Self Indulgence

Once in a while, not only is it forgivable to self-indulge, but its a requirement to... Self pampering is one of the best ways to all of a sudden feel good about oneself... I really didn't need an extra boost.. but while many others may have chosen to indulge in new accessories or clothes, I decided to indulge in my longest standing passion - books... I just finished ordering a bunch of books from Amazon for myself... half due to almost going crazy about not finding english books at bookstores out here and half out of longing to fill my half-empty bookshelf and do my bit for the wall of books fantasy. You may call me a nerd... But I can hardly get through a meal without having something to read or watch on TV. And guess whats the weirder part? I actually ordered them from Amazon USA and had them shipped to me international, rather than buying them at wee bit more extravagant Euro prices... Ah the considerations one must make before self-indulging! Good gracious me...

jBook

When Apple makes a product, they prefix the i. When I make one, I am going to use j. This is it. Today's the day that I have officially decided that for my own cheap satisfaction (no, its not inexpensive) that I am going to write a book. My close friends will tell you that I have written books (and no - not short stories; actual long long books) in the past. Unfortunately I don't seem to have been prudent with the manuscripts and can't seem to find them at all. But now for all the maturity that I have (or so I think), I plan to write my first scream-out-loud book. Please tell me you will buy it once I publish. All of you.

Coming soon - jBook.

Glow - Part II

When I lugged the huge box from Amazon.com yesterday afternoon from the downstairs mailbox to the apartment on the second floor, I was apparently confused. I was at the first floor (someone had gotten in at the first floor and I'd assumed the elevator was where I wanted it to be) and was fervently jamming my duplicated key into the wrong apartment. Thankfully before being pepper-sprayed or anything equivalent, I fled the place and wormed up to our own apartment. I opened the door - or to phrase it precisely, I turned the lock and yet the door wouldn't budge. Flustered with the heavy package, the useless key and unrelenting door, I whipped out my cell phone to ask S to open the door. Once in, the package really confused me. With the San Diegan fires, I thought I forgot about something I must've ordered a while ago. I ripped it open in anticipation... and my mouth dropped open. There they were... 4 brand new books, each from a different genre, right out of my amazon wishlist, something I don't remember creating now. An early birthday present I guessed. But from which blessed soul? Then I found the receipt and the note. It made my day as nothing else could have. Thanks V. For the books and the choice of the books.

Lost Segal

Back in India, Erich Segal used to be one of my favorite authors to read. Our Murugan lending library in Adyar had stocked all his books. Since then, I have never seen a comparable Erich Segal collection anywhere else. The US libraries and bookstores, place to place for some reason don't seem to stock up on his books. I wonder why. I have read most of his famous novels. I am perhaps missing one or two in the whole set. But even Amazon doesn't have them. There's no real good reason, really. I just wanna buy all these books to fulfill another one of my visions, the book shelf vision. I have always envisioned that in my home one room will have a whole wall dedicated to a mammoth bookshelf (if not the whole room) stocked with my favorites so that when I have kids, they will by default share my taste in books ;) Wicked moi. I also have a wishlist on Amazon which I will popularize close to my birthday. That way people can feel free to add books to my shelf.

Update: Oooooh, Look what I found on Alibris - Almost the entire collection! :)

Turning a new leaf...

No no.. I didn't change anything in my lifestyle to merit this post. I merely have relapsed to an old habit - one that I loved and had no time to do while in grad school - reading! Yes, inspired by my dreams and other blogs, I have chosen 7 books to finish before the end of a month starting from today. 2 are chick books as I have termed them, 2 are 2 parts of Feynman's famed autobiographies, 1 - a Diana focus and 2 excellent novels recommended by fellow readers. I am looking forward to my solitary time with these books. I received a big package of my books yesterday and I haven't felt that new book thrill since Harry Potter 7. The sheer smell of the pages, the feel of the paperback one some and the crisp jackets on the others all makes for a very enjoyable experience. I look forward to completing all these books and succinctly summarizing the ones I will recommend. BTW, the picture above is that of a 4 leaf clover and it signifies immense luck. The sheer fact that I have relapsed to reading is lucky, don't you think? I do :)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - **** SPOILER ALERT ***

There's been all hue and cry about the final HP book that came out yesterday. And I have been dying to read it! Having read it, I am going to summarize my review into concise goods and bads without giving away too much..

I loved................

1) The book itself - It almost tied most loose ends though somethings were obviously let to imagination. And finally, this is a children's book which probably may not do justice to adult expectations. Read it in that view and you'll probably love t too.. It is clearly the best book among those from Goblet... up until now
2) Hermione - She is sparkling and it truly shows what it is to have a brilliant mind by your side. Some of her ideas and presence of mind are glorious..
3) Kreacher - His transformation is very enjoyable
4) The Deathly Hallows - Cool concept, well-explained and also proves that Dumbledore isn't as good as he sounds
5) Neville - Though he plays a very small part in the end, it is absolutely crucial to the story line and I love him for that
6) Polyjuice potion - Its been tactfully used at every conceivable place and you have to hand it to Rowling for thinking it up at most places. The plots surrounding its use are delightful
7) Lack of the Pensieve - The fact that Rowling didn't lapse back to the Pensieve as many times as she did in the Half Blood Prince. This was refreshingly better
8) Potterwatch - It was brilliant inclusion and refreshingly nice
9) The chapter name and illustrations - I mean Ghoul in Pajamas was sheer brilliance!

