Books read in 2011

Read in 2011 (91 = 55 + 36; NF 19) 

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS -- FICTION (17): (Ramayana by William Buck), Shankuntala by Kalidasa (translated by Arthur W. Ryder), (Mrichchakatika), Palace Walk by Naquib Mahfouz, Possessed by Dostoevsky (translated by Constance Garnett), The Charterhouse of Parma by Strendahl, If on a Winter Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, Arabian Nights, The Tale of the Unknown Island by Jose Saramago (translated by Margaret Jull Costa), Cain by Jose Saramago, Ladies Paradise by Emile Zola, (Confessions by Saint Augustine), Children of Gebelwaki by Naquib Mahfouz, Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac, (The Trial by Franz Kafka), The Wife and other stories by Anton Chekov, Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, 

NOVEL / FICTION IN ENGLISH (16): Europeans by Henry James, Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell, Boy  by Roald Dahl, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Dork by Sidin Vadukut, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe, Chef  by Jaspreet Singh, Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tuttola, Rain and Other Southern Sea Stories by W. S. Maugham, Fox by D. H. Lawrence, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass, Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Life's Handicap by Rudyard Kipling.

NON-FICTION (8): Hindoo Holiday by J. R. Ackerley, Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie, (November Boughs by Walt Witman), The Agricola and The Germania by Tacitus, (Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter), Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays by Chinua Achebe, Travels of Marco Polo.

ENGLISH POETRY (28): Birdsong by Rumi (translated by  Coleman Barks), Meghaduta by Kalidasa (translated by Arthur W. Ryder), Aeneid by Virgil (translated by C Day Lewis), Gilgamesh (translated by David Ferry), Dropping the bow: Poems from Ancient India  by Andrew Schelling, Ritusamhaar by Kalidasa (translated by Chandra Raman), Red Suitcase by Naomi Shihab Nye, One Handed Basket Weaving by Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks), Intimations by Anna Akhmatova, The Pupil by WS Merwin, Possibility of Being  by Rainer Maria Rilke, The Theban Plays by Sophocles (translated by EF Watling), Poems of Nizam Hikmet (trans. by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk Blasing), Teahouse of the Almighty by Patricia Smith, Collected Poems by Jorge Luis Borges, Dancing in Odessa by Ilya Kaminsky, The Bacchae, Medea and Hippolytus by Euripides (translated by Phillip Vellacot), Jejuri by Arun Kolatkar, Tulip in the Desert: A Selection of the Poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (translated and edited by Mustansir Mir), Don Juan by Lord Byron, Songs of Kabir (translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra), Here there was once a Country by Venus Khoury-Ghata (trans. by Marilyn Hacker), The River of Heaven: The Haiku Poetry of Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki (translated by Robert Aitken), Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty by Tony Hoagland, The Garden of Heaven: Poems of Hafiz by Hafiz (trans. by Getrude Bell), Shikwa aur Jawab-i-Shikwa by Mohammad Iqbal (trans. by Khushwant Singh).

Hindi / Urdu / Sanskrit/ Punjabi (3+7): Gaban by Munshi Premchand,  Pratinidhi Kavitayein & Meri Shresht Kavitayen  by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Rashmirathi &; Urvashi by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Raghuvansh by Kalidasa (Hindi prose translation), Madhushala and Kya Bhoolon Kya Yaad Karun by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Iqbal ki kavitayein, Umar Khayyam ki Rubaiyan by Harivansh Rai Bachchan,

PHILOSOPHY / RELIGION / MYTHOLOGY  (0+1+6): A Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, King Jesus  by Robert Graves, (Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda), Exhortation to the Greeks (trans. W. Wilson), The Rich Man's Salvation (trans. P. M. Barnard) and To the newly baptized (a fragment) (trans. J. Patrick) by Clement of Alexandria, The Panchatantra (trans by Patrick Olivelle).

MAHABHARATA (by Mahrishi Ved Vyas; tr. by Kisari Mohun Ganguly) (0/18): 

POPULAR SCIENCE / ECONOMICS (5): (In the blink of an eye by Andrew Parker), The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner, (Why Marx was Right by Terry Eagleton), Economics Explained by Robert L. Heilbroner and Lester Thurow, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas.

Favorite reads of the year (Fiction / Novels /Short Stories/ Non-fiction)
1) Palace Walk and Children of Gebelwaki by Naquib Mahfouz
2) Possessed by Dostoevsky (translated by Constance Garnett)
3) Arabian Nights
4)  Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell  
5) Rain and Other Southern Sea Stories by W. S. Maugham
6) Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie and  

7)  Poems of Nizam Hikmet (trans. by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk Blasing)
8) Pratinidhi Kavitayein, Meri Shresht Kavitayen, Madhushala, Kya Bhoolon Kya Yaad Karun  
     and Umar Khayyam ki Rubaiyan by Harivansh Rai Bachchan,
9) Rashmirathi & Urvashi by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, 
10)  The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner
11) Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays by Chinua Achebe
12) Life's Handicap by Rudyard Kipling 

(If I am through more  than 50% of the book, it goes into 2010 category, otherwise, it appears in the next year. See here for the books read in 2010, with the selection of favorite ten!)