reading, and other updates

Posted on | November 26, 2009 | Comments Off

Awite. There seems to be some hectic traveling on the cards, again, so I will leave the blog with a parting note for the next few days just in case I am unable to update anymore in near future.

First up, the reading. Has been going on full throttle, so much so that I am in the middle of some 4-5 books right now. Needless to say, the ones requiring assimilation are getting read less, the ones requiring less assimilation are shuffling up the queue. So, 2666 (Roberto Bolano) and Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace) have been put on hold after some 200 pages apiece. But then, they are going to take some time, ‘cause they each have nearly thousand pages. Both are immensely enjoyable books, but definitely not recommended reading I you are looking for some Harry Potter or Robert Langdon type entertainment.

The Master and Margarita ( Mikhail Bulgakov) has been finished. An enthralling read, reading a few pages of it convinces you of all the reasons why it is considered one of the greatest novels of the past century. It is a book that can be enjoyed at many levels- at once a hugely funny read, a biting satire, a sensuous romance and a philosophical incursion into faith, and of course, the reason it is most famous for- its rewriting of the legend of Christ and Pontius Pilate. A must read.

Two other books I am reading and will hopefully have finished by this weekend are J M Barrie’s Peter Pan (originally called Peter and Wendy) and Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. For those not in the know, J M Barrie was the guy on whom this movie was based, marking one of the best roles of Johnny Depp.

(Apropos of nothing, how many of you knew that Barrie is credited with popularising the name Wendy, after he gave it to the heroine of Peter Pan? Confession: I didn’t.)

I swore that I would not buy any more books- but on my trip to Jamshedpur, I just HAD to visit Books and Beyond (what a cost center has that place been to me, whenever I have been to Jamshedpur- right behind 60ml, The Host and Ganga )- and I bought FOUR books. Three I have mentioned earlier- The Master and Margarita, Peter Pan and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. The fourth book is Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Other Plays. Ibsen was deservedly the greatest playwright of the last century, and probably the greatest after Shakespeare, Shaw and Wilde. I had read The Doll’s House earlier, and am really looking forward to reading the other two plays in the book.

On the book buying spree, Hilary Mantel’s Booker Winning novel Wolf Hall has been bought, and a few pages read, though it also is on HOLD status. Meanwhile, I have nearly finished rereading The Bourne Supremacy, and it has been some experience. Having watched the movies so many times in the recent past (whenever mindless entertainment had been needed- which is nearly every time I travel), I had forgotten how incredibly complex the books were. But the book I am really looking forward to reading is The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, the last of Stieg Larsson’s Milennium trilogy. Someone PLEASE bring it to India soon. Oh, and I nearly forgot, I have been reading some of Pablo Neruda’s poetry (I chanced upon a volume of collected poetry at Landmark a month or so ago- and the book is pure joy, with multiple translations of many poems, with a lot of the poems in original Spanish, followed by their translations). Now whatever pitiful Spanish I learnt during those one am classes in college is not enough to read and understand Neruda (I wonder if even English is enough), but the poems are brilliant, and the book is a veritable treasure house for this long time fan.

I know that’s a LOT of books, but hopefully they will be done soon, and I will write about some of them in this space. Meanwhile, another blog is on the cards, and if it happens, I will be th first one to let you know.  :)

Well, that’s about it for now. Do keep in touch.

P.S: I do mention hectic travelling to come, but the ad nauseum hyperlinking done above indicates an extraordinarily vella man. And such it is, today, in office. But to follow the links, if you have bothered to read so far. Who knows, you might get interested into reading some of the books.

P.P.S: Of course, the other book I am looking forward to is Nabokov‘s The Original of Laura. That will be my first Nabokov novel (I have not read Lolita nor seen the movie/s), and already the controversy surrounding it has set the literary world on fire with lots of people invoking the case of Kafka and what not. The debate is perfectly delicious. Promises to be delightful.

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