Neeraj Chavan

This book is a beautiful magical experience! A web of stories within a main story; it grips you in right from the first paragraph. Magical realism at its finest!

The story is about a boy who stumbles upon a book which happens to be the only copy of that book and then gets pulled into its writer's life, who has now mysteriously disappeared and all his books are being burned out of existence by someone. Amidst the gothic architecture of Barcelona, the tale unfurls slowly and blooms into a majestic tree, where the characters branch out into enchanting stories of their own.

Reading Zafon reminded me somewhat of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. I absolutely loved the writing and how everything is eventually tied together in the end.

Probably one of the best mystery novels I have read! Would love to explore the other books in this series.

This one's very inspiring! Marie Curie is one iconic personality who'll always be remembered for paving the way for women in science. Her curiosity and love for knowledge and science, is empowering to all women out there. A feminist in the most unabashed sense, her life will continue to motivate everyone in the world of science and technology.

I enjoyed reading about her life and all the women whom she taught; who later on contributed generously to the furthering of science and humanity.

Surely worth reading!

“I have so much in me, and the feeling for her absorbs it all; I have so much, and without her it all comes to nothing.”

“I am proud of my heart alone, it is the sole source of everything, all our strength, happiness and misery. All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own”

“The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever.”

I bow down in tears, to the sheer literary genius of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe! This is one of the most emotionally powerful books I've ever read. It's melancholic, harrowing and passionately dangerous. It almost broke me down to tears. A tale of young Werther who experiences the tragedy of unrequited love and eventually succumbs to the darkness within his soul. It's beautifully written! Hermann Hesse has always been my favourite author and he has stated it many times in his books about how Goethe inspired him. And indeed it seems so. The arduous desire and passion of youth and young Werther's unparalleled feeling of love and affection towards Lotte! I could totally see myself in Werther's place, except for the miserable end. The fact that the book was published in 1774 and still resonates with us, is enough to justify the timeless brilliance and genius of Goethe. This is probably the best book I've read this year. It's tragically sad yet wonderful!

This is the perfect tale for how excessive pride and ego bring about the downfall of an individual.
To start with, Wilde weaves this story about a haughty and proud rocket, who goes about boasting of his worth. But life has other plans in store for him. About how his vanity & narcissism reach a point where he can't even realize that he's already in a ditch and there's no coming out of it. I just love how Wilde can teach you so much in so little words. His wit is just unbeatable!
Surely a must-read!

“Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched.”

“Be happy, cried the Nightingale, be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart's-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty. Flame-coloured are his wings, and coloured like flame is his body. His lips are sweet as honey, and his breath is like frankincense.”

No one beats Oscar Wilde when it comes to romanticism and drama, with wit and cynicism!
This is one of those stories that show us the dark side of love and romance. About how materialistic love trumps over romantic love. About how reality is bitter than illusion. It explores the ideas of true love & sacrifice in a rather cynically heartfelt way. And the tale is so beautifully written that it's bound to move you!

Surely worth reading!

Colorful auras, balloon life strings, long-timers, short-timers and the deliriums of insomnia. It's one of those usual Stephen King horror flicks and by far the longest one that I've read (nearly took me a month). It's too long and at times you feel like the plot isn't going anywhere. But that's the thing about King. He takes it really slow and then surprises the readers when it matters the most. The story line seems a bit dull but King manages to pull it off in style with his rich imagery and brilliant narration style. The characters are developed pretty well. King here, breaks the stereotype of young and dashing protagonists by portraying Ralph Roberts as an old guy in his 60's and yet manages to charm the readers. I especially enjoyed the chemistry between Ralph and Louis. What I didn't like about this book is that it's too long and sometimes you feel like giving up on it. Also, I was disappointed by the antagonist ‘King Crimson'. He didn't live up to his hype and could have been better. Overall it's a good tale if you've some time to spend. It's not an easy read and patience is the only key here. I'm looking forward to reading the Dark Tower series after this!

This is Stephen King at his best. An enticing horror flick about this peculiar town called Desperation. Mind blowing narration and amazing storyline. Brilliant characters combined with a sinister plot. This is the first Stephen King book that I read and boy it's hit the bull's eye! A must read for horror fiction fans. King seems like H.P Lovecraft's prodigal protege! Absolute masterpiece!

