Myriad thoughts on a million things
Posts tagged Books
My Reading List – 2011 (so far…)
2189 days
by Anmol
in Random Thoughts
Last year I managed to read 24 books, which was quite disappointing. So 2011 started with a goal of beating that number and getting to a total of 50 books.
7 months into the year and I have reached 25 books! The Kindle is definitely facilitating quick access to all the books I can ever want and I find I’m not really using my Librarywala subscription.
Here is a list of my conquests so far 
1. The Girl who played with Fire – Steig Larsson
2. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Steig Larsson
3. Eat Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
4. A Case of Exploding Mangoes – Mohammed Hanif
5. The Globe II: the Science of Discworld – Terry Pratchett
6. The Silver Chair – C S Lewis
7. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner – Stephanie Meyers
8. A Prisoner of Birth – Jeffery Archer
9. Johnny & the Bomb – Terry Pratchett
10. Paper Money – Ken Follet
11. False Impression – Jeffery Archer
12. The Famous Five have a Great Time – Enid Blyton*
13. The Famous Five go Caravanning – Enid Blyton*
14. The Japanese Wife – Kunal Basu
15. The Gunslinger: Dark Tower I – Stephen King
16. Drawing of the Three: Dark Tower II – Stephen King
17. The Wastelands: Dark Tower III – Stephen King
18. The Wizard & Glass: Dark Tower IV – Stephen King
19. The Wolves of the Calla: Dark Tower V – Stephen King
20. The Pleasure of my Company – Steve Martin
21. Songs of Susannah: Dark Tower VI – Stephen King
22. On Two Feet & Wings – Abdul Kazerooni
23. The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole: 1999 to 2001 – Sue Townsend
24. The Ring of Solomon – Jonathan Stroud
25. The Sixth Man – David Baldacci
*Ok, maybe I included the Famous Fives to just rack up the numbers…. But hey, they are books, I really did read them and enjoyed them immensely! I also read a bunch of Archies (on a really cool comics app on the iPad – so don’t judge) which I have not included!
I’m currently reading the below two books and have a nice exciting list of ‘to reads’ lined up
1. The Dark Tower VII – Stephen King
2. BossyPants – Tina Fey
A Hatful of Sky – My first Pratchett
0
This is a review of my first Terry Pratchett. Being a fan of the fantasy genre… I’d heard a LOT about the Pratchett legacy. I’ve thought of picking a book by Pratchett multiple times… but was always deterred by the sheer volume of his work and never knowing where to begin. The first few books were never available in any book store and I always wondered if I would miss some vital connection if I started somewhere in the middle. One day, I just came over the whole ‘to read or not to read Pratchett’ dilemma and bought ‘A Hatful of Sky’. It is the second volume about the Nac Mac Feegles and seemed like a good place to start.
The story is about a young witch going off on her witching apprenticeship…. ok….been there read that. The highlight for me were the Nac Mac Feegles, who added the much required colour (figuratively speaking – not referring to their blue tattooed 4 inch high bodies!). Their style of speaking takes a little getting used to, and once one gets used to it, one begins to see the humour in it. Watching Rob Anybody learning to spell is a delight and now every time I look at a capital ‘P’ I think of a fat man standing and the letter ‘R’ reminds me of a fat man walking!
The story per say is not much to write home about (or blog about!). The story line of a young witch vs ancient powerful evil was nothing original. The characters also did not speak to me much (except the fairies whose antics and history I enjoyed). The two Miss Levels and the rest of the witch roundup were quite sketchy and did not create much durability in terms of characters that grow with each book.
I have heard about the magic of Pratchett, but this book didn’t deliver that for me. I would definitely be willing to try another one, especially from the ‘Discworld series’… any suggestions from anyone on which one I should begin with?
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Review (of the Book & Movie!)
0
You should not pick this book if you’re looking for a racy, sci-fi, fantastical book. This book is for those laid back sorts who want to read a human story and not dwell into the science or question the construct of it all.
The story of Henry (the time traveler with a defective DNA) and his wife Clare (who meets her future 36 year old husband at the ripe age of 6) is one which grows on you as you turn each page.
At the beginning of the book, it takes a little while to grasp the complexity of the multiple space & time zones. The backward/forward movements in time and the presence of multiple Henrys’ from the past/ future and present and their criss-crossing paths takes some getting used to. Once I got used to reading the dates and checking them with the previous chapters, I liked how all the multiple threads dovetailed into each other to make a perfect narrative without any loopholes.
Yes, the book is slow and sometimes the story would just spread out before me… day after day of everyday life with very little excitement. I guess that’s what gives the reader the feeling of living a lifetime with Henry and Clare. The whole inevitability of the future was also overwhelming and made me wonder whether there is really any free will at all.
The science angle is limited with little focus on the marvels of the DNA that make time travel possible for Henry. The story focuses much on the relationship angle and very little on the varied possibilities related to time travel.
The loungy style of writing, the never ending every day stuff…. The book is definitely not a gripper, but once the reader gets connected to the characters, he/she cannot stop reading…. just to find out how their lives turn out to be.
