January logs
Books
My first foray into aesthetics theory.
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
I quite liked the first TV series from Amazon - The Man in the High Castle, then lost interest to follow up on later series. I might revisit the later series in the future.
Without writing too many spoilers, the TV series has far more character development than the book and it is more based on the book rather than faithful to the book.
The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt
This is an interesting book on a woman's perspective on dealing with a midlife crisis of sorts.
Early chapters reminded me of Girl, Interrupted (1999) , which is one of my favourite films. Although both protagonists go through a breakdown, that's probably where the similarities end!
This reminds me that I should pick up Girl, Interrupted book itself.
Curiosity read since I haven't read many (if any) Roman poets before.
Quite liked the mythical poems on Thesius etc.
There are some sharp, quite quotable short poems, too.
Similar theme to Unfaithful (2002)
film, although this book is much older.
Quite an interesting short story.
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
Quite an interesting book on medication profession which I do not know much about.
Stories on how doctors in poor countries and areas adapt to the unique challenges and rise to the occasion were quite inspiring to read.
Advice on getting better in once professoin is, I think, applicable to other fields as well.
It was a long awaited read for me to finally to read Pride and Prejudice.
I've seen Pride & Prejudice (2005) film some time back and reading books of Jane Austen was quite high on my list.
I picked up reading reading this book while parallel reading other books, but after the first couple of chapters I could almost not put it down, and read it solely till I finished it!
I picked up this short book solely based on how much I liked the film The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and I think my ratings for the book, is biased based on the liking to the film as well.
This is the first Ursula Le Guin book for me.
I've been eyeing to read her science fiction books for a while and I'm quite glad that I started with this one.
It is a pretty awesome story which is hard to describe.
I had seen the movie based on the novel a long time ago The End of the Affair (1999) and I quite liked the film even though I found its ending a bit gloomy at the time.
The book evoked even stronger emotions for me. I'm not even sure whether to call this book just a run of the mill love story.
The second half is almost religious and spiritual. I found the novel quite nihilistic and religious at the same time.
Most of all, I like the brutal honesty of the protagonist who fights till the end to keep his nihilistic world view. I'm not sure whether it is nihilistic - at least he believed in love, so there's something!
I quite liked the way Paula Fox can pack so much into a single sentence.
Some passages in the book would be considered quite politically incorrect by today's standards, but I cannot fault the book because as with everything art is also a product of its time.
Characters insecurities and flaws are laied bare in a seemingly insignificant event in a very deft manner.
It took me a little while to get used to the Cormac McCarthy writing style, which I've come to understand is pretty unique.
I really wanted to find out what exactly was that apocalyptic event, but it is never fully revealed. In a way, not revealing what's the underlying event makes the novel universal.
The ending was really emotional and it was responsible for my ultimately high rating for the book.
Papers
Meetups
Blog entries
Films and TV
Big Bang Theory - Finally finished the series. Even though I didn't like the later series all that much I was sad to see the series finish.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Although not as much as the first two series, I still quite like this series.
You - I'm of two minds whether to continue watching this series, which I find quite a bit shallow.
Bookmarks
Swann's Way - A friend recommended reading this series, In Search of Lost Time by Proust, which has been on my mind also for quite some time.
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