What's new

Books I recommend

J

Jimmy two-times

PP Fantasy Football Reigning Champion
Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Runs
2,093
One of the best threads is the 'Movies I recommend' thread because you get to hear about films which people think are good/bad so i was thinking we should a thread for books were people recommend and give their views on books they have read.
 
urdu:
aag ka dariya - Qurat-ul-ain Haider (best novel written in urdu)
Bahao - Mustansar Hussain Tarar (one of the best novel written in urdu. very original in its language treatment)
Awaz-e-dost - Mukhtar Masood (best essay writing). In urdu, anyone can hardly match in essay writing

other languages:
one hundred years of solitude - gabriel garcia marquez (got nobel prize on this novel. based on post-surrealism technique known as 'magic realism')

computers:
the art of computer programming - Donald E Knuth
 
When recommending a book, also mention something about it.

Example what is it about, fiction, etc.
 
A Farewell to Arms- Earnest Hemmingway

The Dark Knight Returns- Frank Miller
 
lord of the rings :) - tolkien
eaters of the dead - micheal chrichton (the movie 13th warrior was based on this novel.a fictional story of the journeys of a muslim traveller and his adventures with the scandinavian people, theyre quest to to fight a "threat" which must not be named)
 
Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger
It's about the weekend of a boy who is suffering from post-traumatic depression. A very good read. Also it is an easy and cheap way of checking if you suffer from depression as well. Haha.
 
michael crichton.. sigh.. just reminded me of my old days.. i was obsessed with his work.

also dean koontz and stephen king. all their books are good.
 
Cartman said:
michael crichton.. sigh.. just reminded me of my old days.. i was obsessed with his work.

also dean koontz and stephen king. all their books are good.
Click to expand...

true,wish i had more time to read more of micheal chrichton, especially timeline.ive only read a couple.even jurrasic park was good haha.
 
nafajafam said:
When recommending a book, also mention something about it.

Example what is it about, fiction, etc.
Click to expand...

ok, i'll start with one. a few questions asked to the author of bhao and his response is given below:
Q. How strongly is Bahao influenced by Aag Ka Darya?

A. Aag Ka Darya is, of course, a great novel. But I am very keen to avid the trap of comparisons. I want my book to be judged in its own right. That is why I did away with the initial plan of dividing Bahao into two parts: one dealing with events 5,000 years ago and the other taking place in 1990. I knew that our critic has rote-learned certain names, and the only way he can speak about a book is by making comparisons. (In order to avoid comparisons with Aag Ka Darya) I ended Bahao as a novel in its first part. Then I began with Raakh, which is an independent novel as such. It is not a sequel. But those who have read Bahao will feel that there are some links, running as an undercurrent.

Q. Would you categorise Bahao as a stream of consciousness novel?

A. The concept of ‘stream of consciousness’ is now outdated, actually. Ainee Aapa (Quratul Ain Haider) made excellent use of that technique in Aag Ka Darya. Trends have moved on since then. Now you have magical realism, which you find in Rushdie, Marquez, Kundera… I think that if you amalgamate the two techniques, then you get something that is found in Raakh. And which is, perhaps, present even in Bahao in its initial form.

Q. A periodical from Karachi has dubbed Bahao as a “Punjabi” novel. How do you react to that?

A. I am proud to be a Punjabi, but I do not see myself as “a Punjabi writer.” I am “a writer”. I felt sad when I read that statement. That misunderstanding arose out of liberal usage of certain Punjabi words in the novel. But those words are originally Dravidian, dating back to that period. I did not use them just because they were Punjabi words. I used them because these words were current in the period about which I was writing. In fact, I carried out regular linguistic research in order to create my diction because I felt that the rhythm of speech 3,000 years ago could not have been the same as it is today. Look at how the rhythm of speech spoken by the characters in Prem Chand’s stories seems alien to us now. In the same way, I had to discover the rhythm of speech as it was 3,000 years ago.

In my research I was helped by Fareedkoti Saheb, Arif Waqar and Ali Abbas Jalalpuri. They helped me establish the correct vocabulary. Then there was a Ph.D. thesis from Berkeley University, titled Ancient Tamil Poetry, which dealt with the Tamil Poetry of 2,500 years ago. Now, Tamil and Brahvi are the two languages of the subcontinent which have the maximum number of Dravidian words. I had already written about 150 pages by then, but I had to re-write them because that thesis really gave me the rhythm for my novel.

