Category Archives: Books

5 Best Books

Posted by on September 26, 2011 No comments

Every book has something to give you… even the crappy ones. As such its extremely unfair to pore through manuscript after manuscript and do a process of elimination vibe a la American Idol (or its sorry clone Indian Idol). An Idol mind is a devils workshop??

I am going to pick 5 books which gave me food for thought and maybe an Adrenaline rush or three…. so read on me hearties:

Journey To The Center Of The Earth – by Jules Verne (Science Fiction)
This book made it to my other list too – the childhood favourites one. It must be because I’m a sucker for science. I love to learn about minerals and metals, inventions and how things work. And I love this planet. This book may be fiction but it contains enough facts about the earth to make an earth lover smack his lips (smack smack smackola smackity smack). The tale is about an eccentric professor, his young protege Axel and their discovery of a manuscript that plots the path taken by an ancient explorer to reach the center of the earth. They decide to follow the path. The author then takes you on a bizarre trip filled with little nuggets of science, all the way down one volcano in Iceland and out of another volcano. Read it… experience it… dream it every night for the rest of your life.

Fall Of The House Of Usher – E. A. Poe (horror)
This book gave me the chills. Now I’m one of those people who aren’t shaken by anything. I don’t have any phobias (except waking up with all 5 spice girls next to me brrrrrrr… scary). But this book did it. The gripping tale of how a brother sentences his ill sister to a live burial and how she comes back to extract revenge is nothing short of BRILLIANT! Beware – you may never sleep the same way again :P

The Hobbit – J.R.R Tolkien (fantasy)
A lot has been written on this post-LOTR but my relation with this book started like 10 years before the movies hit the screen. The Hobbit is the prelude to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Tolkien conjures an imaginary world filled with endearing characters. The narrative is great and your imagination is stroked.

One more reason why I like Tolkien is the song Battle Of Evermore by Led Zeppelin. Its drenched in Tolkienism. The song uses three mandolins – my favourite instrument.

’’The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath and drums will shake the castle walls, the RINGWRAITHS ride in black’’

The Exorcist – William Blatty (horror)
I liked the movie. I loved the book. enough said

Hammer Of The Gods – the Led Zeppelin biography (er.. biography) :P
Why is this book here? Because its my favourite band. They were the wildest, meanest, baddest band in their time. And their rags to riches tale. accounts of debauchery and excesses is legendary. Read this book if you want to learn how they rocked in the 60s and 70s. From groupies to gangsters, flower power to florescence… this is one psychedelic trip. Not recommended for people who dont like reading this kind of stuff (I’m playing it safe).

any more??? you bet there is more… but the train of thought has left the station. So I’ll save the rest for a rainy day.

peace

PS: this topic will see some edits in the near future. thank you :)

The Gold-Bug – Edgar Allan Poe

Posted by on July 4, 2011 No comments

Continuing in my Poe fixation… I’m now going to write on “The Gold Bug”

The Gold Bug is a great piece of work that gives the reader a liberal dose of hooks and kicks. Its more of a Sherlock Holmsian style mystery than a Pit and The Pendulum type impending doom tale. Still it bears the stamp of Poe’s class and his exquisite mastery of prose.

In a nutshell
Poe seems to have had a fixation with the first person. This tale is also a ’’from the narrator’s mouth’’ style narrative like The Black Cat and most of Poe’s other works.

The tale revolves around a once wealthy aristocrat William LeGrand who left his home in New Orleans to settle on an island with his aide, an african named Jupiter who addressed him as ’’MASSA WILL’’. Legrand built a hut and took to hunting, fishing and exploring the beach. It was during one of his expeditions that he encountered with the focal point of the tale – the Gold Bug.

The tale picks up from this piece of text onwards…

Legrand was in one of his fits — how else shall I term them? — of enthusiasm. He had found an unknown bivalve, forming a new genus, and, more than this, he had hunted down and secured, with Jupiter’s assistance, a scarabaeus which he believed to be totally new, but in respect to which he wished to have my opinion on the morrow.

This gold bug that Legrand discovers paves the way to a mystery that includes pirates and a cryptic puzzle that is solved with great ingenuity.

What lies in store for Legrand and friends? You got to read the Gold Bug for answers…

What makes this tale a great read
Poe’s cocktail has a dash of something that you and I can relate to – mystery, pirates, puzzles and plenty of suspense. It also has a few nuggets of scientific facts and reasoning to make the read a worthwhile one for your brain.

And when you read a work by this legendary writer, you’re sure to get a dash of mental torture like none other. Trust me, its for your own good.