After I finished the book, I also saw the movie. I would have found the movie quite a waste of time had I not read the book….but seeing the characters I’ve lived with over the last few weeks coming to life is enchanting. My husband’s only comments on the movie were “This is booooring” and “Poor Eric Bana (who plays Henry in this movie and also played the Hulk in the first Hulk movie)… only gets movies where he keeps losing his clothes!”
Hot Vampires and Cute Werewolves
3
‘Hot’ Vampires and ‘Cute’ Werewolves sound like oxymorons, but that is exactly what Stephanie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ series is about. The first book, ‘Twilight’ introduces the reader to the world of Vampires in the cloudy town of Forkes. It starts like a regular book on teenage issues…moving to a new town, the scariness of a new high school, blah… blah. But it quickly turns interesting with the entry of the intriguing ‘Cullen’ family.
Into the narrative steps the ‘Hot’ ‘Mr. Perfect as Adonis’ Edward Cullen. I was having difficulty imagining someone as good looking as the author describes Edward. So I picked up the movie ‘Twilight’ to give the characters in my imagination some shape. (To start with, I only saw the beginning of the movie…just up to the point I had read since I did not want the movie to spoil the fun of the book!)
Robert Pattinson (who btw was Cedric in Harry Porter movies) plays Edward. My first reaction to that was ‘uh huh…not that good looking’. But once you sit through the movie, he sort of grows on you. Interestingly, some info on the net says that the millions of ‘Twilight’ fans were initially disappointed with the casting of Robert as Edward. Stephanie Meyer’s official site says that Hayden Christensen (the actor who plays Aniken Skywalker in the newer Star Wars series) was the first choice for ‘Edward’. I am not sure if he might have been able to carry off the cool marble skinned hot vampire look.
Anyways, back to the book. The story line of a vampire who falls in love with a mortal girl and his internal conflict of wanting to drink her blood vs loving her and wanting her to live, keeps the story edgy and interesting. The book pulls the reader in with the slow unfolding of the mystery of the Vampires, the unraveling of Edward’s character, his unique family and his unique confusions with respect to Bella. To the author’s credit, she has managed to create an epic love story of sorts. Bella’s emotions of being in love for the first time, the breathlessness and euphoria of first physical contact, the indescribable feeling on a invisible connection are quite well portrayed. The anticipation of ‘what next’, kept me hooked. The book is fast paced and I found myself sitting through late nights to just read one more page.
What I wasn’t ecstatic about that the slight whiny edge that Bella has sometimes. Her continuous internal dialogue on how she is unworthy of the love and attention of ‘Adonis’ Edward can sometime get to your nerves. But I guess, having the plainness of the Bella reiterated so often, even the reader is left wondering the same. As the author says, she supposedly plain and as the reader can make out isn’t exceptional witty. The character as described in the book would have still been ok…but when one starts to visualize her as Kristen Stewart (the actress who plays Bella in the movie) is when the disappointment happens. She definitely needs acting lessons and her blinky, unsure, lack lusture portrayal of Bella was really a dampener.
I was quick to pick up the next book in the series -‘The New Moon’. But was as quickly disappointed. The lack of Edward, itself was a downer. The first half of the book is all about how Bella is dealing with the loss. Her whiny self effacing feelings really got to me after a bit. The books picks up with the introduction of the werewolf angle. The twists and turns toward the end are interesting but really not worth the wait. Even the Werewolf vs Vampire angle was not dealt with in an in-depth manner and with the re – entry of Edward in the narrative, Jacob was dropped like a hot potato. The whole first part that built up to the werewolf transformation falls flat ineffectively and it’s sad to see Jacob dismissed with a twist of the pen.
There are two more books in the series – ‘The Eclipse’ and ‘Break of Dawn’. I’m looking forward to laying my hands on them and finally seeing how Bella’s transformation happens.
The series really falls into the ‘Fantasy Chick Lit’ category. I don’t think men would find the detailed introspections into the emotions of a teenage girl all that engrossing… even with a little vampire and werewolf action thrown in. The series are actually hugely popular with the women. There is even a FB test on how much you know about Twilight. I got a 100% on it! J
Unaccustomed Earth – An ‘Indian’ Review!
1
I had read an excerpt of one of the stories of this book in a literary magazine…..and I quite liked it. In a small dose, the excerpt showed Jhumpa Lahiri as an accomplished writer. Her prose is simple and strong with an ability to connect with the reader on a variety of shared emotions. So when I found the book at a friend’s place (Rupa…! Finally I put your name in a post…. happy?! J), I picked it up with much excitement.
A few stories down and for me the book became a good example of how one must not judge the book by its cover (Also made me recall a sermon my dad gave me long ago on why I should pick my friends after a more careful thought through examination). The first few stories are interesting… one is amazed by her artistry with feeling and describing human emotions. The story telling style keeps one hooked and wondering where its leading… but invariably when one gets there, the end is so mundane that sometime’s one is found wondering if the journey through the pages was worth it.
