I'm signing up for Swapna Krishna's 2011 South Asian Challenge! The challenge is to read as many books on South Asia or written by South Asian authors before 31st December 2011 - and man am I up for it!
I will be maintaining a list of the books that I've finished reading in this post. My aim is to reach the level of South Asian Guru (> 10 books). Wish me luck or, even better, sign up for it!
Aaf's super duper, ultra impressive list of desi books devoured for the year 2011:
1. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
2. Beautiful from this Angle - Maha Khan Phillips
3. The Life's Too Short Literary Review (it looks like a book, okay?)
4. A Case of Exploding Mangoes - M. Hanif
5. Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
6. The Wishmaker - Ali Sethi
7. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People - Farahad Zama
8. The Collaborator - Mirza Waheed
9. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti - M. Hanif
10. Husband of a Fanatic - Amitava Kumar
11. Story of a Widow - Musharraf Ali Farooqi
4. A Case of Exploding Mangoes - M. Hanif
5. Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
6. The Wishmaker - Ali Sethi
7. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People - Farahad Zama
8. The Collaborator - Mirza Waheed
9. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti - M. Hanif
10. Husband of a Fanatic - Amitava Kumar
11. Story of a Widow - Musharraf Ali Farooqi
Many thanks to Shehla Wynne for referring me to Swapna's blog! And if you have any suggestions for books that I should be covering, let me know in the comments section.
Update (December 19th, 2011): I'm pleased to report that I've just finished eleven books by desi authors. You may now call me The Guru. *bows* Thank you, Swapna, for providing the impetus for this and for getting me back into the groove!
Update (December 19th, 2011): I'm pleased to report that I've just finished eleven books by desi authors. You may now call me The Guru. *bows* Thank you, Swapna, for providing the impetus for this and for getting me back into the groove!
Now if only I'd sign up for the challenge myself!
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you? You could easily manage a book every few days.
ReplyDeleteI have a huge pile of unread books that I've been adding to for the past 4 years. Have to read those first!
ReplyDeleteFinishing up Rabih Alamddine's The Hakawati right now (it got shelved when I went to CA). Next is Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. And I am also reading Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers by David Frost intermittently.
The last one sounds like it could be as much fun as eating raw eggs on a summer's day. The first two sound delightful!
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you get around to reading my two chapters instead? I'm 'South Asian'.
ReplyDeletePucces, send me the two chapters again. I will actually read them now... am in reading mode again.
ReplyDeleteAlso read "What If?" by an Islamabad based writer , K. Yousaf.
ReplyDeleteHappy reading (:
Thank you, K. Yousaf ;-)
ReplyDeletewhat did you think of the wishmaker?
ReplyDeleteVery readable, pretty funny and insightful. Typical amongst the new flood of books writing about the well-off classes in Pakistan, but Sethi's writing about the development crowd, which doesn't always get a lot of fiction press. Have you read it?
ReplyDeleteAnother Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
ReplyDeleteOh yes... must read that one! Am going to finish off this run with Story of a Widow by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. I've heard one wants to finish it in one go, which is exactly what I need at the moment.
ReplyDelete