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What INDIA read in 2012- the most rented books!

Posted on 31 December 2012 by admin

As 2012 draws to a close, we take a look at the most popular books of the year. We start with the most rented books. (This list is limited to the books released in India in 2012). For an overall list, wait for our next post :)

Fiction:

There were some big releases by big names and predictably they did well. Fifty Shades of Grey was perhaps the only surprise package but it had already topped charts internationally by the time it reached the Indian market.

a) Angel of the Dark:  Tilly Bagshawe continues the legacy of the master story teller Sidney Sheldon in this thriller. Popular among all ages.

b) Fifty Shades of Grey By E L James: This international best seller was much in demand. Perhaps it was the lure of the hitherto forbidden. However, the two sequels- FIfty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed did not do as well.

c) The Affair: Jack Reacher is fast catching the fancy of thriller enthusiasts across the country, particularly in the metros.

d) Sins of the Father: No suprise here. The Second novel of the Clifton Saga, it was a must read for all Archer fans.

e) Maharani Ruskin Bond’s latest book about the Maharani who drank too much has been on people’s bookshelves since its release

f) The Casual Vacancy: Again, this one was expected to be popular. When Rowling writes an adult book, all Harry Potter fans come looking. We had a tough time saying no to kids.

g) Sethji: Shobhaa De’s latest offering was eagerly rented by her fans.

h) The Bankster Ravi Subramanium’s new financial thriller was popular in the metros.

i) One Hundred Names When Cecilia Ahern writes, her loyal fans have to read.

j) The Forest of Stories: When Ashok Banker engages in a retelling of the Mahabharata it is bound to find many takers.

Non Fiction

The non fiction readers chose to stick to the existing best sellers like Discovery of India and Steve Jobs: An Autobiography.. However, among the new releases, there were a few surprises.

a) The Day I stopped drinking milk and other stories Sudha Murthy’s easy style and story telling once again drew people across the country/

b) Beautiful Country: Stories from Another India : At a time when India is churning and the youth is on the lookout for success stories, this book about the hidden face of India, found many takers, especially among college students and young professionals.

c) What Young India Wants : Chetan Bhagat’s latest offering. need we say more?

d) Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo’s peek at life in the slums of Mumbai was much appreciated.

e) Jugaad Innovation: Jugaad is the Indian way of life and a book that teaches you to be innovative and do more with less is bound to be popular.


Children

No surprises here. The kids read exactly what we expected them to, in addition to their Goosebumps, Geronimo Stiltons and Enid Blytons.

Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian The latest in the series of escapades by the criminal master mind Artemis Fowl found many takers among teh young ones.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney: It may have just been released but all copies of the book are always out.

The Serpent’s Shadow by Rick Riordan This was the final book of the Kane Chronicles. It had to do well :)






Did you read these books? What did you think of them? Do let us know.



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November: Literally Speaking

Posted on 30 November 2012 by admin

November seems to be the month for authors. Here’s a special author calender just for you.

Even as we bid farewell to November, check out which of your favourite authors were November born….

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Tuesday Temptations: Non Fiction Finds

Posted on 25 September 2012 by admin

So it’s Tuesday again. Time for me to share a few more fantastic finds that I picked up for the online library….This time we look at Non-Fiction reads.

Founders at Work: Stories of Early Start-ups by Jessica Livingston. So start-ups are all over the place today, especially tech start-ups. But where did it all begin? How did the first few tech giants start their journey?  Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover? This book is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company.

Xanadu: Marco Polo and Europe’s Discovery of the East by John Man. What can I say? I just love history. So hear it from the Guardian newspaper, “John Man tracks Polo’s journey to China, his stay and his eventual return to Europe, through the traces they have left behind. Man himself travels to Shangdu and Beijing, and explores the possible routes between the two, forsaking the library in the search for “ground-truth”. On his explorations he is accompanied by Wei Jian, an experienced Shangdu archaeologist; but he calls on others, too, including some long-dead westerners who travelled the same routes in the centuries between Polo’s and our own. Through their and Polo’s descriptions and some clever triangulation, Man convincingly recreates many centuries of construction and decay: towns built, and crumbling to ruin, bits of walls now covered over by sand drifts; relics found and lost again; once broad lakes lately dried up. ” And in case you are wondering about the Indian opinion, here’s what our very own Outlook magazine had to say, “When it comes to Marco, John Man is both defender and accuser — he sifts through the material, interpreting the original, here pointing out the veracity that lies behind some assertions, there scoffing at the Venetian’s exaggerations and lack of academic rigour. He is by turns protective and derisive, maddened at times by Marco’s lack of useful detail, his silence on subjects that Man wants to know about; sardonic at others about Marco’s uncultured prejudices and his flagrant embroidery.”

