Title: Absalom, Absalom!
Author: William Faulkner
Pages: 316
Absalom, Absalom! is a novel about the rise and fall of the Sutpen dynasty. Thomas Sutpen, the founder of the dynasty, ran away from home at the age of fourteen when he is turned away from the front-door of a rich-man’s mansion by his butler (probably because he was poorly dressed). Sutpen becomes obsessed with starting a plantation and becoming the patriarch of a dynasty.
The novel is meant to serve as an allegory to the rise and fall of Southern plantation culture. It takes place around the time of the American Civil War. The defeat of the Confederate Army (in which all the men of Sutpen’s family were participants) coincides with the downfall of Sutpen’s vision.
Faulkner uses a stream-of-consciousness style of narration often. The story is told by multiple people, who reveal parts of the plot in no chronological order. At times, the characters even interpret and create characters out of thin air.
This was book wasn’t anywhere close to being as difficult to read as I expected it to be. However, at times, Faulkner’s prose is unbeleivably dense and complex, using words most people have not heard of.
Title: Blankets
Author: Craig Thompson
Pages: 582
I decided to read Blankets when I found it on Time magazine’s list of All-TIME Graphic Novels. It is a semi-autobiographical novel on the author’s childhood and his first love.
Thompson grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family in rural America. His family wasn’t exactly well-off and his father was a very strict man.
The art in this book is black-and-white and is quite detailed in many places. It looks rough and sketchy in many places, which is probably intentional. The story is interesting and the author is open about his weak points, fears and doubts.
At 582 pages, this graphic novel must have taken a monumental effort for the author to complete. Definitely worth reading.
Title: The Bourne Supremacy
Author: Robert Ludlum
Pages: 679
This is the second book in Robert Ludlum’s trilogy about Jason Bourne, an ex-operative of America’s CIA who lost his memory. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find this books predecessor The Bourne Identity and so had to start reading the trilogy from the middle.
I found the plot a bit confusing at first but Ludlum provides enough background so that it isn’t really necessary to read the first book of the trilogy to understand the story. I had watched the movie and that probably helped.
The plot is mostly based in Asia (Hong Kong, China, etc). A high-ranking Chinese official is planning a hostile takeover and American and British intelligence are concerned that he might throw the whole region into a major war that could escalate into a world war and accordingly decide that he must be killed, or at least quietly warned to desist.
Jason Bourne (or David Webb, which is his real name) has recovered most of his memory although he is still mentally fragile. He lives a quiet life as an Assistant Professor at an American University. Meanwhile, a hired-killer in Asia has been terrorising the region by performing high-profile assassinations and claiming to be Jason Bourne.
The American government decides to use the real Jason Bourne to capture his impostor, who they hope to use to get to the Chinese official. Unfortunately, Bourne is very suspicious of the government and will most likely refuse to come out of retirement and start killing again. Therefore American and British intelligence create an elaborate setup to deceive Bourne and get them to do his bidding.
Like most of Ludlum’s books The Bourne Supremacy was a bit too long. Despite its length it is easily better than most of the crap found in the thriller genre these days.
Title: The Lord of the Rings
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Pages: 1031
The first thing that I noticed about The Lord of the Rings is that it is not childish like it’s prequel, The Hobbit, was. The second thing I noticed is that the book contains a large number of songs and poetry. I skipped or skimmed over most of it and now I wish I hadn’t. The songs appear to be an integral part of Tolkien’s storytelling and I might have missed out on some imagery.
The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy novel based in an imaginary land called Middle-earth which is populated by creatures like Elves, Dwarves, Men, Hobbits, etc. The story is told amost entirely from the perspective of a few Hobbits, a race of diminutive men who prefer to live underground. The book revolves around the battle over a powerful magical ring which gives its wearer invisibility as well as other powers.
The Ring was created by Sauron, the Dark Lord, who stored a signficant part of his power in it. Sauron wished to control the world using this Ring, which could control other magical rings. However, the Ring was taken from him after a defeat long ago. The Ring ends up in the possession of Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit, who inherited it from his cousin.
After Sauron recovers from his defeat, he seeks to dominate the world again using his Ring. Sauron begins to look for his Ring and sends his servants in search of it. It was decided, by Gandalf the wizard along with others, that Sauron must not be allowed to get hold of the Ring again. The Ring, however cannot be destroyed by fire or any weapon; it can only be destroyed where it was forged – The Cracks of Doom, Sauron’s land of Mordor. It becomes Frodo’s quest to voyage to Mordor and try to destroy the Ring, effectively finishing of Sauron as well.
