Book Reading – 2005

From past 10-11 years I have been reading mostly non-fiction (stopped fiction after college when I graduated to non-fiction). Year 2005 I decided to read fiction and I did read lots of them.
Feb 2005:
Well I started the year with “The Monk who sold his Ferrari” and this certainly was not a fiction per say. I want to mention this book here because this quite inspired me to start my weight-loss program and I did successfully lose 15 kgs to get back to shape. Thanks to Robin Sharma and well Mom too (she was the one who kept coaxing me to it)

May 2005:
Sridhar went to Paris for 3 weeks and I started reading as I had lot of spare time. It was Paulo Coelho time :-). I read 3 Paulo Coelho books in a stretch Valkyries, Veronica Decides to Die & Eleven Minutes. I had read his Alchemist in 2003 and that had left an impression on me. What I liked about Paulo Coelho was he was able to share so freely, he could touch the rawness of humans with no difficulty. I got inspired on Astral Travel in his book Veronica Decides to Die; I tried practicing it, not successful though!! :-)

I read Fatal Cure, written by Robin Cook. It was about a doctor couple who go to a new place and how they witness series of deaths in their hospital. I followed Robin Cook till the mystery gets solved :-)

Jun 2005:
Sridhar was still in Paris and I read Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I shared with him different aspects of Da Vinci Code as he was in Paris. It was a book that opened a whole new chapter in history and religion in particular. It was certainly a brave attempt by Dan Brown. Sridhar got so bugged of my references to the book that he decided to read it when he got back to India.

For some reason I picked up Sobha De’s “Spouse”. Read a couple of chapters, reinforced the marriage institution. This was the first Sobha De book I read and here I felt she did try to get her point that one needs to work on the marriage for it to succeed.

Then I read the Wrong House, don’t remember the author now. It was also kind of a mystery novel, well written. It had shades of romance of a 35+ divorced lady with a painter and about her parents an aging couple. Well written book, it was part of the Readers Digest collection I picked up at MG Road.

Jul 2005
Sridhar was back from Paris and I didn’t have so much time at hand but I managed to read Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. I didn’t know anything about antimatter and this was a good learning of that. Most of the book was like a dreamy novel but the introduction to some aspects of science was good. Also I particularly like the connection between Religion and Science brought about.

I read the book The Child in the Family by Maria Montessori. Guess this should be a must read for parents, helps give perspective on how we need to treat children. Not as weak dependant beings whom we unknowingly dominate but as respectable spiritual beings.

I started reading the “The World of Fatwas” by Arun Shourie. I couldn’t read the entire book, read only 25% of it. It’s a good insight into the world of Shariyats and the Fatwas they render.

Aug 2005
I read the book Five Point Something by Chetan Bhagat. Frankly speaking I relate a lot to Chetan Bhagat because his writing style is like mine. What I mean is he is not like the great writers but reaches out to the crowds’ faster, guess that’s what matters. Liked the book, took me the world of IITians. Sridhar is one and was curious about the IIT life. Hostel life, trying to achieve grades and some romance paved an interesting and quick read.

Work got me busy…

Sep 2005
I read Deception Point, now Dan Brown was getting predictable in his style. I still want to read his books as I feel the story is just to give an interest in the topics he wants to introduce to the readers. In Deception Point one learns about meteors, space program expenses NASA, the government and the political parties.

I get back to reading after a hiatus of 2 months. Work kept me real busy and then other personal obligations occupied me.

Nov 2005
Embarked on Arundhati Roy’s book “The God of Small Things” and the first few pages and I new I would be hooked on till I finish the book. Its a poignant story with black humor and one can relate to some of the childhood observations. For her first book she has done a nice job of creating an impression in the mind. I still can visualize pictures of the place in Kerala the story revolves around, the smell of pickles and the greenery around. The characters are so distinct and are etched in my mind.

I read the 2nd half of the book during my taxi drive in Coorg and finished during the return journey back to Bangalore.

Dec 2005
I am currently reading Chetan Bhagat’s novel One Night @ the Call Center; it gives us an understanding of the lives of people working at the Call centers in India. I haven’t completed it, more about this in my next post

Also in parallel I had started reading Sogyal Rinpoche’s The Tibetan book of Living and Dying. I will continue on this once I finish Chetan Bhagat’s book. More about this too in my next post :-)

Hope you enjoyed my book reviews …!!!