“… Try another Subtraction sum. Take a bone from a dog. What remains?”
Alice considered. “The bone wouldn’t remain, of course, if I took it — and the dog wouldn’t remain: it would come to bite me — and I’m sure I shouldn’t remain!”
“Then you think nothing would remain?” said the Red Queen.
“I think that’s the answer.”
“Wrong, as usual,” said the Red Queen: “the dog’s temper would remain.”
“But I don’t see how —— “
“Why, look here!” the Red Queen cried. “The dog would lose its temper, wouldn’t it?”
“Perhaps it would,” Alice replied cautiously.
“Then if the dog went away, its temper would remain!” the Queen exclaimed triumphantly.
Alice said, as gravely as she could, “They might go different ways.” But she couldn’t help thinking to herself, “What dreadful nonsense we are talking!”
— Alice Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
books, humour
A strange thought suddenly crossed my mind. Where is Humpty Dumpty? 
For the longest time, I was under the impression that Humpty Dumpty is a character in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Even as I was half-way through the book, I was expecting to meet (or rather Alice to meet) Humpty Dumpty soon.
But it never happened! I reached the end of the book. Nothing. No Humpty Dumpty. After a little bit of reading up, I learnt that there is a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that is called Through the Looking Glass. Humpty Dumpty shows up in that book. Now that’s another book I have to read.
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When I had read Alice in Wonderland as part of school work, I had thought it was absurd. So I decided to give it another shot.
This time round, I quite liked the book. Somewhere in the book, Alice complains, “Its really dreadful, the way all the creatures argue.” Although that is true, I found that the conversations in the book quite resemble my own conversations with others. In that sense, I managed to see the point in the pointlessness of it all. It is a mystery to me why this book is considered as a children’s book.
PS – It just occurred to me that it might be a nice idea to have a ride called Alice in Wonderla.
books
Alright, so I’m done with Book one: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I *loved* it. Sure, I had watched the movie before. But I still loved it. Now for #2. 
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Everyone is so crazy about Harry Potter now. I want to be part of it too. But I have some serious catching up to do. I haven’t read any of the books. 
I can’t afford to be a Muggle for too much longer. I’ve started off on Book 1, and I’ll soon be catching up with the rest of the world. Zzzooooom…
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Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (P.S.)
Simon Singh
It had been a long time since I read any science book. Big Bang by Simon Singh turned out to be such a refreshing read that I recommend it to anyone who is even mildly interested in science.
Simon Singh has the rare advantage of being both a scientist and a journalist. What impressed me most about this book is the simplicity of Singh’s approach to explaining complicated concepts and theories. The book has a distinct historical perspective and story-telling narrative to it. You will not find obscure mathematical equations in this book. Notion, not notation.
I am also most impressed by the vast amount of background information that the author provides to the reader. There were so many scientific theories and facts that I had studied in high school and then promptly forgotten. All those came rushing back to me when reading this book. Simon Singh goes all the way back to the Greeks, but it is astounding how he manages to keep the chain of logic in tact, without veering too much off-topic.
The target audience of this book is the general public. Someone already familiar with the details of the Big Bang theory may not be too impressed with this book. Although a lot of historical perspective is provided, this book does not speak too much about the details of the theory itself. The ending also seems ubrupt.
Nevertheless, I strongly recommend reading this book.
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Absolute Power
by David Baldacci
David Baldacci is absolutely the master narrator. As you read this book, you can very well imagine yourself to be at the very crime scene.
Although high on the popularity chart, the President of the United States of has a darker side that very few people have seen. While routinely bedding Kathy Sullivan, the young wife of an old billionaire, Kathy gets killed. This entire episode is witnessed by a burglar who happens to be at the Sullivan house at the same time by sheer coincidence. Will the most powerful man on the planet get away with his henious crime? Will a measly burglar be able to pull the president down from his echelon of power?
A gripping thriller, and a must-read.
books
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie is a collection of 14 short mysteries solved by the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The pace of each story is brisk, and the book makes for light reading.
The stories themselves are quite original. The suspense in the mysteries is also quite well maintained till the end. But there are a couple of stories that are annoying, where a lot is not revealed until the very end when Poirot, very patronizingly, tells Captain Hastings (his companion) the entire story in a new light and admonishes him for not making use of his mental faculties. It sometimes feels that Captain Hastings is the embodiment of the reader himself into the story.
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I had been eager to read The Inheritance of Loss ever since I heard that Kiran Desai had won the Man Booker award (2006) for this book. I was glad when my colleague Kusuma offered to lend her copy to me.
As is usually the case with things that are hyped up, I half expected this book to be bad. The opinions I had heard from friends, and their friends, about the book was not too promising either. Everyone had felt that the book had started off well, but then deteriorated towards the end. It was very depressing. Kiran Desai’s writing style was very close to that of Arundhati Roy. (I haven’t read any work of Arundhati Roy myself, so I can’t comment on that.)
I beg to differ.
I fell in love with the book. Kiran Desai’s writing is so very good. I am surprised at the clarity with which she understands and describes the Indian psyche. How is she able to put in words the workings of the minds of so many different Indians with such alarming precision?
Kiran Desai’s writing style is excellent. There are places in this book where the prose is so painfully beautiful that you can almost feel the words jutting out of the book and reaching for your soul.
A word of caution, though. If you are Indian, the cynicism can be a bit of a burden. Don’t start reading this book when you’re feeling low. 
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Contact by Carl Sagan is one of the better works of science fiction dealing with extra terrestrials.
I remember being fascinated reading Sagan’s earlier work Cosmos. Flying past the planets of our solar system, a chapter at a time, had excited me as it did the entire world.
When I noticed another book by Sagan at the local library, my expectation rose instantly. As I read the back cover and learned that the book touched the topic of extra terrestrials, I had a vague feeling that Sagan would do justice to it. I was tired of the worthless depiction of aliens by popular movies. The best I had liked was Robin Cook’s Invasion. Would Contact be even better?
Sagan’s plot starts at a facility of SETI project Argus. The radio telescopes at Argus — in their attempt to scan the skies for non-random radio sources — hit upon a signal from the star Vega purely by chance. An international consortium is created so that the continuing Message from Vega could be received round the clock. After years of dedicated work, scientists manage to decode the Message: the Message is a manual with the blueprints of a Machine. Despite scores of hurdles and sabotage, the Machine is eventually built. Sagan’s description of the eventual tête-à -tête of a selected few humans with the extra terrestrials shines in its elegance and disarming simplicity.
For a fiction debut, Contact is not bad at all. The plot is good. Sagan’s arguments are balanced. But the thing I liked the most was the way he intertwines religion in the storyline. The only complaint I have about the book has to do with Sagan’s writing style; it seems strained, and the effort to add “difficult” words is plainly visible. It is not difficult to see Norman Lewis in the book.
books