Recent Reading

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents. - Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860)

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Invisible Cities: Italo Calvin
The Finance Curse: Nicholas Shaxson
Bullshit Jobs: David Graeber
Strange but True Science: --
Brave Little Leaf: Natalie Mazer
Small is Beautiful: E. F. Schumacher
Secrets of Mental Math: Arthur Benjamin & Michael Shermer
The Population Bomb: Paul R. Ehrlich
Range: David Epstein
Loonshots: Safi Bahcall
The Four: Scott Galloway
Elements of Choice: Eric J. Johnson
In a Flight of Starlings: Giorgio Parisi
Dragons of Eden: Carl Sagan
The Algebra of Happiness: Scott Galloway
More Than Human: Ramez Naam
Wild Problems: Russ Roberts
The Psychology of Money: Morgan Hausel
The Bed of Procrustes: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Fascism: A Warning: Madeleine Albright
Stuff, Be Gone: Zohra Mubeena
Guns, Germs and Steel: Jared Diamond
The Opposite of Namaste: Timber Hawkeye
The One Thing: Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
Biobuilding: Sam Barsch Adam
Drunk Tank Pink: Adam Alter
Dancing with Qubits: Robert S. Sutor
Jesus Lived in India: Holger Kersten
Tracers in the Dark: Andy Greenberg
The (Mis)Behavior of Markets: Benoit Mandelbrot
Experimental Wife: Sandra Jean Bangham
Start with Why: Simon Sinek
Bernoulli's Fallacy: Aubrey Clayton
The Pregnant King: Devdutt Pattanaik
The Singularity is Near: Ray Kurzweil
Silent Spring: Rachel Carson
Skip to the Fun Parts: Dana Jeri Maier
The History of Mathematics: Carl B. Boyer
The Lord of the Flies: William Golding
The Annotated Gödel: Hal Prince
Five Golden Rules: John L. Casti
Transformer: Nick Lane
The Story Behind: Emily Prokop
Energy: Richard Rhodes
Rethinking Consciousness: Michael S. A. Graziano
A Thousand Brains: Jeff Hawkins
The Ascent of Money: Niall Ferguson
The Nazi Hunters: Andrew Nagorski
The Genius of Earth Day: Adam Rome
The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Erik Larson
The Beginning of Infinity: David Deutsch
Masala Lab: Krish Ashok
The Confidence Game: Maria Konnikova
Shape: Jordan Ellenberg
The Discourses: Niccolo Machiavelli
Against the Gods: Peter Bernstein
Through the Language Glass: Guy Deutscher
Trading at the Speed of Light: Donald MacKenzie
Numbers Don't Lie: Vaclav Smil
The Prince: Niccolo Machiavelli
No One Ever Told Us That: John D. Spooner
The Great Arc: John Keay
How Not to Be Wrong: Jordan Ellenberg
Project Hail Mary: Andy Weir
The Double Helix: James D. Watson
V for Vendetta: Alan Moore & David Lloyd
The Unfolding of Language: Guy Deutscher
Principles of Human Knowledge: George Berkeley
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: Robert A. Heinlein
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Philip K. Dick
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Abridged): John Locke
Watchmen: Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
The Grand Biocentric Design: Adam Lanza & Matej Pavśić
Hackers: Steven Levy
Americana: Bhu Srinivasan
The Code Breaker: Walter Isaacson
Empires of the Word: Nicholas Ostler
Eniac: Scott McCartney
Irrational Exuberance: Robert J. Shiller
Deep Simplicity: John Gribbin
Money for Nothing: Thomas Levenson
The Prize: Daniel Yergin
The Secret Life of Groceries: Benjamin Lorr
Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony: Lewis Thomas
A World Without Work: Daniel Susskind
Genius: James Gleick
No Rules Rules: Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer
On Human Nature and The Understanding: David Hume
The TeX Book: Donald E. Knuth
Thinking In Bets: Annie Duke
Titan: Ron Chernow
Doubt And Certainty: Tony Rothman & George Sudarshan
Fortune's Formula: William Poundstone
The Path Between the Seas: David McCullough
Humble Pi: Matt Parker
Molecules At An Exhibition: John Emsley
Upstream: Dan Heath
Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: Matt Parker
The Making of the Atomic Bomb: Richard Rhodes
Cod: Mark Kurlansky
Ella Minnow Pea: Mark Dunn
Scarcity: Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir
The Paradox of Choice: Barry Schwartz
The Moscow Rules: Antonio & Jonna Mendez
Range: David Epstein
How To: Randall Munroe
The Ocean of Churn: Sanjeev Sanyal
Capital in the 21st Century: Thomas Piketty
Eight Lessons on Infinity: A Mathematical Adventure: Haim Shapira
Eating Animals: Jonathan Safran Foer
Better: Atul Gawande
The God Delusion: Richard Dawkins
The Omnivore's Dilemma: Michael Pollan
Discipline & Punish: Michel Foucault
Naked Money: Charles Wheelan
Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith
The Magic of Reality: Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene: Richard Dawkins
God is not Great: Christopher Hitchens
Factfulness: Hans Rosling
Why There is no God: Armin Navabi
Slugfest: Reed Tucker
Winners Take All: Anand Giridharadas
Thing Explainer: Randall Munroe
Through Two Doors at Once: Anil Ananthaswamy
The Blank Slate: Steven Pinker
Artemis: Andy Weir
Nudge: Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein
Thinking Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahneman
How Not to Be Wrong: Jordan Ellenberg
How to Excel at Math and Science: Barbara Oakland
The Cartoon Guide to the Environment: Larry Gonick & Alice Outwater
The Cartoon Guide to Genetics: Larry Gonick & Mark Wheelis
The Cartoon Guide to Physics: Larry Gonick & Art Huffman
The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry: Larry Gonick & Craig Criddle
The Cartoon Guide to Algebra: Larry Gonick
The Cartoon Guide to Statistics: Larry Gonick & Woollcott Smith
How the Mind Works: Steven Pinker
Sapiens: Yuval Noah Harari
The Better Angels Of Our Nature: Steven Pinker
The Internet of Money: Andreas M. Antonopoulos
The Physics of Superheroes: James Kakalios
Everybody Lies: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Weapons of Math Destruction: Cathy O'Neil
Four Fish: Paul Greenberg
Algorithms To Live By: Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths
Originals: Adam Grant
Antifragile: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
A Burglar's Guide to the City: Geoff Manaugh
The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran: Robert Spencer
The Tipping Point: Malcolm Gladwell
The Gene: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Integration of the Indian States: V. P. Menon
The Silk Roads: Peter Frankopan
Outliers: Malcolm Gladwell
The Rules of Wealth: Richard Templar
Fault Lines: Raghuram Rajan
The Art of Thinking Clearly: Rolf Dobelli
The End of Faith: Sam Harris
The Martian: Andy Weir
What If?: Randall Munroe
WTF, Evolution?: Mara Grunbaum
The Theory Of Everything: Stephen Hawking
Angels And Demons: Dan Brown
Being Mortal: Atul Gawande
Peril At End House: Agatha Christie
Joy, Inc.: Richard Sheridan
Tubes: Andrew Blum
This Explains Everything: John Brockman
Flashman: Fraser MacDonald
Naked Statistics: Charles Wheelan
Empire Of The Moghul - Raiders From The North: Alex Rutherford
The Signal And The Noise: Nate Silver
2 States: Chetan Bhagat
Hen's Teeth And Horse's Toes: Stephen Jay Gould
Rework: Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
The Revenge Of Geography: Robert Kaplan
Getting Real: Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
Naked Economics: Charles Wheelan
The Upside Of Irrationality: Dan Ariely
The Third Chimpanzee: Jared Diamond
All The Countries We Have Invaded: Stuart Laycock
The Art of Strategy: Avinash K. Dixit & Barry. J. Nalebuff
The Wonder That Was India - Part II: S. A. A. Rizvi
The Wonder That Was India: A. L. Basham
The Elephant, The Tiger And The Cellphone: Shashi Tharoor
I Am America (And So Can You!): Stephen Colbert
Earth (The Book): Jon Stewart
A Brief History Of Time: Stephen Hawking
How to Win Every Argument: Madsen Pirie
The Man Who Was Thursday: G. K. Chesterton
New Theories Of Everything: John D. Barrow
Maus II: Art Spiegelman
Maus I: Art Spiegelman
Numbers Rule Your World: Kaiser Fung
Fermat's Last Theorem: Simon Singh
Mahabharata: Devdutt Pattanaik
Jack Patel's Dubai Dreams: P. G. Bhaskar
Little Bets: Peter Sims
Boomerang: Michael Lewis
The Medusa and the Snail: Lewis Thomas
The Big Short: Michael Lewis
The Emperor of all Maladies: Siddhartha Mukherjee
