The Bookish meets the Bookie.

Many people like reading Books - different kinds of books. Most have a favorite way of reading them. My mom, for example, loves Agatha Christie but she reads the first few chapters followed by the end chapters and then settles leisurely into reading the rest of the book. Kills the whole point of reading a good mystery book, if you ask me - but that's how she reads.

My particular brand of book related quirkiness - is superficially picking them. I absolutely LOVE books with an imaginative title. Don't judge a book by it's cover be damned - a good title and I'm sold! OK, before you (non-existent readers of my blog) impale me for liberally using the word good - let me insert a quick disclaimer - Good title is something that tweaks my imagination. Anne Perry's Funeral in Blue is how I started reading her books. I have to admit that the only thing memorable about that book was the title. But isn't it an awesome title?! A few months ago, I picked up another lovely titled book - Solitude of Prime Numbers. A trifle depressing, but the book was decent - definitely not as smashing as it's title. Here's a recent winner picked on title alone - Carson McCullers' Heart is a Lonely Hunter. The book is haunting and her characters lingered long after I had closed the book and moved onto household chores. Though the title is the reason I read it the first time, it will definitely not be the only reason I pick up Carson's book again.

I am the 'will-try-anything' kind of book reader, but I don't retain the leisure reads in my collection. I actually have less than 10 books that I own - and some of them are in appalling condition (courtesy buying 2nd hand books). What do I do with the ones I bought but don't want to keep - well I give them away either to friends looking for a summer (or winter) read, or to libraries, or just leave them in the plane/train while travelling. I read a long long time ago, that the British usually take a book with them on the tube and when done they just leave it there for another reader foraging for a book. While the bookshops probably hate the Brits for reducing their sales, I LOVED this idea of just leaving the book for another bored traveller. I secretly wish someone would do the same for me: Sitting at Dallas airport waiting patiently to board my plane - I would set sight on an almost-new book lying invitingly on a nearby seat, courtesy of the gentleman who just boarded his flight to Heathrow.

No entry about books can be complete - without a mention about an author. Remember my mention of the guilty pleasure mystery novels by Anne Perry - well turns out the authoress is also a convicted murderess. I flailed around in my queasiness for a month reading everything about her tainted pre-teen past. Maybe that's the difference between a writer and a reader - one who has experienced first hand and the other whose imagination (with a little help) is trying to live the experience vicariously.

[PS: Dedicated to my friend who wanted me to write about Books. Thanks for the idea]

On the boat.

We were out on the Lake - looking out of small, grimy glass windows trying to make out the shapes of islands in the distance while the forced high-pitched voice of the tour guide threw out statstics in the background. Every word sounded like it had 3 invisible exclamation points tacked on to the end of it - like those tweens twittering with their omg!!! fish!!! is !!! awesome!!!
I was thankful when the boat captain pushed the throttle and the large engines roared loud enough to drown out the guide and her exclamation points. A few minutes later she stopped talking - finally aware that noone could really hear her. Then the captain shut of the engine letting the boat bob in the silent lake waters moving rhythmically with the flow. The silence was overwhelming. Surrounded by snow capped mountains in July, bobbing up and down in the soft blue waters of Yellowstone lake - even the wind calmed down to a breeze allowing us city-dwellers a few moments of complete solitude amidst unforgetable beauty. We bobbed up and down for a few minutes and not one person on that boat made a sound.
Every trip has a moment - a moment that captures the essense of the trip. A moment that remains stamped on our memories long after we have forgotten the dates, faces and packed itiniaries. Those few mins on a boat in the middle of a lake with no civilization in any direction as far as the eye could roam - those were the moments from my Yellowstone trip.