Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Books to look out for
Two recent books, one by Vilayanur Ramachandran, The Tell-Tale Brain, and another on cancer, The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, have caught my attention. I would be looking forward to reading them soon. Nilanjana has reviewed these two books along with another book by Oliver Sacks in today's Business Standard. Here is the link: http://wap.business-standard.com/storypage.php?id=0&autono=423566
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Thanjavur Story
Itching to lay my hands on Pradeep Chakravarthy's Thanjavur: A Cultural History. S. Muthiah in his Madras Musings Column in The Hindu writes: "Every time I meet Pradeep Chakravarthy I'm delighted, for in his bubbling over with enthusiasm for the past I see hope for heritage in the State. There are so few young persons interested in the historical that when I meet a young person with the same passion as I have for all that has contributed to our present, a person like 35-year-old Pradeep for instance, it raises my spirits considerably to find that there is are young people who will continue to keep the fires of heritage burning.
It doesn't matter that my interests in the past are different from Pradeep's. He's interested in temples, their architecture, their stories, their sculptures and vahanas, the songs and dance they have generated over the years, and the inscriptions in them — many of them disappearing — that record bits and pieces of royal and social history".
It doesn't matter that my interests in the past are different from Pradeep's. He's interested in temples, their architecture, their stories, their sculptures and vahanas, the songs and dance they have generated over the years, and the inscriptions in them — many of them disappearing — that record bits and pieces of royal and social history".
Saturday, October 23, 2010
New book On Kashmir
Today read an article in The Hindu (Oct 23, 2010) by Hasan Suroor about a new book "The Collaborator" by Mirza Waheed. "The Collaborator, originally titled In the Valley of Yellow Flowers, has been described by its publishers Penguin/Viking as a “heartbreaking and shocking story of what happens to a community, and a family, that must live through a conflict that is all too real”.
Having liked Basharat Peer's Curfewed Night, I hope to get hold of "The Collaborator" soon.
Having liked Basharat Peer's Curfewed Night, I hope to get hold of "The Collaborator" soon.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Against Book Ban
As we all know, Mumbai University banned Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey after Shiv Sena protest. I feel this is a retrograde step. As the author puts it:
“Does he have to? No. He is clearly equipped to choose for himself. He could lead, instead of following, the old regime. He could say something radical — that burning and banning books will not feed one hungry soul, will not house one homeless person nor will it provide gainful employment to anyone [unless one counts those hired to light bonfires], not in Mumbai, not in Maharashtra, not anywhere, not ever.
“He can think independently, and he can choose. And since he is drawn to books, he might want to read, carefully this time, from cover to cover, a couple that would help him make his choice. Come to think of it, the Vice-Chancellor, too, may find them beneficial. First, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, in order to consider the options: step back from the abyss, or go over the edge. Next, the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali. And I would urge particular attention to this verse: ‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;...Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake'.”
Hope his voice is heeded and they withdraw the ban forthwith.
“Does he have to? No. He is clearly equipped to choose for himself. He could lead, instead of following, the old regime. He could say something radical — that burning and banning books will not feed one hungry soul, will not house one homeless person nor will it provide gainful employment to anyone [unless one counts those hired to light bonfires], not in Mumbai, not in Maharashtra, not anywhere, not ever.
“He can think independently, and he can choose. And since he is drawn to books, he might want to read, carefully this time, from cover to cover, a couple that would help him make his choice. Come to think of it, the Vice-Chancellor, too, may find them beneficial. First, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, in order to consider the options: step back from the abyss, or go over the edge. Next, the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali. And I would urge particular attention to this verse: ‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;...Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake'.”
Hope his voice is heeded and they withdraw the ban forthwith.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Dick Francis No More
Dick Francis was one of the thriller writers I really enjoyed reading . Of late though, I did not have a chance to read any of his novels. All his novels were in the setting of horse races and were real delight to read.
Read more on him at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/15/AR2010021503558.html?hpid=moreheadlines
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/feb/14/dick-francis-obituary
Read more on him at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/15/AR2010021503558.html?hpid=moreheadlines
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/feb/14/dick-francis-obituary
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wish Lists
The year 2009 is drawing to a close. It is time to draw up lists. Here is my wish list for English books I would love to read in 2010.
1. Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer. I have read so many reviews praising this book that I am itching to get my hands on it.
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. This first book in his Millenium trilogy has been lavished encomiums and I hope I would get to read this Swedish crime thriller.
3. In other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin. Review in New York Times: "Reading Daniyal Mueenuddin’s mesmerizing first collection, “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” is like watching a game of blackjack, the shrewd players calculating their way beyond their dealt cards in an attempt to beat the dealer. Some bust, others surrender. But in Mueenuddin’s world, no one wins." Hoping to savor this book.
4. Jejuri by Arun Kolatkar.
Pankaj Mishra : "Arun Kolatkar was the greatest Indian poet of his generation, and Jejuri, with its linguistic inventiveness and intellectual daring, was his masterwork." Need I say more ?
5. Collapse by Jared Diamond. I am fascinated by Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal.
1. Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer. I have read so many reviews praising this book that I am itching to get my hands on it.
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. This first book in his Millenium trilogy has been lavished encomiums and I hope I would get to read this Swedish crime thriller.
3. In other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin. Review in New York Times: "Reading Daniyal Mueenuddin’s mesmerizing first collection, “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” is like watching a game of blackjack, the shrewd players calculating their way beyond their dealt cards in an attempt to beat the dealer. Some bust, others surrender. But in Mueenuddin’s world, no one wins." Hoping to savor this book.
4. Jejuri by Arun Kolatkar.
Pankaj Mishra : "Arun Kolatkar was the greatest Indian poet of his generation, and Jejuri, with its linguistic inventiveness and intellectual daring, was his masterwork." Need I say more ?
5. Collapse by Jared Diamond. I am fascinated by Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
William Dalrymple on India
I found quite a few of Dalrymple's observations while talking about his new book, “Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India” worth quoting. A sample:
"This is what I like about this country. As I travelled and met the characters for my book. I found it is not possible to compartmentalise life anymore. There are so many ways of being a Hindu, so many ways of being a Muslim or a Christian here. India continues to surprise me. The day India ceases to surprise me I might get bored. But I love the India that is changing from the time I first came 25 years ago. Besides economic development, new traditions are developing. They are not static.”
Here is the link
http://beta.thehindu.com/arts/books/article33787.ece
"This is what I like about this country. As I travelled and met the characters for my book. I found it is not possible to compartmentalise life anymore. There are so many ways of being a Hindu, so many ways of being a Muslim or a Christian here. India continues to surprise me. The day India ceases to surprise me I might get bored. But I love the India that is changing from the time I first came 25 years ago. Besides economic development, new traditions are developing. They are not static.”
Here is the link
http://beta.thehindu.com/arts/books/article33787.ece
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Man Booker 2009
Excerpts from an article in FT by Peter Aspden
Hilary Mantel is the winner of this year’s Man Booker prize for fiction for Wolf Hall, her historical novel about the politics of Tudor England.
Wolf Hall, her 11th novel, is set in the Tudor court of the 1520s. It focuses on the role of Thomas Cromwell during the years that Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon.
Reviewing the book in the Financial Times, novelist Julie Myerson described it as “fantastically well-wrought, detailed and convincing”.
“Despite being a complex examination of the all-too-familiar shenanigans of power, of favour and of treachery in the Tudor court, still the rhythms at its wrist-aching, 650-page heart are universal: men, women and children, birth and death.”
This year’s shortlist was widely regarded as one of the most readable, a fact that has been reflected in book sales. Wolf Hall has already sold nearly 50,000 copies and can expect a massive boost after winning the £50,000 prize.
Last year’s winner, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, has sold more than 500,000 copies and rights have been sold to 39 countries.
Hilary Mantel is the winner of this year’s Man Booker prize for fiction for Wolf Hall, her historical novel about the politics of Tudor England.
Wolf Hall, her 11th novel, is set in the Tudor court of the 1520s. It focuses on the role of Thomas Cromwell during the years that Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon.
