THE SHOEMAKER'S WIFE

Ironically the day I write a post about reader's block is the day I complete, correction, finally complete reading another book namely THE SHOEMAKER'S WIFE BY ADRIANA TRIGIANI. I never had knowledge of books and authors in the sense I only knew about the books I picked up and read and I always picked up at random and if I liked an author I would pick up another book by him. Simple. And I picked up shoemaker's wife in an instant too.

When I first opened the book and read the reviews (I have a habit of reading the reviews, studying the cover, and then proceeding through the book) there were nothing but good things to be said about the book. And as I read the first page I knew I would enjoy this journey. A shoemaker's wife is an adventure that recounts the story of 2 people Enza and Ciro who were destined to be together yet life came in the way. Set partly in the Italian Alps and mostly in America, the details about the scenic beauty of the mountains almost make me want to pack my bag and go in real and breathe the air Enza and Ciro did.

The story is divided in 3 parts and inspired by author's grandparents love story. As the first part explore their lives in the villages of Italy, Ciro as a convent boy and Enza as the eldest of 5 kids, and how their destinies are twined with a kiss only to be separated and how life force them out of their homes their country to a foreign land. The second part tells the story of Enza and Ciro in their youth and their dreams and anticipation, and how they strive to make a life for themselves and side by side experiencing the finest emotion of human world "Love" in the land of Manhattan And The third part focuses on the Enza and Ciro's lives together in Minnesota and their dreams turning in reality and yet again being swiped by a cruel twist of fate.

All in all, in 3 parts Adriana Trigiani composes a lyrical life story of two individuals very much in love. She beautifully constructs the life of immigrants who made it on their own even in the face of despair, loss and bad luck. A shoemaker's wife is a must read. It will engross you and take you through an emotional journey and might just leave you teary eyed.

You can order the shoemaker's wife here. (You can buy it much cheaper in the stores near you)

P.S: Its a book set in the 20th century and noone loves a period drama more than me.

Sayonara my imaginary fanbase. Keep Reading!

READER'S BLOCK

There was a time when I could read a book in a day, and complete a series in as many books as it had. And now, somehow because of my way too busy schedule
(no its not an excuse, Let me spell it for you:
COLLEGE
TUITION
NGO
INTERNSHIP
SELF STUDY
IRRITATING ROOMMATE
WATCHING GREY"S ANATOMY SEASON FINALE
HOMEWORK ugh.)
I rarely can sit 2 hours straight to just course through the pages of my book . Its hard. And it led me to think, is there something called reader's block too?(Its been 2 weeks, since I am stuck on a single book, and no it isn't a boring book, there is no such thing as a boring book) And it turns out there is. I couldnt finish the last 200 pages of a 800 page book I just couldn't. And you must imagine how it makes me feel like my world is falling apart. I was literally in tears just because I couldn't finish a book forget in a day even in 10. So I searched through google and found I am not the the only one. So if it has happened with you, here are the remedies for it, the cure to that awful, almost cruel, problem:

Try reading correction re-reading something you love

If you are already stressed and are reading a heavy book, take up a light trashy one( something with sex gossip humor and drunk incidents)

Wait it out: wait and when you feel inspired to read a book you'll be able to finish it.

Cut off all communication with the world: Just lock yourself in the room and read sit through and read.

Meditate: it will calm you down and you'll be in a more relaxed state.

Dance it out, run it out, sing it out, cry it out: same reason as for meditating.

Try remembering how elated you feel when you first read your favorite book.

And last but not the least Do Not Be Disheartened.

I still make sure I read, even if its a page, a chapter or maybe 10, I still read and that is something that brings me as much pleasure as it always have even if I haven't been able to finish a book in 2 weeks. Reading is still my breath of fresh air in the world where the walls around you just keep closing you down. Reading still gives me hope.

Farewell my imaginary fanbase, Keep reading (as will I) 

THE WORLD OF TYLER

Its been nearly a week since I posted anything. I apologize for the silence from my side it just have been crazy busy week with assignments and tuition and studies and tests and no time to read *sob* ( I am still just halfway through my next book) but whenever I got time I did post on my fb page and I even explored my tumblr account and found a pretty good poet/ photographer TYLER KNOTT GREGSON.  When I went through his work , I grew a profound likeness for him and some of his work is absolutely amazing. He weaves the words which such ease and brilliance that I fell in love with his writing and I obv have uploaded some of it below:


How curious the things we attach our hearts to…transitory things, things that will break and age, whither and pass on before we are ready.  How curious the cling when they are new and the slow uncurling of your tired fingers as they become commonplace in our days.  Cling, cling while there is strength left in those hands, and shout your love regenerated into the hollow spots where commonplace tries to reside.- Tyler Knott

Can we lose ourselves
and realize that we don’t care
to ever be found?

Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson

Light has a way, when washing over the old, the broken, the rusted and the lonely, of fixing and healing, finding and giving, if for a moment, a sliver of understanding.  Please find your way through the clouds, and when you do, fall upon me.- Tyler Knott

Isnt he absolutely brilliant? There is so much more of his work that I liked, but then there is only so much I can upload. If you also think he is brilliant check tylerknott.com  for more of his work.

Adios my imaginary fanbase. Keep reading.

READ.

I am a proud owner of 287 books maybe even more, and when anyone who enters my room ask me how can you read so much? I want to ask them how can you exist?

 The love for books is a love born out of curiosity, out of a fear to live in a world that doesn't quench our thirst, that is limited. People who do not read, live a dull monotonous meaningless life, and the sad thing is they don't even know it. They are missing the pleasure to enter into a parallel world while still living in this and experiencing a rush of emotions when they course through the pages of a book. Each book that you read is a life that you'll never have but yet your mind is an evidence to it, its a treasure much more richer than any treasure in this world, its an author's secret diary, its the tears and the love and the joy and grief and guilt and everything else. A book is a world in its own and how can anyone not want to travel it? As soon as I touch the cover of the new book, its like I am touching a new life. Reading enriches your mind and more than that your soul.

I seldom ask myself why we are harboring materialism, why the notion of simplicity is no longer even a notion? And then I get an answer, give a kid a book and not a new gadget, and we might again have a generation of artists and thinkers.

Read. Pick up a book and just start reading, force yourself to sit down and complete few chapters of a book and before you know it you'll be transported to a magical world.
I'll advice the young parents, do not give your 5 year old son your i-pad to play angry birds, do not buy your 10 year old a new phone, do not get your daughter 100 new dresses, and a new i-pod because her friend has one. But get into their bed, read them a fairy tale, kiss them goodnight and gift books on their birthdays. Harbor creativity, not materialism.

Dasvidaniya my imaginary fan base! Keep reading! 

CLASSICS

Poems are the sparrows of the literary world.

I was restless child, an impatient soul, I only sit still when I had a book in my hand, apart from then, I kept rushing here and there, and due to my impatience I could never really understand the beauty of a poem. But when I did enter the world of poetry, I couldn't leave so here are the 3 classics that I absolutely adore:

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN 

- Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me, 

Black as the Pit from pole to pole, 

I thank whatever gods may be 

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance 

I have not winced nor cried aloud. 

Under the bludgeonings of chance 

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 

Looms but the Horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years 

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, 

How charged with punishments the scroll. 

I am the master of my fate: 

I am the captain of my soul.

Love Sonnet XVII

by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were the salt-rose, or topaz, 

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. 

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, 

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms 

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; 

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, 

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. 

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; 

so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you, 

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, 

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Farewell my imaginary fanbase! Keep reading!

A HASSLE!

Blogging is a hassle because everyday as soon as you wake up the first thing that comes to your mind is what am I going to post today? And some days you have nothing to post you think and think of what can possibly engage a reader, what can increase your page views, what would someone want to read? And most days you wont have an answer to any of those questions.And neither do I today. I am still reading my next book so until and unless I finish it I cant write about it, there is nothing exciting going at my side so you'll probably wont get anything interesting out of me (Warning:  DO NOT TAKE IT AS A CUE TO NOT READ MY BLOG), but as I was surfing the net for something that might inspire my next post, I came across a picture titled as THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUICIDE

Click on the link to read about it, but reading it I was inspired to upload various pictures that I have collected (more like saved) that somehow moved me, they do not relate to the topic of my blog, its a blog entirely devoted to reading books and anything synonymous to those terms. But then "A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS and they do exactly what my blog says, they TELL A TALE...

"Fireworks are the glitter in the sky and stars on the earth"- Me

 Dance is the hidden language of the soul" -Martha Graham

“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.”― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

 "Hold me tight, lift me up, and knock me out with your kisses"- Me

"The physical language of the body is so much more powerful than words." -Bill Irwin

 The famous V-J world war II photo. 

I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” 

― Marilyn Monroe

Your life is like a balloon...if you never let yourself go, you will never know how far you can rise- Linda Poindexter

(I do not own any of the images.)

As I was uploading these, I found the topic for my next post too, inspiration is like this, it comes to you at the most random moments, what our job is to work on it and not cast it away.

