A book tag

I love reading and I had almost given it up but for last year when I put the sabattical to good use..here is a tag that I picked up from Mridula and I thought I will give it a shot as its about books. I am supposed to bold the ones I have read , underline those that I have read in school and italice the ones I have started and not finished..A lot will be in the latter...The underline key seems to be not working -so will mark the ones I have read in school in bold as well. The interesting thing is that I have reread all these books again after school.

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2. Anna Karenina
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Catch-22
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude
6. Wuthering Heights-read it again after school
7. The Silmarillion
8. Life of Pi: a novel
9. The Name of the Rose
10. Don Quixote
11. Moby Dick -In school
12. Ulysses
13. Madame Bovary
14. The Odyssey
15. Pride and Prejudice-read it again
16. Jane Eyre-read it again
17. The Tale of Two Cities-read it again and again
18. The Brothers Karamazov
19. Guns, Germs and Steel
20. War and Peace
21. Vanity Fair-read it in school
22. The Time Traveler's Wife
23. The Iliad
24. Emma
25. The Blind Assasin
26. The Kite Runner
27. Mrs. Dalloway
28. Great Expectations
29. American Gods
30. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
31. Atlas Shrugged
32. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
33. Memoirs of a Geisha
34. Middlesex
35. Quicksilver
36. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
37. The Canterbury Tales
38. The Historian: A Novel
39. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
40. Love in the Time of Cholera
41. Brave New World
42. The Fountainhead
43. Foucault's Pendulum
44. Middlemarch
45. Frankenstein
46. The Count of Monte Cristo
47. Dracula
48. A Clockwork Orange
49. Anansi Boys
50. The Once and Future King
51. The Grapes of Wrath
52. The Poisonwood Bible
53. 1984
54. Angels and Demons
55. Inferno
56. The Satanic Verses
57. Sense and Sensibility
58. The Picture of Dorian Gray
59. Mansfield Park
60. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
61. To the Lighthouse
62. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
63. Oliver TwistIn school
64. Gulliver's TravelsIn school
65. Les MiserablesIn school
66. The Correction
67. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
68. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
69. Dune
70. The Prince
71. The Sound and the Fury
72. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
73. The God of Small Things
74. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
75. Cryptonomicon
76. Neverwhere
77. A Confederacy of Dunces
78. A Short History of Nearly Everything
79. Dubliners
80. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
81. Beloved
82. Slaughter House- five
83. The Scarlett Letter
84. Eats, Shoots and Leaves
85. The Mists of Avalon
86. Oryx and Crake
87. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
88. Cloud Atlas
89. The Confusion
90. Lolita
91. Persuasion
92. Northanger Abbey
93. The Catcher in the Rye
94. On the Road
95. The Hunchback of Nortre Dame
96. Freakonomics
97. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Enquiry into Values
98. The Aeneid
99. Watership Down
100. Gravity's Rainbow
101. The Hobbit
102. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences
103. White Teeth
104. Treasure Island-My favourite
105. David Copperfield-Read in in school
106. The Three Musketeers-Read it again and again

Memoir in six words

Ceedy had an interesting post on writing a memoir in six words..this is the first thing that struck me about myself

I am not what I am .

8 is not my lucky number...

Another tag..this time its about all things 8. Aarti has tagged me and here I am thinking about ..

8 songs I like
Im more into retro Hindi and tamil music , so I am listening currently to

1.Tum Pukar Lo - Hemant kumar, Khamoshi

2.Sun Ja Dil Ki Dastaan - Hemant Kumar, Jaal

3.Baar Baar Dekho - Mohd Rafi, China Town

4.Woh Shaam Kuch Ajeeb thi - Kishore Kumar, Khamoshi

5.Nilaave Vaa - SPB, Mouna Ragam

6.En Iniya Pon Nilave - Yesudas, Moodu Pani

7.Raaja Raaja Cholan - Yesudas, Reetai Vaal Kuruvi

8.Kaatre - Johnny

8 things I want to do before I die - Ive done this already, but here is a quick synopsis
1.Travel and see as many places before I die

2.Write a book

3.Set up a little company of own own

4.Build a small house with big trees, gardens, streams around and live close to nature

5.Understand my roots better

6.Take my mother to the Himalayas

7.I want to be a better cook

8.And I want to control my temper


8 things I say often ..
1.Ummm or Aaan

2.Where are we going (as in travelling )next ?

