What I'm reading ...

I decided it was time for something serious, but not too heavy. Biography is a good bet. So I have started Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick. This should feed my interest in science too. Here's the blurb:

An illuminating portrayal of Richard Feynman—a giant of twentieth century physics—from his childhood tinkering with radios, to his vital work on the Manhattan Project and beyond
Raised in Depression-era Rockaway Beach, physicist Richard Feynman was irreverent, eccentric, and childishly enthusiastic—a new kind of scientist in a field that was in its infancy. His quick mastery of quantum mechanics earned him a place at Los Alamos working on the Manhattan Project under J. Robert Oppenheimer, where the giddy young man held his own among the nation’s greatest minds. There, Feynman turned theory into practice, culminating in the Trinity test, on July 16, 1945, when the Atomic Age was born. He was only twenty-seven. And he was just getting started.
In this sweeping biography, James Gleick captures the forceful personality of a great man, integrating Feynman’s work and life in a way that is accessible to laymen and fascinating for the scientists who follow in his footsteps.

The Accidental Apprentice - by Vikas Swarup

This is a fairly long and complex book, but it is quite coherent, so I enjoyed the ride. I am interested in life in India and I guess this gave me a different perspective. The characters are well described, so I had clear pictures of them in my head. My only challenge was handling some of the Indian names, which can sound similar. The book also has a proper ending, with some interesting twists, which did not feel rushed. Along with being entertaining, the book is also thought provoking, which is a bonus.

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup. I got this book because I heard some of it serialized on the radio and it sounded interesting. I was after some creative fiction to read next. Here's the blurb:

In life you never get what you deserve: you get what you negotiate…
What would you do if, out of the blue, a billionaire industrialist decided to make you the CEO of his company? No prior business experience necessary. There is only one catch: you need to pass seven tests from the 'textbook of life'.
This is the offer made to Sapna Sinha, an ordinary salesgirl in an electronics boutique in downtown Delhi, by Vinay Mohan Acharya, one of India's richest men.
Thus begins the most challenging journey of Sapna's life, one that will test her character, her courage and her capabilities. Along the way she encounters a host of memorable personalities, from a vain Bollywood superstar to a kleptomaniac Gandhian. At stake is a business empire worth ten billion dollars, and the future she has always dreamt of. But are the seven tests for real or is Acharya playing a deeper game, one driven by a perverse fantasy?

More Fool Me - by Stephen Fry

I was looking forward to reading this book, having enjoyed the previous two volumes. However, I would rate the experience as just "OK". Fry is a very intelligent, creative guy, but that is not particularly apparent in this book. The main problem is that there is little new material. The first part of the book was a summary of the previous two, which I felt was redundant. A large part of the rest of the book was the verbatim text of his diary that he wrote in the 1990s. All in all, the work appears unstructured and very lazily put together. But I guess I'll still end up reading volume 4 ...