A mixed platter

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 known to fewer. To claim that the book may have a few, one or two aspects at least, better than 1984, is committing a sacrilege and I wouldn't say so. The fact that Orwell dismissed the book as a purple prose in his later life didn't help its popularity. This was also the first book of Orwell that I read and fell under his spell immediately.

Comments

  1. Arnab DasguptaNovember 14, 2019 at 5:53 AM

    Mind of God.. added to my list.. This is great. Please keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. lifeinbooksNovember 14, 2019 at 6:58 AM

    Davies writes pretty well. He is ambivalent about God and thus annoys many acclaimed writers of this genre.

    ReplyDelete
  3. VaibhavNovember 16, 2019 at 1:35 AM

    Great list sir, especially Bermese days is one the great works of Orwell..
    Era of Darkness is also a gem to cherish.
    I will love to read Paul Davies, haven't read him yet

    ReplyDelete

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