Are bookshops going to become redundant?

Sitting in Hyderabad Airport doing something I always love to do. I am just outside the Airport Bookshop ordering books online. What astounds me is that the very same books that I could have bought at the shop for huge cover prices are available online at 40% below the cover price. It takes about a week for the online bookshop to supply my order. So what? I have saved so much money. I already have books to read on flight. These are books I would love to read; but not so desperately and immediately.

Browsing in bookshops is definitely cool! But buying there is definitely uncool!

Actually the online browsing experience is awesome as every title is at your fingertip and a search away! At Landmark you have to request the sullen and surly TATA employee for the title you want and wait pathetically while he asks around apathetically and returns with the usual, "sorry sir or madam (as the case maybe! Because he's too busy to notice anyway!) It is not available.

Online book shopping allows you to search different editions and compare prices If you don't want to buy you can put it on your wishlist and later buy it.

Finally, the payment can be made on delivery! (At least on Flipkart and Homeshop18 it is possible.)

Odyssey has suspended its 360 website! In fact I was an Odyssey customer online till my 14 year old son put me on to flipkart. Then I discovered Home Shop 18 and put him on to it!

Landmark is the same snooty entity online too and the prices are not at all competitive. No wonder they are forced to sell books at discount by putting them in 3 for 2 and 2 for 1 bundles. Why don't they simply accept that the book selling business is going online and work on a friendly on line presence.

Finally as of now and for the record Homeshop 18 is the cheapest in India! Check it out! May be they are cutting their own throat!

But why should we care! Happy online book shoppuing!

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

The story moves forward like a sluggish river. The author (Henry) shifts from Canada to a “big city”. The vagueness of the city’s actual identity is part of the surreal nature of this novel.

Henry is approached by a reader of his book, a Taxidermist, who consults Henry on how to write a play. The main characters are “Beatrice” a Donkey and “Virgil” a howler monkey. The play is encated on a shirt; a striped shirt. The play is simply a series of conversations between Beatrice and Virgil.

Henry journeys between the “real” world of his life with his wife and his work at the Chocolate Road, amateur theatricals and learning music and the unnatural setting of Okapi Taxidermy where he meets the Taxidermist. Everybody from Henry’s “real” world recognize the Taxidermist for what he is.. A creature devoid of emotion or comprehension of the sufferings of fellow creatures.

The novels takes an old theme of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews during the Holocaust and gives it a totally new and disturbing twist.

Beatrice and Virgil explores the attempts by Holocaust victims to articulate their experiences. Words are not enough. So they decide to use gestures, games, facial expressions etc., The entire list is called “A Horrors Sewing List.”

Reading Beatrice and Virgil is like taking a peaceful and drowsy boat-ride on a placid lake when all of a sudden everything becomes horrible and macabre; the boat capsizes. I am sucked into a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. Finally as I read the “Games for Gustav” section, I am sobbing and weeping. In a way I have lived through the horrors. I was there. I am a witness too….

Lessons from a Tree

Yann Martel’s Beatrice and Virgil is a deceptive piece of creative writing. It begins with the rejection of an author’s new work on the holocaust by his publishers. He revels in his misery and becomes angry with the publishers for their inability to understand his work. He finally learns how to come to terms with his failure. The description that follows traces the mental journey he takes from desolation to anger and finally a draining out of all emotions. The last line is a great motivational thought.

The London park was not like that. It was an expanse of the loveliest grass, a symphony of green. There were some trees, buy they stood very tall with high branches, as if they were mindful of not getting in the way of the unbridled grass. A round pond gleamed in the centre of the park. The weather was warm and sunny and people were not in great numbers. As he wandered about the park, Henry awoke to what had just happened to him. Five years of work had been consigned to oblivion. His mind, stunned into silence, sputtered to life. I should have said this…. I should have said that …. Who the fuck was he …? How dare she …?-so the shouting match in his head went, a full-blown anger fantasy.

A moment came when the tense muscles twitching in Henry’s body and the emotions seething inside him came together and spoke in unison: with his fists clenched in the air, he lifted a foot and stamped the ground with all his from his throat. He hadn’t consciously decided to act out like this. It just happened, a snap expression of hurt, fury and frustration. He was near a tree, the soil-stamping was and bare, and the impact of his foot-stamping was thunderous. It was a giant tree, a galleon with its sails in full rig, an art museum with its entire collection on display, a mosque with a thousand worshippers praising God. He gazed at it for several minutes. A tree had never before been so soothing to him. As he admired it, he could feel the anger and distress draining from him.

