Booked

"Whenever I read a good book, I get impressed with my ignorance"

I couldn't find the source of this quote, but I heard it in class 12, wherein my physics tuition teacher Mr. Vishal Pandya (Who was a kind of database in quotes!) once had this one in one of his notes, which invariably started with few quotes

Of late, I have realized a very high degree of correlation between Jhandta Index (Henceforth referred to as J) existing in life and book I am reading if any. If I am reading some book at some point of time, J reduces significantly (Say, to a vlue J/2, average case) ; and if the book is significantly good then it reduces to a very low level (Say, J/4).

I have realized that in last 4 weeks (this includes the next week also), I have read 5 extremely different works, quite a rare feat in terms of quantity and diversity of books read!

The most recent book I have read is some book by some IIMB guy about some fictional experience during life @ IIMB, which had everything in it - sutta, daaru, kudi etc. and all such stuff in 'meeee too' kind of books. (This one had Marijuana as the principal ingredient though) In fact, having read works like Joker in the Pack and Mediocre but Arrogant which seemed half hearted attempt at cloning Five Point Someone and Snapshots from the Hell, I did the same mistake again and brought this marijuana loaded book, Keep Off the Grass, and after reading which I wanted to slap myself for having brought that book.

Still reading it was better than reading nothing at all. Maybe, it will help me know, what not to write, in case I decide to write a book couple of centuries down the line.

Before that I read 'How Starbucks saved my life' which was a decent book about a top notch ad guy being fired from a job and lands working for Starbucks, a job he deemed menial as per his standards. Before that, it was The Under Cover Economist which was again a good book in case freakonomics style economics interests you. Before that it was Khaled Hosseni's A thousand Splendid Suns, which was again a good book, but I didn't find it awesome or anything.

After the marijuana and all stuff I picked up 'The Greatest Works of Khalil Gibran' - 12 in 1 omnibus edition (each of the book is quite small and I guess it would take 2-3 hours per book on an average), which I am currently reading(since last 24 hours!). I have read three of them, and they are simply AWESOME ... Or as Barney would put it - Legend ... (wait for it) ... Dary. I plan to finish them in next few weeks.

In fact, I must confess that it would require a re-reading to explore the depths!

In case philosophical works (having a completely mystic feel) interests you, then go for it without giving a second thought. I believe that there are two possibilities - Either you will love this book (most will fall in this category), or you will dislike it completely. Remaining 0.1 percent people may find it average or be non judgmental about his works.

Weird it may sound, but if I were to compare his works with some recent song it would be 'Khwaja Mere Khwaja' from Jodha Akbar. There is some kind of enigma in both of them. In fact like this particular song, I may not be able to compare works of Khalil Gibran with other works. It is different, in league of its own!

Maybe, I would post more on Khalil Gibran later, after I am through with all of them (providing I overcome the laziness barrier!)

Till then, happy reading!