Monday, August 4, 2014

The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche

I respect all the religion, and I read this book only out of curiosity. I just wanted to see how Nietzsche has put his views against Christianity.

The book is not a regular narrative, and it looks more like random writings rather then a well thought book. The author has registered his dissent in a very reasonable arguments, and there are a lot of points which people will like to agree irrespective of their religion.

This is the first book by Nietzsche which I've read, and it is more like calling the sham in the name of religion. After reading the book I actually felt that he is not against a religion but the bitterness has been caused by the outlook of the religion. He wants to drive the message that we can be a good/moral human being even without a religion. And most of the things done in the name of the religion actually drive it away from the truth. In fact most of the points raised against Christianity will be valid against any other religion with a different set of words.

I'm not really for this book but if you have an open mind to listen to some reasonable arguments then this book is worth reading.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Inferno by Dan Brown

Robert Langdon again. And again the same problem "So much details". Another problem is that the Dan needs to get out of the Robert Langdon series. Its quite a big dose till now and I'd really like to read something which is a non-Robert.

I love the plot of bio weapon but the whole narrative was too much artistic. There were actually some moments when it sounded like a travel guide book.

One thing I'd like to add here about the plot: I really don't think that we're growing in numbers. We've more longevity but I don't think that we're really a burden, I completely support the judicious use of the natural resources but didn't connect with the population control by any other means. In fact, I believe nature has its own ways of putting things in control.

One more thing I'll confess here is that this is one of the few books where I skip. I actually skipped a lot of paragraphs related to the description of art work in Venice which didn't connect with the plot.

Looking forward to read Dante's Inferno.

Love 

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Karna's Wife by Kavita Kane

When I started this book I had this premonition that this book is not going to surprise me and after finishing this book I feel I was quite right.

The whole narrative doesn't have much to offer other then what we already know about Karna. In fact, all the stories are told so many times that there was no surprise element.

Sadly, the Uruvi retelling the story didn't make much difference, and I must say that the author was a bit weak in presenting the narrative. The whole text was quite repetitive.

Karna was a Greek-god type tragic hero. But we can't change our karma. What is said or done is over and there is no way that we can take it back. Karna was destined to die in battlefield, and that was the end of it.

I think I'm too much on this mythological dose from last few books. Will try to pick a different theme this time.

Asura : Tale of the Vanquished by Anand Neelkantan

I heard a lot about this book but when I read it, I was not really impressed how the whole narrative was presented.

I see that the book is full of negativity, and people bashing. I don't believe that there was a single person in the whole book who can be loved or respected. All the characters mentioned are so full of hatred and negativity that we end up hating all of them and justifying that whatever bad happened to them was well deserved.

It started with a story of Ravana but from the beginning to end it was more like a high cast bashing and the author was hell bent to prove that the northern part of India was one of the worst places to be and it subsequently corrupted the southern part of India.

This book has a bad narrative and all the stories are twisted to prove the author's point only. This is not the Ravana's version of story. It sounds more like a personal hate manual (hate list) against north indians and the vaidik rituals.

If you want to see bad you'll never see good in anything.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

This is an amazing book based on the memoirs of Holocaust.

The story revolves around Sage who is a baker with some bad memories. She has a Holocaust survivor grandmother. In a support group she meets an old man who comes up with a weird request for his own murder.

There is sub plot of grandmother writing the story and you couldn't have asked for more. This sub plot blends so well (I must say keeping in different format really works) that the reader moves in and out of plots effortlessly.

The gist of the plot is about forgiveness. Who can forgive and who can be forgiven?

After finishing the book I took some time to think about this question. And one thing that struck me most was from the book only. The grandmother didn't talk to anybody about her survival in those camps. She didn't want to pass the pain to the next generations and she was not even thinking about revenge or forgiveness.

I think there was always a chance when we can forgive or be forgiven.

I'll go with peace. Easier said than done.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

Again a book which makes me think to leave the book after 15 pagers. But I've to do it and see it till the end.

A big waste of time. I could have read some cheap pulp on road side rather than reading this book. This book is an irrational headless erotica which doesn't stand anywhere to be counted as a book.

No story line, no character and definitely no flavor.

This book could have been better titled as "In Search of Long Lost Orgasm".