The Hot Topic by Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King. This one’s for people looking for books on climate change. According to the Independent newspaper, UK, this is “a book more considered than George Monbiot’s Heat, more synoptic than Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers and less polemical than James Lovelock’s The Revenge of Gaia. Walker offers the clever journalistic touches which keep the story light and agile, for example referring to the climate system as being either “thick skinned” or “highly strung”, as a nice metaphor for the scientific jargon of climate sensitivity. King deploys first-hand observations of some of the battles between science and policy in which he has been a participant, for example the extraordinary scientific mission to Moscow in July 2004 which nearly ended in a diplomatic incident.” The Independent did not recommend it. But hey, I picked this one up before I read the reviews.

They Fight like Soldiers, they die like Children by Romeo Dallaire. Despicable as it may be, the practice of using children as soldiers is widespread and this book is a sobering look at the systematic failures of peacekeepers, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, governments, militaries and policy-makers to effectively deal with the pervading abuse of children in combat. The author is a retired general and a Canadian senator who runs the Child Soldiers initiative.

That’s it this Tuesday. I’ll see you next week with yet another list of tempting books that I just had to pick up. Meanwhile do tell me if you have read any of these. Btw, if any of you are INDIAreads members, we’ll be adding these to our online library catalogue soon.

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Treasure Hunt….Clue Three

Posted on 22 September 2012 by admin

Still haven’t figured me out? Gosh! You are slow. Think books, think best sellers, think classics.

And here’s your clue number 3.

My creator was an aviator!

Now you should definitely know who I am. So hurry up and send in your entries to INDIAReads Online Library and Bookstore and win fabulous prizes!!!

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What to gift your teacher today????

Posted on 05 September 2012 by admin

So you think you know your teachers?

Let’s see…

Favourite colour?

Favourite food?

Favourite movie?

And, favourite author????

If you know the answers to the above, you probably don’t need to read this post, but if you are among the bunch of students who are biting their nails, then stop fretting. As always help is at hand….But first dude, you need to tell me what your teacher’s like? Are you halfway in love with him or her or is the gift simply a bribe to ensure that the grouchy know-it-all goes easy on you….Think Think….

If she’s happy-go-lucky, fun, less than 40 and your secret crush, try a Nicholas Sparks or an Erma Bombeck. You could also pick a Tom Robbins, a Marion Keyes, Jackie Collins or a Bill Cosby. Look out for Yashodhara Lal’s Just Married, Please Excuse or Parul Sharma’s Bringing up Vasu if you think your teacher might prefer Indian writing. Nothing, of course, beats the evergreen Calvin and Hobbes, P G Wodehouse or Dilbert.

A word of Caution: Tempting as it may be, do not gift her a Fifty Shades of Grey. Remember, she’s a teacher after all.

If he’s cool, quirky and has most of the girls drooling after him, try a Freakonomics. If he loves bikes, Neil Bradford’s Sons of Thunder; if he is into sports, try  the autobiography of any player. If it is fiction you want to gift, try a thriller – a Ken Follett, P D James or David Baldacci.

Word of caution: It’s called Chick Lit for a reason. Even if you  are a Marion Keyes fan, gifting it him is a very bad idea.

If she’s sweet, understanding and a romantic at heart, pick up a Paulo Coelho or some of the evergreen reads – Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, To Sir With Love, The Bridge Across Forever. 84 Charring Cross Road, Mister God This is Anna and Palace of Illusions will also be much appreciated.

Word of Caution: Stay away from the blood and the gore.

Now here’s the tough one….for the teacher you respect, yet fear. You can’t skip her homework or go wool gathering in his class. They mean business and yet you understand every word that they say. In the fiction genre, try a Khushwant Singh, an Amitav Ghosh or a Khaled Hosseini. If you want to impress them with non-fiction, biographies and autobiographies are a good place to start – Helen Keller’s My Story, Steve Jobs: the Exclusive Biography, It’s not about the Bike or Einstein . Nehru’s Discovery of India, Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats and Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers also make for good gifts.

A word of caution: Make sure, you match it right. The Wonder that was India and Discovery of India should go to your Social Science/History Teacher. Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly everything or Stephen Hawkings’ A Brief History of Time to your Science Prof and the good old classic or fiction to your English teacher. Try a collection of Premchand or Rabindranath Tagore (in Hindi) or Rahasya to show your appreciation for your hindi teacher.

And remember, these recommendations are based on stereotypes. Your Maths teacher can enjoy a good chick lit and your history teacher a racy thriller. So if you have seen a book peeping out of their purses, that’s a clue – pursue it. Of course, the good thing is, right or wrong, your teacher can never not appreciate a book – it goes against the grain. As long as you stay away from a Fifty Shades or a Noddy, you are in relatively safe territory.

