No wonder he is the greatest...aye presenting Mr. Sherlock Holmes

I had almost given up reading and writing had gone out of the window as well. Not any more. I am getting back to my reading and getting on with writing. Well when I decided to get back to reading I did not have much choice. I was not too keen in buying a new book for I was not sure how much time i would be able to devote to one. While I though my eyes fell on this volume of collections of all the short stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his brainchild Mr. Sherlock Holmes and am I complaning? Nah.

There is just something so nice and refreshing about this detecteive that makes you smile in the end. There is intrigue and crime and the simplest of cases solved for you. Be is murder or be it a theft, Mr. Holmes knows how to convince you to look at the small and fine details and try and deduce the end of the mystery.

Well...to Mr. Sherlock Holmes...you were, are and would always be the best that lived.

THE FIRE DREAM

After a very very long time I am updating this blog. Though I did read a couple of books in the meanwhile, I never thought about writing about any of them. Some were really good, (the last of the Harry Potter Saga and a couple of more,) yet this one book I would wish tomention for I would, (surprisingly!), recommend this book to all who enjoy books. The book was handed over to me by a friend of mine, a thick hardbound of nearly 600+ pages...based in Vietnam. And I started reading it. Have to admit I took my own sweet time finishing the book. And that too after I was continuosly threatened of dire consequences. And I tried, with all my heart to like the book. It was not a bad book...but I was not, shall we say taken in by the book. And then...I heaved a sigh...after almost three months I was finally nearing the end of the book. And it happened before I could realize...I was finally there, turning the pages with a certain enchantment you would associate with a well written book. A book that transcends the boundary of fiction and characters become you. And while I read about people dying without any great emotion, the moment I reached the last 15 pages I realized to my great surprise that I was crying. Tears seemed to fall without prelude and by the time I kept the book aside I was beyond help, crying like a baby, feeling the loss of great men, and more than anything feeling hollow.

The only thing I wish to say about this book is, pick it up and read it...if only to understand life in its basic form. Glory...the word meant so much more after I had completed that book and one day I wish...I wish to heaven I can write a book that would make people keep it aside and wonder...is life really that simple?

To the man who gave me that book...it helped more than that movie you made me watch...and I can not put that book in words...one day I would. And to all who would read this blog...read the book...it would help you...how I don't know but it would.

The Inheritance of Loss.....OUCH!

Ok here is a book I would review without ever finishing it. Infact I could not go beyond 2 chapters....

Simply stating...It is totally horrible...whatever happened to good old story telling...I really wonder why people would write a whole lot of big big words and never really mean anything...It's a total loss of money and time and everything. The moment I read the first two lines i was like....Excuse ME!!!! Seriously pal. I dont care if critics love it or decided to give the woman a booker's price...All I want to say is if people want to understand why books sell...try reading Harry Potter....thats what I call Story telling......

People I wish I could even give it a 1 out of 10....I just cant.

The Broker...

I am happy. For after a long long time I actually finished a book...And it is a book that i did not keep down with a frown...instead when I closed the book I had a smile that spelt satisfactopn. A John Grisham book...The Broker. Honestly this guy lacks the adrenaline rush which a Frederick Forsyth promises, nor the racing heartbeat guaranteed by a Robert Ludlum or the exquisite simple story telling of Jeffrey Archer...yet the guy has style and a way with simple words. I loved the book not because of the way he described the CIA...they were as good as shadows lurking in the background. I loved the way he described a small town in Italy. It left me dreaming. I could feel travelling in those buses, could feel my steps guiding me through the porticoes, could sniff the cigarette smoke in the small cafe's and feel the pride of people as they talked about their country.
A good book. Not much of a thriller...just a nice bedtime read about an old man finding love and himself as he runs away from himself...
A 7 out of 10...

My Love...

Women in my life.....

This is a confession. I am in love. Not with one or two but so many women that they can not all be named on this blog. But I would start to narrate them all....:)

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...Who's the fairest of them all...

Right. I am talking about Snow White. (Did you for once think it was a post about a person? Its my world of books:) )
My fascination with Snow White is very simple...the sweet adorable Seven Dwarfs. How cute were they?

Be Back by midnight...The ever so pretty Cinderella. And the whole enchantment of the Glass Slipper...it can never leave me.