Ciao my imaginary fanbase! Keep reading!

Also you can follow me on twitter @avnitelltale and you can visit my fb page http://www.facebook.com/avnitelltale?ref=hl

Quote Me!

Goodmorning bloggers and my imaginary fanbase!

Whenever I am reading a book and I come across a line, a sentence or a dialogue, that makes me stop and read it again, I jot them down in a notepad, or simply I read and re-read it till the time I haven't memorized it. So here is the list of few of my favorite quotes from the books I have read.

Top 10 quotes (in no particular order)

 Let me love you but dont love me back, do love me but let me hate you for a while, let me feel like I have some control because I know I never do. -The last summer (of you and me), ann brashares

I am another you.- the obscure logic of the heart, priya basil

Once you have seen the truth, really seen it, you cant look away- A time to kill, john Grisham

Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.- The book thief, Markus Zusak

If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.- Room , Emma Donghue

If you want to get a child to love you, then you should just go hide in the closet for three or for hours. They get down on their knees and pray for you to return. That child will turn you into God. Lonely children probably wrote the Bible.- Lullabies for little criminals, Heather'O Neil

You can't exist in this world without leaving a piece of yourself behind. - Vanishing Acts, Jodi Picoult

Remembering is a disease that I suffer from- The obscure logic of the heart, Priya Basil

You've never been in love," she said. "You don't understand."
"If being in love means giving up your freedom, not to mention your opportunities," Caitlin said, "Then I haven't missed anything.” - Summer sisters, Judy Blume

"I love you," he whispered, and that was the moment he knew what he was going to do. When you loved someone, you put their needs before your own. No matter how inconceivable those needs were; no matter how fucked up; no matter how much it made you feel like you were ripping yourself into pieces.” - The pact, Jodi Picoult

Hope they made you wonder.
Despedida my imaginary fanbase! Keep reading.

A LONG DAY!

As my alarm went off so did my morning groan, it wasn't raining and so I had to get my lazy ass out of the comfort of my bed and go to college. No more excuses. The 4 walls of my classrooms swallowing me, the sullen faces of my fellow students, the fake greetings, assignments, teachers pet and competition. How I loathe it! They promise you that college would be where your life begins, the place you can culture your creativity, the enthralling experience. Bullshit. College is nothing but   high school with no restrictions. Anyways I can keep ranting about my displeasure with college life in general (and I speak from experience) but this isn't what my post is all about. So after sitting through and surviving all the classes, I proceeded to my destination The World Book Fair. And that is exactly what my post is all about.

After changing the metro on Rajeev Chowk I got down on the Pragati Maidan metro station full with anticipation of a fruitful evening and  accompanied by a friend (who too loves books D-u-h!). After buying the ticket from the ticket counter ( Rs. 20 and if you show your Id card its 10 bucks) and walking a long walk I finally reached the first hall, which I had to get out from as soon as I entered . Why? Hindi Publishers, and I am ashamed to admit, that I stopped reading books in Hindi when I was 6 or maybe 7. So we started a long walk again, and we walked and walked and walked and reached another hall which had something to do with France (France being the guest of honor for this world fair) and some woman who I am pretty sure must be a known face was being interviewed and frankly I didn't care and so again the journey started to yet another hall and I was pretty sure    I would be disappointed yet again, till now I haven't been able to find any stalls of my interest, but as I entered the next hall I was a bit ( Just a bit) pleased. This hall housed educational books, from science, maths, management to philosophy, arts, psychology, advertisements, it had all, but when I asked about the prices and the discounts it was a setback again. All the publishers offered a 10% discount, 10%. Are you fucking kidding me? And I moved past and ended up at the next hall (which I guess was hall no. 2) and this hall, they had my lot. All the books, all the authors that I want to read placed in a one big perfect heaven but (there is always a but) as I went from stall to stall and asked about the prices, I realized heaven was a costly place to live. All the publishers again offered simply a 10% discount. Why would I travel all the way from my place to Pragati Maidan, and in way get pushed and squished in the metro to buy the books at the fair which were just offered to me at a 10% off when I could easily get it at a 40 rupees auto ride away at Midland and that too at more than 10% discount? Just answer me why! Furious I just kept walking past all the stalls when I saw a glimmer of hope, a ray of light, Harper Collins. I entered the stall and ended up buying 2 books (at 20% off, I still think the discount was way too less). And then our shopping spree started. My friend bought 3 other books ( at 33% discount the highest discount we got) and we collectively bought other 3 (at 20% again). In total with 8 new books we left the place. (Not all from Harper Collins)
The collection of the books was amazing, and there were probably many more halls but I just went to 4 or 5 because I simply couldn't walk more and the vans and buses that are available to carry you from one place to another? I saw 3 and I mean it 3 buses in total. Further more the prices were too high and the discounts too low. Even though we ended up buying 8 books, I would have bought a lot more if offered more discounts.

