I happened to find an intriguing book 2 days ago "Insects Are Just Like You and Me Except Some of Them Have Wings" by Kuzhali Manickavel (I got mine from landmark), and have been obsessed with finding out as much about the author as I can ever since. I found that some of the stories in the book have already appeared in other places. Here is the list of stories i have found over the internet:
The Dynamics of Windows (one of my favorites)
Throwing Rocks at Dogs
Little Bones
The Dolphin King
Welcome to Barium
Everyone does integral calculus
Conversations during a cyclone and a flood
How to wear an Indian village
Cats and Fish
Because we are precious and brave
The domino effect
Most of these sites also have an interview with the author and they are as fascinating as the short/tiny stories.
Go read her stories and be amazed by their unpredictability, humor and sadness.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, January 14, 2008
Punishment??
I finally finished Crime and Punishment and my roommate borrowed it from me. For him reading it seems to be the greatest punishment, but still he perseveres. He tries hard to read ten pages a day before sleep finally overcomes him. For me, the book wasn't such a strain thankfully. However I found that it required some patience on the part of the reader. It is mentioned in the notes that the book is not so much a whodunit as a whydunit which is true, but it was also described as an easy to read classic.
Currently I'm reading You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers. So far the book can be described as strange, but it has been an easy read when compared with Dostoevsky.
Currently I'm reading You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers. So far the book can be described as strange, but it has been an easy read when compared with Dostoevsky.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
New adventures in Hi-Fi
Well, maybe not new but what I mean is that I have bought, yes BOUGHT, an audio book of Great Expectations over the Internet. Its an unabridged version of the book read by Frederick Davidson, so the book takes 18 hours and 42 minutes to finish (I have reached chapter 23 of 59).
The experience of listening to an audio book has been great especially since the reader, tries to talk in different voices for each of the characters. I also felt that as Pip grows up as the book progresses, his voice changes from a high pitched tone to a more mature one. However I found that I had to have more concentration while listening than while reading a book.
The book was available in 59 DRM (Digital Rights Manager) protected WMA files, which were not compatible with my Sony mp3 player. However, since I had bought the book, I was able to contact the support team (it's nice when people listen to you if you pay for stuff) and they suggested I write audio CDs (it would take 12 CDs) and then rip them to mp3. Thankfully I didn't have to follow this painful process, but was able to create images of the CDs using Nero software and rip the virtual CDs to mp3.
The experience of listening to an audio book has been great especially since the reader, tries to talk in different voices for each of the characters. I also felt that as Pip grows up as the book progresses, his voice changes from a high pitched tone to a more mature one. However I found that I had to have more concentration while listening than while reading a book.
The book was available in 59 DRM (Digital Rights Manager) protected WMA files, which were not compatible with my Sony mp3 player. However, since I had bought the book, I was able to contact the support team (it's nice when people listen to you if you pay for stuff) and they suggested I write audio CDs (it would take 12 CDs) and then rip them to mp3. Thankfully I didn't have to follow this painful process, but was able to create images of the CDs using Nero software and rip the virtual CDs to mp3.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Drained...
Heck, I haven't been able to update my blog (to the dismay of thousands of my readers) and worse I haven't been able to read anything much. I blame it all on my job, you feel so drained after getting back home that all you feel like doing is sleep, or in my case flip aimlessly through channels on TV. Maybe I'm not meant to be working, after spending so many years (20 yrs) in school.
However, I plan to change all that. I went and bought a couple of books recently using the money I make. I bought Crime and Punishment to educate myself (and also because on the cover it said it was one of the most readable classics). I also bought Adverbs by Daniel Handler (the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events) because I found what was written on the back cover funny.
Adverbs is a collection of episodes happening to different people that are loosely linked together. But it wasn't a funny book as I expected after reading the back cover. It's a more serious book, where each chapter is based more or less on a single emotion. However, though beautifully written, I felt that the author gave more importance to the style of writing, rather than content.
However, I plan to change all that. I went and bought a couple of books recently using the money I make. I bought Crime and Punishment to educate myself (and also because on the cover it said it was one of the most readable classics). I also bought Adverbs by Daniel Handler (the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events) because I found what was written on the back cover funny.
Adverbs is a collection of episodes happening to different people that are loosely linked together. But it wasn't a funny book as I expected after reading the back cover. It's a more serious book, where each chapter is based more or less on a single emotion. However, though beautifully written, I felt that the author gave more importance to the style of writing, rather than content.
Monday, July 23, 2007
A Confederacy of Dunces
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole starts with this quote. After reading the foreword by Walker Percy, I began wondering whether the same thing happened to the author itself. After writing the book he could not find any one to publish his work. Disappointed by this he committed suicide as an unsuccessful writer. Later when the work was published thanks mainly to the persistence of his mother, the work went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I cant imagine a more dramatic story surrounding a book.
