July 22, 2016
by InstaScribe
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July 19, 2016
by Neelima
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July 18, 2016
by Neelima
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It was Sarika’s first BYOB Party and she bought along the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, Australian TV writer and producer. “This book is nothing like the books you all sharing here,” Sarika said. “It’s a light read.”
Abhaya visited Mumbai for the first time this year and was fascinated by the energetic city. He’s been looking for a book about Mumbai that bypasses Bollywood and the underworld. He came upon the City Series released by Aleph Book Company. There he found City Adrift by Naresh Fernandes. The book is more about how Mumbai evolved by the process of land reclamation from the sea and how the city has grown at such an alarming rate, so much so that there are more slum dwellers than dwellers in apartment complexes. Fernandes chalks out the history of these seven conjoined islands that turned into a cosmopolitan nightmare or heaven, whichever way you’d like to describe it. Some other writers who have featured this maximum city include Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul and G. D. Roberts.
Another book Abhaya got was a Hindi novel by Manohar Shyam Joshi called Kuru Kuru Swaha. Manohar Shyam Joshi is a name well known to an earlier generation of Indians who watched soap operas like Hum Log, Buniyad and Kakkaji Kahin. He was also a prolific writer and even won a Sahitya Academy Award for one of his novels. But he is unlikely to be seen on the recommended books lists and the bestseller lists of Hindi literature.
July 14, 2016
by Neelima
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In his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Murakami talks about running in different parts of the world- Athens, Hokkaido, and New York. He spends a great deal of time training for marathons and comes across as a runner with a mission- he intentionally trains on hills to get used to elevations and works his muscles regularly so that his running does not suffer.
All this training gets to you. He talks about a marathon he walked in Japan that made him tired of running altogether. It can happen that you have so much focus that you pass the threshold, but once you cross the limit and beat the body aches, your mind turns into an empty place; you feel you have achieved something. After that, Murakami found running tiresome for a while. So he decided to start on triathlons- with a bit of swimming and cycling as relief, though cycling is not his favorite sport.
When I read this book, I felt like I was running a marathon as well, looking at the changing seasons and continents around me. Murakami sprinkles the narrative with his ideas about writing and that feels like the mind of a runner who is also a writer. A writer needs talent, he says, no doubt about it. But that’s not enough to sustain him.
“The problem with talent, though, is that in most cases the person involved can’t control its amount or quality. You might find the amount isn’t enough and you want to increase it, or you might try to be frugal to make it last longer, but in neither case do things work out that easily.”
Talent dries up. But focus can help as can endurance.
“What’s needed for a writer of fiction–at least one who hopes to write a novel–is the energy to focus every day for half a year, or a year, two years.”
That’s a tall order, and aspiring writers would do well to abide by this advice. Read this book now!
July 12, 2016
by Neelima
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July 11, 2016
by Neelima
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After an extended discussion on natural philosophy and philosophy in general, and the idea that people like Socrates, Pythogaras, Shakespeare were phantom names for groups of people who created great works, we moved on to the next book.
Ajay got a biography called Karmayogi by M.S.Ashokan, the dramatic and inspiring story of E. Sreedharan. The sheer scale of what E . Sreedharan has achieved is remarkable, considering the technical, political and geographical constraints involved in creating the Kolkata Metro, Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro. The book throws light on how competence can be achieved by using time effectively. E. Sreedharan is also very technically up to date. This book is a translated from a bestselling biography in Malayalam, this is the uplifting story of a very private person who has become an icon of modern India because of his uncompromising work ethic.
Shruti Garodia got a very different kind of book- A Handbook for My Lover by Rosalyn D’Mello. The story is written in the guise of an instructive manual and the author writes about her six year relationship with a man twice her age. Nowhere in the book has she mentioned who her lover is though we know he is a photographer. The man is her muse and she takes the reader into voyeur land, honestly teasing the readers into the intricacies of her own life. What inspired Shruti about the book was its searing honesty. “It’s hard for a woman to accept that she wants, she wants , she wants and that she is willing to put away her dream of motherhood so that she can be with her lover,” she said. She read a passage from the poetic book to a rapt audience. BYOB Parties have moments like these.
Sudharsan talked about The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Written in 1951, this is a detective novel of a modern police investigation into the crimes of Richard III of England. The book has been voted number one in the Top 100 Crime Novels of all time. What Sudharshan appreciated about the book was the way it stressed that any publication or medium could not be trusted blindly. Richard III may not have been the monster he was made out to be and the book unravels how history is a deceptive minefield.
More books in Part 6.
July 7, 2016
by Neelima
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a book that I wanted to review first for the Review and Half series that we have been doing on InstaScribe. I had read it a long time ago when I had read a couple of Murakami books and was fascinated by his writing style.
At one of our BYOB Parties, we had a discussion about there being two kinds of people- those who liked Murakamiesque and those who found his surreal style too hard to swallow.
This book, however, is nothing surreal. It’s a thin book, unlike most of his famous works of fiction. His writing is simple and uncomplicated, and that’s what draws readers to him– a sense of ordinariness, simplicity,even the mundane, that ordinary folks can identify with.
Normally, people glorify writers. They think once a writer has an fb page and her books are selling like hot cakes, she develops an aura, like the glow that comes off of a computer screen. But Murakami deconstructs the writer’s life. It’s all about discipline and putting in the hours. Nothing romantic at all. It is so essential that aspiring writers and runners read it, as both writing and running are very similar.
To run you have to keep a routine, sleep on time, and have a good diet. The same goes for writing. Murakami mentions how bad writing can be if you have the tendency to put on the pounds. This gives you the incentive to run, doesn’t it?
He talks about how he started running and how he started writing. I’ve read the story of how he started writing so many times and each time I read it I get a combination of goosebumps and envy. If you want to know how Murakami started writing, pick up this book.
Here’s an excerpt from the book:
” What’s crucial is whether your writing attains the standards you’ve set for yourself. Failure to reach that bar is not something you can easily explain away. When it comes to other people, you can always come up with a reasonable explanation, but you can’t fool yourself. In this sense, writing novels and running full marathons are very much alike. Basically a writer has a quiet, inner motivation, and doesn’t seek validation in the outwardly visible.”
More about this gem next week.
July 5, 2016
by Neelima
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July 4, 2016
by Neelima
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At the BYOB Party in May, there were two fantasy novels that took center stage.
One was a book Siddharth read called The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss; this was the first book in a series called The Kingkiller Chronicle. The book deals with a near perfect character and how his own talents nearly destroy him. Since the first book has come out, the second book has been released and now fans impatiently await the third.
The story is about a young man who becomes the most notorious magician the world has ever seen. The story chronicles his childhood spent in a crime-ridden city and his bid to enter a legendary school. The book seems to have won many hearts and is one I look forward to reading some time.
Anish Bhargav was unfamiliar with the fantasy genre until he started reading Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit. “It’s a book that changed my life,” Anish said. While many of his friends found Tolkien’s style rather slow moving, he found Tolkien’s pace admirable. This epic fantasy novel takes us through the War of the Ring, with villains such as Dark Lord Sauron, hobbits, dwarves and wizards.
Spoiler Alert! He also talked about how the book was reminiscent of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tolkien was influenced by his experience in the war and his characters reflect war weariness. After all his adventures, Frodo Baggins, the protagonist of the story, fades out of existence in Middle Earth. He never heals as it is with battle stricken warriors.
More news about the BYOB Party next week.
July 1, 2016
by InstaScribe
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