-A window ajar is a prelude in building to the joy of being limitless! That uneasiness of being familiar somehow, sometime, somewhere.......

Thursday, November 24, 2005

On being booked and winter reading....

This Gaurdian article with the subsequent blog and discussion flooded me with memories.
I must admit I have a huge thing for schools and classifications , more so when it comes to books. Though its kinda settled a bit now it still is an obsession at times. Sometimes I take a day off to collect all my scribbles inside various books in one place. If you thought that was weird , hang on, I used to read all the newspaper editorials of 6 months together on some holidays! Once my sister's friend happened to visit on one of them days and on learning about my special hobby, gaped and fainted! For full three minutes. That made me realise how healthy it was!
Guess, Im making up for it now by reading newspapers only when needed.

Since I have my collection scattered over many cities, Ive managed to keep the current classification quite simple,
1. Fiction
2. Non fiction
3. Favourites
4. Miscellaneous
The borrowed books are rafted in a separate shelf.
And since the favourite section occupies the front, people still get freaked out to see an entire collection of Joyce and Nietzsche! Yet all their commentaries lie beneath the bed.

And as the winter seeps, the streets are fogged and smudged dark so early and with the gales happily roaring one can only fancy to spend these evening sipping printed words with some fine scotch .
So the winter schedule is drawn-

Reading-
Baroque architecture
Life a user manual George Perec
Salman rushdie Essays and columns
Umberto Eco on Joyce and semiotics

Researching incl online
7th Panzer division and many other Nazi elite units
Lesbianism
Revolt of Boudica against romans
C Rajagopalachari (Tell me Everything and anything you know about him)
White as an art form , starting from Lowry here .
Diane Arbus (One article in the Independent made me yearn for her)

Interested
- Arguments for/against NGO and charity structurization in India.
- Childhood sexual abuse in India

Anyone interested in the same or related feel free to chip in.

6 comments:

Rajesh said...

Hoping to see if your update can wake me up to look for the ink...

Scribbles in notebooks. Yeah! that should take you way down the lane and dangling snapshots :)

cheers

Ubermensch said...

They do indeed, a long way back.
Hoping in return you shall spill some ink after the more pressing are satiated by your attention.
Thanks

Lg said...

The one thing that instantly comes to mind about Rajaji is that he loved his filter coffee scalding hot.

I did read Rajmohan Gandhi's biography of Rajaji and that book cited a lot of examples to illustrate what a great visionary this man was.

What sort of other information are you looking for on Rajaji? There are a couple of pictures and a few letters from Rajaji in my grandad's archives. I can look for them in case you are looking for rare snippets from his life.

Extempore said...

Does re-reading Focault's Pendulum and an introduction to Art History count? :-)

That's an awesome list you have - will see how I can help with C Rajagopalachari - a friend is somehow related to him or is a family friend or some such...!

Ubermensch said...

Hello echo,
The coffee thing is legendary.
Yes I remember reading that book, in fact Gandhi was on a trip here last month. It is indeed awell crafted book,
I remember the humour in 'pay taxes for the rain' and 'the churchill afternoon nap events'. truly a great mind and i thought only afew minds who had understood the essence of india.
I am , as said , happy to know anything about him. More so about ideas that influenced him and people influenced by him.
And snippets are always welcome.
Much obliged.

extempore
It does count, if you are okay sharing your perspective esp on the latter.
Anything on CR.
cheers

Anonymous said...

Very nice site!
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