January 10, 2008 – 9:59 am
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I am a staunch believer in the Reader-Response theory which calls upon readers to participate more actively in the interpretive and creative process of a novel. As Umberto Eco describes in his The Role of the Reader, “novels are machines for making possible worlds.”. And these worlds are not meant to be universal, but unique to each reader.
The way I understand and assimilate a novel is definitely different from someone else’s experience with the same book. And this is what that makes the experience of a novel the most interesting. It is not the story that matters, but how you perceive it, based on your experiences, is all that matters. I believe there is a scientific word to describe it, which I cannot recall.
As Stephen King puts it in his introduction in Everything’s Eventual (the reading of which inspired this post), “We’re in it together, after all. This is a date we’re on. We should have fun. We should dance.”
“And, by what you buy and by what you read, so are you. You most of all, Constant Reader. Always you.” - Stephen King, Everything’s Eventual
January 7, 2008 – 1:21 pm
Over the past weekend, I managed to complete four books. A good start, I say.
- Mars by Ben Bova I rate it as ★★★
I liked this one for its portrayal of the first human expedition of Mars. The human side of the expedition - the bickerings, politics, and interactions was realistic.
- Bad Men by John Conolly I rate it as ★★★
John Conolly brings to life a good thriller interlaced with supernatural horror. Set in an island off Portland, Maine (which is of course Stephen King's territory), the story is about betrayal (past and present) and their consequences.
- Fatherland by Robert Harris I rate it as ★★★
What if Germany had won the Second World War? This novel imagines its implications and the Final solution. Written by Robert Harris, who brought to life the most terrifying fictious character, Hannibal Lecter, his debut novel was a good weekend read for me.
- 300 by Frank Miller I rate it as ★★★★
I wonder why and when I stopped reading comics. I definitely missed out reading Frank Miller's 300 when it first came out. Innovating with a double-spread, the story of the Battle of Thermopylae gets a new telling.
December 31, 2007 – 3:23 pm
Continuing on the theme of my earlier post, here are some books I felt are the ten I enjoyed the most.
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Getting Things Done by David Allen
I have been a great fan of GTD ever since I heard about it. All I can say is it works!
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The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The final book of King's Dark Tower saga ended what I felt was an eventful journey with Roland Deschain.
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The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins
I picked up this book on a whim and wow! what a wonderful choice it was. The theory of evolution could never be explained in more simpler terms.
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Pig Island by Mo Hayder
If there was one book that really terrified me this year, it was this one.
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The Stand by Stephen King
Another excellent tale by King about good and evil. definitely the largest book I read this year.
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The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
All I can say is that everyone ought to read this book.
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Gene by Stel Pavlou
Though the storyline was pretty lame, the idea behind the novel was brilliant.
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The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
The thought of fairy-tales having a dark side was pretty much frightening. I can never read a fairy-tale the same way again.
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Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss
A book about manners? Well-written, I never knew I was guilty of so many breaches.
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Lisey's Story by Stephen King
I am becoming a fan of Mr. King's writing, book after book. It is not the tales, but the way he uses words to bring them to life. Absolutely brilliant. I am putting up his book, On Writing, on my 2008 reading list.
December 22, 2007 – 10:14 pm
As like every other year, I've had the chance to read a lot of books this year also. And I made a mosaic of a picture of mine with the covers of the books I read in 2007.
Purely an exercise to alleviate an post-prandial siesta, the photo mosaic was made possible by LibraryThing's 'All Your Covers' feature for the cover images and AndreaMosaic with additional help from zoomify to help me zoom in...
Keep waiting for my year in books post soon. I promise I'll get to it as soon as I finish my now reading pile.
December 12, 2007 – 6:08 pm
What would be your favourite album of 2007 and why?
Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss would be my pick. This rather unusual combination of talents brought together by producer T-Bone Burnett has been on my listening list on a continuous loop.
To answer the question why I like this album, you ought to take a look at the artists involved. Alison Krauss has become one of my favourite artist over the last couple of years. Everyone knows Led Zeppelin and its frontman Robert Plant, one of the best known faces of hard rock. Throw in T-Bone Burnett, a Grammy-award winning producer to bring some Americana into the mixture. The effect of this colloboration is absolutely exhilarating.
Though all 13 songs in the album are not new songs, but reworking of existing ones, the duo breathe new life into songs like Rowland Salley’s Killing The Blues (my favourite) and the Everly Brother’s Gone, Gone, Gone (next favourite). This album is an excellent example to demonstrate vocal harmony. As AMG review puts it, “These two voices meld together seamlessly; they will not be swallowed even when the production is bigger than the song. They don’t soar, they don’t roar, they simply sing songs that offer different shades of meaning as a result of this welcome collaboration.”
Since I like listening to music album by album, I really loved the way how each song segued into the next unlike other albums which abruptly change style. I’ve been recommending this album to everyone I know. You can listen to the songs online at the official site. You can read more extensive reviews of this album at Metacritic.
I'll write about the albums that I loved this year soon.
