Last year I managed to read 24 books, which was quite disappointing. So 2011 started with a goal of beating that number and getting to a total of 50 books.

7 months into the year and I have reached 25 books! The Kindle is definitely facilitating quick access to all the books I can ever want and I find I’m not really using my Librarywala subscription.

Here is a list of my conquests so far

1. The Girl who played with Fire – Steig Larsson
2. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Steig Larsson
3. Eat Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
4. A Case of Exploding Mangoes – Mohammed Hanif
5. The Globe II: the Science of Discworld – Terry Pratchett
6. The Silver Chair – C S Lewis
7. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner – Stephanie Meyers
8. A Prisoner of Birth – Jeffery Archer
9. Johnny & the Bomb – Terry Pratchett
10. Paper Money – Ken Follet
11. False Impression – Jeffery Archer
12. The Famous Five have a Great Time – Enid Blyton*
13. The Famous Five go Caravanning – Enid Blyton*
14. The Japanese Wife – Kunal Basu
15. The Gunslinger: Dark Tower I – Stephen King
16. Drawing of the Three: Dark Tower II – Stephen King
17. The Wastelands: Dark Tower III – Stephen King
18. The Wizard & Glass: Dark Tower IV – Stephen King
19. The Wolves of the Calla: Dark Tower V – Stephen King
20. The Pleasure of my Company – Steve Martin
21. Songs of Susannah: Dark Tower VI – Stephen King
22. On Two Feet & Wings – Abdul Kazerooni
23. The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole: 1999 to 2001 – Sue Townsend
24. The Ring of Solomon – Jonathan Stroud
25. The Sixth Man – David Baldacci

*Ok, maybe I included the Famous Fives to just rack up the numbers…. But hey, they are books, I really did read them and enjoyed them immensely! I also read a bunch of Archies (on a really cool comics app on the iPad – so don’t judge) which I have not included!

I’m currently reading the below two books and have a nice exciting list of ‘to reads’ lined up

1. The Dark Tower VII – Stephen King
2. BossyPants – Tina Fey

‘Go then, there are other worlds than these’ ….

When I started reading the Dark Tower series, I did not anticipate it to so wholly consume me. I was a skeptic to begin with and had to be much talked into reading the first book ‘The Gunslinger’ by my Husband.

I sort of trudged through the first book… Roland’s world, so weirdly different was a mystery with no immediate answers available. I was at times, frustrated with how little I understood of what really was happening. Who was this Gunslinger and why was he following the mysterious Man in Black? How did Jake go from being dead in New York to being alive in Mid World? What really was this world that had moved on? Was it a parallel world or our world after thousands of years? My logical mind could not get over the seemingly apparent gaps of logic in the story. There was no background write up to help the reader build a context of this mysterious new world and I almost stopped reading the book a couple of times. But I am glad I didn’t give up because from Book 2 onwards, the Dark Tower came alive in my imagination vividly and all the pieces, even though not falling into place, started to make a little bit of sense.

‘Drawing of the Three’ (Book 2) was interesting and even mildly amusing in parts. I found Roland’s interpretation of modern New York refreshing. ‘Astin’ always bought a smile to my lips and his surprise at the abundance of our world always made me feel grateful for all that we have and take for granted. With the introduction of Eddie and Detta/Odetta my understanding of Roland and his mission grew but the real submission to this new world happened in Book 3 (The Wastelands).

With Jake and the adorable ‘Oy’ being added to the ‘Ka-tet’ Roland’s Band of Brothers begun to have character and depth. Oy’s amputated repetitions never failed to make me smile and the inexplicable connections that Jake saw in his world to Roland’s world made me wonder about the universe’s grand design. The desolation of Roland’s world, the mutations and the little remnants of a technologically advanced world made me think of movies like the Terminator and Matrix. A world so advanced that it killed itself was not a new thought, but its portrayal in these books is beautifully different.

