February 28, 2006

Guten Tag!

there i was, all fresh from a vacation at a beautiful estate that grows a plant who's product i eschew. all rosy cheeked and plump, i looked. when wham! this tag hit me.

it's about books i've read, own, am reading, want to read, should've read but've been terribly terribly busy, promise to do so soon, it's on my list, in the fullness of time..

it's been 2 days since i wrote the above. can't post anything else either, can i? with this large dead bird stapled together, hanging around my neck.

so i'm just going to rush this, with my fingers in my ears and screaming "LALALALA" to avoid hearing the whispurred suggestions, and the "how could you leave that one out?"s. and am modifying the categories.
that's not allowed you say?
LALALALA!

so here goes nuffink:

Total number of books owned
A few hundred, prob'bly less than 500. Scattered hither and thither.
have only recently taken to buying books in any quantity, cos i always had access to great libraries. must do a post on my top 10 libraries soon.

Books i've made people buy
the star's tennis balls- stephen fry. hated it. hated myself for making brother buy it. hated fry for writing it.
the school for scandal by richard b sheridan. what's the point of making someone buy a book if they won't read it?
a day in the life of ivan denisovich by solzhenit's in

Last books i read
Two lives by Vikram Seth
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
My name is red by Orhan Pamuk
In the company of cheerful ladies by Alexander -i wish i were precious ramotswe- Mcall Smith
Schroedinger's kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries by John Gribbin
(phew! that should neutralise the g. heyer!)

Books I've been reading for a really long time
Classical music by someone or other
Schroedinger's kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries by John Gribbin
(ok, so i've finished it, in a sense. in another sense, it's finished me. and in another dimension, i'm still delving into its guacamole, the tortilla chip of my curiosity)

mmm.

Books i own, have started, but haven't read enough of to put them in the list of "'ang on a minute, i'm still reading em"
the second sex by someone de beauvoir
the jungle- upton sinclair
moby dick- herman melville

Books I've loved, lent and lost
twere better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all
-St. Augustine
twere best to have lent only after strict background checks and keeping the borrower's first born as deposit, than to have never Lent (or even ash wednesday) at all
-me

Taliban- Ahmed Rashid
Friday's Child- G Heyer
We the living- Ayn Rand
Paperweight- Stephen Fry. someone left my favourite Fry on an Airbus. the horror, the horror.

and i will stop there, leaving for another post the categories-
books i'm currently reading
books i wish i'd written
books i sometimes wake up thinking i have written
books i've reread so many times i can quote random passages from them
books i've taken on trips
books i've read on the subway that have made me look cool, intellectual and leftwing
books i hide under a pile of prev. category books while checking out of the library, to avoid breakdown of cool
und so weiter..

February 09, 2006

devbagh!

devbagh is, of course, paradise. an island off the arabische see.

robi babu said of its nearby environs,

"The beach of Karwar is certainly a fit place in which to realise that the beauty of Nature is not a mirage, but reflects the joy of the Infinite within the bounds of form and thus draws us to lose ourselves in it"

there were bottlenose dolphince bouncing out of the waves.



the nearby beaches could be swum in.



ideal for a spot of snorkeling.



and the obligatory log huts, brahminy kites, full moon nights, barbeques on the beach, crab curry and games of beach bolleyball. and falling out of hammocks in a manner reminiscent of that nescafe shake-shake-shake ad. except no fluffy dogs jumped over me. but i won't go on. not to spare you, but just. gunrally. won't go on.

February 02, 2006