Going Crazy by Otto Friedrich

"Going Crazy" by Otto Friedrich is a kind of biography or a history of insanity or madness through the ages. Otto does a good job in keeping the narrative flowing throughout the pages with first hand accounts by many patients. Apart from celebrated cases he has also dwelt on the ordinary people's lives disrupted by what he calls as "craziness" - by all accounts all of us are somewhat crazy at some times or other - it only varies by degrees, but while majority are able to keep their thoughts clear there are many who lose control of their minds. He has also written about the cures which in medieval times ranged from cruelty itself like chaining the patients to drugs, therapies etc. It was surprising to read that so many celebrated people had problems in their lives. I would highly recommend this book to those interested in different genres like non-fiction, biographies etc. Rating 5/5

Ultra Marathon Man

Just finished reading “Ultra Marathon Man – Confessions of an All Night Runner” by Dean Karnazes, an absorbing and overwhelming story of his early athletic prowess, the loss of his sister to an accident, his subsequent forays away from running for 15 years, his rediscovery of running, to running marathons, ultra marathons to crazy distances unheard of before and impossible feats like running the south pole marathon, running 199 miles non stop etc. His heroic attempt at running the Western States 100 miler and Badwater Marathon failing the first time, have been poignantly told. A nice inspirational story with dollops of quotable quotes for keeping in one’s mirror or desktop. The paperback edition has given details of his training, nutrition, strategy etc. so that helps for people attempting to run ultra-marathons and crazy distances. A must read for running addicts. 

Children of the Thunder

Just got around to finish this book "Children of the Thunder" by John Brunner. It is a science fiction book and John Brunner takes a long time to get around to the story. It is about some kids who commit juvenile crime but of such proportions as to shock even the adult mind, crimes, such as running a prostitution racket, protection racket, murder etc. All these kids are ostensibly born out of surrogacy and there are doubts that all these kids might probably be from one donor. First there is an assumption of mind control in the sense that these kids have some kind of psychic power where they can read people's minds and they are brilliant but in a devious way. In between there are newspaper reports of some kind of catastrophe after another taking place somewhere in the world and there is also mention of a General Thrower who is a probably a menace to the society. Peter Levin is a science fiction writer who makes a living by digging up stories on calamities and Dr. Claudia is a science researcher from US who has developed the instinct that there is something violently wrong with these kids and could there be a connection between. Brunner has attempted to carve out a plausible story but it all ends up in one big disappointment, hence the 1 star. 

Marathon Man

Just finished reading "Marathon Man" by Bill Rodgers otherwise known as Boston Billy who won the Boston and New York Marathons 4 times each in the late 70s. Boston Billy has personally autographed this book which was given to my dear friend Bhasker Desai who had ran at this year i.e. 2013 Boston Marathon. Bhasker finished the race and was in the medical tent when the bomb blast took place.

It is a very enchanting and enthralling book with a throbbing narrative in collaboration with Mathew Shepatin. Basically it is an account of his early life and his Boston marathon experience of 1975. The narrative is very interesting in the sense that each chapter starts with his Boston 1975 progress during the race and the later part of the chapter devotes to flashback to his early life as a college student, running with Amby Burfoot who is his original inspiration, his "conscientious objector" status during the Vietnam war, his degree at special education, struggle at getting a job etc. He was a natural born runner with a great capacity for hard work and a body which could take any amount of hard work with very little injuries. The realisation that he could be a top notch marathon runner came to him only during a race with Amby Burfoot in which he raced alongside the great Amby for about 15 miles of a 20 mile race. The seeds of inspiration which Amby sowed in him made him take up competitive racing including marathons. Boston Billy alongwith Frank Shorter, Amby Burfoot and Jeff Galloway were the pioneers of long distance running first in America which then spread to other cities in the world which has since then grown exponentially. His latter attempts at Montreal Olympics of 1976 and thereafter founding a successful running business alongwith his college buddies makes for a good story. It is an excellent book, very inspirational, very nice story of an easygoing hardworking American who loves running dearly. 

The Way Through the Woods

Just finished reading "The Way Through the Woods" by Colin Dexter, my first one of him. It is an Inspector Morse mystery. It is a mystery about a sudden disappearance of a Swedish maiden in England but the case comes to life fully one year after her exit for whatever reasons. Dexter has a different style of writing compared to others such as Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle etc. in the sense that he keeps on dropping some hints here and there by weaving in and out of the story by juxtaposing with riddles etc. The plot keeps the reader in suspense and I like his interplay with relevant quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I would say that Dexter is a "dexterous" writer in that sense.  

Jolly LLB

Sunday evening family time was spent watching Jolly LLB on the computer. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant movie - solid script, keeps flowing, not too much silly dialogues, only a couple of songs, no item songs, no steamy sex scenes, and most importantly, and this is the clincher - Arshad Warsi does not overact. In fact, i suspect he may be secretly congratulating himself on his life's best work. The story is a takeoff on the actual episode of Nanda BMW hit and run case which happened in 1999 in Gurgaon and the case dragged on and on for about twenty years before the Supreme court affirmed the Delhi high court decision to reduce the sentence of the main culprit Mr. Sanjeev Nanda to two years from five years which was awarded to a Delhi trail court. Surprisingly, the Delhi High Court rationale for reducing the sentence was ostensibly that the accused could not have knowledge that his rash driving could cause tragedy to others. A news channel article on this matter can be accessed here And I always thought that the moment a person gets a driving license he is supposed to know that he should not drive rashly. Alternating between parody and reality the movie gives a resounding slap to the present judicial system in the country and to the investigation agencies' corruption and shoddy work. Boman Irani has acted well which is his forte and Saurabh Shukla delivers moment of pure brilliance. I guess the movie must have been made on a modest budget and it surely is a sleeper hit for the producers.