April Book Haul

Though I'm particular owning the books that I've loved reading I equally despise wasting money on experimenting with book, i.e books that I'm not sure that I would enjoy. That does not mean that I've

April '14 EBook haul

ever shied away from buying books. I like to think of myself as an economic book buyer. Libraries have helped me stick to my book budget. I have always read books rented from libraries and then decided if I wanted to own them. But lately I've gotten bold and have begun buying books without putting in much thought. Here is my latest book haul.

As you might be aware, I've finished reading Love Story by Erich Segal (click here for review) and I loved it. Hence I need my time to get over Oliver and Jennifer to be grabbing at its sequel, Oliver's Story. But I've promised myself to get there.

I've begun both Servants of the Goddess by Catherine Rubin Kermorgant and Book Thief  by Markus Zusak simultaneously. Servants of the Goddess is a book in the non-fiction category. Its a memoir of the author trying to make a BBC documentary on Devdasi system, a practice quite prevalent in yesteryear India. It reads as her journey to find the remains of this system, bordering on prostitution, still practiced in India and its cultural and social implications. Book Thief, on the other hand is a fictional story about a girl and her life in nazi-Germany. The most intriguing aspect of the book is that it's written from Death's point of view.

The fourth and last book, 7 Secrets of Shiva, which is yet to be explored and will be in due course, deals in mythology. It explores the concept of Shiva in Hindu culture. The author Devdutt Pattanaik is one of my favorites in the genre. I've enjoyed both Jaya: An illustrated retelling of Mahabharatha and Sita: An illustrated retelling of Ramayana in equal measures inspite of knowing the mythological stories beforehand. His books are less about the literary value, and more about the content. I've liked the way he entangles fresh, modern and contemporary thought into the classic stories. So his books are always on my list.

These are the only eBooks I've bought in the month of April. Tell me about the ones you bought and how you liked them. So untill next time. Keep reading. Ciao!

Book Review: Love Story

ISBN-13: 978-1444776966

Author  : Erich Segal 

Year     : 1970

Pages   : 216

Price     : Rs.76/- (Kindle version)

Love means never having to say you're sorry

-Erich Segal, Love Story

Love Story book cover

Obsessed with love stories, I now wanted to read one of the classics. Love Story made the cut since I'd come across a review of the book on bookgeeks.com (Click here for the review). Promptly I found a copy on Amazon delivered directly to my Kindle and it just stayed there. I was keeping busy trying to strike off books from my TBR pile. And then on this fateful rainy Monday in May I had to make a train journey, and I had decided for Love Story to keep me company.

I am relatively new to the romance genre of books, but I'm thoroughly enjoying this stint. Let me start by saying that I'm not the mushy, hopelessly romantic kind. I like my crime thrillers and my non-fictions alike. But something in me changed since I read The Fault in Our Stars. I've begun to appreciate the genre and I couldn't have asked for anything better than this masterpiece. I run the risk of singing paeans for this book, but can't help it; this could very well be the father of all modern love stories.

Oliver Barrett IV is an all-Ivy Harvardian law student, with a multimillionaire couth upbringing, who hates everything about his upbringing-including his surname and the weight it carries. Jennifer Calliveri, a Radcliffian of Italian-American descent, is a musician in love with her family-with a passion Oliver terms as an 'Italian-Mediterranean' syndrome of paternal love. The cliche of the rich boy and the poor girl falling for each other at first sight ends right there. This story takes off with the unique chemistry between them. I instantly fell in love with the slightly snobbish, yet loving and considerate Jenny. Oliver too is perfectly adorable with all his imperfections. And the moment her dad Phil is introduced you can't help but fall for "the ever affable Mr.Cavilleri."

This is my first Erich Segal book and what I loved about the story is the romance embedded in playful humor and it's frank simplicity in defining love in it's pure sense. I finished the book in 2.5-3 hours flat and I stress that by the time I was done with it I felt like a marshmallow in hot chocolate- all warm and mushy inside. Now I really want to set hands on Oliver's Story, but not without fear. What if I don't like it as much? What if it doesn't live up to my expectations? Fears set aside I will read it soon enough. But before that, I really want to watch the movie Love Story, also written by Erich Segal. (Fun fact: Erich Segal has first written the screenplay of the moview which was turned down. So he was suggetsed to make it into a novel. He then re-wrote it into a novel which also then became a motion picture.) The theme song of this movie, by Francis Lai, has haunted me for years. Listen to it yourself.

 So, that's all about the book. You may wonder why I'm not getting into ratings for the book. I couldn't. I can't get myself to rate such a timeless classic that was written way before I was even born.

Verdict: A must read even if you aren't the hopelessly romantic kind, but just someone with a kind heart.

So time to move on to the next book. Keep reading and let me know what new stories you read.Ciao!