What I Am NOT Reading

It's been so long since we last updated this blog. Kinda sad. My problem is that I seem to be soot deep into this thing commonly referred to as "reader's block".
Just a quick update of what I am currently in the process of reading/half-way through/not touching again most probably.

- The New Life by Orhan Pamuk

A story about this guy whose life is changed by a certain book he comes across. Half-way through the book and I couldn't even get the name of the author who wrote this ah-mazing book.

What Works: The setting. It's a different place; feels like a different time. The idea of a book changing your life. The feeling that there are ghosts around. My favourite part is where the protagonist imagines himself being hit by a bus - the travelling sequence worked really good. You're able to find some pretty phrases in this book.

What Didn't The protagonist/hero what you will. I just can't come around to liking him. The girl is weird too. So is the other guy. I'm so over this story that I don't even remember the names of the characters.


- The Gathering by Anne Enright

Alright so seriously what is this? I can only stand the depressive tone for so long. I don't mind depressing books; in fact it won't be wrong to say I actually like reading depressing books. But this is not even the sort of depressing that I go for. It's just long and stretches on, and oh I tried so hard to like it but then I gave up.

What Worked: The family set up. The idea that the brother is dead, and this is a family psychological narrative where the sister is trying to deal with his death.

What Didn't: The length. And there isn't any plot really. Gets annoying weepy.


- Possession by A.S. Byatt

Contrary to the two books earlier, I was actually enjoying this one before the reader's block struck.

What Works: All the pretty poetical phrases. The guy who has no clue what he is up to.
What Doesn't: It's alright so far. Can't say what's in store ahead.


That's all for now. Back to watching Glee.

Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie

'She had not thought of destination as much as departure, wheeling through the world with the awful freedom of of someone with no one to answer to...a figure out of myth...who loses everything and is born anew in blood.'
Hiroko Tanaka was an ordinary woman in love with her fiance. On August 5th, 1945, she steps out to an ordinary day and smiles at her new beginning. Decades later she stands at a window in her apartment in the USA and thinks about all the years in between; trying to figure out just where it was that her world completely changed.

Kamila Shamsie is one of those rare writers who manage to not only draw you in from the very first line, but somehow find the perfect spot; hitting you with thoughts and feeling that you are never really prepared for. Burnt Shadows is her latest and most ambitious novel and in my opinion really shows her development as a writer and a person. Indeed that is the very heart of her message...that in the end nothing stands still. Her characters are not stagnant and each makes his own journey, adapting to a new life and making the best of whatever curve fate throws at them. What the reader takes away is not that in this world some live and some die; but that the concept of life is survival; not victory - there can be no victory in life.

She does not make this claim lightly but draws her observation from various characters from Japan to India to Pakistan and even Afghanistan and America. Through the eyes of the brave Hiroko Tanaka we see the destruction of the Japanese in WWII, the heartache of the Partition in 1947 and the aftermath of 9/11. What's interesting to note is that this novel cannot be characterized as a historical. While the details of events are always accurate the emphasis of the story remains with the characters and how they deal with the chaos of the world. Hiroko carries the harsh reminder of the cranes from her kimono, branded onto her shoulders that morning in Nagasaki. Yet amidst the harshness and despite the bitter reminder of her past, she will find love, work, children and her life will always go on.

Through all the characters Shamsie introduces, Konrad, Hiroko, Sajjad, Raza and Kim; their shattered dreams and their sacrifices; their love and their mistakes but most importantly their struggle to make a mark in the world.

It is a definite must read; beautiful and fluid and heartwarming.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Claire: I wait for him. Each moment I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?

The first time Claire met Henry was when she was 6 years old and he was 36. The first time Henry met Claire was when he 28 and she was 20. 

This is a story of love above, beyond, through and surpassing time. It shows how the two will find each other time and again and capture fleeting moments of happiness before Henry's genetic condition pulls him yet again to an unexpected alternative timeline. It's a struggle for normalcy where fate throws them towards chaos over and over again.


It is a question of determinism vs free will as Henry is forced to watch his life over and over through time and is unable to do anything to change his life, or Claire's. Reading this book made me wonder if either one of them had a choice to walk away from this insanity. When Claire met Henry he was already married to her in his own time. And by the time he meets Claire, she is desperately in love with him...or rather who he will become. This infinite loop and paradoxical fate was so tragic at times. What was interesting to note was the title. The main character is not Henry even though the story is mostly from his point of view. Rather the very beginning makes you realize that its about Claire; who got a very raw deal and there was no way that it could have been any different. 


I have not seen the movie as yet. I doubt I will. It wont be able to capture the emotion of the book. The book is too subtle to be portrayed as a movie. The poignancy in the book is not the plot...but the subtext that connects you to Claire's life, her dreams and her waiting...always waiting. 


I do not get pointless grief. and there I disagreed with so many concepts in the plot. It was nicely written and certainly appealing, but I don't know...I feel let down by the author. 


Read it. Let me know what you think because despite it all; it's a book that begs to be discussed.

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

This novel was only good enough back in ninth grade. At the time I was a kid newly acclimating to the idea of pseudo Byronic heroes - Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Darcy. I believe this is where I like the movie better - only the movie mind you, the other adaptations I'd rather not talk about.

