A small feat - 12 Books in a year

To be frank, I won’t call myself a voracious reader. I do read books once in a while, but I am never a regular reader. But this past year has been a gr8 one, as I have read 12 books, averaging 1 book a month. That’s definitely an achievement for me. The following are the list of books that I read in the last 12 months, in that order.

1) Angels & Demons – Dan Brown

2) The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

3) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone – J K Rowling

4) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J K Rowling

5) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J K Rowling

6) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J K Rowling

7) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J K Rowling

8) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J K Rowling

9) The Time Keeper – Kevin Cropp

10) The Rule of Four – Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

11) Are you afraid of the dark? – Sidney Sheldon

12) Sons of Fortune – Jeffrey Archer

Thru’ these books, I was introduced to few new authors. First, Dan Brown is a talented author who can successfully deliver a racy thriller. His strong point is that he weaves the story around places that are well known. Also the puzzles and symbols keep the reader glued to the book till the last page. Next, JK Rowling has a unique gift of imagination and she presents the story & events in such a way that we are made to believe that there really exists a world filled with witches & wizards. And there can’t be one person who does not love her main character, Harry & his 2 wonderful friends, Ron & Hermoine.

The 3^rd author, Kevin Cropp is a budding writer and also my colleague. This is his first book and he has well brought out the emotions between a teen age son and a dying mother. This is an awesome effort for a first time writer. “The Rule of Four” is a combined effort of 2 authors, Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason. This is also a racy thriller and generally people who like “The Da Vinci Code” will also like this one.

Lastly, I have read most of the books of Sidney Sheldon before and it came as a total surprise to me that I felt “Are you afraid of the dark” was very lame. I am not sure if it is Sidney Sheldon who lost his charm or it’s me who has grown too old for such books. On the other hand, “Sons of Fortune” was an interesting read, it was pretty much the same class of other Jeffrey Archer books that I have read before.

It’s been a year...

Today is the 1^st Anniversary of this blog and this is my 55^th post. So far, my bloging experience has been a fun filled ride. Through this blog, I have not only kept in touch with some old friends but also found some new friends. I would like to thank everybody for your support & encouragement.

I have been very irregular in updating this blog for the past few months. There are other important things that require my complete attention at the moment. But I promise I’ll try my best to keep this blog alive. Do keep visiting!

The Da Vinci Code

'The Da Vinci Code' is definitely one of the most expected movies of this year and the box office collection of this past weekend proves that. Before I start to write about the movie, let me make one thing clear, I am one of those biased viewers, who loved the book and went into the movie hall with a preconceived notion that a movie can never do justice to the book. All the Harry Potter movies so far have taught me this lesson.

First things first, my favorite actor Tom Hanks plays the role of ‘Robert Langdon’, the protagonist of the book. To be honest, I definitely had few doubts whether he’ll suit the role. But he has once again proved that any role is just a piece of cake for him. I read a few reviews that mentioned Tom Hanks looked completely lost in this character. I agree, this role is not really a challenging one and it definitely did not require an actor of Tom Hank’s genre to perform this. But I completely disagree that he was a misfit for the role. Even though there was not much scope to perform, he definitely did full justice to the role given to him.

Coming to the movie itself, it definitely succeeded in capturing the key aspects of the book. But what it lacked most was a racy screenplay. I guess the director just focused on how to plug in major events of the book and failed completely in adapting the style with which the various events were linked. This definitely made the movie seem like a drag for sometime. The biggest success of the book was that it never lost its vivacious narration, not even for a little while. On the other hand, the churches, the museum and some beautiful locations were well pictured and was a treat to the eyes. Also, contrary to popular opinion, I felt Audrey Tautou was cute and was a perfect fit for the role.

As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, though ‘The Da Vinci Code’ is the most popular book of Dan Brown, his ‘Angels & Demons’ is my favorite book till date. It was far more superior in terms of story narration and turn of events. There is already news that it may soon be made as a movie and released as a sequel to ‘The Da Vinci Code’. That’ll definitely be something to look forward too.