Crime and Punishment and Redemption

May 31, 2016

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Genres: Fiction, Classics

Redemption. We all seek redemption. Most of us are seeking it from our past self for an idealistic future self in various forms. Writing Crime and Punishment for Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a creative redemption from his past and some of his brother, originally titled The Drunkards. Dostoyevsky became fond of this project and rewrote a version of it from scratch, that we take in our hands today and proudly read.

From the start of the novel, the author accomplishes to decipher that the protagonist, Raskolnikov, is tortured by his own thoughts. A student, as many, poverty-stricken, plans an instantaneous murder of an old pawnbroker, thinking it will delay his poverty for few more weeks, completely ignorant of the aftermath and having minimal self-control. This act of morality follows an aftermath which turns out to be psychological for Raskolnikov and the author spots an absolute scenario of what happens after one stands on the brink of insanity using Raskolnikov as his puppet until the protagonist is bring in contact with his own buried conscience and another sufferer. On the engagement of the book and one’s mind, one will indulge in it actively enough as the plot moves forward.

There is suspense in the novel no doubt. Dostoyevsky, in some amount succeeds in the main theme which he tries to revolve around the story: redemption. Characters like Raskolnikov do have a place in a reader’s mind once they have acquired his attention, for longer period of time. But novels like itself, fails to provide strong reasoning for characters who prove to be a drag thoughtout it. I am not going to name a few, you have to read it and judge it for yourself. My assessment is this, when moving forward the path author wants it to and so does the reader, then why a writer like Dostoyevsky would use elements to create a labyrinth, a maze which has no possible point to prove through the novel and does proves to be unnecessary?
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Books, Reviews

Meditating with Marcus Aurelius

May 27, 2016

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics

Writing a review of Meditations is a hard task since there is too much to describe and discuss in one post considering the idle length of a blog post, or of a book review or to have your attention till the end of the post, but it is not enough. I rejected the idea of writing a review before writing this review, several times. But as Marcus Aurelius said:

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work – as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for – the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD. He is considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers and what we read today as Meditations is actually a personal notebook written by Marcus, for himself. He divided his work into 12 shorter volumes that comprise today the Meditations. One might question, what to learn from a man who is now a part of wandering dust, who is dead for almost 18 centuries? Wisdom. Wisdom is the crux of life.

In each of the 12 volumes, Marcus’ writing is clear as he describes the virtue of one’s life as a plot that progress as the essence of how universe as a whole works. In his journal, he reminds himself with understanding of universe is recursive in nature.

Everything have always been the same, and recuring, and it makes no difference whether you see the same things recur in a hundred year or two hundred, or in an infinite period.

There is no point in loathing how one’s life is and Marcus writing helps one in endurance. He offers wisdom on how tackle endurance without affecting one’s mental or physical state, constantly reminding us of the solo life we have. From the start of the book, Marcus focuses on the logos, the reasoning, the rational part of our minds, our thoughts our actions, each totally depended on one another. He emphasis the importance of work and discourages the distractions and desires we all have to deal in time. The presence of oneself, the conscious moment, and in that moment he encourages one to be patient and control our actions accordingly. His words shine a beam on the tolerance of nature and how one dislikes, disapproves of another, and reminds us that everyone have faults, thus, one should not concentrate his physical and mental energy on anger.

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5 Stars, Books, Reviews, Stoic Philosophy

BOOK REVIEW: Theatre of Dreams by Nikhil Krishnan

May 24, 2016

Theatre of Dreams by Nikhil Krishnan
Genres: Fiction, Sports, YA

There are times when I feel to like shorter book reviews. I had done it only once in a previous post, and the feedback was not good. Irrespective of the feedback, I am going to make one more try this time. The reason of this you will understand in the end of the post.

Theatre of Dreams by Nikhil Krihsnan starts with a bang. It’s a story about town which adores football (or soccer, as you prefer, as did the author) and the plot revolves around Roman Valka, a young talent when discovered, brings excitement to the whole town and given the hope of winning the victory they are awaiting of some years.

Well it’s not all about football, as plot moves forward and drags in bits, as the pages turn, author diverts the focus of his story on elements like love and hate which does make things interesting for a while but the plot starts to drag again. Till the end, the book revolves around the protagonist aforementioned, but there are characters to be considered, or I would have mentioned, if the characterisation had been any better. (more…)

Book Reviews, Books, Reviews

Celebrating 4 Years

May 22, 2016

Today, Confessions of a Readaholic underwent a revamp. It was necessary. Two tiring hours were spent on selecting the theme, the one you are currently viewing. I guess, it was worth it. There were some major changes I had to look through, changing the theme was one.

The reason I switched from 3-column view to 2-column is responsiveness of the site itself. It enhances the mobile/tablet view and I am sure some my readers had problems going through this blog on their handy devices. Myself had trouble opening this site in mobile with previous theme. Few times it lead to humiliation. But I accepted that humiliation because I could not find a theme that could satisfy the appearance of blog site and myself. Until now.

The theme I am currently using is called Twenty Sixteen. This theme has some enhancing features when comes to showcase an individual blog post. Being responsive, with two columns, the theme adapts itself to the screen of the device. You can view the demo here.

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Uncategorized

BOOK REVIEW: The Art of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins

May 20, 2016

The Art of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins
Genres: Nonfiction

Buy this Book on Amazon

We are all capable of thinking creatively. Why? It gives better productivity, more satisfaction than the mediocre, and improves visualisation. Rod Judkins, the author of The Art of Creative Thinking, is a lecturer and an academic on the arts. But this certainly doesn’t mean one has to attend or get some modern education on attaining the creativity. There is no fountain of creativity to drink from.