Reviewing the book in the Financial Times, novelist Julie Myerson described it as “fantastically well-wrought, detailed and convincing”.
“Despite being a complex examination of the all-too-familiar shenanigans of power, of favour and of treachery in the Tudor court, still the rhythms at its wrist-aching, 650-page heart are universal: men, women and children, birth and death.”
This year’s shortlist was widely regarded as one of the most readable, a fact that has been reflected in book sales. Wolf Hall has already sold nearly 50,000 copies and can expect a massive boost after winning the £50,000 prize.
Last year’s winner, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, has sold more than 500,000 copies and rights have been sold to 39 countries.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Sen and Brown
I am eagerly awaiting the arrival on the bookshelves of two books very soon. One is The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen and the other is The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.
Few days back Hasan Suroor in The Hindu discussed about The Idea of Justice. I am reproducing an interesting passage verbatim:
For those who might like to test their sense of justice, here’s a little quiz that Amartya Sen tried on his audience at the London Literature Festival the other day and had them struggling until he came to their rescue with, well, a sort of an answer. He used it to illustrate his alternative approach to mainstream theories of justice that he challenges in his new book The Idea of Justice published this month.
Three children — Anne, Bob and Carla — are quarrelling over a flute: Anne claims the flute on the ground that she is the only one of the three who knows how to play it; Bob demands it on the basis that he is so poor that — unlike others — he has no other toys to play with and it would therefore mean a lot to him if the flute were given to him; and Carla says that it belongs to her because she has made it with her own labour.
The important thing to note here is that none of the claimants questions their rival’s argument but claims that his or hers is the most persuasive. So, who deserves the flute?
Should it go to the child for whom it represents the only source of entertainment as he has no other toys to play with? Or to the one who can actually make practical use of it; or to the child to whom it must belong by virtue of her ``right” to the fruits of her labour?
The answer, according to Prof. Sen, is that there is actually no one “right” answer. In his scheme of things that he elaborates persuasively over more than 400 pages in his book, it is not possible in any situation to have an “impartial” agreement as to what offers a “perfect” resolution to a problem — and that applies to the dilemma posed by the children’s competing claims.
Nor, indeed, is there one perfect process to arrive at a conclusion that would be acceptable to all. The question as to who really deserves the flute can be decided in many ways — through a process of ideological reasoning ; on compassionate grounds such as charity (for example the poorest of the three children should get it); by majority opinion; and even by an arbitrary method like tossing the coin.
Prof. Sen argued that the story of “Three Children and a Flute,” which also features in his book, showed that there was no such thing as “perfect” justice; that justice was relative to a given situation; and that rather than searching for “ideal” justice the stress should be on removing the more manifest forms of injustice.
“The idea of justice demands comparisons of actual lives that people can lead rather than a remote search for ideal institutions. That is what makes the idea of justice relevant as well as exciting in practical reasoning,” Prof. Sen said.
Turning to Dan Brown, his The Lost Symbol is a sequel to The Da Vinci Code, unfolds over 12 hours and again features the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. It has taken Brown five years to write but only in the past few days has he settled on a title bland or enigmatic enough to give away none of his new subject matter. The book will have an initial print run of 5 million copies !
Few days back Hasan Suroor in The Hindu discussed about The Idea of Justice. I am reproducing an interesting passage verbatim:
For those who might like to test their sense of justice, here’s a little quiz that Amartya Sen tried on his audience at the London Literature Festival the other day and had them struggling until he came to their rescue with, well, a sort of an answer. He used it to illustrate his alternative approach to mainstream theories of justice that he challenges in his new book The Idea of Justice published this month.
Three children — Anne, Bob and Carla — are quarrelling over a flute: Anne claims the flute on the ground that she is the only one of the three who knows how to play it; Bob demands it on the basis that he is so poor that — unlike others — he has no other toys to play with and it would therefore mean a lot to him if the flute were given to him; and Carla says that it belongs to her because she has made it with her own labour.
The important thing to note here is that none of the claimants questions their rival’s argument but claims that his or hers is the most persuasive. So, who deserves the flute?
