Goa, Books
We're leaving Goa today, ie. the beach. It's been a good few days of sitting, eating, sitting, swimming, and occasionally walking just for the sake of moving our limbs slightly. Back to the craziness of the city (Delhi, then Varanasi)... and these should be the craziest cities yet.
I've been reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth for ages. It's really good... likeable characters, draws you right into India in the early 1950s. But it's more about ambling through the lives of four families (over a dozen important characters) than big plot twists. The kind of book you can put down and pick up whenever, and always enjoy it, but there's no urgency to keep turning the pages all the time.
I needed a break, so I went on a quest for an easy read...something light for the beach. I was trying to find a good spy thriller, but everything looked crappy. Finally settled on this one book because it involved spies and Soviet Russia and had good reviews on the back, but I couldn't get into the writing. Read half of it and gave up. Is there such a thing as a WELL-written spy novel?
So I went on another book quest, picked up every book in the used bookstore and read the back, and finally bought a collection of essays by Salman Rushdie. I spent $12 on it but fortunately it was worth it. The first essay was about the Wizard of Oz and it was wonderful...a little bit academic, but fun and funny. I'll have to post a quotation later. Count me in the Salman Rushdie fan club... I'm definitely going to seek out more of his suff.
Lesson learned: Go for quality, even at the beach.
I've been reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth for ages. It's really good... likeable characters, draws you right into India in the early 1950s. But it's more about ambling through the lives of four families (over a dozen important characters) than big plot twists. The kind of book you can put down and pick up whenever, and always enjoy it, but there's no urgency to keep turning the pages all the time.
I needed a break, so I went on a quest for an easy read...something light for the beach. I was trying to find a good spy thriller, but everything looked crappy. Finally settled on this one book because it involved spies and Soviet Russia and had good reviews on the back, but I couldn't get into the writing. Read half of it and gave up. Is there such a thing as a WELL-written spy novel?
So I went on another book quest, picked up every book in the used bookstore and read the back, and finally bought a collection of essays by Salman Rushdie. I spent $12 on it but fortunately it was worth it. The first essay was about the Wizard of Oz and it was wonderful...a little bit academic, but fun and funny. I'll have to post a quotation later. Count me in the Salman Rushdie fan club... I'm definitely going to seek out more of his suff.
Lesson learned: Go for quality, even at the beach.