39/50 -- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The end of the year is approaching and it is time to take stock. Mid-way through the year I revised my target of reading 40 books with 50.

I must say I am rather surprised and pleased with my progress so far. I did not expect to be within sighting distance of my goal. I rather expected to be hilariously behind schedule.

The challenge this year for me mainly has been to find books which appeal to my palettes. With the amount of reading that I manage to get done in my spare time, the books all start looking the same to me. The lines between the pages start to blur and all the plot lines appear the same.

That said I did find some interesting reads from the least expected of avenues, Indian authors. I mean after Chetan Bhagat (shivering with terror here); the only author that I paid money to buy his books were Ashok Banker and that too only because he writes about my favourite genre namely Indian Mythology.

I am a big fan of Bankers Ramayana Series and have subscribed to his website for his entire collection on Indian Mythology.

So I was pleasantly surprised at discovering authors like Ashwin Sanghi (a.k.a Shawn Haigins), Varun Aggrawal (How I Braved Anu Aunty & Started My Million Dollar Company) and a couple of others more.

Interanationally I picked lesser known authors, or rather the emerging breed of authors like Brad Taylor, Alex Berenson... Some disappointed, some were worth a read. I liked the way the plotlines moved in Alex Berenson's books, but overall the quality is still not much to my tastes. Ohh!!! What would I not give to read a book like Icon by Fredrick Forsyth or Exodus by Leon Uris!!!!!!

Sometimes I feel that the WAR on Terror has become a WAR on Literature with almost all the authors writing in copy cat styles about the same thing, terror, terror and more terror.  I would not say no to a posturing cold war like book, in fact I long to read such a book!!! Is anybody listening???

I have a interesting collection of books marked as "To Read" in my goodreads site. Its an eclectic mix and one I hope lives up to the hype surrounding it. In the meanwhile I have had my fill of YA genre of books like Hunger Games or that pathetic BDSM rag titled 50 Shades of Something or the other. If I wanted to torture myself I would rather do it with something I hate doing like exercise rather than do it with something I love like books and by de facto Words.....