Late Bloomer

Today I am sharing some secrets here...

I watched "The Sound of Music" after my marriage.

I read "Charlotte's Web" last year.

I got to read "The Little Prince" this January only.

"Daddy Long Legs" is the book which I started and finished in a day and that is today.


I went through the passage of childhood without the oppurtunity to read these books and movies. I have yet not a read a single "Fantastic Four" series or "Agatha Christie" or other young adult book. It was not that I was not into books in my student days. I had my monthly dose of youth magzines, comics and I used to read english stories from the course books of my friends of other schools and curriculam. But I never got exposed to the classic children literature. May be it was location factor as there never were such book shops or good library and I never had peers and cousins who had read such books themselves. But better late than never. And slowly and stealthily I am reading my share of children literature and loving every second of it. I have said it earlier but let me say it aloud again-"One is never too old to read children book and watch animation movies". I downloaded the pdf format of "Daddy Long Legs" and read it in my office today and finished it at home just now. And I loved it. Every.single.line. I may count it in the list o my favourite books. The book inspire me to read "Little Women" (I have already seen the movie) even if possible in abridged form.

So if you have any more good books to recommend to a woman in the last pedestal of her 20s, please feel free to comment and share. You would definitely make the child in me very happy.:)

Peek-ten-boo(ks)

Thank You Jeeves: This novel deals with the adventures of Wooster and Jeeves. The novel begin when Jeeves threatens and leaves his job of butler from Wooster household on account of the cacophonous noise of banzo that Wooster plays and is soon taken in by a friend of Wooster. Wooster himself has to leave his housing society on account of the noise that his banzo-playing creates and incidently was invited by the same friend to live in his county. Adventure begins when love blossoms, misunderstanding happens, revenge sought and well because of those plannings of Wooster and Jeeves. Loved reading it.

Psmith in the city: Already written about it here.

A Damsel in Distress:  Reading this novel was like watching a movie. Seriously, the story-line makes for an full-on commercial pataka rom-com movie. The kind of 70s movie with a simple landlore, his lovely daughter  who loves some outsider and therefore prohibited to go outside her castle, her aunt who wants  her to marry her step-son, the step-son who loves the secretary of land-lord, a successful music director who has love-at-first-sight with the land-lord’s daughter when she sneaks out of town for a day, the misunderstanding in landlord’s family who mistakes the music director to the American man their daughter loved, the seep-loving butler and housemaids and the adventures that follow. Read this fast-paced book and have a feeling of watching a movie. Loved it absolutely.

The remains of the day:  5 star. Loved this book and already wrote about  it here.

Of Mice and Men: I have a phobia of reading classic books. Name it as a classic and I fear that I would not be able to read/ complete it and do justice with the book. It has happened earlier.  “Midnight Children”, “One thousand years of Solitude”,  “Little Women”..I have started them all and my vain brain was not able to finish it. But “Of mice and Men” was different.  First of all it was a novella and not very serious on subject. So I successfully finished it. And John Steinback is a Nobel Laurete. His two other books also features in Classic books, and this book gave me hope that I can read them.

Come On Jeeves: A book of short adventured of Jeeves and Wooster.

The Little Prince: I have heard so much of this book. It is termed as children’s book but then you are never too old to read children’s books or to watch Disney animation movies. I loved “Frozen” so much. But let’s go back to this book. Just read the first page and you know you are in for a masterpiece.

My Man Jeeves: A book of short adventured of Jeeves and Wooster. I can never get bore of the Jeeves and Wooster series.

The Metamorphosis: My brother had gifted me short-stories collection of Franz Kafka to which I frowned as the font style of the book was not very reading-condusive and I have neer read Kafka earlier. But ultimately it was in pdf format that I read this book. The book tells the story of a man who overnight has been metamorphosed into a reptile and how he and his family deals with this metamorphosis. A compelling book and you wonder how would you have dealt with this had you been Karl or one of his family member. I was unsure of ending though.

The Museum of Innocence:  I started this book long time back. This had been my nightstand fixture for a long time. I finished few more books before finishing it. But ultimately, one day I decided enough is enough and I got to restart it. And it seemed I had never left the world of Kemal Bey and Fusun. It is the love-story of a rich man and poor girl with an age-difference of 12 years who fall in love then part ways and then meet almost everyday for 8 years in her home during the period of which the guy kept on picking up little things that are linked to Fusan and ultimately made a museum of all those articles. The story is told in the form of guy’s narrative and I get amazed of reading about his perseverance and obsession with the girl. The love story didn’t terminate in a happy ending but in the end Kemal Bay wanted the readers to know that he led a very happy life. One of the chapter is titled “Sometimes” and all the sentences of this 5-page long chapter started with the word “Sometimes”. I was so amazed to see this and liked it so much. This was my first Orhan Pamuk and the fattest book I had read till date and I am ready for more.

