Amen

Coelho on future of Book

Paulo Coelho gives his views about the future of  book in this beautiful and thought-provoking essay.

Mirza's Ammi

Stumbled upon review of a book by Saeed Mirza which seems to be interesting one to read. Its been ages since I read fiction (though this seems to blend fiction and nonfiction being a fictionalized memoir of Mirza's mother or ammi)
Here is a blog review of the book and I found some parts to be very relevant.

"The result is an absorbing mix of fiction and non-fiction – it’s as if a line has been drawn down the book’s centre, separating the Nusrat-Jahanara story (which is abandoned at the point where the couple are about to start a family) from the autobiographical sketches of later years: the one about his parents’ stoical reaction when he unwittingly ate a ham sandwich in school, for instance. (“A sinner is someone who sins against people – not because he eats pork,” his mother hesitantly concludes after thinking things over for a while, though she quickly adds, “But in my house there will be no pork!”)"

End of Books?

Ajit Balakrishnan, the CEO of Rediff writes about the coming end of the era of books? Notice the questionmarks cos of course all predictions are difficult especially about the future.
I had earlier poured scorn on Sir Naipaul for expressing similar sentiments. But recently things are looking in a similar way to me and Mr. Balakrishnan draws remarkable parallels between this process and the introduction of printing in the first place. The culprit for the end of books seem most likely to be the electronic formats typified by the internet and ebooks.