The Perks of being a wallflower

There is no denying the fact that I read a lot. And, I do so proudly. I am also very glad that I started this blog. It has kept me reading even when I have been so busy trying to create a professional threshold for myself. I vehemently believe that reading is an art and I read it somewhere that if you  don’t like reading, you’re not doing it right. I can easily connect to statements like these.

I am blabbing so much about this because I never wanted to read ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’. Frankly, I never knew anyone who read it and whoever watched the movie didn’t have much to say about it. I guessed the storyline was not that strong so I never came to that book. In fact, my younger sister (who is still on her way to becoming an avid reader), asked me if she should get a copy and I told her not to.

Anyway, last month, I ordered the book from Flipkart. I came back home for two months and didn’t want to read anything that was in my shelf (mostly because I had read everything that I wanted to and didn’t want to attempt reading the others). I went online and called for ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ and ‘The Assassin’s Apprentice’. I had never heard about the books by Robin Hobb so I was not that keen on starting that one first. Plus, ‘The Assassin’s Apprentice’ was supposed to be the first book in the Farseer Trilogy, so I opted for ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’.

The book is written very differently. It’s not the usual novel that you come across. I had good fun while reading it but then again, I was not a complete fan. I don’t know why but this kind of reading is not meant for people like me. I like it when the protagonist is more driven in life and likes to take his chances even when no one else supports him. And Charlie did that, I’m not saying he didn’t but the book is too sad for me. I was impatiently waiting to get done with it so I could move ahead to my next book.

A lot of people love ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ and I totally respect that.  I would love to hear from you guys how you felt about it.

My September Story

 

The month of September has been quite busy for me. Apart from setting targets for myself in the reading department, I had a lot of other work just piling up. Anywho, I tried to read as much as I possibly could and I pretty much completed my target. I am going to share my experience and views of reading all the books that I ended up reading this month. I am going to talk about them in the order that I read them in.

1. Manuscripts Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho: This is the first book I’ve ever ready by this author. I gave The Alchemist a chance back in high school but never got through that one. I have been trying to pick up any other book by this author over the past few years and even if I have, I have never actually read them. So it was kind of a surprise when I ended up liking this particular one. It is basically a conversation that takes place between a group of people. There is one man who teaches the rest of them about life and how one can go on with it in the best possible manner. I was on a three hour flight and efficiently I started and finished the book just sitting there, waiting to reach my destination. Overall, it was a good read I would say.

2. The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson: Again, my first book by the author and might I say, it was a super fun read. After the Paulo Coelho, it was a good change to have opted for reading Jonas Jonasson. A funny book that constitutes of a few characters who make no sense at all. The fact that someone can think up such scenarios and put them together so beautifully makes me kinda jealous. I wish I had the potential to think so broad. Or maybe I do and I just don’t know. I had so much fun reading this one that I just couldn’t put it down. The name of the book is weirdly long and I had never heard of the author so I was pretty confused while picking it up but thank God I did. Not repenting reading it even a bit. If you are looking for a little pick-me-up and you want a quirky little book then I surely would suggest The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden.

3. The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly: We are three sisters. My elder sister read a lot from school, I was not that much into reading at that time. I started a little late. Anyway, my sister had a lot of books by the time I realised that I loved reading and we never really lived together after that because she was doing her own stuff and I mine. But after reading a book, we would always put in our bookshelf at home. So whenever any of us were back home, there were these variety of books that we needed to catch up on. Whilst my sister always read all the books that she bought and all that I did, I never quite got through her collection. So this time, I thought that I should pick up a book from the old collection. The Scarecrow was the one that was right in front of me and in a good condition so I picked it up. While reading, I realised that it is a second in the series after The Poet, which I had not read. It’s kind of a detective novel wherein a writer/journalist cracks open a case that everyone thought was an open and shut case. Anyways, I read the book and it was pretty interesting while I was at it. It’s not something that I would highly recommend but you could opt for it if you were running out of choices.

4. How Not to Make Money by Raj Kundra: Confession time- I never knew the Raj Kundra existed until I heard about him and Shilpa Shetty (a bollywood actress). He is this big time business man who has his hands in a lot of different industries. While at the bookstore, I see a book authored by him, I wondered to myself what it could possibly be about. The synopsis piqued my interest and I decided to give it a go. A good thing I did. A pretty fun book. It is a true story about a VAT scam that took place in London. I loved the way the book was written. Everything was described beautifully. Usually in such books, you hardly understand the scam but you get the story, but this was something else altogether. I would recommend it to anyone who does not mind putting their brain to work while reading.