:Thinking of The Remains of the Day

“One is not struck by the truth until prompted quite accidentally by some external event.”

                Have you ever felt the anxiety (or say temptation) to talk to somebody to share the warmth of the words, the directions of the story, the flaws of the characters, the complexity of the situations of the book that you were reading. It has not happened with me many times earlier but while I was reading the book “The Remains of the Day”, I distinctly remember that after I had read the chapter where Mr. Stevens stood gracefully on his duty even after knowing that his father has died, I had this huge urge to talk to someone who had already read the book and discuss the flaws (virtues) of Mr. Stevans. And now that I am writing this, I wonder what an amazing oasis internet is where one can quench his thrust of knowedge and sharing. If I had searched the internet then, I might have found scores of discussion-boards on this best-selling book.

                “The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.”

                The story is set in England of 1950s and told in a first-person narrative by Mr. Stevens, the old butler of Darlington Hall where he shares with us how different and modern his new master Mr. Faraday is and how is he finding himself incapable of quick repartee when his master shares some light moments with him. When his master provides him opportunity to travel to English country in his blue Ford car, he grabs it after mixing business with the pleasure of the travel. The business of meeting Miss Kenton, ex-house-keeper of Darlington Hall and pursue her to come and join the house-keeping staff of the hall once again as he is under-staff and she has thrown some hints of the breaking of her marriage in her latest letter to Mr. Stevens.

 “After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?”

The book then leads us to the magnanimous sceneries of the country side of England and throughout the journey he kept reminiscing of the glory days of Darlington Hall, the specific affairs in the pre-war era which were quite important in his journey of butlery, his personal trials and his moments of victory and most importantly his relationship with Miss Kenton. And as one presumes that finally his journey would end up with his union again with Miss Kenton, the book took the more realistic path.

 "The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.”

                Kazuo Ishigaro is the hero in this book for creating the character of Mr. Stevens. Incidentally, through  Wooster-Jeeves series of P G Wodehouse, I had already read of the impeccably formal English style of the butlers and language of the book since it is in first-form narrative form played its part immaculately. Even if the characterization of Mr. Stevens was very professional and keeps aloof yet one connects to him. One feels sad on reading the accounts where Mr. Stevens honours his duty above his personal life and anxious when he feels uncomfortable and wonders what if…

This book has already been made in the 1993 Anthony-Hopkins starrer movie of the same name. After reading the book I sowanted to see the movie and it didn’t disappoint.

I have saved 2 different lists of “100 Books to read before you Die” and while classic books are present in both the lists, both the lists quite differ in the rest of the selection but this book features in both. Since I have not read many classics in life, finding it among the ever-gren classics was great.

“What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.”

And the book lives up to its own quote.

Wodehouse love

The first P G Wodehouse I read was in 2009: “The Laughing Gas”. This was the book that I borrowed from my Club library and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was only after 3-4 years, when on a general talk of books with brother A, I asked him to read P G Wodehouse and how he would definitely going to enjoy it.  To gift him his first P G Wodehouse, I desperately looked for ‘Thank You Jeeves” to get him started on the Wooster-Jeeves series but to no avail. Soon I forgot about that book and later dear husband surprised me by  gifting me the same book. When A came on to visit us, I raved once again on how he should read P G Wodehouse and the good boy, instead of buying himself the books, bought 2 more for me telling me that I should read it more if I liked the author so much. Then later I landed on this amazing website where I got to download pdf format of some more Wodehouse.

So December was my P G Wodehouse month where I got to read 4 books by Wodehouse and currently reading the fifth one. The last book I read (finished) was “Psmith in the City” and absolutely loved it. This was my first of the Psmith series and I fell in love with this character of Psmith: the immaculately-dressed, philosopher young man of communalism inclining with the heart of gold.

The story revolves around a talented cricketer Mike and his friendship with Psmith. When his father got financially stuck, Mike had to leave his dream of university and get into a banking job in faraway London where to his utter surprise he found his old friend Psmith also employed in the bank. To the shy cricketer Mike who is gem of a person but gets tongue-tied when he has to express his emotions, Psmith has got the gift of gab talking nineteen to a dozen and knows how to make friends (and unknowingly enemies).The book is a joyous read of their their dreams and ambitions and their adventures with the bank manager who is an old friend of Psmith’s father. So again I receommended the book to A whose review I am yet to receive though I am pretty sure he has not yet read it.

Looking forward to more Wodehouse readings this year.

