As random as it gets

So I finished yet another Keigo Higashino book! Well for the un-initiated I love to read….and write, well necessarily in that order, at least that is what it has been over the last few years. You see the urge to write never really dies, although it does manage to dwindle dangerously between sporadic to none! But that is another topic to ponder upon in a separate post…

I read everything and anything…..I do prefer googling on goodread’s ratings before I take the plunge….but sometimes it is a simple gut feeling, an 8th sense (Love being the 7th?) which has managed to serve me rather well over time. I do read Asimov and Tolkiens, Christie and Ludlum, Amitava Ghosh and Jhumpa Lahiri, Khuswant and J.K. Rowling, Coelho and Ruskin Bond…..

If you get where I am going with this, I am NOT a well read person…well there are so many renowned works which I have not even heard or managed to touch upon. It is sometimes a very sobering thought to realize that I am not even aware of so many authors whose work would enrich my knowledge and open up a plethora of new discoveries/realizations for me….But I manage to stay afloat….I mostly manage to allocate a definite period of time each day to read something which widens my thought process, removes a lot of my myopic vision and in the end learn something new each day.

I read a lot of new works as well….it is the synopsis which gets to me. Mostly I order a book having read the first 3-4 lines in the author’s synopsis, if it does not appeal then and there, there is seldom any real chance that I would be enticed by the remaining. One such book which I enjoyed reading was “Rustom and the last storyteller of Almora”….

Of late I have managed to dig into the Thriller or rather Detective genre….I have managed to complete Miss Marple series and am almost done with the Poirot series as well….

However that surreal moment when you read something extraordinary came with Keigo Higashino’s latest english translated work “Journey under the mid night sun”…I have read his other works as well (which I have managed to get hold of) and had become an instant fan….Here is an author who does not believe in the usual Holmes-que method of deduction….there is nothing flashy, nothing too dramatic which would actually hinder the growth of the story and distract from the build up of the characters….there is every sense of method imbibed into the process of solving a crime. Policework is given its due importance and a very thorough analysis is initiated right at the outset.

I was amazed when I read “Malice”…well who would have thought that there could be a motive to create a false motive and manage to achieve the planned results! Much has been said and done about “Devotion of Suspect X”,the latest being a Hindi movie adaptation of the same, which renders any thoughtful discussion on it rather perfunctory. “Salvation of a Saint” is another lovely read.

However it is the latest translation of his work which I believe is a masterpiece by all standards. I did not read another book for a couple of days, just to be able to soak in the surreal feeling derived from the book!

Since English translations of his work are not so frequent, I am planning to complete the Poirot series,grab Robert Galbraith’s latest in a couple of days and then catch up on an amazing book authored by my friend which re-traces the journey made by Lord Hanuman across India and Sri Lanka.