David Foster Wallace..

David Foster Wallace, the novelist, essayist and humorist best known for his 1996 novel “Infinite Jest,” was found dead Friday night at his home in Claremont, according to the Claremont Police Department. He was 46. Read the transcript of a speech he gave. Here.

Book Review – Hungry Tide

The Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh
This is a beautifully crafted novel, weaving together characters far apart in space and time in a story spanning little over a week and based in the ‘tide country’, the name by which Ghosh refers to the Sundarbans, the settled islands off the coast of Bangladesh. The central characters, Piya, an [...]

Haroon Moghul on Hitchens book

Read on

Culture Jam: My ‘STUFF’ isnt me …

Today, I finished reading Kalle Lasn book titled Culture Jam (founder adbusters.org); it is a very well written and thought provoking book, but what makes it special is, its’ ability to stimulate action. As far as I am concerned this book has convinced me that the pervasive consumer culture and the obsession with virtual reality [...]

Living life .. not just getting by

I had promised myself that I would not post anything else tonight, but as often happens, man can only propose. I chanced upon this excellent article once more, and had no choice but to post.
These words are for me before for any of you. I have spent half of my leisure time sitting in front [...]

Doris Lessing

Have not read anything by her yet but intend to do that pretty soon.
In any case I found a snippet from the description of her literary style interesting:
Lessing’s fiction is commonly divided into three distinct phases: the Communist theme (1944-1956), when she was writing radically on social issues (and returned to in The Good Terrorist [...]

Heirs of the Prophet – Barnaby Rogerson

A very good introduction to the early history of Islam. Unlike books by other western scholars who at times suffer from prejudices against Muslims, Barnaby Rogerson is fairer in his telling of the story of Islam. This is not to say that it is completely devoid of such elements, but I was pleasantly surprised [...]

Yusufi