Jerry Siegel

(October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)

“It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman.” For millions of comic book fans across the world, these lines automatically conjure the image of the most popular superhero till date: Superman. But what most do not know is that Superman was first introduced in 1933 as a bald telepathic villain determined to dominate the world. He appeared in a short story called “The Reign of Superman” in a science fiction fanzine printed by Jerome Siegel and was a flop.

Jerome Siegel was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. The youngest of six children he was a big fan of comic books and science fiction and went on to start the first Science Fiction fanzine. It was there that he published all his sci-fi stories that has been rejected by various sci-fi magazines. At the age of 16 he met Canadian born artist Joseph Shuster and the two became good friends. They started created characters and stories together and in 1933 the villainous Superman was born. According to comic book legend, one night in 1934, Jerome kept tossing and turning in bed. Suddenly he had a vision and Superman in his new positive avtaar was born. But for 6 years, the superhero had no takers and Shuster in a fit of anger and desperation burnt the entire strip. Siegel managed to save the cover of the strip though and in June 1938, just a few months after the first costumed superhero Phantom was born, the world met Superman in National Action Comics. He was an instant success and in 1939 he made his appearance as a newspaper comic strip. Ten years later when the contract with National expired, Siegel and Shuster sued for rights over the superhero character. Subsequently, Siegel went on to write for Marvel comics and Archie Comics and created many other superheroes, but none came close to Superman. In 1996, Siegel died in Los Angeles. In 2005, he was posthumously awarded the Bill Finger Award For Excellence in Comic Book Writing.

Robert Jordan

(October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007)

Source: wikipedia

Born James Oliver Rigney, Jr. in Charleston, South Carolina, Robert learnt how to read at the age of 4 with the help of his 12 year old brother. At the age of five he was engrossed in Mark Twain and Jules Verne. He served as a helicopter gunner in Vietnam for 2 years and earned many military honours. Later he rejoined college and obtained an undergraduate degree in Physics. He went to work as a nuclear engineer in the US Navy. Jordan enjoyed hunting, fishing, and sailing, and collected pipes. It was in 1977 that he began writing. He wrote the Wheel of Time series which is often regarded as the best selling series in the history of Fantasy. Jordan also wrote dance and theatre criticism.In 2006, Jordan was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, cardiac amyloidosis. He died on September 16, 2007 but before his death he disclosed all the details of Book 12 (the final volume of the Wheel of Time series that has now been divided into 3 parts) to his family. The second part of this final book is due for release this November.

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So finally, the wait is over. Once again the bookies got it wrong. The Booker did not go to Tom McCarthy or even Galgut. The book which was most popular amongst readers in general, and amongst our voters (Room by Emma Donoghue) didn’t win either. The 2010 Man Booker for Fiction went to Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question, a novel that explores what it means to be Jewish today.

Announcing the winner, the Chair of Judges, Andrew Motion said, ‘The Finkler Question is a marvellous book: very funny, of course, but also very clever, very sad and very subtle. It is all that it seems to be and much more than it seems to be. A completely worthy winner of this great prize.’

And now for the Lucky Draw winners. First of all, thanks for the awesome response. We never thought quick contests could be so popular!

Based on our votes tally, this was how the authors were positioned:

1. Room by Emma Donoghue

2. C by Tom McCarthy

3. Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

4. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

5. The Long Song by Andrea Levy

6. In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut

209 people got the right answer and the winners are

Harsheita Choudhary, Mumbai

Vibhanshu Bisht, Delhi

Pratiksha Khanna, Bangalore

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Your prizes will reach you within the week! HAPPY READING!!!!

And for those of you who did not make it this time. Do not worry. Just keep your eyes on this space. Over the next 2 months, we will have 5 more such quick contests that will be valid for 24 to 48 hours only!

*(Please note that all the entries that were recd after 2 pm and that did not send in their particulars were not considered for the lucky draw. People who sent duplicate or multiple entries were also disqualified.)

Guess the correct winner of the Man Booker 2010 & win a copy of the latest Ken Follet.

It’s really simple. Choose your favourite from the Man Booker 2010 Shortlist (click here to view shortlist)and post your answer here or on the INDIAreads facebook page.

You can also email your response to ls.puia@indiareads.com

Send in your entry before 2 pm IST on October 12, 2010.

