How do u rate the Half-Blood Prince ?
Completed my Half-Blood Prince yesterday;picked up my copy at the Walden.
Those who have already finished it.. How do u rate it compared to other Harry Potter Books?
I personally feel 'prisoner of Azbakan' is the best of the lot.Then 'The chamber of secrets' and 'The Goblet of Fire' are equally poised to win the second slot.'Half-Blood Prince' follows and that leaves 5th and 1st books tailing behind.
And I can't wait to discuss about what may happen in HP7..Who could this mysterious R.A.B be ?
Who is reading Half-Blood Prince ?
Who else in the Oracle Book Club is reading Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince ? I see Tanushree is. Who else? How far into the book are you? What surprised you the most? What did you hate the most? And what did you love about HBP?
No spoilers please :-D I am still reading the book. About 50% complete at this stage.
Anyone Finished HBP???
Has anyone finished reading the book? I can't wait to start discussing/analysing every word (specially in the last couple of chapters)!
A collaboration over too much coffee
When I was browsing through a local newspaper on Saturday, I found one interesting club related to writing activities in Hyderabad. Caferati is a group of writers in Hyderabad who usually meet once in a month to exchange their thoughts on writing, shared work, sharing books and get to know about each others. This is similar kind of group as Bombay Writers' Cafe. Their motto is "A collaboration over too much coffee".
http://www.caferati.com/http://caferati.blogspot.com/
Harry Potter HBP Spoiler Alert
If you are like me & cannot wait to find out who died.
Jump over to
here.
The NEW Sharing Info
Pardon me for this post, FYI.
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Hi All,
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I hope this is of help to those who miss out of sharinginfo :-)
Thanks,
Anshuman
Book Review: Life of Pi
Read this absolutely amazing book while coming from Delhi by train.
I had some 26 hrs to kill and since I've heard a lot about the book, I
kinda picked it in the local old-books market.
The book is about a 16 year guy who gets shipwrecked.
He is left with a zebra, a hyena, a chimpanzee and a 450 Kg tiger in a
lifeboat.
How he survives and makes it through is what the book is about.
The name of tiger is Richard Parker :-)
It is a book which explores into psychology in testing times.
It kinda tells to what heights a person will go; just to survive.
In a nutshell, this is a book of life. It highlights the jest for life.
It kinda shouts in your face - Life is short. Get on with living.
One of the images which keeps on flashing into my mind is that this 16
yr old boy Pi stumbling into another survivor.
However by that time both these survivors had gone blind.
The expected reaction at this time would be that these two survivors
will try to help each other and try to make it through.
I was stunned into disbelief when I realized that the other survivor was
trying to eat Pi as he had run out of his food supplies and cannot fish,
having gone blind.
The other vividly remembered portion of the book is when Pi's father( a
zoo keeper) is trying to explain to him why he should never disturb the
animals even though they look innocious. He takes him into cages of
lions which haven't been fed for 3 days.
Then he shows him how the lions react when a live sheep is brought in
front of them.
Surely a lesson Pi could never forget in his lifetime.
The book gets into the heads of the guy and the tiger.
It explains beautifully the concepts of how animals are territorial and
get upset and turn violent incase of even a slight change in their
environment.
It takes you through the world of oceans, and sharks, and tigers and
carnivoros islands.
It thrills and enthralls. Keeps you looking out for what is coming next.
An amazing read.
Batman - The real hero ?
What makes Batman my favourite of super heros? What makes him stand out among the slew of other super heros - superman, spiderman, X-men ... what?
Razor sharp thinking - every super hero has it (uh, isnt that why (s)he can always be one step ahead of the villians?) So that doesnt really give him an edge, does it ?
A great wardrobe - nah, this one doesnt work either. Spidey has a cool 'uniform', and even superman has a cape (that too a bright red one :-D )
Anonimity - but then, each one of them is anonymous!
According to me, what scores for Batman is the fact that he is
Human. Not that I am putting the other ones in the
inhuman category, but are they really "human" ? aren't they more of ..er .. mutants ? Superman flies, spidey haas those magical spider prowess, and X-men are self-proclaimed mutants. What makes Batman special is the realness - the guy is all flesh and blood, the adventures are real life, he uses his quick silver mind to devise gadgets to help him out - he is the
real human hero. Cant recollect any other 'human' heroes ...
Wot say ? P.S : batman fans can now catch up with the all new batman series on cartoon network -
every Sunday, 11:30 am.
The Hyderabad Sky !
Click on the picture for a larger view : 
Blogger & JavaScript
So Blogger does accept JavaScript code though it throws up an error message if you try to embed JavaScript into a post!
