Happy New Year with Books

Let me first wish my readers a very happy new year -- 2008 was a bad year in so many ways that 2009 can only be better. Then, as several bloggers do at the end of the year (or at the beginning of the next one), let me inflict upon my readers a list of books I read last year. Unlike those several other bloggers, my list is both small and, possibly, dated. But there it is anyway. I also am hoping to get some book recommendations from the readers to add to my list for this year.

• maraLi maNNige (Kannada - ಮರಳಿ ಮಣ್ಣಿಗೆ): The only Kannada book I read this year, largely because I am away from home, is a classic novel by Shivaram Karanth. An excellent novel with very strong characters. Add to that an easy flowing realistic narration.
• The Selfish Gene: I cannot have much new to say about Richard Dawkins' classic. Except perhaps that I did not find either the style or the substance to be as radical or confrontational as it is often made out to be. (Possibly because I read it years/decades too late.) And I mean this as a good thing: Dawkins explains carefully and in full detail, every premise and every hypothesis; there is hardly any room for a (logical) contrarian view.
• My Name is Red: A novel that deals with politics; history; conflicts of east and west; religious fanatism; love; and above all, art! Set in the 16th century Ottoman Istanbul, the novel contemplates, at its own pace, all these and more, through multiple narrators. You can find a review at The Middle Stage.
• The Music of Primes: A very interesting book by Marcus du Sautoy for a general audience about number theory with focus on prime numbers. It offers biographical sketches of some of the greatest mathematicians and their work toward revealing the mysteries of prime numbers.
• Prime Obsession: John Derbyshire's book is a more focussed approach toward explaining the Reimann Hypothesis. The book develops most of the background mathematics needed to undestand the Reimann Hypothesis before presenting the hypothesis itself. A very good book. I rate it better than The Music of Primes.
• Istanbul: Memories of a City: Orhan Pamuk's memoir on his city. It gave me a very useful word 'huzun', Turkish for melancholy. I feel it is not just Istanbul that is in a constant state of huzun. The book is an interesting read by and large, but at times the prose becomes lengthy and tedious.
• The Evolution of Cooperation: Very informative book about game theory with focus on cooperation. I have talked a bit on about this in another post - The Big Why Question. Highly recommended for anyone interested in societies, networks and India in general.
• Snow: The year 2008 is a Pamuk year for me. This is an exceptional novel. I rate it higher than My Name is Red (which is not an easy thing to do). As always, Pamuk's canvas is big. The motifs are similar: east and west; religion; poetry; politics; et al. A meditative novel, yet one that comes across more as a dark comedy. (I had written a review (in Kannada) here.)
• No Longer at Ease: Disappointing, given that Chinua Achebe is a favourite writer of mine. I have written about it in the post - No Longer at Ease.
• If on a winter's night a traveler: I don't think I am capable of saying much meaningful about this novel by Italo Calvino. If anything, I can say that it's not a novel but a meta-novel: a novel about novels; and about the nature of reading and writing. I am not even sure whether or how much I like it. A difficult read but enchanting at many places. I haven't been able complete it, not sure if I will be able to.

That's more or less it, though I did want to read more. I attempted to read The Fifth Discipline, but could not go beyond the first couple of chapters. I wish to read more this year (by cutting down on watching movies), and want to read more non-fiction. Especially books that are close to my (research) interests. So, I ask my readers to recommend me some books. Here are some impromptu tags based on the combinations of which you may want to recommend: game theory, rationality, society, India, computer science, research lifestyle, mathematics, uncertainty, graphs, complex networks, nature inspired solutions, optimization, multi-agent systems. Or anything else that you think is interesting. If you want to recommend a good fiction, that is welcome as well.