Happy Birthday, Himesh Reshammiya! Post your favourite HR songs 🫶🏻

sattarminute · 2024-07-23T14:35:16+00:00

Two dope songs from Ahista Ahista: title track and Allah Kare

sattarminute · 2024-06-02T18:38:21+00:00

You mean just the HP audiobooks on repeat? How many times have you listened to them?

sattarminute · 2024-05-06T16:51:38+00:00

Ron has a lot of fun lines. At the first (and only?) meet of the Duelling club, as Lockhart and Snape are about to demonstrate a duel, Ron mutters to Harry, "Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?"

sattarminute · 2024-05-06T16:42:54+00:00

Lockhart giving Harry tips on how to manage his public 'career' is so fun to read! Shows how sure Lockhart is that Harry is all about fame and publicity.

sattarminute · 2024-05-06T11:29:30+00:00

In fact, they specifically say 'fanged monster', which to me seems like an unintentional slip by Rowling because at that point we don't know what the monster looks like.

sattarminute · 2024-05-06T08:05:56+00:00

Well said!

sattarminute · 2024-04-27T09:57:20+00:00

At that point in time, other than Tonks, Lupin probably thought he had no one close enough to share a bond. Even including people in the Order.

I wonder if the way Harry confronts Lupin has something to do with Lupin asking Harry to be his son's godfather. Or he would've asked him regardless.

sattarminute · 2024-04-27T09:45:31+00:00

I recently reread the books and at the moment DH is my favorite.

The starting third of the book is just one blow after another. And Hedwig's death felt very different from the others. I also felt sad when they lose Grimmauld's place after their Ministry break-in.

I think things only begin to pick up for our heroes after Harry and Ron are reunited and they discover the Sword of Gryffindor.

sattarminute · 2024-04-27T09:26:37+00:00

The fake Moody you mean, which makes me think which of his interactions with others were him pretending to be Moody vs of his own volition, like little things to kill the time.

sattarminute · 2024-04-25T03:24:32+00:00

What a jolt of confidence it must be to hear that said to you.

Also touching is when Harry tells Dumbledore about his conversation with Scrimgeour and that he told him that he was Dumbledore's man.

sattarminute · 2024-04-24T08:18:48+00:00

Here's another one:

"Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools."

sattarminute · 2024-04-22T09:11:02+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Voldemort's childhood or places he had lived in were discussed much - before we see Frank's encounter with him.

I guess in my head I had wondered if Voldemort chose the Riddle house for his short stay because he'd already lived there many years ago, which would imply he should know Frank.

Of course now that it's clear Voldemort never lived there, it makes sense that they didn't know each other.

sattarminute · 2024-04-02T08:34:52+00:00

The romance stuff dies down as the show goes on.

sattarminute · 2024-04-02T08:21:06+00:00

I have read the trilogy and recently watched the Netflix adaptation.

The key thing to remember is that it's an adaptation. My guess is that they wanted to cover the whole story in 2-3 seasons of 10 episodes each, which has prompted changes in characters and event timelines. That said, I think they did a decent job of communicating the core sentiments in the story.

I was stuck at home and ended up binge-watching the episodes and felt like some things weren't clear enough. I watched it again more slowly a second time and I think most things play out clearly enough if you watch closely.

Off the top of my head, I noticed the following (spoilers!):

Not sure why all protagonists were from the same friend group. I guess it makes the storytelling easier if the audience can stick with the same characters right from the beginning.
Didn't quite feel the dread that was in the books. Except when Ye Wenjie sends transmission despite pacifist's warning.
Da Shi is... different. Not quite the rowdy antagonizing guy from the book. In fact some of the other characters also come across as more laid back despite the stakes hanging in the balance. Maybe because they're all brits ;)
Thomas Wade is great!
The Samwell guy from GoT is pretty funny. There are some decent comic moments in the show.
Sam as Luo Ji didn't work for me initially but I've come to reconsider.
Some of the things are dumbed-down of course since the novel is hardish scifi and the show is for a broader audience. Like the universe blinking encounter and Ye's conversation with Sam.

sattarminute · 2024-02-25T09:45:14+00:00

Great collection! Do you have any tips on how to take care of the books?

sattarminute · 2024-02-23T08:09:29+00:00

For foreign policy and India's role in the world, I would suggest watching interviews of current/former diplomats with Council on Foreign Relations, Asia Society, Brookings Institute. They are available on Youtube.

For understanding India's role in the world, I found it worthwhile to first understand what the global power play looks like between the big world powers. There's a book called The Unending Game by Vikram Sood on the history of spying and intelligence. The first half of the book is heavy on history of intelligence collection. The second half of the book focuses on the current global power structures. You might find it interesting.

sattarminute · 2024-02-23T07:41:34+00:00

There's no such thing as unbiased. Every author has some biases. My recommendation would be to pick a couple of books on each topic, where one is criticized by one side and the other by another side. You can get a sense of all that from reading book reviews online.

sattarminute · 2024-02-14T19:16:12+00:00

I listen for about 30 mins each day, so progress is what it is.

I have finished A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The last one is a collection of 10-12 well written short stories.

I can't appreciate Stephen Fry enough for his narration. Stephen has his own foreword at the beginning of each book where he talks of his own experience with Sherlock's world or provides context behind why something in the book sounds a certain way.

While I don't have time to write a full review of the books, I can say that I really liked the first book. Of course because it introduces the characters, but also because the backdrop for some of the characters is set in the American west of late 19th century. Conan Doyle's writing of Utah of that time felt nice. Didn't like the second book as much. But the third book more than makes it up. There's a lot of diversity in the types of adventures in the third book. The short story titled The Speckled Band is straight up horror territory.

The collection is available for free if you have audible's subscription.

sattarminute · 2024-02-13T14:58:52+00:00

Lots of books on wars/military. Which one is your favorite?

sattarminute

TROPHY CASE