Somethings Never Change

Image from http://jenbreaux.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/partyscenegg.jpg.

Sinusitis and I said, "I do" a real long time ago and even if I tried to cheat, sinusitis has clung on to me.

So when we get really romantic and chummy, we become much of a public nuisance.

I have learned over the many years through this affair to get medicated and stay away from people. Not that I am infectious or anything. Merely the fact that each time I sneeze, everyone stops for a split second from what they are doing and look at me. Then H1N1 came and everyone thought I was constantly infected.

When I cut off human company (which is really not a bad thing), I read books. Lots of them. They don't complain when I sneeze at them or splutter coffee when I sneeze or medicate them by mistake. I really do define "unputdownable" to the point that I have developed a BR* cramp in my left forearm.
*brachioradialis

I don't really remember when I started reading books. I don't really remember my very first book. That is how long me and books go.

Recently (meaning about 16 hours ago), I finished Sophie Kinsella's Twenties Girl which truly is unputdownable. Before you go thinking it's a chic flick or some trashy literature, it makes The Namesake look shy. So you know it's good; may be we will get a movie in the years to come. Quite an unexpected storyline (that which makes stories unforgettable). The author did a good job in storytelling a hip 20s scene (and yes this is the 1920s with the top hats and flapper dresses) while highlighting the challenges that those times.

It was really naive of me to associate the 20s to New York. Something about Marilyn Monroe and me being confused. Set in London and quite a first for me as I have not read about London per se in the 20s or the 21st century (P.S. I Love You was set in Ireland). Quite a breather from all the heather and villages of the 60s which I have come to associate London to. And yes, it is not just a quaint little shopping district.

A story is only as good as it is able to engage with the reader and vividly form a mini-universe in their head. This story has touch of all the right things to make it right. Paced storyline but not too fast or heaven-forbid too slow, rich with details but not florid and most of important of all filled with everyday people. I guess that last bit is what that makes me passionate about this book. Most stories these days are filled with characters which too much of "something" which makes them a pain and makes you look how many more pages are left in that chapter. Either that or they are canned with cryptic messages and imagery that stresses one out trying to decipher them. One or two is cute, a few is perfect but sentence after sentence of personification and depersonification?! This book as I have implied has neither of those foolish emblems.

More importantly I guess besides these niceties and enriched experience, it has got to have some message but not the wrong message. This book has some really funny ones like "Don't end up being a trailer" (that's a stalker in 21st century speak). That's from Sadie Lancaster by the way.

Speaking of Sadie, she would be now in trance as I have started droning. I better go and wake her up.