“But how is one to live, if one give everything away?”

“Each one of us has to save his own soul, and has to do God's work himself, but instead of that we busy ourselves saving other people and teaching them. And what do we teach them? We teach them now, at the end of the nineteenth century, that God created the world in six days, then caused a flood, and put all the animals in an ark, and all the rest of the horrors and nonsense of the Old Testament. And then that Christ ordered everyone to be baptized with water; and we make them believe in all the absurdity and meanness of an Atonement essential to salvation; and then that he rose up into the heavens which do not really exist, and there sat down at the right hand of the Father. We have got used to all this, but really it is dreadful! A child, fresh and ready to receive all that is good and true, asks us what the world is, and what its laws are; and we, instead of revealing to him the teaching of love and truth that has been given to us, carefully ram into his head all sorts of horrible absurdities and meannesses, ascribing them all to God.”

“We can't do without faith. Not, however, faith in what other people tell us, but faith in what we arrive at ourselves, by our own thought, our own reason ... faith in God, and in true and everlasting life.”

I happened to discover this play in my vast e-library of Tolstoy. To begin with, it's a tale of a guy called Nicholas Ivánovich who has read the gospels and has his own interpretations of it. About how he tries to follow his interpretations and behave accordingly, sacrificing his entire private property and living for the poor. And how it ruins his family and the people who love him. The play seems like an an allegorical take on religion, communism, capitalism, Christianity and even spirituality. The most interesting thing about this book is that it can be interpreted in so many ways! Like some people might end up sympathizing with Nicholas while some may detest him for his spiritual pride and balderdash. It's very beautifully written play which unfortunately Tolstoy couldn't finish off. I so want the Tolstoy to come back from the dead just to finish this off!

Overall, it's a wonderful book and a must-read for Tolstoy fans!

“Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism.”

This is one heavily profound philosophical book. It starts off with Sartre dissecting the idea of what actually does existential philosophy is about. He wonderfully explains the nature of human behaviour from an existential point of view, exploring ideas like despair, anguish, freedom and God. Sartre's style of writing is simple but a bit tangential at times. Overall the book is a great read if you're interested into philosophy and existentialism.

Never have I read such a cynically biting satire on the idea of friendship, Friendship that is toxic and selfish in nature. Only Wilde has that wit to write in such style.
To start with, the story revolves around a poor gardener, Hans and his miserably selfish miller friend.
About how he just strips off everything from the gardener and manipulates him under the guise & promise of friendship and eventually ruins his life, without the poor gardener realizing it. It's a harrowing tale which shows us the other side of the coin. About how the idea of a friend is not the same in everyone's mind.
Wilde is not known to end his tales in an unhappy state but this one is an exception. I'm still annoyed by the character of the miller. The tale manages to take a subtle hit on various issues like capitalism and its evils.
Another brilliant tale by Wilde. Surely worth reading!

Another one of those horrifying short tales by Lovecraft. It's about how a hideously primordial and ancient mummy is discovered from deep depths of the earth and along with it is a cylindrical cased hieroglyph is also discovered. The story revolves around the strange and terrifying events that occur after the mummy is put on display in the museum. Occultists and supernatural enthusiasts from around the globe think that it's the mummy of mythical T'yog, who faced the Ghatanothoa, who was one of the gods of Yuggoth. What follows is one plot of vague events and deaths, which are accounted by the narrator in a rather spooky manner. Its writing style is typical Lovecraft. Hauntingly weird and esoteric. Quite a quick read though. Enjoyed it!

I picked this one after hearing about it on a Financial Times podcast. Being a data science professional, it piqued my interest and I wanted to read it.

It's a very interesting book about the impact of Bayes theorem in our lives and its presence in our world. Through this book, Chivers has tried to shed light on its omnipresence in our day to day lives and how we are unintentionally acting as a Bayesian system when making decisions in our lives. Right from the smallest of small decisions to big life decisions.

