Persiflage 2014

Thanks to my killer teammates D, master Menon and Raju, my team came a happy 2nd to the team led by the legendary Arul Mani at KQA's annual books quiz "Persiflage" on Sun. My team with D has featured in the Persiflage finals quite often and this is perhaps my favourite KQA quiz, combining as it does, 2 of my loves - reading and quizzing. Joining forces with master Menon and Raju made it even better, as I had to struggle to make my presence count, frequently wondering how my teammates knew what they did.

The resulting voucher from Blossoms yielded

One Summer by Bill Bryson (loaded with anecdotes from a phenomenal year in US history)
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

The Bryson book is a hardbound edition, which makes it tremendously lovely to read. Back to reading now :)

Book buying, some reading and quizzing

I've claimed in the past that I no longer buy books unless I've book coupons or credit card points or the like. While that has been true for most of the purchases in the last year or more there has been some leakage from time to time, as happened today. While most of the funds did indeed originate as credit card points I did spend some very hard earned money as well. And yet again, none of the first 3 books below, which I bought from Landmark were pre-planned.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Give and Take by Adam Grant
Small Wars Faraway Places by Michael Burleigh

I've also acquired Faster than Lightning by Usain Bolt by virtue of a gift from a dear friend, thanks to running. Quick summary on the book is that Usain is predictably an uncomplicated, mostly likeable person but he does have a bit of a mean streak.

Electrified Sheep by Alex Boese &

Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese

were both bought as ebooks, in a prize-induced high after a quiz at the Bangalore Lit Fest. I have no idea how I selected them or what caused me to choose them, beyond the fact that I didn't need to step out of my house or find storage space for new buys. I do have a vague memory of making a note of Electrified Sheep from some review I read a while ago but can't find it now.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan &

If it's Monday, it must be Madurai by Srinath Perur

were both thought out purchases and the latter has already proved to be a delightful read.

Thanks to a Twitter quiz, I won Symmetry by Marcus du Sautoy from Kindle Magazine.

Also bought Shikhandi and other tales they don't tell you by Devdutt Pattanaik on an earlier visit to Landmark.

Now to read some of the above and generate fresh funds for more books :)