Bits And Pieces

Target:    100 books Current:    23 books Where's book #22 you ask? It was The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. I thought it was okay, and I'll write about it soon. It's just that I wanted to get this one out while I could. I read The Fountainhead about three months ago, and I think I'm finally ready to talk about it. #23 The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand Loved it, Idealistic, Intense I feel as if anything I might write about this book will sound trite and pretentious. There really isn't much to say other than that it moved me like not much else has. I don't care for architecture, or for books about architects. I don't usually care for authors whose views are borderline offensive and polarizing . I'm not sure what Ayn Rand was hoping I'd get out of The Fountainhead, but that's not really up to her, is it? No. Her part ended when she penned the words, and now I've made the book mine. It is quite possible that I have, for lac...

I find myself often contemplating things that have no apparent immediate effect on my life whatsoever. I just can't help it. These aimless mental meanderings help me constantly erase and redraw regions of my personal morality. On one such journey I came up with a simple thought that helped me explain the purpose of my own life to a certain satisfiable extent - Help Einstein. I define Einstein as the stroke of genius that can reside in one or more human beings living in this universe. Einstein will help humankind break barriers, and will help us understand more about the universe we live in. Einstein will take us forward in our quest for that thing which we don't even know we are looking for. Einstein could just as well be silly and kill us all. Einstein's mind could be dulled with hunger. Einstein could be a girl or a boy, or neither. As we speak, maybe Einstein is being raped, or being forced into marriage, or being forced to rear children. Einstein might not have ...

Target:    100 books Current:    21 books I've read one other George Orwell novel before this - Animal Farm. I loved it! It is a small book with the story line being that anthropomorphic animals have taken over the running of a farm. Masquerading as a slightly twisted children's book, what it really is is a full blown political satire that makes sharp jabs at the Soviet Union that came into being after the Russian revolution of 1917. While you can definitely read and enjoy the book without noticing any of the hidden meanings, an understanding of the then political climate adds to the overall experience. It wasn't my intention to "review" Animal Farm, but looks like I sort of did it anyway. The bottom line is that I have fond memories of reading George Orwell, and I figured I'd give his other famous book, 1984, a shot. #21 1984 - George Orwell Liked it, Dystopian, Political, Censorship, Social hierarchy I'm going to go out on a limb here an...

Target:    100 books Current:    20 books I found this one while walking around in the book store. The title piqued my curiosity. The covert art helped. Before I knew it, I had picked it up, and was reading the little blurb at the back. The reviews were all glowing. I thought I'd give it a shot, and proceeded to read the first few pages right then and there. That's something I do - reading the first five, or ten, or twenty pages at the store before deciding whether to buy a book or not. I feel like I didn't have much of a choice here. The style of writing was one that I'd never encountered before. It was far too intriguing to ignore. That I'd be buying the book was a foregone conclusion. #20 A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - Eimear McBride Liked it, Fiction, Tragic, Heavy themes, Irish Catholicism, Stream of consciousness writing style I mentioned that the style of writing was something I hadn't experienced before. It felt like the entire book was a jumb...

Target:    100 books Current:    19 books Don't you dare judge me! The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy IS a collection of five books. It's not fair to ask me to count it as one huge book. In fact, I think I deserve some credit here. I did not count Young Zaphod Plays it Safe as a separate book. I figured it was too short a short story to do so. #15, #16, #17, #18, #19 The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 2) The Restaurant at the End of the Universe 3) Life, the Universe and Everything 4) So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish Short Story) Young Zaphod Plays it Safe  5) Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams Liked it, Science fiction, humorous, English, Aliens I'll admit it - this genre is not for me. I knew that I wouldn't be picking up very many books like these in the future, and so I decided to give this one my all. I cruised through all five books with relative ease, and what's more,...

Target:    100 books Current:    14 books Remember when everyone changed their Facebook profile picture into a beautiful rainbow? This was just after the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of gay marriages. Great thing, absolutely great thing, if you ask me. As far as I am concerned, your freedom stops with your nose. It goes no further. And it definitely cannot encroach upon another's freedom to marry. This is all the more relevant today, what with the case where a county clerk in Kentucky refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, and was subsequently jailed for a few days for contempt of court. My personal views are that you don't let your faith interfere with your work. If it does, and if the differences are irreconcilable, then you either quit your job, or you rally enough support to overthrow the government ruling through proper legal channels. Thankfully for us, support for marriage equality is something that more people, not less, are advocating. ...

