[Books] 2014 - The year that was - Part IV

Continued from here.

The Shining – Stephen King
Ever since I first heard about The Shining, I stayed away from all the discussions/mentions of the book/movie so that it doesn’t spoil my reading experience. I’m kinda paranoid like that – I refuse to even read the back cover before starting a book. All I can say is that it is worth the wait. It gave me heebie-jeebies and it gets scary from page 20 or so. That’s 600+ pages worth of scary reading. Absolutely amazing! I’ll just leave this one quote from the book as it reminds me of my college life where we had to come up with creative abuses on our internal IM chats so as to escape the filters – (and also because we are were staunch believers of creativity instead of the everyday rote)

The workman cut to the left, still laying on his horn, and roared around the drunkenly weaving limousine. He invited the driver of the limo to perform an illegal sex act on himself. To engage in oral congress with various rodents and birds. He articulated his own proposal that all persons of Negro blood return to their native continent. He expressed his sincere belief in the position the limo-driver's soul would occupy in the afterlife. He finished by saying that he believed he had met the limo-driver's mother in a New Orleans house of prostitution.

Rating – 4/5

Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
I first heard about this book nearly couple of yrs ago I mentioned somewhere that I liked Ken Follet’s The Key to Rebecca and a friend mentioned that Rebecca is a pretty good book too. It has one of the most famous first lines – “Last night I dreamt that I went to Manderley again”. The first 100 pages made me feel that the book should be titled Manderley instead. Also, aren't Manderlys a loyal Stark banner men in ASOIAF? Sorry, I digress. The prose is beautiful, the descriptions of the Manderley were great and the narrative from the unnamed, err, narrator, is free flowing. The book gets a bit dull in the middle section – I mean, one can take only so much about extensive descriptions about a place. I also felt the narrator to be a bit weak of character, though I may have to take her young age into consideration and excuse it. The final 100 pages are thrilling through. I didn’t watch the movie and I had no idea what the book was about, so I liked the ending. Not sure the same can be said of others. Even if you know the story, give the book a read though. The language is simply beautiful and is rare to see among current authors. 4/5

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that can’t stop Talking – Susan Cain
The title of the book came across a bit too strong but the content is pretty mild. It's not self-help at all. Target audience is US where people are mostly extroverted (the society as a whole) compared to the eastern part of the world which comes across a bit introverted. Though that is quite generalizing a bit too much. The initial chapters were vexing as there were too bludy many examples of extrovertism and introvertism. Author advises the reader to take Carl Jung test for personality traits though I'm not really up to date how relevant these tests are these days (read a little bit the other day about conflicts between Jung and Freud). As the book goes on, the content becomes more readable. The author confesses to growing up as an introvert and with the American way of life leaning more towards extrovertism (presentation more important than content, colleges want students to be outgoing, weekends are filled with camping or partying yada yada), this book comes as her analysis on introverts and how their skills can be utilized better. Seriously I can't be the only one who hates group work (especially when team work is more like this) and runs away from all "fun events" at workplace? Anyway, that makes it 4 women authors for my 2014 (along with Patricia Highsmith and Mme Christie). 3 stars for the book and an extra star for the research. 4/5

Appointment with Death – Agatha Christie
What the fricking hell was that? I hate, I absolutely hate it when the clues are deliberately kept away from the reader and the mystery is solved magically when the detective (Poirot here) comes up with completely new information in the end. I'm as pissed off as Jack Black was in School of Rock and I really want to stick it to the man. 2/5

Eye of the Needle – Ken Follet
Another book which pissed me off no end. This was supposed to be one of the most acclaimed works of Follet but the ending was such a big letdown. If I wanted to read super heroes I'd read Stan Lee's Marvels comics instead. I can't even abuse the characters without giving away the plot so I'll just stick to making angry grunts at my desk instead. Follet, there was such a big scope but in the end, u iz a big disappoint. 3/5

Slaughterhouse-5 – Kurt Vonnegut
The book started with a beginning and it finished with an end. In between all this there was the middle. So it goes. Billy Pilgrim was at Dresden during its bombing in World War II. Or maybe he wasn't. So it goes. Billy Pilgrim was abducted by aliens. Or, [breaks the statement and stares at everyone with a pointed finger like Ross Geller], maybe he wasn't. So it goes. I heard a lot about the book. I read the book completely in a few hrs. I am yet to come to any conclusion as to whether I like it or not. But hey, so it goes. It has underlying sarcasm but it is not continuous like Catch-22. I didn't feel like it was a full-on satire on war. It is a short book at less than 200 pages so give it a read and form your own opinion. I think I definitely need a re-read though. So it goes. 3/5

The Curious Case of Dog in the Night Time – Mark Haddon
I liked the puzzles. I liked the narration. I liked how the author used a kid with Asperger's syndrome as protagonist and showed the world in his eyes. This makes even the scenes with unemotional narration come out as pretty emotional for the readers. There are not many references to actual Holmes stories though – maybe a couple at the max. I found the book short and endearing. *sniff* 4/5

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
I heard a lot about PKD and how he's considered part of Sci-Fi trinity along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. The book has been on my to-read shelf for more than a year and once I completed Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World, GR kept suggesting this one to me every time I logged in. I found the title interesting – it seems to refer to a world where human intelligence reaches the peaks of developing human-like robots (humanoids?) and once we reach that stage, what are the moral values of these humanoids? Are they bound by same moral laws as humans? (now that we come to this part, what moral values are we bound by?) Pretty fascinating read for me, though there is not much world building from PKD. The first half of the book was more like the adventures of a bounty hunter but once it reaches the end, the moral questions of the book’s title come forth. 3.5/5

[Books] 2014 - The year that was - Part III

Continued from here.

