the catcher in the rye....

by J.D Salinger

it is a different book .

according to wikipedia its the 13th most controversial book ever written ....
it takes you on a wild ride , the main character is of Holden Caulfield ... he is a teenager who's just been kicked out of the school , well actually he had been kicked out of many schools lately .
he tends to see the world in a strange way and the writings tend to emphasise the phase when teenagers are on the threshold of adulthood and are not quite comfartable with it...

Holden considers that children are innocent and pure whereas adults are wicked and full of nothing but vices , he wants to protect the kids from all the evil in the world.. thats how the name comes.... " the catcher in the rye " he wants to protect the children who are playing in the fields and save them from falling over the cliff...

its so symbolic ... that children are unaware of the dangers that are beyond the fields of rye ....and he wants to protect them . when his sister pheobe says " what do you actually want to do ?"

he says " i just want to be the catcher in the rye " ...... it comes from one of his favourite songs
" when a body catch a body coming through the rye "


the wghole book runs randomly .... long conversations spring from mundane things and still they are incredibly interestingly told , mostly because of the stinging sarcasm in his statements they are funny!!

as you come t the end of the book you are left with a strange feeling .....jd salinger ti seems has never commented on this book of his......well its a must read , atleast for once....it gives a lot of insight into teens minds for once... the uncertainity , the confusion, and a lot of feelings

really a different book... go for it

FREAKonomics...............................

-by Steven D. Levitt,Stephen J. Dubner.

somtimes you better be wary of the two terms bestseller and classic ....

starts off well but as the writer proudly announces that there is no unifying theme in freakonomics .
it covers various topics which range from surprising to boring but stop a step before being informative .

the first anecdote about how incentives can actually act as deterrents taking the example of israeli day care center is an interesting read. then he mentions about how the legalisation of abortions has caused the drop in the crime rate in america in the late 90's . he also briefly mentions about the dictator in romania to explain the context in a better , well this is the only chapter in which he has done some justice to the book .
though its a surprising account , he kinda stretches it too long and finishes just before u r tired of it and about to chuck the book away.

the last chapter is about how black the black names are and how white the white names are .... hell who gives a damn anyway ..... certainly a wasted research and a drag .


read it if u have nothing better to , not a pathbreaking book , though his narrative is a bit different.

the second best seller in non fiction rite now.... hmm.....

o... jerusalem!

this is undoubtedly one of the best non fiction books i ever read.
written by Dominique lapierre and Larry collins.

since they are journalists they have given what appeared to be an unbiased account of the happenings. the chapters are as detailed as they are moving. u cant but help admire the israeli determination and how they were ready to " CLING ONTO JERUSALEM WITH THEIR TEETH" . they were ready to lay down their lives .

David Ben Gurion was the father of the movement. without him it would not have been possible . he was a man with atmost determination and most importantly vision. they built a nation right out of the scratch , they were prepared to go on a war with the regular armies of the arab nations . the story of how they procured their first heavy artillery and their first air planes which laid the foundations of the israeli air force.

as it goes without the need to mention , without the help of the american jews , perhaps all this would not have been possible, Golda meir , who is a woman with unbelievable confidence and courage took upon her responsibility to raise 5 millin dollars and ends up collecting 25 million with which the weapons and thier spare parts were purchased.


few excerpts from the book :

young people and teenagers were employed to deliver the messages between the camps , once when the arab armies were shell ing a girl was caught ina mortar attack and her hand was blown apart. yet she caried on and reached the office with the message and her right hand .after she deliverd the message she said" now get me a doctor"

the israeli were troubled by the egyptian aircraft , so ...
once an israeli aircraft was on reconnaisance , they were over the cairo airport. but unable to trace the city since it was blacked out. they contacted teh A.T.C and asked for permission to land saying they had a cargo to unload. and the A.T.C switched on the lights on the runway . the aircraft deliverd the CARGO of 200 lbs weapons on the airport and destroyed it so bad that no more aircraft could take off for weeks from there.



all in all its a worth reading book.