Target:    100 books Current:    13 books This one is a timepass book. Hahaha! I just realized that people who aren't from the Indian subcontinent might not be familiar with the word. It's pretty simple, and I'm sure you can make at least a half decent guess as to what it might mean.  Urban Dictionary: Timepass meaning #13 The Leopard - Jo Nesbo Liked it, Fiction, Norwegian, Serial killer, Mystery, Harry Hole, Steig Larsson-ish  Crime thrillers, serial killers, psychopaths, and murder investigations have always been an integral part of my literary staple diet. All thanks to my blood-thirsty mother. In real life, she's quite the sweetheart, but when it comes to books, blood and gore are what she thirsts for. All in all, not one bit surprising that she has passed on those genes to me. When I first read Jo Nesbo's Snowman, it reminded me a little of Steig Larsson (the one wrote Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Larsson was Swedish, Nesbo is Norwegian,...

Target:    100 books Current:    12 books Alright. It's time now for a dose of truth. I won't be reading one hundred books this year. Even fifty would be a mini miracle. That said, however, thanks to this challenge, save a month in between when my parents were visiting, I've almost always had a book open that I was in the midst of. And I've been reading a varied bunch of books. And without getting tired of reading. And without ignoring the rest of my life, or the people in it. So forgive me if I still manage to sound a little vain. I will agree with you, however, that my project estimation skills definitely need some oiling. #12 Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee Liked it, Fiction,  (Potential spoilers ahead) The much belated sequel (in a way prequel) to Mockingbird . The release of this book was an eagerly awaited literary event. A few days before it went on sale, the first chapter was made available for free on the Internet. Of course I had to read ...

Target:    100 books Current:    11 books HA! And you thought I was getting nowhere with my reading! I finally joined the New York Public Library. I did it so that I needn't starve anymore because I was spending all my money on books. I am writing now on the first full stomach I've had since February this year. Yep, you guessed right. I am in full throttle Drama Queen mode. #8, #9, #10, #10.5, #11 I am Half-Sick of Shadows Speaking from Among the Bones The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust - Alan Bradley Loved it, Fiction,  Mystery,  English, Genius kid, Whodunnit It is as though Agatha Christie's and Enid Blyton's books adopted the love child of Matilda and Madeline! A small piece of heaven, if you prefer. The first time I read a book from Alan Bradley's Flavia De luce series was over two years ago. I got addicted, and finished all the books in that series that I could get my...

Target:    100 books Current:      7 books You know my pattern. Something heavy, something light, heavy again, and back to light. I'd only ever heard of Sarah Silverman in passing. I knew she did stand-up, and that she was on some show. When I started this book, I figured it would be something along the lines of Tina Fey's Bossy Pants. It was, AND IT WASN'T!! #7 The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee - Sarah Silverman Enjoyed it, Non-fiction,  Autobiography,  Hilarious, Sarcastic, Self deprecating humour, Nonreligious Jewishness Be Warned! This book is not for those who shake their heads disapprovingly at crass and seemingly politically incorrect humour. If you've ever watched an episode of South Park, and went on to watch another, then I believe you're okay to take the plunge. Oh boy! Where do I start? It takes a certain kind of person to talk so effortlessly, and in such a comical manner, about some of the things that Sara...

Target:    100 books Current:      6 books Sometimes, I don't get enough time to read books. Sometimes, I read them, but I don't get time to tell the world that I did. That's kind of what happened here. I read a bunch of books, and now I have a backlog of (I hate to call them) book reviews. I don't remember if I said this before, but here it is anyway - I don't think that my "reviews" mean anything about the book itself. People who write books are a brave kind, putting themselves out there for the world to judge them. What I write about is just what my experience with a book was. I'm pretty certain that I cannot tell apart mediocre writing from good even if it was a skunk lifting its tail in front of my face. Books by Indian authors always catch my eye. English is the only language I read books in, and there is a gross under-representation of my culture in English literature. Sure, there are the academics, and the occasional Salman Rushdie and Arun...