Parnasala - Y Veerendranath. Have to admit that I never really warmed up to this author. He’s pretty highly rated but I have scarred memories from high school when I went through one of his self-improvement books (looking at you too, Shiv Khera). He is criticized for lifting a lot of parts from foreign books and his writing style is not smooth. He’s too melodramatic. He uses archaic Telugu in some places and full English words at other places unnecessarily. Of course several of his novels were made into successful movies but give me Malladi Krishnamurthy (only read two of his – Chantabbay, Rendu Rellu Aaru) any day over him. I’m gonna give him one final chance though – will pick up the highly rated Tulasi Dalam some time this year and if that disappoints, then I’m gonna stay away from all his books. 2/5

A Brave New World - Aldous Huxley. Grim, morose, disturbing, dark, scary, depressing, horrific, distressing. Huxley’s dystopian novel deals with the future where women are no longer viviparous (first encountered the word here), human birth is all done through surrogates (I suppose the equivalent of ‘alcohol in his blood surrogate’ is our very own ‘were you dropped on your head?’), people undergo hypnopaedic lessons as children, adults get soma-induced holidays and a host of other things (“play” school – dayyum!). First chapter has too many technical details about the Hatcheries and Conditioning Centre. But once you cross that, the story is interesting at least till the halfway stage. It is of course unavoidable to compare and contrast this with George Orwell’s 1984. Bernard Marx initially gave me the impression of Winston Smith (someone who feels like an outsider in the society) and there was so much potential to make Lenina Crowne as Julia but it’s a pity they didn’t turn out like that. Around half of the book after the halfway stage felt a bit weak – though I’m not sure if that’s an emotion or an analysis. Or if it’s an analysis by subconscious mind which the conscious can only recognize as a ‘feeling’ – maybe that’s what rational emotion means? The book picks up strongly in the final chapters though but Huxley took Mr. Savage a bit too far into the opposite extreme. And surprisingly the World Controller Mustapha Mond didn’t really sound like O’Brien in 1984. I suppose true test of insanity depends on how much one agrees with Mond’s views in the end. Oh also, coccyx – another word I first read here. The 2nd part of the book has several pages dedicated to Shakespeare (and the title is obviously taken from a verse in Tempest). Special recommendation for poetry enthusiasts! 4/5

Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson – Final Empire, Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages
I can see why Brandon Sanderson took over WoT series. His writing is pretty good, the story moves fast and there is a lot of magic. I liked the connection between magic and metals – allomancy. The first book can be read as standalone as there is no cliffhanger in the end. The climax may be fairly predictable but the real story starts in the 2nd book. I was bored till halfway of Well of Ascension as there was less magic and more narration (and the budding romance between Vin and Elend - bleurgh). The final book is where everything unravels. I can understand the criticism that the final part is a bit repetitive but it’s a problem only if you've finished the series in a week. For those who religiously followed the books over 3 yrs, there was probably a necessity to retell some parts from previous books to refresh their memory. I heard there’s a 4th one – Alloy of Law – which is set 300 yrs later. That trilogy includes 2 more books to be finished in 2016. And Sanderson is writing 36 novels all set in Cosmere, under which Mistborn is a little part. Oh great, who needs social life anyway? 4/5

Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud – Amulet of Samarkand, Golem’s Eye, Ptolemy’s Gate, Ring of Solomon
Adventures of smart arse djinni and its master. Bartimaeus parts are hilarious and if the series had only those chapters, I’d have given it a 8/5 rating. But I had to endure Kitty and Nathaniel (most of those were boring in Golem’s Eye), uff. Nathaniel transforms from smart yet innocent kid in Amulet of Samarkand to cocky and proud minister in Ptolemy’s Gate and irritated the heck out of me. But Barty, oh my, what a wisecracking djinni! The first three books were good and the final one was something like a prequel but it’s not necessary to read it to follow the story line of actual trilogy. But Ring of Solomon has Bartimaeus extensively so it was a fun read too. All the Twilight brigade should give those up and pick up Bartimaeus instead under Young Adult category. Whenever he says "I’m Bartimaeus of Uruk, Sakhr-Al Djinni, Serpent of the Silver Plumes!" I roared. I hope Jonathan Stroud writes more standalone books including the adventures of Bartimaeus. 4/5

Airframe - Michael Crichton. Breathtaking. Unputdownable. After a couple of dull Crichton books (Prey, Sphere, Andromeda Strain – not bad, but a bit average), I'm glad to come across this one by luck. I gifted this to my sister for Rakhi and she lent me the same recently as I ran out of books. Btw, it made me hate media even more (if that is even possible) – not everyone, just the ones who are after TRPs and try to make everything sound sensational. Those who focus less on the actual content and more on manipulating it – umm alright, that makes it almost everyone. 4.5/5

