Quasi

A hundred or so days, several books. 

I am finally back in my home country, for good.  I had an operation which will make me stay at home at least for about three months.  A good opportunity to dwell on books.  I have read several since "The Godfather." "Three Cups of Tea" by David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortansen,"Stardust" by Neil Gaiman, "Bag of Bones" by Stephen King, "The Great Gatsby" F. Scott Fitzgerald, " 'Tis " by Frank Mc Court.  I couldn't post entries because access to the internet here is not as easy as when I was still in Dubai.  But finally, I managed to have an internet connection which will enable me to post regularly again.  With regard to the other books I mentioned,  I will just try t make something like I did with "Blaze" in the days to come.

Currently, I am reading Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." I began as soon as I could after being discharged from the hospital.  Four days at the hospital didn't give me an opportunity to read.  But somehow, I started as soon as I am home and could spare a few hours each day.

As far as I have gone, I have only caught a few parts of the story.  After about a third of the book's pages, it's like much has been revealed about Paris and architecture more than the story itself.  Victor Hugo tends to sidetrack away from the story most of the time.  I've read so much about the changes of Paris' architecture and how architecture was the expression of one's genius at some point in history.

Though this really bored me, I chose to persevere and go on.  I, then, tried focusing in his style and what he's trying to say so that I can go far.  If I didn't do this, I was on point of giving up and getting another book.  He seems to want to discuss Architecture very much and how it transformed the face of Paris.  He wrote so much about the streets and houses and churches and cathedrals in so much detail.  Not that this is irrelevant.  But I just find it too much away from the story.  Though I know this might be very insightful if you are looking for something about Paris' architectural history [at least from the way I see it.]

Just to quote one of the phrases I like, the story began on "the day of the king and the feast of the fools."

And... some of my favorite quotes:

If  I exist, can this be? 

If this be so, do I exist?

Time is the architect, the nation is the builder.

He armed himself with the weapons that had wounded him.

It was, however, these same bells that had made him deaf; but a mother often loves best of all the child who has made her suffer most.

Medicine is the daughter of dreams.

Isolation magnifies everything.