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Book Bites
Who reads books these days? Book stores owe it big time to Harry Potter- the teenage wizard. In addition to being our planet's only hope against the evil Lord Voldermort, he administered CPR just in time to revive the almost expired Printed-Word. Ofcourse you can always cheat, I heard the last three books of the HP series in mp3s, so much for reading. But I did read the books below or tried to, before I ran out of steam or time, whichever happened first.
FICTION
A Dirty Job: A book discovered by pure fluke. Promising because it reminded me of the wacky stories of Douglas Adams : He-Who-Will-Write-No-More about Zaphod Beeblebrox, Vogon poetry or Dirk Gently.
Dirty Job is the latest offering from the author Christopher Moore. After finishing that job I decided to backtrack on Moore’s earlier jobs and got Fluke (Or, I Know Why The Winged Whale Sings) by a deliberate exercise which involved going to the library and searching the Ma-Mo shelves. Fluke, shows less polish than his latest book, builds up pace half-way when I had almost given up on it.
To see whether you like this kind of off-the-rocker fiction, here’s an excerpt from The Dirty Job,
"Charlie had Sophie strapped to his chest like a terrorist baby bomb when he came down the back steps. She had just gotten to the where she could hold up her head, so he had strapped her in face-out so she could look around. The way her arms and legs waved around as Charlie walked, she looked as if she was skydiving and using a skinny nerd as a parachute."
Lisey’s Story: A Stephen King to refresh the memory how a Stephen King read like – not any better than the last one I read years ago about a Buick. Confusing, infusion of blood and gore not all asked for and an overload of private imaginary worlds. This should keep me off Mr.King for a while, but I've to confess he does some heavy pen-pushing and from the book sales it looks like there are more deranged in the world than previously accounted for.
Absurdistan: Mind blowing fiction?(or fact if you live Baku?) by Gary Shteyngart. It is quite a trip if you co-habit a place bought from Russia more than a century ago with Russian artifacts (human and others) and is surrounded by Russian friends who still measure wealth in sequins and leather.Invade and inhabit the soul of an immigrant Russian, an incredibly funny one at that for your reading pleasure.
An excerpt from the book, loosely adapted from a real life episode Shteyngart had in a former Soviet Republic. In the book an official of the said Republic is talking to the protagonist on his arrival at their country’s biggest airport.
Excuse me, he said in Russian, the lingua franca of the former Soviet empire, "who are you by nationality?"
I sadly held up my Russian passport. "No, no," the fatty laughed, "I mean by nationality"
I saw what he was after. "Jew" I said, patting my nose.
The photographer put his hand to his heart. "I am very honored," he said. "The Jewish people have a long and peaceful history in our land. They are our brothers, and whoever is their enemy is our enemy.When you are in Absurdistan, my mother will be your mother, my wife your sister and you will always find the water in my well to drink."
"Oh, thanks," I said.
...................................................................................................................................................................................
"Remember what I said about my mother being your mother?" the photographer(ie the official) asked. "Well sadly our mother is in the hospital with a collapsed liver and a kelid scar on the left ear. Would it be possible---"
I had already prepared several US$100 bills for this kind of eventuality, one of which I handed to the photographer."
NON-FICTION
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman: 75% of this book I had read off the book-shelves in different houses, cafes and libraries – different copies each time. Finally borrowed a copy from the library and finished off the rest. Maybe because I am too late, it feels like an anthology of done to death tech blog thoughts on India, China, globalization, off-shoring, (insert more buzz words here). Although an exhilarating book for an Indian like me, Friedman's single dimensional analysis reminds me of televangelists selling God (God in this case being the incumbent twin powers of the East.) Ah, well it is hard when you are an atheist.
Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India: Madhur Jaffrey's autobiographical journey in a pre-independence India. What surprises me is how British the life of the upper class in India was. An informative bio with names and places, that guides the reader thru' the erst-while social set-up of Northern India. Not left out are the traditional culinary tip-offs and tidings.
The Cadillac Desert(American West and its Disappearing Water): Anyone interested in the man-made Eden that is California should read this environmental Western by Marc Reisner. I chanced upon Reisner four years ago in A Dangerous Place: California’s Unsettling Fate(my antiquated review here), which was another doomsday book about the wealthiest nation state in the US. 
It doesn't hurt to be informed, my information assimilation is going on, almost 2/3rds the way in to tracing West's disappearing aquifers.
The Places in Between: Rory Stewart is a great walker, a humanist, speaks Persian and loves the people of Afghanistan. When such requirements are met in one human being there is only one thing he can do – walk across Afghanistan with a wooden staff, then write a book about it. Does being a journalist, preclude literary talents? I do not know. I was less impressed by the book than by its glowing reviews. I didn’t pass the half-way mark with this one.
The Places in Between and Absurdistan had made the NY Times cut to feature as two of the top ten books of 2006.
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