May 2009 - Posts - Bookends

May 2009 - Posts

Friday evening honour roll - 8

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
Only one person got all five answers right, but he either forgot or was unable to discern the theme , and as he points out in a most aggrieved manner, he DID get the theme. (Sorry about that, Nithin. My comment editor on the blog here somehow seemed to hide the final line of your comment.) Here are the answers: 1. Tennyson, Baudelaire, C. S. Lewis and...

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Thursday afternoon books quiz - 8

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
This week, what we quizzers call, very unoriginally, a "theme," or somewhat more originally, a "Stage Two." The questions below are all connected by one overarching theme, so you need to crack the individual answers and then work out they link up to. 1. Tennyson, Baudelaire, C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Parker have all written poems bearing...

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Friday evening honour roll - 7

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
This week, a lot of people got within one answer of making the honour roll, but nobody was able to get all five right. The answers! 1. This is The Wizard of Oz , featuring the Cowardly Lion. 2. The Lord of the Rings . I got one Harry Potter answer, but there was a grey super-wizard long before Albus Dumbledore. 3. The Satanic Verses -- depicting the...

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Thursday afternoon books quiz - 7

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
This week, Google slinks away in defeat. Given a little section of a famous cover of a famous book, name the book: 1. The first edition cover of which book? 2. The iconic cover of which iconic book? 3. Depicting a key scene in which book? 4. It may not be the most famous cover of the book, but it's the one I have. Plus all sorts of clues in the...

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In Saramago, echoes of the election

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
A little morning reading just goes to show how, all things considered, elections and politics are the same everywhere -- whether in India or in Jose Saramago's surreal, fictional lands. In Saramago's Seeing , municipal elections are held in an anonymous country. In its capital, after a polling day of torrential rain, electoral officers discover...

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Off-the-cuff links: How distracted do you get?

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
In New York magazine, a fascinating article on our modern world of endless distractions , and how much we're suffering from a lack of attention. This has a direct bearing on reading. In my experience, reading steadily and continuously (books, magazines or online) has become harder and harder, and that has disturbed me no end. (I had blogged earlier...

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Friday evening honour roll - 6

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
Opening lines seem to be EVERYbody's favourite. A record number of honour-rollers this week, for this quiz . Here are the answers: 1. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina 2. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." George...

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Thursday afternoon books quiz - 6

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
This week, it's opening lines! Given the opening line of the famous work of literature, give me the name of that work. 1. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." 2. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." 3. "Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet...

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Off-the-cuff links: Getting fired from the "New Yorker"

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
Thanks in major part to serendipity, I read something interesting about books or writing nearly every day, not all of which can evolve into a full-fledged post. I thought, therefore, that I'd start a new filter called "Off-the-cuff links," where I can simply post the link and a brief description, and leave it for you to follow up. (And...

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What do our politicians read?

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
I am the type of person who cannot walk past a person reading a book without twisting my neck to see what book it is. It's a curse: I do it all the time in airports and trains, and I sometimes receive very funny looks for my troubles. Last week, this very refreshing photo appeared in a few newspapers -- refreshing because we rarely see (relatively...

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Friday evening honour roll - 5

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
The answers to the fifth of the Thursday afternoon book quizzes: 1. There's a series of manga graphic novels whose plot runs thus: Three hundred years ago, the god of thunder, Taishakuten, rebelled against the Heavenly Emperor, killing both him and the guardian god Ashura-ō. So the latter's child, Ashura, sets out on a quest to avenge that death...

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Thursday afternoon books quiz - 5

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
Yay! That time of the week again! Here's your fix of Thursday distraction mania: 1. There's a series of manga graphic novels whose plot runs thus: Three hundred years ago, the god of thunder, Taishakuten, rebelled against the Heavenly Emperor, killing both him and the guardian god Ashura-ō. So the latter's child, Ashura, sets out on a quest...

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I got Mine

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
A few weeks ago, I had blogged about Mine , an experimental five-in-one magazine concept that promised to create a customized magazine for every subscriber. A couple of days ago, I received my first issue in my email. If you click here , you should be able to read what I'm reading. Some thoughts I had: 1. The articles aren't new, to start with...

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Friday evening honour roll - 4

Posted by Samanth Subramanian at 
The answers to the fourth of the Thursday afternoon book quizzes: 1. The Hardy Boys 2. Michael Madhusudan Dutt -- although as Ravi K. pointed out, he might be mistaken in dim light for Rabindranath Tagore as well 3. "Protagonist" 4. Jhumpa Lahiri -- the quote being, in a sense, a precis of her novel The Namesake There's only one entrant...

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