Tag: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

The graveyard book by Neil Gaiman

#utkirtanabookreview

“It must be good… to have somewhere that you belong. Somewhere that’s home.”

An orphaned boy, parents massacred, metaphysical territory, ancient prophecy, and a supervillain running after the boy.

Am I talking about Harry Potter? Nah! It’s the book of the most twisted yet justified and creepy yet delighted logics. Presenting you the review of another marvel by our guy,  Neil Gaiman himself, THE GRAVEYARD BOOK.

( The book is aimed at children of age 6 to 12 but with the crazy murderous scene, I suggest parents give it a read before presenting it to their kids.)

I tell you, there are gonna be a lot of spoilers. So Watch your steps people.

A just orphaned boy crawls down his crib, escaping the murderer Jack, reaches the graveyard. Protected and adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Owens.
Who are they? Psst! Of course the ghosts of the graveyard. They name him Nobody Owens (nickname Bod). Okay, you are wondering about his food and needs? Don’t worry, Silas (the dark one) is gonna be his guardian for he can travel between the two worlds (of the living and the dead). They even gave him the “Freedom of the graveyard” allowing him to act like a ghost, as you know, “It takes a graveyard to raise a child”. (read to know more)
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Bod befriends Scarlett(human girl), goes into an adventurous trip, discovers Seller(an interesting creature).
Scarlett leaves with her parents convinced by them that Bod was her imaginary friend. Bod is captured by Ghouls who pass by GhoulsGate, rescued by Ms. Lupescu (werewolf), befriends Elizabeth(the ghost of an unjustly executed witch), again kidnapped by a pawnshop owner(Jack’s Man). Scarlett returns and is now a friend of Frost (Jack of all trades) who aims to kill Bod for the prophecy. Scarlett is held captive and Bod is determined to save her. But will he? If yes, then how? It’s time for Bod to end the story of Jack and venture into the world of the living.  During his entire journey, Bod learns supernatural abilities taught by Silas and Mr. Pennnyworth. Will these abilities go with him into the real world when he leaves his nest? Will Bod and Scarlett get their happily ever after?
Every chapter is a story in itself.
It teaches you that a home is where your heart is and that is where you are safe, it doesn’t matter if it is in a graveyard. Your family will protect you & fight for you. And if you are alive then you have all the potential to explore the world, see the colours with your very own eyes.
Such captivating characters! My God!
Neil leaves you longing for more even if you have finished reading the book.

You may find it similar to THE JUNGLE BOOK, by Rudyard Kipling(for which Neil has given the credits, don’t come crying that it was copied). But it has its own ingenuity.

So, what are you waiting for? Let your mind enter into the nostalgic world of your magical childhood.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

-Robert Louis Stevenson

“All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil : and Edward Hyde, alone, in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.”

Aren’t we all aware of the fact that we have a wild side to our personalities that we want to mask up? We adumbrate an image so virtuous to solace our heart that eventually, the wild segment inside us escapes our memories. But at some point, our alter ego rises, stands up to laugh at us, and then life gives us two options to choose from. It’s always in our hands to decide what we want the most.

“In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose what we want most to be.”

Stevenson very well understood the conflict in human minds. He cleverly gave physical forms to our dual natures, gradually depicting the consequences of temptations. 


“A man cannot destroy the savage in him by denying its impulses. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”



Dr. Jekyll also has a wild side to his personality. Stymied, he invents a potion that brings this side of him to the surface.


“I’ve become a monster! I must find a place where I can hide! That’s it! I shall call myself…”

There itself you know what is going to happen. As expected, Mr.Hyde is malevolent and spiteful, and Dr.Jekyll is projected as the embodiment of goodness. Don’t we all have a little Jekyll and a little Hyde inside us?

Human nature bears so many mysteries on its own, the elevating angelic thoughts, the endless mental struggles, the lazy blank times, or the destructive, irrational, and ruthless rage. And this will always be a mystery that why do we are in a constant state of tension. Why do we choose what we choose? Why our minds sometimes lead us to charity or why we get indulged in evil acts? Why do we have such disparities and why is it up to us to choose?



“There are preachers who kill. There are killers who preach. There are teachers who lie. There are liars who teach. Take your pick, dear. ‘Cause it’s all a facade.”


Strangely Dr.Jekyll himself isn’t all goody-good. It is his fragility that created Mr.Hyde. Can we humans in actual detach our wicked side?

I would love to reread this archaic piece for the stupendous portrayal of the gothic genre, the powerful descriptive writing, and how cleverly it questions science and religion. Women, here, are mere plot devices that interpret the oppression of women under patriarchy. I assumed it will be told from Hyde/Jekyll’s perspective, but it’s actually a third-person narrating the story. I was amused by how smoothly shifting in the narrator occurs in the entire read. It is interesting that the dwarfish Mr.Hyde shows the undeveloped wickedness of Dr.Jekyll. It is undoubtedly one of the most popular works of Stevenson that speak volumes about society also touching our inner conflicts.



*Notes: other quotes *

1. It is one thing to fortify curiosity, another thing to conquer it.

2. If he be Mr.Hyde, I shall be Mr.Seek.

3. It’s much more interesting to try and understand what binds two people together. Why we stay with each other is much more of a mystery than why we don’t.

ARE YOU A TSUNDOKU ARTIST?

Ever entered your room to find piles of books stacking at places that don’t belong to them?

Books of different genres and orders lying over one another plead you to rearrange them but you are not done reading. The demise of your best-loved protagonist for his/her hamartia has broken you from the core and you avenge the pain by shooting the book at the corner table.

