Sidney Seldon is no more

Sidney, the master storyteller and the king of suspense died at 89 years of age. He died of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Centre in Rancho Mirage.

I have been an ardent fan of Sheldon and have read almost all of his novels. "Tell Me Your Dreams" is his best work from my point of view. Other notable novels include "The Other Side of Midnight", "Master of the Game" etc.

"I try to write my books so the reader can't put them down," he explained in a 1982 interview. "I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of a chapter, he or she has to read just one more chapter. It's the technique of the old Saturday afternoon serial: leave the guy hanging on the edge of the cliff at the end of the chapter."

Sheldon says his writing pads and pens were his most treasured posssessions. Once when a fire broke out in the Los Angeles canyon in which they were living, police told them to evacuate. Out of the many valuables they had he took only his yellow pads and pens knowing they would be holed up in a hotel somewhere for days, and couldn't imagine not being able to write.

He says "I will not write about anyplace in the world unless I've been there to personally research it. I always spend time exploring the customs and attitudes of the countries I'm using for locations, and interviewing the people who live there. I've visited over 90 countries thus far. It's my custom to hire a driver to give me a tour of whatever city or town I am in. One night, on a lonely mountain road in Switzerland, I asked my driver where a good place might be to dump a body. I'll never forget the look on his face!"

That's Sheldon for you. A truly great writer. We will miss you Mr Sheldon. But your books will remain with us forever.

Snapshots From Hell-Peter Robinson

Finished reading “Snapshots From Hell: The Making of an MBA” by Peter Robinson which I had borrowed from a friend of mine who is an MBA aspirant. Well, in the first place I am not an MBA nor do I aspire to become one. I read this book out of sheer curiosity-wanting to know what life is like in a B-school. And I do not regret reading this book.

The book is about the author’s life as a first-year MBA student at the prestigious Stanford University. It chronicles the difficulties and challenges he faces there as a “poet” (a term referring to those who are not good in Maths). This book is a must-read for all MBA aspirants as it gives an insight into what B-school is like.

Reading this book reminds of my graduation years. I, at one point in my life, had contemplated seriously preparing myself for MBA entrance exams. I had even appeared for FMS MBA (MS) entrace test when this course was first started by FMS. But I had not prepared well for the test and had not got through the test. Looking back in retrospect I am not really disappointed that I had not passed the test becuase I do not think this is my passion. MBA is not for me. The rigours of pursuing the course and the long hours MBAs put in when they are working just does not attract me. No matter how much money they are earning. After all, money is not everything in life.

And also I would really like to read Scott Turrow’s One L, the book which is the inspiration behind this book “Snapshots From Hell.” It is about life as a first year student at the famed Harvard Law School.

Shantaram

"I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime, and a poet who lost his soul in a maximum-security prison," says Lin, in this fictionalised account of the author, Gregory David Robert's life.

The narrator, Lin, is an escaped convict from an Australian jail. He arrives in Bombay, India with a fake New Zealand passport. He immediately meets a taxi driver named Prabaker who gives him tours of the city and a hut in the local slum. Lin starts a free clinic for the people in the slum, and to provide for his own income sells drugs to tourists. This gets him the attention of the local mafia, and he's increasingly pulled into their world of crime- from counterfeiting to gun running to passport schemes. And as a gunrunner he resupplied a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan.

The story of "Shantaram" is the story of Roberts's own life. He really did break out of a maximum-security prison in Australia, travel the world, become fluent in several Indian dialects, get captured and returned to jail, only to be victimized by sadistic prison guards who twice destroyed the first 300 pages of his manuscript.

I like this novel because of the originality in Robert's writing and some of his philisophies he propound in his book.

The rights of the film has been sold to Johny Depp and he is set to star in the film which will be released in 2008.

The Innocent Man-John Grisham

John Grisham's first work of non fiction "The Innocent Man" is slated for release on 10th October 2006. Really looking forward to reading the book.

