The Baker Street Letters

Book Name : The Baker Street Letters
Author : Michael Robertson

What is it about : Two brothers rented an office as their legal practice at the famous address of Sherlock Holmes (Baker Street) with a too-good-to-be-true leasing contract; one of the rental conditions however, was to collect, organise and file-away the daily arrivals of Sherlock's fan mail or requests for solving missing cats, disappearing milk bottles to international conspiracies, etc. Nigel, the younger of the brothers took off to Los Angeles vowing to solve one of these sent-in mysteries, leaving Reggie, his older brother with a dead body in the office with the ensuing hounding police detectives. Together with his glamorous actress girlfriend, Laura, Reggie then gave chase after Nigel and uncovered and solved a devious plot.

Some thoughts after having read the book : Fast paced, quick British wit and all ready to be made into a TV mini series. I found the book to be peopled with consistent characters, the dialogues realistic and the plot complicated but plausible. There were annoying bits like Reggie kept taking cabs everywhere he went in LA (what's wrong with just renting a car ?) and Nigel and Laura mysteriously and conveniently appearing on the scene when the actions required their presence; yeh, just a like a mini TV series alright.

Would I recommend this book to you : Ideal book to take with you on the plane, on the beach or just for an evening of chilling out with a glass of red wine. Get the chips ready !

The Quantity Theory Of Insanity

Book Name : The Quantity Theory Of Insanity
Author : Will Self

What is it about : The book included a couple of stories loosely connected detailing the author's (in first person) encounters with various eccentric/insane characters in his life. The clever dude in his class who excelled in researching and investigating the esoteric minority jungle tribe who was best known for the tribe's complete dullness and ordinariness; his friend eventually married one of these dull tribeswoman and both settled in the middle of the London Home Counties; the author's other friend included Jim who was obsessed with the philosophy of "Waiting" or in actual fact "waiting too much" and Jim eventually was converted into a semi-Cult where the main practice was navigating the London streets in a complete trance while finding the quickest way (by driving at a furious speed) from start to finish; the author's own insanity also came under scrutiny by the readers as he met his dead mother who "moved" to "another part of London" after she died; they even had tea and cakes at her "new place" in East London to catch up with old times.

Some thoughts after having read the book : Amusing and at times thought-provoking in that the readers would quickly start assessing the meaning of sanity as the thin grey line which separated eccentricity and madness. In one story, the psycho-therapy in vogue was to swap roles between patients and doctors in a mad-house and the author was inadvertently drawn into the quagmire of turning himself from a visiting psycho-analyst into one of the patients.

Would I recommend this book to you : Witty, dark and at turns I found the stories rather frightening in how one's mind and psycho-well-being could so easily be affected by obsession, therapy-in-vogue and those around you whom you thought harmless or just a bit eccentric and it turned out that in fact, you''re the one going mental gradually under these influences. And by the way, the Quantity Theory Of Insanity revolved around the idea that the "Total Sanity" in a certain society/grouping remained constant depending on the composition of demography of race, age, family units, incomes and so on; sane theory or what ?