The Alchemist
Why the hell this book is so famous it is neither entertaining nor it has any thing to teach, and besides that i do not know any reason to read a book.I know that while reading this review people will think this guy must have some screw loose, when so many people are appreciating a work then who is he to think otherwise, may be he didn't get the book
So people to place things in neutral perspective i will write some excerpts of book and you be the best judge...but before that the introduction
It is about a boy in search of a treasure(sounds interesting!)
that's it
excerpts..
WHEN YOU WANT SOMETHING, ALL THE UNIVERSE CONSPIRES IN HELPING YOU TO ACHIEVE IT.(written at least 20 times).
GOD HAS PREPARED A PATH FOR EVERYONE, YOU JUST HAVE TO READ THE OMENS TO FOLLOW...(HOLY CRAP....or may be not....its just that i am an atheist)
i don't want to continue the self judging exercise , it's just that i am getting bored anyways one last thing...this is SHIT(personal views)...
and please your time is valuable put it somewhere else,....
A Thousand Splendid Suns
It is a story of two Afghani women(Mariam and Laila) to exemplify the status of women in Afghanistan spanning 3 decades --starting from soviet invasion then mujaheddin fight after that Taliban take over and finally US invasion(to find Osama).The first part of the book starts with introducing a little girl Mariam. Her father is a rich and respected man of Herat(a city in Afghanistan) but her mother was a servant in his home, which led to the pariah of her and her mother. this also entitled her to the tag of harami--a bastard. after some unfortunate she at the age of 15 was married to middle aged man of Kabul. Then the book discribes her story and parallely introduces our second protagonist Laila, the daughter of her neighbor... i should stop here describing the plot because anything further makes the plot discreet.
The primary concer of the author was to portray the condition of Afghani women and to make his point strong he took help of war situation, my only regret after reading the book is is surely is not a mediocre work but it ain't excellent either..i mean if i read a novel which involves a war situation i should get horrifed , u know like it's happening right there another thing of same kind was with charachter introduction, it wasn't supeflous u will get the feel of them but it wasn't like getting under the skin of the charachters(if u are wondering what i mean read some of Somesaut Maugham's woek) anyways book is still likeable and still heartbreaking...
I loved the way author narrates the story he takes u almost deep into the charachter and just when you are getting a feel of charachter baam he flies of the point.It's like taking a fish out of water and just when she is gonna take her last attempt to breath u lower her in water just to take it out again without giving her time to breath. narration is impressive but the only thing that bothers me and this is the same thing that reduced one star was that the events were more like a suspense detective novel scenarios were changing too quickly,
Anyways that's my point of view and i think the author did a pretty good job of conveying his message.
Three Men in a Boat
A good old witty , hilarious ,easy read book....just don't read in a place where you have people around, you might be looked as a lunatic laughing out loud.
The way in which the book is written is as naive as a children story book and it doesn't preaches any philosophy of any kind. It is just a plain read of three men and a dog's itinerary on Thames in a boat .The level of details and wittiness of day to day situation astonishes me and i think everyone should give it a try.
Catch-22
Never read a book more hilarious and serious than this and it can't be characterized as Black comedy. If you find the above sentence contradictory wait till you read the book...
The books tells about the chaos of war in a very unusual way.
I have heard people saying they couldn't finish the book because they couldn't make out any sense after reading first few pages. Well people this book doesn't just tell you the story about war it transports you into it and when you are first time in a unaccustomed situation you couldn't make out anything but gradually things start making sense. If you do what i did just push through first 80 pages or so, you will come to know about it.
We are accustomed to read books which tells story in some kind of order like chronological, characterized by something etc. or the books which explicitly tells you that the events have no order but this book will keep you guessing about it and from my point of view this become frustrating for many readers.
must read
What I Believe
Written by one of my favouirate author, it's a documentation of the beliefs on which his life was based on.After reading this i started defining for myself "what i believe"
Must read for people intrested in philosophy.
It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
Mr.Armstrong you are a superstar, a ray of hope for many cancer patient,an ideal for Bikers...yes u are the most supreme being present on the earth.. .
i know these are the dialogues u wanna hear from people who read this book but all i can recall is your consant bragging of your will power.
