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Landscape Townscape is a coffee table book of 105 photos captured by Henri Cartier Bresson. Most of the photos were taken during 1940-1970s in Europe, USA, Japan, SE Asia and India. All the photos are in B&W, which is Henri's defacto medium. A majority of the photos seem to be taken with a wideangle lens, especially the landscape ones.

I've seen many of Henri's famous photos and know a bit about the man who essentially created photojournalism. But, this is the first proper compilation of his that I've got my hands on. The landscape photos all show a very keen eye for patterns and composition. In fact, every photo has so many composition elements captured beautifully right that it's a joy to study each one. Long stark shadows evoking feelings of decay and sadness are a repeating feature in a lot of these photos. The landscape photos are mostly bare of humans, who are traditionally Henri's popular subjects. But, people going about their everyday lives start to appear in the townscape photos. It's a testament to Henri's small camera (the legendary Leica he's known for) and quick eye-arm coordination to see photos where a certain moment has been captured. A moment (Henri calls it the decisive moment) so fleeting yet precious that one can only wonder how the hell Henri happened to be at precisely the right place at precisely the right time!

I highly recommend this book for all those interested in photography. The book is huge due to the large print of the photographs and is surely expensive. Just see if you can borrow it at your library. The book is full of some of Henri's most seminal works. The grainy faces and images are sure to remain etched in your memory. Every Bresson photo is such a joy to look at and study and it's sure to influence your photography the next time you put your eye to the viewfinder.

I guess I'm too old for Nancy Drew now, which I used to lap up while I was in high school. Having nothing else to do during my vacation I read this book anyway.

The Secret Of The Old Clock is the first Nancy Drew mystery. Both this and The Bungalow Mystery are pretty amateurish. The Mystery Of The 99 Steps is somewhat more interesting.

The book is authored by William Golding who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. It begins on a deserted island where a bunch of boys are stranded after a plane crash. Soon, Ralph emerges as a leader among them through a vote of hands. A fat smart kid nicknamed Piggy becomes his intellectual counsel. Together they think their situation over and decide that the boys need to keep a fire burning on the island so that they can be rescued by passing ships. Ralph also restores order by setting rules for discussion (using a white conch as the token), assigning boys to build shelters for resting and collecting food. But, there is a rebel in the midst named Jack who is jealous of Ralph's power. He prefers a dictatorial style of leadership. He soon starts drawing boys to his side by teaching them to hunt the pigs of the island for food. As the days go by, the chance of rescue wanes, Jack's power grows, Ralph loses support, the social order of the boys breaks down and the island slips into barbaric chaos.

On the surface, the book is a nice read of kids surviving on a deserted island. But, this is no book for kids. Below, it is a full blown allegory to the various forms of human nature, society, leadership and political formations. The boys start off with a system similar to democracy under Ralph. That slowly deteriorates to end up as dictatorship and brutality under Jack. This transition is in the exact opposite order of how humans evolved from cave dwelling brutes to civilized democracies. The last book I read with such a strong allegory was Life Of Pi. LOTF is a pretty small book and can be easily read in a day. This is an excellent read.

Robert Langdon, a Harvard Univ symbologist finds himself in trouble when Sauniere, the curator of the Paris Louvre Museum is found killed under bizarre circumstances and the clues point to him. However, while dying the curator has left some intriguing symbols on his body and in the museum. Why did he do that? What is he trying to convey through them? Finding that might help Langdon to prove his innocence. The French cryptologist Sophie joins him in the quest for learning the same. They find out that the curator was actually the head of a secret society -- Priory Of The Sion. The society is guarding a most elusive historical object, one which could shake the foundations of Christianity itself - The Holy Grail. Langdon and Sophie find themselves in the quest for this object and against the unseen enemy who is bent on destroying this secret to protect itself.

The Da Vinci Code is a fabulous thriller. Un-put-downable. Dan Brown delights with the details of historical facts, people and places. Fact after fact of modern Christianity is put into doubt as the author points to clues that are all around us. Works of Leonardo Da Vinci play a major role in the novel. I found myself crosschecking the clues in the novel using the internet and examining Da Vinci's works of art. And to top this, as the novel progresses, Sauniere's puzzles just keep on coming in increasing complexity.

"History is written by the winners."

Written and beautifully illustrated by the French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, it's a fable that deals with life (don't they all?!). The story is inspired by a near death experience that the author had when his plane crash-landed in the Sahara. The narrator in the book is the author and he recounts how he met a Little Prince when his plane went down in the desert. Slowly he learns about the life of this Prince who is an alien from a small asteroid. The Prince recounts his story of meeting 6 different men on different asteroids. He then visits Earth where meets a fox. Through the fox the Prince learns a lot of things about life.

Though the book is aimed at kids, I doubt most of them will realize the profound truths hidden in it. The 6 kinds of men the Prince meets are (probably) the humanity typified into 6 kinds. The fox imparts a bit of wisdom about dealing with life to the Prince which is neat. The book is tiny and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to read.

The book is narrated through Scout, a 6 year old girl. It is set in the 1930s in Maycomb, a sleepy Southern US county. The novel is a Bildungsroman, as we follow the adventures of Scout, her elder brother Jem and their summer vacation friend Dill through their years, we also see significant events happening in the county and how these events shape their thinking. Scout's dad is Atticus, a honest free thinking lawyer. About half of the book sets the stage by introducing the county, the neighbours of Scout, her adventures in school and most importantly the society of the America of those years. The real deal is when Atticus has to defend a black named Tom who has been charged of raping a white girl. As Scout and Jem follow their dad's court ordeal, they also perceive the change in the county towards them (this is Southern USA remember?). It changes their thinking about people and society and starts moulding them into maturity.

The book won a Pulitzer Prize. It was also made into a highly acclaimed movie which I'm now eager to see. I loved the book, couldn't keep it down once I started on it. There are several aspects in the book which endeared it to me — of lost innocence, of racism in the USA, of small town America, of the 2-tone view of a child's world and of how the world is a total complicated mess. Through all the hell around him, Atticus stands as steady as a rock for his children, always making them think about the answers to their queries of the world around them. Lee was apparently inspired by the Scottsboro Boys trial for this book. From what I know, under its shiny veneer racism still lurks in the richest nation of the world. This book is just as relevant today as it was in 1960. Eminently readable.

Reggie is an Earl who looks like a gorilla, but soft at heart. He is sent to the US by his aunt to bring back his cousin Eggy who is in Hollywood and has got engaged to a commoner there. During his journey across America, Reggy falls in love with a delicate actress named April June. In Hollywood, Reggie discovers that his cousin has engaged to Ann, who is his old flame!

Things start to get complicated when Reggie goes to a dentist to have his teeth extracted. When under the influence of gas, his soul gets exchanged with that of Joel Cooley, a Hollywood child star who is also at the dentist. Now, with the body of Cooley, Reggie finds himself beset with the former's troubles and also needs to keep in touch with June. He soon discovers that June's love for him is just for his wealth and also that he still loves Ann. The threads tie together cleanly and all ends well.

The book is filled with the trademark Wodehouse humor. Also, this was interesting since it was a non-Jeeves story. Laughing Gas is a fast paced humorous read with zero dull moments.