Remember only one entry per person. Write your full name and  email id with your answer to enable us to contact you. Please ensure that your email id is correct, else you will be disqualified. IF we can’t reach you, how will we send your prize ?:)

We will conduct a lucky draw from among the correct entries and 3 people will get a copy of Fall of Giants by Ken Follett.

Contest winners will be announced on the INDIAreads blog and on our facebook page.

The contest is open only for INDIAN nationals.*

Good luck and hurry up…..just a few hours to go…..

*INDIAreads employees or their immediate family cannot participate.

After much speculation the name of this year’s Nobel Prize winner for Literature is out and luckily for the Swedish Academy, it is a good choice! Peruvian author, essayist and journalist Mario Vargas Llosa has won the Prize “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat”.

Often regarded as Latin America’s most widely read author of the “boom” period, Llosa rose to fame in 1963 with his debut The Time of the Hero. he was only 26 then.  His books span a variety of genre – be it murder mysteries, comedies, historical novels and politcal thrillers, yet  they are influenced by his impressions of the working of his native Peruvian society. Lately however, he has shifted to wider international themes and issues and has dappled with post modernism. His new novel, “El Sueño del Celta” (“The Celt’s Dream”), is due out in Spanish next month

Born in a middle class Peruvian family on March 28, 1836, Llosa spent the early years of his life on a Bolivian cotton farm with his mother and her family. It was at the age of ten that he met his father for the first time. At the age of fourteen he joined the Leoncio Prado Military Academy but left it a year before graduation. He published his first short story in 1957. Llosa has also taken active interest in politics moving from the left to the right. In 1990 he ran for the presidency of Peru as the representative of a centre-right coalition.

First there was Count Dracula. Then came Edward Cullen, the vampire threat throb who has become the new age “romantic hero.” And now we have Zoey Redbird, a sixteen year old half Cherokee girl who is on her way to becoming the world’s most powerful vamp. Of course in Joey’s world, humans and vampyres co-exist and do so almost peacefully. Any human can be “marked” by a vampyre (yes this isn’t a typo) tracker and chosen to join the ranks of the undead. It requires no vampyre bite, no motive. Only leads to the marked teenager being labelled as a freak by “ordinary” humans. But hey, there are no crosses that are embedded into their hearts to finish them off. The process of transformation to a creature with a blood lust  is painful but not at all akin to Bella’s transformation in Twilight. No, becoming a vampyre is a long drawn process. And in this book, the mother daughter duo of P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast try to make the reader see things from the point of view of a human who suddenly finds herself craving for her ex-boyfriend’s blood. Disgust, horror, denial, shame and yet an almost insatiable all consuming desire for blood.

The House of Night series provides a different take on the Vampyre world. And Marked being the first book of the series explains it as a matriarchal society led by a female Goddess. The men vampires are useful only as consorts and in some cases, protectors. The vampyres summon their powers from the elements of nature- wind, fire, water, land and spirit. Any human who has been marked has to undergo rigourous training at the House of Night, a school that grooms young vampyres and teaches them, alongside history, sociology, spanish, activities like fencing, equestrian training (or in layman’s terms, horse riding), karate, drama, tae-kwan-do. Only good old geometry is missing from the syllabus. And yes, the world’s greatest artists, musicians, actors and actresses are all vampyres. So they are not just hateful, spiteful, blood sucking creatures. They are beautiful, talented ex humans who have developed special powers and the blood that they drink is from donors. Of course there are the “evil” vampyres who crave and drink human blood, but Marked has little of them. This novel is just providing the setting for a new world and so the action is minimal.

The series warns that it is not suitable for young readers under age 16. Perhaps it is due to the fact that there is a little more gore in it that in the Twilight series. Also there are references to carnal pleasures. And yet Marked is a novel written for teenagers. The language is colloquial, the vocabulary akin to that of any American collegiate. Zoey is full of slang. The book is not as well written as the Twilight series and you definitely don’t experience Zoey’s emotions like you experience Bella’s. Yet, the totally different vampyre society that it creates is intriguing. What it lacks in depth, it makes up for in novelty and pace. If you are a vampyre novel fan or are looking for a fun fantasy read, pick it up. But don’t go around looking for romance, at leats not in Marked. Yes, there is a “hero” and yes there is some element of attraction between the main protagonist and him, but that is not the undercurrent of the book. This is no vampyre romance novel and Erik Night, the male vampyre-in-the-making is no Edward Cullen.

Rent/ Buy Marked and other House of Night novels from INDIAreads Online Library cum Bookstore.