It's very informative and for someone who's never heard of Bayes or probabilities and their role in our life, this book is a go-to book that I'd recommend. Some of the terminology would be a bit difficult to grasp for people who're unfamiliar with statistical terms like precision, specificity etc. But overall, the writer has done a good job at explaining every concept or idea in a simple and straightforward manner.

Personally, I loved the chapters titled Bayesian Science and The Bayesian Brain. Some very fascinating ideas were discussed in those chapters about how our prior beliefs shape how we view the world and our actions and decisions. And how Bayes theorem is at the heart of these decisions that we make. What the book did for me was make me further curious about reasoning and consciousness and the science of rational thinking. I have added a couple of books and authors who I'd like to read up on.

The only thing that I didn't like about this book was that I felt it was repetitive and trying to show how Bayes theorem is playing a significant role in almost every chapter. But I guess that was the whole point of this book. Additionally, I feel the chapter dedicated to the war between frequentists and bayesians could have been kept short.

I'd surely recommend this to every data professional as well as anyone who wants to understand how probabilities play a vital role in shaping our world and our understanding of it.

“There is no perfection only life.”

“There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself? That is why life is always like a sketch. No, “sketch” is not quite a word, because a sketch is an outline of something, the groundwork for a picture, whereas the sketch that is our life is a sketch for nothing, an outline with no picture.”


“Loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they, too, fade away.”


“And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?”


“Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short. Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.”

This is one of those books which I find difficult to review as while reading this book I experienced a mix of emotions stirring within me.
This was the first time that I was reading Milan Kundera and I had heard of him as someone who's deeply influenced by Franz Kafka. That piqued my interest and I decided to give this book a shot. To begin with, Milan has a very weird and unique style of writing. I found it gripping and fast-paced but at the same time banal and pretentious.
Yes, there are some beautiful metaphors and aphorisms here and there, but overall I didn't quite like his indulgence in philosophical ramblings about lightness and heaviness. It seemed at times like he's overdoing it and I had to bear through some trite paragraphs.

One of the things which I detested the most about this book is the author's portrayal of women and the language that he has used throughout his book. The blatant objectification of women and the way he has described the women characters in this book is utterly disappointing and at times, miserably disgusting. This bothered me the most while reading the book.

Narration and storytelling wise, I would say the book doesn't do that great. Throughout the book, we see his characters struggling between the extremities of “heaviness” and “lightness” of being.
Thomas with his selfish promiscuous adventures and infidelities. Franz with his need to seek validation from the imaginary Sabina in his head. Tereza with her insecurities and jealousy. Sabina with his need to be free from everything and all attachments. The characters are suffering and having their own struggles swinging from one end to another. But at the same time, the characters do nothing in their power to change their situation and their moral ambiguity adds to their woes. As a reader, it makes the book unbearably tedious to read.

The theme of the book is too depressing and melancholic and the last chapter hits the final nail in the coffin. But I guess that's how most existential books are.
I found this book tolerable. Well, it does have some bits and pieces where it excels in terms of prose and its aphorisms but overall, I guess I could have skimmed through it and that'd have been a better choice. If you enjoy reading bleak existential philosophy, you perhaps might enjoy this book. However, there are much better existential fiction books out there. Personally, I found the Unbearable Lightness of Being, an unbearably dreary read!

This is one of those books which make you fear those hideous bloodsucking creatures called ‘Vampires' rather than loving them. The Vampires in this book have got balls to scare the shit out of you, unlike those other vampires in modern fiction or television. Beautifully written by King. The story and plot are immensely gripping. The character development is amazing. They blend in with the Lot quite perfectly. I've always enjoyed the way Stephen King describes the death of his characters in his novels. The imagery is so enticing that you actually feel empathetic towards them, like you're the member of the town itself and witnessing this horrific saga unfold before your eyes! I felt bad for the plot twist regarding Susan and Ben. It was literally heart wrenching! Overall, the novel is undoubtedly among the best works of King. I had read Lovecraft and Poe but haven't started reading King until this year. And I must say, he's on par with those horror fiction legends! Stephen King is slowly rising the ranks of the list of authors I love! I've left craving for more of his works, just like those blood hungry creatures in this book!