One Simple Idea: Stephen Key
The 4-Hour Workweek: Timothy Ferriss
Fantasia Mathematica: Clifton Fadiman
The Penal Colony: Franz Kafka
India Calling: Anand Giridharadas
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: David S. Landes
The Cartoon History of the Modern World: Larry Gonick
In Spite of the Gods: Edward Luce
13 Things that Don't Make Sense: Michael Brooks
Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar: Thomas Cathcart & Daniel M. Klein
The Story of My Experiments in Truth: Mohandas K. Gandhi
A Splendid Exchange: William J. Bernstein
First You Build A Cloud: K. C. Cole
The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten: Julian Baggini
River Of Gods: Ian McDonald
The Book Of General Ignorance: John Mitchinson & John Lloyd
Superstar India: Shobha De
The Art of Money: David Standish
The Drunkard's Walk: Leonard Mlodinow
Where The Wild Things Were: William Stolzenberg
Lost Histories of Indian Cricket: Boria Majumdar
The Seekers: Daniel J. Boorstin
Predictably Irrational: Dan Ariely
The Back of the Napkin: Dan Roam
Longitude: Dava Sobel
Jesus Lived in India: Holger Kersten
The No Asshole Rule: Robert I. Sutton
The World Without Us: Alan Wiesman
Better: Atul Gawande
The Flamingo's Smile: Stephen Jay Gould
The Hidden History of the Human Race: Michael A. Cremo & Richard L. Thompson
A Short History of Nearly Everything: Bill Bryson
The Panda's Thumb: Stephen Jay Gould
The Long Tail: Chris Anderson
The End Of Poverty: Jeffrey D. Sachs
The World Is Flat: Thomas Friedman
Collapse: Jared Diamond
Salt: Mark Kurlansky
Life of Pi: Yann Martell
Blink: Malcolm Gladwell
Freakonomics: Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
The Story of Phi: Mario Livio
First, Break All the Rules: Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Stephen Jay Gould
Persepolis II: Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis: Marjane Satrapi
Dangerous Company: James O'Shea & Charles Madigan
Economics in One Lesson: Henry Hazlitt
Guns, Germs and Steel: Jared Diamond
The Dhammapada: Ananda Maitreya & Rose Kramer
The Automatic Millionaire: David Bach
Karma Cola: Gita Mehta
The Da Vinci Code: Dan Brown
Creating Wealth: Bob Allen
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire: Lawrence James
The Supermen: Charles J. Murray
The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Victor Hugo
The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution - A Reconsideration: Mark Roseman
The Design of Everyday Things: Donald A. Norman
The Mismeasure of Man: Stephen Jay Gould
The Programmer's Stone: Alan G. Carter & Colston Sanger
The Living Past: Ivar Lissner
Hyperspace: Michio Kaku
Dinosaur in a Haystack: Stephen Jay Gould
The Hindu Mind: Bansi Pandit
Science and Hypothesis: Henri Poincaré
Five Golden Rules: John L. Casti
My Days - A Memoir: R. K. Narayan
Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony: Lewis Thomas
The Cartoon Guide to Statistics: Larry Gonick & Woollcott Smith
A Random Walk in Science: Robert L. Weber & Eric Mendoza
Robinson Crusoe: Daniel Defoe
The Moon and Sixpence: W. Somerset Maugham
The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights: John Steinbeck
Frontiers: Isaac Asimov
VEIL: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987: Bob Woodward
Marco Polo: Maurice Collis
Jurassic Park: Michael Crichton
Officers and Gentlemen: Evelyn Waugh
Men at Arms: Evelyn Waugh
Kalki: Gore Vidal
Taming the Atom: Hans Christian von Baeyer
Neuromancer: William Gibson
The Catcher in the Rye: J. D. Salinger
The Man Who Knew Infinity: Robert Kanigel
Acquired Tastes: Peter Mayle
The Elegant Universe: Brian Greene
The Mythical Man-Month: Frederick P. Brooks
Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Richard Feynman
Six Easy Pieces: Richard Feynman
Gödel, Escher Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid: Douglas Hofstadter
Bored of the Rings: Harvard Lampoon
The Gulag Archipelago: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Great Indian Novel: Shashi Tharoor
The Colours of Evil: Ashokamitran
Great Essays in Science: Martin Gardner (ed.)