I had a vague knowlwdge about Lance Armstrong and wanted to know more about his fight with cancer, becoming a star Biker and i ended up despising him..
It's a very superficial book as far as a biography is considerd, he may not be such an boaster but reading the book gave me the impression.
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR UNINFORMED LANCE ARMSTRONG FANS(IF U WANT OT REMAIN ONE)
Into the Wild
THIS BOOK COMES WITH A WARNING.. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOMEPeople say McCandless is an perfect example of a lunatic, a hormone pumped teen who was disillusioned by the spectre of society. They say he should have trained himself before going into wilderness. Here is a news flash people he ran away from people like you and your society. may be none of you wanted to live alone and i don't mean alone as in "i want some space, leave me alone for an hour". but try to understand from his point of view "DO WHAT YOU LOVE".
Story of McCandless gave me an inclination to go footloose and if i had enough courage like him i am gonna try it someday....
To Kill a Mockingbird
This book was relevant when it was written, but the theme is quite exoteric now. A black man charged with the rape of white women is the whole theme of the book which do not excite any thing in me now.
everything seems to be predictable because we are used to such stories, at the time of writng it may have been the hot topic but from my point of view it is not so attention grabbing..
The Harafish
It is a story about 13(or may be 12,i lost the track after 10)genration of a family with weird names and full book story line vacillating between the pious and impiuos people born generation after generation.the whole idea of the book was to show the power of the harafish(common people) which came in last few pages, after being under the rage for around 12-13 generations, i think the point author wanted to convey isn't much clear or may be i dozed of in the few pages(can't hold that against me).
too loathsome to read another of his work.
The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank
Thouroughly researched and documented this book is an account of the sperm bank established by Robert Graham with the sole purpose of improving the future race by donating the sperms of nobel prize winners (and High IQ males) to the women who were tested for IQ beforehand.Robert Graham himself a genious disgusted by the mediocricity stumbled upon this idea (similar to hitler's Eugenics campaign but subtler in intesity of operation) and established the sperm bank.He was convinced that the offsprings produced will be geniouses but couldn't live long enough to verify it, the author then tracked down several children and the results were quite astonishing .
I will not spoil the fun by mentioning the result. read it for historical knowledge..
And iam very thankful to Ashutosh Sir for recommending it..
2 States: The Story of My Marriage
another movie orientad novel ...i am never gonna read another of his book
Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama
I read it a long time back and cannot recall exactly the events in chronological order. This book will inform you about the monk culture (perfectly), Chinese attack on Tibet (in a very vague way) and how the Tibetan came to reside in India.
If you want to know what the hell happens in the monk world u may try this, and i assure you my atheist and agnostic friends that you will have a great laugh or may be i am too cynical to believe Dalai lama for certain facts he presented such as man sitting with no discomfort on ice in -40degree. The thing which most shocked me was how the future occupancy of certain monastery post was decided . it's voodoo like all religions.
All in all i was having a good time reading it until i stumbled upon his decision of non violence, even this could be overlooked considering he is a monk but demotivating others who were fighting for their country was perplexing. In whole book he lauded Gandhi for accepting non violence as the only form of defending the country and i can bet that he thinks that Gandhi alone using non-violence freed our country. What about Bhagat singh, subash chandra bose, Tatia Tope etc. may be he haven't heard of them and all blame goes to his monk school education which teach them to be optimistic.
Even jawahar lal nehru stated clearly to him if you need your country to be free "FIGHT".
i accede with lokesh joshi's review mentioning"its always bad to mix religion with politics".Dalai lama being a religious man and like all god fearing creatures thinks that there is some customized big brother up above in the skies to protect his county and people and all they have to do is sit ideally and wait for a omen from the sky(may be in the form of a flier saying---"YOUR COUNTRY IS FREE,ENJOY").
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well Mr. Dalai Lama,Mao Tse Tung said "Change must come through the barrel of gun" so sit around and contemplate next time you meditate and 3 star because it was a easy read,
