Hood

A long time ago, I started the book but left it midway. I guess I was not "fit" for the brutality.

Psych IS a real science, but in many cases it is not good at replicating some erstwhile important results. I used to see chemists as ordinary scientists. But after watching The Periodic Videos Channel, I've got a paradigm shift. Now they are more like detonation experts in white suits and crazy hairstyles.

From my guy William of Baskerville: 1. "Scratch the heresy and you'll find the leper. Every battle against heresy wants only this: to keep the leper as it is." 2. "Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them." And this one is from the movie that was made. It ought to be in the book, but I guess, I ignored it (or underlined it) and moved on: "The only evidence of the Antichrist here is everyone's desire to see him at work"

Has anyone seen Kakegurui ? The story is okay-ish. Not bad.

Oh! one more thing. This book has the weirdest sex scene, that I've read EVER. We don't know what the lady says, but the man praises her in Latin ("Pulchra sunt ubera quae paulum supereminent et tument modice"), and the comparisons are really...unique. Like: "Thy hair is as a flock of goats that lie along the side of Mount Gilead, thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, they neck is like a tower of David whereon there hang a thousand bucklers"

@Ammanas Yes indeed. The author himself acknowledges that. His defence is basically that the novel is set in an abbey, and like an initiate entering the abbey, I want to reader to have the same difficulty. It is a way of filtering the readers I suppose. Anyway, the first 200 pages are really really boring. He describes the architecture of the abbey in excruciating detail. One of the most notorious incident is when he describes a particular door in several pages. Several pages. For one door. The library is the king here. One whole chapter is used to describe it, tho it is not as painful as the door case. Another thing which makes it difficult is the knowledge of that era. A common person does not know much about medieval kingdoms, much less particular theologians (like Micheal of Cesana, Ubertino etc.). It was more difficult for me, because, I'm not a christian, so I really didn't know much about the Papacy and its conflicts with the Holy Roman Empire. But, as I say, the difficulty is only in the beginning. After the library chapter, the pace gets quicker, and we get interesting plots.

After a lot of reading, re-reading, I can say, I finally finished The Name of The Rose. Properly. This time I had some idea what the book is about (except the story, which is obvious). Those Latin passages and lines add some depth and meaning. Overall, I'll say it is a difficult but rewarding book. One of my favourites. Now, I'm reading two at a time. Non-fiction -> "Beyond Good and Evil" by Nietzsche Fiction -> Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen I'll read fantasy only when Oathbringer comes out.

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

@Darkness Ascendant I like Clint Eastwood more. This song is good too, btw.

Elaida is indeed horrible. But I'm 50-50 about Denna. One has to see that we are getting the story from Kvothe's point of view. When seen from Denna's PoV, her actions seem reasonable enough (at least to me). Actually, I don't like the Maer enough. He's pretty low on my list.

Ah! Yes indeed.

Lewis (the sequel to Inspector Morse). The original series was much better. I've seen just too many detective series (and read a decent number of novels too) now. My biggest pet peeve is: Why are the detectives deliberately made single ?

I started practising detachment with imaginary characters after reading this book. The shock it gave me was too much ! Btw, the interludes are the best parts of the book. This is one of the books where the audiobook narration is to be preferred. Do consider it. It is on a Michael Kramer level (perhaps even higher).

1. Steven Erikson - 11 whole books. If you like epic fantasy with page long paragraphs describing how civilisation itself is the cause of its fall (or at least that's the message that I got, esp. from the Jaghuts), then he is for you. Also, please excuse him for his poetry. 2. Brandon Sanderson - 10 books. Magic, and the structure of his books. These are the primary reasons he is one of my favourite authors. 3. Robert Jordan - 6 books. Sometimes Mat and Lanfear (Lanfear most of the time) were the only reason I read him. This list is strange in the sense that I started my journey with GRRM, but couldn't complete his first book.

The deaths in The Lies of Locke Lamora, are epic, given the amount of theatricality. The 'teeth lessons' were gruesome, but it is the normal-ish deaths that hurt the reader the most. This one that hurts the most. and when they killed this one, I understood that Camorr was really brutal. This is too much even for Locke's standards as you see in book 3.

There are many reasons for veneration of cows. Firstly, they're very useful for the pastoral society. Cows give milk which is given great value in the scriptures, I think it is called Satvic too. Apart from food, cow dung was used as a fuel (have seen it myself when I was a small kid). Ghee, is used in food as well as in religious practices like yajna (fire worship). The animal is big but very gentle. Because of all this, it was an ideal pet (or smth like that, I mean like horses are pets or so) for saints in ancient times (there are some in mythology too). So, yeah, cows are held in pretty high regard. Highest of all animals perhaps, if you see the present situations (only an Indian can understand this reference). The end goal of Hinduism, as far as I know, is to be free from the constant cycle of birth-death-repeat (endless loop type of), or you can say reincarnation cycle. You can read Geeta (Bhagwat Geeta) to know it in more detail. It is a nice short book, and has many stories too.