I did not enjoy The Lord of the Rings as much as I hoped to. I found the first two parts (The fellowship of the ring and The two towers) of this book to be rather dry and boring. Howerver, the final part, The return of the king, more than made up for the other two in terms of excitement and action.
-- Insertion sort -- Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 -- sort a list using merge sort mergesort [s] = [s] mergesort a = let mid = ceiling ((fromIntegral (length a))/2) (f,s) = splitAt mid a in merge (mergesort f) (mergesort s) -- merge two lists merge :: (Ord t) => [t] -> [t] -> [t] merge a@(ah:at) b@(bh:bt) | ah < bh = [ah] ++ merge at b | otherwise = [bh] ++ merge a bt -- base case 1: second list empty so we just add everything in a to the end -- Note: Case [] [] is handled here as well merge a [] = a -- base case 2: same as above except it is for first list empty merge [] b = b
# Insertion sort
# Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009
print 'Insertion sort\n'
print 'How many numbers would you like to enter: '
num = input()
print 'Please enter ' + str(num) + ' numbers'
numbers = []
for i in range(num):
numbers += [input()]
for j in range(1, num):
key = numbers[j]
i = j-1
# Keep shifting elements to the right until the right position is found
while numbers[i] > key and i >= 0:
numbers[i+1] = numbers[i]
i = i - 1
numbers[i+1] = key
print(numbers)
Title: Things fall apart
Author: Chinua Achebe
Pages: 313
This book was my first taste of authentic African literature. It is widely regarded as a classic and that is why I wanted to read it.
Things fall apart follows the life of Okonkwo, a big-shot tribal farmer who was highly regarded in his clan until things begin to fall apart. Okonkwo’s fall from grace is exacerbated by the arrival of foreign missionaries who bring western ideas of justice and administration to the clan.
The descriptions of tribal customs and beliefs are fascinating. Although their beliefs seem strange, primitive and brutal ours should appear the same to the impartial eye.
The style reminded me of some (poor) translations of Indian folk tales I have read. However, the book is perfectly readable and I had a good time reading it.
Title: Congo
Author: Michael Crichton
Pages: 313
For quite a while now i’ve been reading “thrillers” that were anything but. Thats why Congo was a pleasant surprise. It is a book about an expedition that goes into the African Congo to find out exactly what happeed to a previous expedition that ended the violent death of the entire expedition team.
The expedition is financed by a company called ERTS which was in turn hired by a technology company to look for blue diamonds which are a valuable in computer processor design.
Unfortunately, there are other teams who are equally well-financed and just as determined to find the diamonds first and stake their claim. The Congo, which is an inhospitable region to begin with, is in the middle of a civil war.
Although there are many ways this book could have been better it is one of the few thrillers that have actually caught my attention and engaged me.
Title: Freakonomics
Author: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Pages: 284
One of the authors (Levitt) is a talented economist and the other (Dubner) is a journalist. They met when Dubner profiled Levitt in an article for the New York Times.
Each chapter in Freakonomics is an answer to amusing questions like “Why do drug dealers live with their mothers?” and “What do estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common?”.
Levitt uses statistical methods to arrive at interesting conclusions that sometimes go against “conventional wisdom”. Although there is on unifying theme in the book it will teach you to assume nothing and question everything.
Title: The tailor’s daughter : A novel
Author: Ben Antao
Pages: 343
The tailor’s daughter is the story of Eliza Rodricks, a young teenage girl from Nairobi who visits her native state of Goa, India in order to study tailoring. Eliza, the daughter of two tailors (a supposedly “low caste” family) was born and brought up in Nairobi.
While in Goa she is seduced by an upper-caste bhatkar (a big landowner – something like a feudal lord) called Jorge. In those days (and some might argue, now as well) it was highly unusual for a person of Jorge’s status to associate with a tailor. Eliza (whose parents were victims of caste discrimination) is proud of her relationship with Jorge and is convinced that she can tame her vagabond boyfriend into marrying her.
I found The tailor’s daughter remarkable not for its descriptions of casteism in India (which was poorly done) but rather for its vivid descriptions of intimate scenes, something that is rare in Goan books.