Image Courtesy: http://www.rizdin.com/2013/07/book-psmith-in-city-1910.html

And thereby hangs a tale

So I bought this book sometime in February last year. The book is a collection of short-stories by Jeffrey Archer. one of the reason i bought this book was the waves that one of its story "Caste-off" was creating. This was the true story based in India but my favourite among all of them was "The Queen's Birthday Telegram". short and sweet. After I was done reading the book, ZZ took this book with him . Those were the days when we were in a long-distance relationship. I had praised very highly of this book stating that the stories are short and easy to read. He took that book saying it would make a good read on his train –journeys.

Now reading for pleasure is not ZZ's forte. Months passed, weather changed, vacations were taken, bags were changed, I moved in with him but the book never left his side. He always carried that book along with him on his way to office. No matter how many times he emptied, cleared and refilled his back-pack, that book proudly lied there. He carries the back-up regularly to office, with the book inside it hoping he would get to read in his Metro ride to-and-fro home. Now in the so crowded metros, I can well imagine no one can get a chance to stand properly lest think about reading.

So as I saw him once again, ready to go office, his back-pack hanged on his shoulders, with the book inside, I thought, so apt. “And thereby hangs a tale”.

All you who sleep tonight-1

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love.
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above-

Know that you are not alone.
The whole world share your tears.
Some for a day or two
While some for all their years.
-Vikram Seth

I just happened to pick this book from my Club library mainly because it was a Vikram Seth and it was not thick;) . Also it was the first time I would be reading a book on poetry. I think I lack depth to understand all a composer tries to write between lines but then when you read something so direct and plain yet so profound and poetic, you can not but fall in love with it.
Definitely, the best poem I have read till date...

The Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-time

It's a simple story of a not-so-simple boy who understands science, loves mathematics (in the book you will find numerous instances that proves his love for the subject), likes dogs, dreams of being astronaut . But he doesn’t understand people and jokes, don’t like being touched, hates colour "Yellow" and "Brown"loves reading mystery novels and that’s why he wrote one of a true incident .
The narrator is Christopher Boone and he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. Yes ,this is the same syndrome of which Rizwan Khan’s character suffers from in the movie “My Name Is Khan”. And this character Christopher is such nicely created that you can imagine him in flesh and blood. In his locality, there is a murder committed and he goes on to find the murderer and in the path he resolves to write a book about it.

The peculiar points of the writing style in the book are so different from the other books that I read.

Not many characters that you lose focus as the narrator don’t like crowd.
Chapter numbers are only prime numbers because the narrator loves prime number. Hence when you find the first chapter 2, don’t go back and start looking for the Chapter 1.
It has graphics and maps because that’s how his mind works. His mind calculates and make maps of any place he goes.
It has an Appendix that is a solution of a mathematics problem. He didnt include it in the book’s text because his teacher says that one should not include un-interesting facts while writing a book. And the writer Mark Haddon proves true to the words he wrote because not in any instance does the book loses the interest of the reader.
The chapters are written in such a way that they make an alteration between the actual story and his basic nature. Like Chapter 2 tells the story and in chapter 3 the narrator talks about himself or anything that comes under his curiosity (the main plot is not at all here) and then again the chapter 5, the story plot resumes and so on.

Just the way, you fall in love with Holden in “The Catcher in the Rye” because of his thinking, you will fall in love with 15-year old Christopher for his quirkiness, that I can assure you.

A couple of years earlier I recall, I read the interview of Shah Rukh Khan where he was asked about the book he was currently reading and he named this book. That was the same year, I suppose, when this book received “The Whitbread Book Award”. The name of the book remained with me( oh yes, I remember namesJ) and it was only in 2010, when I chanced upon the book and I totally love it.

In short, what I can say is that reading this book made me :)

Book Review: The White Tiger

It would have been a great pleasure to write any movie-review but since these days I am living in a haven devoid of these materialistic pleasures,I found solace in the once-declared-and-now-forgotten-friends i.e; books.

This year Booker Prize Winner "The White Tiger" ahs been creating waves and I felt so lucky to receive it, so what if in e-book format.;))

The book open in royal fashion, with the narrator, the white tiger, writing a letter to Chinese Premier.As the pages unfurled, you get a peep in to the real India,DARKNESS as referred by the narrator.The pages depict corruption,paucity,dishonesty,fear,filth,everything negative with a big N. But the sheer way, the writer binds the reader each night of his letter-writing is impulsive.

The reader, at times, feel disillusioned about the brightening India theory but then it also shows the determination & strength of will of Balram Halwai to be a master, the master of his destiny.

Dont know if it should have won the Booker Prize as it shows the country in not-so-good light, but then here comes the freedom of Expression which India stands for. Good novel, not bulky and easy to read small paragraphs.

As a first time novelist,great work by Aravind Adiga.The lack of flowery prose is made up by gripping thoughts and descriptions of narration. There are references to casteist politics, corruption at even school-level and everything wrong.

Makes a compelling read.You will feel hard-hitted by the description of the country in this novel but then you cant deny it, for sure.