It's an interesting list, no doubt, and I'm thrilled about the variety but I have to ask:
1) Why are most of the writers male? I mean, even if you consider the female writers that you've included -- it's a little embarrassing that Kaavya Vishwanathan the Plagiarizer is there and the Megan McCafferty the Plagiarized isn't. There is life beyind Rowling, Meyer, Buck, Christie, Roy and Lahiri. Think Atwood, Anita (and Kiran, if you want) Desai, Woolf, Angelou and Morrison, for starters. I'd expect an IIT library to move beyond the bestsellers in such a cliched genre.
2) What about non-white writers (not just Indian)? Nadine Gordimer? A Eurasian writer like Orhan Pamuk? V. S Naipaul? Haruki Murakami?Ondaatje? And these people are pretty well-known.
Ps: Must clarify cliched. The genre itself is not cliched, obviously (that of female writing), that was written in haste, but the writers whom you have chosen to include are the ones who are very widely-read. Practically everyone has read the Twilight series. Introducing some of the relatively lesser read (here, obviously, coz they're all fantastic, not to mention big names otherwise)women writers would be an incredible thing to do. You will not even find availability to be a problem here with these authors (except perhaps with Atwood).
I'd agree with Sharan here. 16 of your library's 302 books have been written by female authors. If I roughly say around 20 books have been been written by the same author (Agatha Christie, Isaac Asimov and some others have several books included in your list) then it's +-280 on 16 - 5.7 percent. Your argument of 'public tastes' now becomes interesting. How are public tastes formed? Exposure definitely plays a part, don't you think?
IITM has a pretty good Humanities department. I've heard quite a lot from some of my friends here who have friends studying Lit from there. You told me so too! That should help in perpetuating different kinds of writers and writings in your library too! :) It seems to me that most titles must have been read by students already, before they joined IIT. So there's no better time than now to rev it up, right? :)
Also, geography is a little skewed in your list. I'm referring to Sharan's second point. I can say with surety, even despite not having read too many non-Western writers - you are missing out on a whole three quarters of the writing globe with a predominantly white, male collection. It's not a loss to them but to you.
PS: I risk being labelled judgmental, but Stephanie Meyer - really?
I agree with Vini's point about exposure -- most of these people there would've already read most of these books. Also, for the money that you've spent on some of these books (I cannot GET over the fact that you've included Vishwananthan's book -- it's entertaining, agreed, but I assure you, the original is MUCH better) you could've gotten so many others.
@ Vini:
I can explain that. It's part of the whole popular books thing. SO much hype has been built around it that everyone -- regardless of their sex -- wants to read it. And well, they probably should, it IS an interesting read. (I'm not saying Good/Great -- remember our discussion with J? :))
6 comments:
It's an interesting list, no doubt, and I'm thrilled about the variety but I have to ask:
1) Why are most of the writers male? I mean, even if you consider the female writers that you've included -- it's a little embarrassing that Kaavya Vishwanathan the Plagiarizer is there and the Megan McCafferty the Plagiarized isn't. There is life beyind Rowling, Meyer, Buck, Christie, Roy and Lahiri. Think Atwood, Anita (and Kiran, if you want) Desai, Woolf, Angelou and Morrison, for starters. I'd expect an IIT library to move beyond the bestsellers in such a cliched genre.
2) What about non-white writers (not just Indian)? Nadine Gordimer? A Eurasian writer like Orhan Pamuk? V. S Naipaul? Haruki Murakami?Ondaatje? And these people are pretty well-known.
3) Poetry?
Just a thought.
Ps: Must clarify cliched. The genre itself is not cliched, obviously (that of female writing), that was written in haste, but the writers whom you have chosen to include are the ones who are very widely-read. Practically everyone has read the Twilight series. Introducing some of the relatively lesser read (here, obviously, coz they're all fantastic, not to mention big names otherwise)women writers would be an incredible thing to do. You will not even find availability to be a problem here with these authors (except perhaps with Atwood).
Budget constraints and public tastes, madame. It isn't exactly my top 300 you see there.
I'd agree with Sharan here. 16 of your library's 302 books have been written by female authors. If I roughly say around 20 books have been been written by the same author (Agatha Christie, Isaac Asimov and some others have several books included in your list) then it's +-280 on 16 - 5.7 percent. Your argument of 'public tastes' now becomes interesting. How are public tastes formed? Exposure definitely plays a part, don't you think?
IITM has a pretty good Humanities department. I've heard quite a lot from some of my friends here who have friends studying Lit from there. You told me so too! That should help in perpetuating different kinds of writers and writings in your library too! :) It seems to me that most titles must have been read by students already, before they joined IIT. So there's no better time than now to rev it up, right? :)
Also, geography is a little skewed in your list. I'm referring to Sharan's second point. I can say with surety, even despite not having read too many non-Western writers - you are missing out on a whole three quarters of the writing globe with a predominantly white, male collection. It's not a loss to them but to you.
PS: I risk being labelled judgmental, but Stephanie Meyer - really?
I agree with Vini's point about exposure -- most of these people there would've already read most of these books. Also, for the money that you've spent on some of these books (I cannot GET over the fact that you've included Vishwananthan's book -- it's entertaining, agreed, but I assure you, the original is MUCH better) you could've gotten so many others.
@ Vini:
I can explain that. It's part of the whole popular books thing. SO much hype has been built around it that everyone -- regardless of their sex -- wants to read it. And well, they probably should, it IS an interesting read. (I'm not saying Good/Great -- remember our discussion with J? :))
~Sharan
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