Reading Report :: June

I finished reading The Unknown Soldier by Gerard Seymour. It took me a long time to read. Some 68 days. Why? because I read another book in between, Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey (More about it in a bit).

So, The Unknown Soldier. The book is slow. The premise promises of action. But that's all it does. Promises of action. There is very little action. Couples of camels getting shot, a dude getting sunk in a quicksand, and then a stinger taking down an unmanned airplane. There is lot of character development, of the lead character Caleb and his co travelers who are crossing the desert on camels. What really irritated me was a blurb on the back of the book that said that "the action in the last 150 pages is intense and it won't let you leave your leave the book." For me, last 150 pages were boring. I kept expecting some action and kept reading the book, but none, zilch nada. Even in the end, the book ends as a damp squib. I was not entertained, not disappointed either, because it's not a badly written book, but there is very less good in it.

Now, to Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. This book is full of action. There is lot of action, there are lot of cool sequences, there are demons and angels and magic and violence, but, there is something missing. What is that missing thing? The basic idea. The basic premise that what the hell the book is about. The basic theme of revenge keeps the book afloat very thinly and frankly, the lack of justification for the title of the book is kinda intriguing. Why is the lead character called Sandman Slim? I never got it. Richard Kadrey's last book which I read was Butcher Bird, which was awesome in parts, some parts of that book blew my mind, on the whole it was ok too, and there WAS a justification for the book's title. This is the least a book can do, tell the reader why is it called what it is called. It gives the reader an idea how to approach the book.

This is what i felt about the books. In my opinion, no book is outrightly good or bad. It's the reader's perception which gives flavor to a book.

Currently reading  :: The Secret Of Excalibur by Andy McDermottt
Next planned read :: Johnny Gone Down

Reading Jim Butcher's "Changes"

Harry Dresden. Wizard, Investigator, trouble magnet and a heck lotta of other things. Jim Butcher has taken a stock character and molded him into something so fine that the fans eagerly await the next Harry Dresden book, every April. The author deserves great kudos for keeping the pace of the books yearly, because reading a Harry Dresden book is an experience in its own. It's nothing enlightening or mindblowing that will make you think and ruminate about the meaning of life and other jazz, but the books with Harry Dresden in it are FUN!

And if a book is fun, it is a winner in my book.

This is the problem with most of the fiction out there. Most people try to impress the reader or make the book a fictional mouthpiece for their own strange agendas but some books are like a bike ride. It's fast, fun and you want to do it again and again. This year's installments of Harry Dresden book Changes is just that, like a bike ride.

In short, Harry Dresden has a daughter now. And the daughter has been kidnapped by baddies, so Harry will do everything in his power and beyond to stop the baddies from harming his daughter. Harry takes a huge beating in the book, just like the previous books in the series, but he manages to emerge victorious after all the trials and tribulations.

Many characters from the past books make small appearances in this book and things do change a lot. I won't tell who all or what all are in the book, that's the fun for you to explore.

Happy Reading!

Buy the book :: From Amazon,
For Indian Readers:: From Flipkart

Pending Update, new books and Penguin India

From now on, i'll try to update this blog weekly. Just to tell everything I did regarding books in the past week. That sounds better than no updates at all.

This week i finished reading Under The Dome by Stephen King. The book is as kickass as Stephen King can be. There is no doubt that die hard King fans would love this book and so would anyone who gets introduced to King now. But if you've not read Stephen King by now, i can only feel sorry for you. Really truly.

Under The Dome, the book is about a town that is placed, well, under a dome. The seclusion from the outside world creates a new political and cultural ecosystem in the town and things start going very very wrong very very soon in the book. Sufficient to say, the bodycount is super high and King delivers!

A must read. Under The Dome.

In other news, I bought One Hundred Years of Solitude. Marquez is a genius, or so I have heard, but somehow I've always avoided his books. There have been enough Marquez fans in my knowledge who'd often guide me towards his books, but I always said no. This time, I bought that book. But to my disappointment, even as I opened the book, the quality of paper and the quality of words printed on that paper was below average. Penguin India needs to brush up their act. A consumer pays 300 bucks for a book and gets below standard quality, who goes to blame? I can easily download an ebook and get a print of the book, at a fraction of original's price, but that won't be cool.