While we are on the topic, let me add one more thing. It is rather strange that we all refer to the civilization of Moenjodaro as the Indus Valley Civilisation. Mind you, the course of the River Indus spreads from the North to the Arabian Sea. The Indus does not belong to the province of Sindh. It only ends there. The grandeur of the Indus, which inspired the Rig Veda can only be seen in the Punjab or in the mountainous North. When the Rig Veda says, and I have quoted it in my novel, that “Sindhu comes roaring, riding its white chariot,” it is certainly not speaking of Sindh. You will see that the archaeological literature prior to 1947 speaks of the Harrappan Civilisation and not the Indus Valley Civilisation.

I am not against the use of the term Indus Valley, but I would like to point out to all our scholars, cultured individuals and politicians that the civilization we talk about included almost the whole of Pakistan, not just Sindh.
 
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

To Kill A Mockingbird

Island of the Blue Dolphins

A Clockwork Orange
 
Edgar Allen Poe was quite the character Cartsy. "Never, never again.." Beautiful piece of work.

Robo: Is that book in Urdu? My urdu unfortunately is very weak. I once read "Meer Afzal" as "Mera Fazal"
 
nafajafam said:
Edgar Allen Poe was quite the character Cartsy. "Never, never again.." Beautiful piece of work.

Robo: Is that book in Urdu? My urdu unfortunately is very weak. I once read "Meer Afzal" as "Mera Fazal"
Click to expand...

unfortunately it's in urdu! actually he mixed old dead languages to create a new form a language. infact, he was trying to depict how ppl could have been speaking to each other 5000 yrs ago in our region.
 
War and Peace by Tolstoy...regarded as the best novel in history by many

Anna Karenina tolstoy again

in modern writers

Angels and Demons and The Da vinci code by dan brown

i will add more as i remember
 
Eye of the world by robert jordan.A cool book that p***** over lord of the rings trilogy.

And of course the greatest villian ever created in a book 'elan morin tedronai' is present in it.:)
 
Timeline - Micheal Chrichton

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

Two very good reads.
 
Mirror to Blind- Autobiography of Edhi

Point of Impact-Stepen hunter. Its a Thriller.

Road to Mecca- Mohammad Asad. Travelogue of a jew who converted to Islam.

Urdu ki Akhari kitab- Ibn-e-Insha. Humor
 
LOTR

The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell

One for my baby - Tony Parsons (a typically british book)

The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Dark Rivers of the Heart - Dean Koontz

Will list more when i remember
 
fair enough

LOTR - one of the greatest literary acheivements of mankind in the richness and subtlety of detail with which it is written. The greatest book i have ever read.

The rule of four - one for the fans of the renessaince. A book that is quite different in its style but one that is fluently well written. Written of two freinds at college trying to unlock the secrets of a book written in the renessaince period. Has been compared to the Da Vinci code but there are hardly any similarities imo. A book unto itself and one i enjoyed.

One for my baby - i enjoyed this book primarily for the skill of the writer. Incredible control of the language and a vivid style that has to be marvelled at. The story is of a middle aged man attempting to run from the memory of his dead wife.

The Godfather - this needs no introduction. Brilliantly written. So well written that i would say the book is better than the film.

Dark Rivers of the heart - Koontz has an incredible gift of suspense writing and this just happens to be the best suspense book i have ever read. A great story of a retired police official running from a secret service he didn't know existed.

Apart from these books i would recommend books by Dean Koontz in general anyway. A great writer
 
James Patterson, with all due respect, is as skilled at english literature as Waqar and that is putting it politely
 
z10 said:
James Patterson, with all due respect, is as skilled at english literature as Waqar and that is putting it politely
Click to expand...

Didnnt Waqar say this in his most recent commentary stint?:-

MikeyHolding: "WOW! So what are you reading Waqar?"

Waqar: "I am a reading the book - it is by the Mr James"
 
Last edited:
Oxy™ said:
Didnnt Waqar say this in his most recent commentary stint?:-

MikeyHolding: "WOW! So what are you reading Waqar?"

Waqar: "I am a reading the book - it is by the Mr James"
Click to expand...


:91:
 
Slugger said:
To Kill A Mockingbird
Click to expand...


what a book by harper lee

its about black america and how the struggles to help them by soem white americans

a black guy is accused of rape but hes innocent, and the lawyer does everything in his power to save him

excellent read
 
as a child i was a very much a fan of goodnight mister tom

this about an abused child who gets moved to the country to a recluse and they both bring each other out of their own shells

then the recluse adopts him

brilliant
 
Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid- about the seedy underworld in Lahore (drugs, murder, sex)

Anyone But England- Cricket. Race and Class by Mike Marqusee
 
'Not a penny more, Not a penny less' by Jeffery Archer is my fav book.

