Thoughts Unlimited

Orbis Terrarum Challenge

Hmm… There is some food for my reading habit, which was starving for quite some time now
I got to know about the Orbis Terrarum Challenge through Ramya’s blog, which I regularly follow. She writes some nice reviews on books in her blog, which otherwise I would never have known about.

In a nutshell, Orbis Terrarum Challenge is a proposal to read 9 books - across 9 countries, 9 authors - by December 2008. To know more about the challenge, please click here.

B&b ex libris is one another good blog, for book lovers.

Following is my proposed list for this challenge. I have liberally assumed a few exceptions, as this is not a contest but a self imposed challenge.

• Few books are from authors of a different origin, from the subject
• I am not gonna maintain any order in the reading of these books. This is just a comprehensive list

Following is my list. Comments are welcome… On completion of each, I shall write a review on the book, in my own terms.

1) A Pale View of Hills

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Country: Japan
Amazon: Book link

2) The Color of Serendipity: A Journey Through Sri Lanka

Author: Nishantha Gunawardena
Country: Sri Lanka
Amazon: Book Link

3) Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Author: Nelson Mandela
Country: South Africa
Amazon: Book Link

4) Paula

Author: Isabel Allende
Country: Chile
Amazon: Book Link

5) Neither Cargo nor Cult: Ritual Politics and the Colonial Imagination in Fiji

Author: Martha Kaplan
Country: Fiji
Amazon: Book Link

6) The Maya

Author: Michael D Coe
Country: Mexico (The Author is an American)
Amazon: Book Link

7) River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze

Author: Peter Hessler
Country: China (The Author is an American)
Amazon: Book Link

The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family

Author: Martha Raddatz
Country: Iraq (The Author is an American)
Amazon: Book Link

9) India After Gandhi

Author: Ramachandra Guha
Country: India
Amazon: Book Link

Books to read this month (October 2007)

I always have an obsession for books. I used to read a lot, but I have never made any conscious decision in selection of books. Nowadays I read a lot of blogs and get to know many many books on various topics. So I have made a conscious decision to choose a set of books every month and streamline my reading habit.

I have come up with the list of books I am planning to read in the month of October (Remaining of this month would be eaten up by Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, which I had just started). I have a rough categorization in the selection of books, which goes something like this - One self improvement/personal branding book, One Biography/Autobiography, One Fiction. Fourth one could be a wild card and any book that interests me can fit in there

Books for the month of October

Brand You 50 By Tom Peters

I came to know about this book from an article written by Rajesh Setty on ‘Personal Branding for Technology Professionals’. Tom Peters is considered a Guru of Personal Branding and I am waiting to lay my hands on this book

Gitanjali By Rabindranath Tagore

I wanted to read this book for quite a while now. I would love to read the stuff which won the author, the most prestigious award in the world.

iWoz by Steve Wozniak

Apple is one of my most admired companies, dealing with information technology. I am yearning to read this book by Steve Wozniak, one of the co-founders of Apple. (Also, I want to read this before reading Steve Jobs biography)

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

I have heard from many of my friends, that this book is supposedly an encyclopedia for life. Let me experience the pleasure and then share it with you…

Reading these 4 books, would roughly translate to a book per week (Which would mean that I will be writing a book review almost every week). Let me see how far my plan works out for this first month.