Today I'm posting review of four books from varied genre: Fiction, History, Religion and Science. Somerset Maugham was one of the greatest story writers of the twentieth century, in the company of greats like Maupassant, Chekhov and Rudyard Kipling. He was hugely popular amongst reading public. And indisputably the richest from his writings. His short story ‘Rain’, allegedly, earned him one million dollars in his lifetime. Perhaps it was his enormous popularity, his unconventional lifestyle, his sardonic wit and his bone-chilling wry sense of humour- earning  him the reputation of being a cynic- which did not endear him to the high-brow critics of the day. He wrote many forms of fiction: short-story, novel and play. I think his art reached its apogee in ‘long-short-story’. I understand the term sounds like an oxymoron. But I do not know how else to label a story of ten to fifteen thousand words, that is too long to be called a short-story but not long enough to earn the titl

*****/*****                                                                                                                Short Story Collected Short Stories Vol 2 W. Somerset Maugham ‘Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent but not a few, read from habit, and I suppose that this is neither innocent nor praiseworthy.’ Thus, William Somerset Maugham summarised reading habits. Every individual who belongs in the last category has realised how exasperating and tiring, at times, a search for a simple delightful book of fiction can be. But reading is his life and the book in his hands is akin to the air he breathes. There are times when he longs for a clean unpolluted air, for, much of the modern and post modernistic fiction is confused at its best and trash at its worst. Such are the times when he runs to his collection to retrieve the much read ‘ Collected Short Stories ’ by Maugham and starts reading it for the umpte

****/*****                                                                                                                                        Religion/Science Religion Explained-The Human Instincts That Fashion Gods, Spirits & Ancestors Pascal Boyer Religion in some form is ubiquitous. Religious concepts across different cultures have similar broad framework, like the common skeletal architecture of all vertebrates. These facts prompt one to look for those peculiar propensities of human mind which favour provenance of religion in human society. Pascal Boyer, an anthropologist, investigates the phenomenon of religion in this vastly interesting book. He looks for evidence in psychology, evolutionary biology, and anthropology, to advance his theories. He asserts that religion was not invented by mankind to answer the deep mysteries of human existence on earth: the origin of universe and life, the seemingly insurmountable human grief, the unending vicissitudes of ear

****/*****                                                                                                                                                                        History India Discovered-The Recovery of a Lost Civilization John Keay                 In eighteenth century the vast historical and cultural heritage of India lay unexplored, known neither to the world and nor, unfortunately, to Indians themselves. In this book John Keay charts the history of the discovery of India by the Englishmen. These Englishmen were the orientalists who revealed to the modern western world, hitherto unknown wonders of Indian culture and heritage. Till then India was known to this fraction of humanity only as the land of exotic Kings and wild beasts, of weird sadhus and worshippers of strange gods, a land of limitless wealth but of paltry and insignificant history and culture. Only event in history of India which was dated till then was 326 BC, the year Alexander invaded Punj

*** 1/2 /*****                                                                                                                       Science The Tell-Tale Brain: Unlocking the Mystery of Human Nature VS Ramachandran VS Rama Chandran, a neuroscientist, attempts to unravel the mystery of human mind in this book. His methods of investigation are ‘low-tech’, as he emphasises in the preface. He is enamoured of Sherlock Holmes and follows his mystery-solving techniques in his clinical investigations. He is a clinician and sees many patients suffering from various disabilities, having lesions in different brain regions. From study of such patients he surmises what function a specific area of brain performs. Some of these patients also have other coexistent disabilities which are discovered coincidentally during clinical examination. These provide clue to the varied roles a single area of brain plays in human beings. A consistent thread runs through all the chapters, i.e. Ramacha

Hi! I change track, literally! for a moment, to break the monotony. I am posting a few snaps and a short write-up on the Kailash-Mansarovar trek I did, years back. It was an out-of-world experience. Kailash-Mansarovar Trek

Hi again! Four books for your consideration today. Memoir, travel, science and novel are on the platter. Oliver Sacks' name is not new amongst lovers of science books. The second part of his autobiography (his childhood memoirs were published earlier as  Tungsten Uncle) On the Move   came out in 2015, the year he died. It is an exceedingly well written, unpretentious and forthright book. VS Naipaul's   An Area of Darkness,   the first book in his trilogy of books on India,   received mixed reactions on its publication. It boasts incisive, trenchant and thoughtful essays, all in Naipaul's bedazzling prose. Mind of God  by the theoretical physicist, Paul Davies in one of the best books on the origin of Universe, written in a lucid and elegant style, befitting the profound topics being discussed. A must read for fans of this genre. Few people would be aware that George Orwell wrote any thing other than  1984 & Animal Farm.  His first book  Burmese Days  would be

****/*****                                                                                                                                       Autobiography On the Move: A Life Oliver Sacks Oliver Sacks was a neurophysician. He was a prolific writer. Through his many books, he popularized neurosciences in lay public. His books, Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, An Anthropologist on Mars , to name only a few, held many curious non-medical people, in thrall for decades. His often baffling, but story-like, endearing narration of case histories, must have charmed many doctors alike. I am one amongst the latter. These are his memoirs. Sacks was born, brought-up and studied in Britain. His remaining life was spent in USA. He lived an unorthodox, almost a maverick life, at least till his middle age. He discovered early that he was a homosexual. Mid-twentieth century Britain was not a conducive society for a homosexual. Sacks has written unflinchingly, fran

