Comments on: Paradigm Shifts and the Reading/ Writing Life

By: Vandana Singh

Vandana Singh — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:19:33 +0000

Thanks for the list, Michael. I’ve only read a couple of those. Time to go to my public library and get caught up.
My list of books that have helped me to become a better writer is even longer than the books I’ve mentioned. Perhaps I’ll talk about them in another venue, another day.
Vandana

By: Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:05:15 +0000

I don’t know that any book has ever “changed” me as a person, but many have greatly reflected feelings I couldn’t necessarily express, or made me a better writer.

Survivor: Chuck Palahniuk
Invisible Monsters: Chuck Palahniuk
Choke: Chuck Palahniuk
The Labyrinth: Catherynne M. Valente
The Road: Cormac McCarthy
The Divinity Student: Michael Cisco
The Tyrant: Michael Cisco
Catcher in the Rye: J.D. Salinger
The Etched City: K.J. Bishop
Veniss Underground: Jeff VanderMeer

By: Vandana Singh

Vandana Singh — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:00:43 +0000

Neha, have you read Autobiography of a Yogi? That has been on my list for a while. A number of people have recommended it.

Nikhilesh, thanks for pointing out Ruskin Bond. For some strange reason I only came across him later in life (late teens, maybe?) but I love his work and continue to read him today. In his explorations of life in village India, with which he is directly familiar, and the concerns of ordinary people and children, he reminds me of Premchand. One of my favorite stories by him is The Blue Umbrella. I saw the film when I was in Delhi earlier this year, and apart from some of the excesses (in the first half) that the Mumbai film industry is so fond of, it was a marvelously subtle and compassionate film.

Thankfully he is still around and publishing. I once missed meeting him at a Delhi bookstore by about 5 minutes. Alas!

By: The Gone Away Links « Torque Control

The Gone Away Links « Torque Control — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:48:54 +0000

[...] who don’t blog, blogging, part two: Vandana Singh at Ecstatic Days, on paradigm shifts and the reading/writing life, decolonization of the mind, searching for Indian sf, women writing in India, thoughts on the [...]

By: Nikhilesh

Nikhilesh — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:50:25 +0000

Ruskin Bond’s books changed my life. I came to know the courage of little children in small indian villages, felt the silence, smells, colours, shadows and images of the Indian landscape. Nobody left such mark on my young mind like Ruskin Bond’s writings did.
Comics were the closest second – Chacha chaudhary, Nagaraj, Amar chitra katha….

By: Neha

Neha — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:54:17 +0000

That’s an interesting line of thought. I’ve been reading since as long as I can remember. Here are a few I think brought in a new idea or an entirely new way of looking at things, and changed the way I saw my world:

Jnana Yoga – a collection of lectures by Swami Vivekananda
True Psycology – by Swami Abhedananda
Chapter 18, Bhagvad Geeta – by Swami Chinmayananda
Lord of Flies – William Golding
Chaos – James Glieck
To kill a mocking bird – Lee Harper
Poems – Emily Bronte
Bade ghar ki bahu – Munshi Premchand
Our Culture – S. Radhakrishnan (and many other histories)
Alice and Wonderland

I am sure there are many others like the ones I’ve always known and have made me rather than changed me… Noddy, Sherlock Holmes, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Foundation trilogy and so on. As I reflect on this list, I am also realising that there were just as many ideas, radical ideas that I have rejected as I have absorbed and assimilated. It would be food for thought to figure exactly how was the filtering done! :)

Thanks

By: Vandana Singh

Vandana Singh — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:33:19 +0000

My reading list just got longer. I’ve only read a little of Vonnegut, some PKD, not enough VanderMeer , no Thompson at all. Thanks, Bill!

Dr. Mishra — yes, I agree Durrell is wonderful. Vinod, I first read LotR in my late teens. There are people who love it and people who tear it to shreds. I mostly really enjoyed it although there were some racist elements that bothered me upon more recent re-readings. In any case, if it inspires you, you should write!

By: Vinod Khare

Vinod Khare — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:18:29 +0000

The one book that I can say forever changed me was the Lord of the Rings. I read this book quite late in my life (and thank god for that) – in my second year at college. And I was hooked. Here was a tale that had little or no excitement in it (the action scenes are rather underplayed, don’t you think), did not adhere to modern writing convention (isn’t it a bit too telly?) and too full of proper nouns for anyones comfort. And yet, and yet it leaves the reader in a daze when you’ve finished reading it. I have read it two more times since then and always enjoy picking it up and reading a chapter or two at random.

The reason it is a life changing book for me is because every time I read it, it makes me want to write. To create a rich and profound alternate world of my own.

By: Dr.Arvind Mishra

Dr.Arvind Mishra — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:33:23 +0000

Very captivating !The secret of making of Vandana Singh is now unfolding ! Early childhood experiences undoubtedly greatly shape a person’s later life.Some readers having similar milieu like me shall definitely identify with the elements of your saga .I have also read and still admire GERALD DURRELL on whose death I did an obituary in a leading science popularization in India recently.Asimov has also been my favourite sf writer. Move on please ,we are attentively listening you !

By: Bill Ectric

Bill Ectric — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:34:06 +0000

Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut showed me how a writer could insert himself into a story to dramatic effect without losing momentum.

Vast Active Living Intelligence System by PKD. Pop stars latch onto religion, a doubter finds faith while a believer loses it, somebody goes crazy, a crazy person finds clarity, and they all flux mirror-like into one another and back as an alien intelligence reaches out from a shiny side-of-the-road aluminum can satellite in outer space. I think.

Early Hunter S. Thompson, interjecting late night, speed-fueled ruminations that supposedly came to him as he drove a fast car on a dark highway, gave me the feeling that he was discovering truths even as he composed sentences.

There are also things I want to say about VanderMeer’s writing, but I’m struggling to put it into words. Working on it, though.