yazadjal.com

I generally don’t write on memes, but this one’s interesting. Firstly, it’s about books. Secondly it was sent to me by a blogger who I’ve read once in a while, but never thought that he read me!

Total Number of Books I Own: Never counted. Close to 1,000. I lugged nine cartons of books when I moved back to Bombay from Delhi three years ago. I think they spawned. I have maybe 200 books lying around in various places at home (bed, writing table, on top of the computer, inside the crockery cabinet).

Last Book I Bought: Popped into a book sale just before lunch today. Bought Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, Rajmohan Gandhi’s Understanding the Muslim Mind and T. Coraghessan Boyle’s East is East. Last evening I picked up Getting Things Done by David Allen. No, I don’t buy an average of two books a day. Just an occasional, impulsive and indulgent spurt.

Last Book I Read: Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Light, funny and a small insight into ordinary life in Africa. Borrowed the book from a friend who’s renovating and was only too glad to let me lighten his load. I liked the prose and easygoing storyline. Intend to read all of the series.

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: Only five? Beware, the smaller the sample size, the greater the chance that the selection will be eclectic.

The Machinery of Freedom: A Guide to Radical Capitalism by David Friedman. The book that got me thinking about anarcho-capitalism. Well written with bite sized chapters. For a flavour, read Police, Courts and Laws–on the Market

Ayn Rand’s For the New Intellectual. Not recommended as the first Ayn Rand to read — for that I always suggest The Fountainhead. Once you’ve read through her major works, then this book is a nice addition. It brings together the essential parts: Galt’s speech, D’Anaconia on Money, etc, in a slim, easy to carry volume.

The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey by Ken Schoolland. A great introductory work on libertarian principles, woven as an adventure story. Each chapter takes an issue and our young hero Jonathan battles, not with ogres, but with those who seek to restrict liberty. Check out this animated presentation based on the book that takes you through the Philosophy of Liberty. (Flash file, opens onto a new page) I loved it so much, I also downloaded it as a screensaver. Liberty Institute in New Delhi has published an Indian edition of the book with a commentary on each chapter.

The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book by Bill Watterson. If there is only one book I could carry to a desert island, this is it.

During my boyhood, bored of the Hardy Boys, I stumbled upon war literature. Nevil Shute’s A Town like Alice was the first book in which the second world war was the canvas for a larger story on travel, love and life itself. It was the first Nevil Shute I read and I’ve read each and every one since. A Town like Alice is still the best.

Tag five people and have them do this on their blogs: “All are welcome” When I used to organise public lectures as part of college activities, this was a stock line to insert in flyers. So why limit it to only five? I’d like everyone who reads this post to reply! Ok, that might be too ambitious. Let’s start with the cartel?

Aadisht Khanna
Amit Varma
Chandrachoodan “Ravages” Gopalakrishnan
Gaurav Sabnis
Gautam Bastian
Kingsley Jegan
Madhu “Madman” Menon
Parth Shah / Spontaneous Order
Ravikiran Rao

I’d also like to tag Jai Arjun Singh, Dilip D’Souza, Shivam Vij and Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta.

And once again, this is open to ALL, not just the names mentioned above!