Red Giants and White Dwarfs: Robert Jastrow
In Quest of Jesus: W. Barnes Tatum
Emergence: Steven Johnson
Dune: Frank Herbert
1984: George Orwell
India: A History: John Keay
The Histories: Herodotus
She Stoops to Conquer: Oliver Goldsmith
Dragons of Eden: Carl Sagan
Sholay: The Making of a Classic: Anupama Chopra
Broca's Brain: Carl Sagan
The Great Railway Bazaar: Paul Theroux
The Riddle of the Dinosaur: John Wilford Noble
Creation: Gore Vidal
The Dancing Wu Li Masters: Gary Zukav
Culture Jam: Kalle Lasn
Lady Chatterly's Lover: D. H. Lawrence
Roots: Alex Haley
Song of Solomon: Toni Morrison
Utopia: Thomas More
The Mahabharata: Chakravarti Rajagopalachari
Foundation and Earth: Isaac Asimov
Foundation's Edge: Isaac Asimov
The God of Small Things: Arundhati Roy
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: William L. Shirer
The New New Thing: Michael Lewis
Economics in One Lesson: Henry Hazlitt
The Illuminatus! Trilogy: Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
Man's Search for Meaning: Viktor Frankl
A Brief History of Time: Stephen Hawking
The Odessa File: Frederick Forsythe
The Haj: Leon Uris
The Man from St. Petersburg: Ken Follet
The Art of War: Sun Tzu Wu
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Robert Pirsig
Hocus Pocus: Kurt Vonnegut
Foundation: Isaac Asimov
The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran
Gulliver's Travels: Jonathan Swift
Rubaiyat: Omar Khayyám
Brave New World: Aldous Huxley
Microserfs: Douglas Copeland
Steppenwolf: Herman Hesse
On the Road: Jack Kerouac
Women in Love: D. H. Lawrence
Complete Works: Saki (H. H. Munro)
Animal Farm: George Orwell
Collected Short Stories: O. Henry
Atlas Shrugged: Ayn Rand
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: J. R. R. Tolkien
After Many a Summer Dies the Swan: Aldous Huxley
Labyrinths: Jorge Luis Borges
Fountainhead: Ayn Rand
Complete Sherlock Holmes: Arthur Conan Doyle
The Cartoon History of the Universe: Larry Gonick
Doonesbury: Garry Trudeau
The Far Side: Gary Larson
Calvin & Hobbes: Bill Waterson
Garfield: Jim Davis
Dilbert: Scott Adams
The Adventures of Asterix, the Gaul: Goscinny & Uderzo
The Adventures of Tintin: Hergé
Cerebus: Dave Sim
You Said It: R. K. Laxman

Selected Reviews

I add reviews on demand. If you'd like to know what I think of a book I have read, please request a review from me at anand@anandnatrajan•com.

The Man Who Knew Infinity: The Man Who Knew Infinity, by Robert Kanigel, follows the life of the Indian mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan. Ramanujan's genius languished in India's educational and professional system, although the recognition of a few patrons enabled him to eke out a lower middle-class life. On the eve of the first World War, Ramanujan was able to travel to England, thanks mostly to a distinguished English mathematician named Thomas Hardy. In partnership with Hardy, Ramanujan was able to refine his mystical insights and publish several theorems, whose value is being discovered even today. Although Ramanujan relished the intellectual freedom England brought him, the cold, the distance from the family and a poor diet contributed to a crippling illness that resulted in an early death.
Robert Kanigel's writing brings the joy of Ramanujan's powers to a wide range of readers. One danger in presenting the life of technically-accomplished people is falling into the trap of explaining their work in unpalatable detail. Mercifully, Kanigel does not fall into the trap. Although that means that his biography of Ramanujan is "soft" - focussing more on the human than on the mathematician - it means that the biography is almost entirely understandable to a reader with just a basic background in mathematics. Kanigel has a smooth, flowing style that is especially in its element when he describes Ramanujan's small-village-in-India background. Without being cloying or obsequious, he is able to marvel at the work of a man whose brilliance is not fully understood by the best minds in the world today, much less an ordinary reader.
