Sunday, April 08, 2007

Above Average - Amitabha Bagchi (2007)

Yet another book by an IITian. With the IIT brand getting global there is a lot of interest in getting to know what IIT life is all about. This book is not another Five Point Someone. This is more natural and far closer to reality. There is of course a lot more details about Delhi and a lot of reference due to author's association with the city and weekend visits home. Five point someone was more focused to a hostel life. Incidents in this book are genuine look more like the young adult dreams and not quite sensational.

Writing skills wise I still Chetan Bhagat definitely is a master storyteller, while Bagchi is a far more balanced storyteller. He brings various facts and attaches them around each character he wants to portray. It may not keep you too involved at places where there is a bit of technical discussions on computer science.

But overall I will say the book is great and far more autobiographical and much more appealing to IITians.

The Chamber - John Grisham (1994)

A good family story but not the best of John Grisham.  I like John Grisham because of the depth in which he covers legal matters in his nove...