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791 books · 2,394 voters · list created January 15th, 2010 by Ayushi(votes) .

Tags: asian-fiction, author-by-country, best, ethnic, ethnicity, india, indian-authors, indian-fiction, indian-literature, literary-fiction, south-asia, south-asian-fiction, south-asian-literature, world

Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.

Ayushi3405 books
343 friends

Thomas1796 books
360 friends

Casimir311 books
35 friends

Epa17 books
0 friends

Saf340 books
59 friends

Christopher1362 books
98 friends

Murray583 books
107 friends

Rebekah12977 books
109 friends

I'm Native and to me it's clear East Indian. Otherwise it would say Native American.

I believe most of the votes for Truly Madly Deeply are fake ones voted for, by the author's friends or multiple accounts of the author himself. I lose respect for this poll now, though i'll keep note of all the classics listed here..

Aacharya Didn't wrote: 'I believe most of the votes for Truly Madly Deeply are fake ones voted for, by the author's friends or multiple accounts of the author himself. I lose respect for this poll now, though i'll keep no..'
Hi Aacharya, I made the list and have never read Truly Madly Deeply . Thoguh I am aware of your concern, please do read the other books on this list and don't be affected by stupid marketing gimmicks.

Aacharya Didn't wrote: 'I believe most of the votes for Truly Madly Deeply are fake ones voted for, by the author's friends or multiple accounts of the author himself. I lose respect for this poll now, though i'll keep no..'
I am also very very upset to see delayed monsoon on number 3 of best Indian books besides truly madly deeply. When I had started the list I had something else in mind but I guess since this is public and anyone can add to it, I can't really do anything at all. I didn't even add books by Chetan Bhagat in the first place even though more people know and read them than either Delayed Monsoon or Truly madly Deeply and now this !!

Hi Ayushi please don't get upset by the voting. I can understand you are a serious reader and for you books like TMD or DM are nothing but trash. Its your personal opinion and I respect your opinion. But please try to understand if a book occupies first position because it has got 43 votes and another occupies third position because it has got 29 votes does it really mean much? Don't give too much weightage to this list. The main reason why I am saying this is our reading preferences are entirely subjective and many award winning and widely publicised books may appear trash to many of us. There is no universal standard to judge a book's worth. So best is to leave it to individual preferences. If you are a successful professional there is no way you can like Delayed Monsoon. It will not make any sense to you. Whereas many housewives, well- educated or not so educated will be able to identify with the character because many of them might have gone through similar experience of emptiness in their lives. So they may like it. Thus every book will have its own reader base and we should not be judgmental. You can not look down upon a reader because he likes to read Chetan Bhagat. Its his choice. And can you stop such people from voting? Had it been your personal blog site you could have had some control over voting but Goodreads is for everyone so I guess you have to bear with such things. And the second reason is, well-known books have gone down in the list because very few people have voted for them not because they have not found them to be worth voting but because they don't need any more publicity as people are already aware that those books are master-pieces. .Like for example if people have not voted for the books of the noble prize winner Rabindranath Tagore does it mean that the author of Delayed Monsoon is superior to him? It’s simply that 29 people( known or unknown to me) felt like voting for Delayed Monsoon because they have liked this fiction. So my humble request is leave the matter at that. Any amount of publicity will fail to promote a book if it is devoid of substance. After a while the artificially created hype will die down and a book will be judged by the readers only by it’s worth.

Chitralekha wrote: 'Hi Ayushi please don't get upset by the voting. I can understand you are a serious reader and for you books like TMD or DM are nothing but trash. Its your personal opinion and I respect your op..'
Chitralekha I absolutely agree with what you have to say . But I was just expressing my annoyance and grievance at the fact that there should be some control that a person must have over the list he /she makes as an admin.
I clearly stated that the books must reflect Indian diaspora and your book does but my aim was to make people aware about and make them read Indian books they ordinarily wouldn't get in a bookshop and if they would - shrug it off as boring .
I did not mean to be judgmental at all . I like you and am planning to read both Delayed Monsoon and Truly madly Deeply but people in the list expressed their displeasure and said they lost their faith in it coz popular fiction outraced classics as it always sadly tends to do, therefore I issued a clarification expressing my anguish .
But your views are very correct and welcome and absolutely right , my comment was in a different context altogether .
:)
This is the beauty of goodreads and books that two people can be wrong, right and still have respect for each other's literary skills and reading tastes
!
And don't be silly - I don't think your book would be trash to me
I love reading and all books are divine to me .
=D
As Nabokov said, don't identify with the book but the author ,
I think I just did !!

Chitralekha wrote: 'Hi Ayushi please don't get upset by the voting. I can understand you are a serious reader and for you books like TMD or DM are nothing but trash. Its your personal opinion and I respect your op..'
You know DM and TMD are still fine , but there are a number of completely unrelated books , even books about Red Indians , so I was fuming and you can see why !
But I 'll take your advice and not fret over it.

One major flaw in the democratic process. There ought to be something called as the license to vote. People who have read like a single book in their entire lifetime should not be allowed to vote, plus these should be an IQ level cut-off too :)

Abid wrote: 'One major flaw in the democratic process. There ought to be something called as the license to vote. People who have read like a single book in their entire lifetime should not be allowed to vote, ..'
Thanks for the support vote . Even if it was sarcastic, was it ?

I meant what i said. Don't know about sarcasm. The thing is i've never read any Indian authors except for rushdie. chetan, i tried but i found him crappy. Now, if truly madly deeply is your best i'd like to stay on the other side. That's the kind of effect such illogical and biased voting has.

