Tuesday, February 12, 2002

Back in business

Updating L-J after a long time. Was busy with my back. Then with work. Right now both are under control, so have some moments of breathing space. (take a deep breath...)

Hunted all over Bangalore for the second and third parts of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Finally found the second, The Subtle Knife, in the unlikeliest of places - Gangarams ! My opinion of this bookshop went up marginally after this. Was so happy I picked up a couple of other books too - Peter Carey's Booker winner A True History of the Kelley Gang and Terry Pratchett's Guards ! Guards!

I read in a web site that the Carey book doesn't use commas. Interesting.

Terry Pratchett's Guards Guards is the 8th in his Discworld series. The book is dedicated to all the guards who appear in movies around the 10th minute and are summarily dispatched by the hero. Poor souls.

Completed 2/3rds of The Subtle Knife. Quite good. Comparisons with Tolkien and JK Rowling are inevitable, according to critics. To my mind though, I don't think Pullman should be compared with Rowling - they are in two different leagues altogether. Not to pull Rowling down, but her books are targeted primarily at children. Pullman is also classified as a kiddies writer, but the two books I've read can be appreciated at multiple levels. Tolkien however wins the battle hands down for the sheer depth and range of his writing in The Lord of the Rings. Suffice to say that I think all three authors have their own space and market. The good part is that both Rowling and Pullman are alive and continue to write !

Tried to see Robert Altman's Gosford Park, but the audio was quite bad. Didn't like it much and switched off without bothering to find out who the murderer was.
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8 comments:

  1. themadmanFebruary 12, 2002 at 4:32 AM

    I hope you didn't pay too much for it, 'cause it's available online for Rs. 133 only ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. madhavFebruary 12, 2002 at 6:59 PM

    Thanks for the info. I tried ordering online thru Fabmart, but they accepted my order and then reneged saying that they didnt have the book in stock. How is Sify mall ? Reliable ? I notice that they do have the 3rd book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass.

    ReplyDelete
  3. themadmanFebruary 13, 2002 at 5:36 PM

    I've ordered 3 books from the so far, 2 local and 1 foreign. The delivery time has been impressive - I got the local books on the 2nd day after ordering, and the foreign book, even though it said "30 days delivery", arrived in 2 weeks.

    I then recommended them to a journo friend and he's ordered a few books from them too. He's got nothing but praises for them.

    Note, however, that the link to the "help" pages is a 404 page :(

    Give it a shot for one book.

    ReplyDelete
  4. nachiketjFebruary 13, 2002 at 10:39 PM

    hear its a good movie :))

    ReplyDelete
  5. madhavFebruary 14, 2002 at 7:12 PM

    Eh ? I saw parts of it, didnt like it very much.

    Nachi, what were you trying to say ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. quarkFebruary 14, 2002 at 7:18 PM

    Ouch!

    Heh.

    ReplyDelete
  7. madhavFebruary 18, 2002 at 3:49 PM

    Hey, the order worked like a charm ! I placed it on Friday and was pleasantly surprised when the delivery guy showed up on Monday morning with the book. I also liked the fact that the site didnt want me to register there. Neat and simple.

    Thanks !

    ReplyDelete
  8. themadmanFebruary 19, 2002 at 6:34 PM

    Yeah, even I couldn't believe it when it happened to me the first time I placed an order. I don't think any other e-commerce site even processes orders on the weekend.

    Now, if only their site's interface worked a bit better, they'd have a killer site. Maybe I should write a proposal for user experience consulting and pitch them for some business. ;)

    So... when are we meeting again?

    ReplyDelete

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