April

Durable Disorder, Sanjib Baruah
Democracy and Development in India, Atul Kohli. (Okay, to be fair, I only read one section of the book. But I did! So there.)
Democracy in India, Niraja Gopal Jayal (ed.)
In the Belly of the River, Amita Baviskar
The Girl who Couldn't Come, Joey Comeau (Say it with me, weird and wonderful. :) )
Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault
Before They Are Hanged, Joe Abercrombie (Book 2, First Law Trilogy)
The Dream Hunters, Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell
Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie (Book 3, First Law Trilogy)
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
Gender and Caste, Anupama Rao (ed.)
Nocturnes, Kazuo Ishiguro

10. 04. 2011 - In retrospect, I wonder how I made that jump from obsessive Murakami to obsessive Pratchett to general fantasy. Hmmm.

13. 04. 2011 - Loved the Dream Hunters! It felt like reading an all new Sandman (which it was), with its intrigue and darkness and most beautiful storytelling. What's more, the art was absolutely stunning! I can't wait to get my hands on the original prose version, now.

17. 04. 2011 - Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say that he's a total wacko. He takes every single fantasy trope you can think of and turns it on its head. Who's the good guy, who's the bad guy? Who's the evil scheming bastard, who's the guy who wants to save the world? There aren't any prophesies, there aren't any rules, it's just a regular war with no good guys. You have to be realistic, after all. The first book was like the first season of the Wire - You don't make sense of the first half till you read the second half (Community reference alert). The second book was one long, maddening (and, might I add, brilliant and funny and absolutely riveting) tale at the climax of which you really, really understand the depths to which Abercrombie might take the turning-fantasy-on-its-head idea to. The third book, well, the third book builds on the *cough* climax of the second book to a whole new twist and finds a bastard in every character there is (some, literally too). On the whole, fun!

20. 04. 2011 - Just finished Ender's Game. I'm not sure what I think about it yet. It works like a video game, in so many ways. I think it's meant to, actually. With the levels, and the moving up, and the challenges at each level. It's written like a video game, about a game. There is a pattern to the story. He keeps going through the same thing. Minding-my-own-business ---> Put in confrontational, near-hostile situation --> Turn into some sort of mangy killer --> Wait, did he really die? --> Innocent saint. This happens in every episode and the book as a whole. I have much more to think about. And much that I'm very uncomfortable with. But good fiction - Like.

30. 04. 2011 - Loved Nocturnes. More later. This has been a crazy hectic and lazy month. Like a Sine curve. Don't ask how. So much writing, so much reading, so much fiction, so much Doctor Who, so much bumming at home, so many visits to Bahrisons and Full Circle, so few classes, so much TeeVee! Although you might think 12 books in a month is a bit much, I did have to write my research proposal and I'm currently writing one term paper and I have to write another one next week, so all things considered, it might be a bit less (also I've been reading some books for several months - Foucault for the past seven months, Kohli for two, Baruah for one and a half or so). On the whole, whattay April ya!