The Fault In Our Stars.

Once in awhile, I adhere to the dictates of pop culture and read some of it’s over-hyped books especially those that turn into movies. In this case; the fault in our stars. After a few abortive efforts, I finally got round to reading the book to its end.
Reading the book in entirety has taken me close to a year because of John Green’s First-person narrative when it comes to the narrative mode. Literally placing oneself in someone’s shoes is more taxing than you can imagine. The story never flows as well as I would like and it is unsettling. These are the things one has to put up with when adhering to pop culture dictates.

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.” - Shakespeare

The book was an OK read. I expected it to have a sad ending but John Green spared us from that by making it as ambiguous as the ending in the mentioned An Imperial Affliction. Did she or didn't she die? No one knows since it ends on a love scene. If most of us readers were as obsessive as Hazel Grace was with the ending of An Imperial Affliction, we’d all be camped at John Green’s door asking for answers regarding the state of her life.

These were some of my favorite quotes/passage from the book.

“I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.” – Augustus Waters

“I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labour has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” – Augustus Waters

However sad Hazel Grace’s story is, I am glad she gave herself the chance to love and be loved. Now that I have finally done away with the book, watching the movie is not on my agenda. In most cases, movies have the bad luck to not live up to par with the books they originate from.

Self - Confidence.

We deny our own beauty because others can't or won't recognise it. Instead of accepting ourselves as we are, we try to imitate what we see around us.
We try to be what other people think of as 'pretty' and, little by little, our soul fades, our will weakens, and all the potential we had to make the world a more beautiful place withers away.
We forget that the world is what we imagine it to be.
We stop being the moonlight and become, instead, the pool of water reflecting it. Tomorrow, the water will evaporate in the sun. And all because, one day, someone said: 'You are ugly.' Or: 'She is pretty.' With those three simple words, they stole away all our self-confidence.
And we become ugly and embittered.
Manuscript found in Accra

I downloaded this book but I am yet to find the wherewithal and energy to get lost in it. I know a few people who have read and liked it. When I finally get round to it, I shall keep y’all updated.

The Alchemist…FINALLY!

 I finally got round to reading Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. I am proud of myself considering the fact it has taken me almost three years since I said I would? The first time I failed because it was an audio book which didn’t work for me. There is no question mark against Morgan Freeman’s voice. I am simply a paperback girl. I decided to wait until I could get my hands on either a soft copy that is Ebook or paperback.

I downloaded the Ebook version, sat on it for months and remembered it after all the fluff reading I had done. I have to say it is a very good book. It reminds us of what we already know, think and teaches us more. I don’t know if any of you believe in omens but I do. I believe in a cock’s crow, the black and white lizard and the odd bird poop on your person. It never crossed my mind that butterflies and crickets are good omens. In fact, I thought otherwise. The book talks so much of believing and following omens such as butterflies etc implying they are good omens and how you must always look out for them to guide you on to the right path in your quest to achieving your dreams.

Essentially, it is about dreams -the beauty of following them and believing in your heart and yourself. We were all created with an intention and a purpose. He talks about Santiago’s journey as a Shepherd from the mountains of Spain to the pyramids of Egypt in search of his treasure. The struggles he faced, lessons he learnt just to achieve his dream, how he finally becomes The Alchemist and also later finds his treasure in the one place he left in the beginning.

I found it quite relative and reflective of human nature. We all have dreams, the strong are the ones who follow their hearts and fulfil their dreams whilst the weak are the ones who sit on them or give up once they encounter obstacles as it says, ‘Before a dream is realised, The Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so we can learn, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we have learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up.’ and at the end of it all blame the world for all our failures. I can’t say it had a huge impact on me, it was more like an affirmation of what I already know and then some.

The book has so many quotable quotes and profound texts but for me it has to be, ‘Be aware of the place where you are brought to tears…’ Reading this reminded me of the conversation I had with my sister and the post I did about dreams here. I cried during that text session like no man’s business. And the quote brought back the same emotions and a little tear to my eyes. Dreams are everything, they are the driving force behind who we are and without them, we are nothing.You can decide to be like the Arab crystal seller whose dream is to go to Mecca- he’d rather dream about the possibility, work towards it and not see it through because he doesn’t want to find another dream or be like Santiago and go after what you want.

I do recommend the book if you have not had the pleasure of reading it. What next as regards my reading list? I guess Don Quixote. It sounds English which I love. I think English (British) writers are the best!! My aunt recommended it. On to the business of looking for it.

Quotes- Eat, Pray, Love.

A few months back like maybe six, I made the decision to read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I was more curious about the book itself than the movie which to date I have never watched. It is about her journey to spiritual fulfillment basically. It is a good read and very relatable when it comes to religion and divinity. We all have those moments where we doubt our religions, the need to find the spirit and have an unwavering belief in God’s existence and go back to the straight and narrow. It is all that.

I needed to make a quotes post and I didn’t have to look further than the book. Good thing is I had highlighted all that I found interesting courtesy of being on Adobe Reader X! As always, I hope some of these speak to you and find them relatable. I tend to remember a quote in some situations and it ends up being an Aha! moment.

• Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.
• The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are congratulated.
• When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if
  someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.
• Beauty attracts Beauty.
• Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
• Speak the way you eat. Italian saying.
• “It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.” – Bhagavad Gita
• “The wise man is always similar to himself.” –Sextus (Ancient Pythagorian philosopher)
• “All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop.”-Kabir
• Flexibility is just as essential for divinity as is discipline.
• God responds to the sacred prayers and efforts of human beings in any way whatsoever that mortals choose to worship-just so long as those prayers are sincere.
• “People follow different paths, straight or crooked, according to their temperament, depending on which they consider best, or most appropriate-and all reach You, just as rivers enter the ocean.” – Upanishads
• God takes what belongs to God-the gesture-while man takes what belongs to man-the food.
• To meditate, only you must smile.Smile with face, smile with mind and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.
• Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.
• All the sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people.
• Even in the worst tragedies and crisis, there is no reason to add to everyone’s misery by looking miserable yourself.
• Only the young and stupid are confident about sex and romance.
• Sometimes intense emotion can cause us to respond to cataclysmic news in exactly the opposite manner logic might dictate.
• To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life.
• “All the pain of a human life is caused by words, as is all the joy. We create words to define our experience and those words bring attendant emotions that jerk us around like dogs on a leash.” – Yogic saying
• It is the oak tree that creates the very acorn from which it was born.