Should it go to the child for whom it represents the only source of entertainment as he has no other toys to play with? Or to the one who can actually make practical use of it; or to the child to whom it must belong by virtue of her ``right” to the fruits of her labour?
The answer, according to Prof. Sen, is that there is actually no one “right” answer. In his scheme of things that he elaborates persuasively over more than 400 pages in his book, it is not possible in any situation to have an “impartial” agreement as to what offers a “perfect” resolution to a problem — and that applies to the dilemma posed by the children’s competing claims.
Nor, indeed, is there one perfect process to arrive at a conclusion that would be acceptable to all. The question as to who really deserves the flute can be decided in many ways — through a process of ideological reasoning ; on compassionate grounds such as charity (for example the poorest of the three children should get it); by majority opinion; and even by an arbitrary method like tossing the coin.
Prof. Sen argued that the story of “Three Children and a Flute,” which also features in his book, showed that there was no such thing as “perfect” justice; that justice was relative to a given situation; and that rather than searching for “ideal” justice the stress should be on removing the more manifest forms of injustice.
“The idea of justice demands comparisons of actual lives that people can lead rather than a remote search for ideal institutions. That is what makes the idea of justice relevant as well as exciting in practical reasoning,” Prof. Sen said.
Turning to Dan Brown, his The Lost Symbol is a sequel to The Da Vinci Code, unfolds over 12 hours and again features the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. It has taken Brown five years to write but only in the past few days has he settled on a title bland or enigmatic enough to give away none of his new subject matter. The book will have an initial print run of 5 million copies !
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Free books for reviewing
Check out this link http://blogapenguinindiaclassic.blogspot.com/2009/03/launch-of-blog-penguin-india-classic.html for more information.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
World Book Day
Today is World Book Day.
Few quotes on books and reading
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to
mankind, which are delivered down from generation to
generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn,
~ Joseph Addison ~
Resolve to edge in a little reading every day,
if it is but a single sentence.
If you gain fifteen minutes a day,
it will make itself felt at the end of the year.
~ Horace Mann ~
To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself
a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life.
~ W. Somerset Maugham ~
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry.
~ Emily Dickinson ~
Few quotes on books and reading
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to
mankind, which are delivered down from generation to
generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn,
~ Joseph Addison ~
Resolve to edge in a little reading every day,
if it is but a single sentence.
If you gain fifteen minutes a day,
it will make itself felt at the end of the year.
~ Horace Mann ~
To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself
a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life.
~ W. Somerset Maugham ~
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry.
~ Emily Dickinson ~
Thursday, January 29, 2009
John Updike (1932-2009)
John Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009)
Michiko Kakutani, veteran New York Times book critic, writes "ENDOWED with an art student's pictorial imagination, a journalist's sociological eye and a poet's gift for metaphor, John Updike – who died on Tuesday at 76 – was arguably America's one true all-around man of letters.
He moved fluently from fiction to criticism, from light verse to short stories to the long-distance form of the novel: a literary decathlete in our age of electronic distraction and willful specialisation, Victorian in his industriousness and almost blogger-like in his determination to turn every scrap of knowledge and experience into words."
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt writes " John Updike, the kaleidoscopically gifted writer whose quartet of Rabbit Angstrom novels highlighted so vast and protean a body of fiction, verse, essays and criticism as to place him in the first rank of among American men of letters....".
"I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles, if I had to," he told The Paris Review in 1967. "The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me."
Long back, I recall reading two of his Rabbit novels. Hope to catch up on his other works.
Michiko Kakutani, veteran New York Times book critic, writes "ENDOWED with an art student's pictorial imagination, a journalist's sociological eye and a poet's gift for metaphor, John Updike – who died on Tuesday at 76 – was arguably America's one true all-around man of letters.
He moved fluently from fiction to criticism, from light verse to short stories to the long-distance form of the novel: a literary decathlete in our age of electronic distraction and willful specialisation, Victorian in his industriousness and almost blogger-like in his determination to turn every scrap of knowledge and experience into words."
