Am moving to India for two years. Would like a list of books to read for the duration. If you were to create a booklist of "must reads", a list of books that have impacted you, fiction as well as nonfiction, what would that list contain? The only criteria I have is that the book must be about India, takes place in India, or pertains to Indianlifestyles. Thanks in Advance!
1
vinnyd
I wouldn't say they impacted me, partly because I think only teeth can be impacted, but I enjoyed Paul Scott's Raj Quartet and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Dust and Heat (unless it's called Heat and Dust), and Nirad Chaudhuri's Autobiography of an Unknown Indian.
4
irrumatio
Definitely read 'India: A History', by John Keay. It's history, but very readable and concise.
For non-fiction, I greatly enjoyed Amitav Ghosh's 'Hungry Tide', set in the Sundarbans.
6
ethelred
Definitely agree with Hungry Tide, but it was fiction, not non-fiction.
And Vinny, amen to the "impacted" comment.
7
flora
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Passage to India, wotsit thingy
Jewel in the Crown, etc (The Raj Quartet), Paul Scott. Also 'Staying On', which is sort of better than the others.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
White Mughals, another William Dalrymple
9
downercow
India, A Million Mutinies Now // V.S. Naipaul// the best overview
Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi// the best introduction to the Indian mentality and soul
Yogananda's autobiography is also fascinating in this regard
Kim// Rudyard Kipling// the best classic novel from the colonial period
Fruitful Journeys/ Ann G. Gold // an anthropologist's extraordinary account of her life in a village in Rajasthan
Pro tip
Lonely Planet
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