A very popular man (like really really popular, he is the head of an organisation which has more than 50 million followers, or twice the population of Australia) has been convicted on a sexual assault case. Problem is, his followers, esp. those 200,000 , who had arrived before him, do not believe that their leader is wrong. And so, they have begun violence. Around 25 people have died, and near to 150 have been injured. Why am I concerned ? Because, 1. I live near the city where this is happening. 2. My town has a large number of people who are his followers. Some trouble was reported on the outskirts. 3. Schools have been shut down because of the said event. 4. Curfew has been imposed in the city (another one) near our town. 5. Mobile internet has been shut off for 3 days.

About snake sacrifice. It is not any usual sacrifice thing. I mean, Hindus just don't sacrifice snakes. They just have a bad reputation. In Mahabharata, there is a reason for the sacrifice. The sacrifice was performed by a king Janamjeya in revenge for a snake killing his father Parikshit. No, the people in the Mahabharata don't go around sacrificing animals like that. The death of Parikshit was a catastrophe. With his death Kal Yug, an age/era which all feared (it is kind of a dystopia) (rightly so), had arrived to his kingdom. Parikshit was one of the reasons it arrived later to the kingdom.

Wow, we have a totally opposite view regarding the two. Here, snakes (except one, I think) are not shown in good light. In Mahabharata, there is even a sacrifice of snakes. Regarding the owl, calling someone owl is akin to calling him stupid. Panchtantra has a story about their supposed stupidity (to their own detriment ofc).

My favourite poem is 'On His Blindness' by John Milton. It is not the title that Milton gave to the poem, it was a publisher of his poems. This is probably the only poem that I remember by heart. The last line "They also serve who only stand and wait" is golden. When I consider how my light is spent,Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,And that one Talent which is death to hideLodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bentTo serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest he returning chide;"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"I fondly ask. But patience, to preventThat murmur, soon replies, "God doth not needEither man's work or his own gifts; who bestBear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His stateIs Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speedAnd post o'er Land and Ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait." The YouTube channel 'spokenverse' reads it in a brilliant manner.

PG Wodehouse's Jeeves series. The BBC adaptation is very good too. Then, Mort by Terry Pratchett. Equal Rites is fine as well. And finally, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome.

Yes yes I am from India. Punjab (state in North India) to be specific.

There is a very old quote from Bhagwat Geeta which in my opinion is the most popular quote in India. It goes like this: "Karm karo. Phal ki chinta mat rakho". Roughly translated (as translations go): "Do your own duty. Don't get anxious about the result". My other favourite is from Jean Jacques Rousseau. It is "Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves." I find it true in most situations. Finally, no quote spree is complete without a gem of wisdom from The Lies of Locke Lamora (gods, I LOVE THIS BOOK). It is from the prologue, where the narrator says "An old Camorri proverb has it that the only constant in the soul of man is inconstancy; anything and everything else can pass out as fashion - even something as utilitarian as a hill stuffed full of corpses"

@Draginon I find the 'MURICA attitude quite funny. There's even a popular sub-reddit regarding it. We have similar themes in our country too. But they are more on religion lines. I find it extremely irritating. Plus, it is very divisive and can be dangerous in multi-religious and multi-cultural populations.

The following are the popular books that I do not like: 1. Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie - To me, it looked as if the author took every good character, flipped them to show their bad side. I didn't like it. Nor has the passage of time changed my opinion. 2. Night of Knives - I slogged my way through this book. Even though it is short, still it was painful to read. Things might change after a re-read though. 3. Literally every self-help book ever made (except the ones for students by Cal Newport, those are good). And this includes pop-psychology books. They usually have a basic idea which is no more than a couple of paragraphs long, and they stretch it like a rubber band. Three quarters of these books are filled with fillers like some X person's experience, and how this 'revolutionary' idea changed them. 4. The Fires of Heaven - I cannot handle more "Men have low intelligence.", 'braid tugging', 'different ways in which...something sways', and 'men are just so dumb, I want to box his ears'...and so on. Yes, I like some female characters e.g. Lanfear (my fav. to be honest), Min, Elayne. And some men are indeed idiots. But there is a limit to all this complaining and braid-tugging. Just give me more of Lanfear and Mat. These are the popular shows that I do not like: 1. Friends - Its episodes range from mild amusement to complete nonsense. I just cannot handle Phoebe. Rachel is my limit. Ross is irritating. I just cannot imagine how someone says their favourite character is Joey. He is just so lascivious and is very non-serious about his life (a fact explained by his debts to Chandler). Also, real friends are definitely not like that. My main problem with these shows is that in order to provide humour, they sacrifice the intelligence of their characters just too much. 2. How I Met Your Mother - It has the same problems that Friends has, the only difference being that it is a much dumber version of the above. 3. Superhero shows esp. Flash and Archer. They started with great premise, and then get bogged down so much. I have a particular problem with Flash. You are basically explaining magic with sci-fi terms. But at least do some research and come up with some mechanism. They just bring new scientific terms (getting longer with each new enemy) to explain something otherworldly.