Sunday, August 2, 2009

A Lazy Sunday

Since I am completely and utterly inspired and my mind is a blank canvas and as a blogger I feel obligated to update once in a while (it’s been ten days since my last post, I know there are a zillion bloggers out there who go for months without updating but I'm not one of them, and seeing the same old post day in and day out can get slightly irritating at times) today’s topic is one about which I've written before and will yet write again in the future. Yes, you guessed it – books.

This morning I started reading Eric Van Lustbader’s Beneath An Opal Moon, I don’t know if I will have the strength and the patience to finish it, it’s too unreal. That’s the problem with fantasy books, everything is so imaginary and unreal (no wonder they are called fantasy), and it’s a tad difficult to keep up with the names and places. When I read Lord of the Rings I kept turning back the pages to find out who was who and from where, and of course the fact that it was an unusually thick book and it took me a year to finish it could also be another reason. I started reading The Hobbit some time last year, it’s a very thin book, roughly 300 pages, and yet I still am stuck somewhere in the first 100 pages.

A couple of weeks ago I borrowed three romance novels, yes, good old M&B’s. When I was a teenager my cousin used to have a huge collection and I think I read every one of them, it was interesting then. The ruggedly handsome hero who would invariably be a rich and successful businessman, who was arrogant and rude but caring and tender when you get to know him, and the heroine who would be as fragile as porcelain and of course always an innocent virgin, well, that was fifteen years ago. Growing up sure opened your eyes and your mind. Rich successful businessmen don’t spend their time trying to lure virgins into their beds; there are too many willing women out there. And virginity, hah! The word might as well be obsolete, what with the virgin population going down every year.

I didn’t finish any of the three M&B’s I borrowed, I found them absolutely boring and predictable, the hero was still brooding and commanding and rude and the heroine who was a successful actress/career woman found herself all flustered and disturbed every time they were together, and I stopped reading.

Next stop is a book by R.K. Narayan, The Indian Epics Retold. Ramayana and Mahabharata and some other Hindu folklore. It’s going to be an interesting read, Drona, Arjuna, Duryodhana, the five brothers, etc etc. And of course it is written by R.K. Narayan, one of the greatest Indian authors ever. I loved his Malgudi stories, stories of ordinary people in an ordinary town, but brought out so colourfully and so riveting and very very well written. He doesn’t use big show-offy words, the narration is simple and straight, but there is always an interesting plot. I think that about sums up life, it’s not about showing off how much you know or how much you have, it’s all about being simple and straightforward and letting others discover the wonderful person that is you.

15 comments:

  1. Kudos for managing to update regularly. For me blogging's getting to be a bit of a chore. Nothing to say that hasn't been said already, seems like.
    I still read the occasional M&B. Most books run to a formula anyway. Most writers score a hit with a certain kind of book and then repeat the formula again and again and again..

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  2. Agreed most writers have a certain style of writing, and if one book is a hit, why not repeat the same formula over and over again instead of treading unknown waters?

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  3. Hahaha, you sound quite uppity with the comment 'I know there are....but I'm not one of them.'
    And you end with such a profound statement. I like RK Narayan too, specially his large dose of down to earth humour.

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  4. mesjay, all's well that ends well, right? The end justifies the means etc etc... heheh. Yeah I know I sound quite uppity there but so help me God it's the truth.

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  5. yeah, kudos for updating regularly. unlike me. a friend recently commented on her 'what's on your mind?' box on facebook; "nothing (and it scares the hell out of me)...." i think i'm going through the same :(
    just finished two very good books: 'the five people you meet in heaven' by mitch albom and 'wild swans - three daughters of china' by jung chang. both exceptionally excellent reads.

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  6. Once you make it a ritual, then updating your blog comes quite naturally. I update consistently, and sometimes when I know I am posting too many, I save that for a "raining day". hehehee. And yeah, I know what you mean when you say you're not one of those who can leave a blog without an update.

    Sometimes... its like an addiction, killing a part of me each and every passing day. :-(

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  7. And lolz at your virginity comment... :D yeah, people everywhere trying to cure virginity, its almost eradicated now. lolzzzz.

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  8. ruolngulworld - I've read Tuesdays with Morrie, but haven't tried The Five People You Meet in Heaven, if it is as wonderful as you said maybe I ought to give it a try. But there just isn't enough time to read!

    Kima - Yeah blogging/updating can become quite addictive, as in when you see/hear something or when some thought strikes you the first thing that comes into your mind is "I should blog this." I too have some "rainy day" drafts which I hope will see the light some day.
    And re virginity, if it was an animal it would be declared an endangered species by now.

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  9. I guess the reason we loved Fantasy/M&B etc. novels as kids/teens was probably because we haven't seen the real world and we expected so much from it. But, sometimes, it fun to believe that its possible.
    I started reading novels with Hardy Boys, Wilbur Smith, Robin Cook.. but later on, moved to Kahlil Gibran, Richard Bach.. philo. stuff, now, I'm happy make-believing with Dan Brown's novels.. :P

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  10. blackestred - Yeah sometimes it’s fun to believe in fantasy, that something unbelievably great and wonderful would happen to us. And that’s some heavy stuff you're reading there, no I don’t mean Dan Brown :)

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  11. Nice one...:) I found myself reaching over to one M&B lying in my shelf for months and realised just how much I need a real book. Ran off and got a solid Agatha Christie...schooldays nostalgia.

    Btw, I admire your tenacity about consistency. :)

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  12. chawngtinleri - Thanks for dropping by. I too find M&B's so unreal. The only reason I read them again was I wanted to read something which I could finish quickly, but I ended up being disgusted. It will be a long long time before I pick up one again.

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  13. Guess what? Reading your post made me realize just now that I've lost a book called 'The last lecture' by Randy Pausch (now i have to google his name to check the spelling!). I hardly read books, and some time back i thought i'll change something in me, so I made a mid-year resolution, "drink more water, read a good book and pray more". Even updated that in my FB status. My cousin lend me the book,and I read like till 50 pages or so. And now I don't know where it is! She'll kill me for sure.. I've searched everywhere. Must have left it at my work place. darn! and tomorrow's saturday.

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  14. Mimi - hope you find the book, and finish reading it. Reading is quite addictive once you really get into it, but again you need to have lots of free time to really immerse yourself.

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  15. Last time I checked, I was among a species called Homo sapiens, which by the way is in no danger of becoming extinct. Isn't that Cool?

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