Abid wrote: 'I meant what i said. Don't know about sarcasm. The thing is i've never read any Indian authors except for rushdie. chetan, i tried but i found him crappy. Now, if truly madly deeply is your best i..'
thanks. i love reading Indian authors in English btw and have given up on illogical biased voting . Each to his own.
Democracy doesn't exist because its the best method but as a lesser evil !

Chitralekha wrote: 'Thanks Ayushi for understanding my view point :)'
chitralekha, no blood , no foul !

Chitralekha wrote: 'Thanks Ayushi for understanding my view point :)'
My pleasure.

Thanks for this list! Happy to see Tagore and Premchand included!

why is there 'Wuthering Heights' in this list? It seems absurd. Also, maybe, 'ice candy man' by Bapsi Sidhwa and stories by Manto can be included in the list. Otherwise, the list is very good. I was very glad to see Difficult daughters and Premchand in the list.

Aakanksha wrote: 'why is there 'Wuthering Heights' in this list? It seems absurd. Also, maybe, 'ice candy man' by Bapsi Sidhwa and stories by Manto can be included in the list. Otherwise, the list is very good. I wa..'
thanks a ton. someone must have added wuthering by mistake. You can add ice candy man and Manto here. Feel free. :)

Hi friends,
If you are looking for a novel this summer then do try this love story of three friends its very hilarious. You will die of laughter!! :)
Book’s name is THE COMICAL SAGA and is available everywhere online like Homeshop 18 ( @ 90/- only) (Cash on delivery and free shipping), flipkart (@120/-), Amazon, Goodreads and many more.
Do read it and I bet you will enjoy it a lot :)
The Comical Saga

Virender wrote: 'Many worthwhile books are missing and a lot of trash has been enlisted.'
hey Virender,
Feel free to add a lot of worthwhile books that you think deserve to be there:)

Do try Bombay Rains,Bombay Girls.. by Anirban Bose Super light hearted book !!!! Proper Time pass!

Virender wrote: 'I am surprised that names like Chetan Bhagat and Faraaz Kazi are enlisted in the 'BEST INDIAN BOOKS'.'
hey Virender , these books weren't there on the original list. These have been added by other readers who thought they were worthy enough. Feel free to add your own :)

http://www.indiabookstore.net/
Try this link, it shows the best price available from 9 online bookstores. Far better than flipkart and bookadda.coms

Hi Sruthi,
Thanks for link to comparison,it is very useful.
keep it up & let me know for any gooood books of india.
yugandhar kota

There are some books misplaced in this list, such as:
The Scarlet Pimpernel
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
My Name is Red

Laura wrote: 'There are some books misplaced in this list, such as:
The Scarlet Pimpernel
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
My Name is Red'
Hey laura, these books have been added by other goodreads members and weren't there on the original list (for obvious reasons), however, I am unable to remove them. Sorry.

I think you should go ahead Laura. Please delete them.

Laura wrote: 'As a librarian, I can remove them. Can I do so?'
Thanks Laura :D

I vote for White Tiger. Here's my review of it on my blog about matching novels with current events: http://newsworthynovels.blogspot.com/..

Garth wrote: 'I vote for White Tiger. Here's my review of it on my blog about matching novels with current events: http://newsworthynovels.blogspot.com/..'
I just started to read this book, thanks for the link.

'The Siege of Krishnapur' is a great literary exposition of the madness and absurdity of the British in India. J.G. Farrell wrote a historical trilogy with a comedic take on the decline of the British Empire: 'The Siege of Krishnapur,' 'The Singapore Grip' and 'Troubles.' All three are great reads.

Manray9 wrote: 'The Siege of Krishnapur' is a great literary exposition of the madness and absurdity of the British in India. J.G. Farrell wrote a historical trilogy with a comedic take on the decline of the Bri..'
Agreed, Siege was splendid, I must finish this trilogy some day.

Indians in Pakistan is probably the most exciting novel to be written by an Indian author. It’s a must-read. I will advise all my friends and enemies to read it. Simply unputdownable.

Indians in Pakistan is probably the most exciting novel to be written by an Indian author. It’s a must-read. I will advise all my friends and enemies to read it. Simply unputdownable.Indians in Pakistan

Ayushi wrote: 'Chitralekha wrote: 'Hi Ayushi please don't get upset by the voting. I can understand you are a serious reader and for you books like TMD or DM are nothing but trash. Its your personal opinion an..'
Ayushi - If you have librarian status (easy to apply for) you may alter your list and delete books that do not meet your stated criteria.

Julie wrote: 'Ayushi wrote: 'Chitralekha wrote: 'Hi Ayushi please don't get upset by the voting. I can understand you are a serious reader and for you books like TMD or DM are nothing but trash. Its your pers..'
I don't. I shall apply soon. thank you.

Is the criteria Indian Authors or is it novels set in India?

Kartik wrote: 'Is the criteria Indian Authors or is it novels set in India?'
Dear Kartik,
The description says, 'Vote for books that you feel reflect India and the Indian diaspora or books written by Indian authors that left a strong impression.'
So, the answer to your question is both.

if 'Life is What You Make It ' figures in top 100 Indian books , we are bringing disrepute to Indian authors and wriitngs

Byculla to Bangkok. It is a book in Mumbai Underworld. How lads become vengeful. http://www.snapdeal.com/product/bycul..

Shikha wrote: 'if 'Life is What You Make It ' figures in top 100 Indian books , we are bringing disrepute to Indian authors and wriitngs'
The list is based on popular opinion and upvotes.

I am now reading The City of Devi, by Manil Suri. So far I love it..

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