I was looking around the a bookstore, to see if anyone is actually buying the new Harry Potter book when I came across this book and couldn't resist buying it. Guess I will wait till a cheaper HP7 comes out before buying it.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
After a Storm, Before a Feast
I have just completed A Storm Of Swords, book three of George R R Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series, and it ends with a very nerve wrecking suspense. Some of the major characters are killed and some have even been brought back from the dead and all the other major characters are in a very critical situation.
However before starting the fourth book A Feast For Crows I have been reading Fragile Things, a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman. I must say that I am not impressed by the stories. They seem to be very ordinary and feels like ghost stories told around a campfire.
However before starting the fourth book A Feast For Crows I have been reading Fragile Things, a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman. I must say that I am not impressed by the stories. They seem to be very ordinary and feels like ghost stories told around a campfire.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Graphic Novels
Comics may be kids stuff but graphic novels are definitely not. There has been increasing interest in graphic novels and lately even The Hindu's Literary Review contains a section on graphic novels. I became interested in this thanks mainly to my friend who has, at the time I felt, a "strange" habit of collecting comics. Even though I have been reading comics for a long time, I never gave them much thought until I read three of them recently. These books which were so inaccessible are now, with the world wide web, not very difficult to find for anyone who knows where to look.
The first of these is A Contract with God by Will Eisner. It is a set of short stories taking place in a tenement building in the 30's. While not the first, this is regarded as a classic graphic novel. There is nothing special or extraordinary happening in these stories like the usual comics. Just the everyday lives of ordinary people, but still they are made interesting. To keep this blog informative here is a random fact, the awards for comic book excellence are named after the author and are known as "The Eisners".
The second set of books I read was the Akira manga (japanese comics) vols. 1-6. These comics and the subsequent anime movie were what made japanese comics famous. I remember watching the movie long ago but didn't understand much of it. The comic explains many of the issues left unanswered in the movie. The first half is set in the ultra-modern and ordered Neo-Tokyo, while the second half, which I don't remember in the movie at all, is chaos and anarchy. I get the feeling that the creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, likes the second half with more of chaos. Maybe that is the same reason why it is still a teenage cult fiction. It also shows that creating good graphic novel is much harder than usual novels. The whole Akira series is over 2000 illustrated pages long.
The most different and the one I liked the most is Watchmen by Alan Moore. It is a 12 volume series about a set of very human super heroes. I didn't like the graphics very much but reading the series was a whole new experience. Each volume ends with either an article written by one of the characters or one that appeared in the paper. It even has a side tale in the form of a comic book which one of the minor characters reads. Overall a very new experience and it is no wonder that it got a Hugo award which is usually given to Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels. There are plans to make a movie based on this comic book series and is expected to be released in 2008.
Even before all this, good comic books have been available in India. I think I learned most of the Indian mythology from the "Amar Chitra Katha" series. They even brought out illustrated classic novels, and I remember reading Sherlock Holmes stories and Charles Dickens novels for the fist time in comic book form when I was little.
The first of these is A Contract with God by Will Eisner. It is a set of short stories taking place in a tenement building in the 30's. While not the first, this is regarded as a classic graphic novel. There is nothing special or extraordinary happening in these stories like the usual comics. Just the everyday lives of ordinary people, but still they are made interesting. To keep this blog informative here is a random fact, the awards for comic book excellence are named after the author and are known as "The Eisners".
The second set of books I read was the Akira manga (japanese comics) vols. 1-6. These comics and the subsequent anime movie were what made japanese comics famous. I remember watching the movie long ago but didn't understand much of it. The comic explains many of the issues left unanswered in the movie. The first half is set in the ultra-modern and ordered Neo-Tokyo, while the second half, which I don't remember in the movie at all, is chaos and anarchy. I get the feeling that the creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, likes the second half with more of chaos. Maybe that is the same reason why it is still a teenage cult fiction. It also shows that creating good graphic novel is much harder than usual novels. The whole Akira series is over 2000 illustrated pages long.
The most different and the one I liked the most is Watchmen by Alan Moore. It is a 12 volume series about a set of very human super heroes. I didn't like the graphics very much but reading the series was a whole new experience. Each volume ends with either an article written by one of the characters or one that appeared in the paper. It even has a side tale in the form of a comic book which one of the minor characters reads. Overall a very new experience and it is no wonder that it got a Hugo award which is usually given to Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels. There are plans to make a movie based on this comic book series and is expected to be released in 2008.
Even before all this, good comic books have been available in India. I think I learned most of the Indian mythology from the "Amar Chitra Katha" series. They even brought out illustrated classic novels, and I remember reading Sherlock Holmes stories and Charles Dickens novels for the fist time in comic book form when I was little.
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