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Sensing that watching the same episodes of 30 Rock over and over after I get home from work is perhaps not the best use of my time, I asked Avdhut to take me to a Crossword (an Indian chain of bookstores) in Krome Mall. (Astute readers will note that this is a different location of the same chain from which I collected Nathan upon his return from Mumbai.) I wanted to get a copy of The Economist to read while out to dinner, and thought I could find some other books to read when I’m not otherwise being productive.

On the way back, I took some photos, and added them to the gallery. Here are some highlights.

In addition to the newspaper, I also bought Obama’s The Audacity of Hope; Chris Kuzneski’s The Lost Throne, described as “part Tom Clancy, part Dan Brown”; and (another copy of) Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The total bill came to ₨1450, which thought was quite reasonable.

After hitting the bookstore, we continued on to Dorabjee’s for the weekly grocery ritual. I decided to switch it up a bit this week, buying Kellogg’s Just Right cereal instead of Bokomo Nature’s Source Luxury granola. I know, it’s wild—I hope I can handle it. Otherwise, nothing too exciting.

The Audacity of Hope

Despite having just purchased it yesterday, I have already finished President Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. It was a fairly quick read (about 350 pages in five hours) and had some interesting stories to tell. I certainly didn’t agree with everything put forward, but found myself agreeing with some of the general principles, namely, that politics today seems to be more about winning battles than actually working for the public, that we need to make more compromises and spend less time worrying about pandering to the “base,” and that flying on private jets is far superior to flying commercial.

I had actually forgotten that Tim Wheeler is mentioned by name on a number of occasions in the book, but it was neat to read the passages that referred to someone I knew. Too often, we suspect that the stories used by politicians are made up or exaggerated, but this is pretty accurate. Shortly before his story is first mentioned, though, Obama tells of the difficulties Google has hiring minority workers:

… Google needed to stay competitve, which meant hiring the top graduates of the top math, engineering, and computer science programs in the country—MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley. You could count on two hands … the number of black and Latino kids in those programs.

I was very disappointed to see Illinois left off that list, especially considering it is the flagship university in Obama’s own state, and has a top-five Computer Science program.

A bit more entertainment

I have, of course, purchased H2G2 on a number of occasions now, although I think I only retain one copy at home. (The others have been loaned to friends who obviously considered my loan to be a gift of some kind.) This copy in particular is the Ultimate edition, and includes the titular book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe, and Everything, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Mostly Harmless, and Young Zaphod Plays It Safe. At the low price of ₨700, I could hardly turn it down.

The Lost Throne looks like good escapist fiction, and the jacket text makes it sound like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. (I consider that to be a good thing.) I noticed as I was searching for that link to Amazon.com that it doesn’t appear to have come out in the US yet—my softcover edition was obviously imported from the UK.

It’s Hot

According to the BBC, Mumbai was the hottest place on the globe today, with a high temperature around 33°C. It’s only 32°C here… :-|