And it’s not just that… After the first few stories…it gets a little repetitive. One can’t but say ‘Enough with the Indian American Immigrant stories with the Bengali people!’ I like variety when I’m reading short stories…. And this book was a disappointment from that angle. Bengali Parents, Macher Jhol, Misfits in American society, Calcutta reveries, Death and changing relationships… yeah…yeah… we get it.
I know she’s an award winning writer and all, but I don’t have to like the book just because of that.
Reading other reviews on this book made wonder if I lacked some emotional depth that other people seem to have. I didn’t feel any of the much touted ‘gripping emotions’ of human relationships dripping through the pages. One Mr Chanakya warns in his review “Don’t be terribly surprised if you find your eyes moist while reading the book since it actually touches you where it matters the most.” Ouch…. For me after the 3rd story, my eyes were moisting with boredom!
World Without End
2
1200 pages in small print…. I knew reading this Ken Follet book was going to be a daunting task. But more than daunting, it turned out to be an all consuming task.
For me books are high involvement items. When I’m reading one, I find myself researching things about it and finding out more about actual events referred to in the book. So after the initial 100 pages, (where I was tempted to throw away the book more the once) the book transformed into a different world that I found myself wondering and researching about.
Set in a small town in UK (Kingsbridge) in early 1300s, the story chronicles the life and times of a cross section of protagonists. Royalty, Peasantry and Clergy…the book shared the struggles and victories of people from different backgrounds and whose lives intertwine through the 50 decades the book covers. The commerce vs the church issues, the basic medical knowledge and treatments, the hardships of peasants, the destruction of the Black Death and the challenges of basic scientific knowledge, made me think about these times in wonder. We take so much of the knowledge and things we have today for granted… its only when we read about these times does one realize that we have so much to thank human endeavor and curiosity for.
I especially found the section on the Black Death intriguing. They made me recall some paintings and models of the plague that I once saw in a museum in Canada. I remember looking at the paintings and wondering about the destruction. Only after reading the book did I grasp the real magnitude of the tragedy. 1/3rd of Europe’s population was wiped out! That’s about 75 million people….
All in all, the book is interesting, a tad long, but worth the time. A book recommended only for the brave hearted.
The Tales from Beedle the Bard
0I had been waiting for this book… even booked it at crosswords hoping to be the first few to buy it when it hit the stands. 110 pages and retailing for Rs 625. Ok I thought…This is the creator of Harry Porter… she can only write the finest of books….so it’ll be worth it.
And boy was I wrong…! This book was not even worth the Rs 100 photo copy that one can get at the traffic signals in the suburbs. 110 pages… even a quick reader like me had to labour through them and each page had me asking myself, what the whole point of the damn book was.
I know JKR writes for kids… so this book (about fairy tales for Magical children) would be aimed at the kids. Well, so was Harry Porter and it made excellent adult reading. But Tales from Beedle, the Booooooring Bard, had me wondering if JKR had really written this. I think even a ghost writer would have done a better job ( I read the online ghost written version of Deathly Hallows before the real book came out and totally enjoyed it. It was such a brilliant reflection of JKR’s style that I couldn’t have figured that it wasn’t written by her!)
Anyways, after I labored through the book and Professor Dumbledore’s pointless remarks, I came across the real purpose of the book. Hey, it was for a good cause. There was a note at the end by Baronness Nicholson, the chair person of the Children High level Group (a group dedicated to representing the rights of children). It thanked the reader for buying this book and that said that all proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the CHLG. Well, atleast some good will come out of this pain inflicted on JKRs fans.
The White Tiger – A ‘Dig’ at the Darkness within the Light
4Arvind Adiga’s Booker award winning debutant novel is a whiff of fresh air. I have found that some Indian authors have an inclination to wrap the real story in a mesh of imagery, similes and complex characterization in an effort to project that they can also write pompous prose. (It could be attributed to some kind effort to prove to the world that we’re educated and can write too!)
But Adiga…he’s got the skill of telling an interesting story, from a hitherto unheard from source and telling it with the simplicity and homour that can only come from the most talented craftsman.
Balram Halwai, an unlikely entrepreneur, tells his story from the depth of the darkness of rural India to the chandelier lit brightness of Bangalore. An unlikely recipient of the story, the Chinese premier, Mr. Jinbao is offered the narrative as a letter in a simple and aimlessly unwinding sort of way.
From the darkness of rural India, the cruel reality of generations of servitude, to the lives of Dilli drivers and their entertainments, to the internal dark struggles of Balram and finally his break from the roosters coop.. Adiga unfolds the story beautifully. One is left waiting with bated breath page after page and wondering how finally the break from the coop is going to happen. Along the way, Adiga also manages to make some entertaining and yet pertinent digs at Indian Politics, Religion, Police, Indo – Chinese rivalry and the declining influence of the white man. (And how the next century is going to belong to the yellow and brown man.)
The only thing I was left wondering about at the end was moral behind it all… was the story about breaking the coop and treading the unchartered path or one of selfishness and crime rewarded?