Disgrace

Yesterday I finished reading Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. It is a sad and beautiful book. I found I had a lump in my throat and a wet eye, as I put it down. It is really a sad book, but it is very very well written.

Mr Coetzee conveys a lot with a minimum of words, he writes almost to the point. The first lines of the book are:

For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well. On Thursday afternoons he drives to Green Point. Punctually at two p.m. he presses the buzzer at the entrance to Windsor Mansions, speaks his name, and enters.

The book has only 220 pages. Other author may have stretched it to more and more pages.

The book is set in the post-apartheid South Africa. It tells the story of a fifty-two year old professor, who teaches romantic poetry at a university of Cape Town, South Africa. But I should not tell you more. Please do read this book. You will feel enriched by reading it. BTW, Disgrace was awarded Booker Prize in 1999.

The first chapter of the book is here.

And the review of the book is here.

Favourte Bookmark

The image on the left is that of my favourite bookmark. And lucky bookmark too, for me. Whenever I had used this bookmark, while reading a book, I have been able to finish it and appreciate it too. I have gone through such fat books, Brothers Karamazov, for example, using this bookmark.

I had lost this bookmark somehow, and I had lost hope of finding it again. I thought maybe I must have given it in a book which was borrowed by one of my friend. I was very happy to find it again among one of the book, a few days ago. I am now using it for Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, book which I am reading presently.

The charm of this bookmark is quote by Desiderius Erasmus . Wikepedia tells me that he was a Dutch humanist and theologian.

More quotes by Desiderius Erasmus are here

Tashakor, Khaled Hosseini

Recently I finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
I had seen this book a few months ago on someone desk, and liked the story line, as was described on the back page of the book. Oh this book is about redemption, I had said to myself and I must read it. Since I purchased the book to which I take fancy to, instead of borrowing it from someone, I purchased it during my next visit to my favourite bookshop. I finished reading it recently. I really liked it. It made for very good reading. I would recommend it strongly. The plot summary of the book is here.

Tashakor (which means thank you in Persian) Khaled Hosseini for writing it.