Anyway, here's hoping for a better quality of books from Penguin India.

Currently reading : The Malice Box and Raggamuffin.

Terry Pratchett, Peter Straub and Eoin Colfer

Recent readings included Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett which I loved absolutely. If there is one writer whose every word deserves to be etched in gold, that's Terry Pratchett. An amazing book once again.

Next Terry Pratchett is writing "I Shall Wear Midnight" of Tiffny Aching series and after that, Raising Taxes with the super awesome Mr. Moist Von Lopwig who makes a return after Going Postal and Making Money.

I didn't buy any new books in November because there are some old ones that I need to finish. Actually, there is quite a backlog of books that I need to read.

Current books in Reading Limbo

The Malice Box by Martin Langfield. I don't know why I picked this one up. It seems that after the success of Dan Browne all these ancient mysteries getting solved novels are coming up like mushrooms. Though I wouldn't mind reading something like that by Matthew Reilly (his almost unbelievable scenerios are almost funny), but still.

Koko by Peter Straub. I bought this one cheap from a used book place. Just based on the cover art and the fact that once I read a book by Peter Straub, it was very slow and very boring, but I did finish it. Wanted to give the author a second chance, turns out Koko is slightly less boring. I'm waiting for the book to pick up pace as i read further into it.

Ah, and in other news, Eoin Colfer of Artemis Fowl fame has written the next installment of Douglas Adams' H2G2 series. It's called "And Another Thing". I like Colfer's writing style, it's fast paced, it's funny and his hooks in the story keep a reader gripped. I don't really care what hardcore H2G2 fans say, I like both Adams' work and Colfer's work, and I don't think any other writer here would have done justice to Adams' legacy.

That's what I've been reading, what have you been reading?

What is this blog all about?

This blog by no means is a book review blog. I like to read books and I just wanted a space to discuss all the books that I have read or will read in the coming times.

My recent trip to Delhi found me poorer by some 3K and richer by a lot of books, some of the books bought were

• Mammoth Book of Horror Fiction
• Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction
• Poems of Pash
• More Poems of Pash
• Koko by Peter Straub
• One book by Oscar Wilde
• Collected Stories of Satyajit Ray
• Rain Fall by some random guy whose name I cannot recall
• And some small books

Right, and I have lot of books left in my laptop as ebooks to read. This is going to be fun.

I am eagerly awaiting some three books which will be released in the coming year or so.

1. Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

2. The Cold Commands Richard K. Morgan

3. Book 3 of Gentlemen Bastards by Scott Lynch

Of course if Jim Butcher writes another one of Harry Dresden series, it will be awesomer. Tomorrow, I'm going to buy The Cather In the Rye. Yeah, I somehow missed reading this book and now I want to. 

There will be more book talk later on this blog till then, what books are you reading?

So Many Blogs Left to Visit:: Lord Likely :)

One of the blogs i always look forward to reading is Lord Likely. This blog tells of the Adventures of the Aristocratic Gentleman, Lord Likely. The language, the stories, and the confidence of Lord Likely in dealing with the shit around him and still bonking a few and more than a few "ladies" in the process is funny, awesome, and too fucking good to miss.

Go and check out Lord Likely Here

Grab his feed. :P

So Many Books Left to Read

Recently, I read the book Londonstani by Gautam Malkani. The books tells the story of Jas in London, a low confidence loser-ish type guys who looks up to punjabi Hard-Jit as a semi role model and then finds a dude by the name of Sanjay who is a big shot and thus the story goes. The wiki page of the book calls it a monumental failure. But i choose to digress from that point of view. It is a good book. As long as you can stomach sms-speak. Almost no punctuation for sentences in the whole course of the novel. Lengthy discourses about economics, supply and demand, and almost homo-erotic attempts of the novel's hero in seducing a girl, which make you feel pathetic for the poor fellow. But a good book, i must say, without a hint of sarcasm or something. I enjoyed reading it. Because that's what I do. I enjoy reading.

Give it a go, but only if you borrow it from a friend, or get is from a library. Not worth buying.