Abt bks

please forgive spelling mistakes, as they are usually caused by
1) Stuck keys on the keyboard
2) Typos
3) Stupidity of the blogger

Just got a bunch of books. Five old MAD mags for fifty, was a steal. As was a copy of Eragon, which, I want to clarify, I purchased solely because I was curious as to exactly how much Tolkein has "inspired" Poulini. Then there is Rabindranath Tagore's 'Our Universe' and one titled 'changing pattern of family in India'. There was a book on Sati which I regret not buying. Then Rare beasts unique adventures is something that apparently every college student must read according to the cover, so I got that too, and I was willing to pick up anything by Wilde, (I am a fan) so I purchased a woman of no importance. To use it in a context borrowed from the Da Vinci Code, all of this for a cool seventy bucks. From some book exhibition cum sale near Malleswaram circle. Really nice books up for grabs there.

What I don't understand is why the hell the stupid sale should have the term 'exhibition' along with it. Why would anyone want to exhibit books? Does not make sense. For some reason, booksellers never just put their books on sale, they also have the need to exhibit it. Then they give you weird looks if you just look at the books without seeming to want to buy any of them.

My reading has gone more haywire than it normally is. I am still midway through Silmarillion, by the way, started reading some weird book on death, started and finished 'it all started with Hippocrates' started 'Da Vinci Code', went on to 'David Copperfield', left it midway, came back to the code, read a collection of short stories, three Calvin and Hobbes books, if they count as books, finished 'David Copperfield', and just finished 'Da Vinci Code' before writing this blog.

== The Da Vinci Code ==

(getting the wikimedia habit)

I was a bit skeptical on the second read of the code because I hated the book for all its lies. Then I realised that it was fiction afterall, and Brown is allowed to lie. Although he makes dubious claims, especially about the non-exitent dossiers, and pulls clever ones like the Roslin chapel being modelled after the temple of solomon, when the original plans as well as the temple were lost, and apparently no one but the masons had the original plans... you still cannot deny the fact that he was terribly clever. Weaving together so many double entendres, and even double double entendres having even a remote shadow of a reality in them would be a terribly clever thing to do. The code would have been a wonderful book if only he hadn't claimed certain lies were facts at the beggening of the book. Nonetheless, no one can deny the fact that Brown can write his genre exteremely well.

== Dan Brown ==

One thing about his books, (I have read all of them), is that the basic formula is simple. There is a startling death as the prologue, the hero rushes through many situations with a female companion, who always has family issues. Then there is a perfect blend of good, bad and dubious charachters, many with grey shades, or forgivable fallacies that aren't immideately apparent. Then the culprit, or the guy responsible for all of it appears midway through the narrative, and is apparently above being the one responsible (this is bound to change in his subsequent novels).
Although by the time you get to his fourth book, this formula would be a little tiresome, someone noted that he had perfected this in the code. So it works both ways...

Every subsequent book of Brown's that I read turns out to be better than the previous one. First I read the code, obviously. Then came Angels and Demons, then Deception Point, and finally, Digital Fortress. Reading the Code for the second time, is not an exception to this rule, and now the code is my favorite Brown book. I am going to read Angels and Demons again. Dan Brown is truly the king of his genre, I say this because such books were not my kind before his books came along, and his books are the only ones that I liked in the genre, although I admit I have read very little.

== Nothing about Dan Brown ==

Actually, I read very little of mainstream fiction. I am considered well read amongst my friends, and to abandon all pretences of modesty (this is fucking my space), I am actually much better read than most of them. However, I haven't rea a single Robin Cook book, no Sheldon, no Agatha Christie, no Ludlum, Cussler, almost no Archer, and just one by Folliet. These are the books that the relatively well read people dig. i don't even know any more authors. For some weird reason, I don't want to, although I feel left out when they are say, talking about Sheldon. One book apparently had a char with a 21 inch dick. Thank God that wasn't in diameter.

Actually I read almost anything (else) I can get my hands on. That includes a cheap, abridged version of David Copperfield for little kids.

== David Copperfield ==

I've already blogged about how such books don't appear now a days. There is no story.. it's jsut a portrayal of a gu's life. It also has an indepth story of all the side chars, Agnes, Dora, Murdstone, Emily, Pegotty, even Uriah Depp. It's not easy to envision a life so deep, and so reflective of real life. It stinks of authenticity even in a foreign country and in a foreign time. Must get my hands on the original. Amazingly good book.