A la recherche du ciel Part-III: Re-opened Oxford Book Store, N-Block Connaught Place

The Original oxford Bookstore closed before I could write about it. But now it had reopened. I was as excited to see that Oxford Bookstore had reopened as I was sad to see it close down in Statesman House. But my excitement lasted only till the moment I entered the doors. At the door, are neon signs in multiple languages and I got the first inkling that this is not going to be the Oxford of the old I fell in love with and I was right. The entire store had stark white walls with a bright white glow light coming from a mysterious source almost implying an extra-terrestrial presence. The alcove at the entry had coffee table books about India and then you enter the main area. The sections were all there : Indian fiction, International fiction, business, food, you know the deal. In front of the bookshelves were charming little carts on wheels ( like vegetable vendor carts) which held special collections for example the cart in front of the international fiction shelves held Nobel winners. I liked the idea of bringing out a certain part of the collection this way. There was also a play/reading area for children which looked inviting and I am hoping they will hold regular events for kids. In the middle of the huge main area runs a big wall shelf with coffee table books on one side and all things bookish on  the other: merchandise from Playclan, stationery items, Oxford bookstore mugs, bags and also (funnily) incense. The coffee table books were great to flip through and there was also a moderately extensive collection of magazines. There were a whole rotating thingamajik with cute little cards and envelopes- just the thing you need to write a message to go with a book you are gifting. The International fiction collection wasn't something I would complain about but many staples were missing and they didn't seem to have many new releases. 

The delightfully named Cha bar (the other half of the bookstore-cafe couple) has been turned into a minimalistic cafe - all black and white. Though it didn't look anything like its previous version, I still remembered the horrible coffee I had the last time and didn't try anything this time. Now the name "Cha bar" feels even more unsuited for the cafe.

Though the old Oxford bookstore didn't boast of a line-up of hard to find books or new treasures to discover, it made up by being a place you could lose yourself in. The first time I went there they were playing soft instrumental old Bollywood music and I just roamed around in the shelves, hidden from view, busy pretending it's just me and the books. Though the store is huge, it has lost the intimate cozy feeling of a  great bookstore. I say increase the books and decrease the empty space. I miss the old Oxford Book store but hey we need all the bookstores we can get so, Welcome Aboard Oxford!

P.S. A word of caution. Do not get scared by the uniforms of the sales people. Gently turn away your eyes and fix them on a soothing book cover to recover form exposure to the uniform colors and pattern.

I'm a sinner, I'm a saint

Having an unfortunately uncontrollable interest in rules, I had a set of them for reading. No, they were not framed on a wall of my room. They were unconscious thin strings tugging at me from time to time. But I noticed I have effectively broken all those rules now and I am marching to my own drummer. So I decided to do some myth busting, because when it comes to reading, there are no rules, no sins. Just you and the book having a conversation.

 

Rule Number 1 : Thou shall finish what thou started

 

We have all been taught that once you start you gotta finish. Don't give up! Don't give in! Just power through to the other side. And this advice also finds its way into our book reading style. I remember the first book I started but couldn't finish. I tried, tried and tried again. Yes that is three tries. On my last try I had about 200 pages to the finish line. But I was too tired to go on. And frankly, I was feeling angry at myself and questioning my motives for wanting to finish the book. My nemesis: The Lord of the Rings (complete). Somehow the songs, the large number of characters and the small print of my edition wore me out and I quit even though the light at the end of tunnel was in sight. I figured I knew as much about the book as I needed to know so it didn't matter if I met my milestone. So though in life it is good advice, I have stopped caring about finishing a book if it starts to feel like punishment. Life is too short and the good books out there too many.

 

Rule Number 2: Thou shall read one book at a time

 

Before I became the master of my finances, I had to tell my parent(s) which book I wanted, what it was about and promise them that I wouldn't "waste" it and that I would read it. As a result of these constraints, I used to read one book at a time. Because well, when you go back to the afore mentioned parent, he or she will inevitably ask what happened to the last book you bought. Ever since I used a significant portion of my first pay-EFT (electronic fund transfer, no cheques now) on buying books, I don’t stop myself from buying whatever catches my fancy and consequently I tend to read multiple books at the same time now. My currently reading list is: White teeth by Zadie Smith, How to read like a writer by Francine Prose, Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter......Once in while a book comes along which commands my full attention and once in a while a book comes along which demands my full attention and at such times I unknowingly or obediently (as the case maybe) put the others on hold and treat the book to my undivided mind. I quite enjoy having multiple reads to cater to my multiple moods. To have something light to read when I am on a break from something heavy. To lubricate the channels, to sharpen the mind. And there is also the pleasant surprise of cross-pollination. Ideas from one book inspiring you to have ideas about the subject matter in the other.