All in all, it was a mixed experience. My recommendations to you all if you plan to go to the Book Fair would be, wear comfortable shoes and carry a knapsack rather than a handbag (my shoulder started hurting) eat before you come and get a lot of cash and be ready to get tired. But what's a gain without a pain? (even if its not much of a gain)
Au revoir my imaginary fanbase. Keep reading!

RAIN RAIN COME AND STAY

As I woke up today (which is just an hour ago) and looked outside, the weather was perfect. Rain, heavy clouds, chilled air and god has switched on nature's sepia mode again! I was ecstatic ( still am) Now I knew I could just skip college, make some tea and some pancakes (yum) and read my next book, because for a biblio-freak like me, staying in is a blessing.

Even as a kid, I loved rains, it meant I could bathe in the rain on my rooftop till my fingers turned into prunes, it meant mum would cook deep fried food and turn on the radio, it meant dad will get perfectly crisp jalebis, it meant the school will declare a holiday because of a "rainy day", it meant that I will stay in and maybe sketch or read and play games with my mom and my brother and maybe if I am lucky even my dad, it meant I would be able to smell that particular smell after the rains, the one that smells like freshness and rejuvenation, it meant I might be able to see a rainbow...when it rained I was the happiest kid, and I still am.

"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow"

-G.K. Chesterton

Enjoy your day in, take a break from what you are doing and just smell in the rain. Let it cleanse you of your troubles and even if its for a moment, let it overtake all your senses.

Also when you are back to your senses follow me on twitter on http://twitter.com/avnitelltale andwhen you are at it like my fbpage too  http://www.facebook.com/avnitelltale?ref=hl

Adios my Imaginary fanbase! Keep reading in the rain! :D

BOOKS on BOARD...

Today Its a field trip day and we are going to explore my favorite bookshop

And....

Its none other than .............*drumrolls* 

MIDLAND

 My first ever trip to mid land was when I was 9 or maybe 10, I was staying at my Masi's who is a Delhiite, spending my vacations peacefully, when one fine day my Masi (and I am pretty sure it was divine intervention) decided to take my cousins and me to this bookshop. And it was love at first sight with books and the shop. And after around 10 years its still holds the same place in my heart.

 My Masi took me to the Aurobindo Market branch and in total there are 4 branches, the other 3 are in Janpat, South Extension, and Gurgaon.

The first ever branch was set up by Mirza Yassen Baiig 35 years ago in Janpat inner circle by the name of New Book Land whereas The Aurobindo branch has been there for around 28 years. On my latest trip there, I had a chat with Mirza ji's grandson Mirza Usman Baig about the bookshop. I went all prepped up with a pen in hand notepad in the other and a jhola on a side, the only thing missing were the big nerdy glasses. I told him how I wanted to feature this bookshop in my blog (yes I was in my journalist mode) and if he could answer few of my questions and if I could click pictures too. He very sweetly said yes. Score. 

As I was clicking pictures and inviting the stares of the customers in the shop and the helpers and the random strangers outside,

I asked him questions that will interest all the readers who possibly went to crosswords, landmark, or tekson to buy books! The first thing I asked was how old the shop was and who set it up and sorts (yes I am aware I could have googled it, but I was as I said before in my journalist avatar and no a true journalist doesn't rely on google or maybe he does, but then I wanted to keep it traditional) and then I moved on to questions that are summed up below:

Me: How many times in a week do you get new titles?

Him: Everyday, about 5 to 6 titles (if you havent done the maths its, 180 new titles in a month, 2160 new books in a year *gulp*)

Me: How much discount do you offer to regular customers?

Him: Up to 30 percent to all customers and even on the new titles 

Me: What is the hot sell these days?

Him: Gone girl by Gillian Flynn Wiki in fiction, and in non fiction its Durbar by Tavleen Singh

Me: Do you have the facility of gift coupons?

Him: yes

Me: Whats the minimum amount of a gift coupon?

Him: No minimum amount, you can buy a coupon of any amount you wish to

Me: Thats great! so what will you say is the best feature of your shop?

Him: Our relationship with the customers

Me: If a book isn't available and a customer demands it, how soon can you get it?

