Read-a-thon #2

Pre-Scriptum:

I got a feedback that my blogs are quite complicated because I use uncommon words. So I’m adding up the glossary at the end. I hope it helps, because I want everyone to understand my words. Let me know!

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I don’t know whether I draw parallels instinctively between the books I read or if there are really parallels and I just stumble on them. But I find so many parallels around and in the books that I read. Whether that is good or bad, is irrelevant, our lives are totally relatable and none of us are alone is what matters.

Little Background:

I didn’t think that my Read-a-thons are going to be monthly affairs. But in hindsight, why not? But it was not planned voluntarily this time. I had this terrible fever which lasted like ten days and I had to go to see Doc twice. A little background: I am this kind of person who is terrified of injections. I hate them. It was cool to have fever when I was little, that extra attention and all. But injections always scare me.

            And what is more, this said fever made me feel like ‘injections are fine, I just want this fever to go, now’. Because, there is another thing that scares me more than injections – Thanatophobia. It might sound totally crazy. But there are few things human mind can do to one that is quite so difficult to understand, unless one experience it oneself. So yes, I get scared of death when I have fever. And I just wanted it to go. Damn, it took whole 10 days this time.

            And I had to convince myself that I am normal and I can get back on track. So I thought, ‘Why not take another Read-a-thon?’ and I mentally thanked Helly. And that is how it all started.

Read-a-thon:

So yes, it started on 14^th September, 2019 at 18:00. I chose Turtles All the Way Down by John Green and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I started with Turtles All the Way Down but of course switched between them back and forth. I read like one hour.

            And then, I felt that I should write something that kept whispering in my head and so I did and sent it to the intended person, my Girlfriend. After that I continued with The Great Gatsby. It went on till the time I had dinner and again I continued till 11 p.m. But then I had to sleep, I can’t fall ill again. Nope.

   

            I woke up at 7 a.m. because it was Sunday. And I realized I slept for 8 hours, well, I am taking it slow this time. And we have shifted to another house. And it has more green in front of it. It is like living in the middle of a forest, if I could forget the traffic just ahead in the road.

            Coming back, after paying my dues for the day, I was mostly just reading (and sleeping) the whole day. By 04:30 p.m. I had finished The Great Gatsby and was reading Turtles All the Way Down. I couldn’t finish both the books by 6 pm but that is fine, I proved myself that I can be normal, again.

            I finished Turtles All the Way Down slowly by 16^th September ’19 at 7 pm.

Speculation:

The most important of this journey, I have to tell my speculations. Both the books are just great, no debate on that.

            We might sometimes get stuck in our thought spiral, tightening and tightening. We might feel like lost in a dark tunnel with no way out. Or we might not be able to stop thinking about the millions of microorganisms that surround and make us. They are all scary. But they are also just thoughts. Agree or not, we do control our thoughts. They might run wild sometimes. But that is alright. This universe is too big and we can afford running wild a little while. Because, “Life goes on.” We are not prisoners of the present and neither the past. Life just goes on, and so do we.

            Money doesn’t really get anything and everything. We humans get bored easily and we always seek what we do not have. It is really hard to content one self. That is why Gatsby poured his wealth on parties for all those people and just had two at his funeral. And that is why Pickett jumped out walls to end up dead in a sewer all alone. Money is just a dry cold piece of paper, it turns out.

            Maybe Earth is a sphere of life among so many stars revolving around a black hole in the expanse of space. Or maybe Earth is a flat piece of land on the back of a turtle. ‘Where is that turtle then?’ you ask. ‘Why, on top of another turtle, of course. It is just turtles all the way down.’ Be it anything, it is worth to look at things in front of us and appreciate what we have right now. And it is totally fine to write crazy fan-fiction to Star Wars. All that matters at the end is ‘now’ and remembering that ‘we can be anything’ and keep ‘going on’.

            There is just so much I can tell about these books, but to tell everything would be to rewrite them all over again. I let you absorb them at your own pace and I sign off here.

Challenge Courtesy: Thanatephobia – even though you were/are scary.

Glossary:

Thanatophobia     – Fear of Death

Speculation           – Thoughts

Post Scriptum:

Thanks for sticking up with me. And thanks for those who tried to join me in my Read-a-thon. Next time, let me plan better so we could really do it together. Till then, cheers!

Speculating,

- Sp -