(I'm Tagged) Here Goes My Favorite Books
Mixedblessings tagged me sometimes back. Now I have to shamelessly take shelter behind the excuse, "I have been quite busy and absolutely had no time to do whatever the thing I supposed to do, at that time". Even though it is the cheapest excuse we regularly use, when we forget to call our mother or forget to ask her how the father is doing, sometimes it is quite legitimate, specially when you are forced to do things you do not like to do, such as meet a deadline or going to work everyday.
Mixedblessings tagged me to blog about my three favorite books. Simple enough. Having my morning Ceylon tea, I tried to figure out what are those, but all I could figure, it is not easy to pick just three books. I grew up in a time Sri Lanka used to be one of the most literate countries in the world, if not the most. We used to read a lot. Until we decided to start a rebellion and overthrow the government. Idea was make the country better. So we came up with catchy slogans such as “Country First – Education Second”. And we closed down schools and forced the government to stop regular exams, burned down libraries and whatever things that catches fire without heavy effort. Now here we are. Not the most literate country in the world anymore. To be exact we are the 87th in the list and Georgia is the most literate country in the world with 100% literate rate. Well done Georgia.
Talking about Georgia, War and Peace have to be my all time favorite. If there is nothing to watch in TV while I’m having my diner, and if there is nothing new to read except “Brides and Grooms” section in a Sunday news paper, where mothers publish public notices seeking a bride with a dowry for her engineer son in Canada or Australia, whom shamelessly depending on his mother to find himself a wealthy father-in-law, War and Peace is the book I always grab and put my mind to peace.
If you ever read War and Peace half way and found it is boring and too long, you need to go out and collect some real life experience for your name, like fall in love, watch the girl you love getting married not to you or simple things like walk alone in dark. Because you need to have that sort of experience by your side to understand this book. If you are one those engineers, need your moms help to pick woman, you may not understand this book that much. But once you do, it will alter your taste in books, for rest of your life. There are around 500 individually rendered characters in this book. They act differently, think differently and talk differently to each other. Because of those complex characters and so many settings changes, you must read a proper translation. Cyril C. Perera did a marvelous job in translating this in to Sinhala, and it is the best translation of this book I ever read. Also BBC radio done a quite good job making a radio drama, which you can download from torrent network if you are the type of a person who has no respect for copyright laws, but if you do, let me laugh at you, you can buy it from Amazon in a cassette!
The Count of Monte Cristo, another favorite that I can start reading from any page and still enjoy the plot. It is more or less old days Ian Fleming book. Woman, drugs and a rich white man. This is a type of a story I like to read when I hit the rock bottom time to time as I do, because it energizes me. I don’t mind been a character inside such story, travel all around the world in my own yacht, with a beautiful slave girl and best drugs, while revenging my enemies. So all the bloggers out there, specially Sinhala bloggers, who have questioned my sexual orientation or my mother’s profession in answer to a comment I happened to made, like most of Sinhala bloggers usually do when they do not agree with others views, you better wish I will not come cross such a treasure belongs to a old Sri Lankan king. But then again, if I do, I may spend it on finer things, like been with a gorgeous looking girl like Mixedblessings or Shakira.
Autobiography of Malcolm X – a book that will change the way you look at the world. Malcolm X, once a hustler, thief, a drug addicted, a drug dealer among so many other things you may don’t want your children to be, invited to speak in the Harvard University, and when he on the stage looking out the window, saw the apartment where he once lived and planned those burglaries. Reading that, I cried.
If you read this post you are already tagged. Blog about 3 of your favorite books and tag another 3 people. And if you do, you will find the love of your life in 7 days and win a lottery. If you don’t, some terrible things may happen such as your in-laws may visit you.
Mixedblessings tagged me to blog about my three favorite books. Simple enough. Having my morning Ceylon tea, I tried to figure out what are those, but all I could figure, it is not easy to pick just three books. I grew up in a time Sri Lanka used to be one of the most literate countries in the world, if not the most. We used to read a lot. Until we decided to start a rebellion and overthrow the government. Idea was make the country better. So we came up with catchy slogans such as “Country First – Education Second”. And we closed down schools and forced the government to stop regular exams, burned down libraries and whatever things that catches fire without heavy effort. Now here we are. Not the most literate country in the world anymore. To be exact we are the 87th in the list and Georgia is the most literate country in the world with 100% literate rate. Well done Georgia.
Talking about Georgia, War and Peace have to be my all time favorite. If there is nothing to watch in TV while I’m having my diner, and if there is nothing new to read except “Brides and Grooms” section in a Sunday news paper, where mothers publish public notices seeking a bride with a dowry for her engineer son in Canada or Australia, whom shamelessly depending on his mother to find himself a wealthy father-in-law, War and Peace is the book I always grab and put my mind to peace.
If you ever read War and Peace half way and found it is boring and too long, you need to go out and collect some real life experience for your name, like fall in love, watch the girl you love getting married not to you or simple things like walk alone in dark. Because you need to have that sort of experience by your side to understand this book. If you are one those engineers, need your moms help to pick woman, you may not understand this book that much. But once you do, it will alter your taste in books, for rest of your life. There are around 500 individually rendered characters in this book. They act differently, think differently and talk differently to each other. Because of those complex characters and so many settings changes, you must read a proper translation. Cyril C. Perera did a marvelous job in translating this in to Sinhala, and it is the best translation of this book I ever read. Also BBC radio done a quite good job making a radio drama, which you can download from torrent network if you are the type of a person who has no respect for copyright laws, but if you do, let me laugh at you, you can buy it from Amazon in a cassette!
The Count of Monte Cristo, another favorite that I can start reading from any page and still enjoy the plot. It is more or less old days Ian Fleming book. Woman, drugs and a rich white man. This is a type of a story I like to read when I hit the rock bottom time to time as I do, because it energizes me. I don’t mind been a character inside such story, travel all around the world in my own yacht, with a beautiful slave girl and best drugs, while revenging my enemies. So all the bloggers out there, specially Sinhala bloggers, who have questioned my sexual orientation or my mother’s profession in answer to a comment I happened to made, like most of Sinhala bloggers usually do when they do not agree with others views, you better wish I will not come cross such a treasure belongs to a old Sri Lankan king. But then again, if I do, I may spend it on finer things, like been with a gorgeous looking girl like Mixedblessings or Shakira.
Autobiography of Malcolm X – a book that will change the way you look at the world. Malcolm X, once a hustler, thief, a drug addicted, a drug dealer among so many other things you may don’t want your children to be, invited to speak in the Harvard University, and when he on the stage looking out the window, saw the apartment where he once lived and planned those burglaries. Reading that, I cried.
If you read this post you are already tagged. Blog about 3 of your favorite books and tag another 3 people. And if you do, you will find the love of your life in 7 days and win a lottery. If you don’t, some terrible things may happen such as your in-laws may visit you.
posted by Sam at
7:07 PM
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