 

Rule number 3: Thou shall find popular works as great as their reviews or hate so called trashy books

I was shocked to discover the literary world at large did not consider “Atlas Shrugged" to be a master piece and Any Rand to be a hero like I did. I was ignorant of this fact for 24 years of my life. However, I realized that doesn't change the fact that I loved the book, it gave me hope and inspired me and helped me through a difficult time. Also no matter how many gushing reviews I’ve read, I just don’t get what the big deal is about some books. For example Catcher in the Rye or even To kill a mocking bird. These are wonderful books and I liked them but not enough to put on my all-time favourites list. Maybe I read them too late or with too distracted a mind. Whatever the reason may be, I didn't get converted. I used to feel bad if a review trashed a book I liked and I used to feel intellectually on a lower plane if I didn't appreciate a Classic. But now I have accepted that my favourite book may not be popularly perceived to be a great book and I might never understand what the everlasting charms of another book are. You see, either we fit or we don't.

 

Rule Number 4: Thou shall read the book before watching the movie

This is a rule I still mostly maintain but it's not written in stone anymore. Some stories are just too fast paced and / or too poorly written to ever come to life with the written word. They need human brain, heart and flesh to become digestible. This is true of very few books and they might not be worth reading in the first place. A book which challenged this rule was The Bourne Identity. I just could not follow the twists and turns of plot. It felt like fast forwarding through a foreign language documentary. But I am told the movie is not half bad. This rule does hold for the Harry Potter series though. Strictly. It is somewhat like the Boggart which took the form of the thing you were most scared of. Reading it will show you a world only you can see.

P.S. I might be better off just watching the Lord of the Ring movies. I think I have earned the right.

 

Rule Number 5: Thou shall remember a book forever

Over the years, as I read more and more books, I realize some of them slip out of my memory. I read “Gone with the wind” on the terrace of my house, in the winters when our house was under going renovation and exams were looming. I remember the warmth of the sun, the pages of my book almost alight with the sun rays, the burnt vision after spending hours reading in the noon sun, the sauciness of Scarlet and the scale of events of the book. But today I don't remember the name of all characters, the places or even some of the sub-plots. So if I read the book today, I''ll still find it a refreshing read. It used to bother me that I had to google some of the specifics of the books I had read, sometimes twice. But maybe that is my mind's way of optimizing space. If it can be googled, and if it doesn't affect your functioning, no need to store it.

 P.S. Maybe most of you do remember all the books you read, so this is just me trying to make myself feel better about my selective amnesia.

 

Rule Number 6: Thou shall start at the beginning

This one holds for collections of short-stories or books with loosely connected chapters. There was something almost illicit about opening a page at random and reading from that point on. Needless to say it is probably only of experimental value to do so in a novel. But with short stories and non-fiction, I feel free to dive where ever I want. Though there is a sense of satisfaction in reading a book from start to finish, once in a while, with the right book, I can take the leap of faith.

 

Rule Number 7: Thou shall read new instead of re-reading old

This is a temptation I give in to. And I used to believe in it strongly till some time ago. There is a large number of books I want to read before I stop breathing and if I just keep re-reading the ones I've already read, well I will run out of time. I still used to turn to comfort reads again and again ( P.G.Wodehouse, Matilda by Roald Dahl, etc) but I wouldn't want to waste time reading a whole book again. But recently I re-read some parts of Anna Karenina, and I felt as if it was the first time I was reading them (maybe this holds only for me, see point 5 above). I also catch a glimpse of the person I was when I had read the book the last time. The words I didn't know, the things I liked most, the details I missed (deliberate and otherwise). So it is like a mini journey into the past - mostly embarrassing but also smile-inducing.

