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Of Paper and Bytes

12 Jan

I took the e-jump this year.I put aside my need to smell a new book and feel its wonderful finish (and get paper cuts in the process), installed Kindle on my iPad and downloaded a sample extract from Amazon once the India Kindle Store opened. And then I downloaded some more. And then some more. Now I have a bunch of receipts from Amazon in my inbox and not weekly visits from Flipkart’s delivery guys. I window shop to my hearts content at the Crosswords and Oxford’s of the world (Ever see a female with her nose in a book, literally?That would be me) and then go home and download. To be honest Kindle is a bit overpriced and my hand gets tired cradling the iPad during all night reading sessions but I have run out of space to store my voluminous tomes with no heart to give away some of my precious books.I also choose to believe that I am helping some tree live a little longer.

So I have been diligently reading up quite a bit in 2012 and  here are my 5 super fantastic reads for the year in case you are into that sort of thing.

Gone GirlGone Girl is not everyone’s cup of tea. Its a deconstruction of a marriage hidden as a thriller or maybe it is the other way around. A woman goes missing and the husband is the prime suspect. But what the author gives you is two bedazzling sides of the same story. Just when you think you have a character figured out the author will pull you in a completely different direction. This book once bought will not be left unread and may refuse to get out of your brain for days. Its a book that you would love or you would love to hate. I re-read the book post the reveal so that I could connect the dots I missed the first time around.

Game of Thrones What Can I write about this best seller and hit TV series that has not been written/said before. The only thing stopping me from reading the complete series is the number of pages in each tome. Also I pray for the authors good health so that I know what he was thinking doing what he is doing to my favorite characters. I have started watching the series as well and the casting is bang on!

How to beHow To Be A Woman I think I fell in love with Caitlin Moran after reading this.Its funny in a tears-in-eyes till you realise the joke is on women and the way they have let themselves be treated. Its about society’s expectation from women on everything from thong underwear to marriage and babies. Its about reclaiming feminism .And this what it says about feminism before you imagine bra-burning-butch hair styled women.

“We need to reclaim the word ‘feminism’. We need the word ‘feminism’ back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29% of American women would describe themselves as feminist – and only 42% of British women – I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies?What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? ‘Vogue’ by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF THE SURVEY?”

Read it. If you are a woman you have thought about these at some point or the other.

No Easy Day An ex-marine who was part of the elite squad that killed Osama Bin Laden has penned this. He gives the reader a background of what it takes to be part of this team, previous missions and what happened on THAT day. (Things started going wrong even before a single person had put a boot to the ground).Written in simple english (and large fonts-bought the paper book) I finished it in a single marathon reading session. And then followed it up by watching this interview.

persepolisPersepolis is a graphic novel for non graphic novel readers as one review said.It that covers the author’s story from when she was 6, living in Tehran with her intellectual parents, to when she was 14 and had to flee to Vienna to continue her education and her return to Tehran post her graduation. At its best it’s an inspiring coming-of-age story which shows Iran in a much different light than what one would imagine from a once-in-a-blue-moon PTI reports one reads in the paper.However I suspect the author grew up in privileged circles and her perceptions may not be that of a person on the street. I also wanted to shake her and ask her to get her life in order/stop self pitying once in a while considering she did get chances many people in her home country did not.

There are however many many books I wish I had not read. Unfortunately some of them have been on bestseller lists for almost a year now (yes its that Fifty Shades book!) and are widely loved by women. I cant write a review that matches this so go ahead and read what I pretty much wanted to say.

 
2 Comments

Posted by on January 12, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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2 responses to “Of Paper and Bytes

  1. sam

    April 2, 2013 at 3:09 pm

    i have read the book. It is told in the beautiful black and white graphical language of a comic strip where simple pictures communicate strong feelings, much better than words.

     
  2. ~manasa~

    June 14, 2013 at 12:28 am

    That’s a big list of books at one stretch from Kindle. Haven’t read any of them. Thanks for sharing. :)

     

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