5 books I’ll read again

And these aren’t in any order. Just that  I have read these over the last few months and they are still fresh in my mind. I also think that in a rush to read more, I tend to overlook finer points in a book. Its a lot like having a lot of appetizing food on the table, where you want to try them all and in a rush forget what each tastes like. Somehow you didn’t eat enough of each, or had forgotten the taste, or even better..you remember the taste, loved it and want more of it. Re-reading a book for me is a lot like the last bit. Loved a book, remember it, and now want re-read for fresher, different perspectives.

 

Eat Pray Love – Friends, bloggers, acquaintances kept recommending this book. I picked it up in the book store, read the synopsis and kept it back. I was in no mood to read depressing anecdotes from a middle-aged woman’s life. Then, I read a fantastic review somewhere, which said, it was another life-altering book. I thought maybe I was wrong. So back I went and finally picked it, and haven’t regretted it ever since. Forget that depressing stuff-  the book is far from it. The book records true accounts by Elizabeth Gilbert, written during her travels to India, Italy and Bali. She is hilarious and most insightful. She tells the most profound lines in the simplest possible manner, which makes you go hmmmm and mwahahahahah in the same breath. I absolutely heart the book. I think EVERY woman would relate to this book in someway or the other.

An excerpt: “Groceries, baby, listen to your friend Richard. You go set your lily-white ass down in the mediation cave every day for the next three months and I promise you this- you’re gonna start seeing some stuff that’s so damn beautiful it’ll make you want to throw rocks at Taj Mahal.”

 

 

Markus Zusak, made me shed copious amounts of tears.Not just at the end of the book, but through the book too. And if he made me cry, he made me smile too. I haven’t read a better book in the backdrop of the holocaust. Death is the main guy in this book. Liesel Meminger is the book thief, who is under the care of her foster father Hans Huberman, who is a painter and an accordionist. (Tragedies and a musical instrument is a must, no?) I fell in love with three characters in this book, Hans, Liesel and Death. Sometimes I can’t thank God enough for my nationality. I don’t know what life would have been like as a German, or being Jewish for that matter.

Buy this book. If you have an older kid- in his/her teens, gift one to them too.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

I am an eternal romantic. After reading this book, I saw the movie too. That’s when I thought I should have stuck to just reading it. Its a book that brought out many emotions in me- mostly the kind that lovers feel- euphoria, desperation, anguish, hope, and just plain Lowwe.

Marquez is the best. He is indeed my most favourite author of all times, though I haven’t yet read his Memories Of my Melancholy Whores. has anyone here read it? The main man in this novel, Florentina Ariza reminds me of my own husband. No no, R is far from being quaint. He is most handsome :d. But Florentiono’s resolve and love for Fermina is so much like R’s grit to make me his. He waited real long for me, you know.

And Fermina Daza reminds me of me. Just that we ended up marrying and i saw better sense in saying a yes to him. I’ve always been a tad vain and have made the most stupid decisions in my life. I always believed there was nothing like True Love..I thought it was but a notion. But read this book and you’ll see how that notion changes to something concrete. And such rich language! Deservedly a Nobel prize recipient. Ah Marquez, I wish I met you some day. I cracked up at many points in this book. Here’s one classic line from Dr Urbino, Fermina’s husband in the novel- “The problem with marriage is that it ends every night after making love, and it must be rebuilt every morning before breakfast’.

 

Its a strange kind of happiness you experience, when you read a book before the film releases. And while I read the Time Travelers Wife I had no clue, this was being made into a film. when I began reading the book, I was a trifle irked with the concept itself, and almost  junked it. But it was a gift on Valentine's, and in the top list of a gazillion booklists - Amazon, that BBC thingy going around FB, OZ book stores, internet, where ever you will care to look. It was one of those- 'read before you die' types. So i read it anyway. And it kind of grew on me...the more I read it, the more I got used to the idea of of time travelling- else it sounded so fantasy-ish, and i am not a big fantasy fan. I haven't read the Potter series or the Lord of the Rings-  yep. Go ahead mock.

But this one really got my attention. In the loo, around the kitchen, on the couch- this book followed me everywhere.
More than anything else, what I really thought and understood, was the importance of living in the present - now and here..in the moment. Its not the greatest thing to keep wanting to visit the past and neither is it all that thrilling to visit your future before hand. It kind of warps everything, your present included. And of course, the kind of love the book talks of is a trifle tough to find. I mean, I don’t think I'll ever marry a Time Traveler. Who wants that kind of tension, man. Imagine, here I am introducing R to my parents, and there, swoosh, he vanishes into thin air, and is romancing me in college days.. Its a tough concept to accept and comprehend unless you've read the book. Oh, I so can't wait to see the film, its going to be more fun watching it, am sure. And I wonder what genre it will be classified under???? fantasy? Sci-fi? 

Methinks, its about romance. For this book, more than anything else is, about LOVE. 
I suggest, go get a copy. (wrote this bit when I read it first on FB. Did a cut paste job here :) )

 

Scribbler got me to reading this. And I can’t thank her enough. For I have been savouring this book, little by little, lest it finishes and leaves me with no mirth. Its funny. And I really cannot say a word more to exactly say how funny. By far the funniest celebrity memoir I've read. Dawn French’s memoir comes in the form of a series of letters. And here’s a sample from one of her letters to her dad -

“We have experienced overexcited, drunk people standing on chairs and announcing, to a whole piazza of unaware and frankly uninterested tourists that we are over there in the corner, look. We’ve had photos taken from the balcony of our hotel into our bedroom, and on one excruciating occassion, Len and i were on honeymoon in Kenya and the dining room of Brits joined in a loud chant of ‘we know what you’ve been doing’ as we entered. Exit swiftly stage left. Room Service, thank you, goodnight.”

So if you are in one of your worst moods, just pick this up. the book clubs here are promoting this book as one of the 50 books you can’t put down, and I so agree.

 

I have 3 books queued up- A Rohinton Mistry, a collection of shorts, and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey. Btw, has anyone here  read Chimamanda Adichie’s newest collection of short stories….did you like them? And who here has read Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni?