J.K. Rowling is Robert Galbraith - Article for the day 15 July

This is so totally cool. Rowling decides that she didn't want to have the pressure of hype and expectation to weigh down on her. So she published under a pseudonym. With the constant chatter in all the 24 hour news channels this is brilliant. Pre-book launch no unnecessary attention. And once the secret is out, there is going to be a lot of talk about it.

www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/jk-rowling-revealed-as-writer-of-critically-acclaimed-crime-novel/article4914799.ece

The book was called The Cuckoo’s Calling. Available on Amazon and Flipkart

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post. Sorry for the delayed post today. Was traveling over the weekend.

Brisingr and the shattering of Myths

I got my hands on a copy of Brisingr by Christopher Paolini a few days back and was half way through the book.

However, I was struck by the way he described Eragon choosing a new sword. It reminded me a lot of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. And guess what? It looks like the Wikipedia entry lets him off very lightly with the talk of influences. Pixie Dust has ground him into the dust with this post over two years ago. (Her poems are pretty awesome also). Reading it I cant believe I used to actually encourage people to read his works.

The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

We often hear recruitment ad’s say that they want people who think out of the box, creative thinkers, etc etc. Well, if you want a crash course in the subject or are a fan of out of the box thinking you should get your hands on this amazing book called “The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.

You might have heard about the “Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy”, which is only one part out of the “Ultimate …..guide”, since it has been made into a movie. Now while I haven’t seen the movie myself I don’t think any movie could do justice to his style of writing. I do plan to watch the movie at the first opportunity I get. But I seriously recommend this book.

I went crazy with this book. I mean he can take the most mundane fact and create a whole new dimension to it. For example, more often than not, when we book a table at a restaurant we turn up much later than the time we specify. He takes this to the extreme of saying that the time we specify is the exact time that we will not turn up at the restaurant and hence became the basis for metaphysical calculations that should take place on a waiter’s notebook. Or mice being the most intelligent species on earth and they are actually observing us while leading us to believe that we are observing them. Ok. I am getting ahead of the story here.

Basically the book revolves around a book (please note the irony here) called the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. DON’T PANIC is printed in bold on the cover page because you would probably only refer to the book when you run into trouble on your inter stellar travels. Inter stellar travel. Mr. Arthur Dent is the lone survivor of the demolition of earth for an Inter Galactic Hyper pass and is thrust into this journey with a humanoid alien life form.

The story line itself is vague and contradicts itself in places. So if you are the kind who likes a well defined story line and slow build up of facts and figures to a definite conclusion you shouldn’t really consider this book. You would find it a waste of money. But if you are looking to expand your horizons of thought and are ready to laugh at the idiosyncrasies of the human race, pick up your copy the next time you see it in a book store.

Virginia Tech

The recent killings at Virgina Tech University shocked the world. Images of the victims and the killer have dominated the headlines and writers columns for the last few days for the want of a new “shocking” headline. One can only hope and pray that some other crazed maniac doesn’t see this and go “Hey, I can do better than this nobody”

While I sympathize with the family of the victims I was really intrigued by the question “which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?” This seemingly innocent question posed by Stephen and Steven in FREAKONOMICS is the best answer to all those screaming for tighter gun control laws.

This “rogue economist” has analyzed the number of deaths occurring due to guns and those due to unfenced swimming pools and gives you a very startling answer. You guessed it. Gun deaths are much lesser than the number of drowning deaths in swimming pools.

So in this context, all these calls for tighter gun control laws are hogwash. I’m not campaigning for ‘guns are needed for personal protection’ I’m just trying to state that at times you need to look beyond the media hype.

If you are really interested in looking beyond what is being thrown at us, you should read this book. A great read for breaking the false notions that most of us carry