Book 4 (The Wizard & Glass) was a slight disappointment when I first started it. After the fast paced action of ‘Blain the Pain’, going back to Roland’s backstory with Susan was kind of frustrating. I was so engrossed in the race for the Tower that I didn’t want to waste time on the history of it all, but as I read on, I begun to understand the importance of Book 4 in understanding what went into making Roland. Even so, I still think the whole Mills & Boon angle of the Roland & Susan love story bit could have been edited and made shorter.

Now as I await the delivery of Book 5 (the Wolves of Calla), the Dark Tower grows darker and murkier in my mind and its hold on Roland seems to stretch on beyond him to me.

Sigh… I admit it… I’m a Dark Tower Junkie now.

The device is light weight and idiot proof in terms of use. I loved the features of changing text size, dictionary, note making etc. I also downloaded the kindle app on my android phone. Sometimes, when I would find it impossible to stop reading because of a really engrossing plot, I would hide in my office loo and continue to read the book on my phone! (I know the kindle is portable, but hey I cant carry it to the loo without being stared upon) I loved the fact that I could continue to read my book on my phone and then sync it with my kindle when I got home and start reading from where I left off reading on the phone…. ahh… the magic of technology

Some of the other features in the kindle are nice but really not useful currently…. One being the ‘text to speech’ one. It’s fun to hear the mechanical voice read the book out to you for a bit… but one can’t really enjoy books that way.

The only issue I have with the Kindle is that buying kindle books is expensive, especially when you are in India and physical books cost so much less. The average cost per kindle book is approximately $10. That’s about Rs. 500 when converted to Indian Rupees. On an average a physical book from a nice book store in India costs between Rs. 250 – 350.

At the start of this year, I decided to keep a log of all the books I will read during the year. The thought germinated when I read a quote by Shashi Tharoor stating that he read over 100 books a year! I always thought I read a lot and thus was curious to track how many books I read in a year.

Below is the list of books I read this year… the number is disappointingly low given my inspiration for tracking. I hope I will come up with a better tally next year

And oh… do leave your recommendations on what I should be reading next year

1. And Another Thing

2. Outliers

3. Art of Possibility

4. Good to Great

5. Simple Plan

6. Lucky One

7. Memoirs of a Geisha

8. Two States

9. State of Fear

10. Golem’s Eye

11. Time Travelers Wife

12. A Hatful of Sky

13. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

14. The Zoya Factor

15. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

16. E-Squared

17. Agent to the Stars

18. Heart Stealer

19. How to Completely Disappear

20. The Leader who had no Title

21. Heroes of the Valley

22. The Careful use of Compliments

23. Pillars of the Earth

24. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

After I read Ken Follet’s ‘World without End’ (WWE), I didn’t think I would have the commitment to read a similar book. But when my sister praised Follet’s ‘Pillars of the Earth’ (the prequel to World Without End), I decided it might be worth the while to undertake another long journey. The 1000+ pages in small print was not as daunting as I first imagined them to be…each page I turned seemed to embroil me deeper in the lives of the characters and experience their trials and tribulations like they were my own.

The story is set in the early part of the 12th century and chronicles the lives of different protagonists in the town of Kingsbridge. The story revolves around the building of a mighty cathedral, though they are many interceding stories around the nobility, the peasantry and the clergy.

Having read WWE, I could feel traces of the writing style repeating itself…the little interlacing stories, the unexpected connections between the lead characters, the bloody history of the land…some of the things I found intriguing in WWE became commonplace in Pillars.

Pillars had one strong underlying theme – the building of the biggest tallest cathedral in England. No matter how speedily things changed in the story, how unexpectedly the fortunes of different characters turned, how hopeless the scene seemed, the reader always knows that things would work out and the Cathedral would be built in all its glory. So the horror one felt at a sad turn of the story was only momentary and the hope of all things being right again was just around the corner. In Contrast, WWE did not have any strong underlying theme and thus the turns in the story really did keep the reader guessing where the narrative will lead to.

Comparisons aside, I enjoyed reading Pillars. I also downloaded & watched the special 8 parts series that was made based on the book. Though a lot of the story line was changed, it was interesting to see the building of the Cathedral come to life in HD.

I would like to try something new….so I’m hosting a collaborative storytelling festival on my blog!

The concept is simple – I start the story with 2-3 lines and then you come and add your bits (ideally not more than 6-7 lines added in the comments section) to build the story line. Please read all the inputs upto the last comment on the page to see where the story is going and then give it your own direction! I’d love to see where our collective creatively can take a tale

So here goes…!

She awoke with a start. The dream and its terrible reality ebbed away slowly. It had happened the second time this week. ‘No… this couldn’t be happening. I shouldn’t be bothered about what happened so many years ago… it can’t matter anymore!’

This is a review of my first Terry Pratchett. Being a fan of the fantasy genre… I’d heard a LOT about the Pratchett legacy. I’ve thought of picking a book by Pratchett multiple times… but was always deterred by the sheer volume of his work and never knowing where to begin. The first few books were never available in any book store and I always wondered if I would miss some vital connection if I started somewhere in the middle. One day, I just came over the whole ‘to read or not to read Pratchett’ dilemma and bought ‘A Hatful of Sky’. It is the second volume about the Nac Mac Feegles and seemed like a good place to start.

The story is about a young witch going off on her witching apprenticeship…. ok….been there read that. The highlight for me were the Nac Mac Feegles, who added the much required colour (figuratively speaking – not referring to their blue tattooed 4 inch high bodies!). Their style of speaking takes a little getting used to, and once one gets used to it, one begins to see the humour in it. Watching Rob Anybody learning to spell is a delight and now every time I look at a capital ‘P’ I think of a fat man standing and the letter ‘R’ reminds me of a fat man walking!

The story per say is not much to write home about (or blog about!). The story line of a young witch vs ancient powerful evil was nothing original. The characters also did not speak to me much (except the fairies whose antics and history I enjoyed). The two Miss Levels and the rest of the witch roundup were quite sketchy and did not create much durability in terms of characters that grow with each book.  

I have heard about the magic of Pratchett, but this book didn’t deliver that for me. I would definitely be willing to try another one, especially from the ‘Discworld series’… any suggestions from anyone on which one I should begin with?

You should not pick this book if you’re looking for a racy, sci-fi, fantastical book. This book is for those laid back sorts who want to read a human story and not dwell into the science or question the construct of it all.

The story of Henry (the time traveler with a defective DNA) and his wife Clare (who meets her future 36 year old husband at the ripe age of 6) is one which grows on you as you turn each page.

At the beginning of the book, it takes a little while to grasp the complexity of the multiple space & time zones. The backward/forward movements in time and the presence of multiple Henrys’ from the past/ future and present and their criss-crossing paths takes some getting used to. Once I got used to reading the dates and checking them with the previous chapters, I liked how all the multiple threads dovetailed into each other to make a perfect narrative without any loopholes.

Yes, the book is slow and sometimes the story would just spread out before me… day after day of everyday life with very little excitement. I guess that’s what gives the reader the feeling of living a lifetime with Henry and Clare. The whole inevitability of the future was also overwhelming and made me wonder whether there is really any free will at all.

The science angle is limited with little focus on the marvels of the DNA that make time travel possible for Henry. The story focuses much on the relationship angle and very little on the varied possibilities related to time travel.

The loungy style of writing, the never ending every day stuff…. The book is definitely not a gripper, but once the reader gets connected to the characters, he/she cannot stop reading…. just to find out how their lives turn out to be.

After I finished the book, I also saw the movie. I would have found the movie quite a waste of time had I not read the book….but seeing the characters I’ve lived with over the last few weeks coming to life is enchanting. My husband’s only comments on the movie were “This is booooring” and “Poor Eric Bana (who plays Henry in this movie and also played the Hulk in the first Hulk movie)… only gets movies where he keeps losing his clothes!”