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt writes " John Updike, the kaleidoscopically gifted writer whose quartet of Rabbit Angstrom novels highlighted so vast and protean a body of fiction, verse, essays and criticism as to place him in the first rank of among American men of letters....".
"I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles, if I had to," he told The Paris Review in 1967. "The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me."
Long back, I recall reading two of his Rabbit novels. Hope to catch up on his other works.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Books Ahoy
Visited 32nd Chennai Book Fair on January 10th and January 12th and purchased 20 odd books. This time my focus was mainly on Tamil books. Let me give the list of books I purchased.
English
1. Hot Days, Long Nights - An Anthology of African Short Stories - Edited by Nadezda Obradovic. This book I got on seeing the list of books purchased by my favorite Tamil writer S. Ramakrishnan in his website
. This is published by National Book Trust.
Tamil
1. Kadavulum Naanum by Charu Nivedita
2. KrishnaParunthu by Madhavan
3. Ethirmugam by Jeyamohan
4. Ulleirunthu sila kuralgal by Gopikrishnan
5. Ratha uravu by Yuma Vasuki
6. Thanthira Boomi by Indira Parthasarathy
7. Vetnhu Thanintha Kaadugal by Indira Parthasarathy
8. Yesuvin Thozhargal by Indira Parthasarathy
9. Abitha by La Sa Ramamrutham
10. Kallar Charithram by Venkatasamy Nattar
11. Appa, Anbulla Appa by Sujata
12. Manaivi Kidaithal by Sujata
13. Mallari Rao Kathaigal by Devan
14. Vanam Puguthal by Kalapriya
15. Helicopters Kizhe Irangivittana by Indira Parthasarathy
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Chennai Book Fair
32nd edition of Chennai Book Fair kicks off tomorrow. Former President Kalam will be inaugurating the fair. The 10-day fair will comprise whopping 588 stalls. Year after year, number of stalls are increasing and it is near impossible to visit even 100 stalls in one visit. I guess I may hit it twice or even thrice to whet my insatiable appetite for books and of course loosen my purse strings in acquiring quite a few of them. Estimated 10 lakh visitors are expected to visit the fair. What with almost week-long Pongal holidays in store next week, the numbers may even be high. Personally I am looking forward to it as I seldom miss this annual event.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Bitten By the Book Bug
I cannot remember exactly when I started reading. In fact, I was a late starter. I, like every boy of my time, used to pore over my favorite newspaper The Hindu's sports pages, relishing the purple prose Rajan Bala and later Nirmal Shekhar. As I entered college, I discovered James Hadley Chase. I read him feverishly, finishing more than 50 novels of his in the process. Slowly, I got introduced to Harold Robbins, Irving Wallace, Nick Carter and bit later Sidney Sheldon and Jeffrey Archer. Frederick Forsyth fascinated me with his well-researched thrillers. I became a member of British Council library in the early 1990s. It was like entering Aladdin's cave. Rows and rows of book shelves invited me to devour them. I fell in love with science fiction genre during this time and read lots of Arthur Clarke, Brian Aldiss, J G Ballard. Later I joined USIS library and got an opportunity to read Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and other science fiction greats. Hand in hand, I read popular science books too - Carl Sagan, Heinz Pagels, Richard Dawkins, etc. I read spy thrillers a lot too - Len Deighton, Ted Allbeury, John Le Carre, Robert Ludlum, Ton Clancy. Yes, it took me some time to move from light reading to more serious stuff. I read some great American novels like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Catch-22, The Catcher in the Rye during this period. As a member for Connemara Public Library, I got great opportunity to read Indian writers in English. I read English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee, Amitav Ghosh's books, Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Nayantara Sehgal, Anita Desai. I continue to read lot of books and it is proving to be a fascinating journey. Let me finish this rambling account with a great quote by Emily Dickinson:
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Books
I came across this Hindi poem Kitabein of Gulzar (whose Hindi film songs incidentally are my eternal favorites) translated into English by Pavan Varma. I liked the way he contrasts physical touch and feel of books and rather cold computer screens. Read it yourself :
Books
(Kitabein)
They peer from the
Panes of locked cupboards,
They stare longingly
For months we do not meet
The evenings spent in their company
Are now passed at the computer screen.
