shantaram

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."

that's the first line of the new book i'm reading. pretty good start. it's called 'shantaram' by gregory david roberts. it's about this guy who escapes from prison in australia and makes his way to bombay. he's part poet, or at least a writer, but maybe also a gangster kinda...haven't gotten that far into the book yet but the jacket said something like that. the indian mafia, and his part in it, are part of the story. i have a feeling from the first line that at some point things are not going to be going so well for Lin, the main character, but so far he's pretty interesting and happy...kinda glowing with excitement or new energy in the face of new experiences.

i picked this book up partly cuz they use that first line on the jacket, and it sounds like good writing, but also out of a desire to read about something entirely new and different to me. i'm really connecting with the main character, maybe cuz i recognize his sensitivity, and he has a perception i'd like to possess, and a grittyness too, and respect...anyway, i like him, but the setting is so far from me that it's stretching the powers of my imagination. which is odd in a way. i think it's stretching my powers farther than any fantasy novel i've read in a really long time. india has never been a place i've been very interested in, except for the food, but this book might change that. i'm fascinated by it in this book. and the characters are pretty brilliant too. of course there's a love interest. a beautiful woman with really green eyes, who's totally enigmatic, and says brilliant things, and might be dangerous or powerful or both.
it's definitely an adventure, without the indiana jones. more like an adventure of survival, and something totally new. maybe it's the totally new that has me so hooked... the really good prose sure doesn't hurt either.

...

played a solid hour and a half of 4 on 4 full court basketball on tuesday night which i can only describe as being kinda glorious. flat out running and good ball. i was knocking down shots pretty well, and it turns out that i actually have a little left hand finish ability around the basket. 5 left handed layups, out on the break, in traffic, off the dribble....(i'm right-handed and not ambidexterous so yes this is an achievement, and i've NEVER done it before tuesday night.)

...

work has been a real drag lately. i'm a little worried about coming to the end of my shelf-life at indigo actually. there's been no change or any real issues or anything this week, just not liking my job. hopefully that will pass - i seem to go in phases, and today was actually pretty good. hopefully also i will get the promotion i interviewed for a couple weeks ago. i'll hear about it by monday latest. fingers are crossed. if it doesn't happen then maybe it'll be time to look into other options...i'm cursing myself now for not getting more sorted out about a teaching career in time for september, and for missing an application deadline for a theatre sound-guy job that i just remembered wrong. oh well. something will come up. or i can start reading self-help books...