Dilbert Principle - Scott Adams. The Bible. Was written nearly two decades ago but I was nodding profusely for every single line. I read a review which said that the book comes across as condescending but I think Adams got the tone just right. He starts the book by saying everyone’s an idiot and give an example of his own stupidity. On initial thoughts it seems tailor made for IT employees, but it is applicable in all places where there is – vision, business statement, mission statement, quality teams, cubicles, disgruntled employees, stupid managers, emails, trackers, employee engagement activities, human resources, reward programs, downsizing, diversity, offshore, etc. I take back my words from previous para where I said Dilbert Principle is a serious book – it isn't. It’s a hilarious read for those who like self-deprecating humor. 5/5

Guns of Navarone - Alistair MacLean. If you can plod through the first 100 pages, it’s a brilliant book. I usually struggle at the start of MacLean novels before I understand the context of the err, expedition. But after that, it’s a very pacy read. I heard there’s a brilliant movie too – but that has to wait while I swim in the genius of MacLean. The 2nd half is some extremely impressive story telling. I screamed huzzah!when it ended. 4.5/5

Lord of the Flies William Golding – I know Animal Farm is one of the best allegorical novels ever written but this has to rank up there among the best surely. A bunch of schoolboys are plane wrecked on an uninhabited island and the book traces the deterioration of their society. My reaction flow through the book – meh kids --> what stupid kids --> are you insane? --> OMG, NOT HIM TOO! --> you fucking savages* --> damn you all to hell. The final page of the book has “wept for the end of innocence” – what beautiful and poignant line! I was able to relate each character to what they were supposed to represent, except maybe the conch. Had to refer to Wiki for that. I miscalculated my reading speed and went out of town on a weekend with only this book in hand – got the chance to read it twice within two days. All’s well. 4.5/5

* not related to Savage from A Brave New World

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[Books] 2014 - The year that was - Part II

Continued from here.

Where Eagles Dare - Alistair MacLean. How have I not read MacLean before? The man is a genius. I think I started this after a couple of Forsyth novels so I was continuing the British vs Germany spy stuff. The story is pretty pacy, the narration style makes it thrilling and I imagined the protagonist (Major Smith?) as Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder goes Forth, which further enhanced my reading pleasure. There are once again, double crosses, double-double crosses, double agents, triple agents, confusing agents, etc. Such a pleasure to read spy stuff with barely any romantic content (Ian Fleming, take note wherever you are) and still exhilarating enough to keep the reader engrossed in the book. Lovely debut for MacLean (I mean not his first novel but the first I read by him) after my troubling experiences with other popular authors. 4.5/5

Ice Station Zebra - MacLean. Britain’s Artic ice station seems to be in trouble and there is barely any response to radio communication. There’s an advanced submarine being sent to rescue them but a man who calls himself a specialist doctor on human behavior in extreme weather conditions wants to be on onboard. What happened to the ice station? Is this doctor who he claims to be? Who are the moles and what’s their motivation? Can it all be resolved in time? The scientific stuff about submarine went over my head as usual but the story is thrilling like always. Don’t think there’s any female character. 3.5/5

HMS Ulysses - MacLean. If the submarine stuff in Ice Station Zebra was confusing, imagine my plight when reading HMS Ulysses. Of course, there’s no one to blame except me – whenever I pick a book from an author I never read before, I tend to go on a marathon of his/her books. My initial search of HMS Ulysses at regular spots actually gave me James Joyce’s Ulysses, which I realized only after reading a couple of pages. Then fortunately I found the one I wanted. I struggled a lot to understand the technical stuff but the story - I did get that! Book is pretty realistic and there’s absolutely no feel good factor in this. Gives you the stark narration of sailors lives aboard a war ship. Felt sorry for a few characters in the end. I can’t believe this is MacLean’s debut novel – pretty crisp writing. 3.5/5

Bapu Cartoons I & II – I was in two minds whether to include this in this list coz the books are a collection of several cartoons from Bapu. To the uninitiated, Bapu is like our version of RK Narayan – multi talented creative genius. The news of his death saddened me and I had to buy his books to go through his genius once more. Though he’s drawn several thousand cartoons, the collection can accommodate only a few of those. The cartoons contain wit, sarcasm, lighthearted humour, satire on politics, caricatures of people and of course a few from Budugu series (written by MV Ramana, his friend for 60 yrs – our version of Calvin or as his detractors refer to it: copy of Dennis the Menace). I miss the Bapu-Ramana duo :(. 4.5/5

The Prestige - Christopher Priest. I have a fascination with the books which got adapted to successful movies. I watched Nolan’s movie starring Bale, Jackman and Johansson (*drools*) several yrs ago and apart from them both being magicians I don’t remember a thing – which is good, btw. There’s very less narration from an outsider pov and the book is mostly a collection of entries from diaries of Angier and Borden, as read by their great grand kids. Ever since I read Cecilia Ahern’s Where Rainbows End (don’t judge me, I was forced into it), I have a unhealthy scare of books written completely as collection of letters or diary entries. Thankfully, it isn't that bad. But the climax was a bit iffy, details of magic work better on screen compared to narration, some parts get kinda boring and I have a feeling that the movie worked out better than the book in the end. 3/5

Foundation heptalogy - Isaac Asimov. Posted separately here. Series rating - 4.5/5.

