More books

 As I was almost finishing my year-end marathon, a thought occurred to me. No it was not a Netflix marathon - as that happened every day in 2021. This was book challenge - I wanted to complete 12 books for the year - a goodreads challenge - which is just 1 book per month. Which is not a big task at all considering I have almost 16 hours free time per day. Even I want to work those many hours, but no one gives me any work.

So I was reading Three men and a main - which is easy read. I thought the characters in that book - like most other books by the author don't have any great problems in life. Unless you count the problems like romantic dalliances or attempts at them. And they will have hundred of servants at home including a gentleman's gentleman - a butler with wonderful English and smartness of an grandma or may be a rich industrialist. 

Of course you know about Jeeves, who saves the poor little bumbling Wooster in difficult situations. Which the latter is very fond of. 

So coming back to lack of real problems, may be the author was an aristocrat and did not have first hand experience of life. Which means he did not fight in the war. 

Then when I completed that book, as if God has read my thought, I came across this book "Let us pretend this never happened ..." by Jenny Lawson. An autobiography by a blogger about her childhood in small town in Texas. The book was really funny. And even more sad.

Let us look at an example - Jenny was two years old I think and they were going in a car. The door was not locked. Her father started the car abruptly, the door opened throwing this child outside the car. Her mother caught her arm and tried to bring her inside, but father wouldn't stop the car. So Jenny was dragged on the parking lot filled with glass pieces. 

Yes, feels like exaggeration. But very very sad. Father was a taxi-dermist and was in the habit of bringing home all kinds of animals both dead and alive. They had raccoons in home, then some turkeys. And one day he brought a magic squirrel  for his daughters. Which turned out to be dead squirrel being puppeted by him, 

The over indulgent grand parents who let them eat what they pleased, and play what they wanted, did not help the girls much. 

But she promises that her publisher will pay for your therapy bills, if you still want to read the book :)

 Once the story entered her experimentation with substances, I closed the book - that is I closed that browser window and left the book half read. 

You should check her blog where she writes about mental health too. 

I searched for a smaller book in my laptop - found "Of mice and men". Too depressing.

So I am currently reading "Olive again". Which is the story of an old man lamenting the death of his wife, whom he was unfaithful to.  This book I most likely not finish by year end.