There are times when I wish I hadn't studied to be an engineer. Times when I wish I had a liberal arts degree, and that I would have actually learned the craft of writing professionally! Then I remember that this wonderful life I have today I owe to the education I do have! No engineering, no Michigan Tech, no Ajey, no Caterpillar...so on, all the way to no sitting in my little eyrie in Suzhou - embarking on my second blog! So, absolutely no regrets!!
So why a second blog? Well, the first one is more of a journal - a memoir, if you will, about our years in China, and our incredibly diverse experiences! This one will be more of a catch-all. Here will be found, for lack of a better word, reviews of books and movies I enjoy - not critiques or technical reviews, simply my thoughts! Also, since it's a little difficult to get new releases - both books and movies - my posts will consist of mainly all-time favorites to begin with.
'Have blog, will write' is what I feel every time I start a new post! It is an exhilarating feeling - and it seemed to be a very appropriate name for this new blog! The rest of the title - of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings - comes from one of my favorite poems, 'The Walrus and The Carpenter' by Lewis Carroll. The phrase seems to capture precisely what I hope to do with this blog - a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a whole lot of everything!
I enjoy reading all kinds of books - I'm actually a pretty indiscriminate reader, when it comes down to it. From children's books, to biographies, to all kinds of fiction and non-fiction, anything goes. Sci-fi is probably the only genre I'm not too fond of. It has been bit of a challenge to find English books here in China - I have been barely managing with the school library and the online Peoria public library! Right now, I'm really excited about re-reading all my favorites so that I can write about them!
And, finally, I now have a place to say it loud - I absolutely love Hindi films! Even so, I'm surprisingly picky about what I'll watch - I don't do 'serious' or 'realistic' - when I watch a movie, I want 'escapism' all the way! No matter how improbable and illogical, I love the drama, the emotion, the grand gestures, the sweeping panoramas and of course, the melodies! I do watch Hollywood films, and some of them will surely make their way onto these pages - but this will a space mainly for Bollywood movies.
I'd like to end this post with a word of acknowledgement for 2 bloggers who have been my inspiration for many years - Nupur, of One Hot Stove and Baradwaj Rangan, of Baradwaj Rangan. One Hot Stove is a food blog, and Nupur is a wonderful raconteur, seasoning her incredibly easy-to-follow recipes with personal stories. I actually toyed with the idea of starting a food blog myself after reading Nupur, but regretfully, I'm just not that good of a cook! Baradwaj Rangan is a National Award winning movie critic - he writes for the Chennai based Hindu. His writing has such a lyrical quality that often his reviews are much better than the movie itself! Both these blogs have one thing in common - their authors have a passion which shines through their writing - and that is exactly what makes them so readable!
I'll be back soon with the first review post....until then, Happy Reading!
So why a second blog? Well, the first one is more of a journal - a memoir, if you will, about our years in China, and our incredibly diverse experiences! This one will be more of a catch-all. Here will be found, for lack of a better word, reviews of books and movies I enjoy - not critiques or technical reviews, simply my thoughts! Also, since it's a little difficult to get new releases - both books and movies - my posts will consist of mainly all-time favorites to begin with.
'Have blog, will write' is what I feel every time I start a new post! It is an exhilarating feeling - and it seemed to be a very appropriate name for this new blog! The rest of the title - of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings - comes from one of my favorite poems, 'The Walrus and The Carpenter' by Lewis Carroll. The phrase seems to capture precisely what I hope to do with this blog - a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a whole lot of everything!
I enjoy reading all kinds of books - I'm actually a pretty indiscriminate reader, when it comes down to it. From children's books, to biographies, to all kinds of fiction and non-fiction, anything goes. Sci-fi is probably the only genre I'm not too fond of. It has been bit of a challenge to find English books here in China - I have been barely managing with the school library and the online Peoria public library! Right now, I'm really excited about re-reading all my favorites so that I can write about them!
And, finally, I now have a place to say it loud - I absolutely love Hindi films! Even so, I'm surprisingly picky about what I'll watch - I don't do 'serious' or 'realistic' - when I watch a movie, I want 'escapism' all the way! No matter how improbable and illogical, I love the drama, the emotion, the grand gestures, the sweeping panoramas and of course, the melodies! I do watch Hollywood films, and some of them will surely make their way onto these pages - but this will a space mainly for Bollywood movies.
I'd like to end this post with a word of acknowledgement for 2 bloggers who have been my inspiration for many years - Nupur, of One Hot Stove and Baradwaj Rangan, of Baradwaj Rangan. One Hot Stove is a food blog, and Nupur is a wonderful raconteur, seasoning her incredibly easy-to-follow recipes with personal stories. I actually toyed with the idea of starting a food blog myself after reading Nupur, but regretfully, I'm just not that good of a cook! Baradwaj Rangan is a National Award winning movie critic - he writes for the Chennai based Hindu. His writing has such a lyrical quality that often his reviews are much better than the movie itself! Both these blogs have one thing in common - their authors have a passion which shines through their writing - and that is exactly what makes them so readable!
I'll be back soon with the first review post....until then, Happy Reading!
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