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What’s new? Literathon 2012

Posted on 18 July 2012 by admin

Have you ever read a book and wondered, what if the end had happened differently? Why that cliffhanger of an ending? What inspired the author to write this book? How much of the book is real?

Don’t worry, Literathon is here.

This is where you, my dear reader, can meet authors. Where you can question, talk, discuss and engage with the biggest names in the Indian literary world. You can be a part of the launch of the next bestseller and get to know what went into the writing of that book. And if you are an aspiring writer, you can get tips from established names or even get them to look at your scripts. Get an autograph, click that photograph and enjoy evocative book reading sessions.

At Literathon, you can meet fellow book lovers and discuss and debate your views about that book that you loved or hated.

Do you have a manuscript lying in a drawer, but never had the confidence to show it to anyone? At Literathon, not only can you attend creative writing workshops, but you can also discuss ideas with the veterans in the field.

At Literathon you’ll be catapulted into the world of books in its true sense. There aren’t just book discussions and debates but also the most uniquely designed competitions like – Pic-a-caption. We give you captions from books and you just need to click a picture that exemplifies it.

Oh, I know by now you must be wondering if this is all talk. Just big promises. Well believe you me, it is not. So at our inaugural event we bring to you the best from the world of management and development.

Yes, Rashmi Bansal, the best selling author of Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, Connect the Dots etc will inaugurate Literathon along with Padma awardee and Planning Commission member Dr Syeda Hameed at the Conference Centre, North Campus, Delhi University on July 28, 2012. And the Agenda for the day???

The all India book launch of Poor Little Rich Slum – the new book by Rashmi Bansal and international management consultant Deepak Gandhi.

Book Reading from Beautiful Country: Stories from Another India which has been on the list of Non-fiction best sellers of The Hindu for the last few weeks.

Talk and interactive session on the Secrets of Entrepreneurship by Rashmi Bansal and Deepak Gandhi.

Talk and interactive session on Youth as agents of change by Syeda Hameed and Gunjan Veda (co-author, Beautiful COuntry: STories from Another India)

All Day Book Bazaar with exclusive discounts and special deals.

Online and On the Spot competitions and Book signing by the authors!!!!

Want to know more? Just log on to www.indiareads.com/literathon and check out the event details and the various contests. Gift hampers worth thousands of rupees await you!!! So Delhiites hurry! Register now. The hall has a limited capacity so registrations will be on a first come first serve basis. The inaugural event is being hosted in collaboration with MIB-MHROD, Delhi School of Economics

You aren’t a part of DU? Don’t be disappointed. Call us to your campus. Write to us at literathon@indiareads.com


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The Litmus Tests for Books

Posted on 14 June 2012 by admin

How many books do you think are published every year? Go on, take a guess. A whopping 1 million! Yes, that’s right, according to statistics on Google, two books are published every minute. Yet, not all of them tickle your imagination. So how do you sort the good ones from the lemons? It’s a problem of asymmetric information. No, I don’t mean to get all technical, but, the problem is, that we live in the world of packaging and books are no different. So often the author withholds information about the book which you wouldn’t know unless you’ve bought the book and read it.

How do you ascertain, the book isn’t going to be a waste of money? How do you make sure that you’ll enjoy the book?

I have a five step mechanism to choose a book, and, hey, it’s worked for me. I call it ‘The Litmus Test for Books.’ Maybe, it’ll work for you too?

1. The Cover.

Don’t go all – ‘haven’t you heard, Don’t judge a book by its cover’ – on me. I have, but it’s practically impossible for me not to. How can you not notice the cover and just be restricted to noticing the content? The cover is absolutely the first thing about a book that strikes me.I cannot be drawn to a book, which looks like a Manual. The Cover is something that conveys the idea of the book in a single page.

As a child, I was fascinated by books that were colorful, had glitter on them. That’s what made me pick my first books – ‘Noddy’ and ‘Winnie the Pooh’. Then, it was the girly phase – of tiaras, princesses, fairytale romances. Now, I like my cover to be interesting. It needs to intrigue me, to force me to open the book and want to read it.

Check out Anthony Burgess’s – “A Clockwork Orange.”It’s been voted the best cover! And, for good reason. The cover itself beckons a person to open the book.

2. The Title.

Same goes for the title. It needs to grab my attention. If I’m looking for a particular book, or if I follow an author, it isn’t important. But, for the newer writers, it’s extremely important for the title to catch my eye, to pull me towards the book. Isn’t Bombay Duck is a Fish’,an interesting title?That’s why the book’s on my reading shelf!

What are the titles that have caught your attention?

