THE DOGEAR THAT WAS

Shah Rukh Khan, actor: I just read The Time Paradox, Eoin Colfer8217;s latest in the Artemis Fowl series and really liked it. It is an extremely engaging book. nbsp;nbsp;

Daljit Nagra, poet: Patrick french8217;s The World Is What It Is is a balanced, beautifully crafted biography of V.S. Naipaul. French manages to capture the cruelty of the man against the greatness of the writer, with a twisted love story allied. It is the rags-to-riches rise of a post-colonial subject.

Nandan M. Nilekani, co-chairman, Infosys: Amitav Ghosh8217;s Sea of Poppies. The only fictional book that I read this year and well worth it. It has everything 8212; great prose, an intriguing cast of characters, immaculate history and the promise of more to come.

Prakash Karat, general-secretary, CPM: Simon Winchester8217;s The Man Who Loved China, and Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography, 100 hours of recorded interview of Fidel Castro by Ignacio Ramonet.

Chiki Sarkar, editor-in-chief, Random House India: Netherland by Joseph O8217;Neill. The most startlingly beautiful novel I have read this year by a young, relatively new writer and with the strangest of premises: cricket in New York. It should have been shortlisted for the Man Booker. I also turned to Naipaul8217;s A Bend in the River after reading Patrick French8217;s biography. It is perhaps his great work and is in a way a modern-day Heart of Darkness, a work of foreboding and chilling violence about Africa.nbsp;nbsp;

Aamir Khan, actor: I loved The Time Paradox, the sixth book in the Artemis Fowl series. My son Junaid got me hooked to it. I am not a fan of science fiction, but this is interesting. It is so visual and the characters stay with you.nbsp;nbsp;

Viswanathan Anand, chess player: One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers by Andrew Hodges. I really liked it as it made numbers very interesting. This book brings out a lot of very unique aspects of numbers that we see everyday but never realise.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;

Kunwar Narain, writer: I read The Empire of the Steppes by Rene Grousset this year and enjoyed it. The history of Central Asia is integral to India, culturally and politically, and the book gives adequate coverage to all these aspects. The account is as readable as it is knowledgeable. It helps us know ourselves better.

M.F. Husain, artist: There are several good authors but I really enjoy when a young author comes with a brilliant work. I particularly liked reading Aravind Adiga8217;s The White Tiger. It is written with so much ease, without the inhibitions that come from adhering to professional craft. It projects aspects of Indian ethos and concerns of our life and times.

Ramachandra Guha, Historian and columnist: My trade normally obliges me to read books published fifty or a hundred years ago, rather than in the past twelvemonth. However, on the advice of a Xhosa-speaking South African friend now living in Wisconsin, I picked up Joseph O8217;Neill8217;s Netherland, a novel about post-9/11 New York, whose hero is a cricket-obsessed West Indian named Chuck Ramkissoon. By turns melancholy and satirical, and deeply insightful about the human propensity to fail whether in romantic love or on the cricket field, this magnificent novel failed to win a place on the Man Booker shortlist 8212; and thus went up further in my estimation.nbsp;

Aravind Adiga, writer: Sathnam Sanghera8217;s memoir of his days as a Punjabi boy growing up in England, called If You Don8217;t Know Me By Now. Sathnam was with me at the Financial Times, so I8217;m biased in his favour, but this is a wonderful book.nbsp;

Anjolie Ela Menon, artist: I always wait for John le Carreacute;8217;s books. I loved reading his A Most Wanted Man this year. He is a brilliant author and the book is a thriller. nbsp;

K.V. Kamath, CEO, ICICI Bank: I liked Tom Friedman8217;s new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution. It gives a new perspective on global warming.nbsp;

Jaideep Sahni, scriptwriter and lyricist: I am currently reading Nandan Nilekani8217;s Imagining India. It is a unique perspective from a very special mind, which has managed to sense out the ideas and themes that have had a huge influence on modern India8217;s journey and at the same time has also sniffed out massive new undercurrents that are and will be shaping the India of the coming century. If you are looking for something to make sense of everything going on around you, read this. This kind of book doesn8217;t happen often.

Milind Deora, MP: Eric Clapton8217;s The Autobiography, and Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading by Ronald L. Heifetz and Marty Linsky.

Manjula Padmanabhan, writer: The book that I enjoyed the most this year was Jose Carlos Somoza8217;s The Art of Murder. It8217;s a gorgeously detailed book set in the art world of Europe. The writing is amazingly detailed and it is very informed about art. That apart, I liked Anjum Hasan8217;s Lunatic in My Head, Usha K.R.8217;s A Girl and a River and Amitava, Kumar8217;s Home Products. All three books are extremely well-written and engaging and took me to different places, ones where I would be unlikely to go otherwise. Hasan8217;s book is set in Shillong, Usha8217;s in a village in 19th century Karnataka and Kumar8217;s in a remote village in Karnataka. So the social documentary is very telling.nbsp;

Varun Gandhi, politician: Half of a Yellow Sun by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Anita Amirrezvani8217;s debut novel The Blood of Flowers. I also picked up Haruki Murakami8217;s novel Sputnik Sweetheart 8212; and liked it immensely.

Anurag Kashyap, filmmaker: This year I discovered an American author called Reed Farrel Coleman and have read four of his books so far. I have always been a big fan of pulp literature, and Coleman now brings to mystery what Raymond Chandler brought to it in the 1950s. I started with The James Deans, which is fantastic, and am currently on his fifth book. Then I really liked The White Tiger. The book really spoke to me and I thought it said the things that I wanted to say.nbsp;