Foundation series is taking most of my time. I read Second Foundation yesterday and have started Forward the Foundation and Foundation's Edge simultaneously.

I know I should have read FTF just after Prelude but couldn't get the book earlier. Apart from these book I have also started reading Jeeves Omnibus 4 by Wodehouse. I have to resume reading Catch - 22 and I have three books lying on my bed, that I plan to read in near future The Design of Unix Operating System, Discovery of India and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. TMWSHF did not receive good reviews from Mayank and it is not a story-book. But I like the title and will try to read the book anyways.

Won't spend much time writing this blog, I got a lot of reading to do. :-)

Gone off his rocker

I think we should have some kind of sanity test for all these guys. There are so many fools who would simply follow whatever this guy said. Read the foolish statements here.

I finished reading The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur yesterday night. The book is a good timepass read. I am not sure if it will a huge success with Americans or people who have not relation with America. It is an interesting story of a Indian student in US. Anurag Mathur has a good comic style of writing. At times I couldn't help but compare Gopal's (the protagonist) thought process with that of one of most famous goof Bertram Wooster.

Thanks Gaind, for recommend this book.

Time person of the year

I got this link from The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Steve Jobs has missed TIME person of the year award once earlier.

Looks like because of Harry Potter fans he might miss it again. I think Jobs and Apple have really affected new and lives of people. I request to vote for him here

I had thought that I will finish reading The inscrutable americans first. But, once I started reading Foundation and Empire and couldn't do anything else.

Most of these books written as stories appearing in monthly magazines and later compiled to make books. The Mule was one of the best in this book.

Can't wait to start reading Second Foundation

After reading The Foundation Trilogoy (after 20+ years when he started to write the rest of foundation stories), Isaac Asimov wrote :

"I read it with mounting uneasiness. I kept waiting for some-thing to happen, and nothing ever did. All three volumes, all the nearly quarter of a million words, consisted of thoughts and of conversations. No action. No physical suspense. What was all the fuss about then,? Why did everyone want more of that stuff? -- To be sure, I couldn't help but notice that I was turning the pages eagerly and that I was upset when I finished the book, and that I wanted more, but I was the author, for goodness' sake. you couldn't go by me."

Well, I like the stuff.

More from the same text.

"I was on the edge of deciding it was all a terrible mistake and of insisting on giving back the money, when (quite by accident, I swear) I came across some sentences by sceince-fiction writer and critic, James Gunn, who, in connection with the Foundation series, said, "Action and romance have little to do with the success of the Trilogy-- virtually all the action takes place offstage, and the romance is almost invisible -- but the stories provide a detective-story fascination with the permutations and reversals of ideas." Oh, well if what was needed were "permutations and reversals of ideas," then that I could supply."

I agree that most of Asimov's that I have read don't have much details about surroundings and he does not harp much on painting the characters but the stories are gripping neverteless. I just finished reading Foundation. I plan to read Inscrutable Americans before I start with third foundation story Foundation and Empire.

गर्ग बुक डिपो एवं विज्ञान प्रगति

अाज बाजार में टहलते हुए मेरी निगाह एक दुकान के नाम पर पडी। एक ही क्षण में अनगिनत यादें अाँखों के सामने से गुजर गयी। यह वही दुकान है जहाँ हम हर रोज जाकर सुपर कमांडो ध्रुव, चाचा चौधरी अौर नागराज की कॅामिक्स लाते थे। इसके अलावा मैं हर महीने विज्ञान प्रगति भी खरीदता था। मेरी विज्ञान तथा प्रौद्दोगिकी में रुचि विकासित होने में विज्ञान प्रगति का बहुत ही बडा हाथ रहा है। इसी पत्रिका में मैने पहली बार इ-मेल, सेल फोन एवं अन्य कई चीजों के बारे में पढा।

अाज लगभग ८ साल बाद मैने इसे खरीदने में एक क्षण भी नहीं खोया। तब मैं हर माह ५ रूपये में विझान प्रगति लेता था, अाज इसका मूल्य १२ हो गया है। मैंने जयन्त नार्लीकर तथा अन्य वैझानिकों के लेख तथा विज्ञान साहित्य की कहानियां पहली बार यहीं पढी। शायद विज्ञान साहित्य की तरफ मेरा रुझान ऐसे ही बना (मुझे science fiction के लिए प्रचलित शब्द विज्ञान गल्प पसन्द नहीं, मैं इसे साहित्य मानता हूँ। मुझे फोरेन्सिक विज्ञान के लेख भी बहुत पसन्द अाते थे, उन्हे शायद विधी विझान के लेख कहा जाता था।

सरसरी निगाह डालने पर पाया कि फोरेन्सिक विज्ञान के लेख पत्रिका से गायब हैं। बाकी पत्रिका पूरी पढने के बाद।