'The blue Nowhere' by Jeffery Deaver is worth a try too!
 
u kiddin z10? it was a masterclass! I've loved every single one of his books...and today i'm gonna go out and rent the sicilian movie..can't wait!
 
octavian said:
War and Peace by Tolstoy...regarded as the best novel in history by many

Anna Karenina tolstoy again

in modern writers

Angels and Demons and The Da vinci code by dan brown

i will add more as i remember
Click to expand...
That is soo bloody long. I spent half a summer holiday trying to read that and I barely got half way through. Was a good read but the holidays finished and I just gave up
 
The following i would recommend:

The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy all by robert ludlem
The Bourne Ultimatum

Brick Lane by monica ali - its about a bangla girl who is married of to a older guy and the problem she faces.

Wiseguy By Nicholas Pileggi
 
one hundred of years of solitude (as mentioned earlier).
i'll put the first sentence of this novel to give a hint of the brilliance of Marquez story-telling ability:

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.


and the first sentence of his novel,"love in the time of cholera" :

It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.
 
I bought The Da Vinci Code and V for Vendetta today - look forward to reading them especially TDVC since there has been a lot of hype about it
 
Geordie Ahmed said:
I bought The Da Vinci Code and V for Vendetta today - look forward to reading them especially TDVC since there has been a lot of hype about it
Click to expand...


DVC was completely amateurish and hyped up
 
The best book I can recommend and is read the most in the history of Humanity. Go Read Qaran. the one and only and you like to do it again and again.
 
Anyone into classics here ?

Oscar wilde ? Dickens ? Jane Austen ? turgenev ? Dostoevsky ? Hugo ?
 
Last edited:
z10 said:
dickens is overhyped
Click to expand...


ohh thanx for clearing that up...

apprently people have been missing this piece of advice from you over the course of all these years

:91:
 
robosapien said:
i think "a tale of two cities" is great.
Click to expand...


have not read this, but of what i have read i think Dickens is not as great a writer as he is made out to be.
 
z10 said:
have not read this, but of what i have read i think Dickens is not as great a writer as he is made out to be.
Click to expand...

i think atleast " a tale of two cities" is really good. his story-telling style is like a "majmabaaz". someone standing on the street corner and narrating stories.
read the first paragraph of the novel:

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
 
hmm

lets start with humor

P.g wodehouse - code of the woosters, damsel in distress, joy in the morning... everything.

Dickens - Pickwick papers (not many people know about it, not mainstread but a great book)

Oscar Wilde - any of his plays really

Shaw - You Never can Tell, Man and Superman

Moliere - Don Juan, Miser
 
Russians:

Tolstoy - Anything (war and peace, anna, THE KREUTZER Sonata )

Dostoevsky - Brothers karamzov

TUrgenev - First love, Fathers and Sons(A revolutionary novel on nihilism)

Chekov - his plays
 
good, saved yourself the misery.

one of my favs is catcher in the rye.. keeps my depression levels at check.
 
'When You Hear Hoofbeats, Think of A Zebra' | By Shems Friedlander..Brilliant book on Sufi philosophy.......I encourage everyone to read it......
 
comma said:
hmm

lets start with humor

P.g wodehouse - code of the woosters, damsel in distress, joy in the morning... everything.

Dickens - Pickwick papers (not many people know about it, not mainstread but a great book)

Oscar Wilde - any of his plays really

Shaw - You Never can Tell, Man and Superman

Moliere - Don Juan, Miser
Click to expand...


the mention of wodehouse without the mentionof jeeves ? :10:
 
thanks for recommending it. have got wilde's other plays as well. one would love to speak like lord henry.
 
haven't read a play for eternity i think.

bloody indigo didn't have man and superman, have to order it.

btw, what did ya mean in the fox thread?
 
the hannibal lecter trilogy

just finished it, and what a trilogy it is
 
A colleague recommended 'The silk roads' by Peter Frankopan. Anyone here who has read this book? Please give a short review, thank you.
 
Can anyone recommend me a good book each on Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Zia Ul Haq?
 
Sixteen year bump. Blimey!

My favourite novelist is John Steinbeck the American. I recommend -

Of Mice and Men
The Grapes of Wrath
East of Eden
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

greatest
Best books on partition of the Sub-continent?
Replies
8
Views
457
greatest
greatest
MenInG
Utah primary schools ban Bible for 'vulgarity and violence'
Replies
2
Views
338
MenInG
MenInG
W
Russell Brand accused of rape and sexual assault
Replies
51
Views
730
Cricket Warrior
C
C
'India's "biggest asset" in Pakistan were the people there who did not consider it an enemy country': Former India's consul general in Karachi
Replies
23
Views
567
FPresidential
FPresidential
MenInG
Muslims mourn burning of historic library at madressah in India’s Bihar
Replies
15
Views
969
Hitman
Hitman
Back
Top