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this is Dhiren Shingadia's blog about stuff that makes him tick.
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February 2012 M T W T F S S « Jan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Category Archives: Books
Soma holiday
I was recently told that A Brave New World was a book for teenagers; a literary muse for the young intelligentsia. I disagree. The complexity of the book allows you to extract different meanings each time it’s visited. Immersed, I found my-self reading, re-reading and questioning chapters to confirm the sentiments they evoked. Huxley was [...]
Middle class triviality
(written at some point after the riots kicked off, but never got around to posting) I sit here thinking about aspidistras whilst London burns. The shooting of Mark Duggan has triggered the neglected and often demonized communities of London to revolt. Comments on Twitter and Facebook suggest that many are puzzled by the furore and [...]
Not so velvety
When you see a book titled Memoirs of My Melancholy Whores, you gravitate toward it and ask yourself, ‘What the fuck could this be about?’ It’s the kind of book you’d discover after clicking ‘I’m feeling lucky’ on Google; a wildcard and frivolous purchase of sorts. I flicked through it in a few days and [...]
All hail Franzen
Freedom is by far one of the best books I’ve read over the last eighteen months. In fact, outside of 1984, I don’t think my brain’s recently devoured anything as influential in any way, shape or form. Frazen’s complex plot alludes to a deep understanding of American politics, political history, and the archetypal characters which [...]
Still won’t go to London Fields
This was the first Amis novel I dared to pick up. From the outset, before reading the introductory chapters, I deemed the book to be pretentious and this was partly due to the circles from which its recommendation came, and partly because of what I had read about the author. After reading about his life [...]
The path of a Doer by David Hieatt
I was considering the ‘doers’ I admire in anticipation for the release of The path of a Doer: a set of values, beliefs and reasons for being a doer. What’s the definition of a doer? It’s very contentious question, which undoubtedly has many subjective answers. In my book, Ernst Hemingway, Arundhati Roy and Ben Hammersley [...]
You can’t please them all
There are few books that I can genuinely relate to, but this book had me cringing on numerous occasions because I have also, many years ago, worn the same clothes, listened to the same music and even uttered the same West London nonsense as Amit or Mitt Dogg: the protagonist. Reading Shukla’s Coconut Unlimited was [...]
If This Is Man by Primo Levi
Finishing this book took somewhat longer than I expected; however, the history lesson deserved the time invested. Levi’s autobiographical account of the holocaust uncovers nightmares excluded from any school curriculum. By profession Levi was a chemist and his scientific foundations deliver literary clarity and a story told without ambition or pretence. Clear prose intertwined with [...]
The Americans by Robert Frank
After weeks of nervous waiting, my copy of The Americans was – tumultuously – shoved through my letterbox; however, due to impromptu happenings, it was immediately buried under a stack of books, which also require due diligence. My procrastination wasn’t an act of nonchalant laziness: it was fueled by recognition because good photo documentaries, like [...]
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