A Weekend That Wasn't

A long due errand that had the felicity of being struck off my checklist last weekend, was a visit to the local library. I am quite a bibliophile and if not for some obscure inertia, I would have been walking down that lane the very next day of my descent into this unfamiliar city. However better late than never they say. So last Saturday, I gave myself a much needed shake and armed with an umbrella stepped out into a very grey and wet evening.

I am a compulsive but a niche reader. Non-fiction, especially philosophy, has never appealed to my predominantly romantic disposition. And almost all of my reading material during my growing years was a bequest from my mother. It was her collection that I raided during my school years and her novels that I would clandestinely read behind text books during exam days (You can't reprimand me for this confession now Mum; its been 15 years, besides, I did just fine. ;) ). That these novels were mostly about blue-blooded dames who, at some point in every novel, surreptitiously stole out in the middle of the night to keep assignments with their heart throbs, did nothing to have me take a peek into my conscience. Among non-fictions, I am partial to historic sagas and medical cases. I also used to love reading the monthly subscription of the Reader's Digest till its standard fell to mere trite, although I had my preferences in its articles too. I used to religiously solve the 'Word Power' and finish 'Laughter, the best medicine' and 'All in a day's work' as soon as I got my hands on the book. All articles related to medicine were always dipped into. With the rest, it always used to depend on the couple of lines of prologue that the article usually carried right below its title.

I spent a good two hours at the library browsing through its rather unfamiliar collection. My repertoire mostly consisted of British works so I am not quite conversant with American literature, especially from the rather recent novelists. I finally settled for a few familiar names and gambled with a couple of exploratory ones; eight in all. Here's a brief scrutiny of how I felt about each of these (I don't want to call it a review; it is more of an insight into my state of mind then and the memories it evoked.)

• Robin Cook's novels; Doesn't matter which, they all circle around deadly diseases with each symptom depicted in the most magnifiable way possible. After about two pages, I began to envisage experiencing some. It took me back to my Reader's Digest days when I used to read the medical articles after which even the minutest headache and even so much as a sneeze would take me on a self-diagnostic ride. I would come up with the most ludicrous prognosis and would initially fret over it silently until it would be too much to stomach. That's when I would confess about my fears to Mum who would then confirm the ailment to be a very obvious and acute case of hypochondria. :)
• 'The Moonstone' and 'The Woman In White' By Collins: These are re-reads; they belong to my collection that I left behind in Bombay. 'The Woman In White' especially has some very early memories associated with it, long before I took to novels. Back in the day, Doordarshan had aired a Marathi series by the name श्वेताम्बरा (Shwetambara; literally means dressed in whites). It was an adaptation of the Collins' novel and held an appeal because of the spookiness that surrounded the title track of the series; A woman dressed all in whites with a ghostly pallor peeping from behind a banyan tree (Indian folklore epitomizes the banyan tree as an abode for spirits) in the dead of the night. It made me follow the series. Come to think of it, all the series that I loved watching and happen to still vividly recall were either morbidly tragic or uncanny (I remember 'Avahan' - Morbid and 'Kile ka rahasya' - spooky; and I was all but five). Later, when I happened to read the novel, it held quite an unique appeal thanks to the serial.
• 'A Will And A Way' and 'Loving Jack' By Nora Roberts: Typical romances with the kind of plots that make you wish you lived amidst its pages. Protagonists who hate each other and quarrel all along or one silent lover and an oblivious miss, are two plots that could never fail to win a gal's heart. 
• 'The Villa Of Mysteries' By David Hewson and 'The Clairvoyant': Books pertaining to the supernatural; a subject that has fascinated me from my heydays. I have quite a lot of anecdotes on this topic; enough to dedicate an entire post to it.

So all in all, it was a very busy weekend; the busiest I have been in months considering I managed to read all these books and still had time on my hands to draw and paint a watercolor landscape and also cook a four course elaborate and sumptuous Indian meal! That was my 'All in a day's work'  :)