reading books

For almost a month now, I am obcessed with reading books, every moment of free time I get, I just read, and almost all of it is nonsense, useless fiction which has no association with reality what so ever. Of coruse Sci-fi is useful as it tells you what is possible in future, and gives you more ideas. But all those James Patterson's, Michael Chrichton's are simple waste of time. Why do we spend our precious time reading them? Now I have started this big book about WWII, hopefully I would be able to finish it and get some insight into history.

H2G2 - Douglas Adams

What can I say about these books, just read them (with open mind), and then re-read them, and then once more to make any sense out of them, just read them as many times as you can!!

Douglas Adams

So much as Douglas Adams has impressed me with his writing, he definately deserves a mention in my blog. I recently heard the BBC radio series of H2G2, and I am really speachless, blown over after listening to it, its just, lets say out of the world wonderfully entertaining, I think I liked it almost at par with Harry Potter. And everytime I read or hear the books, there is something new and different that you understand, which is like you are reading a totally new book. The first time I read the books, it was like a series of random sentences put together. The second time I read it, I could see the amazing way these random sentences / events are put together that they almost make sense. This time when I heard the series, I noticed that he actaully mentions microsoft and windows, of course making fun of them, absolutely witty. I really wish this is one person I could meet or at least hear speak.

Carless in NYC

and thank God for that. Its been raining / hailing / snowing (make up your mind clouds!) all day today, literally non stop. There is almost 2 inches of snow outside. And while I was waking my 2 blocks on fluffy, velvetty, snowy side walk, I was looking out on the street at all that mud, snow, messy road condition, and if I had to depend on that road to move from one point to another, no, I don't want to think about it. Its such a relief to know that you don't have to drive around anymore, don't have to worry about petrol prices or the blood sucking insurance compaies. So something good did come out of it :). But ya, i do miss getting into that car, which is like a second home, complete will full and empty waterbottles, shoes, a set of clothes, umbrella, sometimes a pillow, bunch of books and what not, putting the car in gear and then driving away at 60 on that almost empty freeway (its clear that I am not talking about 405, or for that matter I5 or 520 either), switching lanes, feeling happy about overtaking that guy in his fancy BMW, switching CDs and then switching it back to Indian Ocean, thinking if its insane or what ! But today I am happy that I don't have a car, and I am inside the 4 walls and nothing of value is outside that I am worried about ( well, of course maybe Rahul, but then he can worry about himself or he is probably also inside some 4 walls, and then India is a safe place anyway, indoors or outdoors ).

Summer is upon us

There was a time when temp in single digit was suppose to be cold, and warm or comfortable would be in 20s. Time have changed, now anything above 0 is classified as warm! After almost a week of sub-zero temperatures in NY, its finally getting above freezing here, inface its getting into double digits not. The wind chill is gone, and sun still feels good. And that reminds me, yesterday when I was sitting, doing nothing (I do that a lot these days), staring out of my window (we are very very lucky that we have a window which looks south and from which we can actaully see a couple of trees and a piece of sky). So when I was staring out of my window, it felt like something was wrong, something is missing (apart from the sun, the moon, the wind, the horizon etc. etc.). And then it hit me, clouds and rain, there is absolutely no sign of rain here, and cloud just come and go, and the sky is mostly blue, and I don't like it much (among the 1000 other things about this place). After spending 2 years in Seattle, if I do not hear the sound of drizzle, cloudy skies, it does feel that something is amiss, the constant sunshine and clear blue skies just look out of place and boring.

Chronicles of .....

Narina or Narnia ?
Do you know that its actually Narnia and not Narina. I
I read the first 2 books of series always assuming and reading that its Narina, maybe because its easier to say, seems like a more natural word. But when started the 3rd one, the name suddenly became Narnia! Well, I of course need to go back and check what the first 2 said, did they make a huge type in the first 2 books, or did Lewis suddenly decided to change the name in 3rd book. Googling for both the names result in proper references to the books with both names! So its not just me, but the whole world is confused.