and it requires some orderly study. Look up Design Patterns Study Group on Google. The study orders suggested there are worth mulling over. The simple patterns are easy enough to understand (Factory method and the like) and the complex ones (Visitor) can be digested with the understanding of the basic patterns.
Again, at the end of the book, (there is no end to this book, though ) you might actually end up mastering OO coding.
Possible criticisms on this book are that OO solutions are not the only solutions, that you begin to think in patterns for every problem. Which might not be entirely good, and this book doesnt encompass the full world of pure OO patterns (collecting parameter, for example). The first criticism is outside this review: this book is not a book on software construction, it is a book on Object Oriented software. The second one requires a bit of experience, and the third one: well, this book spawned a dozen books on the concept of "patterns", and you could pick up any of those to know more about other kind of patterns. I wold still say that this is THE first book to start with.
It also helps that this book has become a standard of sorts and the terms and jargon presented in this book are highly visible in the OO design and programming world.
Worth a Buy, Worth a dozen reads.