Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Reading Railroad

During a ten hour train ride from Ahmedabad to Udaipur I was able to dig into some excellent Indian literature. Here are a few of the books that I am juggling between Kindle and paperback:

Amitov Gosh: The Hungry Tide (audiobook)- a novel set in Sunderbans area south of Kolkatta, uber articulate, good for 10hr train rides through sparse scrubland.

Arundhati Roy: Listening to Grass Hoppers- New Delhi novelist’s non-fiction essays on Democracy, Progress, and Nationalism, again uber articulate, depressing but fills you with righteous indignation.

Ramachandra Guha: Makers of Modern India- historian provides intro to selected writings of influential Indian politicians and philosophers, Gandhi and beyond. It’s shear size makes me grateful that I am not trekking at the moment.

Amartya Sen: Development as Freedom – Indian Nobel laureate in economics argues that freedom is both the end and means of development. The articulateness in these books is stupefying, and this is no exception. To balance this out, I have been switching back and forth between these titles, and two equally substantive, if not as expressively eloquent, textbooks on microbial ecology (intro to theory and lab procedures).

2 comments:

  1. Hey Max,

    Thank you for keeping your readers so well informed about your travels/experiences. It's the details you include. It's the photos that help us even more to imagine where you are. It's the combo of intricate descriptions and the photos. No easy thing. Capturing and condensing. Much appreciated. Writing down your book ideas to search at local library. Sending all best wishes for continuing safe travels, Jean

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  2. Hi Max and hello too to Meryl!
    I too am loving your posts. Learning so much from my desktop vantage point. I want you to know that I have made two comments to these recent India posts only to have the web devils eat them as I was trying to post...
    :(
    love you, travel safe, keep writing! oxoxox

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