I tried to post the Harry Potter & The Half-Bllod Prince count down counter and Blogger complained about the script tags. I hit the publish button anyway and viola, the post appears as it should.
Cool. I learnt something about Blogger today.
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown - Review
Robert Langdon is a Professor at Harvard University specialized in religious Symbology. Once he went to Paris to give a speech and meet Jacques Sauniere, curator of Louvre. Unfortunately, Jacques is murdered in Louvre and the French Judicial Police suspect Langdon, takes him from his hotel to Louvre. Jacques left some clues of the keystone for which he was murdered. Bezu Fache, captain of French Judicial Police, believes Robert is the killer of Jacques.
Then enters Sophie Neveu, an agent from Department Cryptology and grand daughter of Jacques, believes Robert is innocent and the clues left behind were meant for her. She manages to escape from Louvre along with Robert. She analyzes that his grand father adjusted himself within a circle to imitate Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting, 'The Vitruvian Man'. They decipher the clues and find the key left for her by her grand father.
Another story runs in parallel about Opus Dei, a Christian society in United States, who’s Bishop is looking for a keystone to unlock the secret of the Holy Grail. Bishop's disciple Silas is in search of keystone in Paris.
Sophie and Langdon found that Jacques was a member of secret society called the Priory of Sion, whose members included Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and of course Da Vinci. Sophie and Langdon's race continues with deciphering clues, anagrams, a lot of analysis on Holy Grail. They continue to solve each puzzle they encounter. Finally they succeeded to trace the location of keystone. I'm not so impressed with the conclusion.
Dan Brown managed to keep the thrill and suspense throughout all the chapters of book. Mystery in this book is so fascinating. It's a wonderful fiction.
So, grab this book, have happy reading. You comments are welcome on this review.
Kiran
Oscar Wilde and more ....
Hiya buddies !
Seems like Oscar Wilde has been pointed out as the only saviour ;-D
Well I do intend to put up more 'short stories'. Oscal Wilde made his debut on the blog coz that was the first collection I laid my hands on :-D
Till the next short story is put up, enjoy this pic (click on it for a larger pic) :
I call it :
brooding ... what say ?
Kya Ignorant Hai Hum
Do check this link out - the test is outrageous! :-)
http://ww1.mid-day.com/columns/mukul_sharma/2005/june/110852.htm
The Truth behind Tragedies
When we learnt tragedies in Literature (Hamlet, Macbeth etc), we were asked to refer to the original commentaries on tragedy by Aristotle. According to Aristotle's Poetics, it is an art form that corresponds deeply with human life.
http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html. To undergo a reversal (peripeteia), a character had to go through a complex plot (change of situation/fortunes) and achieve two phases: catharsis (cleansing) and anagnorisis (self-discovery or realization). Usually a tragic character starts out with a major flaw (eg: harmatia or pride) and then goes through the process of being cleansed of his flaw and achieves a degree of realization. That pattern arouses not only sympathy in us, but also admiration (every tragic hero is larger than life and a towering personality). In his magnified flaws, we see our own flaws. When he goes through the painful process of cleansing, we also identify with the terrors and horrors that he faces. According to all tragic critics, this is also supposed to bring about a catharsis in us (the audience). Finally, we share his revelations as much as we share his flaws and pain.
However this is theory.... to really experience why tragedy as an art form holds our attention, I recommend seeing Hamlet the movie starring Sir Lawrence Olivier (it's spectacular) and possibly seeing the drama version of Macbeth, Mayor of Casterbridge, King Lear or other greats. If well acted, they are really moving. I was spellbound when I saw Oedipus the play (in English) - it was unforgettable.....
Comedy is another art form which is quite deep, though it seems whimsical - does anyone want to discuss that?
Misinformation through the blog
Hi all..
Under the section 'Contributors' I see 20 odd names listed. But going
through the entries I notice that Oscar Wilde is the only 'contributor'.
May be it's time to change the name of the section, huh? :)
Regards.
Subhash
Blog by email !
Hey buddies ...
To post on the oracle book club blog via email, all you need to do is
send your "post" as an email to ora_idc.bookclub@blogger.com , and voila, your post will be visible on the blog within no time !
Subject of email : subject of the post
Content of email : body of the post
Njoy !
Tragedy kings and queens ....
What people like in tragic stories? Dont know myself, i stay miles away from tragic sagas ... well lemme think what goes thru those who *prefer* tragics ..
a tragic story stirs the sympathy emotions is you . And maybe it gives you a "i m still better off" feeling - a kindof "you are not THAT poor, there are poorer people than you"
What else could be the reason ... hey where are the "tragedy kings and queens" ? Wot say ?
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