Discovery of a center of pleasure

I recently realized one major reason why reading gives me such a high. When I read something which manages to articulate my own half baked thought - the silhouette of a thought actually, in a beautiful manner, I experience a kind of "Exactly!" moment within my head. I look up to the writer with admiration for having gone beyond the end of my intellectual air strip and taken off and at the same time I look at the writer with kinship for having a similar algorithm of brain function. This sensation happened twice in quick succession and caused me to stumble upon the location of this particular center of pleasure. Once when I was reading a book excerpt of Zadie Smith's NW on npr.org and I came across this line:

" Of course, it's harder for a man to be objective. They have the problem of pride."

And another time when I was reading an article called "How is the critic free" by Caleb Crain on the Paris Review blog and I came across this line:

"I’d argue, to the contrary, that readers choose their favorite publication in part because of these constraints—because they trust that its reviewers share certain political and aesthetic touchstones."

And both times it felt like someone has penciled in the features in an outline I saw, written lyrics to a melody I heard and both times it tingled!

A la recherche du ciel Part-II : Spell & Bound, SDA Market

I went to Spell & Bound last sunday, the charming bookstore in SDA market (opposite IITD). The moment you walk in, the book-lined wall will delight you. I wished there was a moving ladder and I could just keep sliding from one end to the other. But when I got closer, I couldn't read the titles of the books that were up above the world so high!  And I need to be able to take a book out without assistance from a long-legged shop assistance. But it was not to be. The book selection was good though. More Kafka, Murakami, Pamuk than Shledon, Archer and Grisham. Though it was a planned visit, I hadn't prepared for it. What this means is that I didn't have a list of books I wanted to buy or a Test Book*. So I ended up picking Anil's Ghost for Ondaatje's poetic prose, "The art of fiction" by Ayn Rand purely because I didn't know she had written such a book (or more precisely, given lectures on such a topic) and The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction (the first one) for its beautiful cover illustration. I believe you should judge a book by its cover but not punish it. And I made my friend buy The book which must not be named (Part-I).There is a tiny cafe on the first floor and maybe if I was lingering over coffee and dessert reading a book I might have liked the book shop more. But for that I have Full-Circle and Cafe Turtle.It does have a basement section but I think that it is mostly children's books and "special interest" topics. I confess I was in a hurry but honestly it wasn't love at first sight. And unlike Joey, it was too vertical and I wanted it to be more horizontal. So the search continues..

* Test Book : It is a book which I have not been able to find in bookshops and which is my test for the how far from Chetan Bhagat and Dan Brown the bookstore is willing to go.

P.S. I have nothing against Sheldon, Archer and Grisham or Dan Brown and though I do have something against Bhagat, I have read almost all of their books. (Except Brown. After the Da Vinci Code, I just couldn't). It's just that I'm moving on.

A la recherche du ciel Part-I : The Bookshop, Jor Bagh

I finally visited "The Book Shop" in Jor Bagh. I didn't have the fortune to visit The Bookshop when it was the 'it' shop of Khan Market. It closed down before I could get a chance. Well do you know how there is a Hindu temple custom to do revolutions in the temple compound around the temple building. It's called "pradakshinalu" in Telugu. Circumambulations? Anyway, that's how I paid my obeisance to the shop. I spent a total of one hour looking for it even though I had figured out exactly where it was on google map. When I hit the ground I couldn't find any of the landmarks I had identified on the map. Plus the autowallahs didn't help. I was directed to Jor Bagh Khanna market and the  Lodhi colony main market, but not to the Jor Bagh market. One guy even tried to convince me it's called Khan Market. I finally called up HP and got detailed instructions.

For all you people who might be tempted to visit: Get to Lodhi road. Cross the red light right after IHC(assuming your orientation is such that you are moving from IHC towards Safdar Jung tomb) Stay on the Left. Wait for a Sign which says "Jor Bagh Colony". Take a left into Jor Bagh colony on the road right after a post office. Drive on. And Voila! The first thing you will see will be The Bookshop on your right.

