Reacher at home!

Wife is a big fan of Lee Child novels, especially the Reacher series. I've grown to like them as well. Good reads, loads of action, simple plots.
Currently reading :

Finished the Question

Took the book "The Finkler Question". Turned out not to be my type, atleast these days. I prefer simple, easy to read books, and specifically like biographies and auto-bios.

Nevertheless, having started the book, I had to finish it and it took me 5 weeks to do that!

Anyway, done and dusted now. And then I picked a quick-read that I finished in 4 hours amidst other things.

Here are what I read in the last couple of months:

Books

Of late, I've taken obsessively to books. I've never been a "book person". I've just been on and off, reading what people recommend and rave about. But now, I have begun to understand how books can take me far from the maddening crowd...And that's shown me the door to a new high.

I can absolutely not critique a book, its beyond me. But I can discern, and now I think I know what kind of books I like, and that is going to show you how much of a bore I will turn out to be. I like bio and autobio graphies. I really seem to like to read how people who have achieved (or miserably failed to) have gone on with their lives. I specifically like sports "graphies".

What I just completed:


Liked it quite. Would Recommend.

Photo Courtesy: Amazon

Is all well that doesnt end well?

I have completed the book, while in the bus this morning. Rushed through the last few pages. Maybe because it wasnt the end I wanted.

Or maybe because it was just a plan boring end to a promising story, an opinion seconded by Mrs who read it first. Am utterly disappointed.

A Change of Opinion

Well, I have been made to eat some of my words back.

I should have finished the book I have been writing about, in about 2 nights. But the fact that I have strictly reserved it for the to and fro bus journeys, means I can push the book through for a week or more.

I am past midway now, and though I struggled to get past the initial part of the book, its taken a turn for the better now. The story is engaging, the dialogues stronger, and the plot beginning to unfold well. A thrill and suspense is beginning to build up now and its quite fast.

And the part I was going through this morning, well, was a bit unnerving even, if I may say so. I am sure people will tend to put themselves into the protagonist's shoes (the one from whose point of view the story progresses), and when someone does that and realizes the full magnitude of the events (much better understood by married people I guess), its truly gripping.

Well, my opinion - having fully discarded the book as a waste of time - has changed now. I still hold that the start was least promising, but it has grown well.

Vicky Becky, I dont like the booky

I didnt know till the previous morning, that Goffs Oak, which I pass daily on the way to and from office, is where Victoria Beckham grew up. Her parents still live there, as per the cabbie who told me this fact. An interesting fact noted down.

The second fact is that, I dont like the book 'Three Dog Night'.
The start didnt impress me, and I continued to check if it was just the start that went wrong. But the rest of the book seems to be worse, in my own opinion.
The author has good imagination and does infact put in some nice lines. But the overdone description of the surroundings, and the stubborn continuous usage of complicated lines and regular fall back on unpronouncable medical terms, seem to be putting me off. I would like a story which gets soon to the point, with appropriate deviations to set the plot up. And lot of conversations. I love it when there are lots of dialogues and exchanges. Not when I have to sit and read constantly on how a tree looks before getting to know what the person under the tree is doing. It looks like a kind of cover up for the fact that there is no major plot.

But, having started a book, it has always been a moral obligation to finish it, and so I will complete this book anyway.

Oops - Just stole a bunch of grapes from a nearby desk. Yumm. Little mercies of life-late-in-office.

Long Evening & Three Dogs

Today is going to be probably a dull day.

I have to stay till late tonight to monitor some of the programs that are running during the first week of release. Just to make sure there are no panic situations.

That means, I have to be here till 1 or 2 am tomorrow morning. And that is not a particularly inviting prospect. However, the extra time in the evening means I can finish or atleast get close to finishing the basic retail course I have been nominated for. Last date being Sep 21.

This will be the first day at UK that I will be staying beyond 8 pm at office. And first time I will be out on the roads beyond 11 PM.

In my previous company, I could go to play TT or Snooker, to take a break, and many friends will always be staying late playing WOW or AOE. But here, it is going to be lonely, like it was at India.


I have with me a book named "Three Dog Night" to pass time. Mrs picked it up from Bangalore airport coz the name looked interesting. Its written by an Australian author. Google for it and see if you are interested. I have just read the first 2 pages and seems like its not going to be a great read. This book is not my type.

Watched "Zoolander" last night. What a crappy movie! Challenged myself to sit through it. No movies in my laptop to watch today. Ah! Such a dearth of resources to pass time.

Well, a long evening awaits and I better think of better ways to pass time, soon.

For My Sake

I used to be this reader-types who was never without a novel or a short story or a comic.

And like most of the people around me, reading started becoming like Diwali or something, an occasion that happens once in a long time, and we cherish that for a whole year till it happens all over again.

I hadnt touched a novel in 6 months, that is since I first came to the UK.
However, my Mrs happens to be a voracious reader, who can go to the lengths of getting novels at the Bangalore airport, fearing a dearth of novels in the country she is visiting. And so she got a couple of books, one of them being The Namesake.

She now has "Shantaram" which she got from her friend in London. She is taking it back to India and the size of the novel suggests she is going to be stuck to it for a month atleast. I am on page 41 of that novel, though I very well know I cannot continue after this Friday because the book wont be with me. But the novel has a FANTASTIC beginning, and I simply fell in love with it, and started hating the fact that I will have to wait till I get back to India to continue reading it.

Until I started with Namesake. This morning while in the bus, I started with the book. I havent enjoyed few of the Indian writers' work lately, so I was quite unsure when I started with this book.

Somehow, after all the books I've been through, this seemed to be a fresh narrative. And I quite like it. Infact, I should say I am beginning to really enjoy it. I am on page 18 of this book now. I am going to take a while to complete it though, since I have reserved it for the bus journeys, which have become monotonous now. 30 minutes of travel one-way, so 1 hour per day wasted usually. So I've fallen back on books to rescue me.