After an hour or so, he made his way to the edge of the park. A sign informed him he was in Hyde Park. The irony struck him. He had entered the park like Mr.Hyde of Stevenson’s tale, deformed by anger, willfulness and resentment, but he was leaving it more like the good Dr.Jekyll.

A stroll in a London park and an encounter with a beautiful tree at least taught him that useful lesson: if you are pitched into misery, remember that your days on this earth are counted and you might as well make the best of those you have left.

Book Review of Jeffrey Archer's "And Thereby Hangs a Tale"

Only hard core Archer fans would be able to enjoy this anthology of very short stories. Others may endure the experience for the sake of the author’s reputation. In fact these fifteen tales allegedly “gathered together" during Archer’s “travels around the world”fail to grip.

The word short story is a sacred term and the form has been explored by masters like Poe, Maugham, O Henry and Maupassant and Tolstoy to name a few. In fact we have great Indian short story writers like Tagore, Preem Chand, Mulk Raj Anand, R K Narayan and Raja Rao. The Peerage he might have achieved but into this list of Peers Jeffrey Archer will never enter. The short story is not just about a twist in the end. The ending gives joy only if the story is built up right. This Archer successfully fails in doing.

With this view about Archer and his ability in short story writing why did I read the stories in this book with interest? I can only explain why I read through them all by comparing this collection with a gift hamper of éclairs.You just can’t resist it! The milk-chocolate covering is quite tasty and as the tongue explores the sweetness, it hits the pure chocolate center and then it’s over. Some of these stories are so exquisite but they end almost before they have reached a stage where we’ve started enjoying the plot.

The next major dampener is the fact that the endings are so obvious. How much can mastery over words compensate for absolute lack of complexity in the plot. Archerism’s like “it was therefore no surprise for anyone” take cliché to newer heights. In fact there are truly no surprises for anyone, least of all the poor reader who is dogged in his determination to finish the book and claim that he has read the latest Jeffrey Archer. The beauty is that his worst critics love him for the magic of his story telling abilities. In fact Archer does well in longer fiction. His recent novel (though not his latest) “Prisoners of Birth” is a classic in its own right.

But, “Thereby Hangs a Tale” does have a few tasty morsels. Stuck on you, and Where There’s a will have been crafted well. I personally liked the ingenuity of the ending in High Heels. Blind Date, Double Cross and Politically Correct are so obvious that they are boring.

The Queen’s Birthday Telegram may be a favorite for all, though I found it too mundane if somewhat unbelievable that a husband would never know a difference of five years in age between himself and his wife.

I personally felt A Good Eye should have been titled “The Arsonist and the Gullible Priest.” Members Only is made of the kind of the gooey sentimentalism that Archer excels in dishing out. But that does not work well in Caste-off where he gets it all wrong as usual. I don’t know why Archer goes out of the way to irritate Indians when we possibly worship him and are also erudite enough to catch him out on his slightest mistake. He mixes up the Hero’s surname with first name and also makes a mockery of the Hindu Custom of taking seven steps together during the Marriage ceremony.

No Room at the Inn and The Luck of the Irish are so blasé that they do not even register. The Undiplomatic Diplomat and I will Survive are too contrived to be actual real life incidents. They must be development of theories that Archer must have heard at his club or a bar.

Better the Devil you know is different, original and worthy of exploration as a short novel. The concept is too good to be exhausted so easily.

The book is no more than a pot boiler for Archer. May he write better novels in future and cease these perilous experimentations with the Short Story.

33rd Chennai Book Fair

I visited the 33^rd Chennai Book Fair yesterday. The venue at St. George Anglo Indian Hr Sec. School, which has become a regular now is definitely a great choice. But, the parking arrangements and entry exit logic could be more streamlined. Especially on Sundays. I escaped the main rush by going early.

The stall arrangement is both utilitarian and aesthetic. The aisles are wide and the Pavilions and cross cuts in between enable a diffusion of the crowd. It also facilitates returning back to a stall to buy a book after having a second thought.