My heart took flight the moment I spotted it. I haven't been to a book shop in months (barring bookshop chains and airport book shops) ,ever since the advent of Flipkart I think. Somehow the gods have ordained that those who live on the wrong side of the Yamuna don't deserve book shops. So I have to travel a minimum of 10 kms to get to a generic book shop (one of the chains) to find out they don't have the book I want. I had read wonderful things about The Book shop and I had been wanting to go there for a long time. I even checked out their (its?his?her?) FB page ( which indicates some serious interest on my part). Finally I was here. It felt like a reunion the moment I stepped in. Even though it was small and cosy, I could have spent hours in there. I found so many book on the shelves I haven't seen in the chain shops, books that eventually drove me to e-retail. I have three unread books, seven half read books and two three-quarter read books at home; I still bought three books. I wanted to buy more.  As I stepped out of the shop, I saw a notice board with cut outs of book reviews from news papers and book jackets pinned up on it. It made a lovely farewell note. In another life , I could have been a writer (maybe struggling writer) and the owner of my own bookshop (the bookshop being a source of income and the writing being a source of pleasure). I wish The Book Shop was closer to my home so I  could visit more often. But maybe then it wouldn't have been safe from the Yamuna. So I'll just find reasons to be in the neighbourhood and drop by.

P.S. I ran into the Delhiwalla  in the shop. (I guess "ran" into is a wrong word for someone who doesn't know you. Spotted : D)

P.S. This is Part-I of a series I plan to do. The title is French for "In search of heaven", inspired by the title of Marcel Proust's mammoth master piece "A la recherche du temps perdu " I am on a mission to find my sanctuary, my vacation, my movie hall, my couch all rolled into one, in short my favorite bookshop. A place where I can be found when I cant be found anywhere else.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

I've been somewhat busy with things so I haven't been reading as much I would like to. I am almost halfway through " Why the West Rules for now" by Ian Morris. But its a big book (in small print) with graphs, maps and tables. And though it is very interesting and I will finish it, I wanted a quick fix in the meantime. So I decided to pick up "The Happiness Project". With such a title I was sure of a happy ending. As the back of the book describes, its a cross between a Self-Help book and a Memoir. 


Gretchen Rubin, a Lawyer tuned writer realizes that though she's not unhappy in life, she's not as happy as she could be. Since she also realizes that like most ordinary people, she can't take off on a three-country self discovery trip like Ms. Gilbert, she decides to make small changes in her existing life to remove sources of guilt, worry and negative feeling and enhance and introduce sources of happy feelings. I don't look down on self help books. In fact I strongly feel that for some people and for all people in some situations, a book might hold the answer you are looking for. But this book belongs more in the self-help shelves, than fiction or memoir shelves. Also, whether you will like this book or not depends alot on the phase of life you are going through. I am currently in a "Makeover" phase and I want to make big sweeping changes so the small easy-to-execute happiness steps didn't appeal to me that much. I think I will re-read it when I'm 40. 


The book also has one line summaries of almost all studies published on happiness and that makes an interesting read. Some of the resolutions and "truths" she adopts will definitely bring happiness to anyone who makes the effort. Plus, shes very human in the book. She fails repeatedly, she's mean and grumpy even when she's trying not to be and she accepts herself and her limitations. The best point this book makes is that being happy is something we should all pursue actively. Waiting passively for good things to come and happiness to spread is not such a good idea. You are responsible for your own happiness. I would recommend this book for a lazy vacation. You could read it if you're looking for practical and simple ways to make your days  more pleasant. And I would also recommend this book as a gift to all Mommies. As far feel good factor goes, it was worth every Rupee. I was happy all the while I was curled up reading the book.

Books I read in 2011 - Part Two

This post is about just one book. "The big short" by Michael Lewis. Its a brilliantly written book explaining something very complex, very simply and with a story. The author looks at the Subprime crisis of 2008-2009 and the subsequent financial crisis in US economy, from the point of view of those few people who managed to understand that there is something unnatural and wrong about subprime loans and its all going to blow up spectacularly. They bet against the system and stood their ground in face of severe disbelief from all quarters. They were proved right and the system collapsed.

I was in college when the news broke and what with one thing and another, I didn't pay enough attention to what actually caused the crisis in the first place. I knew the effect but not the cause. And this one book made it all clear for me. If you want to understand how the problem assumed such vast proportions and spread throughout the world, this is the one book you should read.

I am putting up a flowchart of the events that I made after reading the book. Its the original, in the crappy handwriting for authenticity, except for one spelling correction.

Racists by Kunal Basu

I cheated. I am supposed to be 'now reading' Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. But I found it a little cumbersome and I wanted to read something which was effortless. When I saw the plot summary for this book, I knew I had to read it to find out how will he end it?

