first book for 2k09

I made a resolution to start reading again and hopefully finish one each month for this year. It has been a long time, 2 years I guess, no make that 3, when I was very religious about reading books. When I became pregnant, I suddenly lost interest in reading books, and sometimes I wonder whether it has something to do with the fact that I gave birth to a boy. I know, it sounds silly but sometimes when you listen to what all the old folks are saying about pregnancy and the difference when you’re having a boy or a girl. Anyway, going back to reading, since I made this pact to go back and rekindle my love affair with reading, in the same way I’m rekindling my love affair with blogs, I decided its high time to finally read one of the books my husband gifted me with for my birthday back in 2007.



When I started reading this novel, somehow I recognized quite a few things that were put together in a novel I’ve read before. Places like Beaufort and South Carolina and the way the author described the laidback lifestyle of the people in the South (of U.S.). Then I realized I was reading a novel by Nicholas Sparks. This is not a review; I’ve yet to finish the book since I still have a number of chapters to finish. Although it could be said that Nicholas Spark’s novels are quite predictable - the plot, the setting and the life style of the characters, I found myself still drawn to this book. I found myself not minding reading past my bed time, promising myself that I’d just finish just one more chapter, only to say that again after I finish the current chapter I initially promised myself to be the last before catching up on some shut eye. While on the MRT earlier, where I was fortunate enough to get a seat during a rush hour, I hurriedly opened the book to where my book mark is and started reading. When I alighted from the train, I was trying to figure out what draws me to this book. And then I realized that it was how Mr. Sparks profiles his lead male character in the story. They’re the kind of men a woman would like to end up with – the kind that could engage a woman in a witty banter, who’d be interested in gazing at the stars on summer nights, who loves children and dogs, and most of all, the kind of man whose love is not dulled by the trivialities of the succeeding years, but is still as alive and exciting as the first days of falling in love – the kind that loves her woman more that her woman could ever reciprocate that love. And yes, that’s what makes me read his novels, knowing that a man wrote the book, means that a man could love that way.