You are finifugal for a specific book that was hyped but you gave up halfway and it found its place in middle of the unorganised pile.

Are you a libriocubicularist and love grazing the book on your bed? Or are you greedy reader, possessive enough to let them go out of your immediate sight and end up having that unvanquishable book pile? Does any of these sound familiar to you? Then by God’s grace, you have acquired the erotic art of Tsundoku.

Define me, Tosser!

Tsundoku, evolved in the Meiji era (1864-1912) as a Japanese slang, has found its way into our modern-day life. According to Prof.Andrew Gerstle, University of London, the “tsun” of tsundoku was derived from “tsumu” that means “to pile up” and “doku” is a term used for “reading”. It was mentioned in some early texts in 1879 about a teacher who has lots of books but never reads them. This term has been nagging around lately and talked about in many media like BBC, The New York Times, Atlas Obscura and even in many bookstagram accounts.

There are similar terms like “Pile de Livres” or “Pila de Libros” or even in Hindi as “Pustak dher”. It literally means the book piles or reading piles. Book hoarders buy reading materials and keep piling them up. We lectiophiles appreciate a library around us and tend to own more and more books. But in this digital era where we have options like E-Books, EPUBs & PDFs, hard copies, periodically, are left unread and unattended.

Aveux!

Zaida, a bookstagrammer, confessed “My bibliolatry has taken me to the limit where I get frustrated when my favourite novel disappears from my sight. This has led to the budding of mini book stacks all around my house like a mosaic.”

Christen, a scriptwriter, is book bossomed and carries his current reads everywhere. “I pull out and start reading even when I’ve like 5-10 minutes while waiting for someone. My bag gets so heavy that results in late-night shoulder ache. Recently I’ve switched to ebooks, they are lighter and you can carry an entire library with you. But of course, the hard pieces are piling up at home”

Nikita, a ghostwriter, is a typical bibliotaph. To protect her assets, she keeps stacking them in mini cabinets around the house; books are left unread and unattended for months.

I myself am a scripturient & have handwritten chronicles, sticky notes, micro-story tips lying around. I pick up magazines, brochures and booklets that appeal to my sights. Being a classic lover, buying hard editions can cost me a fortune. So I download E-books, PDFs, EPUBs to satisfy my urges.

Then get over me!

The question here is how can we? How can we reduce the lump and give attention to every book? After all, we are not libricides, are we? Here I share my fraction of tips that have assisted me to combat my guilts.

5-step rules to break up with me!

Book limit: No matter how much we cherish new books, we must limit our hoarding. If you can complete an average of 3 books a month, try reading the old unread clams first and then add new ones. This way you can accomplish your “to be read” goal with books from your old heap and satisfy your bibliosomiac propensity with new ones.

Have some readgret: You have pieces lying there since the moment universe ejected electron and protons for the first time. Finish reading them first! You can opt for the digital versions of some of the books. Try getting your hands on soft copies of those you think are light reads.

Be a bibliopole: You can sell the books that you no longer are interested in. The ones you regret buying; the ones that failed your expectations. And if your heart is big enough, you can even donate them to orphanages or libraries. No need to feel “shelfrighteous” about your wad, you have junks lying there. Get rid of them. And voila! You have space for your new tots.

Plan-scribble -act: Planners or journals, monthly or weekly, will help you keep a track of your reading journey. Plan a one-week TBR list that includes the old ones and the new ones. Stick to it. Read the books that truly interests you. Keep a theme that sets a mood, like “feeling blue-Monday” or “foodie-Friday”.

Stop being a Bibliophagist: Finishing a book is not an obligation. It doesn’t matter how many books you read. It’s your life and you make the rules. Stressing your mind and eyes won’t take you anywhere. Taking part in Bibliobibuli race will detach you from the rest of the world. Slow down, take a deep breath. Read a book to enlighten yourself; soothe your soul. But give your mind a break to rearrange its compartments.

Did these work for you?

Piles of unread books have always unnerved me.

My mind was more concentrated in planning to read than actually implementing the ideas. The heap kept growing. It was chaos. Leaving behind the habit of Tsundoku has given me time to rearrange my shelf where the unreads grasp my primary sight and attained ones are satisfactorily placed at a handy distance. I started taking breaks between my reads.
I no longer have the pressure of fulfilling the goal. I can focus more on what affects my emotions than what affects my social media status. I can extract more from what I read; can comprehend several authors’ perspectives crystal clear.

Inferred the true significance of the quotation,


“Whatever your quirky reason is, remember the times when reading sparks joy, not misery.”

Letter to Anne Frank

 “I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”

Anne Frank’s diary had been there with me since my matriculation. It’s one of those primary spurs that led me in the path of bibliolatry.

Those who have read this would agree that it is one of our Lectiophilic Bible. I can’t review or rate this. No one can. Ever. The best I can do is to reply to her scribbles and hope she hears this from the bliss spreading her feathers of joy for I’m sure she has not yet reincarnated in this ruthless world took her life.

My letter to Anne Frank:

Dear Anne,


For you, it was something a freshly matured girl would jot down in her journal; the vehement emotions of adolescence, the hardships of living during war hysteria.

But for us, it’s a ray of light in our anxieties. How can a teen girl like you be this articulated and high spirited having the strength to alter the very fundamental perspective of a person who grazes your diary years after the episode?


Every time I read your diary, I wish someone could soothe me saying ” It was just an ordinary novel. Everything in it is an imagination of the author. And no, the angel kindling your spirit hadn’t died in that holocaust.”


But it’s not the case and realizing this every time shakes me up from the core. I wish you could fulfil your dreams, Anne.
    

Love💕