Of some books and romance and what-nots

I seem to have finally gotten back to my reading after almost three months with hardly 20 books read.

So, my mother got me a couple of romances :) Just for the variety, I guess, given I'd been reading either Roald Dahl and kids' books or philosophical and psychological stuff. Or maybe because of the "Spanish" in the title, or because the book was set in Spain :) (Come on, who'd not die of curiosity to know what happened in "Spanish billionaire and innocent wife" or "The Spanish affair"? )

Anyway, I also had the extreme good fortune of reading "The wedding" by Nicholas Sparks. I'd been trying to recall why the name seemed so familiar, and once the people in the book started talking, I realized where :) Nor were the constant 'Noah-Allie' references totally lost on me. "The Notebook". Of course I should have remembered it at once, especially after the comic I read (will add the link once I remember where I'd read it).

And then I started wondering what it would be like if one of the characters actually came to life. Oh my god! The conversations. The advices. I almost wanted to scream "Stop!". Reading it was fun though - I thought each chapter was the soppiest stuff I'd read in a long time, only to know that the next one deserved the title more :)

Speaking of romance novels, I've been wondering why heroines are usually "chaste and pure and innocent", and have to worry about the hero who's often "well-travelled and obviously well-experienced". So, what does that make the women the hero sleeps with? Why do the heroes not want to remain "pure", too? :) Why does the heroine often try to hide her 'inexperience', and why does the hero get fooled so often, only to regret later and say, "I would have been gentler" or, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Oh, and I also read another book whose characters were involved in the Church or its activities. After a long time. For a change, it wasn't a nun or a priest falling in love. A rector trying to sort out his life after an unintended "night of passion", throw in some burglaries, murders, blackmail, suicides. You'd almost have had a good story, if you didn't have to make everyone oh so good, and tie up all the loose ends.

And the one about a couple of best friends. I'd mistaken it for this other book that's been on my wishlist, it was only after coming home and checking my list and the blurb that I realized the mistake. By then it was too late, and having nothing else to read one day last week, I started reading it. And hence had to finish it :) It might have actually been an okayish read, but it was kind of pretending to be a lot more than it was, and I felt it was a "wannabe" book...

Anyway, RS has promised to lend me a book, and so has MV.

I also have the Shiva trilogy to finish, having started it. And yes, I'm interested in science, and want to learn more about radio-wave communication, nuclear fission and fusion and missiles and weapons. And of course I want to know what happened to Shiva's soul :) I want to know if he did "spread the life" ;) Plus, I want to experience "Amar Chitra Katha on steroids", and "the Indian LOTR" :D

(That book-bashing session was fun, RS ;) And I hope you audition and win the role of Shiva - you can actually do the "Sati" thing before a much bigger audience :P )

That's it. Off to do a spot of reading. Of the more academic kind...

Adios, folks!