OOKBOOK: Wishlist and Disslist

Another site recommendation

2005-12-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

All of the best India Jobs are at Bixee.

The ides of October

2005-10-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday defended his decision to go public with the threat that terrorists might want to strike the New York subway system, saying it is essential that authorities err on the side of caution when protecting a city of 8 million people.

Polyannas and Polynomials

2005-10-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

A problematic turn hangs on the tooth of the tiger.

2005-09-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

The slightest whiff of a scandal could set things off at this stage. It is not clear what advantage is to be derived from any investigations into the reported cases.

An experiment in crawling

2005-08-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

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WSOP: Texas Holdem Classics

2005-07-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

The World Series of Poker 2005 is on just now and folks are waiting with bated breath for the next king of the truest form of Poker, i.e. Texas Holdem, to be crowned. Since 2000, and after the movie Rounders, interest in the game of poker has grown and grown to the point that the legendary Doyle Brunson says top poker players are treated like "rock stars" now. However, as any serious player knows, poker, particular holdem, is less about luck and the thrill of the unexpected than it is about a lot of theory, knowledge and attitude. Helmuth and Sklansky have written the two classics on the theory of course and they are good beginning points for anyone. However, we do advise a lot of time at home games and small stake tables before putting in your money at a World Series of Poker table. Happy (and responsible) playing!

J K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2005-07-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

The mother of all book-releases is going to happen on July 11. Rowling has certainly created a very inventive, very amusing universe, but the beef I have is that she has copied a large number of her elements from other fantasy writers. Still, she sells so outstandingly well that these mere criticisms are unimportant. I will have 672 pages to race breathlessly through. Ideally, these mega-anticipated releases should happen on a Friday, so I can use the weekend for this stuff and avoid having to make up excuses for tardy arrivals in the library. Unseen can beat the pants off Hogwarts any day of course, whether at Magic or that Quiddick-or-harry or whatever that "game" is called.

Why are the American covers of Brit books so lame?

2005-07-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

I have been noticing with Pratchett's books - the covers of the British editions are lively and full of action and just much, much more interesting than the American versions, which are deathly plain. I wrote it off as some idiosyncracy that was happening only with Pratchett books. But now I noticed this for the last two books I blogged about. Anyone know why this happens?

AMERICAN	BRITISH

Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down

2005-07-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

is the fourth novel from Nick Hornby. I had read his "How to be Good" and seen the movies "About a Boy" and "High Fidelity", which have been adapted from his novels. Hornby creates completely weird situations like an angry newspaper columnist who devotes himself to actively doing good works to change society. Another has a 38-year old playboy living off the earnings of his one-(BIG!)-hit-wonder playwright father's royalties and telling his friends who have just asked him to be their infant daughter's godfather, "I'd be the worst possible Godfather. I'd probably drop her on her head at her christening. I'd forget all her birthdays until she was 18. Then I'd take her out and get her drunk. And, let's face it, quite possibly try and shag her." IMDB has a page on About a Boy quotes. Even with these ridiculous set-ups, he crafts believable behavior and situations with exceptional humor. In this book, four people meet each other at the top of a building one night when they arrive separately to jump to their deaths. I have to get my hands on this book.

Tom Friedman's The World is Flat

2005-07-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

I have been hearing great things about Tom Friedman's latest book. I could have told him that Discworld was flat, and saved him the cost of airfare to Bangalore. Anyway, the world is really flat as he claims and his dictum applies to the printing of books too. Bangalore, which inspired and provided evidence for a number of his ideas, sprouts its own version of low-cost book printers and distributors. These guys would be called pirates by other, ruder societies. What they really do is a provide society a much-valued service selling cheap prints of popular books for 10%-50% of the cost of the authorized version. The sales happen on the sidewalks of the city. Apparently, these guys have noted the success of the book and are planning some "economy editions" themselves. I am told they should be out in a week from today.

Learning Swinging

2005-07-03T03:29:00.000-07:00

It is all very well and good for apes (or even men) who grew up in the jungle - they can learn swinging from their parents, or their peers. But for someone who has lived a blameless human life for five decades before being metamorphosed one day in a Kafka-esque fashion into ME, swinging is an acquired skill. So, being the conscientious learner that I am, I thought I would get a book and learn it the right way. I have been following all the tips from the book on the right. It feels like the sort of thing a wild ape might do naturally, but requires too much work and explanations for a city-dwelling type.

CLIC Adjustable Front Connect Reader

2005-07-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

For the swinging lifestyle of a hypermetropic orangutan librarian, glasses are completely out of the question because of their tendency to slip off your nose at the top of some glorious arc between the bookshelves. CLIC solves one part of it. Now I just need someone to invent trouserless pockets, so I can put the CLICs in them.

Terry Pratchett's Sourcery

2005-07-03T01:21:00.000-07:00

The eighth son of an eighth son becomes a wizard. But if he gets into sticky things like love and marriage and has seven sons and his wife gets pregnant again, the world waits with bated breath. For his eighth son is a sourcerer, a source of raw magic the world has forgotten. A delightful book introducing Conina, the barbarian hairdresser daughter of Cohen the barbarian, her puzzling love for Nigel the destroyer, son of Harebut, the provision merchant who wears woolly underwear on his heroic adventures because he promised his mother he would. Including other divers characteurs as Abrim, the Grand Vizier who would have topped the class at the school for Grand Viziers, Creosote, the literary Seriph of Al-kheli and the Archchancellor's hat, which gives new meaning to the phrase "talking through your hat".