The written word

I've lost count of the number of books I have devoured over the past few weeks. Picked up "I am Red" by Orhan Pamuk last week. When a gilder and a master miniaturist in Istanbul are brutally murdered while working on a supposedly blasphemous book for the sultan, panic strikes the miniaturists, who are struggling to keep their art alive. Translated from the Turkish, the book is set in the last days of the miniaturist school of painting in the Ottoman empire. Crisply written, the book offers a glimpse into a totally different world, where religion is deeply ingrained into and governs all aspects of life, including creativity and artistic expression. On a another note, the book is also about change, when a glorious era is coming to an end and everything as it stands will never be the same, when new is poised to leap over the old. Good read.