Underlying Message
Sometimes the truth might be right under your nose but you still need find it. Also, what might seem rational to you, might actually be the opposite.

~finis~

Now, being the sport that I am… here’s a link if you have an urge to read it right now:

http://www.19.5degs.com/ebook/gold-bug/599/read#list

The Black Cat Review – Edgar Allan Poe

Posted by on July 3, 2011 1 comment

And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart –one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?
- the Black Cat – E.A. Poe

Forgive the repetitive nature of the introduction. I have once again taken a portion text from Poe’s tale and pasted it for your perusal. It is by no means an effort to meet the 150 word limit or to impress. Its just to give you a taste of what is inside.

In the wake of my Edgar Allen Poe fix, I’ve decided to write on this – one of the most gory tales that Poe has ever penned. The tale can invoke mixed emotions – disgust in the brutality of narrative and sheer admiration in Poe’s ability to deliver the goods.

The tale has strands of witchcraft woven into its fabric. Like the Fall Of The House Of Usher, this too is a short story that can be consumed in minutes but can leave a lasting effect in your mind.

The Black Cat
Like the House Of Usher, this too is written as a first person narrative. The narrator takes in a Black Cat that he cherishes and cares for. He’s married and things look good. Not so, because he soon gets possessed by the vile demon, the evil spirit known as Alcohol.

Alcohol takes over the body that embraces it and makes even the sanest of men, lose everything. The transformation is slow but sure. The beast within the narrator comes forth and he does damage to the very people (and a certain black cat) he cares for. Damage that can never be repaired.

The beast endures torture in silence until it receives the final blow… the events that ensue are spine chilling and the climax a blend of gore and sweet justice. The Black Cat fulfils its earthly mission…

Final Notes
Poe’s narrative emphasizes on the evils of alcoholism and the wake of destruction anger can leave behind. There is also no running away from the guilt of ones actions, because in one way or the other… the truth shall always come out to seal your fate.

I took away a star because of the gore factor.

For a free read of The Black Cat: http://www.poedecoder.com/Qrisse/works/blackcat.html

~finis~

Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe

Posted by on June 26, 2011 No comments

But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch’s high estate
(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him, desolate!);
And, round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

- From THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER – Edgar Allen Poe

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The greatest writer in the suspense/horror genre, Edgar Allen Poe (sorry Lovecraft fans) has penned some of the most gripping and macabre tales and poems that include The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum and that poem every goth embraced – The Raven.

For long, I’ve wanted to jot a few words that acknowledged Poe. I chose to write on this, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, for one reason – its one tale that can send a shiver down your spine every time you read it. It also brings back some childhood memories when ’book’ was your best friend.

The story isnt novel length and as such you can finish the whole work in minutes, but every word leaves a lasting impression.

The plot again is something that isnt meant to be revealed in a review. So I shall refrain from doing that.

The Fall Of The House Of Usher

The story is dark and reeks melancholia from start to end. We get to see it all through the eye of the narrator, who visits his friend Roderick Usher at his family estate. The estate and its inhabitants, Roderick and his sister Madeline – the last of the Ushers, are in a sickly state. Madeline has been battling an ailment that has confined her to her bed. Roderick, who greeted his friend and made him welcome, starts to withdraw into his shell as the days passed.

The highlight of the story is the scene where the narrator reads from the ’Mad Trist’ of Sir Lancelot Canning…

with your permission I’ll borrow an excerpt from this story (Mad Trist):

“And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who was now mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the wine which he had drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the hermit, who, in sooth, was of an obstinate and maliceful turn; but, feeling the rain upon his shoulders, and fearing the rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace outright, and, with blows, made quickly room in the plankings of the door for his gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so cracked, and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dry and hollow-sounding wood alarummed and reverberated throughout the forest.”

this is where Poe weaves his magic. The narrator starts to experience eerie events that synchronised with the text he was reading… like the dry hollow sound that reverberated throughout the forest…

Who’ll survive the night? What tale of treachery does the House Of Usher hide? What happens to the House of Usher?

To sum it all up

A tale of death, betrayal and decay in the inimitable style of Poe. The highlights are the beautiful poem that you encounter midway and the narrating of the deeds of Ethelred and the effects it has on the narrator and his friend.

So, whether you relish the macabre or are plain chicken, experience Poe at his darkest best by reading this tale of the Fall Of The House Of Usher

For those who are finding it hard to lay your hands on the paperback… here’s a web site that could prove useful: http://www.bartleby.com/195/10.html

~sleep tight~