The Art of War: The translation I read of the original treatise is very succinct. In terse, staccato language, the distilled wisdom of the most famous strategist of all time comes to you, just in case you wanted to plan your own battle.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: A philosophical book that explores the origins of analysis and scientific thought. The fiction interleaved in the story is a bit weak and at times tends to drag. However, the research done by the author is very impressive. The author explores an ancient concept - that of the Supreme Being, the One, the Brahman - except that the protagonist calls it Quality. He explains the schism between romantic and classical mind-sets based on Quality. A very interesting and gripping book.
Hocus Pocus: Kurt Vonnegut tells us the tale of Eugene Debs Hartke, a funny and satirical Vietnam war veteran. The story revolves around a prison break and Hartke's involvement in that and the school and town adjacent to the prison. The entire book is written as a collection of vignettes purportedly written on scraps of paper of varying size. The vignettes inter-relate to form the mesh of the complete story.
Foundation: The Foundation trilogy is Isaac Asimov's best-known work of science fiction. It tells the story of two Foundation civilisations established by a psychohistorian (soothsayer, really), Hari Seldon, at the beginning of the decline of a mighty empire that ruled the Milky Way. Events in a long history unfold according to prediction or deviating slightly from them as the seed of a new civilisation grows. The book tries to capture the driving forces behind all sustaining civilisations, so it is to be read less as science fiction, and more as a social analysis. Interestingly, for a work of science fiction, the word "computer" appears very rarely, perhaps because the books were written in the early 1950s, when computers were just beginning their appearance. Also, despite the futuristic claim of the book, it has some old-fashioned views about the role of women.
The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese philospher from our own century. His most famous book, The Prophet, stars Almustafa, the prophet who is about to take leave of the people with whom he has stayed for a while. On the eve of his departure, the people ask him to share with them his wisdom regarding various facets of Life. Each chapter in the book expounds wisdom about Love, Giving, Death, Laws, etc. This is an amazing book. Using commonly-encountered metaphors, the prophet explains truths about these facets of life very convincingly. The lilting prose and strong imagery make this short book a very powerful read.
Gulliver's Travels: Jonathan Swift intended Gulliver's Travels to be a scathing satire on the political and social climate in England during his time. However, Gulliver's Travels turned out to be a tale that children could read with delight at the fanciful peoples appearing in each story. The first two travels are the well-known adventures in Lilliput and Brobdignag, while the remaining two are to Laputa and the land of the Houyhnhnms. With each travel, the author has tried to highlight virtues and failings of the new species encountered and contrasted them against prevailing England. The tales get more and more fanciful as the book progresses. Also, Gulliver tends to get more and more awed by the people he visits progressively. Finally, there is the morbid fascination the author seems to have with excrement that makes its foul appearance in every tale under the guise of a traveller wishing to recount truthful detail. Aside from these annoyances, the books are very enjoyable.
Rubaiyat: Omar Khayyám was a Middle East philosopher disillusioned by Islam and Sufiism. Disdainful of secular thought as he was, he had no alternative philosophy that could command a loyal following. His recourse was to indulge in the pleasures of drink. The Rubaiyat is an embodiment of this philosophy. Written in the form of quatrains, there are numerous irreverent verses encouraging a bacchanalian lifestyle. However, a few verses are astoundingly insightful comments on life and Fate. Suprisingly light reading, though a few verses require multiple scans for full import.
Brave New World: In this book, the author paints a satirical picture of a future world where humans are mass-produced and society is regimented and strict. All pleasures are easily accessible and everyone is encouraged to consume as much as possible in order to keep the wheels of society spinning. Yearning and solitude are frowned up when they exist. Huxley protrays a world where the connection between want and fulfillment is so smooth that people are blasé to the point of vacuousness. The entrance of the Savage seems a harbinger of a return to our old ways, but such is not to be as the book ends rather abruptly.
Microserfs: Microserfs is about a bunch of geeks working for Microsoft in Redmond, who relocate to Silicon Valley in order to start their own company. The book examines what makes geeks tick. It's a delightful insight into two classes of coders - the ones in Redmond and the others in the Bay Area. Events in the book are somewhat ephemeral because they usually do not have relevance beyond a chapter or two. I suspect that is intentional as a commentary on the lives of techies. There is some surprisingly sound philosophy in there. Don't read this book if you're uncomfortable with computer terminology.
Steppenwolf: This is a complex book about the complexity of the human psyche. The author begins with the simple idea of a man who is tormented by two souls. His human soul decries everything base, savage and primal that he does, while his wolverine soul mocks everything that he considers noble or sublime. Tormented daily by this tug, Harry Haller, the Steppenwolf discovers that his soul is actually a composite of many animal souls that pull him in many directions. His torment is reduced only when he discovers love, both carnal and platonic, and finally humour. This book demands deep attention by the reader.