I didn't love...........

1) The epilogue - Such a wasteful ending. Why did she have to make it so feel-good and sappy? And why wasn't any son of either couple named Fred? And what do all these people do for a living?? And the epilogue seemed incomplete, almost a feeble effort to ensure that if she decided to, Rowling could pick up the strands of Harry Potter and get on with it and as if no one else could. If the book had ended just before the epilogue, it would have attained Masterpiece status in my head
2) Snape as headmaster - Why? At the end of Half Blood Prince, McGonagall was rightful deputy headmistress. What happened to that? I guess Voldemort took over the ministry but it still sounded bizarre
3) Utterly insignificant roles for Snape and McGonagall - There should have been more action for these two spearheads.
4) Why Dobby, Hedwig and Fred? Why not someone a little more major?
5) Harry being too good to be true - He's utterly flawless
6) No Hogwarts - Because our trio don't attend school, there's no Hogwarts, nothing on the teachers and no feel-good stories about the kids interactions.. makes you feel you are in unfamiliar territory
7) The Patronus messages - I loved the concept, But if it were possible, why wasn't Sirius able to send one to confirm he was alive and well in the Order of the Phoenix; why couldn't anyone have done this before to pass on secure messages? Seems futile in the past if you had such a fool-proof method of passing important messages...

All in all, a great conclusion to the series....drags a bit here and there but which big book doesn't? But I can't help but feeling lost now. No more Harry Potter books to look forward to.. in the near future atleast. All Harry Potter fans are sure to find closure with this book. A huge blood bath was imminent and the readers who expected it won't be disappointed. But you would think someone utterly significant like the main cast would die... Well, Rowling doesn't think so. A certain bestseller and a totally worthwhile read. A feel good end to the entertaining series.

A Mighty Heart

I saw the Larry King show sometime last week. Angelina Jolie was on it talking about her latest movie, 'A Mighty Heart' which is based on true-life incidents that happened to the journalist, Daniel Pearl (who was beheaded by the Pakistan terrorists) in 2002. I remember it creating a huge splash. I even remember vaguely that the actual video of the beheading was aired on the internet before it was banned and a few million people had already seen it. The movie is based on the book by the same name written by Mariane Pearl, the wife of Daniel Pearl. I was intrigued as I watched the LK show and immediately bought the book online, knowing that the movie was releasing on Friday. I am a strict believer of reading the book before seeing the movie. The book got here on Thursday evening and without further ado I delved into it. This post is a review of both the book and the movie.

Book review - A Mighty Heart - By Mariane Pearl

I expected it to be a poignant, heart-wrenching story of sorts but was taken aback by how objectively it was written. It was a narration of events for most part and has admirable details of dates, events and names. After a while, all the names start melding into one another because they are all Islamic names with 2-3 names to one person (eg. Omar Saeed Sheikh). Mariane Pearl was obviously not fascinated by the Indian subcontinent as her book continually indicates spoke much about the "filthy" conditions, begging children and what not. Writing about how she would need to experience a place like India would completely negate the point of the review. So, sweeping right past, the book does its work in making you feel her apprehensions, her pain , her anxiety as an expectant mom waiting for any news from her kidnapped husband day after day after day. She and her Indian-born, US-raised Muslim friend, Asra are the highlights of the home-based involvement in finding Danny. They set up fort at Asra's home in Karachi as they wire telephones, comb Dannys computer for information, colloborate with the FBI, the Pakistani police force and what not. It also conveys the horror on the day she finds out that he "didnt make it" and how she is so dignified in the way she copes with it. Amid all this is Captain, the Pakistani CID chief, who is almost waging a one-man battle to help find Danny. His involvement in the case is spectacular and he does everything in his might to try and find the man.. alive. The book is for her son Adam, who was born a few months later. So he can know that is father was not a hero, just an ordinary man who tried to fight and survive what happened to him under extra ordinary circumstances. The book concludes with a collection of letters written by people world-over to Mariane and her son, Adam about how brave Danny must've been to how brave Mariane is.

Reading the book most certainly paves way to understand the movie, which otherwise might be just a wee-bit confusing.

The movie

I must hand it over to director, Winterbottom for making what is the most dedicated version of the book as a movie. This is the movie that has stuck most to the book from what I have seen. From the way Jolie's (who plays Mariane) wedding costume actually matches Mariane's (found on the jacket of the book), to the French-accented English to the very dialogues, it does justice to the book all the way. Mariane Pearl couldnt have asked for more. Angelina Jolie has performed her class and is sure as hell to receive atleast an Oscar nomination for her performance. I think she peaks when she portrays Mariane's reaction to the news of Danny's death. She screams agonizingly loud and pained and you can feel her pain. The other actors in the movie have also to be commended. Dan Futterman (who plays Daniel Pearl) is a close fit and does a great job. But more commendable is Irfan Khan (who plays Captain). he has done a wonderful job of portraying the character just as Mariane portrays him in her book. All in all, I think the movie is certainly worth a watch though the first half, which is a lead up to the actual sequence of events is a bit of a drag, the second half makes up for it. Can watch.. surely atleast once.