The first blook from Sulekha and Penguin, Sulekha Select, is a collection of 42 pieces (256 pages!). This is how Sulekha says the blook came to be:
"Sulekha Select was born of the long-standing demand of its loyal (and sometimes vociferous) readers for a print compilation of the most popular articles. True to the spirit of the Sulekha site itself, the 42 articles in the book were chosen from a pool of over 200 nominated articles, which readers selected from the over 1200 articles and columns published on Sulekha since 1998."There's a full page of reviews that I'd recommend reading if you want to discover the pros and cons of anthologies. Here's just a few:
PRO
- What emerges in all these writings is that elusive but all pervading
character of 'Indian-ness' which goes beyond ethnicity, religion, language,
behavior, lifestyle ... .- There are heartfelt musings, embarrassing confessions, hilarious escapades,
painful autobiographies and plenty of parodies of that condition peculiar to the
global Indian community known as desiness.CON
- "The literary quality of these pieces is doubtless uneven."
- "In fact, with authors from all walks of life hailing from different corners
of the globe, the book is an interesting study of various styles and
spellings."- "True to what the editors have informed us (or warn), the collection of
pieces is extremely varied. The sophistication of the submissions chosen range
from the angst-ridden pieces that might be found in a high school literary
journal to some rather well-crafted compositions ... ."
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