Who's reading what,when & the experience

Nick-H

A novel called Faking It.

It's entertaining. One has to have a light read from time to time!

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Aishah

Nick - I am a great believer in the 'light read'! My John Lanchester, Mr Phillips, certainly comes into this category - very funny, middle aged man with a lot of (too many!) sexual fantasies but funny!
Batistuta - The Book Thief sounds an excellent read - will look out for it. The plot appeals to me.

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Lou Wilson

The Places In between by Rory Stewart a Scotsman was a great read.

There are some people you hear about and all you can think is, "Are you nuts?" Take Rory Stewart for example. Stewart spent 16 months walking 6,000 miles across Iran, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. He decided that to make his journey complete, he must go back and walk 600 miles across Afghanistan. But he's going to do it alone. In January 2002. Along the most hazardous winter route — a straight line through the central mountains from Herat to Kanadahar . Roughly a month after the fall of the Taliban.

More on this book at

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/07/14/172218.php

Aishah

Machadinha - I wonder if you will see this? Have at last been able to read your reviews offline, not completely read yet but could you tell me how the word 'hermetic' is being used as a description for Cremer's poetry? Your review of Nihilism and Culture is a challenge to my aging brain, but will go through it at leisure later, and I must say thank you for the link to Hakim Bey/ Peter Lamborn Wilson's writings - this looks very interesting to me. Going by your hints I think we could be around the same generation! And I think my brain is becoming woolly over the years but it enjoys a challenge!

capt_mahajan

Maximum City. (Suketu Mehta)

Disagree with those who liked it.

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amyl

Indeed, sounds like a great one! Feel I shud stock it up for the winter time!

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machadinha

Yes, I did As I did your earlier comments, just left them lying around. If my thoughts were of any interest to you, at least this saves me from the embarrassment of having bored the crap out of some others

I have trouble putting literature into categories; when I said "what I guess you'd call hermetic," I was referring to what I think is a designation for a certain style of poetry that is quite "closed," inaccessible, referring back to itself. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetic

Nah, from what I've read I think you'll find me quite a little younger, but hey, even age is just a state of mind right

Keep the challenges up, what else do we have a brain for.

Was interested to read your thoughts on mid-eastern and flamenco influences; I agree there's little to the music, but the dancing sure has one wondering. In the Spanish case a far more direct influence was that of Moorish North Africa of course -- which again may have well been derived from etc. Food for thought.

Having had the good fortune once again to frequent some Greek and Turkish eateries btw, I am always struck by the almost direct line in both the musical and culinary field that stretches roughly from the Western Mediterranean to let's say India and probably beyond, with pulao and kofta and sweets and whatnot, and music both modern and traditional that could easily be transposed. Turkish pop music is little different from say a Bollywood tune, while something like rembetika would probably go down well in the streets of Delhi. All of this is of small wonder, considering ancient trade routes to and fro and so on, but it's interesting all the same.

Well -- blah

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Aishah

Thanks, that explains it! Didn't think of using Wikipedia (shouldn't be so lazy!) just looked in my Illustrated Oxford Dictionary somebody sold us for 600rupees and it is literally the coffee table book! Food.. yes, and that's the story of the gypsies ..originating from Rajasthan.

capt_mahajan

Quick question for those who have read both.

If I didn't like 'Maximum City', is it likely that I won't like Shantaram?

PeakXV

I don' know - haven't read either - but was thinking of posing the same question about "White Mughals" & "The Last Mughal".
White Mughals was too much like some present day soap opera come to life in 18th century India complete with too many characters that I couldn't keep straight or care less about. Now that The Last Mughal is getting "dumped" on Ebay .... I'm thinking of giving it a go.

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

capt_mahajan

The Last Mughal is a much better read than White Mughals (which, IMHO, is the only Dalrymple book not worth reading)

It's just that 'The Last Mughal' is supposed to have a lot of factual errors (I don't know for sure).. but the feeling I get is that the author is at a stage where he is largely cashing in on his popularity, so am suspicious. In any case, LM is not a patch on City of Djinns or even 'From the Holy Mountain' or 'The Age of Kali'

Aishah

Capt.Mahajan - haven't read Maximum City (and won't after your review!) but did read Shantaram - the style comes and goes on it, at times I was bored, at times rivetted..sometimes I thought it was no better than a 'penny dreadful'. Read it to the end however, overall found it interesting. The book was given to me for which i was grateful, don't think I would ever have bought it myself. If you have a good library near you - get it out of there, but if your library is like the one here it won't be in it!!Maybe 2nd hand books?? Or a friend to pass it on to you? Seriously, I thought he could have done a lot of pruning with his writing.

kristinm

I'm in the middle of Maximum City - I'm finding I'm skipping quite large bits, I got a bit bored with all the underworld stuff - so just jumped ahead. The good bits are interesting though.

capt_mahajan

Thanks Aishah . Kind of made up my mind to give it a miss.

Kristinm, yeah, Maximum City is overrated. Kitschy. He was a scripwriter (of sorts, he admits he didnt have to do much) for a Bollywood movie; the book is a Bollywood movie in print. And some of his 'friends' from the book have lambasted him in print.

Don't like normal Bollywood, either

Libraries.. thanks to the British Library, expenses on books have reduced dramatically since about 5 years. Borrowed Max. City from there, too.

kristinm

I do want to find the Vadapav stall he raves about though! I've already asked on the Mumbai food thread

I always assumed Bollywood scriptwriters were heavy recreational drug users.... Those movies are like an acid trip come to life!