Him: If its an Indian edition, in 2 days and if its foreign edition in a week

Me: as I see a poster of the Oath of the Vayuputra ( the third book in the shiva trilogy by Amish) : Any discount on the new release?

Him: Oh that, it will be sold the cheapest in all over India here.

Me: You mean even cheaper than Flipkart?

Him: Flipkart or any other site, we'll sell it at the lowest price

Me: ( smiling like a retard) ookay

Him: So anything else?

Me: No, that would be all thanks

Him: Not buying any book?

Me: Sure I will.

You must have guessed, I ended up buying another book and a magazine and burning a hole in my pocket. After chatting for few more mins and looking and feeling the covers of millions of books, I left the place as another satisfied customer.

HERE are few more pictures that I clicked when I was at the bookshop

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL WHICH ONE SHOULD I READ? SHOULD I BUY THEM ALL?

These are my favorite shots of the book store.

Hope you all come to love this book store as much as I do. And if you want to know the next book that I am reading, you will have to follow me on twitter @avnitelltale! Sayonara my imaginary fanbase and keep reading :D

FUUUCK!

TRUE THAT!



I do not own the image. 

LONE WOLF

I recently finished reading my one of the top 10 fav authors of all time, JODI PICOULT'S
LONE WOLF.

I remember when I read my first Jodi Picoult, My sister's keeper long before the movie came out which sucked though I usually enjoy Cameron Diaz's work but the movie was disappointing, As they say "never judge a book by its movie".  I must have been 15 or something, and I finished the book in 2 sittings with tears streaming down my face and after that first book , there was no looking back, I bought any Jodi book I could find in a small town that I belonged to before shifting to Delhi, I told the shopkeeper to get any book he can of hers and I bought all. What I love about Jodi is how she takes a tough moral choice and weave a beautiful story around it. Once you are done with Jodi's books, its hard to get back to reality, because you are still living the character's life.

And as expected Jodi's Lone Wolf also engrosses the reader as she poses the question of whether a life in a vegetative state is a life worth or not! The protagonist Luke Warren is involved in a car accident, which leaves him in a vegetative state, his daughter wants to save him and his son wants to let him go. What will you choose?  Its a yet another morally difficult question, she compares the emotional attachment to a patient in such state and the medical reality of the same. Though I enjoyed reading Lone Wolf, it is not Jodi's best work. Personally I felt it was hurried. It lacked the certain depth that engulfed me in, in her previous books. The best part about the books were the narrative chapters of Luke Warren which we later find out is an autobiographical account of his life with wolves. As I read the whole book, the thing I was most fascinated about was "WOLVES" and how they function, which Jodi covered remarkably. I am pretty sure I will pick up a book solely dedicated to wolves and go through it since Jodi opened a totally unknown territory to me. I never knew those facts about these majestic creatures and neither did I know how a pack functioned. It simply let me breathless. To read about humans and animals side by side, was an enthralling experience. And it again conforms that if we live by the nature, if we let go of ego and trust unconditionally, we will be able to appreciate the gift of life more fully.
Lone Wolf is a good book but not a great one but it definitely deserves one read from you all!

Order this book here.

You can follow me on twitter too!
And send me the name of the book you would want me to review and I will oblige.

Who Am I?

One starts a blog so he or she can share their passion!
Usually the first thing they write is an "about me" to let the world know that they have charged their guns and are ready to fire the words:some meaningless, some downright stupid, and some genius.With millions of blogs in  the internet universe,  I another humble human who after numerous failed attempts to write a blog about something I was passionate about has finally found it.
My passion and it was, scratch that, they were right in front of me...My 286 best friends. MY BOOKS.

Reading for me is something as natural as breathing. They are the means to travel the far off the world, they are my time machine, my companions, my mirror, my door to imagination, my window of the vast universe I may never be able grasp in my small hands, they are a shoulder that I cry on, they are the ones I look for comfort, they hold my dreams in their pages.

Who Am I?
I am a 19 year old, an avid reader. And when I am not reading I am either pinning, reading articles, surfing through quotes and images, playing Tetris, or studying. I have reasons to believe that I suffer from MPD, I house 2 bizarre personalities, which are as apart as earth and sky and appears to meet only at zenith. I love dogs, baking, Cliff-diving, dressing up, heels and flip flops, I love spending my days in wearing tattered pyjamas and I love shopping, I grove on sitcoms and movies, and I love my sleep, I question everything, I love painting walls with my not-so great art, I live by the lyrics of my favorite songs, I love singing even if I croak worse than a frog, I am crazy to the last bone in my body and I love me.