Nancy Drew....my first relationship...I read her across 6th 7th and 8th grade. She was simple, intelligent and her friends were awesome...Bess the slightly plump flirt and the athletic George.

Sleeping Beauty....Woken with a Kiss...(sighs)

Rapunzel...Personally I think her hair were better short. But what amazed me was how she returned eyesight to the prince's eyes with her tears.

Elizabeth Bennett...How can I forget this splendid woman?

Mrs. Bennett...the notoriously funny and melodramatic Mrs. Bennet...her flutters in the bosoms...ah!

Beauty...the girl who had it in her heart to love a Beast for he was kind to her!

Castallano...the pediatrician of Doctors...her fight with her life and her incredible fate with relationships! What a winner!

Joe..the playful and thoughtful Little Woman...

Kate Blackwell...the Master of the Game!

Hermione...the sweet little witch...brightest in her class...God knows Harry would not be the same without this book worm!

Mrs. Weasley...the lovable quintessential mother...can never get enough of her nagging for sure!

And then My girls...

Jenny...my first book's protogonist...for simply being the first.

Iris...the beautiful dancer...

Sarah...the picture perfect...

Preeti...the common girl...

And the latest love and my pride...Gauri. For being the Queen she is!

And the list is long. I can't pick a favorite...I love them all. Some perhaps more than the rest....

There is however this one woman who has been always the top of charts. She is too a fairy tale character but not many understand her. Not many like her for she ain't the sweet girl...but infact...The Snow Queen.

I have always been fascinated by this woman of ice with no mercy in her soul...I don't know why but i perceive such warmth in this character that can not be defined.

TO all the women in my life....I love you all

The Feel Good Books

I recently had a long discussion on a certain category of books with a friend and then another friend said that Its been too long I have not updated this blog for such a long time. So I realized I should write about the very books. All the women and also all the men would know them. Few love them, few hate them....yet a majority of people have read them. I am talking about the notorious MILLS&BOONS.

They are generally the same. One is very rich, the other not so...both of them are gorgeous, there is always a disagreement between the two before they finally confess their love and live happily ever after. Yet you have to admit...they carry their own charm. To young gang of girls, who highlight certain stanzas and keep giggling as they make their friends read, they are the stepping stone to adolescence. To the young boys, a sneer and a chortle. To those girls with beady eyes it is a dream.

The books would always make you...happy. Whether you laugh with derision, or mockingly or with happiness when they finally say I love you...it brings a smile to your face.

I started reading them in 9th standard and as I was recounting to this friend....man it was such a huge scene at school!. "Kanika reads MB's," they used to whisper and then say out loud. But they never really embarassed me. They were...well just another set of short stories.

188 standard pages. That is the length of a M&B.

I have graduated to a wide variety of books post my MB days. Yet even today...when i have nothing better to do I like reading them. Not for any other reason than to smile after one and a half hours when I would finish the book and keep it away. To all the women (though hardly anyone visits this page!!!!) who are reading and remembering their MB days (such a weird phrase yet it is apt!), pick one up again. It would be nice to feel like a 'little woman' again! And to all the men...

You can smile. For all of you in your teens would have seen a friend reading the books and laughed. Then somewhere in a small corner of your house read the book...

Own up guys...

Pride and Prejudice...the perfect book

People love Pride and Prejudice. And all for good reason. I...love it for more than one. For many the simple writing style does the trick, and then the perfect end of a long drawn love affair. I guess for me the best part about the book is the inscrutable Mrs. Bennet and not to forget the incorrigible Mr. Bennett. They are simply awesome and Mr. Bennett's derision of his wife and life in general is worth reading over and over again.

I was very young when I read the book for the first time and ever since then i guess I have read the book for a record thirteen times. I also own the 6 episode sries of the BBS's picturization of the same novel and have watched the whole series for a total of 10 times atleast (including the 3 times it was telecasted on Star Movies while i was still in school.)

Now that I have described my ardent love for the book I guess I need to talk about the major disappointment. The latest movie made starring Keira Knightly was a felony of the biggest order. How could they do that? For once it does not even have a britisj accent. Then the characters are portrayed rather ill and my two favorite characters, Mrs. and Mr. Bennett are reduced to nothing. Just stupid old people who have no character whatsoever. The screen play is awful and the picturization makes it an object of contempt.

Shameless Odious people...