****/*****                                                                                                                                                 Novel Burmese Days George Orwell There is no dearth of fiction on British Raj. George Orwell’s Burmese Days would probably rank amongst the best. Few will be able to rival this in the description of the seedy and sordid effect of Raj on the natives and the British alike. With deep understanding which can be acquired only out of personal experience -Orwell was born in India and served for six years in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma- Orwell relates the travails of John Flory in Burma who is employed as a Manager in a Teak Plantation. Orwell narrates the Flory saga with a raw sensitivity; the utterly miserable life of an expatriate in the backwaters of British Empire. Story unfolds in Kyauktada a small settlement in Northern Burma on the banks of River Irawady, home to an English Club which is patronized by six Eng

*** 1/2 /*****                                                                                                                                               Science The Mind of God-Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning Paul Davies Leisure has its drawbacks. It prods one to probe such unanswerable questions as; What is the purpose of life, how did the universe originate, was it created, and if so, why? Paul Davies’ book The Mind of God is an attempt to understand and seek answers to such questions. A rationalist faces a risk. Too much faith in the abilities of science to answer the most rudimentary questions of human existence and universe, makes him blind to the inherent limitations and fallacies of scientific knowledge. Paul Davies’ book should be read by all such people and by those grappling in dark, to arrive at some coherent and rational belief on life and universe. Davies begins with the origin of scientific thought, human reason and belief. He talks ab

*** 1/2 /*****                                                                                                                                         Travel An Area of Darkness V.S. Naipaul Books are my necessity. Today, for someone who reads English and is a slave of his book-reading habit, it is impossible not to have read V.S. Naipaul. But this has been my despicable fate. Many years back I did read one of Naipaul’s novels, The Enigma of Arrival , considered a great book by some. I did not like the book. I was impressed by the prose style and the elegance of language. A surgeon colleague, who himself did not read much, but was an inveterate Naipaul-fan, urged me incessantly for a year, to read Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas . I think, I began the book, but quit it after a couple of pages. I found Naipaul’s writing obfuscating and rambling. For a decade, I eschewed his books. Though, sporadic articles about him in the dailies kept reminding me that I was missing out on

I am posting review of five books today. I read  A House for MrBiswas  by VS Naipaul recently. Graham Greene is one of my favorite novelists. I post my impressions of his novel   Honorary Consul . Bill Bryson is the funniest author I've read. I have chosen his travel book on UK,  Notes from a Small Island  this time. Human mind is infinitely baffling. Daniel Kahneman in his great book,  Thinking Fastand Slow , talks about the decision making apparatus of human mind.   Kon-Tiki  by Thor Heyerdahl is a thrilling story of his intrepid sea journey from Peru to Polynesia in a primitive raft, more than half a century back.

Books have been my constant companion, as far as I can see in the past. I dread being a cog in a crowd of known faces. The boisterous jolliness and the superficial conviviality of such a gathering suffocates me. I cannot partake in the camaraderie most people experience in a benign communal activity. What a contrast is the company of books. They speak only when spoken to. They take you to enchanting lands, opening up the world for you unobtrusively. They excite thought. They incite desire and sate it too. They give words to your emotions and feelings. They light up hitherto dark nooks and crannies of your mind. They come in all personalities; some are fat, some slim, some austere, others garish, some stoically introvert, others big show-off, some offensively blabbermouthed, others exasperatingly   reticent.  You can chuck them after shortest of contact, they wouldn’t bat an eyelid. You can clutch a dear one to your bosom for ages, it wouldn’t be conceited or vexed. I read for

I am posting reviews of 5 more books. But before these, 'Books and I' , my attempt to grapple with my obsession with books. Of Human Bondage   by Somerset Maugham is one of the great novels of twentieth century. I will implore every reader of these lines to read this book if they still haven't. The 'Greatest', the 'Best', lists are not the sources I scourge when I am thirsting for new books. It is not on one occasion that I have squirmed with distaste as I plodded through a widely acclaimed novel that featured in innumerable 'must read before you die' lists. I have often come across a book that warmed the cockles of my heart immeasurably but could not muster even lukewarm response from the high-brow critics. But I can say it honestly that  Of Human Bondage  deserves to be in every such list and it is. I consider myself the greatest fan of Somerset Maugham 'East of Suez', quite unabashedly. The kind reader who continues to find in this blog

*** 1/2 /*****                                                                                                                                      Autobiography Lone Fox Dancing: My Autobiography Ruskin Bond Today Ruskin Bond amply qualifies for the epithet of ‘Grand old man of English writing by an Indian’. He has been writing for more than six decades now. I remember reading his books as a child about four decades back. In those days his books were not found in every bookshop. One was just aware of an author named Ruskin Bond who had deep connections with Dehradun, wrote in English, some of whose books could be found in a library. Arrival of foreign publishers like Penguin in India gave a terrific fillip to Ruskin Bond’s popularity in 1990s. Innumerable permutation and combination of his old stories, novellas and essays flooded the bookshelves of shops selling English books. He deserves all this renewed attention of publishers and booklovers. Ruskin Bond’s prose has

****/*****                                                                                                                                                        Novel Of Human Bondage W Somerset Maugham I first read Of Human Bondage about twenty-two years back. I was then in my late twenties, studying for MD in Pune. I bought it from a pavement on MG road. The vendor who must have known of its popularity would not sell it to me for less than fifty bucks, an amount not modest then, for a second-hand paperback, a 1983 reprint of a 1975 edition in PAN books. I had discovered Maugham around that time and had fallen head over heels for his books. I am yet to recover from that infatuation. Later I learnt that most book lovers had read him in adolescence and thus I came by him late in life, about a decade late. Perhaps that is why I was so impressed by his fiction. I was at a stage of life when old relations are continuously re-examined in light of new evolving bonds. I could r