The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio (non fiction): awesome book Matt picked out for me from his hometown half-price book store. Started it in Peru and finally finished it in India. Very cool book about the number known as Phi (the Greek symbol), 1.61803 . . . (goes on forever). The author goes into details about history and mythology related to this number, and how it may or may not play into certain pieces of art, architecture etc. It has inspired me to think about taking a "History of Science" tour through Europe. That would be awesome.
Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat (fiction): This is the book that the movie "3 Idiots" is based on. An entertaining, quick read but a bit cliche and high school-ish in my opinion. There's a lot of differences from the movie.
Rabindranath Tagore, The Postmaster & selected stories, translated by William Radice (fiction): the stories are hit or miss, some of my favorites are The Hungry Stones, Skeleton, Guest. Some of the stories have no real plot but recreate the imagery and mood of a village and leave the end of the story with a line like " . . and maybe he was never found again. . " or something like that. I don't know how much this had to do with the translator, but the sarcasm is pretty hilarious and in my opinion some of the social commentary/observations are quite insightful and funny. There lots sensuality and romantic descriptions in most of the stories. And a lot of quotable quotes.
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga: a great, quick, interesting read. dark humor, the kind I like. A sort of realistic and also warped view of "modern" India dealing with rich vs. poor, from the point of view of a chauffeur/driver.
(ongoing) Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King (fiction): collection of short stories. Some are weird and very creepy so I have to be in the mood for that. The first story in the book is the best so far "Dolan's Cadillac".
(ongoing) Lonely Planet India: obviously.
Have you read or heard of Shantaram? I've heard that's good.
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