Kothi Kommachi - MV Ramana. This is the first part of MV Ramana’s autobiography which came out as serialized in Telugu magazine Swathi a few yrs prior to his passing. I love the language he uses! It details his childhood, his struggles in Madras, his life as a journalist, his interviews with Bhanumathi R and NTR, Radio Annayya/Akkayya, his first story (during school), eminent personalities he’s met working as a journalist, his entry to movies, etc. Luckily for him, he’s worked through the golden cultural period and reading this made me want to buy all the books I’ve been wanting to read since school. And of course Bapu shadows him everywhere (they met when they were 14 and the friendship continued till Ramana passed away at 82 couple of yrs ago). Will take up the 2nd and 3rd parts some time this year. 4/5

God’s Debris - Scott Adams. I thought Dilbert Principle was the most serious of all Scott Adams’ works (I only skimmed through a few pages in a book shop). I was wrong – he’s written something on philosophy called God’s Debris. Of course I can’t say that this is completely about philosophy – I think Adams himself says that this is somewhere between fiction and non fiction. Recommended by a fellow bibliophile, I finished this book in a few hours (only 140 pages) – though it’s supposed to be read slowly allowing the reader to take in the essence. There are some fascinating points mentioned in the book, especially about free will, socializing (err, talk about people rather than ideas) and intelligence vs awareness. I have a trouble with the concept of God’s debris though. But next time someone mentions Alchemist, I’m gonna propose God’s Debris. Trying to find its sequel now – Religion War. Friendly advice: 4/5 (when sober). 5/5 (when drunk)

My Dateless Diary - RK Narayan. I was rummaging through my dad’s shelf coz my mom’s been nagging me to arrange the books neatly (“you two guys are absolutely hopeless in keeping the house clean”) and found this gem of a book gifted by my grampa to my dad during his college. Nostalgic! (of course I wasn’t there then). The back cover said it’s part travelogue, part diary and part collection of Narayan’s thoughts on his first visit to the US. It immediately reminded me of The Inscrutable Americans and Barrister Parvatheesam (“an Indian’s first visit to US and his experiences”) but of course it’s nothing like those two. Narayan’s not called a genius for nothing. The very first page itself where he details his breakfast experiences got me interested in the book and the story simply flowed after that. There’s an absolutely amazing view point on television, which I completely concur with nearly 5 decades later (TV’s a waste of space). Extras: RK Narayan meets Aldous Huxley and Greta Garbo. He also wrote the much acclaimed The Guide during this stay in US. Confession: this is the first complete book by RK Narayan that I’ve read. 4/5

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[Books] 2014 - The year that was - Part I

85 books in total. Full list of books I read here.

Writing reviews for all 85 is taking too long. Wrote for nearly one-third for now. Hoping to finish everything by mid-Jan.

I am Zlatan - Poor translation but a very entertaining read. Don't really prefer reading biographies of players who haven't retired but Zlatan's is an exception. It details his life in Rosengard and how his career progressed from Malmo FF to AC Milano through Ajax Amsterdam, Juventus, Inter Milano and Barcelona. It's a pity the book ends before his move to PSG. Good read for football fans. 4/5

I Think, Therefore I Play - biography of Italian footballer Andrea Pirlo. I already broke my vow with Zlatan's and then another friend shared Pirlo's biography saying it's a must read. The book is short with content covering hardly 70-80 pages but what a book it was! Right from the first page, I was in tears. Probably the funniest biography I've ever read. The book doesn't include too many details about his childhood or even his playing days. It's more like sitting with Pirlo having a Scotch and cigar on a winter evening talking about random stuff that he went through. I wish he writes a book every year.c4/5

The Green Mile - Stephen King. Don't bother, watch the movie starring Tom Hanks instead. I have the terrible luck of starting a popular and acclaimed author's works with probably their most underwhelming novel. It happened with Agatha Christie (Sparkling Cyanide), Sidney Sheldon (Stranger in the Mirror), Stephen King (this), Michael Crichton (Timeline), Jeffrey Archer (Paths of Glory). Green Mile is a serialized novel with 6 parts with each one covering 70-75 pages each. I dunno how people read it back then when you had to wait for the each successive part to release after a while but when I read all 6 together, I found the story to be extremely slow paced. First part tells about a brutal crime and the criminal John Coffey getting sent to a state penitentiary. And then, not much happens in next parts. I expected it to be a racy thriller with lots of action, mystery, horror (Stephen King, after all), etc but not much stuff happens. Don't really recommend reading it. 3/5

Strangers on a Train - Patricia Highsmith. Recommended by the book club I'm part of, I took this up during a weekend but it took me nearly two days to finish it. Expected it to be an unputdownable-burn-the-midnight-oil-till-it's-dawn kinda book but I took a lot of breaks in between just to get away from the characters. Two strangers Guy Haines and Charles Bruno meet on a train and there's a plan to kill for each other so that suspicion won't fall on the respective guys (police won't be able to find a motive). Charles was constantly drunk and Guy spends more time in his head than Raskolnikov (I had to wiki his name) in Crime and Punishment. Extremely vexing read and when the book finally ended, I screamed "Hallelujah, glory be to the Old Gods, the Seven, R'hllor and the God of Many Faces!" 2/5

The Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor. During the (g)olden days when I regularly read The Hindu (lost the habit now), Ramachandra Guha and Shashi Tharoor were my favorite writers. I first heard of this book during one of the Literary quizzes. Based on recommendations there, I immediately bought the book. It's a brilliant book, written in 1989, intertwining Mahabharata with the Indian freedom struggle and later national politics. So we read the Indian history from late 19th century through early 1980s like the story of Mahabharata. Constantly through the book I was reminded of Mrs. Miggins' giggle and her words in Blackadder - III: Oh you've a way with words, Mr. Shelley. Tharoor is a brilliant writer and he's so good with words that I even read the poems that occasionally come in between. Must read. 4.5/5

Govinda - Krishna Udayasankar. Like Amish fictionalized the Shiva trilogy, Krishna decided to fictionalize the Mahabharata. This is the first of the Aryavarta Chronicles and I guess the series is supposed to be a trilogy. The book deals with the start of Mahabharata (Satyavrata, Ved Vyas, Bhishm etc) till the crowning of Yudhishtir. Author tried to write too similarly to Amish and hence the book ends up with Panchali/Draupadi sounding a lot like Sati in Shiva trilogy. There are a lot of things I don't like but listing them would be spoilers for others so I'll refrain. Just one rant though, as I have to get it off my chest: I've read my first Mahabharata when I was 7 and since then, I've read several versions but in no version did I read Panchali and Krishna (neither the author nor me) being lovers. All through the book, this point was constantly nagging in my mind which didn't let me enjoy the book as much as it deserved. I only picked up as I found it lying in my room (all my roomies vehemently denied having ever owned it or even seen it) and since I ran out of books, I picked it up. Now I'll have to finish the series :|. Noticed the 2nd part Kaurava being available in flipkart for only 200 bucks but I just can't find myself to spend any money on it :/. On the positive side: the story flows smoothly. It doesn't get boring any where. 3/5

The Great Train Robbery - Michael Crichton. Book describes in detail the audacious train robbery of 1855. There's also a movie starring Sean Connery & Sutherland based on the same book. This is everything the Green Mile is not - a pulsating page turner. There's not a single chapter where I felt like skimming the lines. I could hardly relate to the story as it was set in Victorian times but Crichton doesn't bore with too many unnecessary details. He keeps the narrative strong, builds each character and leaves a little something after every chapter which makes you look forward to the next. It was so good I finished it in just two nights. When I started reading, I was slightly put off with the Victorian details but the story kept flowing and I couldn't simply put the book down. 4/5


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Series Review: Foundation by Isaac Asimov

My first tryst with Asimov’s work was back in school and the only thing I remember from that story was “consider all the view points before taking a decision” and that stuck to me ever since. Years later a benevolent friend lent me the first part of the original trilogy – Foundation. Back then I knew neither it was a trilogy nor it won the one-time Hugo best all time series awards ahead of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Though the book was good, I had trouble imagining the world and I felt that the book lacked a proper context. Who’s the old man Hari Seldon? What’s all this about council? Why does his apparition visit after 50 yrs? What exactly is this psycho thingy? (editor note: psychohistory). Questions for which I didn't really get satisfactory answers – which made the experience not as pleasant as it deserved.

Asimov started the original trilogy when he was 21 and finished it around 8 yrs later. It was initially published as a series of short stories in one of the science magazines in the '50s and the books were released only a bit later. The original trilogy was supposed to deal with 1000 yrs of psychohistory that Hari Seldon developed but the books encompassed only 300 yrs of that. As the series seemed to lack a finish, (and after strong persuasion from several readers), Asimov wrote a sequel in 1983, which won another Hugo award to no one's surprise. He "finished" the series with a 5th book in late 80s and that seemed to be, err, that. But for Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons (readers of Brave New World will get the reference) like me, the first book still lacked context as it talks nothing about development of psychohistory by Seldon. So he wrote two more prequels for the intellectually challenged (yours truly) and that made it a heptalogy.

*minor spoilers ahead*

1. Prelude to the Foundation: (prequel #1)
This book actually deals with Hari Seldon's early life (err, if 30+ is early) and how he became a psychohistorian. It’s several thousand years since the First Galactic Empire was in place with the imperial seat at Trantor. During the reign of Cleon I, a 32-yr old mathematician named Hari Seldon from a distant world Helicon visits Trantor to attend Decennial Mathematics Convention. His theory that the future behavior of a sufficiently large number of people can be predicted using mathematical formulae attracts the attention of the Emperor and his (supposedly evil) First Minister Eto Demerzel. Hoping to take advantage of this theory, Cleon meets Hari Seldon and asks him to tell the people that his psychohistory predicts a peaceful reign under Cleon. Hari refuses saying that his is still a theory and the mathematical formulae weren't really designed yet. Hari meets someone called Chetter Hummin, who warns Hari about Eto Demerzel and takes him away to Streeling University because the Imperial Forces (who can coerce Seldon) do not enter educational institutions. There he meets a historian called Dors Venabili, who becomes his guardian.