So we are two steps down but really, sometimes, good titles and covers can be misleading. That’s why, we need step 3.

3. The Blurb and the Opening Line.

The blurb provides a glimpse into the book and must be something that must make me want to read on. I can never forget a blurb at the back of one of the Harry Potter books, which goes like this:

Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. “It is time,” he said, “for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything. I ask only a little patience.”

I accept I was already a fan, but its things like this which stick in my head. I read this book of 766 pages in a single day in my excitement.

And, the opening line -it has to make me think. Either please me, or repulse me, but hey getting a reaction is important. An opening line that always stays with me, and probably with you too is, from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Sometimes, review quotes are also helpful, but then not all books have them.

4. The first few, and the last few pages.

This one’s out of habit. Where did it come from? I have no idea! But, ever since I was a child, every time I went to a store, I would flip through the first few pages, the last few pages, and, sometimes if I found the book interesting, a few random pages  in between.I don’t like to start reading a book, and then be disappointed in the end.  Of course, in the process I’ve spoilt many a climax, but, then I enjoyed reading how the characters got there.

Have you read ‘The Kite Runner‘ by Khaled Hosseini? The book starts off with a child being raped, it’s revolting, but, it’s intriguing. And that’s why I read the book, and, what an amazing read it was!

Btw, if you are a mystery lover, perhaps you should give the last few pages a miss, but for all other books, it’s helpful. Trust me!!!

5. The First Two Chapters.

After my 15 year old cousin, who mind you, has actually read Salman Rushdie, recommended Midnight’s Children” to me, I was all for it. It had an interesting cover, a riveting blurb, an appealing title, and some remarkable reviews. But, I tried and I tried and I failed. It just wasn’t the book for me. And that’s why this fifth test is essential.

If the first few chapters don’t keep me so glued to the book, they it isn’t the one for me. So, if you have an opportunity to skim through the beginning of the book before buying it, be sure to do it. You don’t want to spend money on a book, that will forever lie, gathering dust on your bookshelf now, do you?

So, that’s my secret formula for picking out the perfect novel. What’s yours?


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Hot as hell: The tale of a burning town…

Posted on 01 April 2012 by admin

A warning even before you read this…this is not about any book. It’s not about INDIAreads or the online world. This post is about our world, the one in which we live and I am writing it because I couldn’t help myself….


Source: jharia.jharkhand.org.in


I just saw Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s documentary, Hot as Hell. It’s based on Jharia, the town beneath which rage 70 coal fires, the town which has a population of over a million, the town which can go up in flames or collapse any day, the town where I was born. The documentary left me shaken. So much so that I could not watch it in one go. The images that flashed by were familiar. It was like revisiting my childhood; only the despair, the accidents, the helpless faces were missing. Or perhaps I was too young to notice, blissfully unaware in my safe little world. I have no memories of Jharia except the theatre where we went to see a hindi blockbuster or some old neighbours we visited. All my recollections are of Dhandbad, the city adjacent to Jharia. That’s where my maternal family moved soon after I was born. It’s not that I did not know of the coal mafia then or of the abject poverty in the region. Year after year, during summer vacations on the train journey to Dhanbad or subsequently when we ventured outside the city for picnics, I saw thousands of people barely able to survive. Along the road, I saw things covered in white. People sleeping on the roadside with sheets to keep out the flies, I thought. Stupid. Naive. Age was my only excuse. Years later, I learnt they were corpses of people who had been killed by the naxals and other armed groups. I had been shocked then. Shaken, to realize that places I frequented as a child were now out of bounds as they were naxal haunts. It didn’t make sense because till the age of 15 when I visited Dhanbad every summer, all I thought about was the fun times spent with cousins, Rajinder ki chaat, Caroline’s pastry, the elderly tailor who stitched our dresses. Even the people along the road to Parasnath, selling arrows, lances and knives didn’t bother me. Yes, all my memories were happy ones, except one. One which had left me so shaken that after a lot of angst and anger, after feeling completely defeated for I could not change anything, I had buried it. I don’t even remember where I kept the couple of pictures that my dad had taken. Pictures of me wearing a helmet, a torch and a belt, getting on to the carriage that would take me deep into the bowels of the earth, into the coal mines. To the horror of my family I had insisted on the trip. No, I was not driven by any altruistic or revolutionary zeal. I just wanted to see a mine, to see where the people who I saw on the streets of Dhanbad worked. So after non stop pleading, cajoling and threatening for 2 summers, finally they gave in. I was in school and so my dad came to Dhanbad to take me to the mines. No one else was willing to do so.