Another good feature (I don’t know if this is the first time) is the Catalogue of Participants with stall numbers. I suggest that in addition to the single telephone no. Which is included, they can also give the address, or at least the website. (Who doesn’t have a website or blog today?)

As usual I bought only Tamil books. I, especially, liked a book titled “Oviyam” by an Artist Mr. Pugazhendhi. The book explains, in simple and lucid Tamil, the Elements and Principles of Art. The author gives the English term for the technical words used. This enables a better understanding and internalization of the corresponding Tamil word. The colour plates and figures enhance our appreciation of the subject.

The visitors are of many kinds—Bibliomaniacs like me who come because books are their greatest joy; Parents who wish to enhance their children’s knowledge; Activists who see the printed word as one more medium to communicate their concerns and anger; Artists and actors who know that books are the fountainhead of creativity...and so on.

While on this, I could not help but ponder on the fate of books printed on paper or similar surfaces. The popularity of Fairs like these seem to indicate that books have a long life ahead. Especially original works of fiction and literature. Nevertheless, I am unable to understand the utility of heavily bound encyclopaedae, dictionaries and other reference books with the ubiquitous availability of so much information on the Net coupled with a Search Engine technology that can bring related knowledge together fast and to our seat.

For example, using Google you can find out in a minute who wrote a poem if you know or have even a single line or phrase from. Poetry anthologies, books on quotations, Joke books etc., are therefore headed for extinction.

In 2010, we can be sure of only one thing...Technology will keep on changing...there are no comfortable certainties. Book fair 2015 may feature only E Books which can be read comfortably through an eye-friendly, hand-held device. Audio books may become so common place that our brothers and sisters who prefer aural inputs to the printed word would be able to listen to the great classics and not be “left out” of the wonderful experience of having read Dickens or Dumas or Kalki.

The 32nd Chennai Book Fair

Money can buy books, never knowledge.

For three years now the Chennai Book Fair is being conducted at the St George Anglo Indian Hr. Secondary School Chetpet. I visited the fair on 10th Jan as well as yesterday (16th Jan).

The new venue is definitely an improvement on the earlier Quaid-e-Millat College Grounds. The area is bigger, the stalls are wider. The arrangement is rectangular with wide aisles running both vertically and horizontally. The aisles facilitate easy movement. The horizontal interstices enable retracing of our steps to locate a shop we had seen earlier and decided to visit later. The earlier circular arrangement meant one couldn’t do this when the fair is crowded. Ample parking space is another great advantage.

In the RK Mutt Stall the representative congratulated me on selecting the book ‘The Christ we all Adore’ by Swami Ranganathananda. I thanked him for the compliment. I bought many books on Philosophy, Religion and Tamil Literature.

Winning with Jack Welch

I am now in the process of reading two excellent books authored by Jack Welch, Ex-CEO of GE and his wife Suzy Welch. The first book is called "Winning". It documents Jack WElch's enormous experiential knowledge and wisdom. It is a treasure trove of practical and extraordinarily simple solutions for day to day managerial issues. Jack propounds a methodology that is hard to implement but a sure route to organizational growth.

The two basic threads that I found intertwined in Welch's book were "Differentiation" and "Candour".

Differentiation advocates treating employees differently. This means we reward and appreciate overachievers while we give clearly lower rewards to underperformers. This sounds cruel at worst and biased at the very best. Not really. The under achievers are usually those who do not like their job. They are better off sent out as they may discover their true avocation only then.

Welch says its better to send them out in a boom rather than during a depression when cost cutting would throw out exactly these people, but at a time when job's are scarce.

Sending them out earlier on with good severance benefits would be a WIN/WIN for both the firm as well as the underperformer. These people are usually 10% of the total. But they spoil the rest.

The great performers would be about 20%. The rest are above average. This 70% needs to be watched, trained and motivated. They form the backbone of the company and are the leadership pool for succesion planning.

Candour is simply the good old habit of calling a spade a spade. Candour should be encouraged and practiced across the board so that problems get identified and escalated faster.

The other book is Winning: The Answers. This book contains answers to various questions that Jack and Suzy had to answer during their speaking tours all over the world. It builds on the Wisdom of "Winning" and takes it forward.

There is a lot of the Seven Habits methodology in Jack Welch's approach.