Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

The only reason why I waited to read the Harry Potter books was to let the movies fade out from the mind. The reason I chose to read them at all was because I was thoroughly disappointed with the last two editions of the Harry Potter movies. The special effects were all great of course, but when those movies ended I had this sensation that a lot of things were left untold. And the books were universally liked. So I had no choice but to start reading the books.

The first book was definitely written exclusively for children. It’s a good versus evil story where good eventually is victorious. It talks about virtues of courage, friendship, etc. etc. which would all be mixed with a story which would be meant for kids. Plus the writing is that easy style which the children will not struggle with. But I must also add that the stories aren’t as kiddish as say Enid Blyton stories and therefore can grip the interest of adults as well. But to expect any poetic imagery or literary pulchritude from Harry Potter books is just naïve. And probably snobbish.

A word about the movie… the first movie was definitely very well made. I had liked it when I had seen it, and now that I have read the book, I can say that the movie follows the book very closely and completely. And it captures the magic of Hogwarts and the Harry Potter world beautifully. You can not read the books now without the faces from the movie creeping into your imagination as you visualize what you are reading. The spells, the creatures, the objects, and Quidditch, my God that was well shown in the movie.

Well… 1 down, 6 books to go. Soon enough I guess

Risk - Dick Francis

This is the story of a righteous accountant, Roland Britten, who is also a jockey. And it is horse racing which is his first love. But being righteous, he has his share of enemies, the people whose scams he has caught as an accountant, and subsequently reported to the authorities.

It is one of them, apparently, who gets Roland kidnapped and confined in a small dark room. He escapes, and then again gets kidnapped and gets confined in another small dark room. Interim he tries to figure out who was out to get him, and his kidnappers, since they aren’t exactly professionals, do leave a trail which Roland manages to unravel. But that might just have been a very bad idea.

A large chunk of this story is about the confinement of Roland Britten. And while the narration isn’t as fear inducing as say Stephen King’s Misery or Gerald’s Game, it fits well into the genre that Dick Francis writes.

The story flows with an easy narration and witty dialogues and is entertaining. Something that you can read very quickly and feel satisfied about it. Though I must say that the accounting practices in England are very strange indeed. Or atleast they were pretty strange when the book was published. Roland Britten goes about matching a lot of numbers around and about which is not something that any accountant or an accounting firm would do. Well, whatever the case may be, it does make for an entertaining story and a very plausible premise on which the plot is built.

Mating Season - P.G. Wodehouse

After a heavy economic, cum history, cum business book, it was time for some light reading. It had to be Wodehouse.

Mating season is a book for those sentimental, romantic people who are capable of writing never ending odes about a strand of hair of their loved ones. The book will give you a lot of strength in case you ever face an ordeal in your love life, where separation from your lover seems inevitable. It will strengthen your belief that all will turn out to be fine in the end. If you have Jeeves by your side that is.

The book has a plethora of characters who are in love with this person and that person. This creates a tangle of human emotions where everyone seems to find themselves distanced from their better halves. In the center of it all is Bertie Wooster, the good Samaritan who sets to sort out things. So there is Gussie FinkNottle (what a name, even for a Wodehouse book!) who is originally in love with Madeline Bassett, the girl who has categorically stated that if things ended with Gussie she would come hopping into Wooster’s arms. And Wooster in turn, pales at this knowledge and is therefore committed to ensuring that the two are on the best of terms. That endeavor finds him at Deverill Hall where he must go because Gussie gets himself imprisoned. So that means that Wooster goes there as Gussie, which is convenient for his old chums Catsmeat and Corky, who are brother and sister. It is convenient because Corky’s ex-fiance Esmond Haddock who was given the brusheroo because he did not have the spine to stand up to his five aunts is apparently now swooning over Gertrude Winksworth who is the daughter of one of the aunts, the formidable Dame Daphne Winksworth. And Gertrude is the lodestar of Catsmeat’s heart. Eventually Gussie comes there as Wooster, because even Wooster is an expected guest, Jeeves comes there as his man, Catsmeat comes there as Gussie’s gentleman. 

Oh the mind boggles! But wait… I am not done.

Gussie, who is posing as Wooster, falls in love with Corky, and Catsmeat finds himself mistakenly engaged to the Jeeves’s Uncle’s Daughter. Oh Yeah, forgot that. Jeever’s Uncle, Charlie Silversmith is the butler at Deverill Hall. And the daughter, Queenie, is slated to marry the local police constable Dobb. And there is Aunt Agatha’s son, Wooster’s young cousin, a dog and five aunts to contemplate… Jesus… Wodehouse really outdid himself in plotting this one.

The story basically unwinds with the philosophy of from the frying pan into fire where things keep going from bad to worse and it is all upto Wooster and his aide Jeeves to sort it out.

Believe me… this book is non-stop funny.

The Corporation that Changed the World - Nick Robins

Well… I didn’t really finish this book, because I carelessly forgot it in a flight I took from Mumbai to Bangalore… but I had read around 80% of the book so am in a position to comment about the book.

The reason I bought this book is to read up into the history of East India Company and their stance with respect to India. The history books in the school dwelt on the Maratha era and then passed on to the 1857 mutiny and there on to the Independence struggle with only a cursory mention about the impact of the East India Company on the nation from a economic and a political perspective. The only thing that was communicated was the atrocities committed on the Indians under the rule of East India Company and then the British Raj. What this book offers is a proper blend of the rise of East India Company, their functioning, their political and social impact not just in India but globally, and their eventual demise.

The good thing is that the author has managed to keep out any bias while presenting the historical facts. He maintains the business book feel while discussing the operations of East India Company as he compares their functioning, the organizational structure, the capital raising mechanisms and the rampant malpractices of the Company with the modern day organization.

The book gives sufficient detail for a person like me who wants to read on the subject more out of curiosity and for high level information. The writing is entertaining and is not boring in a text book way. It does not mince words about the cruelty that the Britishers subjected the Indians to and how methodically they ruined the entire country’s economy. This is the first business book that sparked my patriotic fury. And it did well to remind me of the struggle that India as a nation has been through to be free from the clutches of the foreign power. All the post-independence rhetoric, however clichéd, strikes true. We as Indians, have struggled for long. It’s about time we did not get carried away with the rampant westernization and rose to the riches of the pre-East-India era, where while there were inter-ruler wars, the per-capita income for the common man, was much higher. It’s high time we stopped being a poor nation.