General Reading Material for CSS & PMS Students!
This thread contains General Reading Material (novels and books) for CSS & PMS candidates!
General Reading Material for CSS & PMS Students!
Candidates should develop the habit of reading quality books and prose writings of well-known and imminent English writers of today. Prose writings of Bertrand Russell, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Hopkinson, Washington Irving, Richard Henry Dana, Aldous Huxley, Edgar Allen, Ernest Hemingway, Jonathan, Daniel Defoe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthrone, George William, Theodore Winthrop, Hamilton Wright, Henry Cabot Lodge, G.B. Shaw, Nirad C. Chaudhri, Naipaul and William Wordsworth, etc should be read thoroughly in order to take up fine written expression and to enrich knowledge which in turn serve as a spur to original thinking. For instance, all these great writers, who are famous for their effective style, are simple, to the point and straightforward. For example Nirad C.Chaudhri is known for his effective style; read and Bacon for his conciseness, balance and antithesis. If we read one of Emerson's essays is like a string of pearls. You might break the string, and they would be pearls, and in any other order, just as beautiful. I mean while reading the writings of these authors, look for in their styles. Reading general magazines or newspapers can not help you much in this regard. We, being aspirants, depend more on journalistic writings for our knowledge of the language. We forget that language used in journalistic writings is not standard English. You may call it “functional English”. For example in the newspapers you come across the phrase “family members” but in standard English, it should be “members of the family.” Similarly, in journalistic idiom, it is correct to say: “they were asked to quickly decide” but in standard English it is an incorrect sentence because there is split infinitive in it. The sentence should be “They were asked to decide quickly.”
Another thing, many fellow candidates waste their efforts and time in reading sub-standard books and comics or detective novels which in no way help us in improving our language or expression. In short, just going through the book is not enough. Read one paragraph and cull out the main ideas and arguments. Try to put these ideas in your own way. Then compare the two — the one which you have written and the other written by the writer. Discover your weaknesses — (a) Whether you are unable to select proper words (b) if you have failed to explain the idea in a proper manner (c) if you have failed to make the whole description effective. When you write again, try to remove these defects. While going through the book, collect impressive phrases and note them down in a note book. Revise them from time to time so that you may commit them to memory (this doesn't mean to memorising the text in fact, but to note twice or more the means and important things which you tend to over-read or forgot). And when you come to writing, make use of them. In this manner, these phrases will become a part of your thinking and will not import any discrepancy in your style. This thread contains such quality stuff for you. All the best and cheers!
An Era of Darkness, The British Empire in India (Shashi Tharoor)
Deadly Embrace Pakistan, America, & the Future of the Global Jihad (Bruce Riedel)
Please note that this thread is being updated. Stay tuned and thanks!