Category: Books

Ever since Dan Brown published this piece of fiction/non-fiction/truth/fact etc. the world has split into two parts. First we have the people who think Dan Brown rocks for having written such a great book. And the second group is of the opinion that Dan Brown should rot in hell for even thinking about the Christ and Christians like that.

And just to get it on record, I am not against Christ, Christians or Christianity.

After the standard disclaimer about my religious intentions, I think that all the gung-ho about the book and now the movie is uncalled for. I mean the guy wrote what he thought could mint him fast cash. He did a good work at it and in my humble opinion he should be left alone.

I think there are far greater and graver problems in the world than thinking about the negative impact of the book/movie on the “people of the god”. Why can’t the protestors spend some time in helping people who can do away with some help rather than burning all those candles in the Vatican?

Further did these protestors ever think about the results of these protests? At least people like me would be even more curious to go and watch the movie, think about it, talk about it to everyone I know. They are giving huge huge publicity to the movie even before it hits the cinemas here in India.

And finally my last two cents is about the protest itself. I know a person living next door to me who would openly criticize Hindu god. Do we expect Iskon guys, Hindu priests, politicians, religious preachers to assemble in his yard and light candles and tie black bands across the arms, legs, faces and everywhere? Can we really do something about everyone who has a different opinion from masses? Why cant we leave the author, producer, director, everyone alone and let people decide for themselves if its worth watching or not? I think its time to grow up!!!!

I very recently came across LibraryThing.com. It is one of the most convenient methods to catalog the books. Fast and Easy.

After getting a free account, all you need to do is enter the title of the book in the window. The website would search through the amazon databse and come up with matches. You select the book from the results of the search. And the book gets added in your database.

Another good feature is the cover image. The website would also fetch the image of the cover page of the book and publish in your catalog.

An indicative list of my books is located here.

A Prison Diary: Belmarsh: Hell, is the first of three books written by Jeffery Archer when he was in Jail on charges of Perjury.

I completed the first volume in about 100 sittings. That is expected when you are trying to read six books together.

Some bits were REAL amusing like the joke wherein he predicts that the next sermon would be Honour Among Thieves after his previous two sermons were Cain and Able and The Prodigal Son.

The book gives interesting insights about prisons and the way of life on the other side of the fence. If someone is interested in knowing more about Archer as a person, this can be a fabulous guide. You could read about his daily schedule, his preferences, his choices, his love for the game of cricket and what not.

Apart from these couple of highlights, very ordinary book I should say. Very light read, chapters done as days make it easier to read and follow-up if someone is interested in reading in innumerable sittings (the way I did it).

I know that I may never know if he was infact guilty but as they say History is often skewed and is reported by the winning side, throughout the book, it is literally preached that Mr. Archer is innocent and there was a conspiracy against him. I sincerly hope he is NOT guilty. I absolutely adore some of the books and cant believe that someone like him would do something like that. Anyways, the point is not if he is indeed innocent or not, the point is to realize the fact that how to turn a crisis situation to your advantage. Archer was in jail and he had nnothing to do. What does he do? Write a book !

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 3, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Wow !!!!

The writing style is AMAZING. I have read so many books, fiction, non-fiction and what not, never came across something like this.

I would definately like to be like Sam Fisher in lot of ways. Infact I am almost like him in many ways. He hates human civilizations… I hate em too. He is not comfortable with people around, I definately aint comfortable. At one point he says that he appreciates beauty and thats that nothing more nothing less. Dittoo for me. He loves to read on history and speaks 7 languages, I sure want to know whatever there is to know about.

And since I am very passionate about anything remotely related to Computer Gaming, we have an entire game on Splinte Cell. I infact was one of the beta testers of a cell phone adaptaion of the title when I was working.

Great Character, Amazing Storytelling skills, All in all … a must read.

Ratings: 8/10

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 13, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Ever since emergence of “Indian Writers” on the literary scenes, there has been a rush amongst people to start writing. Some good and some … not so good.

The entire book has a negativity attached towards it. There aren’t many pages where you don’t read about a bad thing happening to the characters in the book.

I agree to the fact that India as a country lacks few things. We might not have the best of the regulators, honest people and kind hearted people but there ARE a few people who are absolutely wonderful. The book portrays India as the nation having the biggest slums, where train robberies are common-place, where no one can be honest and make his living without any unethical/illegal act, where there are two sides to everything. I know these are very hard words against a book that has been made available in 15 countries and a motion picture is planned around the plot.

A typical masala film end plot where the hero gets the heroine, punishes all the criminals, helps his friends achieve his dreams and live happily ever after. The last act is adopted and as they say, is INSPIRED from one of the biggest bollywood blockbusters of all time – Sholay. There is more to it but I think there is no point putting it in words here but there is a certain character who says he can’t reveal the actual thing. He would instead give a hint. Here is my hint. The lead character in the book, whenever in a fix, does whatever his coin tells him to do. He tosses the coin and if it’s a head, he takes the right decision and if it’s a tails, he would take the wrong decision and somehow it is always heads. Sounds like Sholay?

However there were few things that I certainly liked about Q and A. After reading about half of it, I knew the book is not up to the expectations and I should stop reading it but something kept my interest alive and I completed it. I don’t know why, but I kept reading it, enjoying some jokes (since may be I can relate to them).

All in all an interesting read but not upto the expectations.

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 21, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

I finally decided to go visit Crossword. It opened some time back and ever since I have been trying to go and have a look.

The place is absolutely stunning. There are other bookstores in and around Delhi (like The Om Book Store) but few things that set this place apart are the number of titles they have, their ambience, the wide open spaces and the people there.

