Books That Are "Different"

Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

Such an extraordinary book, a rare story. I couldn't possibly imagine reading another book as good and

facinating as this one. When I first heard of the book ( I am always looking out for The Booker Prize Winners' work), this particularly caught my attention. What I need in my daily reading is something out of the norm, something that gives my brain a little workout, not just read and weep kinda thing.

I picked it out, stared at the cover and flipped to the back. I read through the blurb. A tiny bell in my mind chimed... ting ... sounds nice, should I get it? Priced at MYR39.90, it is definitely not something cheap for a student like me. Well, do I need it? The question a shopaholic would ask herself many times before allowing herself to reduce the contents of her purse. Well, since the reviews were amazing, I guess it is just a fine investment.

Yann Martel, never heard of him before... paid for the book and walked out of MPH Mid Valley, KL. Walked around the mall aimlessly, another day of lonely outing to unwind my distraught and haywired sense of being. My body was cruelly abused by the hectic life of a varsity student, limbs and muscles tensed under all sort of pollutions (when I was out of the mall, of course).

I sat at Secret Recipe with a slice of cake, Cheese Raspberry, a warm bowl of carrot soup and a cup of Earl Grey, and that's lunch. Myself and my new book ! I unwrapped it and touched the smooth cover of my new paperback, flipped through the pages fast and enjoyed the heavenly fragrance of pages. Hmm.. that was surely an appetizer hahaha, not that I have any intention of tasting the pages.

The sweet lunch was nothing compared to the writing.

I brought the book back home and started my reading, I mean, like seriously. Usually when I get a good novel, I read the first few chapters, then, my eyes shift to another, and another and another ... and at the end of the day, I never really finish reading ONE novel. So, this time, I know for sure, this book id THE one, I am seriously finishing this.

Hmmm, reading the first few pages was ... well, very intriguing. I was actually reading on zoology, I felt like wow, being an English Language major and English Literature major, reading about the science of zoos is rather out of my world kinda thing. I actually learnt about the two-toed sloth, one of the slowest and laziest creature living in our forests. And how the two-toed sloth soothe the main character's soul-surprisingly positive.

My zoology thesis was a functional analysis of the thyroid gland of the three-toed sloth. I chose the sloth because its demeanour- calm, quiet and introspective- did something to soothe my shattered self.