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A roundup of the books I've read of late. Given that I am not a reader of any particular sophistication, I tend to read really anything I come across. So this list of books ranges from Enid Blyton's school children novels to fake science fiction right through to literary classics like 100 years of solitude.
Godfather ***** Mario Puzo : Brilliant classic, that I got around to read only after all these years, kept me glued to the pages until I finished it (or had to get up to go to work). Invoked the full wrath of ___ who I repeatedly kept ignoring in order to read the book.
100 Years of Solitude ***** Gabriel Garcia Marquez : Having read Love in the time of cholera, I had pretty high expectations of this even more famous work by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Having read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie too, I have come to love this genre of Magical Realism where you get completely absorbed into the completely fantastic world as created by the book. These two authors spin the fantasies of the story with such skill as to bind the mind of the reader into accepting it as reality. The same feeling came over me as I read this Latin American classic and I had to repeatedly pull myself away from the book to keep the hypnotic feeling from drowning me in the troubles of the characters or the grimness of their world.
The Inimitable Jeeves ***** PG Wodehouse : Yet another Jeeves novel by the inimitable Wodehouse. The language and the comic scenes are as awesome as ever though the plot itself was a little too weak in this book. But why would you not read a Wodehouse when you saw one.
Net Force ***** Tom Clancy : My first Tom Clancy novel this and a total disaster at that. Only later was I to learn that this was written by some other author under the Tom Clancy brandname! This book was as fake and poor as some of the Dan Brown works. Haven't read any other science fiction done so poorly. Dan Brown's Digital Fortress comes close actually.
Five Go to Demon's Rocks (Famous Five) ***** Enid Blyton : Enid Blyton was staple food all through school. Chancing upon this book at my Aunt's home, I picked it up to give it a read. This book was pretty poor though, or maybe I've just grown up a little too much. I remember having a lot lot more fun reading Famous Five back in school.