What I'm Reading: Link List #2

Hoping I didn't shoot myself in the head with my choice

Did you vote? I did! Actually, the last TWO timeS we had an election, I didn't have my voter ID on time (because I had to re-enroll, very boring new Delhi law) and so was super excited to cast my vote today. "It's the only time the citizens feel powerful," my mum said, and I'm inclined to agree.

On to what I read this week!

* First, by me, in Scroll, a website I'm growing to really like (and not just because they publish me!) for their original content. On Fifty Shades Of Grey, the movie:

The writing stank like the naala outside my house when the wind gets going, but Ms James knew her bondage and I read feverishly through the riding crops and the spanking and the almost painful showers. “Oh my,” I thought, and laughed the next time I saw a photo of people on the subway reading this book, their legs crossed, their breathing, no doubt, rapid.

 * Tsk, Uber Cabs. However, this is a story from a few weeks ago, so maybe all is forgiven? I don't know, I just know that my friends have become even MORE cautious about taking cabs home at night. Me? I live on the edge.

Uber sent copies of the email to its past customers, which also included the victim.Uber claimed in the mail that, "We’re back, to serve you and get you moving once again."

* Old, old excerpt, but still, if you haven't read it yet, it's super fun. On literature festivals, from the novel Karachi, You're Killing Me! by Saba Imtiaz.

A girl standing next to me makes a sudden rush towards the café, where the authors are holding court. One of them is waxing lyrical to a crowd of society aunties about the bougainvilleas in his old house. ‘They were the colour’, he says, with a strategic pause, ‘of blood.’ Another is chain smoking and looking bemusedly at the bougainvillea author, who now has a tortured expression on his face as someone tells him about the violence in Karachi. Another, who specializes in writing fictionalized accounts of major news events, is signing a towering pile of books. His latest, an account of the Osama bin Laden raid in Abbottabad, is getting turned into a film. ‘Oh, working on a film is amazing. It’s such a privilege. But I’d rather be here with people who really appreciate my work,’ he says, smiling at a young teenage girl, who squeals and scurries off.

* And finally, this infographic by Lovereading. Click to enlarge.

 What did you read this week?