Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Books and Us

Every year, thousands of books get published. Frankly, I am amazed that so many people are writing so much stuff - fiction or otherwise. But I am equally glad that they do, so folks like me get to select from a huge variety of reading stuff.

Fiction: Pick up any good fiction book- thriller, detective, murder, romance, drama, family and it is only a matter of few pages before we get lost in the world we are reading about. Rich and soul-touching characters, highly descriptive backdrops that make us feel, hear,smell and taste the story along with the characters themselves and a plot that gets one staying late into the night all make for an excellent experience. Lazy afternoons spent on a recliner with a good book and lemonade/chips beside are my idea of a great weekend.

Non-fiction: How do you learn everything possible about a place or people without visiting it? Read a good book. Books by themselves can bring the world to you and by extension, you to the world. It is hard not to get inspired reading all those biographies and auto biographies, a sort of time travel if you think about it, getting into the minds and lives of people who lived so long before us. Then there are the books about science, nature, technology, religion, self help, tribal people, relationships, etc that just about pack a power punch of brain stimulants.

The next time you happen to pass by a library, peek in. Getting lost in the world of books is the best thing that I can wish for a friend. Hope you get lost, if not already.

10 comments:

  1. @Jagdish Chander I love books though I am not a nerd. You should have talked a little more about the mastery of language usage in books. I think in India, there is a lot of rooms for improvement in embracing reading habit. Apparently we read lot less than westerners. This might be due to the fact that most adolescents or adults spend a lot of time with their family.

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  2. @Sat Rightly caught what I missed. Beauty of a language is captured in the rich literature written using that language. Indian mythology is so rich and diverse that debates over the characters have been on for thousands of years. For eg: Ram killing Vali from behind, Karnan's character, etc..If only we kept up the reading :\

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  3. nice. although you could have reviewed your favorite book for us. :)

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  4. @Gautham There are too many to say. Latest I read was Sara Gruen's "Water for Elephants". I almost lived through the circus days with Jacob Jankowski and Marlena. My other all time favs are Catch 22, Blue Bicycle, Pride and Prejudice, etc. Asterix and Obelix transport me to the Gaulish village where I can even hear Cacofonix sing and smell the Obelix's roast boar :p My childhood days have been generously sprinkled with Tintin's adventures, Panchatantra kathas, Archie's back and forth between Betty n Veronica, Tinkle, Gokulam and Champak. Oh man, you ve brought back all those memories. Thanks a bunch :)

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  5. Books are totally awesome! They rule! Right now, I am on to Machiavelli's "The Prince", and it seems a very decent read. I am also reading Malcolm Gladwell's " The Outliers" (which, by the is your kind of book, Gautham- full of stats). I love books if they are well packaged and don't go too much into detail- my ADD might act up and I might become disinterested (okies, I was kidding about the ADD)- but I do become disinterested if the author beats about the bush a lot. Right, I am off to "night dream" now, as I have absolutely no singular purpose!

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  6. @narayan-i should get my hands on the outliers immediately. :)

    @jag-i used to love gokulam too! but i can hardly recall its format these days!

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  7. @gautam don't read outliers U may become mad like how Narayan has turned after reading :P

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  8. http://www.readallday.org/home.html - Blog of a lady reading a book a day for 365 days of a year and posting reviews of the book she read the previous day. What a job !!

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  9. @Jagdish yes, I also read this in NYT. What an interesting job?

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  10. that sounds a bit nutty to me- she would have barely time to process the info- but still awesome feat!

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