Portrait

i’ve been passed the book baton by Iroms, my woman, that i miss very much.

number of books on shelf:
good lord…i have no idea. all my books aren’t even only on the shelf in my room, they’re on shelves all over the house. my grandfather has a massive collection of fantastic books, from fiction, to history, to stuff on film making, drama…and of course, all the good ole classics. number of books on shelf…i have no idea!

last book purchased:
um…technically, lysistrata by artistophanes, but that was mostly for academic purposes, so does that count? otherwise, it would have to be ‘my fat brother’ and ‘the fabulous girl’s guide to life’ in london. oh no…wait. harry potter and the half blood prince from vijitha yapa.

book reading right now
‘the wild sargasso sea’, by jean rhys. rhys is a great writer, her style is beautiful, both contemporary and olde. this book itself is stunning. remember charlotte bronte’s jane eyre? well ‘the wild sargasso sea’ is about the mad woman in mr rochester’s attic, bertha mason. well, not bertha per se, but about the wild, west indian woman from the tropics who falls in love with an englishman and then moves into her english life to find that her husband is not quite what he seemed. followed into england by vicious rumours of her promiscuity, rumours that her husband belives, she slowly begins to descend into insanity, driven mad by the lack of trust and insecurities, only to be locked up and put away like she doesn’t and never did, exist. its a captivating and touching book, really nicely written. i also just finished ‘for matrimonial purposes’, by kavita daswani, a hilarious book about indian weddings and arranged marriages. eager to start on shyam selvadurai’s new one, that’s right now sitting on my bed, ’swimming in the monsoon sea’.

last 5 books read:
1.harry potter and the half blood prince
2.girls in pants (the last of ‘the sisterhood of the travelling pants’ trilogy)
3.for matrimonial purposes
4.my fat brother
5.elephant and ice & singing against the wind (both collections of poetry by the same author)

books that mean a lot to me:

july, karen roberts.
a thoroughly melodramatic and romanticized account of the july riots, but sweet and sentimental nonetheless. a tear jerker, this is special more than anything because of when i read it. it was a special time in my life, and i always associate that time and that place i was in, with this utterly soppy book.

funny boy, shyam selvadurai.
very, very sweet book. beautiful and personal, it makes me feel like i’m not as weird as i think i am. helps keep things in perspective.

sophie’s world, josteein garder.
a stunning and deeply philosophical book. this was recommended to me by my grandfather. it questioned so many things when i read it, i thought i was going to burst with curiosity and the sheer, insatiable need to know. who are you? where did you come from? where does the world come from? superb.

all roald dahl’s, the narnia chronicles, the lord of the rings trilogy and the harry potter books.
books that no child should grow up without.

the sisterhood of the travelling pants books, anna brashares.
an amazing and (almost painfully) realistic story of four girl friends. i love this book, because its everything it has to be. it caters to girls, no doubt, and it brings out all the essentials. all four of them are wildly different, yet so the same in many ways. their friendship that is evergreen and ever lasting, is far from perfect and unflawed, but is solid beyond belief. there are no happy endings, there are REAL endings. it talks about the best and worst things about growing up, being a teenager, being a girl, and having girlfriends. these books inspire me to write about my girlfriends, appreciate them, think about them and think ‘wow, what ever would i do without them?’.

passing on the baton to:
the one true cool guy
indi
sittingnut