Reviews | Interviews | Giveaways | Recommendations | "I'm Mad About Books"
February 8, 2018
Fragments by Heraclitus
Written around twenty-five hundred years ago, Heraclitus declared that energy is the essence of the matter, that everything becomes energy in flux, in relativity. Fragments if a form of collected writings by the Greek, since the title and the context of the book both suggest that.
December 12, 2017
Q. Hi Mr. Manoj Jain, and thank you for agreeing this interview. Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
By profession I am a businessman running my own export company, a business I started after I completed my studies at IIM Ahmedabad. I have always wanted to write and I finally made the plunge, writing during my business travels. Besides my business and travels, I keep busy with my ongoing psychology studies as well as learning Spanish. I believe that a person should constantly learn and grow oneself.
September 28, 2017
First Published: 1938
Originally titled La Nausée and published in 1938, is Jean-Paul Sartre’s first novel and an exploration of his early thoughts and ideas on existentialism that are elaborated in his later works. This book even though comes under the category of fiction is a difficult one to review. Nevertheless, this is my attempt.
September 19, 2017
Pages: 146, Kindle Edition
First Published on: 1955
Cover Rating: 4/5
This not the first Alan Watts book I have read. To read this one, I made myself familiar with his writing and philosophy by reading his other books such as The Wisdom of Insecurity (on someone’s recommendation in past) and listening to his teachings in past few weeks. It’s important to know your subject in most cases. In this case, even if you aren’t familiar with Watts’ philosophy, I’d suggest you to go ahead. However, a bit of familiarity only embraces curiosity. The title is the essence of this book, might point to another domino piece in the self-help genre but I can assure you that this text which was first published in 1955 holds the same amount of value and wisdom today as it did back then.
August 20, 2017
“Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you’d most like not to lose.” – Neil Gaiman
August 7, 2016
Current week is to an end and I am still not finished with Wilkie Collins’ WOMAN IN WHITE. Many say it’s his masterpiece but I am reading Collins for the first time and not even a hundred pages complete. It’s a mystery novel and has a Gothic theme with psychological realism which I am yet to explore. More this week, I had more than usual amount of free time and the amount of books I have to read is always, enormous. Thus to take the matter in my own hands and with blessings of time, I decided to binge reading and ended up reading first two books of Lord Peter Wimsey, Whose Body? & Clouds of Witness written by Dorothy Sayers.
Lord Peter Wimsey, as I like to imagine, is an unusual sort of character to be a detective in detective fiction with his reputation in London’s Society and the wealth of his family.
April 13, 2016
People have been reviewing Great Expectations for 150 years. It’s the essence of a classic to survive such a long time and still being read. It is also a writer’s name that adds to a classic’s character, but that is not always the case. However, with Charles Dickens it is the former case and readers have expectations. I do. Whenever I start reading a Dickens novel, I expect it to be long, and contain all the elements of a story telling. Certainly, Dickens is one of the masters of the art.
The story is of an orphan,Pip, who from the beginning of the novel is not an ideal protagonist who have to be heroes or emotionally and physically strong. The story in short is tale written in first person narrative is about a person and his “great expectations”. It is the tale of self-understanding and perception. As a young boy Pip, lives with his sister ad her husband, kind soul, of whom he is fond of in his childhood. One day his presence is at demand in front of a strange woman who lives in a grand house with her niece. This is the starting of Pip’s “Great Expectations”. (more…)
November 11, 2015
Northanger Abbey is a different work produced by Jane Austen, not so typical Austen novel I would say, and many times referred as a ‘Gothic Parody’. I haven’t read Jane Austen in years. Last book I remember reading of hers is Mansfield Park that I consider her best work.
Most of the events described in this book take place in Bath, England and later in Northanger Abbey, an estate. Catherine Morland is this novel’s young heroine who has little experience outside her own country village until she is invited to Bath with family friends, Mr. & Mrs. Allen. In Bath she befriends two families, the Thorpes and the Tilneys.
While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers and especially a fan Ann Radcliffe’s books immerses herself in the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion and let it mingle with her mind with terrible suspicions. She arouse some questions to satisfy her own appetite of imagination such as what is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? (more…)
November 5, 2015
Jack London’s Martin Eden is a rare book that would indulge any reader from page one. It is also rare since it does resemble the typical American writing as one can observe in the writing styles of American writers of early twentieth century. It’s a powerful book, one that will definitely have an impact on its readers and will leave a reader thoughtful in the end.
Set in San Fransisco, this semi-autobiographical work is the story of a sailor called Martin Eden who pursues ambitiously, dreams of education and literary fame. For a start with help of the girl, he falls in love with, he educates himself feverishly and becomes a writer, hoping to acquire the respectability sought by his society-girl. However, fame is a cruel mistress and takes her own time to develop but that doesn’t mean it will knock on one’s door. Martin pledges towards his writing everyday, once he feels confident of himself being an intellectual he starts writing articles, essays and stories and sends them to magazines and newspapers all across the country. (more…)
September 4, 2015
You can go on reading books after books for fifteen days or you can read Tolstoy’s undoubtedly masterpiece: War and Peace. How was it, you ask? Easier than I expected. Choosing the right translation plays a major role when you are reading books written in languages you are not familiar of. We will talk about that more, later.
Saying that I haven’t read Tolstoy before will be an understatement since I remember my failed attempts with Anna Karenina, twice I think. The Confession is a petite novella and is lying on my shelf just like that for months. Not a single attempt-to-read yet. War and Peace is humongous. Lots of characters introduced in first few chapters will seek you attention. Don’t start this book before going to bed. Especially before going to bed when you are starting to read it. The characters introduced in those first few chapters may help you doze off to sweeter dreams, thus you might end up loosing any interest that was the result of earlier motivation.
With lots of characters comes a lot more story lines. Tolstoy does a fantastic job in describing those story lines along with timeline of historical events, recounting them deeply and the blending of the fictional characters along with the historical ones. In short I can say, War and Peace is about five families during Napoleonic War in Russia. But that doesn’t satisfy me at all. It is about a lot more than that. It explores of human emotions during various circumstances including, war, patriotism, money, love, marriage, betrayal, forgiveness, gossip, et cetera.
The book is divided into five volumes. First one starts in 1805 when Russia is at war with Napoleon Bonaparte’s France. Tolstoy introduces his list of characters at an evening gathering held by a socialite. This party introduces us to many of the characters such as Pierre Bezukhov, and Prince Andrei are major ones. The major part of the story is either played in St. Petersburg or in Moscow. Rest are shown in various fields and outposts where the French and the Russian army are getting net to neck. Tolstoy makes the reader familiar by indulging some of the major characters in war at this time. The war is interesting if Tolstoy is describing it to us. At some point in the book Tolstoy arguably defies historians and the events described by them. He certainly disliked their way of forging with historical events. He also denies the fallacy that history is a production by some great men, instead suggesting it is the result of minute moments and decisions made by a large number of men and women. Many of the events described by him are graphic and you will end up visualising them in front of your eyes just as you see reality merely by reading Tolstoy’s words. (more…)
