Gilmore Girls, Again

 

As you read this, I would’ve finished watching the season finale of Gilmore Girls, and wished yet again that they should’ve ended it with Lorelai getting engaged to dear old Luke instead of just the kiss, and hoped again that they make something more out of this awesome series.

I will continue to be a lifelong fan of Lorelai, Luke and Emily , and may be Rory and Logan also, but what I will miss most is Lorelai, her awesome attitude, her non-stop-talkativeness and her cool puns.

Meanwhile, read this – A NY Times article published right after the season finale was aired.

#357

Hehehehe… And we wonder why things turn out the we want them to… And try to be control-freaks! :)

Original link here!

Lunacy, you said?

 

And that my dear friends is why I love Chuck Lorre.

Original link Here!

Gilmore Girls

 

Its like an obsession. A big big one. Every waking moment of the day I have, I want to watch the series. Currently in the Season 5 , Episode 20, I finished all the earlier ones in just a matter of 2 weeks, back to back, sometimes as much as 8 episodes per day, the maddest day being 11 episodes in one day, each episode being ~44 minutes long! :-)

Yes, the last time I felt this obsession was for Castle, and before that Friends, and I didn’t watch even these at this rate and urgency.

Its a need to find out what happens with Lorelai and Luke, what Rory does, and what trick Emily comes up with next in her attempt to do good to Lorelai… this list just goes on. But I guess what is keeping me hooked to this is the big crush I have on Scott Patterson, and the girl crush on Lauren Graham. Both of them incredibly good looking, and great actors.

Both their style of talking, the numerous pop culture references, the male suitors the Girls get… each of this is a reason…

Just in love with the series. :)

Truly, Madly, Deeply. Really?

Aargh! Crappiest book EVER!
Absolutely terrible style of writing - even a 15 yr old can write better. The author can sure do with some Beginner's writing courses.
Absolutely no writing editing. The writer did not ask for a critical opinion from anyone. I am damn sure.
Terrible plot. Done to death. Not handled properly. Bad choice of adjectives to describe the lead characters, and its like the author is obsessed with the good looks alone of Seema and Rahul. And what description of the looks... Hah!
Yes, the author sure needs to re-visit his English.
At various times while reading the 136 pages of this book, I got up from my couch, slapped myself in my face for having bought it, and then went back to re-read it, in the hope that the book might not have been stupid, it probably is coz I misread the previous pages.
I wish Indian authors stopped writing with the sole motive of getting their books made into movies. I understand that they get paid heavily, and Chetan Bhagat must be some kind of a role model for them all, but really... is he one? Don't they have any care for what their place in the world of literature is going to be?
First it was C-Bag. Then Amish Tripathi (with his overtly Bollywood-ized Meluha. I read the first one, decided not to waste my time with the second one) and now Faraaz Kazi.
I decided to not read this book and thus save my precious time. I might as well be reading the Page 3 of Times newspaper. Its that bad!
One of the worst books to spend your money on.

Am in half a mind to not give this book any rating at all, am guessing if a book doesn’t have a rating, its not counted for an average. Hence the 1 star.

I must quite agree with one of the reviews this book got on GoodReads – The author clearly has no idea how American Indian kids talks, or how teachers treat 15 yr olds who are in love or how to fill in 300 pages of this book… you get the drift, right?

Just for kicks, read the series of status messages I posted on my GoodReads as I came across each crappy page/line I read in the book… Am still wondering how it is just 11 and not 136 (I read only 136 pages off the 303 pages, and decided to give up!)

See the first comment at the bottom of the page. Well, I sincerely tried to like this book before I even started reading it. Honestly. But then, it didn’t deserve a long chance.

And now I completely believe that book ratings can be rigged too. Nothing else explains the 4/5 rating this book got on GoodReads. No, that many people cannot be dumb. I still have hope on this Universe!

So many books, so little time!

 

Books were one thing that bound us together – me and the husband. From the first ever time we met and discovered that we both loved GodFather equally, to discovering Paulo Coelho’s genius in Zahir and Eleven Minutes to re-discovering that he is highly over-rated to reading each others’ favourites, books have been one thing we could talk about, any time.

We love our books, both he and I. So much so that , before we could even discuss marriage, we discussed what we would do with our books. We both laid conditions that we would not disturb each others’ collections and that we would not read the same book at the same time, and so on.

An ideal holiday for us is to laze around on a lazy boy/bean bag/hammock/beach-side-chair and read a book. :-) No wonder why our parents ask us why should we even go to a different place when all we want to do is to sit and read. :-)

So when we both moved to our first home, he from his parents’ house and I from my apartment which I shared with my friends and Mom’s house (which is where most of my things were), we had clothes which fit in two suitcases each and books in 8 cartons. After 2 yrs when we moved to our second home, a slightly bigger apartment, much to our shock, we noticed that our books alone fit in 16 cartons! Both of us didn’t realize we had so many books!

