The Adventures of Tintin

I had read The Adventures of Tintin comic book long time ago, when I was in college, from a friend who had one of many stories of Tintin.  I really enjoyed reading it and not all comic books are fun and engaging but this one was!  After so many years, me and my friend got in a conversation which led to the discussion of how we both liked The adventures of tintin comic books.  My friend had read all of its books but I had just read maybe one or two stories.  So without further delay, I went to the library and got Volume 2 & 3 of The Adventures of Tintin comic books where each book contained 3 stories.  Volume 2 has The broken ear, The black island, and King Ottokar's sceptre stories whereas Volume 3 has The crab with the golden claws, The shooting star, and The secret of the Unicorn.  I also found out that there is a cartoon series of his books which is also fun to watch and might be quick to finish up instead of book :P..hehe.  However, beware that the cartoon stories are slightly different from the book series.  In fact, one of the book series that I watched online "The shooting star" is compressed in small version of cartoon series with only 20 minutes whereas the book story covers a lot.  Also, I found out that there is Tintin's movie coming out this December (The secret of the Unicorn), and after watching the cartoon series of the story, I definitely want to go see the movie.

Let me tell you little bit about Tintin and why I enjoyed reading the book so much.  First of all, Tintin is a mystery solver, smart, and intelligent, but also someone who invites trouble to himself.  He has a loyal and equally intelligent dog, snowy, who saves him when he has put himself in worse situations!!  In fact, snowy has better sense of humor than Tintin :).  I don't know how this guy manages to land himself in the unexpected places and situations and also get out of it without a hiccup (well there are definitely hiccups, but it's funny how he manages it).  Also I like how the location of each of his stories is in different parts of the world and even places where ghosts will be scared to go :P, but he stays brave, strong, and goes to any limit to reach to the evidence with snowy, following his master, even though he doesn't agree with Tintin all the time, but that poor dog has no choice!!

Well that's just my 2 cents of reading Tintin's comic books.  I will probably get some more volumes of the book to read so I can finish the complete set of The Adventures of Tintin :).

Five point someone by Chetan Bhagat

I recently went to dinner at one of my friend's place. I don't know how but we got into conversation about reading and what books she has read. Her husband has read couple of Chetan Bhagat novels and recommended reading "Five point someone". As you may know from my previous post that I'm not a reader but I said why not give it a try because if the book is interesting, I might read the whole thing :P. I borrowed the book from her and finished reading it in 1 week. 1 week??? That's a record. But I must tell you that the book is really good and really funny. According to the author, the book is about IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and what not to do at IIT, but I think it's about these 3 best friends who go through a roller-coaster from the time they get admitted in IIT to their last day in the institution.

Each main character has their own space. The 3 main characters, Alok, Hari, and Ryan, are completely different from one another, yet they become best friends for life. While reading the book, I came across some really funny sentences, that I jotted down and would like to share them here with you all. Note that there were many funny moments, but I only noted down few ones because I was busy reading the rest of the book.

"Ryan was elated, and he drove us back to Kumaon at speeds that made the traffic police dizzy. No one stopped us, or rather, we didn't stop. I covered the number plate with my foot, so that cops could not take it down."
"It is hard enough to say no to pretty girls or to ice-cream but when it's offered together, it is well nigh impossible."
"Alok recalculated his score, hoping for some miracle to happen on the calculator. But miracles never happen in IIT, only crap grades do."

I really enjoyed reading the book. In fact, Rajkumar Hirani is making a movie called "3 idiots" which is loosly based on this book. Aamir khan will be playing Hari, Madhvan will be playing Ryan, and Sharaman Joshi will be playing Alok. I'm eagerly waiting for the movie now since I can't wait to see how hillarious it turns out to be. I'm sure there will be some twist in the movie which is not in the book. I think the 3 actors are brilliant and they'll fit the characters perfectly. In fact, when I was reading the book I can totally picture the actors saying the same dialogues in their own ways :). One thing I'm not sure about is that the actors will be playing IIT students, but they'll look older than their age to look like 18-20 years old IIT students. We'll just have to wait and see. If you like reading, I definitely recommend reading this book.

Five point someone is Chetan Bhagat's first novel and he has done a brilliant job on it. He has described each and every crazy moment of the IIT hostel in a very simple way, yet it's very humorous at the same time.

Tata for now :)

"Almost Single" by Advaita Kala

I know a lot of people who love to read. My brother reads a lot. He has read all the Harry Potter books and plus many more. I know all of my friends like to read as well..at least they would consider reading an option if they're free. One of my office mates reads a lot and she likes to read any kind of books, whether it's suspense, romance, or just storytelling novel.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, I'm not a reader. If I'm bored...reading won't even be an option to kill the boredom. The truth is that even if I consider it as an option, as soon as I start reading, I start to fall asleep. One day I was talking to my office mate (the one I mentioned above) and she told me about this novel she read. The book is "Almost Single" by Advaita Kala. She was asking me if I have read it since it's written by an Indian Author and the story is based in New Delhi. I told her that I haven't and I don't read at all. She said the book was very interesting and funny and since it's related to Indian culture, I might enjoy it. Again, I told her that I will fall asleep as soon as I start the book. She did not back down and still suggested that I give it a try reading it.

I said why not? I got the book, and once I started reading it, I finished the first two chapters without a single yawn!! Wow! That's a Miracle! Not really :P. Well I realized that I got so interested in the topic that I didn't realize the time and before I knew, I had already finished two chapters of it. And honestly, my office mate was right. The story is based in New Delhi, India, so I could understand the different points of view from the story is being told. Not just that, the environment, the traffic, the neighbors' attitude....everything was so familiar :). New Delhi is very well developed and very westernized too. I found the book very funny and at times romantic too. I would definitely recommend it. And if I can read it, you can too. It turns out that I only fall asleep if the topic is not interesting to me. I guess I'll only find out which books I like after I start reading it :).