Interests - Books

Tuklu's Top 15 Literary Works

	Title	Author	Comments
01	Cosmos	Carl Sagan	First reading: Paperback Edition presented by my father in 1986 right after my last day of secondary school examinations; probably shaped the way my brain functions the rest of my life.
02	The Hobbit	J. R. R. Tolkien	First reading in 1986 of the paperback edition that was packaged with the classic ZX Spectrum game "The Hobbit" witten by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler, and published by Melbourne House in 1982.
03			Byomkesh Bakshi mystery stories by Saradindu Bandopadhyay: Written long before Satyajit Ray's Feluda Series, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay's Byomkesh Bakshi mysteries heralded a new era in Bengali popular fiction. Set in the old-world Calcutta of the Raj, these stories featuring the astute investigator and his chronicler friend Ajit are still as gripping and delightful as when they first appeared.
04	The Complete Sherlock Holmes	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	!
05			Like most Bengalis, any and all of Satyajit Ray's Feluda stories are a big favorite from late teens.
06	2001: A Space Odyssey   2010: Odyssey Two   2061: Odyssey Three   3001: The Final Odyssey	Arthur C. Clarke	The epic by the brilliant science-fiction writer.
07	Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!   What Do You Care What Other People Think?	Richard P. Feynman	Two volumes of the astonishing life-story of one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists and the wittiest of pranksters. First read circa 1989.
08	A Random Walk In Science     More Random Walks In Science	Robert L. Weber (compiler)	The two volumes of an anthology of humor and anecdotes related to science. First read circa 1990 (borrowed from the British Council Library, Kolkata).
09	The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring   The Two Towers     The Return of the King	J. R. R. Tolkien	First reading: circa 1988; thirsting for a movie ever since until Peter Jackson did a wonderful job.
10	Metamagical Themas	Douglas R. Hofstadter	The brilliant essays. First read in 1992.
11	The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl	Roald Dahl	The absoulte master of the twist in the tale. First read in 1991 after buying a copy at the Kolkata Book Fair.
12			The classic humor writer, Rajshekhar Basu, under the pseudonym Parashuram.
13	A Brief History of Time	Stephen Hawking	The modern science classic from one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists. First reading: 1992.
14	The First Three Minutes	Steven Weinberg	What happened when the universe began ... first read circa 1990 (borrowed from the British Council Library, Kolkata)
15	The Cuckoo's Egg	Clifford Stoll	"Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" ...

Other books: Books by Taslima Nasreen ()