They have these sofas spread here and there among the book shelves where you can sit and read through the books. There would be soft instrumental music in the background. People said you could buy coffee there and sit as long as you want, I however din’t see any coffee outlets. May be next time.

The staff there was VERY helpful. I wanted Freedom at Midnight and I could not spot it. I asked the people there and they wasted there time to locate the title even though I had told em that I would not buy it, I just wanted to have a look at it.

I ended up buying two titles, need to gift them to two very special ladies. And I am sure that I would be buying many more titles.

The website can be visited at http://www.crosswordbookstores.com.

And yeah a visit to Crossword added yet another goal in my kitty – Own a bookstore 😀

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 22, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is simply put superb. I don’t respect things like Good Living, Happy Living, Art of Living and things like that but Tuesdays taught me lots and lots of things. Actually it ain’t taught me things but helped me realize. More importantly it gave me few answers to things I was always thinking about.

I was always wondering if I should conform to the norms laid down by the society and even if I feel limited in them, shall I try to break out of them. Morrie gives me the answer. I always thought I would end up doing something like Morrie – things that won’t exploit other things (quite a change from my previous thoughts where I wanted to be rich at any cost). I started answering the basic premise behind the concept of Marketing. Again Morrie provides the answer.

Few things that I can instantly recall from Morrie are Live in Now, Say things you wanna say, Don’t wait forever to let people what you always want to say, Listen – Listen, Listen and Listen. Nothing is as good as listening to people.

I always knew these things were important and I knew them at the back of my mind but Morrie made me realize them. Will make sure I implement them.

They say Paulo Coelho authors some life changing books, I say NO. I never really appreciated his work. Morrie changed it ! Morrie has the power. MUST READ.

Some people say that Morrie is a real story. I probably would never know but I would sure want to meet a man with such personal strengths. He is staring death in face and still he is as strong as anyone. I always thought one must be independent of others. I always practised it but I realized that what I was doing was following independence in action. My thoughts were very much dependent on others. My very self was, is, will be dependent. Forever.

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 28, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat, is renowned universally as an excellent book. People have been recommending it to people for a long long time. Things were said that you could relate to watever was written in the book, you could understand watever they were saying, you could relate to watever they were doing …

I say CRAP !!!!. This was my second book by an Indian Author and this one also dissappointed me. 🙁 The first one being Q n A by Vikas Swarup.

I probably would not be able to make an effort to read any other book by “young” Indian authors. 🙁

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON Monday, September 26, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Some people have this misconception that I read a lot. Here are few inside scoops.

I see you with a new book every ther day? How? Are you amazingly fast reader?
SG: LOL. I do not read a lot, just like to show off with a new book every two days. And if you are asking me this question, I have achieved my goal. I want people to think that I read a lot and atleast some people have started assuming that I read a lot.

What about all those books in your cabinet?
I like to have lots of books in my cabinet. I bought all these books at Nai Sarak for 20 bucks each so that my cabinet looks real cool. I was also thinking of fake book holders to make my cabinet even more stuffy…

But then how do you know about so many different authors and books?
I thought I mentioned before this candid interiew that I would not talk about my trade secrets and things that make me loose my (as Porter would put it) Competitive Advantage. However if you are still adamant, let me know and I just might give you some tips …

Ok, so what kind of books do you want people to think that you read?
I read everything from fiction to non-fiction. Before coming to MDI, I did not know that reading can be a pleasure and help me get a lot of attention. The day I realized that I have to get poeple’s attention, I started showing off with the books.

Although I am not one of those who would read and read and read. I read stuff when I am bored or when something is very highly recommended. I havent been able to read a lot of books but here is a complete list of books that I have read.

The list includes majorly fiction novels and some other interesting stuff.

-> Arthur Hailey – Airport

-> Buck Rodgers, Robert Shock – The IBM Way

-> Dan Brown – Angels and Deamons
-> Dan Brown – The Vinci Code

-> Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox – The Goal

-> Jeffery Archer – Sons of Fortune – Completed on 21st Sep 2004
-> Jeffery Archer – Honour Among Thieves

-> John Grisham – The Runaway Jury
-> John Grisham – The King of Torts
-> John Grisham – The Street Lawyer
-> John Grisham – The Testament
-> John Grisham – The Brethren
-> John Grisham – The Firm – Completed on 15th Aug 2004

-> Kim Woo-Choong – Every Street Is Paved With Gold

-> Mario Puzo – The Godfather

-> Paul Erdman – The Setup

-> Sidney Sheldon – Morning, Noon and Night

One good thing about books is that you get to learn about a few things without leaving your home. You would konw about the way things work in say the oposite end of the Globe, How people live in deep jungles in Africa, how do aeroplanes fly etc.

Also you can learn from other people’s experiences. You can take clues from the events from other people’s mistakes, great moves and be inspired.

As said so frequently, every coin has two faces and there are some very good reasons to read books and there are some reasons why I detested books.

The thing about books is that it makes one stick indoors. You would be spending long hous reading those huge novels etc. I have always been a person who would like to go out and staying indoors is the last thing I would ever do.

Also the books are at times biased. Well every form of information source is kinda biased. Talk about NewsPapers, Televisoin, Information Channels, I believe most of them are biased.

I want to add a brief summary about em. I just realized that I have read a lot of them and I don’t remember the sequence of evetns … Fors example, I don’t know what happens in the Sons of Fortune or what was the ending of any Grisham… Blame it on my poor memory !

Edit Log:
15th Aug 2004 – Added The Firm
21st Sep 2004 – Added The Setup and Sons of Fotune
18th Apr 2005 – Added Honour Among Thieves, Angels and Deamons, The Vinci Code, The Runaway Jury and The King of Torts

Last Edited on 18th Apr 2005 @ 12:01 AM