The First Book - part 2

I am not sure many of you who are reading this current post right now , are familiar with my previous post entitled  “ The First Book” ,(It was my third blog post) any which ways I will share the link here  and for the people who won’t be checking out that , I will give a brief introduction here itself..right away.

The First Book … basically sheds light on the first book that you ought to pick up of an author , which is most likely his/her one of the best works , so that you still have the urge to read other works after finishing it.

I came across this very idea when I started reading . I used to do a lot of research before checking out a specific author’s work ‘coz the first work to which you are exposed to can turn out in different ways. If you pick up a good piece then a win-win thing and anyhow if you don’t pick up an interesting enough one then you might get deprived of the other better works of the same author, if present. So , I thought “What the heck…I should share this thing so that others get every bit of a worthwhile stuff”

So here I am , trying to put up a list consisting of the “First Book” that you ought to check out by a specific author.

In my last post I shared the books by “Stephen King” “Ray Bradbury” “James Patterson” “Jeffrey Archer” “Agatha Christie” “John Grisham” “Harlan Coben” “Issac Assimov” “Michael Crichton” “Dean Koontz” , So this one should exclude the above mentioned names right…. Okay then ..here we go..

Ø  Raymond Chandler – As legendary as this author is , there are plenty of books mostly in the genre-Noir , Hard-Boiled , Mystery .. that are considered as one of the best books or thrillers of all time. So among his works, it’s fair and justified to start from the beginning ..obviously right?..So “The Big Sleep” starring or let say introducing Detective Philip Marlowe is the first book that I would pick up , if I were you. Laconic Dialogues are my favorite in his works.

Ø   Neil Gaiman – This is one author who has done it all. He has written child books ,screenplays for motion pictures/TV-Series,  epic fantasy novels/comics and amazing fiction works. “Neverwhere” and “American Gods” are the one’s to begin with in the novel category. To be exact “American Gods” should be your first insight. And I wouldn’t feel content if I don’t mention his comic/graphic novel masterpiece which changed the way how people thought about comics. “The Sandman” series is definitely a graphic novel worth checking out. It’s more like an essential reading for individuals who love graphic novel. I would say even if you hate graphic novels , still give “The Sandman”series a try.

Ø  John Sandford – This is one author who most of the people don’t know about. Or he doesn’t get the fan following he deserves. He is more like a lil.less famous when compared to the writers in the same genre like Michael Connelly, James Patterson, Lee Child to name a few. His “Prey” series is just super awesome. I must admit that I like his “Prey” Series way way better than the books by Michael Conelly , may it be his Series featuring “harry Bosch “ or the ones featuring Mickey Haller , the criminal defense attorney . John Sandford’s first in the “Prey” Series ..    ”Rules of Prey” has to be the first book.

Ø  Gillian Flynn – She is definitely one of the many famous thriller writers present right now. With no doubt , her book “Gone Girl” has to be the first book you pick up and make sure you pick it up before October  2014,  if you are one of those people who either watch a movie adaptation or read the original book. The movie version is being directed by none other than the director mostly known for his killer thrillers , David Fincher.

Ø   Albert Camus – This respected author received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. My words won’t even come close to the respect he deserves for the masterfully crafted work done by this great author. There are so  many classics penned down by him , for starters “The Stranger” also known /published as “The Outsider” deserves a special mention. And it certainly becomes our first book that we ought to check out.

I have tried my level best to not be biased here according to my likings .The list is a result of recommendations and research and of course after I have read them . After checking ‘em out only , I decided that they deserve to be the first work any avid reader reads no matter what or let say a book aficionado’s first choice! ;)

Read On!

Old is indeed gold: Rare Old newspaper articles.

“I wish I could turn back time”

That is a common thought which results out of our cogitation on certain events. If we take our thought literally then that would make us go on a never ending search for a time machine or would make us watch “Back to the future “ movie franchise over & over again to find the key essence to time travelling, so that we could be a part of history. Well that is a task that is well-nigh impossible. But practically it is only possible to know a part of historical events and not be a part of it.

I remember the time when my grandfather had a large conglomeration of old newspaper articles . I wondered why he keeps them but eventually I did get the answer to my curiosity when I saw people struggling to find old articles to prepare for some sorts of examinations or interviews. Some keep it for old memories sake & others to refer the great antiquity. In this world of digitalization we don’t have to make n - number of trips to the nearby library or a central library just to have a glance on history. Technologically everything is just a key stroke away.

Today we being in the 21^st century , have a wide range of materials to refer to & the sources available are quite many as well.  Following are some of the available places available on the web where we can find old newspapers & articles related to past events :

Ø  Google : Solution to all problems affecting the mankind today: “Google”. Type an event(Google it as many may say) & you can have all the information. You will be directed to a link containing all the required data if you select one out of many.

 Google Archiving via Google News: Google news per say has old newspapers as a part of it’s   repository archived for easy & simple reading . You can have access to old newspaper articles in no time. Current or old , Google news is definitely one of the best sources available today.         

Ø  Time machine ( The New York Times) : Can  walk you through the time varying from 1850’s via 90’s to this very date. For some, it’s their favorite source and we can’t seem to agree more.

Ø  BBC(On this day) : This section on The BBC website helps you choose the dates starting from 1950 onwards. Very well archived , you can flip through the pages of history in no time.

Ø  HistoryBuff : This is a site archiving some specific important events that happened after 1750. This is a treasure repository for students or people who want to check out the way things were published in old days.

Ø  Trove : Though it is Australia centric but it doesn’t make it less global. The National Library of Australia has all lined up for you starting from 1803. You can choose the dates by year & a select state option is available as well.

Though there are quite many sources available for readers who want to sift the things from the past. The following: Wikipedia link comes up as the top result options when you try searching a source via Google. It has such important resources all summed up at one place.

P.S. - Who doesn't like the feeling of something Vintage , right? For me it's majorly BOOKS , Posters and long time back I used to collect vintage stamps.