The amount of criticism I've read on Austen can fill up a whole cupboard. The thing is, we dragged this story and at this point it's become so ordinary that it no longer holds any appeal for me. Mostly because for some unfathomable reason I can not bring myself to wholly like Elizabeth Bennet.

While reading the novel I realized I started getting irritated by almost every other character. And that is bad news because then how do you expect to stick with the story? Mr. Bennet is amusing only in the first few chapters, after that I want to ship him to Boston (but knowing him that will only be a blessing in disguise). I'll say my opinion of some characters sort of improved. Mrs. Bennet is surprisingly one of them. And Mary Bennet. Lydia and Kitty are as cardboard barbies as ever and I'd rather not talk about them.

Mr. Darcy, hmm, well he is not the same I imagined him to be' he appears more human now, with his faults. He makes mistakes. He admits them. He is pigheaded at times. But he is gentle of heart. All right Austen, I'll buy into that.

Anyway so the point is, within all that dissection of Pride and Prejudice I did learn to appreciate (if you can call it that) new characters and admit the limitations of others. Rest, I do not want to hear any Pride and Prejudice references for some while in the near future thankyouverymuch.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind

I looked at that man whom I had once imagined almost invincible; he now seemed fragile, defeated without knowing it. Perhaps we were both defeated. I leaned over to cover him with the blanket he had been promising to give away to charity for years, and I kissed his forehead, as if by doing so I could protect him from the invisible threads that kept him away from me, from that tiny apartment, and from my memories. As if I believed that with that kiss I could deceive time and convince it to pass us by, to return some other day, some other life.

I think I may have found a new favourite literary character. And that's saying a lot.

This was a chance buy, and I don't regret a single moment of my splurge on this book, even when I was broke.

This is actually a translation, since Zafon writes in Spanish. I feel the words "beautiful" and "gorgeous" don't do justice to this book. There were passages where I would stop for hours going over and over again; they broke my heart so. And for some reason, I like getting my heart broken over a book. I believe there is nothing better than that.

The Shadow of the Wind encompasses a lot of genres, it's basically hard to categorize it. It's a mix of mystery/thriller/period drama/romance/historical and within this the comic element never fails. My new favourite literary character is the larger-than-life Fermin Romero de Torres. I can't even begin to describe him. And I like him better than Julian, the supposed bad-ass, and Daniel, the protagonist. With Fermin it sort of goes like this: you either hate him or you love him. There is no in-between. Fermin makes you want to scratch your hair out but mostly her proves to be the best source of laughter (even in his pathetic state). He has opposing views to almost every universally acknowledged idea or notion and he sticks to that; "what the world really needs are more thoroughly evil people and less borderline pigheads". I could write a whole dissertation on this man.

At times it gets a little over-the-top but that is the fun element of this book. Amidst all the gruesome murders and parallel stories, you are still drawn into the life of the characters. And I can never not fall in love with the idea of a "Cemetery of Lost Books".

Alison Weir - Innocent Traitor

For some reason I am fascinated by Tudor England. Maybe it is the appeal of Henry VIII, or the customs and traditions of the time, or perhaps the Showtime series that is visually stunning. Whatever the case may be, Tudor history has been of great interest to me over the years. I picked this book up for the reason that it was historical fiction and I am as yet adapting to that genre.

Innocent Traitor is a novel about Lady Jane Grey, more commonly known as 'The Nine Day Queen'. The prologue along with the historical details alerts you to the fact that this is not going to be a happy ending. I felt Weir could've utilized less space to account for what happened, since at times the story seemed stagnant. However the various character voices lent to this narrative made it possible to provide a back story as well as create a wholesome image. It is interesting to read about the Tudor period, King Henry VIII at a time when he isn't the self-assured handsome man he is reported to have been, the various connections drawn between the characters, the etiquettes and the customs and the tyranny of that age; everything worked together to bring the world alive. At times I felt I was there at court.

It's an amazing world where you realize Lady Jane being treated as a pawn. By her own father for social advancement. Here mothers have forsaken daughters, and the daughters have to look elsewhere for motherly affection. In a way it is a very contemporary issue. But then the universal issues never change. They might take on new names but they never change.

The only hindrance I felt in really getting into the book was my inability to empathize with the lead character, Lady Jane. Her sense of righteousness got to me at times but then I had to discount the fact the she wasn't an adult, only a child. Her life was far from easy.

Excited about reading more from this author.

Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident

"Also people think they’re not computers because they have feelings and computers don’t have feelings. But feelings are just having a picture on the screen in your head of what is going to happen tomorrow or next year, or what might have happened instead of what did happen, and if it is a happy picture they smile, and if it is a sad picture they cry.”

This is an amazing amazing book. A definite must read. its sad and funny and ironic at the same time.

it made me cry and laugh and at times just put down the book so i could sigh.

Christopher is an autistic boy determined to solve the mystery of his neighbour's dead dog. he has to do that and write a book keeping in mind that he numbers his chapters using prime numbers. he doesnt like talking to strangers. he cant stand the colour brown or yellow. and his father doesnt want him to snoop around.

its such a piognant story and at the end of it i just did not want to put it down.