Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
I'd read this a long time back; this reading was much more enjoyable. His writing is amazing, there are passages of breathtaking, sheer brilliance. The story, too, is something completely original (and is told in a completely original manner). Its a pity that The Satanic Verses has grabbed all the attention, this is one book that is a must-read for anyone interested in the evolution of indian writing in english.

The Golden Gate, Vikram Seth
Another book on poetry - but didn't like this as much as the other one.

Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, Carl Zimmer
What a wonderful read - never thought I'd say this about a biology book! And how little I know of evolution. This is one heck of a thought-raiser, and the author does a great job of presenting scientific information in accessible language.

The Great Railway Bazaar - By Train Through Asia, Paul Theroux
Another irritating book - but then, I expected it. I don't know *why* he undertook the journey - spends most of his time on the train, avoids interacting with other people as much as he can, and criticizes everything he sees.

A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
Nostalgia time for me again. I seem to read this book everytime I start missing India, and enjoy it as well as the first time I read it.

War at the Top of the World, Eric S. Margolis
I have so many reactions to this book, I don't know where to begin. Firstly, this is the first book about a foreigner in a foreign land that I have read, with the foreigner switching between admiration and disgust for what he's seeing, without making up his mind what he really wants to say. Secondly, I am amazed at how one-sided and uninformed this guy is. I would think a journalist would present a balanced view of different situations, this guy doesn't even try. Thirdly, this is great fodder for our beloved nationalists - this is the kind of crap they hold up in order to claim our country/religion is under attack - unwittingly giving legitimacy to, well, crap. He's a big fan of pakistani leaders that pakistanis themselves will agree were the worst that could happen to their country. He manages to present facts in shades that color their interpretation completely. He seems to be a big fan of jihadis, buts manages to be condescending to them too. People should not write books about subjects that they don't have a clue about.

The only redeeming thing about this book is that it got me thinking about whether the stuff I read, and agree with, is as one sided as this is.

All You Who Sleep Tonight, Vikram Seth
I don't read much poetry, since I don't understand much of it. Some poems just appeal to me, but I can't pinpoint why. The first and last two sections of this book fall into this category - see the few samples in the misc page.

Riot, Shashi Tharoor
Vintage Tharoor - passages of sheer brilliance interspersed with not-so-brilliant prose. Also includes the usual bit of back-patting and self-references.

The Perfect Store: Inside eBay, Adam Cohen
A cute book on eBay - I knew surprisingly little about this company, and its probably unique in being a successful internet company whose founders are not poster boys for the online revolution. This book also gave me an interesting insight into differences wrt Yahoo and Amazon - the latter is *extremely* customer centric, but does not come close to the sense of community described at eBay.

King of Capital: Sandy Weill and the Making of Citigroup, Amey Stone and Mike Brewster
Fascinating book in terms of content, but its arranged in a confusing manner - each chapter begins with a pseudo-essay or something in the present before jumping into the past. Its amazing to read how this guy went from where he was (Brooklyn) to where he is (Manhattan).

Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi, Katherine Frank
Its interesting how perceptions matter - I found this book reinforcing my (negative) notions about Indira Gandhi, another person found it an affirmation of her as a 'great leader' - I have no idea how. Till she became the PM, she seems human, but somehow looses all that after assuming power. I try to avoid being judgemental about people's past actions - they didn't have the benefit of hindsight, and made decisions that seemed right then. However, even with this I cannot stomach what this lady did to our country. Leaving aside extremes like the emergency, its difficult to imagine she was unaware of the long term effects of what she was doing to the political party she belonged to. Highly recommended for anyone with any interest in why things are the way they are today...

The Vine of Desire, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni
I should have dropped this book after reading the prequel, but since I had it, I read it anyway. I have no idea what the author is trying to convey, and its not like there is anything redeeming in the writing either. If the intent was to portray a shining example of liberated womanhood, thats not too successful. Heaven save us from the overly emotional, self-centered, nonsensical people portrayed here.

Sister of My Heart, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni
I think the author probably saw all melodramatic hindi movies before writing this book. Oh the pathos! the tragedy! the utterly improbable and predictable coincidences! It made me think about a few issues that I hadn't thought of before, so it wasn't a complete waste.

A Mathematician's Apology, G. H. Hardy
This is probably the most well written book whose author is from a technical background (although Hardy would probably not like that label). Of course, I didn't agree with a lot of what he had to say, but he sure did say it well!

Jack - Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch
A fine reminder for me as to why I'll never do well in management. My entire philosophy is so different from these guys, but ironically they are exactly what's needed for a company to be successful.

Weaving The Web, Tim Berners-Lee
A dissapointing book, especially after reading books by Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman. I don't get a clear idea of what his vision about the web is, and while he tries to steer clear of political issues, he does get involved with them occasionally.

Does America Need a Foreign Policy?, Henry Kissinger
I've always been a bit sceptical re. Mr. Kissinger, possible thanks to his china tilt, and also used to feel that American foreign policy was non-existent. This book tries to clear that up, and succeeds to a certain extent, but its still full of the usual hypocrisy - a nation's foreign policy is defined by its own self-interests, and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't see the sense in the 'we're doing this for the betterment of the world' stance.

The Natural, Joe Klien
A non-fictional account of Clinton's presidency, for a change! This book mystified me even more than the others by the liberal use of strange terms - I have some feel for the difference between republican and democrats, but I have no idea what 'leftist', 'liberal' (and lots of other terms that I've successfully forgotten) mean. There's also the usual disgust associated with politics - we seem to have forgotten what governments are for, and concentrate more on petty squabbles.

Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh
A wonderfully written account of Fermat's Last Theorem, and the search for the proof. The mathematics isn't too detailed, but that's okay - I don't think I'd have understood it anyway :)

Sir Vidia's Shadow, Paul Theroux
The juvenile rantings of a chamcha

India: A History, John Keay
A fascinating and extremely readable account of Indian history from harrappan civilization till independence. Though the author is Scottish, his presentation is very balanced, and he debunks a lot of myths about pre-british India. I particularly liked the parts about the mughal and maratha empires.

The Complete Works of Isaac Babel, Isaac Babel
I wonder what it is about Russian stories that I find so depressing! The writing is wonderful - there are places where I just stopped at a sentence and stared at it for a while. I wish I'd written them down - they'd make great quotations (I have two on the misc page).