The Orange Girl by Jostein Gaarder

Like any other of Jostein's narration, this one also is a little different. What happens is this boy Georg, gets a letter addressed to him from his father, who has died eleven yrs ago when Georg was 4, stuffed in some old furniture. His father had written this letter during his last days of illness hoping that when his boy grows up & reads it he'l be able to understand all that he wanted to speak to him before he died..In a way he wrote the letter to the future..

That letter has a story of an orange girl..which is nothing but the story of his [father's] life. How he met his wife [who is the orange girl] & how their wonderful life began & how they found each day a magical beautiful journey. Also the father during his time is very fascinated by the universe, galaxies, stars etc & mans success in this area.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Now this is story about few fellow inmates in the mental asylum, told by one of them "Chief" who is half american indian & pretends to be deaf n dumb. The inmates here have a very restricted life which is further controlled by the "Big Nurse" there. Everybody is terrified by this Big Nurse who has her own definition of discipline. All this changes when "McMurphy" comes into this asylum. Now he really isnt mental, & comes there to escape imprisonment or something. He is a very jolly & happy go lucky fellow, who likes to have fun & make everybody have fun. Now obviously when he introduces his concept of having fun he clashes with Big Nurse. So the story goes about like this. It kind of becomes McMurphy vs Big Nurse. Ending is kinda sad for those who are on McMurphy side, cuz he had come to the asylum just to buy time & ends up there forever just because of his nature of questionsing things, of wanting to have fun rather than following a dreary subdued life. I mean whats the harm in watching a game on Tv? Even that was something unacceptable to Big Nurse. Actually everything was unacceptable to her, she wanted things to be exactly the way she wanted without anybody questioning. No denying that McMurphy did go beyond limits with the booze party & all, where he should have just concentrated on his escape plan. One good thing that happens is the Chief gets the strength & hope to escape from this kind of imprisonment...& the inmates there find their voice to assert themselves.

Whats with these advertisements..!

This months Readers Digest had 42 pages devoted to advertisements & 72 pages devoted to their selected brands or something..so in all 114 pages pure advertisements...Gosh! what a waste! it was my one time favorite...n now its more of advertisements than articles...sigh...

Know thyself!!

The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder....Again..


Excerpts..
I think the whole universe is intended. There is some kind of purpose or other behind all the myraids of stars & galaxies.

Everything existing has a reason, meaning, some purpose. If not, then why does it exist in the first place? If a particular event has happened, then definitely there is some reason, some cause.


There is so much inexplicable in this life..world..

Some more from "Notes from Underground"

The second part of this book is a reminiscence of some incident from the protagonist's life. Its a normal story with his weird thoughts...First he is obsessed with avenging his insult from this officer [ which he presumes is an insult, as this officer ignored him & did not consider worthy of giving him any attention or showing any courtesy]...Then next he invites himself to some farewell party of old classmates [he clearly states that he dislikes each n every one of them]..Finally drunk in the party he ends up in a brothel n gives lecture of goodness & love & respect to the girl there..& then keeps worrying over his act of inviting that girl to his house..& when that girl visits his house, he insults her & sends her away...so this is what there is in the second part...

Now this Mr Underground is really weird...first he is so obsessed with taking revenge from this officer..& its so very important for him that all the time for days together he just keeps thinking about this..goes into financial debt..& then is satisfied by merely not moving from the path of the officer while walking one fine day..

Notes from the "Notes from the Underground"

This is one weirdo book I have come across, rather the protagonist in it is a weird character & is reflected through his discourse. Or maybe he is not weird. Cuz everyone of us has various facets & sometime or the other come across some weird, not so good, even out of place thoughts/actions. Neither are we pure black nor white, we are shades of grey in our character. Isnt it..he ha ha :D
This is the kind of book, which I will have to read may be many times, cuz every time I’ll notice something different, grasp some other notion that the author has put it. I haven’t yet finished reading this book, but here are some excerpts which I found worth listing.


The enjoyment was just from the too intense consciousness of one's own degradation; it was from feeling oneself that one had reached the last barrier, that it was horrible, but that it could not be otherwise; that there was no escape for you; that you never could become a different man; that even if time and faith were still left you to change into something different you would most likely not wish to change; or if you did wish to, even then you would do nothing; because perhaps in reality there was nothing for you to change into.

The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

One of my favorite books & fav author as well [as I have loved every book of his that I have read so far].

I read this book quite sometime back & its such a dreamy thought provoking book. Dreamy in the sense there are many mysterical/magical things happening in the story. But all those mystical happenings make you wonder about your own life & this world. The hidden mysteries which we tend to seek. I started feeling..Wow...this world..this life is so wonderful..so enigmatic..so enchanting..you feel like exploring different facets of it..it just fills you up with so much zest..Gosh it was an awesome experience reading this book...!

I rather not go into the story, cuz there are so many happenings in the story & the story as such isnt all that important. In fact I think many readers of this book might not even realize that its actually philosophy & not just a story. Probably I'l list some of the excerpts which sent me spiralling in thoughts in my next post :

Pessimism Personified???

"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

Depressing! Utterly pessimistic!!This book exudes pessimism, creating such a melancholy aura from the beginning till the end. I mean was the author averse to any positive happening or thought? I had such a disgusting mood while reading this book that I wonder how I even managed to finish it.