Books
Who is the real worker & some personal tales!
May 28th
Its been a while since I posted. What have I been doing? Apart from the occasional tennis sessions in Wii, I am kinda stuck in the work (if you thought it sounded like "stuck in the rut", you have a warped mind! 
). Its already 12 in the night here, me feeling very sleepy. But wanted to finish up this toon below. I guess it is a reflection of my current mind state.
I read Matthew Reilly’s "Seven Ancient Wonders" last weekend. Book is on my favorite topic – Egypt!! Unfortunately this one reads like a kid’s book. The ease with which the main character of the book solves/crosses all those complex pyramidal snares/traps is ridiculous, to say the least. Anyway, I learnt something about the early water traps and Reilly’s description of Hanging gardens of Babylon was highly imaginative; I’d rate this book 2/5 – you can read it probably once, over flight or when waiting for your wife to finish her shopping 
I have started on his "Ice Station" next, lets see how it reads.
Last weekend, I also spent lots of time watching the entire 16 season of Survivors : Fans vs Favorites. I have never seen Survivors before, though I knew what the concept was. But, at no point of time I expected it to be so well made and so captivating! I thoroughly enjoyed the isolated environment, the idea of tribes/tribal council and the human dynamics that played out for survival. Wow…an amazing reality show. I personally liked Ozzie a lot in the show, very unfortunate Parvati fooled him in to quitting. I cannot wait for the next season to start!!
In the Wii front, today I got my Carnival games collection. My first impression: I don’t like many of the games included, hopefully multi-player will prove otherwise. Enough of my whining now…time for bed!
[Spoiler] Harry potter and the deathly hallows
Jul 19th
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I am a big fan of Harry potter (HP)! I got hooked in to pottermania around 2001, since then I have collected all original HP books (all thoroughly earmarked) + audio books (US Version – Jim Dale) + first 4 HP movie DVDs. Like every other HP fan, I went ahead and booked the final installment – Harry potter and the deathly hallows – around June beginning. Indiaplaza provided an excellent offer, which I haven’t seen beaten by any of the other Indian stores yet.  My wife was like – “eh!? why did you spend Rs650 on a kids book?!”, what could I tell her? Certain things are better left unanswered, right?!
As all muggles know, the book is going to come out this Saturday 12.01am. Only two more days to go, yayyy!! This time around, the publishers have really beefed up the security, but still some goof ups did happen and couple of copies leaked out (Check out these torrents:  Complete text of the book, all pages (photographed) )
BTW, I noticed yesterday that the HP5 (Order of phoenix) movie was uploaded in Google Videos, couldn’t find it today though! Should be in Veoh or Youtube…check it out and let me know if you find a valid link 
Though I was determined not to read any of the spoilers this time, today morning I gave in to the temptation and read the initial reviews of the final book here and here. Not much leaked there, compared to the more interesting spoilers in this page, telling us who dies when and other things!
I checked my order status in Indiaplaza and was pleasantly surprised to see the status as “ReadyToShip“. C’mon guys, what are you waiting for? Why not do a DeepDiscount and send me the copy today itself?!
WinTricks: Collection of Windows Tips and Tricks
Jun 7th
WinTricks is a database of hundreds of Tips & Tricks, covering Windows 95/98/…/XP/2003. No Vista tricks, but hopefully will be updated in the next release. This is a standalone Windows program (what else?!), in an easily browsable e-book format. Download it from here. This can come very handy.
BTW, does this remind you of the great VDAT, or am I the only fellow feeling nostalgic?
Wilbur Smith – Monsoon and other great books
Mar 28th
I just finished reading Wilbur Smith’s Monsoon, for the third time. Everytime I read one of his books, I literally experience a time warp, either watching one of the Courtneys shouting down “Belay the end, lad!” at his deck or looking up at Taita, the greatest of the Warlords, with awe! Having just finished the book, the images of Dorian Courtney dropping his Scimitar against Tom’s majestic Blue sword or Aboli watching Zama/Tulu are still dancing before my eyes. What can I say? Wilbur Smith’s characters always leave such a lasting impression! Unlike any of the lifeless characters you might have come across, Wilbur Smith has a way of making his characters extremely colorful and likeable. I agree he always depicts his heroes as macho men – battling with slavers and pirates & capturing the enormous treasure from them, killing mammoth elephants for the ivory, fighting successfully the perils of sea, adept at sword fighting and languages, seducing damsels…but I like them this way
“Monsoon” picks up from where “Birds of prey” left (you don’t have to read them in order for the story to make sense). It tells the story of Courtney brothers Tom/Dorian/Guy and their adventures, especially Tom & Dorian. Hal Courtney, son of Sir Francis Courtney and father of the Courtney brothers I mentioned, is assigned the task of capturing, either alive or dead, Jahangir a.k.a Al-auf, the bad one, who is terrorizing the East India company’s trading ships. Hal sets sail with Tom,Guy and Dorian along with his faithful mates, Aboli/Ned Tyler and Big Daniel. They find al-auf, but during the fight, Dorian gets taken by Arabs. In an effort to save him, Hal Courtney loses his legs. Tom gets Hal back to England, where he succumbs to his injuries. Tom has a fight with William (his step-brother) and kills him accidentaly. If you are still with me, you should go and buy the book. I am not going to let this post being a big spoiler. Mind you, this book is a big one, may take couple of days to finish, but I assure you, it will make a great read. Personally I felt, near the end, the book is kinda rushed – probably Wilbur Smith had to cut down some chapters because of publishing constraints, but an entertaining book throughout.
My favorites in Wilbur Smith’s books are his Egyptian novels – River God, Seventh Scroll & Warlock. The ways of ancient Egypt, their customs & beliefs, the way their lives are entangled with the Great Nile, the treasures they accumulate for the tomb, the wars they wage – Simply amazing! Makes you wish you were born at that time. Who knows? may be, I was Taita in my previous Janma
WS has released a new book – The Quest. This got released just 2 weeks back (Mar 14th/2007), in South Africa. I am not sure when it is going to hit the stands here in India, but one thing I know is I am going to pre-order it today in Amazon