5. Private India by Ashwin Sanghi & James Patterson: Never read even one James Patterson but in complete love with Ashwin Sanghi books. It was in the new arrivals section at the bookstore and when I saw his name, I had to get it. His books are very well searched and extremely interesting but this one was a little different than his usual books. Not saying that it isn’t good but not as good as his previous works. This is again a detective novel. You can totally opt for it if you are running out of options. And this book is one in its series. There are many other writers who James Patterson has co-authored with to write the others in this line.

September. for me, has been quite a lovely month. I got a lot of reading done and there are still a few more days to go. I had also decided to read Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and I did start it but I think I need to wait a little more for that. A lot of things have been happening in my life and it is going to be like that for quite some time. Reading such a book is going to require all my unwavering attention. I am going to hold on to this one for a while and read it when the time is right.

Currently, I am reading The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It seems pretty interesting. Atleast, it’s different from other books so I am pretty thrilled about that. I’ll put it on my list for October because I am pretty sure I won’t get enough time to finish it this month (and I know, it’s pretty small and not at all time taking). Looking forward to hearing from the rest of you about the kind of books and reading that you prefer and whether this post has helped you at all.

Let me know if you guys want me to review a singe book. Will surely do that for ya 🙂

What I’ll be reading this september

Hi Guys,

So, for the past few days I’ve been thinking how I could talk to you about more books without having to reveal their plot. I came up with an idea. I have decided to post pictures of all the books that I plan to be reading this month and then do a follow up by rating these books. It will give you a clear idea as to which book you should opt for and what you could leave- according to your taste.

This September, I have decided to dedicate to six of these books:

1. How Not to Make Money by Raj Kundra

2. Manuscripts Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho

3. The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

4. Private India by Ashwin Sanghi & James Patterson

5. The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

6. Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estès

I am not sure whether I will be able to finish the last one because I want to be going slow with it, as it has a lot to teach. I am currently reading The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly and Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estès

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The one with the blue clip shows that I’m more than hallway through The Scarecrow but I’m still trying to make some headway with Women who run with the wolves.

I’m quite excited to see how this month pans out for me. I have never set limitations for myself when it comes to books but I wanna know if I can live up to the goals I set for myself. There are a lot of crime fictions and thrillers here. I am not a big fan of theirs but hopefully I will be by the end of this month. I have already placed orders for my new books to arrive in time so that they can be ready in October. I am hoping I live up to my expectations.

So what’s your plan for this month?

Why were you liars?

“It is possible people are curious about us because we do not show them our hearts. It is possible that we enjoy the way people are curious about us.” -E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

So I read this book some time back. I had bought this tab and my sister suggested that I try reading an e-book. I have never pegged myself as someone who could possibly do that. I am an avid reader and I love to touch my books. Okay, that sounds wrong.

Anyway, coming back to the point. This was my first e-book and in the beginning I hated it. I have not started to talk about the plot of the book, still describing my experience of e-reading. Initially, it was bad but I got the hang of it after a while. The biggest perk is that even if the lights are off, you can continue reading.

Back to the point of me doing the post in the first place, the book. This book was okay in the beginning, weird in the middle and thank-God-I-finished-it by the end of it. This was exactly what I was feeling at every stage. We Were Liars is mostly a coming of age story where the protagonist is a young girl who vacations with her cousins and a friend every summer at her grandparents’.

Thank God that it’s a small book. I regret why I ever thought to read the book in the first place. Even though I wanted to stop reading it with every page I turned, I couldn’t. I am not one of those people who starts a book and doesn’t finish it. It’s like the author is not even trying or maybe trying too hard.

Somewhere I felt that the book was being written for the purpose of narrating a story that no one wanted to listen to so it got put on paper. I mean WHY?

If I had it in a hard copy, I would have thrown it out. The reasons why I hated the book are:

1. The writing style was not at all engaging.

2. The storyline was extremely weird. Like how could someone come up with something like this?

3. I did not and do not have time on my hands to waste.

Basically I am doing this post to save you all. Save you all from pages of torture.

You pick up a book with the hope that it will add something to you, your life, your character but this book does nothing like this. Okay so take a look at this:

I am

the perpetrator

of a foolish, deluded crime

that became

a tragedy.

Means what? Why can’t you write properly? This is so annoying. Why would the author do this? To fill out the pages?

It’s not a book that is meant for those who want to indulge in good, quality reading. Save yourselves ladies and gentlemen, this is a book that can ignite a lot of frustration and anger in you. I wish you peace and happiness and therefore, I say DO NOT READ THE BOOK.

I am currently reading The Siege. This is a book that I am going to take my time reading. It’s about a city I love. I have not had the time to write posts because life has been super busy but I am going to try my best to keep up.