Quick Reviews: "American on Purpose" and "The Lost Symbol"

-
Of course one of my resolutions for 2010, was to blog more: so here goes. :)

I finished two books in December.

Ferguson is, in my opinion, the funniest late-night host there is today, and its not even close. I probably watch Leno more often, but no one makes you laugh as hard, and for reasons you don't even completely understand. Others need their jokes to make you laugh. Craig Ferguson can have you in splits just be being himself.

He's written a novel before that was great, and the tone he employs is similar. He talks a lot very honestly about growing up, drifting, his love life, his friends, his fascinating attempts at a string of professions, passion for life and America, and struggles with alcoholism. Its simple, funny and very honest writing.

It's also a great life, with some amazing stories. If you're a fan or even know him from TV, its definitely worth reading.

The Lost Symbol is what Robert Langdon has to deal with next.
In terms of style and plot, Dan Brown is in very familiar territory and as you'd expect, you're riveted and always want to see what happens next.

He has his customary dramatic, over-the-top plot twist at the end and I enjoyed the plot even as I anticipated the now-familiar deciphering-and-running-to-the-next-clue routine. What sets his work apart of course, are his investigations and expositions on real symbols and groups, and his conjectures/theories/stories about what they could mean.

In that respect, this is his most of ambitious novel yet. I spent a couple of hours reading about Noetic science after starting the book, and his story around the Freemasons, theory about America's forefathers (rather than his customary target: the Church) is absolutely fascinating. Strongly recommended!

What also made these unique is that I got through both these books (the first on audio, the second in epub format) on a phone. More on that next..:)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A short love letter to ~8 years on Google Search - 8 things I’m grateful for.

-
  After a few weeks off, I started a new gig within Google yesterday and it hit me that for the first time in almost eight years I won’t be working on some part of Google Search. Eight years ago, I told the team when I was interviewing that I was “looking for a place to call home for a while and grow there”. My experiences here more than met that need.  I used to write a regular “10 things about…” listy column for a while at a college newspaper. So in that style here’s 8 things (one for each year) I feel grateful to have experienced/learned in this time. Also, like that column which I banged out the night before it was due, this post is something that I don’t need to do, yet I feel somehow compelled to do (and so it’ll likely be longer and less crisp than it should be :-))    It actually is awesome to work on something so many people use and love, and that positively touches people’s lives. There’s a talk I give externally about Search and a line I often end up ...
Read more

Why don't you love Chocos, America?

-
Image
A few days ago I had the following conversation with a customs agent at San Francisco airport - as an Indian returning from India I get sent to the customs line even when I check "No food" on the customs form. :-) Agent: "Any food?" Me: "No" Agent: "Sure? No jira or cadipatta ? Me : "No....     well actually I do have a box of cereal." Agent: "Huh. What? Really?" Me: "Yes. Its a brand you don't get here." Agent: "Seriously. Even in the Indian stores? I've never heard that before." Me: "Ummm....yeah." I love reading local customization stories, particularly about how international chains tailor their offerings to local markets - the food industry has the best examples of these - check out this McDonald's story about the McPaneer , or how KFC is incredibly successful in China . But I seem to have missed that the customization extended to breakfast cereal. Turns out the ...
Read more

What might Twitter and/or Facebook have cost us if they were invented earlier (or should some things stay deliberately un-social?)

-
Image
So I was reading an ebook last week, and came across a quote that I liked. My first thought wasn't "I should write this down" , it was "I want to tweet this." My ebook reading software wasn't equipped for it, and it wasn't trivial to do so I didn't, but I expect most ebook reading software will be updated to do this in the next couple of releases and probably encourage me to as well. Why should reading be left behind? Twitter is already saving live TV . As I look back on the last week watching the Cricket World Cup , a huge part of it for me was watching my Twitter and Facebook feeds for reactions and being part of them. My parents were the only ones that actually called me during the match, but I felt connected to so many more people through FB and the Big T . Wether you're shopping, eating out, playing games, even searching ... apparently "everything gets better with social." We all have a very human, internal urge to express ours...
Read more