When Breath Becomes Air

Nopes... I haven't finished my second book of the year already. But I had read this while I was traveling in last November and I remembered that this book of all deserves to be here as a review. To be honest, I was skeptical about picking this up because I had heard that it has a lot of medical jargon and I wondered whether I would even be able to get a hang of it. Also, this is supposed to be an autobiography and I am just not a non-fiction person. But, I did pick it up even if out of curiosity around what is in it to generate such hype and have amazing reviews.

For start, it was an easy read. There were all those medical terms but I had kind of blocked my mind from delving too much over them. Moreover, it helped that it was gripping right from the word 'go'. The writing is actually pretty neat, thoughtful and well structured. So much so that I felt that Paul was not wrong in thinking about career options in literature though he didn't pursue them until this book.

Unlike some of the reviews, I didn't really find it heavy. I didn't shed a single tear and believe-you-me I shed tears on snaps. So, I don't know why most of the readers say that it's heart-breaking. I mean, the book is an auto-biographical account by a terminally ill person so the scenario is heart-breaking but other than that, I did not think it was a sob-story. In fact, I had an image of Paul as someone very optimistic and a happy person to be describing his life so beautifully even while on death-bed.

I found the climax abrupt but to be fair to the person, his death was too sudden and that's how the story ends. And then one thinks that is exactly how fragile life is. For me though the best part of the book was how Paul sheds light on the patient-doctor relationship in a deep and humane manner. And the rest was all about transition of this person from leading a normal life with the eventuality of death only at the back of your head to a life where that eventuality is in the foreground of everything you do. Under the same shadow of a meaningful life, Paul comes to the conclusion that suffering and striving are the main components of a meaningful life.

#WhenBreathBecomesAir

#Autobiography

#PaulKalanidhi

#booklover

The Institute by Stephen King

I have re-adopted / re-kindled the reading resolution this year. I am not a fast reader so 12 books in a year (i.e. one book each month) looks both reasonable and not overtly ambitious considering that I more often than not struggle for time. What helped was that my daughter's exams are around the corner so her Kindle was free which I borrowed and kept in my handbag. So, every free time, no matter how short, has kind of become reading time. I was able to wrap up my first book yesterday. It took a couple of days over a month but that's okay as I might be able to make up few days if I pick up some shorter book.

The reason it took over a month was two-fold. First, I was not able to decide which book to read. I have quite a few unread books with me but I wanted to pick up something which I could recommend to my daughter to read after her exams. Something that meets her interests but is one level above from what she has been reading off late. Now, Science Fiction or Scientific Thrillers (I hope I mentioned the right category where this book falls into) is not my cup of tea but that's my daughters favourite genre. So, I searched the most well-known author of the genre and tried to select a book which might be of interest to her and also has really nice reviews on Goodreads. Second, since it was not my preferred genre, I had a really sluggish start. I dragged the book initially but took over it seriously only once I had hit February.

Now coming to the book... As I already mentioned the start was sluggish. I found the book boring in the beginning. It picked up my interest only after the entry of Luke Ellis, the lead protagonist, which happened well after a quarter of the book. But, did it pick my interest or what? The book thereafter was almost un-put-downable, if that is even a word. The characters were well-etched (although - spoiler alert - I wondered if Luke is such a brilliant child prodigy then why is his talent not any useful or displayed during his stay in the Institute but people may argue that there is some explanation to that in the book) and you almost are able to form a mental picture of how they might look like. The language is crisp, smooth and simple enough to keep you hooked. There are swear words used freely (and that too by 12 year olds) but that is not any problem for the adult readers although that is the only one thing which is making me indecisive about letting my 13-year old read the book. Not that 13-year olds nowadays are not aware of these words. Last, I was slightly disappointed with the end, especially the climax which let me slightly down. It was quite dramatic but just not the kind I would have liked. Then again, it's my personal view totally. In the reviews, people had mentioned that the plot is similar to the Netflix series "Stranger Things" but I cannot comment on that since I have not seen the series myself.

#TheInstitute
#StephenKing
#Thriller
#FirstBookOfTheYear
#12BooksToRead2020

#recentread
#justfinished
#booklover