An insatiable appetite for...

...reading!  Did you think I was going to say food?  Well, you'd be right on that one as well.  :)  But this post is about books.

A little history for you...growing up, I remember having an insatiable appetite for books.  My sister and I, as well as my Mum would go through books fairly fast and it was hardly ever that we would not be in the middle of reading some book or another.  Oh, I loved reading!  Nancy Drew, Roahl Dahl, V. C. Andrews, Judy Blume...  The list goes on and on!

I loved our school's library as it was always fully stocked with books and in the Summer we would tag along with our Mum to her library.  This was back in the day in Dubai and I loved my Mum's library!  It was a small library housed out of a mobile home/trailer.  No, that's not the right description.  Umm...I forgot the name of what you call them but they're offices/rooms that could be mobile and usually contractors use them on building sites. Anybody help me out?  Well anyway, it was a quaint library that had the yummy smell of books, books, books.  They had a simple card system to log books in and out - back before the day of electronic check outs.  They would take the little card out of the back of the book and stamp it with the due date.  Remember that system?  Loved it!  Anyway, that was our little library and I loved going with my Mum to pick out new books.

Oh and speaking of my Mum!  She was an avid reader too!  I remember many weekend afternoons/evening where you could not tear our Mum away from reading.  After a long week at work, my Mum would on the weekend cook and work on the house in the mornings and then after a home-cooked lunch would take a well-deserved rest in bed with a good book.  My Mum would read away until it was well in to the evening, often reading until there was no sunlight peeking in through the windows.  It's one of my favorite memories from my childhood!

Well cut to College and suddenly reading took on a completely different face.  Reading during my college years was more of a requirement than a choice and let's be honest, reading text books definitely took the fun out of 'reading for fun'.  I barely read much fiction during that time.  My appetite quickly dissipated and given that I hate studying, I quickly developed a dislike for reading.  After graduation I knew that it would be a while until my love for reading would come back.

Settling in to adult life, I tried to get back in to reading.  I would pick up a book and sometimes get through it.  Sometimes it would take me 4 or 5 months...sometimes not picking it up for weeks at a time.   I would find books I would fall in with and books that I struggled through.  I even developed the skill to stop reading a book that was boring me to death.  And yes that is a skill.  How many of us have felt the pull to keep reading a book even though it's crap?  :)

Well as of late, I have finally...finally...got my reading groove back!!  Partly due to the fact that I've had a recent really good run of books!  I wanted to share these with you...

ps - I really like the angle of this picture.  :)

Signora Da Vinci by Robin Maxwell - I think I may have already told you a bit about this book.  I highly recommend it!  It's set in the 1400's in Italy and is centered around a lady who pretends to be a man so that she could live alone in the big city of Florence where her son Leonardo da Vinci is taking an art apprenticeship.  I loved the story because it was so unique!  How often do you read about a woman posing as a man in 1452?  Love it!  And yes there is a bit of a love story in the book as well.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - oh fabulous!!  Again another very unique kind of book.  I'll ask you the same question...how often do you get to peer inside the world of the Circus in the 1930's?  Yup I know, isn't it amazing?  This book takes you through the journey of a young lad as he loses his way in life when his parents suddenly die in a car accident.  Not knowing what to do next, he joins a traveling circus and comes to know the life of an animal handler first hand.  And yes, there is a love story involved in this book as well.  :)  Do I see a theme?

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - wow!  Now if you're looking for a 1000 page book, you'll find it in this novel.  But don't be scared away by how thick this book is as I honestly could not put it down.  This book, recommended by my friend Julie follows the lives of many characters who are either vying for power, survival or sustenance.  It is centered around the building of a Church in England in the 1100's and it's story lines weave in and out of each other, connecting characters and their lives.  I hate to admit that I didn't care too much about the descriptions of the actual church building.  The author, Ken Follett, did a lot of research in to the way churches were built back in the day and provides a lot of detail through out the book.  I generally would skip through those parts which I have to say did help me get through the 1000 pages a bit faster.  This book was simply fabulous!  Probably the best out of the four and also has a sequel that I am gearing up to read soon as well.  And yes, there are various romance stories interwoven but it is definitely not the focus of the book. 

The Splendor of Silence by Indu Sundaresan - ahhh, what a book!  I just finished this one last night.  As you might recall my friend Rachna sent me this book all the way from Canada and after finishing the 1000 pager, I quickly picked this lovely up.  Now I warn you that this book is only set across 4 days.  I didn't realize that at first and felt that it was moving incredibly slow.  I almost put it down but knowing that Rachna would only have sent me a worth while book, I ploughed through.  I also read the back of the book which indicates the 4 day span and quickly relaxed in to the rhythm that the book had set.  This book is set in the 1940's during WWII.  It is about an American soldier searching for his lost brother in India and within his search falls in love with an Indian girl.  The book very adequately delves in to life in the 1940's and the impact of British rule in India.  Once I could relax in to this book, I could not go one evening without reading at least several pages.  And again, there is a romantic story line interwoven in to the book.  Sigh...what a good book.  I also realized that I had read another great book by the same author called The Twentieth Wife.

And now what?  Well I just picked up A Reliable Wife.  I'm a bit hesitant as this was not recommended to me like the other books but I simply picked it up from a line up of books.  So I'm hoping that it will be another novel to add to my 'good run'!  So what about you?  Are you reading any good books or have any to recommend??

~kavita