On the Road: This book is supposed to be the highway equivalent of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I found the book to be about two irresponsible guys who like to criss-cross America with nary a thought about anything else. The style of writing conveys the impression of motion, and even when the author is describing something static, there is an enjoyable dynamism to it. However, it is doubtful whether the comparison to Mark Twain has much merit. Maybe the hipness of the "beat" generation was lost on me because I don't have the right cultural baggage.
Animal Farm: This is a delightful fable that is enjoyable at different levels. The story is a bout a bunch of barnyard animals who overthrow their human masters and take over the management of the farm. Gradually, the rot of power sets in and the animals are corrupted. The final travesty of Animal Farm is when the pigs, leaders of the revolution, become as human as the men they overthrew. This thinly-disguised satire on communism was understandably banned in Stalin's Russia.
Women in Love: Supposedly the author's best book, it takes off from where The Rainbow left off. The book explores the love affairs of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, with Birkin and Gerald, and the relationships between the women and men themselves. Excellent as the descriptions in the book are, it is long and a bit of a drudge to read. A few passages are shining for their philosophical insights, but the same could have been achieved by a shorter and tightly-written book. The mood throughout the book is dark and attritional.
Complete Works of Saki: Hector Hugh Monroe, or Saki, as he was better known, wrote with cutting wit and benevolent malice. His chronicles of Reginald and Clovis, as well as numerous short stories display insight into human personality and are exhilaratingly mordant in stating those insights. His later short stories are written more smoothly, though he sacrificed some of the wit for dealing with the supernatural. I found the novels disappointing. The Unbearable Bassington transitions suddenly from a light-hearted tale to a depressing account, while the other novel was quite boring.
The Fountainhead: The Fountainhead explores architect Howard Roark's relationship with his work and ego. Roark is the shining symbol of capitalism and a self-sufficient ego. His antithesis is Toohey, who stands for socialism and the blurring of individuality. The characters are quite real, even if they do take themselves a bit too seriously.
Atlas Shrugged: This book continues on the same lines as The Fountainhead. The enigmatic John Galt is the prime mover of the world. The underlying philosophy is about pride in one's work intermeshed with honouring those who make the world spin on well-oiled wheels. However, this book is strident. The characters are too black-and-white, making the story a bit unbelievable. While the message is sound, the technique isn't.
Complete Sherlock Holmes: Need anything be said about the most popular detective in all fiction? If you have never read a Sherlock Holmes story, you must! Immediately. The novels aren't as clever as the short stories, perhaps with the exception of The Hound of Baskervilles. Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes has been the most faithful portrayal I can imagine.
- Sherlock Holmes Resource Page
The Cartoon History of the Universe: These 19 volumes spread over three books comprise the most irreverent look at history I have ever seen. From the Big Bang to the Roman Empire, from China to India to Europe, everything is seen through the eyes of a cartoonist mocking at the seriousness of events. My complaint about this series is that they come out too infrequently. Don't expect these comics to focus on the eras you favour.
Doonesbury: Doonesbury is a different kind of comic strip. It is a social and political satire spanning decades. The characters develop, mature and age as time progresses. The strip deals with many prevalent issues with thinly-disguised or undisguised satire. The humour is quite sophisticated. Often, the punchline appears in the third panel itself and the fourth is devoted to a let-down. Unfortunately, appreciating the strip requires some knowledge of the events being portrayed and an appreciation of politics.
- The Official Doonesbury Pages
The Far Side: The Far Side represents panels and panels of the wackiest kind of humour. Featuring cows, dogs, aliens, dumb-clucks, Satan and much more, each panel packs a story, a perspective and a disturbed mind. The only downside to these comics are that some of the panels are not understood easily even after repeated perusals. You either get the humour or you don't, and no amount of explaning will change that. Once you get into the Far Side mindset, it becomes easier to appreciate the humour behind a cow's moo-sings or Harold's nightmares. Cleverly-drawn and carefully-worded humour are the hallmarks of this strip.