Indigo Deli is a place much known for its breakfast and its ambience lived up to the expectation. Warm deep wooden interiors, the smell of fresh coffee and heavenly eggs floating in the air. I instantly knew that my sacrifice was going to be worth it. We were quickly shown to our seats (though I imagine not getting there early enough would see you waiting for a table) and were offered our menus.

The menu read like one can expect in a fancy european joint and I would have needed Vir Sanghavi’s (still to come out) ‘Guide to reading fancy menus’ in order to understand some of the names and dishes. But since we were doing breakfast, the choice was quite simple… eggs!  I ordered the ‘Eggs Florentine’ (Florentine by the way means ‘with spinach’) and everyone else opted for their version of ‘3 eggs anyways’, which was basically that they could choose to go the omelet, boiled or scrambled way. We choose the eggs to be made without any yellows and were happy that we were choosing the healthy way, until we got to the list of side dishes. Unable to resist the temptation, we landed up ordering almost all the side dishes on offer – Chicken Sausages, Beef and Pork Strips. We also ordered a pot of fresh Assam Tea to go with our newspapers and settled down to a comfortable wait.

When the food arrived, we were not disappointed. The Eggs were brilliant, tasty and light and the sides were flavored just right. The hash potatoes were perfect and for a potato lover like me, just not enough! Here what the food looked like. (Pics below – click on them to see larger versions) The joint sees its share of visiting white population and I felt the food was adjusted for their palette.

The place also had a little shop where one could pick up exotic breads, jams, jellies, cheese and other food ingredients not available in your local supermarket. With a bill of Rs 500 per head, I thought it was a brilliant find. A definite ‘to-do’ for Mumbaikars! It also seemed like a good place to spend an evening, with a spread of cheese and wines that could challenge any 5 star joint. (See the wine wall in the pic below)

This is going to be a touristy kind of post. So this is not for those who live and work in Mumbai… because I’m sure they’d have seen and done these things every time an out of town relative or friend popped by. This is for those who come to Mumbai for a holiday or for those who like me needed to put together a touristy plan for visiting relatives.

I had friends and family from abroad visiting Mumbai for 4 days. In order to make the most of those days I got on to Google, Facebook, and Twitter and got a ton of suggestions on what to do in Mumbai. Below are the some of the highlights of the ‘Fun Plan’ that I put in place!

Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel

Built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary, the Gateway is like the Statue of liberty… the first sign of Mumbai for travelers coming from afar. It’s a beautiful structure and the usual melee of tourists, pigeons, hawkers and the majestic view of the famous Taj Mahal Hotel makes it a nice starting spot for a Mumbai Darshan. Also the whole angle of 26/11 shootings adds to the touristy value and now guides there will tell you where they saw the terrorists, how the gunshots reverberated through the air, how the Taj burned on that fateful day etc. Worth one visit for all non Mumbaikars.

Walk to Flora Fountain and CST station (And Shopping at Causeway)

The whole allure of South Mumbai is this old world charm that exudes from the buildings there. Just walking down from the Gateway towards the CST station is a pleasure. On the way are street vendors selling everything from paintings on a leaf/ bus tickets/ rice grain to collages, handmade jewelry and all kinds of other artsy stuff. Flora fountain itself is a little bit of a disappointment, with all the algae stuck over it and without water it just looks like a lonely warrior in a sea of human traffic. The CST building is impressive with its stain glass windows and impressive architecture. A must photo op for the visiting folks.  

Dhobi Ghats

So this is where ‘Munna Bhai’ is supposedly shot…. But after I saw the place, I wasn’t sure there was enough place for the cast and crew to even stand. The place is a bunch or rectangles filled with water and half naked men beating the hell out of clothes. The clothes line where the clothes dried was interesting… it seems as if the clothes were clubbed according to their shades!

More tips on what to do in Mumbai coming up in Part II of this post!