Not going to say anything else just DON'T READ IT.

If your friends are recommending it then its time to think who are your friends.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh

This is the second book of Ibis trilogy and after finishing this I crave for more. I'm eagerly waiting for the third book, Flood of Fire, which may be released in 2015.

The story moves forward from the Ibis to the city of Canton. The same characters are moved to canton and story revolves around the opium trade in China which later became the first opium war.

The characters are as strong as in the first book and there was not a single instance when a sequence seemed extra. There were some new characters added out of which I remebered Seth Behram Modi as he seems so natural to me that he looks like a person I know very well.

Another thing was there was a lot of plants and botany included and it actually added to the flow of the whole narrative, I'm feeling like start tending a small garden for myself :)

-Puneet

The Oath of the Vayuputras by Amish Tripathi

This is the third book of the trilogy. I read it after a long time since it was released and I must say that I am disappointed.

The final part talks about how Parvati died and Shiva moved to destroy the whole city with  Pashupathiastra.

The more I got into the book more I realized that the narration was getting shallow and it looked like the end was written for the sake of the formality that the book is complete.

I don't want to sound harsh but after reading the first book I had lot of expectations with the whole series which got lower and lower after the second and third book. This could have been a great series but sadly it is not.

If you're a lover of fantasy and read the previous parts than go for it otherwise it is not something that will be missed.

Friday, March 7, 2014

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I want to confess one thing, I love Russian literature. I love Tolstoy,  Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Turgenev, Gorky, Pushkin and all of them. I simply love the way they've written and it feels like so connected to all there writings. I've never been is the situations of the characters in these novels but definitely these are so strongly created that I automatically feel like I understand them.

The Brothers Karamazov is the latest novel I read. It is quite big and took me almost a month to finish it but it was such a pleasure. After finishing it I came to know that this was the last novel of Dostoyevsky and I must say that this was quite strong in terms of plot as well as narration.

The plot is quite simple. Its a story of three brothers (Karmazov's) and their relationship with their father. The father gets murdered and the blame goes to one of the sons. There are some subplots which are equally engaging like the one of a dying boy, jealousy of two women etc.

The novel if full of philosophy and typical Russian character sketch.

Loved it and a must read for all the fans of Dostoyevsky.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

A Virtual Romance

I watch a lot of movies and recently I watched this new movie HER which was well received by the critics and audiences and really brought in a new plot.

But I'm not going to talk about the movie here. I'm more interested in the plot and the thought behind it.

The movie revolves around a person who falls in love with an OS. This is a virtual person which interacts via voice and so programmed that it actually sounds like a real person.

The question that I asked myself was if it was possible to be in love with somebody/thing of whose physical presence you are not aware of. I've read some stories where the people fell in love with each other only by writing letters (Pan pal is one of my favorite) but even in this condition you know for a fact that there is somebody who is actually writing those letters. You know that there is somebody who is breathing may be on the different side of the planet and in touch with you. I know some people who are friends with people from other parts of world on social networking platforms without knowing them personally.

I'm not saying it is weird but not really able to understand those circumstances when a person falls in love with someone from virtual world (or totally imaginary). For me to fall in love with someone it is required to know the person as a person not as a social networking profile or a mail id.

It is more like a person who is committed to nothing and it literally makes sense.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Pehla Girmitiya by Giriraj Kishore

A hindi book after a long time and this one is really big.

The book revolves around the Gandhiji's stay in South Africa and the activities at that time.

He went to South Africa on a one year permit and after seeing the conditions fo the indians and how they were treated he made a point to fight for a difference and that too with non-violence. We can say that SA was the laboratory for Gandhi to test out his hypothesis of non-violence and it really gave the results with no blood shed. This put the stone for the movement in India which he led later.

The book is a mix of facts and fantasy where he tried to keep the things as close to the reality as the information available. There are some invented dialogues and there are some genuine speeches delivered by Gandhiji.

The book is pretty big (almost 900 pages) and I finished it in 2 months. But somehow I felt that there are better accounts on Gandhi's life other than that and this book can be a stepping stone who wants to explore his philosophy.

If you want to go for a visual account of it than you can go for the movie "Making of the Mahatma".

I wish if you start it and finish it you'll have better understanding of what made him so great.

Peace