Though Hari Seldon is skeptic about developing psychohistory – it takes more than one’s lifetime to come up with all the equations – he works towards the initial development of the said science. He has to find the customs of early history and apply his budding formulae and see if they predict the current situation. (The present is known and if the past can be retrieved, the formulae can be verified by checking if they predict the present from the past – sound logic there). During this course, he meets his future adopted son Raych as well as his future project assistant Yugo Amaryl at Dahl sector and later visits Mycogen, where people hold dearly to their old traditions. Mycogen presents a fascinating argument regarding women’s place in society and the class divide between religious leaders and others. Class divide is evident even in Dahl sector between "normal public" and Billibotton-ers (thugs) and workers of heat sinks.

2. Forward the Foundation: (prequel #2)
So Hari Seldon is hopping from sector to sector on Trantor trying to find historical information, gets into dangerous situations where he's saved by Dors Venabili – who seems to have inhuman power – and manages to somehow survive Mycogen's Sunmaster 14 thanks to Chetter Hummin. Eto Demerzel resigns as First Minister (disappears?) and Seldon is chosen as the next one by the Emperor Cleon. This book has only 4 chapters I believe, each dealing with a specific character and the slow progress of psychohistory – Cleon I, Dors Venabili, Rayach, Wanda Seldon (daughter of Rayach). Yugo Amaryl works himself to death (let that be a lesson to all the workaholics). Hari Seldon gets old and sets up two Foundations – both on the opposite sides of the galaxy – to continue the work.

Though they’re not part of the original trilogy, these two prequels setup the context for what psychohistory is all about and why two Foundations were setup.

*minor spoilers end *

3, 4, 5 – Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation (the trilogy) –
So a Foundation is setup on the distant planet of Terminus which has all the super genius physicists. Hari Seldon (his image) visits them during the times of crises – the dude predicted the crisis situations using his formulae, remember – and tells the people that with careful planning, only one solution exists to prevent each crisis and that is the path they must take. If there's one flaw in psychohistory, it is that a single individual can create chaos to the theory by going against the prediction. That is why he had to ensure that only one solution exists to each problem and that solution is what was included in psychohistorical analysis to predict the further events.

So what happens when a single individual goes against the norm? What if he's all too powerful for the super genius physicists of the Foundation? Can a Foundation be *holds breath* defeated? These form the basis of Foundation and Empire. And what of this Second Foundation anyways? It was supposed to be setup along with Foundation at the opposite end of the galaxy. Though everyone’s heard of Foundation, nobody – including Foundation members – have any clue what this Second Foundation is and where it is setup. Once they find out about Second Foundation, what are they gonna do about it?

6, 7 – Foundation’s Edge, Foundation and Earth (sequels) –
6th book is where the Asimov’s genius ends. The final one is a tad boring, tedious and a big part of it is really unnecessary. But we get some very interesting conversations between Janov Pelorat (historian) and Golan Trevize (Foundation councilman, space pilot). They provide a very interesting argument throughout the books about individualism vs collectivism. And we visit some weird worlds during the hunt for the red* earth (ha!).


Overall, a very satisfying read. Intelligent people can read the trilogy and be content. Those who really want the context of the trilogy’s start can read the prequels (they are very well written) too. Those who are adamant to finish all 7 or who want to read a bit more on the individual vs collective (collectief – as us Dutch say) can read the sequels. Asimov’s a genius, I’m planning to pick up his Robot series sometime before I die.


* - original Earth was supposed to be destroyed due to too much radio activity.

Le Carré vs Fleming

I read the following books by the two authors, frequently called the masters of spy novels.

John Le Carré:
A Murder of Quality, The Looking Glass War, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Small Town in Germany

Ian Fleming:
Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker and another book, the name of which I didn't even bother to remember.


Le Carré:-
Murder of Quality is a bit like Agatha Christie. There's no spying stuff involved, though it has George Smiley as the detective. Quiet village town, someone gets violently killed, Smiley is there by chance and he has to investigate the murder. Includes both Hercule "little grey cells" Poirot and Miss "family and stuff, emotions, little village people" Marple type case solving. A decent read for a debut novel.

The Looking Glass War is about two different government agencies against each other and it has so many details about training a spy to go beyond enemy lines. You feel sorry for the one chosen to be the spy, hate the cunning plots of higher ops, despair at how selfish some can be and pray that somehow everything is okay in the end.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold may possibly be the best spy novel ever. The way the plot twists and turns is incredible. It mixes good writing with great bit of drama. The final few chapters are worth reading several times (and that’s not because you didn’t understand them first).

I watched the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy a few years ago but thankfully I forgot what happens in the end. It is possibly one of the most complex spy novels. It involves a lot of threads, there are moles, double agents, a possibly fake triple agent who may not be fake and one person (with help from a couple of trustworthy colleagues) to identify the mystery mole who brought down Control, the head of Circus. I'd usually recommend this for others but this needs very very slow reading as the plot gets confusing quite a number of times. Better to read the book mentioned above and fall in love with Carré's style first, before taking up the huge project of reading Tinker Tailor..

