Retail therapy
I indulged in a modified version of retail therapy yesterday. I went to the Crossword bookstore in InOrbit and bought 4 books. A clearance sale was going on in Crossword and lots of books especially classics were heavily discounted. Moreover I had a Rs 250 gift voucher I recently won in an office contest that I wanted to spend so I just headed out to Crossword with the intention of passing some time and grabbing whatever was good and not so expensive. The bookstore was too crowded so could not leisurely browse through the books… but you don’t really need to check out classics so that’s what I mostly bought.
Books are:
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Pulkit recommends this highly so am looking forward to reading this. We had Oscar Wilde’s hilarious play The Importance of Being Earnest in 10th standard that I immensely enjoyed and I am sure I am going to enjoy this one too.
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - I read this novel long long back but I hardly remember any of it now, though I do remember that I had liked it. Another good book for my collection.
- 1984 by George Orwell - “Orwellian Society” is a term I frequently come across in security literature especially in this era of increased mass surveillance. I have been looking for this book for quite some time but only recently happened to find a copy.
- The Portable Atheist by Christopher Hitchens - I picked up the book and read a few randomly selected pages. I liked the contents and the style of writing so bought it. Looking forward to reading this one too.
By the way if you are ever confused on what to gift me there are 2 very safe items - books and chocolates 
The complete collections of Calvin and Hobbes, Tintin and Asterix are on my books wishlist and will be bought as soon as I “settle” down.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 am and is filed under books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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on January 29, 2008 at 3:51 pm Pankaj Upadhyay wrote:
Retail Therapy is great when u’ve some coupons or vouchers to spend ;).Wasie i’ve seen a movie based on this classic novel -Great Expectations, Movie was good. Try one book or one movie- To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee,You will love it..(Hope so)
on February 1, 2008 at 2:01 am Varun wrote:
Sure! Though self-help books usually do not appeal to me I will give this one a try.
on February 5, 2008 at 4:50 am krakoosh wrote:
I vaguely remember ‘Importance of being Earnest” in 10th - you actually enjoyed it?? By the way, you said you were “settling” down … does that mean what I really think it means??
on February 5, 2008 at 5:15 am Varun wrote:
Yeah man! Importance of Being Earnest was very good. In fact the unabridged complete version is even better. And we also had that phoenix waala story remember? The one with the robot called Biddu. For many years after that Phoenix was my nick in many places. We also had Ogden Nash’s dentist waala poem (”This is going to hurt just a little bit” I think).
He he. No re. Settling down means living in a place for 2 years or more. You know how I keep moving around. Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Trivandrum, Pune, Delhi and now Mumbai.
Actually that “settling” down would be quite unsettling, don’t you agree?
on February 13, 2008 at 3:57 am Prude wrote:
1984 is one of the scariest books I have ever read. To think all of yesterday probably never was…a complete farce each and every word of history could be! Shall eagerly wait for you to read the book to discuss
My all time favourite classics have been Gone with the wind and Wuthering Heights…beautiful books!
Ummm define sttling down…
I LOVE asterix…my fav line is “these romans must be crazy” he he And and I’m dying to eat wild boar someday!!
on February 13, 2008 at 4:58 am Varun wrote:
I have read hardly 100 pages of 1984 and I must admit that it does make you think about what “factual” means. It is very easy to get into the skin of the protagonist, I actually feel as if I am Winston Smith and that makes me pause every now and then and live through his thoughts and emotions. Unfortunately not getting enough time to read it in one sitting (which it clearly deserves), hopefully this Sunday.
Settling down (see the comment above yours) - “Settling down means living in a place for 2 years or more. I keep moving around. Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Trivandrum, Pune, Delhi and now Mumbai. And of course you know what is in the pipeline.
I am very materialistic when it comes to books (including comics)
I buy them, cover them, preserve them, don’t mind lending them to friends but shout at them if they spoil the pristine condition the book is in when I give it to them 