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.

Hey you! It's Time to Transform.

In this hustle bustle world , where people spend most of their time with technology rather than the people around them , we don’t have to compromise a bit. It’s like virtually you are everywhere. And by “compromise” I meant you no longer have to hold yourself back. The trending gadgets these days are definitely Laptops , mobile phones , tablets and the list goes on..so what if you are getting 2 out of 3 from the above mentioned names at an affordable price which accounts for just 1. Am I kidding…duh..I am not.

We sleep , we eat , we walk , we talk , we travel- we live. And none of us can deny the fact that even when we are performing all these activities we are surrounded by technological stuffs. And that stuffs for sure make our lives a lot easier .  Let say we travel , per se I travel a lot , so if it were 50 years back then I may have to consider myself deprived of other things like staying in touch with my friends and family , not getting to know what’s going around and things like that. But since we are not currently in that 50 yrs back era we certainly can multi task.

So for an inveterate technology freak , when he sees a dear friend of his/hers holding a tablet first and in the next moment connecting a keyboard to it and converting or the right word “transforming” it to a laptop is a treat to watch. What he thinks is “What the hell just happened?”..Whatever happened , it was awesome.  :D

So this is where curiosity comes into play and he finds out it is the all new ASUS Transformer Book T100. And he says to himself “Name fits the description so damn well”. A 2-in-1 Ultraportable Laptop which is a 10 inch tab as well. Here is where I think about what Dr. Sheldon Cooper(Jim Parsons) from the hit TV Show says when he goes to buy a Suit for himself in one of the episodes ”It’s too much money for just one color “:p. As funnily as he says it , he does strike a point when thought deeply.

 A tab which transforms into a Laptop. No more confused , whether to go for a laptop or a tab. Go for both mate! An inevitable truth…now. It can’t get better than this . Wait , it does. The specs would certainly blow you away. Windows 8.1 as it’s Operating system. A new and improved 1.33GHz Intel Atom ‘Baytrail’ processor. Quad core 2048 MB RAM. With dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, browsing and downloads are quite quick and nippy with an impressive SunSpider 1.0.2 benchmark score of 410.3ms to match. 1366 x 768 pixels (155 ppi) IPS LCD. And does come with a mega 1TB of free cloud storage for one year.

In short, as far as bulding the Ultimate Hybrids(Lappie-tab) goes , Asus sets a mark which is not just tough to beat but close to perfection. Excellence is never out of reach with the ASUS Transformer Book T100. Entertainment is never out of focus. The day is not far when “Just a Laptop” would be “An Anachronism!”

This post is an entry for the contest Time to Transform! conducted by Indiblogger .

Do check out - http://asusindia.co.in/T100/

Go-to websites:Movies/TV Shows

So when it comes to movies there are people who just can't get enough. Not in a lame way but in a complementary way ofcourse.
You always wish to invest 120-200 minutes of your time in something that is worth it.
I myself tend be a lot choosy when it comes to movies n stuffs. I believe movies do play an important part in your life , it varies from person to person , how they perceive things. Certainly there has to be a reason why maximum percent of the world population tend to choose movies as their prime source of entertainment . "Ahh , weekend.. nothing better to do , let's go to the movies". We all have been there & i guess we still are.
So , in this hustle bustle world where technology is involved in almost every aspect of our life, we do require a mode of recommendation so that we can invest that 150 minutes wisely. We do right.
Following are some go to websites that can help you decide easily,wisely & quickly what movies/tv shows to watch/download & what not to.

http://www.imdb.com/

http://www.nanocrowd.com/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

http://www.criticker.com/

http://www.jinni.com/

Go-to websites:Books

The following are the frequent sites that i refer to inorder to come to a decision regarding books
The first choice is probably the most frequent site that i visit in the category & the others that follow are also pretty good to help you choose.

> For deciding my next read or to plan which one's to pick up on my next visit to the book-store, my go-to sites or i must say here's our go-to sites as can be seen from the membership itself.
All the below mentioned sites in this category are equally good & preferring which one of ' em is totally on one's taste .All these sites have a large community to help you decide your next good read.

http://www.goodreads.com/

http://www.shelfari.com/

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.librarything.com/

 http://www.yournextread.com/