October reading..

After a long long time, I am once again soaking myself in another ‘elixir’ of life: - Books and I am just quenching my thirst a little too fast.. :) In the last 1 week, I have finished 3 novels. All 3 are love stories – a co-incidence let me add.. :)

PS. I love you – Cecelia Ahern: I had already seen the movie and loved it. Had heard about the book, but don’t know why I did not try to find the book or read it. Anyways I bought it during my last visit to landmark and I was very surprised to find that the book and movie are quite different. The main plot is same - a young widow tries to start living again with the help of letters that her husband wrote before dying. There are many incidents in the book which is also in the movie however I found the treatment of the movie very different. The book is more subtle and the emotions more real. The movie was a little larger than life. (I still like the movie though.. Gerard Butler and Hillary Swank rock!!) The book is easier to believe; the movie is more ‘romantic-romantic’. I guess most people like larger than life romances.. preferring it to the more subtle ‘love’. The movie score there. As the norm is the book is better than the movie. Though I have liked them both. I wish I had read the book first.

Anything for you, Ma’am – Tushar Raheja: This is a light read; you can make that out from the punch line ‘The love story of an IITian’.. :-D.. The author writes well, being humorous at times, however the problem with the book is that it has too many great co-incidences making it way too filmy to be true. The author has tried to acknowledge it by calling it the work of ‘Mr. Fate’; however it’s still all too much. Overall it’s a book you can read (only if you must) in between some heavy reading. You would not be missing anything if you skip it altogether.

At first sight – Nicholas Sparks: This is the first time I am reading a Nicholas Sparks novel. Have already seen 3 movies based on his work – The Notebook, Message in a bottle & A walk to remember; each a beautiful love story. :) As the name suggests, ‘At first sight’ is also a love story. I started reading it expecting another warm love story, however the detail on how exactly Jeremy & Lexie (the lead couple) fall in love is sadly missing (I learnt later that this novel is a sequel to ‘True Believer’, where they actually meet and fall in love). As I continued reading, this one seemed more and more like a suspense novel. Halfway through it, I started doubting the choice of the book title - ‘At first sight’ did not seem appropriate at all. I personally do not believe in love at first sight. Its more of attraction at first sight and not love.. As two people interact with each other this attraction may eventually turn into love. Here both Jeremy and Lexie fall in love at first sight and decide to marry soon after. Later on all the doubts surface -maybe they have rushed into things without knowing much about each other, there were trust issues, adjustment issues, et all.. There was a mystery also which made me curious. The novel had started with some crisis that Jeremy was facing and I was interested in learning what it exactly was. As the story unfolded, I was hooked into it and by the time I finished the book, I was literally crying. The ending is tragic and I felt so sad for everyone; for what each of them missed. It is a beautifully written book. The dilemma that a couple can face, the ups and downs of a relationship and the effort that is taken to make it work has all been described well. I guess if I had read the ‘True Believer’ first, I would have better understood their bonding. To sum it up, it is a well told story and worth a read.