Fiction read so far...

I got into the reading habit very young. My brother and I would ravage the small area-library near our house. We read detective fiction, personality improvement stuff and a lot of the Ramakrishna Ashrama literature. As a young girl too, I knew I wanted to study English Literature or at least Literature in College. There are luckily dreams that do come true. Thank God for them! Or else what was to become of middle-class girls! with dreams and desires but little money?

At least ten to fifteen years into the reading habit, I realize now how good it would have been to keep a record of all the books read, along with perhaps an annotation. Books read over the last 7 years and a little more are actually recorded, though not annotated. Books read for my PhD are better recorded than the fiction I have read. When young, the mind is so clear and one remembers everything one has read...I never thought a day would come when I would be confused about whether I read a book or not when I saw it in the library. Anyways that time has come. I only hope I have grown wise along with growing as old as I have!

I counted the number of novels read so far: 150. I am feeling strange, is it less, is it more? 150, that's it? But then, 150 seems good too! An average novel is about 250 pages. But lets be liberal and say 300. See for instance, Vikram Seth's novel at 1000 pages plus. So, I calculated with an average of 150 and it turns out I have read 50,000 pages of fiction so far. So am I ready to write my own novel? NO IDEA YET. But I am a happy person having read all that I have read. I learned tons, I think.

Here's a roughly compiled, more-or-less list of the fiction read so far. For record. Sans bibliographical details. :) :)

The Inner Courtyard. Ed Lakshmi Holmstorm
The Quilt and Other Stories. Ishmat Chugtai.
A House for Mr Biswas. V S Naipaul
The Great Elephant and Other Stories. Jataka Tales.
Collected Short Stories of Somerset Maugham
Dubliners. James Joyce
Fitzgerald. The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and other Stories.
Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night.
Jamaica Kincaid. The Autobiography of my Mother.
Jamaica Kincaid. At the Bottom of the River. New York: Plume, 1992.
Nabokov. The Enchanter.
Saul Bellow. Humboldt’s Gift.
Marianne Faithfull. Autobiography.
Amongst Women.
Merde Actually, Stephen Clarke
Wish I May. Justine Picardie Picador.
Folktales of China. Ed. Wolfram Eberhard. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1937 fp. 1965.
Robert M Pirsig. 1974. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values.
Remembering Amma. Thi Jaa.
The Bell Jar. Sylvia Plath.
Real time. Amit Chaudhuri.
Freedom Song. Amit Chaudhuri.
Afternoon Raag. Amit Chaudhuri.
A Strange and Sublime Address. Amit Chaudhuri.
A New World. Amit Chaudhuri.
The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature. Ed. Amit Chaudhuri.
The Inheritance of Loss. Kiran Desai.
Motled Dawn. Saadat Hasan Manto.
Black Water. Joyce Carol Oates.
The Vintage Book of Indian Writing. 1947-1997. Eds. Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West.
Midnights Children. Salman Rushdie.
Haroun and the Sea of stories. Salman Rushdie. London: Granta Books, 1990.
Red Earth and Pouring Rain. Vikram Chandra.
Devi, Mahashweta. Trans. Anjum Katyal. 2005. After Kurukshetra. Calcutta, New Delhi: Seagull Books.
Rudali. Mahashweta Devi.
Shishu. Mahashweta Devi.
Guide. R K Narayan.
The Man-Eater of Malgudi. R K Narayan.
Train to Pakistan. Khushwant Singh. (Time books international)
God of small things. Arundhati Roy.
Interpreter of Maladies. Jhumpa Lahiri.
The Namesake. Jhumpa Lahiri.
The Calcutta Chromosome. Amitav Ghosh.
In an Antique Land. Amitav Ghosh.
Fasting, Feasting. Anita Desai.
The Dark Holds no Terrors. Shashi Deshpande.
The Blue Jasmine.
The Suitable Boy. Vikram Seth.
Speed Post. Shoba De.
Divasapna. Gijubhai Badheka (nbt)
The Wreck. Tagore.
The postman. Tagore.
Nagamandala. Karnad.
Hayavadana. Karnad.
Tuglaq. Karnad.
Taledanda. Karnad.
Devdas and Other Stories. Sarat Chandra Chatterjee.
Kannada Short Stories in Translation. Ed L S Sheshagiri Rao, Sumatheendra Nadig.
Delhi is not far. Ruskin Bond.
Ratanbai. Shevantibai Nikambe.
Saguna. Krupabai Sattianadhan.
Kamala: The Story of a Hindu wife. Krupabai Sattianadhan.
Kamala. Vijay Tendulkar.
The Most Truthful Picture and Other Stories. Asoka Mitran (Sahitya Academy)
My Story. Kamala Das.
Shadow Lines. Amitav Ghosh. (Ravi Dayal)
Ondu Tundu Godae. Muhammad Bolwar Kunhi.
Poison. Ismat Chugtai.
The Loony Bin Trip. Kate Millet.
Ka. Robeto Callaso
Resurrection. Tolstoy
The Idiot. Dostoyevsky.
Mother. Maxim Gorky.
War and peace. Tolstoy.
The Secret Agent. Joseph Conrad (Rupa Co)
Heart of darkness. Joseph Conrad. (USPBD)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Richard Bach.
There's no such place as far away. Richard Bach.
Sophie’s World. Gaadamer.
Beloved. Toni Morrison.
Love. Toni Morisson.
The Bluest Eye. Toni Morrison.
The Old Man and the Sea. Ernest Hemingway.
Emma. Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen.
Silas Marner. George Eliot.
Great Expectations. Charles Dickens.
A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens.
The Treasure Island. R L Stevenson.
Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte.
Jane Eyre. Emily Bronte.
Macbeth. Shakespeare.
Tempest. Shakespeare.
Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare.
Dr Faustus. Chistopher Marlow.
The Cocktail Party. T S Eliot.
Eaten by the Japanese.
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Milan Kundera.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Milan Kundera.
The Farewell Party. Milan Kundera.
Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe, (Allied Publishers)
Women Writing in India - 600 BC To Early 20th C, Vol 1 And 2. Ed. Susie Tharu and K Lalitha.
Oxford India.
The Poisoned Bread.
Karukku. Bama.
Government Brahmana. Arvinda Malgatthi.
The Scavenger’s Son.
The Branded, Uchalaya. Laxman Gaikwad.
Upara, An Outsider. Laxman Mane.
The Headman of the Little Hill. Karanth.
The Zahir. Paulo Coelho.
The Fifth Mountain. Paulo Coelho.
The Hours. Michael Cunningham.
The Pearl. John Steinbeck.
The Moon is Down. John Steinbeck.
The Joy Luck Club. Amy Tan.
The Kitchen God’s Wife. Amy Tan.
Mrs Dalloway. Virginia Woolf.
Flush. Virginia Woolf.
Gulabi Talkies. Vaidehi.
The Awakening and Selected Stories. Kate Chopin.
Awadheshwari. Shankar Mokashi Punekar.
Premchand. Nirmala
Kaalam. M T Vasudevan Nair.
The Mirror of Ink. Borges.
The White Tiger. Arvind Adiga.
Between the Assasinations. Arvind Adiga.
The Monk who sold his Ferrari. Robin S Sharma.
The Ascetic of Desire. Sudhir Kakar.
Yuganta. Iravati Karve.

