"pop"

I've done a fair amount of "pop" history and academicky reading this month so far, all of which I've really enjoyed. Actually, to be fair, most of them were books I picked up for my dissertation (which is going JUST FINE, so stop asking) but ended up being not extremely relevant.

India Since Independence is a concise textbook-like work on Indian history and economic performance since independence. I was actually looking forward to it, because it helps me put into context a lot of the Nehruvian policy that I've been writing about for the chapter I'm currently working on. So it does what any decent textbook ought to do - which is basically hand things to you on a plate. I'm including it in the list on this page anyway, firstly because even though it's a thoroughly academic book and everything, I think it's an accessible book which most people ought to (and do) read anyway. I'm also listing it here because, like almost every other book I'll be writing about in this post, I've been too lazy to actually read any fiction and too broke to buy anything new. 

Savaging the Civilized is a biography of Verrier Elwin's written by Ramachandra Guha. I read it at the Teen Murti Library while getting some books photocopied. I actually picked it up thinking that it would have something solid to say about the Nehru-Elwin debate on tribal policy in India, but there wasn't much substantial in it on this particular subject. I read it anyway because it was a fascinatingly written account of Elwin's life - I hadn't been a fan of much of Elwin's work before this, mostly because the way he writes is quite annoying. But this book changed a lot of this, and now I find myself treating a lot of what Elwin had to say with a lot more sympathy and patience. 

I also really like Ramachandra Guha. I know that for lots of people India After Gandhi is totally a pop history sort of work, but I love the way he writes and puts things together. I've only read a part of India After Gandhi (it's huge, okay!), but I was discussing this with someone last night and he made a totally valid point. Guha deals with pretty much the same period and subject matter as Bipan Chandra and others in 'Indian Struggle for Independence', but treats it so very differently. While Chandra and others make some terrific arguments, Guha just provides a brilliant narrative of the time. I also found this in Fissured Land. (Not the first part so much, because that was quite dense and not narrative at all, but the third part was very, very nicely done.)

On 'Making a Difference' which I read because it looked very exciting, and not because it's even slightly relevant for my dissertation, I will make a separate post. Later.

doll's wedding

and other stories
by Chaso (Chaganti Somayajulu); translated by Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman

It's a lesson in how to make your stories everything but what they seem. Wandering, straightforward stories about a simple thing and everything else, too. It's lovely and heart-wrenching.

With an introduction that talks about his style as lacking sentiment and being "threadbare," I found it to be quite a striking and emotional book. As usual, I should have read the blurb later and just judged for myself first, I guess.

It's a strange sort of experience, to read a translation from a language you're familiar with. I found myself constantly translating everything back into Telugu in my head. (The last time this happened was when I was reading the translation of Gulabi Talkies by Vaidehi, but that was written in Kannada which I can hardly understand. I kept translating it into Telugu and Tamil in my head, whenever I felt like a sentence sounded better in either language.) Anyway, I really want to read it in Telugu now. Let's see. 

invisible cities

i want to commit to memory:
every little detail about every single city in italo calvino's invisible cities.

List of Flouted Resolutions Thus Far, May 2012

1. Hi. So I've been reading mostly fantasy. Even more than last year. So sue me.

2. Ka, Roberto Calasso; Transmission, Hari Kunzru; Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K Dick; Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis - These are books I have cheated on, started reading, (bought, in most cases), but have not finished. I have liked all of them (loved Ka especially), but midway started reading something else and haven't bothered to pick these up again. They're lying on the table next to my bed and are staring at me all the time.

3. Obviously, I read Patrick Rothfuss, the Unfinished But Awesome Series About Kvothe the Awesome. Twice over. But it's worth it. So.

4. Must. Read. Regular. Fiction. Therefore, I am going to finish Zorba the Greek (which is really quite nice. I don't know why I stopped reading it) and then start reading something else on this list of unfinished books. (Being broke also helps - I can read what I have instead of buying new books, you see.)

see what just arrived in the mail!

and they're so pretty! and hardbound! and the illustrations are so pretty! thank you p'akka!!

minority council

by kate griffin

reminded me about how fun she can be!

also, this book is definitely the best of the four. the problems i had with her style initially? that it looked like she was making an effort, that it wasn't as slick as it thought itself to be, it slipped in many places, but made up for it in story? there's none of that! she does SO many awesome things with her story-telling in this book, it really had me hooked from cover to cover. it's absolutely brilliant, is what it is. and what i loved most about her, the city and its magic, is exponentially better in this book.

what can i say. we be life we be fire we be blue electric angels. :)

love!

the pleasures of the damned

I've been reading Bukowski's fat book of poetry like it's a life-jacket. 

there is a loneliness in this world so great

that you can see it in the slow movement of

the hands of a clock

I've been thinking about somethings since I read Factotum. About aspirations, work, money, jobs, my own, someone else's; dreams, lists of things to do (the concept of these things, and obviously, my own as well).

Because, see, Bukowski, he makes it seem okay not to have any of these things. Because, see, Bukowski, he seems to know the truth about normal lives and regular people. (The people are nice people, I / like them. / but I feel them drowning / and I can't save them.)  

Like I've said before, I don't know if Bukowski's good for my current state of mind. 

But this, coupled with re-reading all that fantasy with heroes and journeys and swords and things, is definitely fucking with my head. I guess my real problem is that I can't decide if my neighbors are just people who go to sleep at 9PM or, you know, something else.

This post has started to meander. Oh well.


ps. first extract from "the crunch", second extract from "safe". 

If you're wondering why I haven't posted here in over a month, the sad and unfortunate truth of it is that I'm mostly only reading heavy (I paid extra for excess baggage, bitch!) and absolutely incredibly boring, but goldmine in terms of, you know, data (*punches air*) things with titles like "Report of the Commissioner of So-and-So to the President, 1979". They even have sentences in them such as "Levirate is in vogue." That's a legit word, by the way. (Although not a legit sentence very much, one would think.)
Anyway, I shouldn't be reading anything else until I really really figure out this next chapter, so if I manage to sneak in a reading of Earthsea Quartet (Ursula LeGuin), I'll tell you all about it. I also really want to read the new Kate Griffin book, so whenever Flipkart decides to drop it off at my house, I'll drop everything else and read that, so there's always that.
Until then, enjoy the rain and drink a large cup of coffee for me (because I can't, for some reason. Not a funny one either.)

this is slowly turning into an unfortunate and bookless month.
damn you vacations, drunkenness and intermittent work.

i hate you, mr. gaiman.

because i've been re-reading Sandman, and because this is my blog and I'm allowed to post what ever the hell I want to post.

(i) Says Rose Walker to Desire in Kindly Ones, Part 9:

“Have you ever been in love?

Horrible isn't it?

It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...

You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore.

Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart.

It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain.

Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not love.

I hate love.”

(ii) Says Morpheus to Lucien, Season of Mists, Episode 1

"We do what we must, Lucien.

Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us.

And sometimes we have no choice at all."