3.Chill na

4.I want to sleep

5.You know what

6.I dont feel like cooking

7.Damn funny

8.I have an idea

8 books Ive read recently
1.Kite runner

2.The Case of the Bonsai manager

3.Pigs have Wings

4.Myth = Mithya

5.Devil and Miss Prym

6.Daughter of China

7.A Tale of Two Cities

8.Murder in the Orient Express

8 things that attract me to my friends.. I dont know and I am just guessing
1.Sense of humour

2.I listen at least I pretend to

3.I do not impose - live and let live

4.Im quite chilled out - simple, not many hang ups

5.Dependent - maybe to a certain extent..

6.My hubby says its a steak of madness in me ..

7.I dont expect anything - so it suits them

8. ...I dont know - I leave it to a friend to add

8 things I am passionate about
1.Travelling

2.Books

3.Writing

4.Sleeping

5.My space

6.History & Mythology

7.Cashewnuts

8.Calvin and Hobbes

Ok..Im not tagging anyone..so if anyone is interested, pls pick it up and let me know..

The Secret Seven Tag

Whenever I run out of inspiration to write a post, I get tagged and lo ! a post is born.This time my muse is Smita, who has tagged me to talk about seven facts about myself..While I was trying to ask the question who or what am I , a few surprises came my way too as I realized what I think I am is not really what I am today ..nevertheless , honesty prevails ..so here I am - exposed !!

1. My name is Lakshmi Sharath, born in Madras, based in Bangalore and trying hard to connect with the city. A media professional who after 15 years of work is now taking a sabattical (really?)Ok..No, actually am trying to set up something in the online travel space in the garb of a break and is hoping will actually go places !!

2.Things I cannot resist - packing my bags,cashewnuts, chocolates and ice cream, comedy films with popcorn, Calvin and Hobbes and PG Wodehose books

3.What I need desperately - 8 hours sleep

4.My fears -lizards, darkness,my temper,migraine, having no alternatives and rotting and wasting away life

5.I am very impulsive, impatient and easily prejudiced ...and usually takes a while to knock a notion off my head..

6.I am extremely restless, hyperactive and grow out of my interests , jobs very quickly..I constantly need new things, challenges..my parents always used to say that I have wheels on my feet and my hubby thinks its a challenge to channelise my energies.

7.I used to hate posing for photographs as a kid and I still do..most of my pictures dont show me smiling..

As usual,its the end and I dont want to tag anyone in particular..its great to read about all your secret seven thoughts-so I request all of you who drop in here to pick up the thread and if you want me to read abt it, pls drop in a comment and let me know

Tagged - Question time !

Ceedy has just tagged me...so here I am with more answers to questions


1) What if the world suddenly decided to rotate in the other direction?
I will go round and round too..

2) Name Three Most Valuable Assets?
my sense of humour, zest for life, writing

3) If you have the chance, what would you probably say to your beloved one?
Im surprised that you married me !

4) If you were to be stranded on a deserted island, who are the 3 blog buddies you would take with you?
All my buddies who are excited about travel.. cant decide on any 3 though

5) Where is the place that you want to go the most?
Greece !

6) If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?
Travel and see all the places thats in my wishlist

7) Till now, what is the moment that you regret the most?
I dont regret. I move on .."This too will pass"

8) What are you afraid to lose the most?
My optimism

9) What would you do if you found a briefcase full of money?
Leave it right there and inform the cops and the press

10) If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
i dont think you need to confess ..

11) List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you
Ceedy - Sense of humour, full of life, positive attitude
(just guessing)

12) What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
Live and let live

13) Which type of person do you hate the most?
Selfish and greedy people..though I cannot hate anyone, I will just ignore and be indifferent to them..

14) What is your ambition?
To set up my own company

15) What is the thing that will make you think someone is a bad person?
Someone who uses you as a friend and manipulates you and throws you away after using you..

16) If you could do one thing different in life, what would it be?
Relook at my friendships..have lost a few good ones due to not communicating with them and trusted some people whom I wished I had not

17) Something which made u laugh today
The fact that I woke up so early this morning, being a sunday

18) How do you deal with a friend who has wronged you ?
Ignore them and try to forget that they were ever your friend..this of course depends on the kind of wrong...

