Books read in 2009

With great trouble and thanks to a much needed vacation, did some catching up on my reading goals. While I fell quite short, I added reviewing to my repertoire this year. Lets see what the new year brings. Here are the books I finished reading in 2009

• Think Twice by Michael Mauboussin
• How to read a novel by John Sutherland
• Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis
• Stick to drawing comics, monkey brain by Scott Adams
• The Professional by Subroto Bagchi
• Your Next Move by Michael D Watkins
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Sound of Water by Sanjay Bahadur
• Getting it right the second time by Michael Gershman
• You Cannot Be Serious by John McEnroe
• The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
• The Middleman by Sankar
• First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
• Who says Elephants can't Dance by Lou Gerstner
• Netherland by Joseph O Neill
• The Man who loved only numbers by Paul Hoffman
• Wired to Care by Dev Patnaik
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
• A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel
• There is no Elevator to the top by Umesh Ramakrishnan
• The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
• More than you know by Michael Mauboussin
• A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
• Something to Declare by Julian Barnes
• The London Marathon by John Bryant
• Strategic Intuition by William Duggan
• Buyology by Martin Lindstrom
• Something like an autobiography by Kurosawa
• Longitude by Dava Sobel
• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Happy New Year

To all the readers of my blog, may you have a healthy and a happy new year...

I changed my flat tyre in 13 mins today. I had to say that somewhere, didn't I?!

3 Idiots

Go Watch It!

Spoiler Alert (not much, but still...)

For Aamir Khan fans, there is good news... he is back with a good movie.

It is a little longer than needed, but fun for the most part.

Swanand Kirkire shows he can write lovely lyrics yet again.

Even Kareena is watchable, while Madhavan and Sharmaan are good as Aamir's flunkies.

There are loads of stereotypes and a couple of insensitive, politically incorrect moments, but the movie is an entertainer. Rajkumar Hirani retains his magic touch at the box office.

For those of you expecting a movie version of 5.1, forget it (thankfully so!).

Nice way to end my old year.

Delhi Loot

I made a visit to Delhi after ages (I did make a work related day trip in June, but that does not count, since I went from airport-conference venue-airport). Picked up two books in a sale at Om Bookshop. They will perhaps be my last purchases of 2009, unless I am overwhelmed by a secret urge ;)

Two Lives by Vikram Seth

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Your Next Move

Book Review here

The Elusive Negative Split and a splendid Sunday

When you are working thru a weekend, you need some support to maintain sanity. It is easy to bitch and rant, which I do infrequently. But there is always a silver lining.

Today was a special day in my return to running. I ran a negative split for a half marathon! I don't remember when I last ran a negative split. And then followed it up with a splendid breakfast at Cafe Mysore in Matunga with a double filter coffee.

"A", you made my day. A fellow runner and former Bangalorean "A" who I frequently encounter somewhere between Siddhi Vinayak and Peddar Road caught me on my return leg around Peddar Road and kept me company. He was cycling and actually turned back from his ride since he saw me. (God bless his soul). When we reached the signal before the Atria mall, I realized that my pace had upped to about 5:42/km and it struck me that I could go for a good finish (I usually have a sissy 2nd half, whatever the distance, although I run like mad for the last few 100 ms). I kept the pace up and thanks to A, managed to finish 21 km in 1:59. Not my best timing. But I had enough gas in my tank to go for another 6-8 km :) And the intent from the very beginning was to run a steady race. Now I know what I need - a friend on a cycle when I chase my Boston dream.

And to top this off, A picked me up from my place and we had a splendid breakfast, all due to the man. May god make more of his kind... (The fact that Swati Snacks (our earlier planned location for breakfast) was closed (it opens at 11:30 am) didn't deter us a bit, although I ended up having breakfast at 10:30 ish). TANSTAFL, but there is a free breakfast, as sure as hell...

Now, if only I could have cloned myself to go attend the Mega-Whats quiz :(

Am Listening to How Proust can change your life by Alain de Botton

Here is a quote which tells me I will like Proust if and when I read him...
"Happiness is good for the body, but it is grief that develops the power of the mind"