Romantic

The dictionary defines the word as fanciful; unpractical; unrealistic.

oh damn! that's me! the hopeless romantic~ and now i am depressed, my own fault i guess, who goes around reading the dictionary for no reason.

State of Wonder - Ann Patchett

I read it for a book club, I would say it was an okay okay book, maybe i was not in the right frame of mind to judge it and I pretty much pushed my way through it. Perhaps I will develop a better appreciation for it after the discussion with the other girls.

Recommendation : On a scale of 0 to 10; 0 being - never read this, and 10 being - stop everything and read this right now, I would say 1.

The lovely bones - Alice Seobold

It is a disturbing book about a little girl who is raped and murdered by a neighbor who never gets caught and what is more has the audacity to pretend to comfort the grieving mother. The very subject is gruesome. It is more horrifying to read it as a mother. Why did I put myself through that torture? I guess I was hoping to see the man caught and punished. Does that happen? Not really, he dies in the end but.... that's not the same.

It is very well written.  There are parts in there that are simply beautiful. I liked her idea of heaven and at the same time it bothered me. She talks of heaven being a place where your earthly desires come true and yet it is a place where you are somehow trapped, trapped with the things you love the most. Sad, isn't it. To have what you have always wanted and yet... to know that it is not true in a way.

Would you still want this thing then? Could you delude yourself into believing you actually have it? I guess I could not. I would know that it was not real, I only had it in my heaven and not in real life. In the beginning I would love that. Its me and my daydreams, I love them. They help me escape. i need my happy place. But you eventually get bored of your happy place and you need to move. I guess that would happen to my heaven too. Once I had had it for so long, then perhaps I would even stop wanting it anymore. And i am not sure if that would be a horrible fate, the cessation of all desire. In certain parts of the world that is the ultimate object to covet. Am I convinced of that? Some days maybe, others, not so much. Life, as I know it makes no sense outside the context of desires. Maybe some other kind of life does, but I do not know of it, so...

Recommendation : On a scale of 0 to 10; 0 being - never read this, and 10 being - stop everything and read this right now, I would say 2, 3

Love is a verb not a noun....

अगर सुख पाना आपके नसीब में नही तो क्या सुख देना भी आपके भाग में नही? Asks vaijanthimala of Rajender Kumar in Saathi. I loved that thought, it is beautiful, isn't it? I am so completely inspired with it, In fact the whole movie is quite inspiring. There is of course the issue of why women in Hindi movies can be good only as long as they are giving up for others. the minute a woman wants something for herself (simi garewal in the movie ) she falls from her 'heroine' status, and the only way for her to regain the lost goodwill is by making some extreme sacrifice. It's okay for men to want things but not okay for women, Hindi film heroines never want anything. It is a different matter that the only reason they don't want things is because at least in the film everything is given to them on a platter, Everything is theirs - without asking, no wonder they can play the martyr and pretend to not even want these things, you can only want things that you dont have!! But I digress, back to the thought....

It is very nice , it gets us to focus on the things that we control and helps us let go of stuff that is beyond us. Now where did I read, that love is a verb, not a noun, and hence statements like ' I dont love him anymore' are self defeating. Why don't you? Why don't you love him anymore? Love is not a spectator sport, you need to put yourself out there, do things for him that make him happy, be of service to him, make his life easier, love him, in action, in deeds, a real living love, instead of waiting for some Hindi film style 'electric shock' moments. In my experience the said 'electric shock' moments are random events and it would be highly imprudent for you to chart the course of your life based on or for random events.

Yes, there is the whole argument about how all order might just be a random co-incidence and stuff, but right now I am not getting into that, this above is just pragmatic good sense and hence worth following, until a more sound theory can be formed.

Asimov

I just read two asimov books in two days, so that was a hark back to the olden days when i used to read a book a day, i have not done that in ages. The ones I read just now were, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.

I liked them, would I recommend someone to read them - sure, only if you are the kind of person who reads a lot of books, then you should read these, but if you are the kind of person who is only going to read say ten books in your whole life, then no, I don't think this needs to be one of those ten. this is in no way me being disrespectful of Mr. Asimov, I think he is a very fine writer, it is just that I do know people who do not read books at all, and I love them regardless, so this is just my opinion for them.

Asimov is brilliant in his conceptions of different worlds, he is brave enough to put his thoughts in to shape and then diligent enough to put in the time and energy it takes to fill in those shapes with details. I think i was not surprised by anything this time, When i had read foundation's edge I was surprised at the end on finding that the girl Novi was not the simple hamishwoman she was pretending to be, but this time, since I knew his MO I could pretty much suspect and predict those twists in the plot, so that did ruin my fun a bit, and i was a litlle bit (with all due respect) dissapointed in Asimov because of that. I just expected this brilliant man to not have an MO :) Patternless is what I was hoping he would be.