As soon as the makeshift lift – 8 rickety wooden planks tied together and fixed on a steel frame, there were no walls – landed, I whipped my head around in confusion. It was completely dark. The only light came from the top of the hole. Then, one of the accompanying engineers switched on the torch on my helmet. Whatever you do, never take off that helmet even for a second, I was warned. Excited, I began to move but the engineer practically shouted in alarm. “You have to follow me. Please stay close to the walls and move very carefully.” So we moved into what resembled a cave. I had always been in love with Enid Blytons and this, to me, was a real adventure. The air was reasonably cool and there was water trickling in at some places along the wall. But I did not worry about the mine being flooded suddenly. That happened only in novels. I looked around and saw some tracks. “For the cars that carry the coal out. Be careful, most workers loose limbs when they are hit by the chains of the car,” our guide warned. I remember being bewildered then because I saw no workers. I heard sounds – whispers, hammering, the occasional laughter, but saw no one. When I asked the engineer where the workers were, he looked uncomfortable. But I had to see them at work. That was the point of the visit. So the guy very reluctantly led us into a narrow passage. I almost choked. The air was unbearably hot and heavy. I felt as if I was in a furnace. I still remember that feeling of being stifled. I think I turned claustrophobic that day. And then I saw the workers, chiseling away, lifting the coal. None were wearing helmets. It was too hot. Besides when they needed to rest, they perched on their helmets. On seeing visitors, a few hurriedly tried to strap on the protective headgear. I later learnt that the passage through which we had entered was reserved for officials and the few odd visitors. That was where the cool air came in from. The passages where the miners worked were boiling. I remember hurriedly trying to get out of the mine. After that I spent a lot of time arguing with my uncle, with others around me about the inhuman conditions in the mine. When it didn’t make any difference I forgot about it. It was easier. Subsequently I visited workers colonies or the poorer neighbourhoods of Dhanbad but I never asked to visit a mine. My family moved out of Dhanbad and the mines, out of my consciousness. About the underground fires, I was blissfully unaware. I had never heard about them, never noticed the wisps of smoke.

It was during my years at the Planning Commission that I first heard about the danger Jharia was in. I was shocked. How could I, an educated journalist, not have noticed something so important? How could I be so cocooned in my own world as to ignore everything else? I remember Syeda mentioning that someone had told her to visit the mines to see how much has been done to ensure safety of the workers. I told her about my visit. We decided we would visit Dhanbad and Jharia; go down into the mines and see if things had changed. The trip never happened. Then I saw this film. I am still appalled. To be honest I haven’t finished watching it. I could not. Not because it is full of burning people and mutilated bodies. No, there is none of that. In fact most of the scenes could be from any bustling town of the country. And then you notice the smoke curling out of the ground, right next to the guy who is changing the tyre or the child who is picking the coals. The ground beneath the city is burning and it is not a natural disaster. It is not even an inadvertent error on the part of a worker. It is the result of decades of human greed. The result of unplanned, unscientific mining carried out with the singular purpose of raking in the maximum moolah. Not even when they realized the consequences of their activities, when the workers began to be gassed and lives were lost, did the coal mafia stop to consider. Lives were inconsequential. They did not even remember that they were living in the same city which could collapse into the burning pit any day. Can human beings really be so insensitive? So greedy? Soo selfish? Do human lives matter so little? The workers go into the mines knowing they might never come back. They have no choice. They have to risk it to make sure their kids don’t go hungry. They might come out of the mine alive, but if they don’t go in, they know they won’t have anything to survive on. With the fires, the mines are not working to their full capacity. Many have lost jobs. They pilfer. They dig holes and take from the earth whatever they can find. Theft? Maybe. A disaster in the making? Definitely. But what choice do they have? Just like the residents of Jharia. They know their lives are in danger. They are suffering from numerous health problems and yet they refuse to move out to the new areas identified by the government. Why? What compels them to continue to live atop an inferno? I do not know. What I do know is that if we, in our greed, have destroyed so many lives, what right do we have to sit and take decisions for the Jarawa or the Upper Bonda? They may not live in air conditioned rooms or attend B Schools and earn hefty pay packets but they live in harmony with nature and with each other. They are happy, and more importantly, till we intruded into their worlds, their happiness was not at the cost of others. Is this what we want them to become? Opportunistic, indifferent humans who will stop at nothing to pocket that extra wad of notes. And how did we become this way? Is life really a zero sum game? Does our happiness, our comfort always have to be at the expense of another – be it the thirteen year old who some employ shamelessly in their homes or the workers who are gassed in the coal mines? I know all is not lost, I know there are people doing excellent work. I know change is happening. I have seen it, documented some of it. But at times, I grow despondent. Because too much needs to be done. Do we have enough time? Do we have enough will? Do we have enough hands?

