I finished reading ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini. I loved it. Today I read a part of it at work on my break and I stopped at a part where my heart was pumping so hard and this anxiety settled in, I can feel it in my stomach, I have to finish and know what happens. I quickly prayed al-3aser and left for Starbucks to enjoy some quiet time reading in the cool weather. But I was annoyed by the flies and the sewer smell that I decided to hurry back home, lie in bed and continue my reading.

I don’t what it’s about, that make me so into the plot of a novel. Is it the fact the characters in the storyline seem so real compared to the actors in a movie that will return to their daily routine once “cut” is shouted across the set. I can almost picture the whole thing as I am reading, like I am this invisible observer to the lives of the characters. I can’t help but realize that whatever I am reading is actually happening to a person one way or the other. This novel made me thankful that I have this life. That what I like about reading, it gives me perspective is so many different levels.

I teared, laughed, went in shock, anger, pity, disbelief, annoyed, all the feelings you can have, while reading the novel. Reading is much more emotionally intense then watching a movie. I have read novels that later were made into movies, the difference is huge. I’ve always preferred the novel version over the screen adaptation.

These are some lines out of the novel:

Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.

“Everybody wants Jack,” Laila said to Mariam. “That’s what it is. Everybody wants Jack to rescue them from disaster. But there is no Jack. Jack is not coming back. Jack is dead.”

Couldn’t help but remember 24 that brought a smile and a sudden laughter from me.

The years had not been kind to Mariam. But perhaps, she thought, there were kinder years waiting still. A new life, a life in which she would find blessings that Nana had said a harami like her would never see. Two new flowers had unexpectedly sprouted in her life, and, as Mariam watched the snow coming down, she pictured Mullah Faizullah twirling his tasbeh beads, leaning in and whispering to her in his soft, tremulous voice, But it is God Who has planted them, Mariam jo. And it is His will that you tend to them. It is His will, my girl.

The next novel on my shelf is ‘Veronika Decides to Die’ by Paulo Coelho, but I can’t bear reading another heart wrenching novel, I’ll have to wait for sometime. I need to read a comedy or something that is funny and doesn’t make my heart sink and my eyes spill. I do recommend both Khaled Hosseini books, the other one is ‘The Kite Runner’ which is the best fictional novel I have ever read.