Paths of Glory

Just finished reading this book by Jeffrey Archer. When I took this book I never thought I was picking up a book based on a real person. I thought I was picking up a fictional work. After finishing this book I have come out as a person who has learned a lot about a man's passion.

Many things we see today we take many of them for granted and we don't see that they exist because of someone's passion. The spirit of those humans is what that keeps the world going. When compared to such peoples lives the life many of us live is nothing. When we read about their passion and dedication towards their ambition it is very inspiring. Such people are called the Legends.

This book is about one such legend George Leigh Mallory. It talks about that man's passion about conquering the highest peak in the world Mt.Everest and how he went about it during the 1920's.

As The Bible says GOD has given man authority over the earth and everything in earth and man has proved it time and again that he is the master over all creation. There are many such Mallory's in each and every field.

How will the world be if everyone had so much passion towards achieving something in their life?

Heartstone

As I was reading through Heartstone I felt "What an awful book". Sometimes I felt I was more intelligent than the author and pitied him for using hypnotism as the main basis for the book. I felt I could guess the ending even when I was only through the quarter of the book.

But I have to give it to Phillip Margolin for making a fool out of myself. He is such a good author he makes you believe something and he leaves lot of open clues for us to think that the novel is going to end in certain way. But all of sudden there will come another clue and he will make us feel "Oh I get it !! its going to end this way" but before that feeling can die you will be staring at another angle.

Though there were certain parts of the books where I felt bored and scanned paragraphs the book was engaging. There were indeed too many characters and I found it difficult to remember who is who but all the characters were tied in the end and there was one great fiction in the end. Almost all the characters were important.

Now I have taken "The Burning Man" from the same author which is my third book from the same author. Looking forward to another exciting journey.

Wild Justice

After coming across some lame novels I landed with a cracker of a novel. When I usually take 2 weeks to finish an average novel it can extend to 3 to 4 weeks for a below average novel. I finished this one in almost a week.

This is my first attempt with Phillip Margolins work and I am glad it worked out. I was somehow able to predict the ending but still there were enough twists, humour and characters with whom we can connect.

I have already chosen my next one and it will be The Patient by Michael Palmer which will be another first for me.

Hour Game

I am trying to move away from my comfort zone and have started trying out books written by different authors. My journey into English fiction world started with "To sir with love" and then I moved to Sidney Sheldon and then I became more comfortable with John Grisham, Stephen King, Robin Cook and Dean Koontz. Occasionally I tried Jeffrey Archer, Harold Robbins, Irving Wallace. Then there was a big lull in my reading habit and I have again rekindled that habit and been trying out books by different Authors. Some choices made me happy and some made me cringe.

One such book is Hour Game by David Baldacci. This is a 600 page book and contains murder after murder and can really be mentioned as an example for a serial killer novel. The novel just went one from one murder to another and there is a incompetent police chief who hires couple of detectives to solve the cases for him. The FBI also gets involved and together they go nowhere for almost 500 pages. They just sit and watch the murders with us. Suddenly there comes one twist after another and finally the novel ends. It's not a great novel but it can be read if you don't have anything useful to do.

A Prisoner of Birth

After a long time read a very satisfying novel "A Prisoner of Birth" by Jeffrey Archer. Jeffery Archers style is always unique and he will sprinkle lots of humor into his works and this one is no exception. The movie has all the ingredients to be made into an exciting movie. But when reading through the novel it was very difficult not to remember "The Shawshank Redemption". But I read that Jeffrey Archer wrote this as a tribute to the classic "Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexander Dumas. If such an work was written in the 1800's then it just tells that nothing is new beneath the sky.

Sphinx

Just completed Sphinx by Robin Cook. I have always been fascinated by the medical world and Robin Cook is very good in creating one. So naturally I have been hooked to his novels. I have read most of his novels and recently had the chance to read Sphinx and I was pleasantly surprised. He had ventured into another one of my favorite topic which is travelling.

The novel unravels entirely in Egypt and he brought Egypt right in front of my eyes. Cairo, Luxor all those cities were described so well that I felt as if I was right there in the middle of those cities with great histories.

