reading reading reading......

finished brisingr by christopher paolini. its the third in the inheritance cycle. the author started off writing the series to finish with three books but couldn't finish what he wanted to say in 3 fat books. for the uneducated, this is a series on dragons and their riders and magic and relationships and everything in between. makes for quite exciting reading....

am reading ponniyin selvan now. this is absolutely thrilling. ponniyin selvan is what king raja raja chola was fondly referred to as, ponni is another name for the river kaveri and selvam means wealth, apple of the eye, etc. this story has a heady mix of successions, battles, political intrigues, romance, adventure, magic, etc.. set in the time when south India had the cheras, cholas, pandyas, pallavas, the rashtrakutas (remember school history?) i would have remembered all that stuff if i had read this book then. this is a set of five books by the very famous tamil writer kalki krishnamurthy, transliterated into english. the language is simple english, the descriptions of old towns like kanchipuam, thanjavur, etc is awesome. it is supposed to be a mix of history and the author's imagination. worth reading.