On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 1:56 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan < [email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 1:51 PM, Thaths <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I finished the book a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty good. Much >> better than I expected. He asked some pretty probing and interesting >> questions of his subject and knew when to hold back a punch. > > Two books I recommend highly. Not sure exactly when they were published, > but I read them in 2012 anyway. > > Book 1: The Merchants of Tamilakam - Kanakalata Mukund > Book 2: In those days there was no coffee - A.R Venkatachalapathy. > > Both deal with history (and culture, and trade) of Tamil Nadu, and Madras. > Both are brilliant reads. And great offer many great points to start your > own research of Tamil history. > Thanks. Both look very interesting. I am a little wary of Ph.D. theses that are born again as books. I checked the preview of Book 2 on Google books<http://books.google.co.in/books/about/In_Those_Days_There_Was_No_Coffee.html?id=tk-KZmcUEvAC&redir_esc=y>and it looks very readable. They remind of of another (though academically less rigorous) book I bought a few years ago that I also enjoyed: The Story of Our Food <http://www.flipkart.com/story-our-food/p/itmdyu8fvhznd6zx> by K.T. Acharya. Thaths -- Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? Carl: Nuthin'. Homer: D'oh! Carl: Unless you're crooked. Homer: Woo-hoo! Sudhakar Chandra Slacker Without Borders
