On books

Recently, I was interviewd by Duppala Ravikumar about books for his blog 'Meeru Chadivaara?". Apparrently he came to know of my name through a Telugu book based on "The Confessions of an Economic Hitman" which I presented to a friend.
The interview in Telugu is here:
http://chaduvu.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/interivew23/
Mr. Ravikumar is more literary than me and his translation of my answers seem better than my write up. Below are rough translations of his questions and my answers.

1.What are the books and writers that you found boring?
Many writers and books. Sometimes after a few years, I found some of the books that I could not read earlier appealing. One example Bernard Cohn's "An Anthropologist Among Historians".
2.Your latest read?
"Recovering the Lost Tongue:The Saga of Environmental Struggles in Central India" by Rahul Banerjee (Prachee Publications, Kachiguda). But I have a vested interest in this being partly responsible for the publication. Soon after on the plane, I read V.S. Naipaul's "A Million Mutinees Now".
3. How many books are there in your library?
I do not know. There are five shelves about 6 rows in each. Possibly the number of books in each row varies from 30 to hundred.
4.What are the books that you wanted to read for a long time but could not?
Too many, but I am beginning to feel that after a while just reading is not enough and one has to analyze the topics. It really does not seem to matter if we miss a few books; the same information is spread through other books and sources.
5. What are the books and authors that you liked?
In Telugu, the one I remember most is "Asamarthuni Jeevayaatra" by Gopichand. But I read very few Telugu books since 50's. Since my Telugu is not strong, I like those written in simple Telugu like Annamayya, Vemana, Gurajada, Rallapalli, Arudra, Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry.
In English, there are too many books and writers that I liked. A few recent ones are Matt Ridley (The Red Queen etc), Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (Mother Nature etc) Dan Gilbert "Stumbling on Happiness"), Amitav Ghosh's "In an Antique Land", Suketu Mehta's "Maximum City", V.S. Naipaul's books, Kautilya's Arthasastra (Partly read), Bernard Cohn's books, Cynthial Talbot's book on Medieval Andhra, Sheldon Pollock's "The language of the gods in the world of men". I just started on Ramakrishna Mission's seven volumes on Indian culture and heritage but they are being shipped now.
6. How many books have you presented to friends recently and how many did you recieve?
About 15-20 books to friends. I also get quite a few from my children.
7. Which news papers and magazines do you read regularly?
None in particular. Browse through several on internet. I was told by friends in India that some of the regional language papers are better than the English news papers in India. I read EPW and OUTLOOKindia fairly regularly.
8. What are the books that many others liked but you did not?
I generally do not read best sellers. I start on a topic and try to find books on that topic. Currently I am trying to understand a bit about 'development' particularly in the Indian context. So I am trying to look at books that describe ancient India to medieval to recent developments. I must add that I understand very little of these topics.
9.What are you currently reading?
Planning to read "India: A Wounded Civilization" by V.S. Naipaul. I just finished reading a book by him.
10. What are the books that stimulated you?
Several. If I have to select one book, I would probably choose "Mother Nature" by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy.
P.S. I would like to thank P.P.C. Joshi of Prachee Publications and Paruchuri Sreenivas for suggesting to me several interesting books.