Target:    100 books Current:      5 books I wanted something light, especially after my previous, slightly heavier reads. I found the perfect book. I picked it up thinking it was fiction, but it turned out to be non-fiction. Not that it mattered. These days, I find that I'm equally receptive to both fiction and non-fiction, unlike during my childhood days, when, I considered it a waste of time reading anything that wasn't completely made up. #5 The Cat Who Came for Christmas - Cleveland Amory Liked it, Non-fiction, Amusing, Sarcastic, Cat love, Animal rights, 1980's We all know that one person who is a Cat Person. The one who thinks the world of their cat(s). The Cat Owned Person is probably more accurate. Maybe you are that person. If so, this book should resonate even more with you. Cleveland Amory, a self professed dog lover, takes in an extraordinarily dirty and skinny Manhattan alley stray cat one fine Christmas eve. Thus begins his slow but su...

Target:    100 books Current:      4 books I've been up to some things. I didn't forget my reading, just that I haven't gone all guns blazing as yet. I picked up Poor Economics several months back from my favourite book store, and I finally decided to commit myself to it. #4 Poor Economics - A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty - Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo Loved it, Non-fiction, Interesting, Widely acclaimed, Well researched, Layperson's book, Relevant  Many of us have been witness to poverty around us at one point or another. Especially those of us from countries in Asia and Africa. How many times have we seen a beggar on the streets carrying her scrawny little baby, and cringed inwardly, while turning away? Do you remember the kid at the traffic stop, who'd give your car windscreen a quick, unasked for cleaning, and hold out her/his hand for some money? Maybe we'd even give them something sometimes, but mostly we lea...

Target:    100 books Current:      3 books I paid for this book in Bitcoin. It was a super snowy weekend when I visited my friends up in Boston. I still cannot believe that my reasonably comfortable journey on a Wi-Fi equipped bus cost me just $4! I suppose it had something to do with my ungodly hour of arrival. It was my first time in Boston, and I wanted to take a walk around the Harvard and MIT campuses. Along the way, I learnt a cringeworthy little something about the tradition of peeing on John Harvard's foot. I learnt of the infamous three lies of Harvard. And I visited the Harvard Book Store. While there, I picked up His Monkey Wife, and my friend paid for it because yours truly had a problem with her card. He asked to be paid back in Bitcoin, and that's when I decided to get a Bitcoin of my own. It tanked right after I bought it. Sigh! #3 His Monkey Wife - John Collier Mildly amusing, Fiction, Tough read, Literary gold mine, Satirical, 1920's wom...

Target:    100 books Current:      2 books I figured if I'm going to read a lot of books this year, I might as well make the most of it. I will be making a conscious effort to read as eclectic a bunch of books as possible. In that spirit, here's book two. #2 Subliminal      How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior - Leonard Mlodinow Liked It, Non-fiction, Interesting, Factual, Lots of case studies When friends visit me in New York, I have this habit of taking them to one of my favourite places in the city: Strand Book Store. Invariably, we end up buying one or more books. On one such trip my friend decided to pick up this book. Although it piqued my interest, especially with its witty cover, I decided I didn't want it for myself. The rest of the long weekend played out, and then everyone went back to their own lives. A few weeks later, sometime around my birthday, I received an unexpected package: a second hand book. My friend had s...

Target:    100 books Current:      1 books I claim that I'm a Book Lover, but the truth is, I have no idea how many books I end up reading in a year. If I reach my target by the end of this year, I'll continue to call myself a Book Lover. If I reach half my target, I'd like to call myself a Book Friend. Anything less than 25, and I'll know in my heart that I'm a Liar. I'm also quite curious to see how sick of books I'll be, if at all, by the end of this exercise. #1 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Liked It, Fiction, Easy to read, Lighthearted despite heavy themes It's all over the news that Harper Lee's second ever book is coming out soon, 55 years after her much celebrated first. To Kill a Mockingbird has been on my "Get to it" list for several years now. And obviously, when you put something on a list like that, it's license to forget all about it. Besides, I'm a little suspicious of all those books they call "C...