- Other Far Side Pages
Calvin & Hobbes: Calvin is a 6-year old who is at once wise beyond his years and a brat, and yet believeable. Hobbes is Calvin's tiger who appears real to Calvin, but as a stuffed toy to everyone else. Originally from newspaper strips and Sunday colour editions, the collections feature some of the most thought-provoking cartoons ever. Calvin's flights of fantasy mesh very well with Hobbes's feline rationalism. Many of the strips have multiple storylines running through them. Very often, the central pair is engaged in some activity while conducting a conversation. Not only is this very natural, but the activity and conversation often tie together in the last panel bringing out new perspectives. Glorious backgrounds, strong characterisation, wide-ranging humour and effective dialogues make thie series a favourite with many age ranges.
- The Calvin and Hobbes Comics Gallery
- The Official Calvin and Hobbes Pages
Garfield: Garfield is all about the eponymous cat's dealings with his master Jon, the pet dog Odie, Mondays, lasagna, etc. Once upon a time this strip was funny. Garfield was obnoxiously lovable, his problems were easily dealt with and the violence in the strip was endearing. However, I think this strip is devoid of ideas now. There are only so many jokes you can make about Garfield's girth or his dislike for Mondays. Jon's awkwardness with women is funny only till a certain point and Odie cannot carry a strip. Besides, the rank commercialism attached to the characters in this strip is a bit overbearing. Many a time the goodies paint a different picture of Garfield from the one in the strip. My recommendation is to read the older books.
- The Official Garfield Pages
Dilbert: The Dilbert books chronicle the daily existence of geeks. The characters in question are probably in some computer-related field, and the jokes often venture so much into geekdom that specialised knowledge is required to understand them. Dilbert makes some very funny remarks about working in a cubicled, white-collar environment, but whether the comics are truly classy is questionable. It is somewhat easy to be funny by being obnoxious, outré or geeky and Dilbert relies on these ploys for humour. The commercialisation of Dilbert characters often is inappropriate, but so it is.
- The Official Dilbert Pages
The Adventures of Asterix, the Gaul: These wonderfully-illustrated comic books recount the adventures of a brave band of indomitable Gauls who have resisted Julius Cæsar's attempts to conquer all Gaul, circa 50BC. Asterix is the hero of all the adventures. Accompanied by his friend Obelix, the menhir-delivery man, and fortified with the magic potion concocted by the druid Getafix, Asterix takes on the Romans, Goths, the ancient times, Belgians, Spaniards, the Swiss, Cleopatra and more Romans in one hilarious adventure after another. The comics are readable on many levels. Kids enjoy the Roman-bashing, while adults enjoy the historical references, the choice of character names and the amazing puns that survive translation from the original French (thanks to Bell and Hockeridge).
- The Official Asterix Pages
- Brief Introduction to Asterix
- Other Asterix Pages
The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin is a young reporter of indeterminate age who doesn't really do much reporting. However, he gets embroiled in many adventures that take him from the jungles of Latin America to the moon (pre-dating the real trip to the moon). The foul-mouthed, whiskey-guzzling Captain Haddock, the absentminded Professor Calculus and the bungling Scotland Yard detective duo, Thomson and Thompson (with the 'p' as in "psychology") regularly aid (?) Tintin and his dog Snowy in their adventures. Originally Belgian, the Tintin comics are brilliant at times, indifferent at others. Some of the stories are detective stories while others are fantasy adventures. Some of the comics have forward references, i.e., they refer to comics that chronologically succeed them. Tintin himself is hardly endearing or even strongly-characterised, but the sidekicks more than make up.
- The Cult of Tintin
Cerebus: Dark, stark panels characterise the Cerebus comics. Starring Cerebus the aardvark, the strip is hilariously self-important. Cerebus refers to himself in the third person. The caped cockroach is a lampoon on all the superhero comics. Outrageously, the comics feature Groucho Marx as the despotic yet funny Julius. At times, there's pathos in some of the stories but by and large these books are very funny.
You Said It: You Said It appears in the middle right side of The Times of India and many other newspapers. Very often, it is read before the headlines themselves. Featuring the silent, suffering Common Man the strip is a single-panel satire on almost everything Indian. Political comment is a large part of this strip, but very often cricket failures, potholed roads, ration queues, mountainloads of filth, economic policies and foreign dignitaries take centrestage. Most of the strips are timeless, yet topical, and despite the seemingly negative portrayal often carry a glimmer of hope that better things will come. The ubiquitous Common Man is the symbol of this hope. Unlike his cynical wife, the common man seems to bear with all adversity, surviving through the decades with a fortitude that is very Indian.

Anand Natrajan