19) How important is love for you to get physically intimate with a person ?
Very .

20) Name one favorite song of yours.
There are many..different songs for diff moods .
Now I am listening to Billy Joels River of dreams

Normally I dont tag anyone, but if anyone finds this interesting -pls consider yourself tagged !

Dreams, desires and death

Pijush has tagged me again and this time its about dreams and desires that I want to fulfill before I die ... I have a lot of them,so hopefully death will wait awhile- a morbid thought indeed..but kal kya ho kisne jaana ?

1. Travel - I will start with the obvious and this will be the longest ..as a vagabond, all I want is the heavens above and a road below ..and while I want to travel and see as many places as possible, some are must . Amongst international destinations, I want to go to the Mediterranean including Greece, Italy and Egypt , UK (must see Keats' home and country houses that PG Wodehose describes in his books) and France .

In India, I want to visit Lakshwadeep, Ladakh, Himachal and Uttaranchal and Rajasthan , especially the palaces, forts and the hevelis . I want to trek to Gangotri and Gomukh and the Valley of Flowers .I also want to visit Rameshwaram, Thanjavur , Karwar and travel down the Buddhist trail . I want to see as many wild life sanctuaries as possible and see a tiger at least once in the wild. I want to learn names of all Indian birds and learn to identify them in the wild .

2. Roots - I want to get in touch with my roots and understand more about my ancestors. I want to go to as many villages as possible and see where my ancestors came from and go back in time.I will include my husband's family as well in this quest

3.Live in a small town/ village - I want to live away from the city , in a small Utopia that exists ..

4.Take my parents to The Himalayas . Especially my mother .

5.My dream company - My vision . I want to set it up and see it grow . I want to be an entrepreuner .

6.Write - I want to write a book - the story of the people I have met in my life ..I want to pursue my literary interests again..

7.My dream home - This is a bit materialistic..but I want to have a dream home tucked away in a corner..a small cottage built in ethnic style , with envirnoment friendly materials with huge trees and gardens and streams flowing around ..with birds and fish giving me company

8.Cook - I want to be a good cook !

9.My nature - I want to learn to be calm and patient and control my temper

10.My death - I want to live ...and live life to the fullest and I want my friends and family around me always

Tagged - Why I write what I write

Rusty has made my rusted grey cells think a bit ...so here I am asking myself why I do what I do...I am supposed to put my thoughts on writing ...so here goes .Ive tried to be as spontaneous as I can be .

Why Write ?

Its like breathing ..It makes me feel that I am alive . I write as its the most natural, spontaneous thing to do...It eases a clogged mind..Its instant gratification , like ice cream ..above all its an addiction . It helps me keep in touch with my core self and gives form to the various facets within me . It creates a picture that exists only in my mind ..Its like a waterfall , where words just burst forth creating a sequence , sometimes drawn by an invisbile force ..Its like what Keats said - That which is creative must create itself !

When to write ?

In the loo, while asleep ...no, I am not joking. Writing is just not putting words to paper or screen ..its also putting words to an abstract thoughts that keep raising their heads . I believe that there is no fixed time to write ...just keep your mind awake and let the words flow

What to write ?

Truth is stranger than fiction ! Sometimes its the truth thats hidden deep in the subconscious thats more interesting than stories.. Yet , I write about life ..the frailities and the foibles, the small ,insignificant experiences , the joy of discovery , people who matter and who didnt, memories that refuse to go away and places that are etched forever in our mind and opinions that you want others to hear .. I paint the picture thats in my mind at that point of time ..

How to write ?

Spontaneously . There is always a better word for every thought and expression , but sometimes the joy of writing goes away in just searching for the right word. Its like a dream man or woman of your life ..they dont exist ..I like words that have a feel about them, that create imagery ..that evoke feelings . Mere adjectives dont mean a thing ..Keep it simple and short .

Who to write for ?

For myself ideally . But sometimes you need readers and therefore for all those who appreciate my thoughts and my writing ...

Do I tag ?

I dont know...maybe there are readers out there who may want to pick this up..but I dont feel like forcing it down anyone