Haneef

The Hindu's first page is full of news about Haneef nowadays. Before that it was screaming about Pratibha Patil Vs BJP, and before that it was screaming about something else. Agreed news papers should report things which are currently happening but the things is after a week or so we dont see any news about the things which occupied the front page the previous week. May be when starting the newspapaer one will start with honest mindset but as the day goes they run out of things to report and report useless things.

All news papaers has more than 2o pages only 50% will be of useful stuff the other 50% will be junk.

Newspapers can be forgiven but take the case of weekly magazines like Kumudam and Ananda vikatan. I bought the two of the recently and went through them and found nothing useful. They just put some content to fill the pages and sell them for Rs 10. They boas that they are the no 1 magazine. People still buy these magazines only out of habit and nothing else.

தினகரன்

சன் தொலைக்காட்சியின் வியாபார நுணுக்கங்களை பார்க்கும் பொழுது வியப்பு நிச்சயம் வருகிறது. வியாபாரத்தில் எங்கேயோ இருந்த குங்குமம் இதழை மிகவும் பாடுபட்டு ஒரு முன்னனி இதழ் வரிசையில் கொண்டு வந்து விட்டனர். எல்லாம் மிகவும் சுலபமாக செய்து விட்டார்கள். ஒன்றுமில்லை திரும்ப திரும்ப குங்குமம் மட்டுமே முன்னனி என்று கூறி அதை ஒரு அளவுக்கு நிரைவேற்றியும் காட்டிவிட்டார்கள்.

அவர்களது அடுத்த முயற்சி தான் தினகரனை முன்னே கொண்டு வரவேண்டும் என்ற முயற்சி ஆனால் அது எங்கே சென்று முடிந்தது என்று எல்லோரும் அறிவர்.

நான் பேச வேண்டும் என்று வந்த காரியமே வேறு. நம் ஊரில் "porn" எந்த உருவிலும் தடை செய்ய பட்டு உள்ளது. ஆனால் எந்த ஒரு புத்தகத்தையோ அல்லது நாளிதழையோ எடுத்தால் அதில் 50% "porn" porn இல்லாதது போல ஆக்ரமித்துள்ளது.

நேற்றைய தினகரனில் தலைப்பு செய்தியாக வந்தது "நர்சுக்கு M L A முத்தம். கிளு கிளு படங்கள்". நடிகைகள் அரைகுரை உடையில் காட்சி தராத பத்திரிக்கையே இல்லை எனலாம். விகடன், குமுதம் எதுவும் விதிவிலக்கல்ல.

என்னடா நீ என்ன பெரிய உத்தமனா என்று நீங்கள் கேட்பீர்கள். நான் சுட்டிக்காட்ட விரும்புவது இந்தியாவில் இருக்கும் முரண்பாடுகளை தான்.

ஒரு பக்கம் பத்தினி வேஷம் மற்றொரு பக்கம் இன்னொரு வேஷம். என்ன கொடுமை சரவணண் இது?

Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon, the master story teller passed away on January 30 2007.

Sidney Sheldon's The naked face was the first commerical novel I read. From then on I have read almost all his novels except for few of his recent novels.

Sidney will be missed by all his fans which includes me as well.

Ularatha Ratham

The title of this blog is a famous title of Rajesh Kumar's tamil novel. Those who are familiar with tamil novels must have heard of Rajesh Kumar. He played a major role in inculcating the reading habit in me. His novels used to be such an attraction. He along with Asokan used to do a monthly named Crime Novel. There used to be a tag on top of each issue saying "India's largest selling monthly novel". The coimbatoorilirindhu trunkcall section through which Rajesh Kumar puts forth his views on general happenings used to be another attraction.

Now going back to the title this was the first book I read by Rajesh Kumar and believe me it made me loose my sleep. I read this novel somewhere between 1985 and 1989.

The story is about a family moving to a new bungalow they have bought recently. It starts off with the family going for the grahapravesam in a car. This family starts to experience some bad things from the first day.

