Shakespeare and Company is a bookstore in Paris where one feels like being in one’s own apartment, just exactly how founder George Whitman wanted it to be, says Charukesi Ramadurai George Whitman liked to call himself the Don Quixote of the Latin Quarter. His windmills were the faceless bookstore chains and one-size-fits-all websites that threatened… Continue reading A moveable commune
Category: Books and reading
Books and movies and more…
Chills and thrills
My story in The Hindu on marking 60 years of The Mousetrap, celebrating good crime writing and lamenting about all that gore in modern day crime fiction. I’ve already ranted at the Scandinavians once long ago on this blog – just treat this as a longer rant. Sixty years after The Mousetrap’s premiere, there is… Continue reading Chills and thrills
Celebrating pure and absolute nonsense
This year marks the bicentenary of the man who gave us the delightful image of the owl and the pussycat who sailed away together, married in the land of the bong tree and ate quince with runcible spoons. Edward Lear (1812- 1888), the acknowledged master of the limerick, described his own work as “nonsense, pure… Continue reading Celebrating pure and absolute nonsense
Happy 25, Penguin India!
Penguin India turns 25 this year and to celebrate this, they have a range of quirky merchandise based on popular Penguin titles – so there are mugs (The Great Indian Mug, A Suitable Mug), bags (ditto), keychains, notebooks, diaries… I want them all! I particularly like the idea of drinking from The Reluctant Mug –… Continue reading Happy 25, Penguin India!
A library – again
My earliest memories of a library are of Murugan lending library in the neighbourhood of Adayar in Chennai where I grew up. This was my most eagerly awaited trip of the week, where I used to go with my father (and later on, by myself) to pick books. Comics, detective novels, classics – I devoured… Continue reading A library – again
The Norway bombings: life imitates fiction?
In my last post, I’d written about Scandinavian crime fiction and how the entire body of work is outstanding in quality. And now, the bombings in Norway – unexpected, unbelievable and yet, for devotees of the Scandinavian thriller books, not so surprising. The books are all about the churn in Scandinavian society and how people… Continue reading The Norway bombings: life imitates fiction?
Chills and thrills: Scandinavian crime fiction
Seriously, what is it with crime fiction and the Scandinavian countries? And I don’t mean Stieg Larsson, though he is possibly the best known name among them. I am going through this phase where I am reading crime fiction from that part of the world (last year, it was Indian detectives) – it’s stunning how… Continue reading Chills and thrills: Scandinavian crime fiction
Book. Cover. Judgement
Pouring out Red Label tea from the pack into the Tupperware jar, I watched the fine brown-white dust rise up. I sneezed as it hit my nostrils. But that is not the story. I have just finished reading Chandrahas Choudhury’s fabulous Arzee the Dwarf. As I sneezed, I thought of the “mist rising like that… Continue reading Book. Cover. Judgement
Bilbiolove: books on books and reading
Continuing on the theme of books (I know, when it rains, it pours in this blog) – here is something on books on books and reading. This is a special category of books, where the writers’ love for books shines through the pages and makes us feel blessed for this habit. There are various subjects… Continue reading Bilbiolove: books on books and reading
Yours affly: on epistolary novels
I love this genre of books – epistolary novels – based on letters or even dairy entries and other personal documents – articles I found on the internet say that this form of writing was popular in the 18th century and earlier and slowly fell out of use thereafter. However, there are loads of wonderful… Continue reading Yours affly: on epistolary novels