And when we were to move to our third home , our own this time hence a little bigger than the second one, in which we had planned every corner and decided what goes where, we realized we’ll have to get rid of some of the books. Coz there wasn’t enough place for all of ‘em, in spite of one closet being dedicated for books alone. That was when I took the hard decision to part with few of my books. The Kindle 2 that I had then made me feel slightly better about this terrible loss, and so I gave away/sold most of the books, and moved into this new house with just a handful of them. The classics, books which we loved, he and I separately, together and had memories with. Books like GodFather, Atlas Shrugged, Carlos Castenada’s, some Paulo Coelho titles… just a few of which actually mattered.

So you would imagine my shock when I realized that after little more than an year of moving into this house, we have not one or two but a total of 7 bookshelves. In short, we’ve been converting one corner of the house into a bookshelf every 3 months. This, in spite of having a Kindle, my new Kindle 3!

I tried sorting the books and putting them all in one place so they would not take so much space, but then figured out they belong where they were placed.

The recipe books in the kitchen, the ever-green ones each of which I pick out and read every few days near the bed-side bookstand, the ones that I am currently reading in the passage-shelf , the ones that I want to read, and will read in sometime in the inner-living area, the ones that I will NEVER give away to anyone in the place they were intended to be in – the third bedroom closet. I could not move them anywhere, they had to stay there. Each of these bookshelves serve a purpose, you see… :)

This is the one in the kitchen. Just some basic recipe books, and some knick-knacks, and of course a plant or two. If you are a bewdi/bewda, you might even recognise the terracota bottle there. Yeah, its a model of Jack Daniels bottle, made by the husband. :)

This is in the corner of the living room, the inner room. We have a very comfortable seating near this side table, and spend almost all our time in the house in this place. See, these are the books that I will read someday. I will get there… Someday, you see! :-)

Now, these books – they have to be here. I need to see them everyday to remember that I have them. Some of these are borrowed from friends which I have to return, some are good old huge recipe books, and some are classics like Kahlil Gibran here. So they sit in the place which we frequent the most – the shelf near the small corridor to the bedroom. Noticed the little piece of Worli art on the wall? Husband’s handiwork again.

This is by the bedside, err… rather on the wall near the bed. I need to see these daily too and hence they wont go into their final resting place, the big closet. These are books that I can read when I am about to sleep. I can live without reading these books but need them around, you see.

This is the good old closet, the one originally intended to store all the books of the house. Its deep enough to have someone like me sit inside it, and so has two layers of books. These are the ones we will not part with. Atleast for now. :)

And the Kindle. My love. It is a long way from replacing all the above books, but without it, we’d be having books on the beds, couches, dining table and all. Literally all over the house. :)

So when I was shooting these bookshelves around the house, I loved that I had so many books. Makes me feel very wise you see. That is, till the time I open my GoodReads page.

As on today, I still have a total of 406 books, 220 of which I am yet to read. :) And new books get added to this every day. What? I’ve read only 174 books till date? Seriously? Sigh.

So many books, so little time! No?

Forty Rules of Love? Seriously?

The description of the book says its a love shared between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and of a housewife in US called Ella with a writer called Aziz.
And that this is on Sufi-ism, which is what made me pick up the book in the first place.

Well, the writing certainly could've been better, I found the style too amateurish. Every time Shams attempts to the rule of love, he quotes the number and says the rule. I wonder why the editors didn't let Elif Shafak know about the different methods of introducing the rules. :)
And then, what seems unclear throughout the book is , how can two men be so much in love with each other - Rumi and Shams?
Yes, they both are Sufis, and Sufi means love, but why that depth in love. This whole topic could've been dealt differently by the author.
And for all the description of Shams that they give, him being the noble, the wise, the kind and the embodiment of love, how did he marry Rumi's daughter and not consummate their marriage, and also insult her causing her to die? That doesn't sound logical at all.

As for the housewife's love story with the writer, Aziz - even that storyline needs a lot of refinement. There are a ton of questions about Ella's estrangement with her husband, and Aziz's story could've been more detailed , if the book was all about Sufi.

Even the writing style is not easy. Its not breezy, and there is no motivation to finish reading the book, because what happens to Shams and Rumi, Ella and Aziz are told in the first few chapters itself.
Also the whole style of each chapter narrated from the character's perspective , which could've made the book interesting, instead made it extremely tough to read. With each of the chapters being just a page or two long, there is a break in the reading and thought process every couple of minutes.

In short, if you have picked up this book thinking it talks about Sufi-ism , then you can give it a miss. If you are considering this as a casual read, then by all means, go ahead and read. And do not expect that this book will make you think or grow wiser.