Percy Jackson series

After a long time I found some time to read few books. I have asked my colleagues for some suggestion as I haven't really kept touch with what books are released and which are worth reading. She mentioned to me about Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. I asked her if they are similar to Harry Potter series. She replied, not really and I thought of giving it a try.
Here is the cover page of the first book of Percy Jackson. Btw there are 5 books altogether like 7 of Harry Potter.

The title for the first book is "The lightning thief". It really caught my interest and started reading it. Initial few pages of the book felt boring to me, maybe because I was comparing it to Harry Potter. He was the Protagonist in there, his mother died and he has a favorite teacher. His best friends are a boy and girl. It was going on the same lines. I was frustrated as to how all the childrens books should go in the same way. But something was there in this book which I wanted to know from a long time - Greek mythology. I like those Gods and their stories. That was fascinating about the books.

The language is pretty simple in these books and children from ages 7-14 can read  these books. I would want kids in my family to read these stories and keep the reading habit alive. Otherwise in this electronic world, reading books is fading fast enough.

The house of 1000 mirrors

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was place known as the

House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place

and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the

stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway

with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his

great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little

dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great

smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and

friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a

wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as

the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs

and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the

1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them

and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he

left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go

back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do

you see in the faces of the people you meet?

PS: I got this wonderful story from a book. And I just loved it!!! 

why so gloomy and pessimistic??

I have started reading novels and works of great authors seriously and consciously only 3 years back. I came across many authors who explain the story and go with the flow in a very simple and profound way. Some of them make it complex by using words which are relatively unknown to the reader. Or maybe the reader is naive and just started. What I want to say here is that every author has got its own style and way of writing.

Let me say that some authors write a novel in a very optimistic way and some write in a pessimistic, gloomy way. If you read the classic novel, "wuthering heights" its the saddest one I ever read. I couldnt bear the gloomyness and the pathetic characters in that book. I must say its a great love story written with sadism.

There are other authors who write science fiction, suspense thrillers, vampires, fairy tales,philosophy comedy and horror.  I could enjoy fairy tales, science fiction, vampires and comedy. Ofcourse love stories as well from authors like Erich Segal. I have also enjoyed works of Ayn Rand, JD Salinger , Mitch Albom, Alcott, Dumas and few telugu authors.

From the kind of novels a person likes, an individuals taste is known. So maybe I live in a dream world where I assume every person is good becoz I believe in fairy tales and stuff. Also I love happy endings :) I cant stand the sad novels.
Thats my trait. Whats yours??

Ultimate joke!!!

Last week I went to Bangalore from Hyderabad. I reached one hour early to the airport...thanks to the Volvo bus :(
I was literally getting bored in the airport and walked into Landmark.
I got a book called "first proof".... its a collection of essays from different authors.
At the same time I saw "Readers Digest". Thats my favorite monthly magazine.
There are some awesome jokes in that book. I really really want to share one such one.
I was smiling to myself for that joke sitting there, people actually were staring at me.
I felt little shy though :P

here it is:
My four year-old was at a funeral for the first time and I wanted to make sure he behaved at the cemetery. "What is the most important rule to remember?" I asked
He thought for a while, then answered,"Dont dig up for bodies?"

Another one:
At our base post office, my four year old could not take his eyes off the MOST WANTED posters. Finally, he asked, "Dad, why didnt they just capture those guys when they took their pictures?"

Enjoy!!!

Book reviews - interesting links

All,
there is this man, Chandrahas Choudhury who writes reviews on all latest books.
He maintains a blog called "The Middle Stage" which is quite interesting.
One can read the reviews and go for the book in which one is interested.
Follow him at this link http://middlestage.blogspot.com/

Also I want to share few more links for avid telugu readers
1. http://navatarangam.com/ this site writes about most of the movies and happenings around us. One can write their views about anything in this site. Explore it!!!

2. eemaata - Recently my fren shared this link with me. Its a kind of telugu patrika. There are lots of interesting stories and much more about telugu literature.
Anyone interested in literature can go for it. Have fun reading there!!!

One more way to know about book reviews and socio-economic things is reading newspaper. I find "The Hindu" newspaper best for it. Especially the sunday edition.

have a happy reading!!!

A thing beyond forever

Yesterday after going home I didnt feel like reading technical books or watching tv. I looked at my bookshelf and picked up a novel " A thing beyond Forever" by some young indian author.
The story is about a orphan girl Radhika Sharma whose only aim in life is to become a doctor.
She succeeds in that and the story with the hospital scene.
She starts reading a diary in the novel to remember someone special.
Its the diary of a 16year old Raen Varma and his teenage love story with protagonist itself :)
Its really funny to read a teenager diary which has mixed feelings about girls, hobbies and studies.

The novel has some intense lines about love and feelings. Also it has the re-birth kind of twist at the end... which is little stupid. But on the whole its a good read.
I wanted to write on how I felt while reading the novel... but i am falling short of words.

The book is just Rs.100/-
One can buy it for timepass. If one is pretty emotional and fallen in love sometime or the other and broke off... then better stay away from this book. It has some intense lines which will definitely make you cry.

The Hungry Tide

This is a book by Amitav Ghosh...

I never heard about this book untill I saw it with a road side seller. The title of the book attracted me the most. I heard about the author for his distinguished work.

I read few lines from the cover page of this book before buying it. It talks about Sunderbans... tigers... tidal waters... I bought this book...
Till now i read few chapters from this book... its interesting... its different from my usual style of books. As I read through this book, I could see a new anxiety in myself... to know whats gonna happen next...

Maybe this is common feeling among readers... A book worth reading i suppose... I can give my opinion in an unbiased way only after reading this book completely...

happy reading!!!!

Atlas Shrugged

By Ayn Rand...

Its a great novel... of course this fact is proved by most of them in the world. I m just added to it.
I couldn't stop reading this book. It enhances your thought process towards society, economy of the country.
Its good... Worth reading.

A movie is going to be released based on this novel. Ms Jolie is going to play the role of Dagny Taggart here. I dont like this actress for some reason.
But I am waiting for the movie to be released.