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World Book Fair – Literature meets Cinema Part II @ INDIAreads Online Library cum Bookstore

Posted on 01 April 2012 by lilevil

Not every attempt to adapt a literary masterpiece for the silver screen falls flat on its face.

Below is a list of notables that managed to make the shift without getting mud in their eyes, as it were.

1. ‘One for the Money‘ (2012): Stephanie Plum, the beloved bounty-hunter heroine of Janet Evanovich’s best-selling novels, is finally getting her big-screen due — with Katherine Heigl stepping into the role. Based on Evanovich’s 1994 book of the same name, One for the Money (in theatres Jan. 27) traces Plum’s road from lingerie buyer to badass bounty hunter. Her first case: brining in a vice cop who’s wanted for first-degree murder. The snag? He’s her former lover. Should moviegoers dig Plum’s sassy, sleuthing action heroine, they’re in luck: Evanovich has written 17 Plum novels, four novellas and one short story. Can you say “franchise potential”?

2. ‘Twilight‘ (2008): The vampire-romance series, written by Stephenie Meyer, was already a phenomenon unto itself. However, Twilight, the visual accompaniment to her 2005 novel, transformed the phenomenon into obsession. The adaptation, about a romance between a handsome vampire and a girl next door, was smartly loyal to its source material, bringing to life the impossibly chivalric, almost ethereal love story. While decidedly melodramatic, the prolific use of slow motion and extreme close-ups certainly played into that great escape. The fact that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart let their onscreen romance trickle into real life only added to the illusion. And starry-eyed teens and moms responded in kind.

3. ‘The Reader‘ (2008): What’s remarkable about ‘The Reader‘ isn’t just the fact that Kate Winslet quite convincingly ages 30 years throughout the film while playing a morally challenged woman who’s both a seductress of a teen boy (played by German actor David Kross and as an adult by Ralph Fiennes) as well as a Nazi war criminal. It’s also that the actress manages to shrug off her warm offscreen persona to offer an intriguing turn as a chilly character. Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 work was gripping enough to become an Oprah’s Book Club selection. But Winslet made the movie her own by committing to a gutsy and yes, explicit, performance that was at times difficult to watch. It became the transformative role that finally won her the Oscar she’s long deserved.

4. ‘Forrest Gump‘ (1994): A box of chocolates, cross-country running, Bubba Gump shrimp. Forrest Gump was so vivid an interpretation of the 1986 novel by Winston Groom, that it became iconic. Director Robert Zemeckis took many liberties with his version of the story — excising numerous episodes from the novel and adding in a few new ones (like that epic jog) — making believable a sprawling tale about the fantastical life of a humble Southern man, who’s slow in wit but rich in integrity. Key in this were performances from Robin Wright Penn, as Forrest’s childhood love whose mere countenance is riddled with heartbreak, and Tom Hanks rounding out the book’s titular hero with sheer charm.

5. ‘The Notebook‘ (2004): Released in 1996, The Notebook was the first of a slew of books by Nicholas Sparks (Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe) that seemed to effortlessly translate to the big screen. Still, it was The Notebook, teeming with palpable chemistry between stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, that was the most successful. She plays a rich girl, he a working-class boy. They meet picturesquely over the summer, fall in love, and then threaten to fall apart. The actors would go on to date for two years after filming the movie — even recreating that sweep-her-off-her-feet kiss for the MTV Movie Awards. Fans so adored the romanticized couple that when Gosling and McAdams split, “Women were mad at me,” he later commented. “Like, ‘How could you? How could you let a girl like that go?’

6. ‘The Color Purple‘ (1985): You’d have been hard-pressed to find a dry eye in the house when The Color Purple first debuted in theaters. Based on Alice Walker’s 1982 work, it recounted the incest and domestic abuse-addled life of a poor, humble African-American woman in the early 1900s. Walker’s tale is told via letters and diary entries, but the cinematic version proved even more poignant by using a classic narrative to chronicle protagonist Celie’s challenging life. Powerful turns by Oprah Winfrey (in her Oscar-nominated acting debut) as Celie’s daughter-in-law and Danny Glover as her abusive husband contrasted Whoopi Goldberg’s demure presence in the lead (pictured with costar Margaret Avery). In the end, Steven Spielberg was able to achieve the daunting task of transforming a Pulitzer Prize-winning book into an equally formidable motion picture.

7. ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (1995): At a time when Hollywood was particularly eager to mine the Jane Austen canon for big-screen material, Emma Thompson, who scripted and starred in this costumed version, treated it like a goofy rom-com. Quick-witted repartee between Thompson and Kate Winslet (Thompson’s Elinor: “Did he tell you he loved you?” Winselt’s Marianne: “Yes…no. Never absolutely. It was every day implied.”) made Thompson a shoe-in for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Director Ang Lee, meanwhile, kept the visuals chaste and breezy, like a pleasant stroll through an English garden. If ever there were a film that most effectively updates Austen’s work without losing its spirit, this is it.

