[Book] "Man's Search for Meaning" - Viktor E Frankl

Once in a while, you read a book that leaves you shocked and shaken. 

"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E Frankl is one such memoir, written by a survivor of the concentration camp at Auschwitz during the Holocaust (World War II). Just 150 pages long, it written in such a direct, sharp manner that leaves nothing to the imagination. 

Compared to what these people went through, all our troubles seem so much trivial.

Sherlock! Sherlock!!

What an amazing series. High production quality, top notch acting by Benedict Cummerbatch (never heard of him before this series). 

And poor Watson.. He is the recipient of some of the most acerbic lines from Holmes. Here are my two favourites so far:

You are so vacant. It must be so relaxing not being me.

Stop talking. You're lowering the IQ of the whole street.

Movie marathon

Catching up on my To-Watch movies list. Done with....

Scarface: 

One of the best gangsta movies I have seen. Al Pacino's Tony Montana act is very impressive.

Finding Neverland: 

Didn't know Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet did a movie together. Glad they did this one. But the little boy Peter steals the show.

The Insider: Russel Crowe and Al Pacino in one movie!

Serenity (sci fi), Into the Wild (superb!), Identity (suspense thriller, awesome!!), Zero Dark Thirty, and The Way Back (Ed Harris and Collin Farrell ) All good stuff. 

Wish I had stayed miles away from Piranha 3DD. They have made a mockery out of it.

Have got hold of Abyss (James Cameron), Total Recall ( 1 and 2) and Babylon AD. Have seen these quite some time back, but it's good to have them in the collection. 

Watched two science fiction movies based on the theme of time travel.

"The Primer" 

...has quite a complex plot, dialogue is full of scientific jargon. This is a movie that the better you understand the more you enjoy -(just like Inception). 

"Looper" 

... explores the idea of what would happen if you travelled back in time and killed your own self. Both movies recommended.

"The Moon"

.... One of the more intriguing science fiction films that I have seen. No special effects, no action sequences, the movie contains only one character and his robot companion, yet keeps you hooked till the end.

'Oblivion' 

...  Good sci-fi movie, first half a little boring, the second half much exciting.

Some good things lined up...

Sherlock: 

After watching Jeremy Brett's stellar performance in "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Jeremy Brett", I didn't wish to watch anyone doing Holmes. But this BBC series seems to be a worthy exception. Have seen some snippets, awaiting the real stuff. 

Stand-up Comedians

Just finished watching latest comedy from Louis CK: "Oh My God" ( Live at the Beacon Theater). Loved it, of course. Recommended stuff. 

Louis CK is one of my two favourite stand-up comedians -- the other being Russel Peters. Also like Chris Rock quite a bit. 

Wish we had some good stand-up comedians in India; this genre kind of started and ended with Shekhar Suman. 

.. or is there someone am not aware of?

In the company of Armstrong, Einstein and Jobs

My reading, like all other activities, takes form of a sine wave: there are times when I read feverishly, knocking off a book a week, and then there are times when I do not even read the newspaper. 
Well, the first four months of the year 2013 have been the crest of the wave, so far. Apart from just the number of books, the quality of the material has been outstanding. I plan to review some of these books in a couple of posts. 

In this post, the biographies. 
 

 

First Man: Written by James Hansen, this is the only authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, the first person to step on the Moon. Well-researched and written in an engaging manner, this biography reveals the human side of this reclusive man. It also clears a lot of myths, and false rumours that Armstrong chose not to respond to during his life time. A must-read book for all the fans and followers of the space programme.

Einstein: His life and Universe: There are a number of biographies written on this genius -- some of them very good ones indeed -- but the one written by Walter Isaacson is the best by a wide margin. I especially enjoyed the chapters that describe how Einstein came up with various thought experiments that led him on the way to the special and general theories of relativity.

Steve Jobs: Again by Walter Isaacson! Though I am a bit partial towards Bill Gates, I really enjoyed reading about Steve Jobs, one of the prominent visionaries of our times. It is a great fun to read about Jobs's wry remarks about his contemporaries and his equally poignant observations about innovations and ideas.