Who do you read?

[Twilightdance]

namaste,
I am curious aside from texts on Hinduism

Buddhism
~~~~~~
The words of my perfect teacher - Patrul Rinpoche
Emptiness Appraised - David Burton

Atheism/Sam Harris
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Free Will
The moral landscape
Letter to a Christian Nation
End of Faith

Novels - all time favorites
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy & sequels
Catch - 22

Business
~~~~~
Fooled by Randomness & Black Swan
Financial Math textbooks

[Arjuni]

Namast�,

EM, thank you for the compliment, and yes, my friend is ecstatic to have been published after very long efforts.

Kudos to everyone who's suggested Gibran, and I'm also with Believer in the corner of Mark Twain and the transcendentalists.

If we can just make some general recommendations, then I'll throw a few out there:

Stephen Harrod Buhner, The Lost Language of Plants. I honestly didn't know half of the things about the natural world taught in this book. It's a reverential and beautiful work.

Coleman Barker's translations of Rumi's poetry are lovely. Seamus Heaney's Beowulf: A New Verse Translation is vigorous and captivating, especially if you need some good ol' dragon-slaying in your day. Robert Fagles' translations of both Iliad and Odyssey are magnificent poetic works in their own right.

And Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is my favourite novel ever.

Indraneela
===
Oṁ Indrāya Namaḥ.
Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya.

[IcyCosmic]

Namaste,

I'm a massive fan of the Harry Potter series (J.K Rowling) and have read all the books about a million times each.

Me too I bought all the books on the first day When I stopped reading anything except non-fiction in pieces I still read HP. I remember countless nights reading it in bed :P HP is da bomb.

[Arjuni]

Namast�,

I have never before picked a fight on this forum. I suppose I'm overdue...

HP is da bomb.

In the "kid finding out he's extraordinary and saving the world" genre, Susan Cooper's series The Dark Is Rising was far better. And earlier.

Indraneela
===
Oṁ Indrāya Namaḥ.
Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya.

[JaiMaaDurga]

Namaste,

I certainly see a lot of authors and books I also enjoy, in previous posts;
some other works that stand out in memory are, in no particular order:

Gilgamesh: A New English Version, Stephen Mitchell
The Origins of Order, Stuart A. Kauffman
A Theory of Semiotics, Umberto Eco
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
Ulysses, James Joyce
The Calcutta Chromosome, Amitav Ghosh
Trout Fishing in America, Richard Brautigan
Anthills of the Savannah, Chinua Achebe
archy and mehitabel, Don Marquis
The Mouse and his Child, Russell Hoban
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, Theodore Roethke

Though a comic strip, the depth of George Herriman's Krazy Kat
becomes apparent when read as a chronological collection, an amazing
interplay of language and art.

I generally read more non-fiction than fiction, and did not list
everything, because often people find long lists to be boring.

I do love to read however, and could not resist replying.

JAI MATA DI

[ShivaFan]

I love -
Dominique Lapierre... One of the greatest books I would recommend is Freedom At Midnight, a personal favorite.
There is Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness ...
I read science, nature, art and travel books. Astronomy magazines.
I read non-fiction of current events, or historical.
I read old texts. Gilgamesh is a personal favorite.
I read about animals, birds, fish, reptiles, trees, flowers, insects, and I read about rocks, gems.
I read about epidemiology, linguistics, great artists, islands, old maps ....
Hmmm... I read Westerns, Science Fiction. About investments, money, stocks, economics...
Oh my goodness... I guess there are a lot of things I read. But I generally am not a big fiction reader as much as some. I read politics. I read about crafts.

But my vision, my reading vision, it is getting old.

The last thing I will read, or have read to me, will be The Ramayana.
Then, over.

[Believer]

Namaste,

I have never before picked a fight on this forum. I suppose I'm overdue...

Who would have thought, we will see that day?

Pranam.

[Equinox]

Namaste,

Besides books on Hinduism, I read alot of books on history and my bookshelves are at the point of exploding... I'm a fan of biographies as well. There's so many really that i'm starting to wonder what they are all about. Most of my history books are on South Asian/British/Malaysian history, while the biographies are mostly on British royalty and Prime Ministers.

And I read alot of Indian-based novels (Amitav Ghosh, Aravind Adiga, etc). These give me a clearer picture of life in the Indian subcontinent. Being a fan of investigative stories, I've the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Not to mention Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, the first of a trilogy.

There're books by Nostradamus and a few on the Titanic. Then there's the English classics, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by the Bronte sisters, Katherine Christian by Hugh Walpole, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and many many more.

[satay]

namaskar,
Thanks everyone for the replies. Wow you are guys are well read and in diverse topics too. Some interesting reading lists there I will be sure to check some of these books out.

My problem is that I want to purchase a copy of the books I read and reading from the library just isn't the same for me. So the ultimate problem for me becomes actually finding copies of books that I can buy as opposed to borrowing from places. I know I know it's an ego thing. I am working on it but I have must have tons of books spread around the house (even if I don't read them) otherwise I feel like a dummy.

[charitra]

Currently reading a 1949 blockbuster theatrical script, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.

Just Read: Water(2011) by Brahma Chellaney explaining the impending water crisis that will grip Asia in near future. An Interesting nonfiction I just completed.

Indian Mujahideen(2011) by shishir Gupta keeps us very focused on the ‘enemy within’, paints a grim picture and leaves one sleepless.