Please Recommend Thought Provoking Books

[Singh]

Please recommend thought provoking books, and I'd appreciate a little info as well on them, and why I should read them.

 

[LurkerBaba]

Re: Please Recommend Though Provoking Books


The Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold Story of India's Partition

Based on recently declassified information. Implies that the "Pakistan Project" was conceived by the British as continuation of the Great Game.

 

[Singh]

Re: Please Recommend Though Provoking Books

and why is it a thought provoking read ?

 

[pmaitra]

Re: Please Recommend Though Provoking Books

The Bet by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. This book shows how a man wins a lot of money after winning a bet on living like a hermit, but gains enough spiritual knowledge, that he renounces all the money. Must read.

 

[Razor]

Re: Please Recommend Though Provoking Books

Title provokes a thoughT.

 

[LurkerBaba]

Re: Please Recommend Though Provoking Books

and why is it a thought provoking read ?

Added:

Based on recently declassified information. Implies that the "Pakistan Project" was conceived by the British as continuation of the Great Game.

 

[pmaitra]

The Alamo 1836: Santa Anna's Texas Campaign by Stephen Hardin.

On the morning of 6 March 1836 around 1,100 Mexican soldiers under Generalissimo Santa Anna stormed a small mission outside San Antonio, Texas, and slaughtered the garrison of around 200 Texans. It was not a large battle but its significance vastly outweighed its size for the name of the mission was the Alamo. Less than two months later Santa Anna's force was smashed at San Jacinto by a volunteer army whose battle cry was "Remember the Alamo". Stephen L Hardin details the climactic 1836 campaign which won Texas her independence.

 

[pmaitra]

LB found the book that would interest me the most.

I have to get hold of that one.

 

[Singh]

I will need to stockpile on Tom Clancy and John Grisham, to prevent book fatigue, after going through these heavyweights

 

[LurkerBaba]

Highly recommended book for "Right Wing Communal folk"

India: A Wounded Civilization

 

[Daredevil]

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. You already know why it is thought provoking

 

[pmaitra]

If you have not read them, please, I beg you to do so. Ramayana and Mahabharata by Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari. The best of all the translations I have read.

 

[Razor]

Re: Please Recommend Though Provoking Books

The Bet by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. This book shows how a man wins a lot of money after winning a bet on living like a hermit, but gains enough spiritual knowledge, that he renounces all the money. Must read.

Wait, I read a similar story, again by a Russian author. In this story though, the bet is: Can a person can live a large number of years imprisoned. The task is accomplished but the person is no longer concerned about the money or the bet. A good story, but read it long time ago, don't remember the details.
Are we talking about the same story, maybe ?

 

[Singh]

Highly recommended book for "Right Wing Communal folk"

India: A Wounded Civilization

what about India: A Million Mutinies Now ?

 

[Razor]

Re: Please Recommend Though Provoking Books

Body of Secrets: Anatomy of ultra secret NSA. Not exactly in the heavy-thought provoking territory. But very informative read about the history and working of the NSA.

 

[Singh]

If you have not read them, please, I beg you to do so. Ramayana and Mahabharata by Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari. The best of all the translations I have read.

Aren't these concise ?

Bibek Bebroy has come up with his own translation of Mahabharata, have heard good reviews about it. Ganguli's translation was too literal, no ?


Its a shame that Clay Sanskrit Project had to shut down because of a lack of funds.

Clay Sanskrit Library

 

[LurkerBaba]

what about India: A Million Mutinies Now ?

Million Mutinies is full of whinings and stereotypes, I didn't like it

 

[pmaitra]

Re: Please Recommend Though Provoking Books

Wait, I read a similar story, again by a Russian author. In this story though, the bet is: Can a person can live a large number of years imprisoned. The task is accomplished but the person is no longer concerned about the money or the bet. A good story, but read it long time ago, don't remember the details.
Are we talking about the same story, maybe ?

God Sees the Truth, but Waits by Leo Tolstoy.

An innocent man, Ivan Dmitrievich Aksionov, was going to Vladimir for a village fair, and on his way puts up at an inn for the night. Makar Semyonich murders someone and puts the blood stained knife in Ivan's bag. Ivan is arrested and sent to Siberia. Later, Makar also ends up there for a different crime.

I won't tell the full story now.

 

[pmaitra]

Aren't these concise ?

Bibek Bebroy has come up with his own translation of Mahabharata, have heard good reviews about it. Ganguli's translation was too literal, no ?


Its a shame that Clay Sanskrit Project had to shut down because of a lack of funds.

Clay Sanskrit Library

They are, but they capture enough of the essence of Mahabharata and Ramayana. I have not read the other two translations you mentioned.

 

[pmaitra]

Vishwash-Ghaatak by Narayan Sanyal. I don't know if an English edition exists, but I read it in Bengali, and it is a vivid reconstruction of how the secret of the Atomic Bomb reached the Soviets, and most importantly, why.