On reading The Art of Creative Thinking, I observed from Chap 1, that Judkins knows what he is talking about. He quotes, he para-phrases, and he writes mostly about the obstacle one intends to face when suffering from lack of creativity and how to develop some cues and turn them into habits as you progress in your daily life. This is not a self help, or is concluded in that way, this is my conclusion. You can have yours once you are done with it. That’s why Judkins’ book is so special. It doesn’t conclude in a definitive manner and rather leave that part up to you. (more…)

Books, Reviews

Stop Procrastinating and Start Reading

May 17, 2016

This is a blog post as well as an alert/reminder to my brain, especially the title, and to those who have been bitten by a dog name “Reading Slump”. No, there is no need to check with a doctor, neither you need a bibliophilist. The main occurrence of a reading slump due my observation is regardless the number of books we have on our stack, we bibliophiles, procrastinate enough to make it a distraction and cause us the slump .

One cannot eliminate procrastination in an ultimate manner from his life. But trying to eliminate it, or not thinking about it too much and just focusing on the stuff we need to het over with, in every bibliophiles case, read ’em. The aster effects of procrastination are dangerous, which happens with me, as it often leads to anxiety and guilt and causing those slumps. We waste time and time is precious to us as much as Gollum’s precious. (more…)

Books

Spotlight: You’ve Got the Wrong Girl

May 14, 2016

You’ve Got the Wrong Girl by Sreemoyee Piu Kundu

About the book:

On a sultry night, on a deserted lawn overlooking a moonlit Taj Mahal, two strangers make passionate love and promise never to meet again… But promises are meant to be broken, right?

This is the story of Dushyant Singh Rathore – the 30-something bestselling author of Kinda Cliched, a blockbuster romance novel based on his one night of bliss with a girl whose name he does not know. Under pressure to produce a money-spinning sequel – from his obsessive fans, his hit-seeking publisher and a sceptical journalist ready to expose the true-story angle as a marketing gimmick – he sets off, three years on, to find the elusive girl whom he had promised never to seek out.

When his quest, many twists and turns later, leads him to the unlikeliest of places, Dushyant discovers there’s a little more to this love story than he had anticipated. Will Dushyant get a second chance at love? What if the wrong girl was really always the right one for him? (more…)

Books

BOOK REVIEW: Thicker than Blood by Munmun Gosh

May 10, 2016

Thicker than Blood by Munmun Gosh
Genres: Fiction

Sometimes when you are reading a book, it’s all about the reading. The plot, the characters— likeable ones and unlikable ones, nobody gives a damn about mediocre ones. The setting matters at times when a reader is in the mood. The setting of the plot again matters if a writer can surprise irrespective of a reader’s mood. Such as I won’t be looking forward to the setting of the plot in a Shakespeare’s play as much as in Charles Dickens’ novel. There a lot of other factors which we, as readers, unknowingly look forward too.

Thick than Blood by Munmun Gosh tells a tale of a couple who are facing a misadventure in their marriage when are introduced to a reader. The wife, Mayuri, cannot conceive even with the medication involved. Her husband, who thinks he loves her, together, tries various treatments that brings out the pressure of society, their own parents, both physically and emotionally, straining their married relationship.

A book never fails in exploring a theme so does this one. A book always arouses curiosity in a reader’s mind in form of questions and this one doesn’t fail to do so either. I have to appreciate the writer, Munmun Gosh, for her poetic writing style which completes this book. Her writing is what made look forward to another page until I reached the back cover of the book. (more…)

Book Reviews, Books, Reviews

GUEST POST- Sometimes I feel like an Alien by Mannah Pierce

May 7, 2016

Sometimes I feel like an alien by Mannah Pierce

There is this fast moving, transient, internet-based world that I do not understand and where I do not belong: Twitter; Facebook; blogs; forums; apps. Even that short list labels me as out-of-date and left-behind. I made it to email and websites but there I stopped. Despite sporadic efforts, that is where I remain.

I used to sit at the side of the internet highway and watch the traffic flash by. There had to be a way of getting up to speed. In Robert A. Heinlein’s ‘The Roads Must Roll’ (1940) there is a mass transit system of huge conveyor belts, called ‘roadtowns’, each of which moves at a steady speed. To make it onto the 100 miles per hour road, travellers would jump repeatedly from a slightly slower road to a slightly faster one. I looked for a series of stepping-stones, my journey from one road to the next; bent on joining those travelling quickest.

Now I have accepted that I will never make it. I no longer even know the destination; by the time I have identified a waypoint those ahead of me have moved on.

Does it matter? Perhaps not. (more…)

Guest Post

Introduction to The Bard

May 3, 2016

I know, most of you are familiar with the terms: The Bard, and the Bard of Avon. Recently, the world celebrated The Bard’s 400th death anniversary on April 23, 2016, and the Bard himself is unaware of.

Why “The Bard”?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

It is almost summer everywhere and I was wondering the other summer day why is the Bard is called The Bard. In general terms, ‘bard’ means a poet. In medieval times, all bards were travelling poets who made living out of performing and telling stories. Thus so, edging out the Medieval times, our Bard was a performer in plays and loved to write plays himself.

Why Celebrate his Death Anniversary?

The reason being Shakespeare’s birthday remains unknown to us till date.

400 years, you say?

It has been four centuries since William Shakespeare wrote his last words that are still influencing the English language and a reader’s mind. Shakespeare introduced near about 1700 word to the language through his comedies, tragedies, histories and sonnets. Such as fashionable, and eyeball. Some of them are insulting.