Fleming:-
So what happens in Fleming novels is,
Some Communist power (East Germany, Russia, Cuba, etc) is hatching a plot that can cause severe damage to Britain/US (or there's an independent agency/agent who developed the world's most destructive device). Bond is paged and he goes to the respective location. There's a bludy beautiful blonde ready to fall into his arms, who may either be villain's subordinate or villain's prisoner or even Bond's fellow agent. The villain doesn't like his presence, comes close to killing him and our Bond is left with nothing but socks on him. He somehow escapes the villain, plots revenge, makes elaborate plans, gets super cool gadget stuff from M/Q and beats the villain to a pulp in the end.

Throw in a few romantic scenes, terrible writing, long descriptions of bland stuff, few possibly supernatural stuff, few unrealistic gadgets, lady-how-can-you-fall-so-easily-for-anyone incidents and a bit of racist/chauvinist/misogynist stuff.

For a long while, I compared Fleming's Bond to Christie's Poirot before trying to form a concrete negative opinion – I mean, they are a bit similar if you look at it in a way. Bond wins in the end, Poirot solves every case. I can appreciate the way Poirot solves a case so I must be able to appreciate the way Bond works to achieve something though we all know how the two sets of novels are going to end. But I just can't take any Bond stuff. It rarely is about spying and is too much of super hero stuff. You're not cool, man. Only Sean Connery made you cool. (but then only one cooler than Sean Connery is Morgan Freeman, who we all know is God)

Novels of Carré are about spying, which instantly makes him a better spy novel author compared to Fleming. Coz Fleming’s novels are mostly about super cool hero who can never die in the end and wins easily whatever may happen through the course. Sorry Fleming, you can't hold a candle to Le Carré. Not my cup of tea, no sir. Shaken, not stirred – fuck me sideways.


This is possibly the greatest rant of the year. After reading it, I was mumbling to myself: Carmen, let us marry and be angry together.

Adios US: Man Utd 3-1 Liverpool

United XI: De Gea; Jones, Smalling, Evans; Valencia, Herrera, Fletcher, Young; Mata; Rooney, Hernandez.

Van Gaal said before the game that a lot of players would get 90 mins as it's the final match of the tour. Welbeck's unfortunate injury vs Madrid on Saturday meant he didn't start as a precaution. I was eagerly anticipating Sterling vs Valencia as they had a bit of fracas the last time they met (Eng vs Ecu). Liverpool kicked off and they passed amongst themselves for first 2 mins with Utd forwards not pressing them. This was the first shock of the match for me – we have pressed every team so far high up the pitch which led to several chances for us in the previous games. But in this game, especially against Skrtl and Sakho, who are known to panic under pressure, we have not pressed them at all. Only reason I can think of is that we didn't want to get caught high up the pitch when a long ball from them can see Liverpool going on counter through Sterling. Bale caused problems a couple of times like that in the prev game. First chance of the match was through Young on the left wing when he beat Kelly and crossed into the box only for Hernandez to hit the ball away from goal from 5 yards (bonkers, I know!). Sakho (or Skrtl?) cleared the ball before it reached Rooney 3 yards from goal. Valencia felt something in his leg and left the pitch before 10th min. Young moved to right and Shaw came on the left. (Van Gaal said later that he advised his players before the game to come off the pitch if they think they're injured as he didn't want the players to carry on playing with injuries especially after playing only 2 days ago in a high pressure game vs Madrid).

After that, the match was mostly played between the two boxes as both sides rarely caused any trouble inside the penalty area. But one Sterling's run into the Utd box saw Jones lunge wildly and foul him. Gerrard took the penalty, De Gea dived to the wrong side and Liverpool were up 1-0 after 14 mins. It was interesting to see Utd's response as we led in almost every game and were untroubled for most of the tour. And what did we do? We panicked. Fletcher forgot how to pass. Evans, the most reliable passer of our defence, was struggling with passes. There was one moment when Evans was under no pressure initially after receiving the pass from De Gea but he dawdled on the ball for far too long, a Liverpool forward ran to press him and Evans misplaced a 3 yard pass to Smalling who was standing right next to him. Reminded me of Rio in his final years. We defended well on the wings but when players kept running through the middle, we lost our shape and composure easily. Shaw barely broke a sweat while I felt Young could have helped Jones more on the right side. The thing with 3-5-2 is, when Sterling-Lambert-Coutinho (drifting wide) are pressing high up the pitch, then all 3 CBs are occupied and if any one attacker can beat his marker, he'll have a free run towards goal. It happened a few times with Sterling-Jones in this game and Bale-M.Keane in the Madrid game. So we’ll have to tell our wing backs when to attack and when to fall back in defense. Of course the system is new for everyone and Young never even played in defense before so I'm willing to excuse this for now.