Here is a www.play.com review of the novel

When John Grisham read the obituary of Ronald Williamson in the papers early last year, he realized he had come across a story even more riveting than those he had turned into 18 global bestsellers, which have sold 200 million copies around the world. It was a story of failed dreams, madness, rape and murder, a botched trial, a death sentence and a twelve-year fight to win justice for a wronged man. Ronald Williamson was a local hero when a young man in his home town of Ada, Oklahoma. A fabulously talented baseball player, he excelled at college and was set to become a national sports star when injury wrecked his career. Mental illness and alcoholism followed his return to Ada, a burned-out shell of a man. While in prison serving a short sentence for a petty felony, a fellow prisoner alleged that he had heard Williamson confess to the unsolved rape and murder of a local bar girl. Denied drugs to control his psychiatric problems, given a blind attorney who had never defended a criminal case, Williamson stood no chance in court and was sentenced to death.One of the greatest mistrials in American judicial history became one of the greatest single fights for justice of any convicted man. 5 days before his execution, Williamson was given a stay and shortly after completely pardoned. John Grisham has been consumed by the Williamson story, researching every detail of the nerve jangling drama of Williamson's trial and deathwatch. A court room drama and a race against time, John Grisham's first work of non-fiction is as compelling as any of his novels, and will be compared to Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood."

What Should I Do With My Life-Po Bronson

This book by Po Bronson is a must read for everyone who is confused about their careers and those who are stuck in the rut. Bronson travels around the country and meets numerous people. He chronicles their life story and how they have dealt with this question in this book. These are ordinary people who have the courage to make life-changing decisions, who have found their true calling and pursued it relentlessly. This book highly motivating and makes for a good reading. Here a few excerpts from the book which I really like.

• A calling is not something you know, it's something you grow into, through trials and and mistakes. Work shouldn't just be fun. Work should be like life, sometimes fun, sometimes moving, and defined by meaningful events. Attack your fears, rather than shy away from them. Bring what you do in alignment with who you are.
  
• Nothing seemed more brave to me than facing up to one's own identity and filtering out the chatter that tells us to be someone we're not.
  
• Individual success will not be attained by migrating to a particular "hot" industry, or by adopting a particular career-guiding mantra...instead, the individuals that will thrive will do so because they focused on the question of who they really are, and from that found work they truly love, and in doing so unleashed a productive and creative power they never imagined.
  
• So why is it truly okay to to search for a church that's right for you, but not a profession that's right for you? Why, when it comes to work, are we supposed to simply accept that this is just the way it is.
  

John Grisham-The Innocent Man

The new book by John Grisham, a true story of an innocent man convicted of a crime he did not commit that I had written about in my previous post has been titled "The Innocent Man". Eagerly looking forward to reading it.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

It's been a long time since I have last updated my blog. At the start I had planned to update it regularly but things do not go as planned. And I have also stopped filling the pages of my diary where I had planed to write about at least one thing everyday. Anyway planning is one thing and following through that plan is another thing.

These days I am reading Robin Sharma's "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". It is an account of a highly suceessful but highly stresed lawyer who had everything going his way as far as his career is concerned but eventually broke down in Court one day. It is his quest for happiness and personal meaning to his life, his journey to India in pursuit of these. Robin has blended the ancient wisdom of the sages with the wisdom contained in modern inspirational books into his novel. It is a must read for all those who want to improve the quality of their lives. The book contains many thought-provoking theories which are aptly backed up by examples.

I have not yet finished reading the book but I would rate this among the best books available today in its genre. You can have access to his blogs and many other things at www.robinsharma.com

One Night at The Call Centre

I had just finished reading ON@TCC.

To begin with, I find Indian authors boring. Even though I had read numerous foreign authors I could not finish reading even a single Indian novel till the very end. It is with this mindset that I started reading ON@TCC as I was too bored and too lazy to do any other thing.

ON@TCC is a magnificiently well written book. There are not many writers (or none in my opinion) at the Indian writing scene at present who is on the same pedestal as Chetan for the sheer quality of his work and his focus on issues and problems which the present generation faces and relates to.

The book is about six people working in a call centre-their hopes, dreams and problems set in a single night. The book touches upon every issue which is faced by the youth of today-from broken relationships to career frustrations to confused moral, the book has it all. Chetan's genius is in setting the story in one night yet in being able to bring out all these issues clearly.

All in all, a joy to read.

After reading this novel I headed straight for the book store to buy his other novel, Five Point Someone, the national bestseller that is being made into a movie.