Have you read all Tintin comics yet ???

Hello … 

Today I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn and I have to say, it looks pretty darn interesting. I think its going to be huge.

I wrote here before about reading Adventures of Tintin comics when I was younger and reading them again recently. As kids, me and my friends tried collecting all Tintin books. None of my friends were able to collect them all, and neither did I. There were always a few titles missing.

Times have changed since when we were kids, and now, every Tintin comic ever published is available for download on the internet. I list below all the titles I found online. You can easily download the PDFs here if you ever want to read any of the Tintin comics.

01. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets [PDF, 33.5MB]

02. Tintin in the Congo [PDF, 25.7MB]

03. Tintin in America  [PDF, 13.9MB]

04. Cigars of the Pharaoh [PDF, 16.8MB]

05. The Blue Lotus [PDF, 15.7MB]

06. The Broken Ear [PDF, 16.5MB]

07. The Black Island [PDF, 17.1MB]

08. King Ottokar's Sceptre [PDF, 16.1MB]

09. The Crab with the Golden Claws [PDF, 14.2MB]

10. The Shooting Star [PDF, 15.1MB]

11. The Secret of the Unicorn [PDF, 14.8MB]

12. Red Rackham's Treasure [PDF, 15.8MB]

13. The Seven Crystal Balls [PDF, 15.5MB]

14. Prisoners of the Sun [PDF, 16.1MB]

15. Land of Black Gold [PDF, 15.8MB]

16. Destination Moon [PDF, 16.5MB]

17. Explorers on the Moon [PDF, 16.1MB]

18. The Calculus Affair [PDF, 16.2MB]

19. The Red Sea Sharks [PDF, 16.4MB]

20. Tintin in Tibet [PDF, 17.0MB]

21. The Castafiore Emerald [PDF, 16.7MB]

22. Flight 714 [PDF, 18.8MB]

23. Tintin and the Picaros [PDF, 18.0MB]

24. Tintin and Alph-Art [PDF, 15.0MB]

25. Tintin and the Lake of Sharks [PDF, 9.8MB]

26. Tintin in Thailand [PDF, 2.9MB]

27. The Freelance Reporter [PDF, 2.0MB]

28. Tintin and The Mysterious Visitor [PDF, 1.4MB]

29. They Explored the Moon [PDF, 2.1MB]

30. The Voice of the Lagoon [PDF, 5.3MB]

Here is the link to my Tintin folder at Minus. You can browse through all the covers with descriptions and download any and as many you want.

Hope you enjoy the comics. I know I did. Good times!

Laterx.

The Lincoln Lawyer …

Hello.

Most of you may have already read some of Michael Connelly's work, he is quite famous. But I have to admit that, even though I have heard about him before, I have never read any of his books previously. Not one.

The Lincoln Lawyer is a legal action thriller. The story's protagonist is Michael "Mickey" Haller, a Los Angeles Defense Attorney who works out of the back seat of a Lincoln car. He is quite well known in his circle, mostly because of his list of unusual clients, ranging from motorcycle gangs to drug addicts. It is implied that he will defend anyone if he gets paid right. Most of his clients claim they're not guilty, but Haller is never sure he has ever seen a client who is truly innocent.

While working on a few other cases, Haller gets called on by a rich real estate family to defend Louis Ross Roulet, who has been arrested for badly beating up a girl he met in a bar. Haller gladly takes the big-money case, knowing fully well that a rich client can be a difficult client. To make it worse, Roulet's mother and her lawyer keeps a close eye on Haller.

Haller soon realizes that Roulet's case is not only risky but dangerous as well, and Haller soon finds himself in a deadly game that he doesn not want to play.

The story is gripping, fast and well paced. Also, you learn a bit about the law and a lot about how prosecutors and defense attorneys work the law. It is almost educational.

If you like Grisham's work, you will love Michael Connelly, and this is supposed to be one of his best books. I used to be fan on Grisham, that is before I got tired of style and stories. Connelly offers a refreshing change.

When I started the listening to the audiobook of The Lincoln Lawyer, I did not know that this was the first of a series. Caught a lucky break there. Now, I can continue with the other books in the series easily. I have grown to like Haller as a character I can relate to.

This book proved so good, that they are making a movie based on the book. You can see the movie trailer here on youtube.

Soon, I'll find the time and listen to the rest of Haller series.

Laterx.

The world according to Clarkson ...

Hello.

The World According to Clarkson is a collection of articles written by Jeremy Clarkson for the Sunday Times, spanning 2001 to 2003.

I just finished listening to the AudioBook. I liked most of his aggressively opinionated but erudite observations. He comes out as seasoned traveler, and discusses topics ranging from restaurant food, environmental protection, urban development, the European Union, and political diplomacy among other everyday topics.

It is about the life in the 21st century. Clarkson certainly does not take himself too seriously and his writing is fairly light. He takes a cynical approach and often goes off on a tangent with an entertaining style. I could personally relate to most of the topics he covered. It was hilarious.

I especially like when he points out the pompous, the ridiculous, the absurd and the downright idiotic ideas of Governments and Unions. Occasionally, he does talk about eccentric, the clever and the sheer brilliance of institutions. You will laugh.

Clarkson does not hide the fact he is not too keen about Mr. Tony Blair or his policies and keeps referring to him as His Tony-ness. Weird.