There's a scene where a head comes out of a hole in the ground and starts moving in the night as one person watches it. There is also the famous maligai poo vaasanai accompanied by jal jal salangai sounds. There are dead bodies dug out in usual Rajesh Kumar novel style. If I am right the ever famous Vivek solves the mystery. There is also a scene where a woman is violated by some unknown force.

I remember starting to read this novel during night time and I couldnt stop reading this. After some years I had another chance of reading the same novel. I dont remember if I felt the same way I felt when I read the first time. But, after reading 100's of tamil novels I can remember only few of them and this one tops them all after 20 odd years.

Rajesh Kumar hats off to you for this novel.
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Looks like from today new fares for Autos in chennai comes into effect. Lets hope this brings in some good changes.

The Fog

I recently read a novel 'The Fog' by James Herbert. I bought this book because the plot was interesting. The plot said an earthquake occurs in a village in England and a mysterious Fog escapes out and pandemonium is the result in England.

When I started reading the book I found it over cliched. From the way the characters think and act to the whole plot and the aftermath of the Fog everything was so cliched that you just have to read the beginng para and the last para of each chapter. The story is so predictable as the colour of your hair.

Well it seems the book was written in 1970's so I give the benefit of doubt to the authors favour and conclude may be during his time this book would have been an absolute page tuner but for this age it is too boring.

State of Fear

After a long time I got an oppurtunity to read a Michael Crichton book. I became a fan of Crichton after his famous Jurassick Park. I enjoyed his book Prey, Andromda strain, The Lost world, Eaters of the Dead, Rising sun, Congo, Sphere. I didnt like Timeline.

This book State of Fear was involved in controversies for the subject that was used. This book talks about Global warming. As a fiction the book failed to generate interest as the other books I mentioned above. I have a feeling when writing this book Crichton was thinking about making this into a motion picture so the book looks more like a screenplay than a novel.

The book has a very thin plot but goes all aroung the world. The characters are very shallow. For a book of 600 pages we expect some interesting characters which the book fails to create.

As a book which makes us think, this book does succeed. As always Crichton puts across points with references which points out that Global warming is not such a threat as it is claimed today. I did learn lot of interesting facts from this book. Crichton takes a hard stand against people who talk for global warming and are not willing to change their mindset. One example is a chatacter in the book who believes strongly in Global warming is eaten alive by Cannibals. This is a judgement given by Crichton and he accepts that in the appendix.

This book if made into a motion picture wont recover its costs. None of the scenes depicted by Crichton makes us sit on the seat edge. There is absolutely no suspense in scenes where Crichton expects us to be surprised.

Except for the quotes and arguments Crichton gives in this book, this book is not good in entertainment.

New Look

Whoever has been following this blog would have noticed the new look. This is something which I wanted to do for a long time but didnt do it due to lack of time. Finally here we have the new look.

The reason for having a simple white background is to enable everyone to read from office. I myself have struggled hard to read others blog from office which are very colorful because it attracts lot of attention. The simple the design of the blog the easier it is for us to read. For example Prabhus blog is perfect. Coweys blog is little difficult to access from office with its current colorful look and feel. Another perfect example is our own Hindu the moment we move to any news item it becomes a harmless site.

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After a long time I completed reading a novel. The Last Juror by John Grisham. I took this book for Grisham's name and it was a big let down have never read such a boring novel by him. Not a single interesting courtroom scene He has given pages and pages for a character but which could have been done away with just a page. Another drawback he has so many characters which are totally irrelevant to the story. The novel is worth a short story but he has dragged it into a 400 page novel.

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The news about a murder happening opposite chennai central definitley sends shock. The only places where we have seen such murders are in dubbed Telugu movies. Also who can forget the scene from Dalapathy but they were just cinemas. Few days back there was a murder near Kathipara junction, the news also says there was another murder at Koyambedu junction. As usual everybody points the finger at the Police. The blame may lie on anyone but the truth is anything can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

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From few websites I read that Rajini sings a song in Sivaji. Don't know how far it is true. If it is true then it is going to be a treat. Hope he will get more lines than 'Adikuthu kuliru' from Mannan.