Lennie begged, “Le's do it now. Le's get to that place now.”
“Sure right now. I gotta. We gotta”

And what follows next literally blows up your mind! This is one of the most emotionally charged tragedies I've ever read. Steinbeck knows where to hit the readers and hammers it right where it hurts. It's a tale about an unusual bond of friendship and affection between two poor country folks, Lennie and George who have dreams and ambitions to fulfill. They're just like two brothers. Lennie is a dimwit but a ‘nice fella' and is looked after by George, who tells him that soon they'll raise a stake, have a paradise of their own and then they won't have to work for miserable bosses who keep giving them orders. The storyline is rich and intense. John makes you feel the anguish and the emotions of his characters like it's your own. Your heart is filled with empathy for them. The naivety and child-like innocence of Lennie. The brotherly love George has for him. You are bound to fall in love with them and their brilliant companionship. And when you finish the book, you just sit there with a lump in your throat. A classic masterpiece that just shouldn't be missed!

“Then he saw what he was looking for. Below, in one of the little clearings in the brush lay the red pony. In the distance, Jody could see the legs moving slowly and convulsively. And in a circle around him stood the buzzards, waiting for the moment of death they knew so well.”“He saw a hawk flying so high that it caught the sun on its breast and shone like a spark. Two blackbirds were driving him down the sky, glittering as they attacked their enemy. In the west, the clouds were moving in to rain again.”Oh, how I love John Steinbeck. Even though Steinbeck's novels are all raw and bleak, they somehow amuse me every time. And at the end of every Steinbeck book, I'm always left fighting that lump in my throat!The Red Pony is no different. It stars with the story of a young boy named Jody who receives a red pony, Gabilan from his father Carl, as a gift. He loves his pony ardently, taking care of him with the help of rancher Billy Buck. The story moves on with Steinbeck's powerfully descriptive, simple and sparsely wonderful style of writing. As usual, Steinbeck manages to stir up your emotions and totally drags you inside his novel; inside the world of Jody Tiflin and his house near the might and beautiful Gabilan Mountains. Overall, it's a great book and set in the backdrop of Trifin Ranch and is sort of like a fictional sneak peek into John Steinbeck's childhood.I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would rate it a complete 5/5!

“It's much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought. The emotions of a man are stirred more quickly than man's intelligence.”

“A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.”

“To call an artist morbid because he deals with morbidity as his subject-matter is as silly as if one called Shakespeare mad because he wrote King Lear”

“At present, machinery competes against man. Under proper conditions machinery will serve man. On mechanical slavery, the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.”

Where was this book all this time! I happened to stumble across this rather precious gem in my vast e-library of Wilde's works. Wilde isn't known to write political books but this one is different.
Wilde explores the idea of how and ideal government should be like. As usual, the book is filled with romantic ideas and thoughts on art, humanity, individualism, slavery. The witty aphorisms and the classic cynicism of Wilde, make it a delightful read. Wilde's every book has that ability to change your perception about things and this one's no exception. The book is timeless and way ahead of its time as it also discusses the possibility of machines replacing humans for degrading jobs. And we're currently living in times of artificial intelligence! To sum up this book in a single sentence, if Hitler or Stalin would have been influenced by this book, maybe, just maybe, the world would have been a better place! This is the book everyone needs to read! This book is indeed Wilde's underrated masterpiece! A must-read!

“You tell me of marvellous things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no mystery so great as misery. Fly over my city, little Swallow, and tell me what you see there.”

“I am going to the house of Death. Death is the brother of sleep, is he not?” And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet.

So they pulled down the statue of Happy Prince. “As he is no longer beautiful, he is no longer useful.”

I might have stated this many times before, but Wilde is surely a genius. The short story begins when a Swallow lands on a prosperous statue of the Happy Prince, who's studded with jewels and pearls and looms over the his city. He asks the Swallow to fly over his city and tell him what's happening.
The story then moves forward with the Swallow discovering the misery and poverty of the poor people living in the city. And the Happy Prince saddened by all this, little by litle, sacrifices away everything to make his city happy.

It explored various ideas like happiness, beauty and misery. The beauty of this book lies in the fact that the tale is so simple and yet so profound! Classic Wilde!
A must read indeed!