India Uncut
This blog has moved to its own domain. Please visit IndiaUncut.com for the all-new India
Uncut and bookmark it. The new site has much more content and some new sections, and you can read about them here and here. You can subscribe to full RSS feeds of all the sections from here.
This blogspot site will no longer be updated, except in case of emergencies, if the main site suffers a prolonged outage. Thanks - Amit.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Raising the blogging bar
I am humbled and edified by the outstanding start that Chandrahas Choudhury, my new co-blogger on The Middle Stage, has made to his blogging career, if one may call it that. Read, in particular, these three posts: "The magic of Cather", "Constantine Cavafy's city", and "The world of Nazneen".
I love the way in which in three or four short paragraphs he manages to convey the essence of a book to us. He shows, not tells, with the skillful use of a relevant excerpt; having distilled the essential quality of a book or writer, he places it in perspective with other art; he links to other reading material, thus empowering the reader to discover more on his or her own. And I have yet to read anything he has written about a book without being seized by an urge to go out and buy it right away.
This places a problem for me now, but one that I am looking forward to: when I resume blogging on The Middle Stage, sometime next week, I'll have to lift my writing up to higher than what it used to be on that blog. That is a good thing. The bar has been raised, and I shall have to lift myself. What fun.
I love the way in which in three or four short paragraphs he manages to convey the essence of a book to us. He shows, not tells, with the skillful use of a relevant excerpt; having distilled the essential quality of a book or writer, he places it in perspective with other art; he links to other reading material, thus empowering the reader to discover more on his or her own. And I have yet to read anything he has written about a book without being seized by an urge to go out and buy it right away.
This places a problem for me now, but one that I am looking forward to: when I resume blogging on The Middle Stage, sometime next week, I'll have to lift my writing up to higher than what it used to be on that blog. That is a good thing. The bar has been raised, and I shall have to lift myself. What fun.
