You Know you are a book-lover when...(Part 1)

We have all read books at some point of time or another. Here's a checklist to know whether you have qualified fully to be called a bibliophile (or bookaholic, or book-lover, or book-addict). And even if you have done these or felt these just once, we the bibliophiles are more than happy to accord the warmest welcome to you!

• You love books: Or should I say, you are in love with your books. It might seem like stating the obvious, however a bibliophile's love is a true one, it knows no boundaries, it sees no limits. They love books for not just the printed word, but also for the smell, the feel, the touch. Or, if it is an e-book, they sit glued to their e-device for hours. And they take care of their books like their babies, selfless love, you see!

• You sniff books: Yes, You heard it right, book-lovers love the smell of their books. Many of them are also into the practice of recognizing the publishing house by the smell and/or texture of the paper or the format of their electronic counterpart.

• You make excuses : From not going out on get-togethers, to delaying/cancelling hangouts with friends, you have done it, at least once so as to be able to read and finish the book by your favourite authors. And yes, without any compunction, you devise pretexts to do this, because you feel that it is a sacred ritual that needs to be attended before anything else.

 

• You prefer the company of books to people :The company of people entertains you, but that of books enthralls you beyond measure. And then you are judged: people call you anti-social, introvert. You see, that is the reason you love books. They don't judge you, nor they demand explanation.

• You sneak at work/while studying: It seems like a forbidden sin, and yet when you are in the middle of a good book, you cannot help but read snippets from the book every now and then. Troubled by the inconvenience, at last you give in to the temptation and abandon everything to read the book till the very last.

• You love books as gifts: You love it when people give you books as gifts, or even better,gift cards. There's a litmus test: you always gift books to people according to their tastes, but your friends have a tough time deciding which book to gift you. 

• You sleep with books: Ah! This one is the best. You retire to bed for the day. And inevitably there's the book in your hand, reading which you travel to another world, and without realizing slip into slumber while cuddling with the book. :-) This feeling's like no other.

• You are a book hunter: Yes, wherever you go, You are on the lookout for books. You check out the shelves of your host, you forage and ransack all places for libraries, bookstores or other nooks harbouring books.

• Your visits to bookstores disturb your budget: Each time you resist, first the urge to visit a bookshop and then the itch to buy books. No matter how hard you try,you end up spending a large fortune of your budget on books. In the aftermath of a book-splurge, you barely make your ends meet throughout the month.

• You fall in love with the fictional character: Not just fangirls, even booklovers find the man (or woman) of their dreams in a chapter.

• You cry when a good book ends: By their syntactical function, books with a poignant end make you cry. You are choked when your favorite character dies, you don't feel like talking to anyone for hours and can mourn for days. Yet, no one understands and life goes on, much to your grief.

• You experience book hangover: After having completed the book, It takes you time to make sense of reality. And then, you are incapable of starting another book because you cannot keep your thoughts from the previous one. The journey back into reality is tough. And if you haven't felt such as yet, try reading The Fault In our Stars, without crying for days following that.

• You find it difficult to part with your book: Yes, that practice of lending books. Accustomed to keeping your books like your babies, you cannot afford to get them hurt. 

• You love to get photographed with your books: Oh! yes, you love to get photographed with a book in your hand, by your side, or on the adjacent table, you flaunt your love of books, becuase.....they are the ultimate fashion accessory that never go out of trend. Isn't?

• Your to-do list never seems to diminish: So many books, so little time. But then there is nothing like so many books.

• You are always confused which book to pick next: As much as it is a moment of excitement, it is a moment of confusion.

• Your library card is always issued to the last: Despite telling yourself to keep at least one slot empty for moment of crisis, you end up getting as many books as the limit allows. 

• You despise Bookbreakers: That sadistic clan which attempts to tear pages from the books. Oh Lord! Punish them.There is no greater torment than an unfinished book because some blockhead wanted the page to complete the assignment on the last date of returning the book to library.

• You grab every possible opportunity to give book recommendations: You feel it is your sacred duty to give the best recommendations to budding bibliophiles and welcome them to the party.And you are on a mission to turn the world into a panorama of bibliophiles.

• You always want more bookshelves: The ones at your home never seem to suffice, especially not after a visit to the book fair or bookstore.

I can go on and on to enumerate the traits of a bibliophile. Watch out for the second part with a plethora of other characteristics of bibliophiles. I would love to know what other traits you think you possess. Just leave them in the comments section below, and I will include them in the next part of the series.
Happy Reading!

Book Review: Adhuri Prem Kahaniya by Santosh Avvannavar

About the book:

Adhuri Prem Kahaniya has been developed while keeping into perspective the lives of 12 individuals. The book sheds light to some aspects of the lives of these individuals in these 25 short stories. This book might turn out to be a great read or ice breaker for people who are stressed out. Most of the stories have a certain romantic and erotic viewpoint and is written mostly for people who are extremely busy with their lives and do not have time for some romance. These people will thoroughly enjoy the book and all of the different aspects that are brought to light by the tumultuous and often funny experiences of these people.

About the author:

Santosh Avvannavar: Santosh started his career as a consultant and Soft
Skills Trainer. He did his college education from NITK, Surathkal. He
functioned as a researcher at University of Eindhoven, University of
Twente and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He was also the
Placement President, while he was working at IISc, Bangalore. He has
over 25 publications of mostly research documents that have found
their place in National & International Journals. Also, he has done 16
conference papers and regularly functions as a writer of different
articles for a national and worldwide daily paper. He is an advisor
for different organizations. Throughout his personal time he composes
his thoughts in a website, namely www.amritafoundation.wordpress.com
and ventures into fiction writing. He delivered seminars and training to more
than 30,000 people in India and abroad over the span of 6 years.

Book Trailer:

                               

 My Review:

The title of the book, the blurb and the quote line, “The weakness of a man is the strength of a woman.”, all of these concoct to lead the prospective reader to a belief that these tales are going to be the heart-rending, poignant tales of suffering for love, pangs of separation, the agony of future, the vagaries of society that hinder the blossoming of love. The content of the book, however, actually is just 12 tales of different people in the form of chapters, which are further sub-divided into sections. This compartmentalization was juvenile enough to make it jacose. Once you have read the entire book, an exercise which can be in fact a challenging task given the grammatical lapses and inaccuraciesand punctuation omissions, apart from the lack of editing and proof-reading conspicuous by their absence, you realise that the author has attempted to bring some points home, the primary of them being the hostility that love still suffers at the hands of society.

 Other aspects include the numerous manifestations of love, the puerile love, the unfulfilled love, a brief fling, et al. The reader is left craving for a single “true love” story, because all these stories, irrespective of how true the love they portray fail to convince the reader of this fact. Again, this might be because a regular reader cannot help donning as a grammar Nazi, but for a casual reader, it might just work fine.

Each chapter is a random strip of a man's life, ambulating from one relationship to another. Perhaps, a narration or two from a girl's perspective could have done wonders to alleviate it. One mystery that the book will help you solve is the facebook relationship status, “It's complicated!”. Disheartening as it sounds, this book even does not make up for its lack of presentation skills in the content. The content has potential, though. The content cries for an editor to recuperate it from the grammatical ravages and lend it a potential place among the easy-to-read bestsellers which the market is witnessing a deluge of.

Judgement(Read: warning) : If you want a casual read, but can refrain from dissecting the book under lexical jargon and linguistic technicalities, only then go for it.

Lines to look out for:

In school, we are taught there is only one 'God' and one religion ‘humanity’. But reality is something else. Did not our parents study from similar school of learning?