ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK

Yeah, BOOKWORM ends today. Thanks for all the participants of Girls Talk who shared their collections of books. Most of the books you guys shared are included in my "to buy" list.

All - time favorite books - THE LITTLE PRINCE & PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE.. but if there's another book I wanna share to you guys that would be - ELEVEN MINUTES - by Paulo Coelho.  A reviewer of this book said...Eleven Minutes is worth reading, but with a very open mind. However, it is not something that one would enjoy reading again, like The Alchemist.

HE SPOKE of the importance of my books in his life, concluding: ‘They make me dream.’ I have often heard these words before and they always please me greatly. At that moment, however, I felt really frightened, because I knew my new novel, Eleven Minutes, dealt with a subject that was harsh, difficult and shocking.”(Excerpts from ’Dedication - Eleven Minutes’by Paulo Coelho)

Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer. . . ." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness -- sexual pleasure for its own sake -- or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.

One has to read this novel with a very clear mind, that is, if one wants to enjoy the literature value of it. Otherwise you will feel it is another one of the well written sex-flicks..

An entry for

THRILLER BOOKS

I didn't join last week Girls Talk entry...for the reason that I'm not interested reading funny books and I have never read any except "The Little Prince" though it's not really a funny books but I had fun reading it because of the pen-and-ink pictures drawn with a childlike gravity.

Anyway for my share today which is about suspense/thriller books are from the works of Sidney Shieldon and John Grisham. I was in college when I started collecting some books of Sidney Shieldon and I loved Bloodline the most.

Then when I came to Dubai I fell in love with John Grisham when I've read his first novel, A Time To Kill, my fave thriller book. From then on I bought all his books, infact I bought Da Vinci Code that day it was released in Dubai and it is the most expensive from my collections. I had only two brand new books Da Vinci Code and Eleven Minutes and the rest are second hand books which I bought on a promo at a  bookshop  in Karama and Satwa Dubai.

My share for

BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY

We've come to another month for Girls Talk Meme and I feel glad that I was one of those who voted for "Books" when our hostess Beauty Queen Gene conducted a survey on what would be the next topics for her Thursday's meme.

I'm not really a bookworm though I was once an avid reader of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Mystery Series when I was in highschool but when I came to Dubai 5 years ago I started to love reading books and became my new hobby.

I had collected some books/novels of Sidney Shieldon, Nicolas Parks, John Grisham, Dan Brown and Paulo Coelho and other authors. And if there's one book that really made me cry...it would be "A Walk to Remember". I guess everyone who read that book cried...am i right? But if there's a book I wanna share for today's topic....its Samira and Samir.

This book of Siba Shakib (an Iranian/German filmmaker, writer and political activist) is a true story of a young girl in the “mans world” in Afghanistan. Samira is brought up as a boy known as Samir by her father who is a brave commander fighting in the mountainous land of Afghanistan. Her father, who desperate for boy as his first born taught her to fight, ride and shoot and finally became the head of the family when her father died.

When she became an adult she fell in love with her friend of her youth and confess her female identity. She wants to live as Bashir’s wife but she has to give up her freedom, followed her heart to be a woman but hate to appear as a woman because she is well-know in her tribe as a male and her experiences is that of a man.

This for me is an emotional story, giving a glimpse into the unfair and oppressive lives of the women of Afghanistan and other Arab – Islamic Countries.

I am living in an Arab Country so I preferred to share this to all of you guys…not a must read but if you want you can have a copy of it…

An entry for

THE LITTLE PRINCE ON GOOGLE'S HEADER

Who among you have read the most famous novella of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince? On that book I got my favorite saying “It’s only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eyes”, it’s the lines uttered by the fox to the little prince which means that we only really see with the heart...the most important things can't be seen with the eyes.

Have you noticed the Google’s header today? Isn’t it the Little Prince? Upon seeing it, I was reminded how I loved this book and I even remember how I had this book. Well, it was early morning of midyear 1998; I was waiting for my mom on the stairs of Metropolis Mall in Alabang when suddenly a man on his twenties came near to me telling that he saw me from afar and that I was alone since I came and he thought that maybe I was waiting for someone and feeling bored already coz I’ve been there for couple of hours same as he was…and maybe we needed both company. At first I was really afraid…it was the first time meeting a stranger early morning and there was only few people on that place and if he did something wrong on me I don’t know if those people would care to help me. But then he said “don’t be afraid I’m not a bad guy though I’ve been before”. He told me that he’s a member of a band and he’s an addict but after reading “The Little Prince” everything has changed. He was there waiting for the dawn coz he run away from their home. He came from a well off family but his parents believed that he’s always been the black sheep so he decided to leave their house and don’t know where to go. He gave me his book that night and he even signed his name at the back of the front cover…I forgot his whole name but it sounds like Zedric Von ______ Aguillon. He said that night that he doesn’t know if on the next day he is still alive and so he told me to take good care of the book even if it’s almost worn out and try to read and understand every little things that is written there coz it has so many lessons. And he said when he’s down he only reads that book and everything will be okay. Then my mom came and we said goodbye. It was nice meeting a stranger for the first and last time.

I suggest to all people who may read this blog and haven’t read the book “The Little Prince” …please read it and for sure you’ll love it as much as I do.