Kannada Fiction.
Madhavi. Anupama Niranjana.
Gubbihallada Sakshiyalli. L C Sumithra.
Ondu Photoda Negative. Shridhara Balagara.
Padmapaani. Dr Ganeshaih.
Shivaganga. H S Champavati.
Kaanuru Heggadathi. Kuvempu.
Chomana Dudi. Karanth.
Samskara. U R Ananthmurthy. (Akshara Prakashana)
Divya. U R Ananthamurthy (Akshara Prakashana)
Awasthe. U.R.Ananthamurthy.
Akka. P Lankesh. (Patrike Prakashana)
Hulimavinamara, Ondu Aatmakathana. P Lankesh. Patrike Prakashana, Basavanagudi, Bangalore.
Kallu Karaguva Samaya. P Lankesh. (Patrike Prakashana.)
Kereya Neeranu Kerege Chelli Mattu Itara Kathegalu. P. Lankesh (Vichara Vahini)
Daatu. S L Byrappa.
Matadaana. S L Byrappa.
Devanooru Mahadeva Avara Kritigalu (Patrike Prakashana.)
Abachurina Postafisu. Poornachandra Tejaswi (Navakarnataka Publications.)
Alemariye Andaman Mattu Mahanadi Nyle. Poornachandra Tejaswi (Pustaka Prakashana)

Carvalho. Poornachandra Tejaswi.
Kannadakkobbane. Kailasam.
Singaravva Mattu Aramane. Kambar.
Yaro Andaru. Shivarama Karanth.
Agni Mattu Male. Girish Karnad.
Tippu Sultana Kanda Kanasu. Girish Karnad.
Seetha. Snehalata Reddy.
Mahachaitra. G.S. Shivarudrappa.
Singarevva mattu Aramane. Chandrashekhara Kambara.
Kusumabale. Devanuru Mahadeva.
Odalala. Devanuru Mahadeva.
Parasangada Gendetimma. Sri Krishna Alanahally.
Latest Additions (read in 2009):
* Anandamath by Bankimchandra Chatterjee
* Gubbihallada Sakshiyalli by L C Sumithra
* Ondu Photoda Negative by Sridhara Balagara
* Padmapaani by Dr K N Ganeshaiah
* The Home and the World by Tagore
* The Immortals by Amit Chaudhuri
* The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
* The Mirror of Ink by Jorge Luis Borges
* The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
* Who Will Cry When you Die? by Robin S Sharma

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