Literary Journey & Other Thoughts

Bala helped me post this article, but somehow without the book covers, it merely has half its charm, so here goes the link, given the propah look by the one and only Fizz - what would be do without her.

The updates may be last minute, but once it's outta your outbox you can rest assured, it's gonna be up and looking good at that....Take a look:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/ptm/books/bestof2005.htm

I presume, you have taken the time to read that magnum opus....
If you haven't, as we love to say in telly speak, 'stay tuned', 'we have more updates headed your way.'

So thanks for staying tuned to this space. Coz I do have something to say this morning. The other day someone asked me "why are all your reviews good?" Excellent point!

Being in the business that I am, being swamped with books is inevitable. And not all of them are brilliant! So what do I do. I make the choices. After so many many years of reading, often the back of the book and the cover is a key indicator of the content that awaits me. I'm not claiming to be a genius, but I can often tell a bad book from a good one. With that, the inevitable follows - I choose not to review the bad ones. I mean, come on, after I've wasted my energy on it, why first review it, then get you the reader to read it only to let you know "sorry buddy you wasted your time, the book is really crap."

And there is so much good literature coming out, that it is pointless wasting your time and energy on the bad stuff, almost as bad as being stuck with friends you can't count on in times of adversity.

Speaking of which, I was reading an article (about books of course) on one of my favourite Indian websites. And what do I find - one of my favourite Indian authors - Vikram Seth being panned. He wasn't alone - also getting hammered along the way were diplomat turned author Vikas Swarup, none other than the distinguished Amartya Sen and a host of others. I'm not gonna name names, but if you follow Indian writing, you'll know who I am talking about. As an aside, I enormously enjoyed 'Two Lives', 'Q&A' and 'Argumentative Indian'.

Sorry about side-tracking, getting back...
now, that's what I call criticism for the sake criticism. Also one of the many reasons, that authors say critics aren't taken all that seriously after all. I mean, why not try and do a Vikram Seth yourself first and then claim "he was all seth and went nowhere." Let me assure you, I'll be listening, even if the others aren't.

Time to run on, but I do promise some posts, soon.....
That's one of the many 2006 resolutions....
In addition to figuring out how to make the blog more jazzy....
Anyone with any ideas, do help!
Cheers & A Merry 2006