They are so restless now, these books
They have taken to walking in their sleep
They stare, longingly
The values they stood for
Whose ‘cells’ never died out
Those values are no more found in homes
The relationships they spoke of
Have all come undone today
A sigh escapes as I turn a page
The meanings of many words have fallen off
They appear like shriveled, leafless stumps
Where meaning will grow no more
Many traditions lie scattered
Like the debris of earthen cups
Made obsolete by glass tumblers
Each turn of the page
Brought a new flavor on the tongue,
Now a click of the finger
Floods the screen with images, layer upon layer
That bond with books that once was, is severed now
We used to sometimes lie with them on our chest
Or hold them in our lap
Or balance them on our knees,
Bowing our heads as in prayer
Of course, the world of knowledge is still there,
But what of
The pressed flowers and scented missives
Hidden between their pages,
And the love forged on the pretext
Of borrowing, dropping and picking up books together
What of them?
That, perhaps, shall no longer be!
Books
(Kitabein)
They peer from the
Panes of locked cupboards,
They stare longingly
For months we do not meet
The evenings spent in their company
Are now passed at the computer screen.
They are so restless now, these books
They have taken to walking in their sleep
They stare, longingly
The values they stood for
Whose ‘cells’ never died out
Those values are no more found in homes
The relationships they spoke of
Have all come undone today
A sigh escapes as I turn a page
The meanings of many words have fallen off
They appear like shriveled, leafless stumps
Where meaning will grow no more
Many traditions lie scattered
Like the debris of earthen cups
Made obsolete by glass tumblers
Each turn of the page
Brought a new flavor on the tongue,
Now a click of the finger
Floods the screen with images, layer upon layer
That bond with books that once was, is severed now
We used to sometimes lie with them on our chest
Or hold them in our lap
Or balance them on our knees,
Bowing our heads as in prayer
Of course, the world of knowledge is still there,
But what of
The pressed flowers and scented missives
Hidden between their pages,
And the love forged on the pretext
Of borrowing, dropping and picking up books together
What of them?
That, perhaps, shall no longer be!
Friday, August 29, 2008
To Blog or Not To Blog !
Just the other day, I came across a piece in The Hindu supplement NXG about ubiquitous blogs. The article went on to talk about a book titled The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen. In the book, he says there are more than 53 million blogs on the Net, and the number doubles every six months ! If this trend continues (I am not sure why it should not), he says there will be over five hundred million blogs by 2010 ! He goes on to say that we are blogging with "monkey-like shamelessness about our private lives, our sex lives, our dream lives, and our lack of lives." His point is mediocrity thrives in cyberspace. Though I think he has a point there, I think it is one's own prerogative to blog or not. Blogs are just tools, it is up to you to exercise it properly. Personally I have gained quite a few friends from blogging and I am not to going to stop blogging too soon. Just like there are people who meticulously jot down their thoughts in their diaries, today's generation makes use of tools like blogs, Facebook, Orkut for communication and networking.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A Case of Mistranslation ?
It was rather amusing to come across this piece in Guardian newspaper dated June 29, 2008, by Stuart Jeffries. I have emphasized certain portions.
Those famous brothers have the wrong name
Dostoevsky's last, longest and possibly greatest novel has been known for nearly 130 years in English as The Brothers Karamazov. Sadly, this is wrong. It should be called The Karamazov Brothers. At least, so argues Ignat Avsey in his translator's note for the Oxford University Press edition of the book. "Had past translators been expressing themselves freely in natural English, without being hamstrung by the original Russian word order," he writes, "they would no more have dreamt of saying The Brothers Karamazov than they would The Brothers Warner or The Brothers Marx."
He is doubtless right, but I still kind of like the very wrongness of the earlier title. The Karamazov Brothers sounds like a firm of surly plasterers; the Brothers Karamazov sound like a madcap trapeze act - which, as I (mis)read Dostoevsky, is what Ivan, Dmitri and Alexei were.
