Sunday, August 14, 2011

Sagarika Ghosh - The Gin Drinkers and my Library Loot

I went to the Library on 14.08.2011 and picked up these books after much delibration.



1. Blind Willow Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami
2. Night Train to Lisbon - Pascal Mercier
3. Blandings Castle - P G Wodehouse.

I looked high and low for Silmarillion by JRR Tolkein, but could not find it.  I also looked for Tristam Shandy, again, nah.

I am reading The Gin Drinkers by Sagarika Ghose at the moment.  It was pretty engrossing at the begining.in the middle it has palled a bit.  It is a story of a bunch of privileged class youngsters.  Sons and Daughters of IAS bigwigs, who are educated in Oxford and are expected to settle abroad and do something wonderful and lucrative.  Like any youngsters at their age, they are a confused lot.  To spice things up, there is a mysterious gang of kitab chors running around, picking up priceless books from private libraries at homes.  There have been a couple of tantalizing clues about the thieves, so far.

Sagarika Ghose writes fiction with a practised hand, to the manner born.  You can't say the same about many other journalists who venture into book writing.  There will be more on the book once I finish it.  But at the moment, despite the sagging middle, it looks like a very good read.  I love it when books are based in Delhi.  I love the city, its my second most favorite city in the world.  That is from my slim repertoire of course, once I have globe trotted my preferences may change.