Books I have read.

1. 'Animal Farm', George Orwell, 1945, UK.  (Ernakulam Public Library, 2003). Inspiration to read it was an article in Manorama on the birth centenary  of Orwell. Later in the late 2000s I bought a copy of the book to have in my collection. Originally written as a criticism to Stalinist Russia but could apply to any institutionalized ideology.
2. 'The Count of Monte Cristo', Alexandre Dumas, 1844, French. The masterpiece of the second most celebrated French writer, an enormous epic-scale novel running into more than a thousand pages in print. Took me more than a month to read it. A fictional legend set in the times of Napoleon Bonaparte. Love, being cheated of jealousy of either kind, in prison for years, an opportunistic escape, and a very systematic revenge. The classic love and revenge story at the epitome of European Romanticism which was retold over and over again several times, in several languages and several media.
3. 'Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes', 'Adventures of Sherlock Holmes', 'Return of Sherlock Holmes', 'The Hound of Baskerwilles', Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The earliest detective novels in European literature, and no doubt the best ever.
4. 'Invisible Man',  H. G. Wells. Wells almost convincingly explains the science of making someone invisible. And that itself is fantastic. But what makes the novel a classic is the misery the invisible man has to face.
5. 'Origin of the Species', Charles Darwin. Accept the theory or not. But the book is a classic piece of work.
6. '1984', George Orwell. The depiction of the ultimate form of a totalitarian government, part of which has happened many times in many parts of the world, and is happening still.
7. 'Godfather', Mario Puzo. The classic American crime novel featuring the Italian-American mafia families of Newyork.
8. 'A Brief History of the Future', John Naughton. The early history of computer networking as well as that of the Internet.
9. Scientific American, 1977 September, Microelectronics, popular science magazine, USA.
10. 'The Andromeda Strain', Michael Crichton, 1969. A fantastic work of fiction that tells us something about atmospheric study capsules, how they are found, microbes from outer atmosphere, and the systematic study of an unknown microbial sample. Works of fiction are rarely this accurate. With only one word of dissent, that no simpler form of self reproducible life even simpler than a very complex cell has never been found and might not ever exist. Because it has to be that complex to exist.
11. 'Malgudi Days', R. K. Narayan, short stories.
12. 'A Brief History of Time', Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking trying to describe the fundamental ideas governing the universe in plain English.
13. 'Three Musketeers', Alexandre Dumas.
14. 'The Road Ahead', Bill Gates. Well, nothing classic about it, and no great value in literature. But it is partly biographical of Gates as well as Microsoft.
15. 'Alchemist', Poulo Coelo. Post-modern spirituality. If you don't read this kind of stuff, you are out of the loop.
16. 'Crime and Punishment', Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1866, Russian. Nineteenth century Russian classic and the most famous title of  the celebrated author. I read it owing to the suggestion of my friends, but only to realize that it is just not my kind of stuff.
17. 'Three Point Someone', Chetan Bhagath. This is what you learn in the IIMs. Sell your own story of misery.
18. 'Kidnapped', Robert Louis Stevenson.
19. 'Treasure Island', Robert Louis Stevenson. I read this during my school days.
20. Perry Mason titles, Earle Stanley Gardner, 1933 - 1969, USA, detective novels. In every novel some young lady would hire Los Angeles's most expensive criminal lawyer Mr Perry Mason for some routine legal errand. Pretty soon the LAPD would find a corpse with enough situational evidence to tie her to the murder. The LAPD and the DA interested only in framing a handy fish, Perry Mason ends up investigating the case all by himself, and then defending her in the court. The best part is the ensuing court room drama where you get to see some exciting cross examination stuff. Gardner being a criminal lawyer himself, is good in the court room part.
21. 'A Mysterious Case', Satyajith Ray, 1972, detective novel. Translation of the Bengali 'Baksho Rahasya' featuring the private detective character created by Ray, 'Feluda'. Ernakulam Public Library, 2001 - 2005. It is unknown to most people that Ray had written detective novels. I too came to know this only when I came across this book in the library.
22. 'The Last Don', Mario Puzo. Yet another mafia novel from the author of Godfather, but has a few original cues. Tells the story of an Italian American crime family, the Clericuzios.
23. 'The Prophet', Khaleel Jibran, poem
24. 'Robinson Crusoe', Robert L. Stevenson.
25. 'Frankenstein', Mary Shelley.
26. 'ബാല്യകാലസഖി', വൈക്കം മുഹമ്മദ്‌ ബഷീർ, നോവൽ, ഡി.സി.ബുക്ക്സ്‌.
27. 'ജന്മദിനം', ചെറുകഥാ സമാഹാരം, വൈക്കം മുഹമ്മദ്‌ ബഷീർ, ഡി.സി.ബുക്ക്സ്‌.