Avsey, though, makes a worrying point: if translators can't get the title right, can we trust them on the rest of Dostoevsky's 1,054 pages? On this, it's worth thinking about what the great American philosopher Willard van Orman Quine wrote of the indeterminacy of translation: this doesn't mean there is no such thing as a good or a bad translation, but that fidelity to the spirit of the original may mean betraying it at a literal level. CK Scott-Moncrieff may have been thinking along these lines when he gave his English translation of A la recherche du temps perdu a title the author hated, namely Remembrance of Things Past (which riffs on a line from Shakespeare), though why he left out Proust's rudery is less clear. Only 70 years later, in 1992, did Chatto put out an edition with the more literal title In Search of Lost Time and favour English readers with the smut.
As anyone trying to flog new foreign fiction to English readers knows, the choice of title is sometimes the handmaiden of marketing. Eyebrows were raised when Michel Houellebecq's first novel, L'Extension du domaine de la lutte, was published here in 1998 as Whatever. But the elegant French title sounds dreadful when transliterated as The Extension of the Domain of the Struggle. What's more, the English title at a stroke got Houellebecq down with a pseudo-cool nihilist demographic on this side of the Channel - something Dostoevsky's publishers have not yet tried to do.
Those famous brothers have the wrong name
Dostoevsky's last, longest and possibly greatest novel has been known for nearly 130 years in English as The Brothers Karamazov. Sadly, this is wrong. It should be called The Karamazov Brothers. At least, so argues Ignat Avsey in his translator's note for the Oxford University Press edition of the book. "Had past translators been expressing themselves freely in natural English, without being hamstrung by the original Russian word order," he writes, "they would no more have dreamt of saying The Brothers Karamazov than they would The Brothers Warner or The Brothers Marx."
He is doubtless right, but I still kind of like the very wrongness of the earlier title. The Karamazov Brothers sounds like a firm of surly plasterers; the Brothers Karamazov sound like a madcap trapeze act - which, as I (mis)read Dostoevsky, is what Ivan, Dmitri and Alexei were.
Avsey, though, makes a worrying point: if translators can't get the title right, can we trust them on the rest of Dostoevsky's 1,054 pages? On this, it's worth thinking about what the great American philosopher Willard van Orman Quine wrote of the indeterminacy of translation: this doesn't mean there is no such thing as a good or a bad translation, but that fidelity to the spirit of the original may mean betraying it at a literal level. CK Scott-Moncrieff may have been thinking along these lines when he gave his English translation of A la recherche du temps perdu a title the author hated, namely Remembrance of Things Past (which riffs on a line from Shakespeare), though why he left out Proust's rudery is less clear. Only 70 years later, in 1992, did Chatto put out an edition with the more literal title In Search of Lost Time and favour English readers with the smut.
As anyone trying to flog new foreign fiction to English readers knows, the choice of title is sometimes the handmaiden of marketing. Eyebrows were raised when Michel Houellebecq's first novel, L'Extension du domaine de la lutte, was published here in 1998 as Whatever. But the elegant French title sounds dreadful when transliterated as The Extension of the Domain of the Struggle. What's more, the English title at a stroke got Houellebecq down with a pseudo-cool nihilist demographic on this side of the Channel - something Dostoevsky's publishers have not yet tried to do.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Tale of Two Bookshops
Recently I happened to visit Landmark (Nungambakkam High Road, Chennai) and Higginbothams for purchasing books. Though I have visited them many times previously, this time I could not but notice the stark contrast between the two establishments. Landmark has great ambience, well stocked bookracks and book lover friendly atmosphere whereas Higginbothams lives up to its old mouldy image with poor lighting and inadequate stocks. Variety of books available in Landmark is mindboggling whereas Higginbothams is nowhere near. To add to the woes, when I handed over my credit card after makng purchases worth 400 bucks in Higginbothams, the counter staff said they are not accepting the cards because their card readers are not working ! I managed to pay in cash finally. It is high time they pull up their socks if they want to stay in the big league like Landmark.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Arthur C Clarke Passes Away
Just came across this news.
Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90.
Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90.
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