Van Gaal replaced Fletcher with Cleverley and Evans with Blackett at HT. So your team is kinda struggling in defense and what do you do? Replace the sole DM with a CM and replace the most experienced CB with the youngest CB on the tour. But hey, it's Van Gaal – he doesn't care for reputation or experience. There were a couple of iffy moments for our defense when Sterling's shot deflected off Smalling (good block though) and missed the net while a Coutinho's shot was well saved by De Gea to his low left. And a weak pass from Herrera saw Gerrard win the ball in our half and pass it to Lambert who shot very weakly straight to De Gea. Our keeper could have gone out for roasted peanuts and still come back on to the pitch to save that shot. We slowly started coming back into the match. In the 55th min, Herrera escaped 3 markers in midfield and passed the ball to Hernandez to the right edge of the box. Hernandez drifted to his right and crossed the ball to Rooney who was running away from the goal to escape Skrtl and still put the ball into the net using his left foot. A brilliant goal that was! Within couple of mins, Cleverley played a cross field ball to Shaw (who was awesome) and his pass found Mata on the edge of the box. Mata's shot took a deflection off Sakho and wrong footed Mignolet before hitting the net. Within couple of mins we went from 1-0 down to 2-1 up. Except for the penalty, our chances were kinda similar – Sterling shot deflected out, Mata shot deflected in; Rooney shot into the goal, Coutinho shot saved by De Gea.

Rodgers replaced the assistant referee Gerrard (dafuq is wrong with this guy? We went on a counter attack once in the first half with Mata chasing the ball, Gerrard was in front of him and without any contact just fell to the floor and grabbed the ball. Ref gave us free kick for handling the ball. Bizarre player this Stevie Me) with Lucas. Emre Can and Ibe also came on. And we got a bizarre goal when Ashley Young beat Glen Johnson on that wing and gave a high cross which hit the bar and came back into play for Rooney to slot into the goal in 65th min. Ref initially awarded us the goal but after consulting the linesman, he called for a goal kick. Right call that was, as the ball hit the stanchion outside the pitch and then came back in. Would have been lovely to see the Scouse tears :D. During all this good phase for us, there's one thing common – our forwards were pressing high so Liverpool defenders panicked and kept hitting the ball outside the pitch (throw ins for us) or hitting the ball in random directions only for Utd players to receive those passes. So anyway, we kinda controlled the game since then and then we replaced Herrera with Lingard. This diminutive player was good for us in last preseason playing as winger and striker. He was good vs Madrid as right wingback and now he was coming on to play in a two-man midfield partnering Cleverley. I was scared at that, we were only 2-1 up! But we never looked out of control and Liverpool barely threatened us since our first goal. It's like all their energy was spent in high pressing during the first hour and they could barely walk after that. Lot of subs also didn't help them. We replaced Mata with Kagawa and Hernandez with Nani.

Special praise to Shaw, who never looked in trouble throughout the game even though his senior partner Evans looked piss scared in possession during the first half. And once Blackett came on, Liverpool barely got anything from that side as Blackett was very composed in possession, harried the Liverpool players in his range and connected well with Smalling (CB next to him), De Gea and Shaw on that side. There was one run from Ibe starting from that side of the pitch and our defenders calmly blocked his passage and ushered him into crowded center where Smalling, Jones and Herrera were present to deal with any danger. Oh also there was another run from Ibe (I think) into the box when Blackett did the very opposite of Jones and calmly blocked the player forcing Ibe to take a Valencia-style shot to the defender’s shin from close range. The ball harmlessly went out for our goal kick. So Liverpool were barely getting anything in attack, our defense looked good and my nerves were settled. In the final mins of normal time, Young went on a run on his right wing, easily beat his marker Glen Johnson (who was unsurprisingly crap) and crossed into the box right to the feet of Kagawa whose iffy touch let the ball run behind him but at that exact position was Lingard making his run from midfield (can you imagine a Utd midfielder making runs into the box to finish off the chances? :o) and his thunderous (hehe) shot went low to Mignolet's left and hit the net. 16th goal of the preseason from Utd in 5 games. We easily saw out the remaining time and won the ICC trophy. Nice to see Luke Shaw winning his first trophy beating his former club Southampton :p

Some last min additions as I can't bother to put them in those paragraphs:
- Sterling and Coutinho were good for Liverpool. Lambert was barely involved.
- Only advantage Hernandez has is that he's extremely clinical. So it's frustrating to see him missing simple chances (2 vs Madrid, 1 vs Liverpool). We can't afford that in competitive games when creating chances would be at a premium.
- Sterling dived more in one game than Young did in entire tour. Makes me laugh so hard!
- Shaw improved a lot after his first two games and did well vs Inter, Madrid and Liverpool. The special fitness program helped him to play well in both defense and attack throughout the game.
- Nani – Heaven know how much I love this guy. But he barely looked interested throughout the tour. Even Zaha performed more than Nani. Van Gaal wants his players to give their all but Nani was half arsed throughout. I fear he'll be sent away from Utd and I cannot even say that it's unfair.
- Rooney won the player of the tournament and Van Gaal said Rooney was the best player as he provided lots of goals and assists. Van Gaal also said that our defenders also did well throughout the tour and that any of them could also have won player of the tournament.
- 5 games, 16 scored, 4 conceded (3 penalties, 1 from 65 yards). Barely any similarities with the clusterfuck of last season’s tour where we ended with 2 wins out of 6 and then proceeded to lose to Sevilla at Old Trafford.

Thus endeth the US tour.