Under Pressure

MEME-TAGGED BY MANASI.

The title's got nothing to do with the song of the same name by Queen. The appropriate people will understand appropriately what I appropriately meant and convey their approbations later for it.

So here goes...

Disclaimer: Throughout this "meme"ing, I assume that books such as "Introduction to Electrodynamics" and its ilk don't count... I also assume that the below information can be totally untrue and be products of my fertile imaganation, atleast in parts...


TOTAL NUMBER OF BOOKS I OWN:

Pitiful. It all comes with packing up and moving to seven different places by your eighth standard. So, everytime you pack, you're obliged to sacrifice some to the old-paper dude.(Of course, it's economically pretty satisfying...) So, now that the reason's been given... last time I counted... 216!!!


LAST BOOK I BOUGHT:

Umm... lemme see...umm...ho... Aah... OH GAWD!!!!! I can't remember the last time I BOUGHT a bloody book. Rummaging through my extensive inventory... NOPE, none of them were BOUGHT, not in the recent past... Ok, make it Last Book I GOT... after similiar number of Aahhs and Umms... Sons of Fortune by Archer, I guess.


LAST BOOK I READ:

The Negotiator- Frederick Forsyth. For the second time, actually. And that too for getting some necessary background on a project of mine. Currently going through The Greek Myths... searching for a name for my alter-ego, now that Anniyan's been taken!!!!


FIVE BOOKS THAT MEAN A LOT TO ME:

Five??? You sure you want five??? I don't even remember the plot of five books that I read, ANY five... so I just have to make do with the five books that spring to my mind.....In Descending order, as in 5-4-3...

Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde... What a perfect storyline, very beautiful explanations for the unexplainable. And the stuff about man being not one... but two... and very possibly many more, As a 12-year old, it left me very impressed.

Gladiator!!! Oops...movie ;)

Airport- Aurthur Hailey. Again, a story which defines the word "build-up". When you're building up towards something big, you tend to sag somewhere in between, lose the plot or do some such silly thing. No such problems in this one. All coherently and seamlessly stitched up to the finale.

Mahabaratha. HAS to be. Have read "n" number of versions, including comic book ones. Yudishtra's Question-Answer section with the Yaksha by the lake and Abhimanyu's piercing through the Chakravyuh... moments to remember...

Mater of the Game- Sidney Sheldon. This was when i'd just graduated form Alistair Maclean and Perry Mason. So, this was my first "big-league" book, and though there may have been countless others same as or better than this, it remains etched in memory.

FIVE POINT SOMEONE- OK, I can't stop talking about this book so DON'T get me started off. Oh god, what a book!!! I mean, you've got to go through it to appreciate the feelings in the book. The pain, the fear, the hopelessness, the everything......... If I were to write an autobiography, my college section will just replicate this book.


MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE CHARACTERS:

Mr.Hyde- "for Hyde alone was pure evil."

Portia of Merchant of Venice... good legal loophole discovered.(even if it was ACTUALLY done by Shakespeare)

All those heroes in the Maclean novels. Silent, brooding, bloody brilliant.

There was this Russian agent in The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum. Don't remember his name... he sets himself on fire and runs through the villains' stronghold so that this American agent fellow can escape...with his girl! Such Chivalry!


A BOOK THAT DIDN'T MEAN SQUAT TO ME:

Most of them don't... They're all for entertainment aren't they? So what is this about books "meaning" stuff. Of course, there is this book that holds the dubious distinction of being the ONLY one which I started but couldn't bring myself to finish. The Bourne Legacy... A BLOODY poor continuation of the outstanding Bourne trilogy. GAWD! That book pained me.


So......THAT took a lot of time! Whew, I'm NOT blogging for a while now.