Booktag

"Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag up to 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose"



I'm replying to A's tag (my post-comeback, comeback post). I have a vague idea of the books... will play it by the ear as we go along.

So here goes, chronologically:



1) Tim and Topsy - Busy Builders: A tiny 10-page very colorful kids book about a pair of Swedish cherubic twins. My mom must have picked it up at a local Versova bookstore when I was 4 years old and could barely read. By the time I was 5, I could quote the entire 10 pages without looking. A very special book that's still lying around somewhere on my bookshelf.

2) 1000 Action Words: A "prize-book" for coming 1st in class in Sr. KG Section B in St. Louis High School :) ... A cute colorful book that sparked off my love for English.

3) Tinkle Comics: They really used to be good summer-vacation time entertainment!

4) The Malory Towers & St Clare's series, Enid Blyton: Darrel, Alicia, Zeralda Brass, Bill, Pat, Isabel, Jo, Carlotta. Midnight Feasts. Tricks. Mam'zelle DuPont. The perfect schoolgirl fantasy.

5) Five-Findouters and Dog - Mystery of the Missing Necklace, Enid Blyton: There was something about this book that merited many re-reads... Coo! Also Famous Five and the the one with Saucy Jane.

6) Are you there God? It's Me Margaret, Judy Blume: The ultimate coming-of-age book for a girl.

7) Room on The Roof, Ruskin Bond: The hills were never so beautiful in real-life. Another coming of age book, set in the beautiful Himalayan foothills.

8) Why Men Don't Listen, And Women Can't Read Maps, Alan and Barbara Pease: :) A book that I read, enjoyed and then gifted to someone 6 birthdays ago. A darned good practical guide to the behavioral quirks of the opposite sex.

9) The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkein: A tome in its own right... but once you are sucked in - it's unputdownable.

10) Harry Potter and the Everything, JK Rowling: Should have come earlier in the list, but I started reading the series much later than I should have, initially dismissing it as balderdash. Thanks Jo & A - for endless hours of entertainment and forever re-readability value.

... ... Making a short soujourn to the bookshelf, to jog my memory... :-)

11) The MICA Yearbook 2006, edited by Shaunak Shastry & Deepa Swaminathan: Lovely memories in hardback.

12) The Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh: A powerful, absorbing book, set in the Sunderbans - that I couldn't put down during the Jabalpur trip.

13) Maximum City, Suketu Mehta: A book that made me love Bombay a little bit more.

14) The Dilbert Principle & Joy of Work, Scott Adams: I bring it out whenever I want to laugh about work :-)

15) The Twilight Series, Stephanie Meyer: My current chart-topper. Again I had dismissed it as teenage fantasy. But Edward Cullen dazzled me :)

There are also Gone With the Wind (which I forgot to add at #8), a Madhur Jaffery Cookbook with near-edible pictures, Twelve Red Herrings by Jeffery Archer, the Shopaholic Series and Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy - which would complete my top 20.

I tag daviejones, Shee and The One - wherever he is :P ;)

A year and half later

A tag from Arbitly Poo, which I just chanced upon woke me up to the fact that I might just want to blog again. And a conversation with Geetz earlier in the day on writing. And my blog decided to shake off the dust.

What fun the early days of blogging used to be... back in MICA...
Composing posts in the classroom - right under the noses of indifferent profs. Or late at night, in a room lit by a pretty lamp. And then G-talk the girls with orders to comment. "Do the doody... right now" :D Voyeuristic visits to other blogs... wondering what "The One" looks like... fighting over who discovered him first.

Now I'm on a comfortable couch, blogging under the light from the TV. I will probably send a mail to the girls and order them to comment. Not much has changed... but then again... so much has.

Many weddings, including my own. Another wedding around the corner. People moving away, people moving back.
Living with a boy :-)
Keeping a home up and running.

A year and half after my last blog, and I'm raring to go again.

Anj, your tag will be written about in the next post. Thanks. It feels good to be back.