 Racists by Kunal Basu is the fictitious tale of an experiment being  conducted in the 1850s to determine once and for all the answer to the controversial race question. Is it nature or conditioning from environment, that delegates one race to slavery and elevates another to dominance. The experiment- two children ,a black boy and a white girl (yes I thought he was going to introduce the gender question also but he doesn't) are going to be kept on a deserted  island to grow up wild and free, free to follow their free will without any contact with the civilized world. Accompanying them would be a mute nurse,  who must not influence the children in any way. Her job is to just feed them and keep them alive. Each of the two scientists behind this experiment, believes in his own theory and knows which one will emerge superior. Both are just waiting for their 'samples' to prove them correct. Now the plot introduction was brilliant, and the book was too , in the beginning. Sadly, the rest of the book didn't live up to expectations. The main story line started diverging halfway- a professor's struggle to maintain financial backing for this experiment, the professor's assistant's love for the mute nurse, the professors deteriorating relationship with his wife. The biggest let down was the ending. I was very curious to know how will the author end it in an impartial yet credible way. Or will he take a side? But there was no conclusion to the experiment.

 The writing style is fine, nothing extraordinary. Pity, such an interesting concept count lead to more. I am not sure if I would like to pick up something more by the author. Maybe if I know before hand that it wont disappoint me, I might.

Books I read in 2011 -Part One

Ever since I've started earning, I've become very impulsive and free in my book buying. Earlier when my parents were paying for it, I would buy a book only when I had already read it and liked it and wanted it for my collection, or it was highly recommended by sources I trusted or was another book by an author I liked. I didn't stray from my comfort zone. But now I buy all, though I am not reading all. One downside to this book buying spree is that for the first time in my life I'm reading multiple books together. My concurrent reading list has seven books on it, all in varying stages of being read. I still haven't decided if its a good thing. This is the reason last year I read twenty full books but five half books. 

1. Rabbit, run - by John Updike. 

When Updike died in 2009 it was in the news and a columnist/blogger for HT (Hindustan times) wrote a very flattering article which made me want to read some of his work. I looked him up online and decided to start with the first of the rabbit series. Its the story of a High school basketball star who's stuck in a marriage with an alcoholic wife. And as the tittle suggests, he runs. Its overall a sad tale, of how he never lives to fulfill the promise of his teenage years, how he finds out his god like coach is after all human. I admired the writing. There were quite a few phrases in the narrative which put little daily exercises of mundane existence into beautiful language, in a way I had not seen before. All in all, I don't regret reading it but wouldn't have regretted not reading it.

2. Rabbit Redux - by John Updike

Well after the first one I kind of wanted to finish the series just to earn that badge. Its set in the experimental sixties with many drug induced haze scenes. Rabbit is bringing up his son on his own and takes in a young teenage girl only slightly older than his son. This one was more pessimistic about life and I liked it lesser than the first one. This one put a stop to my relationship with Updike. 

3.Marley and me - by John Grogan 

It was a feel good book, that laid bare the truth about all the energy and love and time and resources that go into having a dog. Its like having a baby, nothing less. It made me realize that I would only get a dog when I am old enough to die before it does because otherwise I wouldn't survive the pain of its death. I am sure dog owners / lovers would appreciate and love this book alot more.

4. The English patient - by Michael Ondaatje

I loved the sheer poetry of the prose. If the writing is so beautiful, I can forgive anything-plot, characters, ending, anything. It was music. Its the story of a nurse who stays behind to help a wounded man recover after the second world war. It is also has the story of the man and his love. Sample this:

"Meanwhile, with the help of an anecdote, I fell in love. Words, Caravaggio, they have a power"

Highly recommended for the way its written. I'll get to other books by the author as and when I get time.

5. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Another book picked up from the Nytimes bestsellers list. I immediately liked the title. The opposite of perfectionists and its not actually a word. Its the story of a group of people connected with a newspaper which is shutting shop due to dwindling circulation - an obsessive reader, the editor, the publisher. The characters and the concept sounded interesting but the book didn't develop that way. The story of the old woman who obsessively reads every inch of the paper and has reached only 1994, is endearing. Not an essential read though.

Watch this space for Part Two.