The book is read by Jeremy Clarkson himself and his accent was a bit too British for my liking. I have nothing against Britons, but I got the feeling that it takes a bit more effort to talk with a British accent. They talk slow. Maybe I felt that way because Hollywood and American TV has made American accent a bit more universal.

Anyway, it was a good listen.

Laterx.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo …

Hello.

Months ago, I read a book called The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and weeks later managed to watch the movie based on the book. The book was really good. The movie was okay. The novel is a few years old and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the book has now become an international phenomenon and has climbed to the top of most best-seller lists in the world.

The book starts with two story lines, going back and forth, one about Mikael Blomkvist and the other about Lisbeth Salander. Both are struggling with personal demons, both wants the truth, both wants justice, but one wants revenge!

Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist falsely convicted of using forged evidence to libel a businessman is sentenced to three months in jail and forced to resign from Millennium, the magazine he founded with his friend and occasional lover, Erika Berger.

Blomkvist has six months before he serves his sentence and in the meantime  he is hired by a wealthy magnate Henrik Vanger, who wants to get to know more about the forty-year-old disappearance and possible murder of his niece Harriet. The Vanger family is full of dark secrets, and Henrik thinks one of them is responsible.

Young, pierced and tattooed, Lisbeth Salander is an interesting character and a brilliant computer hacker. She is fierce, antisocial, and very direct. She does not trust many people, and there appears to be trauma in her past.

Lisbeth is first hired to investigate Blomkvist, but ends up helping him with his case instead.

I enjoyed reading the book very much. A girl murdered, unspeakable family secrets, contractual obligations, corporate warfare. What's not to like, right? It was suspenseful, intense, violent and sometimes very graphic, I zipped through the pages in no time.

The book has been criticized for violence against women. I do not think that is the case here. Generational statement on sexual violence against women and society's acceptance was tackled realistically and in the end "justice" served.

This is the first book of a trilogy often known as the Millennium Trilogy and was written by the Swedish Author Stieg Larsson. The second book is The Girl Who Played With Fire, which I am reading now (kindle version) after watching the movie few days back. The third is The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.

Stieg Larsson was a journalist and a politician, and wrote the novels in his spare time. Some say he never planned to publish the novels but later changed his mind. We would never know, as Larsson passed away a year after this book was published. He never saw his other books published, nor did he see any of his books taking the world by storm.

It is worth noting that, Stieg Larsson also became the first author to sell more than a million e-books on Amazon.com.

It seems Hollywood is making a remake of these Swedish movies, and Daniel Craig has been cast in the role of Mikael Blomkvist. Some people are not comfortable with this, as Hollywood has a tendency to mess up remakes. Time will tell.

If you like contained murder mysteries, you will definitely enjoy this book. Highly recommended.

Laterx.

The White Tiger ... Balram goes to Delhi ...

Hello …
I just read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga …
Its a good book … It had to be I guess …
It won the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 2008 …
Lets talk about the book now … shall we …
The book is basically a series of letters …
Written by Balram Halwai to the Premier of China …
In these letters he narrates his story …
He's the nameless son of a Rickshaw puller father …
Born in to the "Darkness" - a poor rural village …
His school teacher gives him his name on admission …
Based on his caste of lowly "Sweet Makers" …
Growing up … he dreams of great things …
He always thinks of himself as an entrepreneur …
But is asked to leave school to work at a teashop …
And when his father passes away … he becomes a driver …
Driver/cleaner/cook/masseur to a wealthy family …
He quickly learns how to be servant number one …
And is taken along in to the "Light" - City of Delhi …
While waiting for his masters outside shopping malls …
He is taught the way of world by other waiting drivers …
Then comes the part of corruption in the democracy …
The struggle of the poor and lack of health care …
His aspirations makes him a murderer and a fugitive …
But he is disciplined observant and cunning ...
And becomes boss@whitetiger-technologydrivers.com …
A very good book … highly recommended …
Laterx …

State of Fear and King Kong ...

hello ...
travelled to a nearby uninhabited island for a coupla hours ...
have travelled so many times ...
this time was somehow different ...
felt different ...
was at the front of the launch ... enjoying the ride ...
suddenly the realization hit me ...
the vastness and the emptiness of the ocean suddenly felt ... comforting ...
never felt that way before ...
dunno why ...
lately the outlook of life has changed a bit ...
judgement of character has changed a bit ...
priorities has changed a bit ...
but its no big deal ...
as the only constant thing in life is change itself ...
i guess gotta deal with it .., somehow ...
hmmm ...
read a book by Michael Chriton - State of Fear ...
good book i guess ...
real thought provoking texts ...
interesting graphs ...
challenged some of the understanding and beliefs i have/had ...
in short ... it says global warming is crap ...
guess most of us wud wanna resent that ...
hmm ...
watched King Kong at last ...
been waiting for a clear copy of it for a while ...
it was damn good ... really good ... good ...
Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow looked A-Okay ...
well ... gotta run ...
peace ...
Laterx ...

PS: wonder how life would have been like ...
If nobody had an agenda or a personal vendetta ?

Total Control …

hello ...
life has been hectic as hell ...
but managed to read a book by David Baldacci called Total Control ...
a good book ...
kept me awake at ungodly hours ...
turning pages ... absorbing a lot ...
all in all ... it was a good read ...
quite unpredictable ...
also managed to catch the final episodes Suraface Season One ...
very interesting season finale ...
a productive week, i'll say ...
gotta dash ...