8. ‘To kill a Mockingbird‘ (1962): It was no easy feat casting for Atticus Finch, the Abe Lincoln-esque patriarch of To Kill a Mockingbird. After all, the hugely successful, Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Harper Lee (published two years before the film) was, upon its release, a sounding board about racial injustices. But Gregory Peck truly brought the story about an African-American man accused of raping a white woman to life. Though the part came to him midway through his career, the actor would be forever associated with Mockingbird, which also won him an Oscar for best actor. Upon hearing of the actor’s death, the reclusive Lee declared, “Gregory Peck was a beautiful man. Atticus Finch gave him an opportunity to play himself.”

9. ‘Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone’ (2001): In dark theatrics and stunning effects, the Harry Potter movies are so potent that the term “spoiler alert” need not apply. Of course we know how each of J.K. Rowling’s books end: Yet as the first filmic installment reminded us, sometimes the path — how the drama unfolds — is just as important as the end destination. The smartly cast Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint became insta-stars after appearing in the Sorcerer’s Stone ten years ago (the book came out three years before that), requiting our long-awaited desire to attach human faces to the Rowling’s fantastical wizards. And watching them grow up with each subsequent film has further invested us in both their real and fictitious lives.

10. ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘ (1994): It would be easy to transform Stephen King’s 1982 novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, into a cheesy morality tale about crime and punishment. The fact that it takes place in a prison would tempt any director to play up the melodrama of lock-up. But Frank Darabont draws nuanced performances by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, as prisoners with full hearts, who take their time to communicate their trajectory of isolation, guilt, repentance, and ultimately liberation. If that sounds underwhelming, it was to moviegoers, too: Despite its weighty awards-season presence, Shawshank just barely broke even. But to those who saw it, this unfurling of plot and character was a revelation.

11. ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary‘ (2001): Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel about an everyday Englishwoman’s disastrous, if aspirational, love life was so adored that seemingly every actress considered the role: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz among them. Ultimately, director Sharon Maguire — a friend of Fielding’s — cast the immediately likable Renée Zellweger as a luckless aspiring journalist, an eyebrow-raising move that earned criticism over the actress being both American and impossibly svelte. Zellweger responded by packing on 20 lbs. and perfecting her British accent. By the time she hit the screen, she had the goodwill of fans and critics alike, who commended her portrayal opposite Hugh Grant and Colin Firth as being more crafty that she’d led on: Her Jones was cute without being cloying, downtrodden without being desperate — and perhaps more clever than the heroine of the book itself.

12. ‘The Lord of the Rings‘ Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003): It’s not a well-known fact that director Peter Jackson’s dazzling Lord of the Rings trilogy, about the search to destroy an ultimate weapon, is actually a third attempt at adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1954-55 books. What made Jackson’s successful? Jackson treated LOTR less like a fantasy-nerd obsession it had been and more like the epic story it was. The films boast majestic cinematography, patient pacing, and a smart cast (notably Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom and an indelible Viggo Mortensen, pictured) that treated the heroics as byproducts of a larger drama. (Even the most cartoonish character, the animated Gollum — as voiced and acted out by English actor Andy Serkis — was imbued with weightiness, played out as a heroin addict.) This is Tolkien in Technicolor, as the master himself would’ve imagined it.

13. ‘Schindler’s List‘ (1993): Steven Spielberg is largely credited for the gestation of what is arguably his greatest work to date. But the World War II-set Schindler’s List was in fact based on the 1982 historical novel Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally, about a German businessman who saved 1,200 Jews from certain death by employing them in his Polish factories. The film’s black-and-white presentation is indeed polarized. It’s stylized when showing Liam Neeson — giving off the air of a strapping movie star from a bygone era — living his glamorous, privileged life. And it’s stark when chronicling graphic scenes of camp brutality, under the leadership of Ralph Fiennes’ icy commandant, a livewire who could be set off at any moment. Where Keneally drew a mental image of the devastation, Spielberg actually allows us to be a conscious observer, witnessing the horror, but powerless to do anything about it.

14. ‘The English Patient‘ (1996): The late Anthony Minghella wrote and directed this sweeping drama based on the Booker Prize-winning 1992 novel from Michael Ondaatje. What won the latter the prestigious award was that his book is beguilingly elaborate — tricky in narrative, specific in imagery, ambitious in breadth. Though he couldn’t possibly capture every detail, Minghella more than compensated with atmosphere. Here, Ralph Fiennes plays a Hungarian explorer who begins an affair with a British woman (Kristin Scott Thomas) in the ’40s, against the backdrop of a washed-out expanse of Saharan desert. The latter is so sensuous, you could almost feel the sweat. That the man’s story is told on his deathbed and in flashback supplants the tragedy with a sweet wistfulness.

15. ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe‘ (2005): For many, C.S. Lewis’ first Narnia book — 1950’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, about four kids who discover a portal leading to a magical land — was a staple of childhood reading. In addition to lending the franchise some cred, respected actors Liam Neeson, Tilda Swinton, and James McAvoy helped elevate the picture from mere fantasy to spiritual allegory (as was Lewis’ intent). But the marquee star here is the collective special-effects unit which legitimately helped transport the viewer into an ethereal world. Much of Narnia’s success hinged on the escapist and sentimental appeal of one’s childhood imagination spectacularly imprinted onto the big screen.

16. ‘Gone With The Wind’ (1939): When adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind — an adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s celebrated 1936 tome — is considered to be the most profitable film of all time. It broke other records during its day: Producers took two years to cast the lead male, enlisted five screenwriters, hired three directors, and oversaw nearly one year of production. (Its final director, The Wizard of Oz’s Victor Fleming was said to have briefly exited during filming, due to exhaustion.) At three hours and 44 minutes, Gone With the Wind was not only the longest film of its time, it was also the feistiest: The film’s tart language (a cocky Clark Gable using the word “damn”) and proto-feminism (Vivien Leigh’s alternately demure and ballsy portrayal of Scarlett O’Hara) drew vast criticism — and was downright trailblazing.

17. ‘The Devil Wears Prada‘ (2006): Upon its release in 2003, Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling roman à clef about her time working at Vogue was met with some indignation. (The steely boss of the book was a less than thinly veiled criticism of that magazine’s editrix, Anna Wintour.) But how salacious it was! While no less intriguing, the big screen’s Prada was also smarter than its source material: Confident performances by Meryl Streep transformed Weisberger’s tormentor, Miranda Priestly, into a complicated career woman whose unreasonable demands upon Anne Hathaway’s Andrea Sachs could alternately viewed be as tough love. The picture, directed by Sex and the City alum David Frankel and outfitted by that show’s costumer Patricia Field, was immediately accused of being SATC-lite. To the contrary, this was a Sex and the City with more soul.

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World Book Fair – Literature meets Cinema @ INDIAreads Online Library cum Bookstore

Posted on 22 February 2012 by lilevil

The World Book Fair at New Delhi is about to begin, and INDIAreads will be there.

Do visit the INDIAreads stalls – we can’t wait to have you paw our brand new merchandise even as you struggle to manage a cheap sandwich with one hand, and a screaming brat with the other.

It’s always a pleasure to hear you gossip about the authors in hushed tones (“Amartya Sen – isn’t he the guy that invented Amul..?”), and it really makes our day when you ask us 50 painfully mundane questions and end up buying nothing. We live for those moments!

The theme at this year’s fair shall be ‘Indian Cinema’.

Cinema and Literature – Really…?

As long as the cinematic medium has existed, the movie industry has looked to literature for both inspiration and content.

But when turning a literary masterpiece into a movie, do the two mediums share enough commonalities so as to enable a smooth transition…?

The filmwallahs would answer ‘yes’. From ‘About A Boy’ to ‘Wuthering Heights’, the conversion of popular books to big screen pictures has been a recurring theme in film, particularly in recent years with the success of huge franchises like Harry Potter and the Twilight saga.

While much discussion centers around adaptations that aren’t seen as having lived up to the literature on which they are based, there are many adaptations that actually enhance an existing story; or completely supersede it.

Example: Fight Club – a brilliant movie, stemming from an okay novel.

Or Clueless, which takes a novel from 1815 and makes it relevant to the modern day by setting the story of Jane Austen’s Emma in the context of a Beverly Hills high school.

But all faffing aside – the tendency to make film adaptations of books stems largely from the desire for a guaranteed audience, and is not quite the ‘natural progression’ for a book as advocated by some filmmakers.

Flipside? Stories are abridged, scenes are added, movie-only fans (newbies, resented by the hard core lit enthusiasts) are born, and those who followed the series from its inception are often left feeling a little disappointed at the end product.

The greatest difference between movies and novels is that cinemagoers share a much more social, passive experience than bookworms – who enjoy an active, solitary read. This means that while those reading the book have their own visions of characters and events, film audiences are forced to share a single vision of what these aspects of the story look like.

This alienates the book fan further – what was once a personal experience for him/her, is now universal; with the perceptions and prejudices of producers, directors, actors and audiences – all influencing the final product.

All is not lost, though.

In Part II, we shall take a look at some of the more successful experiments to have managed the leap from literature to cinema.

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