The Sicilian

I've completed reading "The Sicilian". I was reading this, sequel to "The Godfather" for a long time, and finally finished it. It is quite a rewarding experience, solely because I read a hard copy. I don't remember the stories that I read on-line or on a screen; especially they are not as vivid in my mind as those stories that I read from actual printed books, that I touched, felt and smelt. These intricacies enter your mind seamlessly, and the possession of a book is more of an obsession for me. I pride myself in having a beautiful and bountiful collection of books, and rarely do I lend them to of my closest friends; still pester them on the manner of reading, importance of maintaining the quality of the pages and returning the book without fail and in pristine condition.


Back to "The Sicilian", Mario Puzo kept me entertained throughout. But he hid many surprises and revealed them in a subtle manner at the ending chapters of the book. The story is so visual, and the characters intertwine, walk in and out of a chapter yet are all part of the 'Big plan'. It's like Puzo has built a maze, and it's so huge that one needs to be up high like in the "Maze Runner" to identify the pattern. The characters retain their characterization, the twists and turns are enticing yet not so appalling.

I have hastily signed up for the Goodreads Challenge, have to read 35 books this year! I have left some books incomplete, like "The Acquatine Progression", "The Study in Scarlet", and "The Paths of Glory".  "The Acquatine Progression" was a big one, I wasn't demoted by the shear size of it; but the story progression was picking up at a slower pace. "The Paths of Glory" was a good story on adventure, but I put it in a shelf and never picket it up again. "Study in Scarlet" e-book in the Kindle app on my windows-phone, it simply too tiring to read on a screen. Also I was roaming around searching for a hard-copy of the book, but found "We The Living" by Ayn Rand in a Library nearby and have started reading enthusiastically.


I have in possession Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose. Its funny that I remember this title, I came to know of the book from my high-school English lesson on Umberto Eco. It was mentioned that the story is a historical one. It involves a lot of semiotics (study of signs), and it's highly modern and complicated, yet sold splendidly . I was impressed by Umberto Eco, he says that if all the vacuum is removed from the Universe, it will be the size of our fist. Granted I was a high-school kid, but even then I was interested in the far and expanding world of the multi-verses; and listening to an author saying "The universe will fir into our fist" is just intense, hard to imagine and believe. He also explains that within a elevator ride he would've written an article, there's such space and time within our grasp yet out of reach of our senses. He seemed to be such an exciting and prolific author to have such capacity.

I hope to read a lot and regularly too, as it will without any doubt give peace and help me with the flow of words in my writings.The last few days I had peaceful dreamless sleeps, all thanks to the hours of reading. I lose myself and the worries that I carry, by losing myself in a different world. I got a spot on the terrace, with the light on my back and my back to the chair read for long periods of time like I used to during my school days. Stopping rarely to look up the meaning of a word or to make a note of a beautiful quote or line from the book, the reading was mostly uninterrupted.