Veronika Decides to DieVeronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

Veronika Decides to Die
Author: Paulo Coelho
Bought or Borrowed? Bought
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Nothing in this world happens by chance."

 



 

After my whirlwind romance with The Alchemist, this is my second love affair with another novel from the famous Brazilian born writer Paolo Coelho. The title literally says it all about the story. It's about a young Slovenian girl named Veronika, who at a very young age decides to take the pill and plan her own suicide. She didn't do this out of desperation to escape from a hard and difficult life for she had a family, a job and a number of lovers too. She decides to take her own life for the following reasons, and I quote this from the book:

"The first reason: Everything in her life was the same and once her youth was gone, it would be downhill all the way, with old age beginning to leave irreversible marks, the onset of illness, the departure of friends. She would gain nothing by continuing to live. Indeed the likelihood of suffering would only increase.

"Be like the fountain that overflows, not like the cistern that merely contains."

The second reason was more philosophical: Veronika read the newspapers, watched TV, and she was aware of what was going on in the world. Everything was wrong, and she had no way of putting things right - that gave her a sense of complete powerlessness."

She thought she had everything going as planned, as smooth and simple death in her room inside the convent overlooking the statue of the great Slovenian poet, Preseren, but she was wrong for the next time she opened her eyes, she was already inside a mental facility called "Villette".

Everyone is indeed crazy, but the craziest are the ones who doesn't know they're crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to.

Inside Villette she met a lot of people both sane and insane that taught her a lot. Little did she know that she has been greatly affecting the life of the resident patients of Villette too, especially Zedka, who has clinical depression, Mari, who suffers from panic attacks and Eduard, the schizophrenic , and with whom Veronika falls in love eventually. Each patient finds himself waking up from a long induced sleep and desiring to return and fight the life and the world they have given up in the past.

You have passed through the two hardest tests on the spiritual road: the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what you encounter.

This book was absolutely thought provoking to the point that I almost see myself in the shoes of the characters already. It's that good until now, I think I take Dr. Igor's theories on Vitreol , the bacteria that causes bitterness which is the root of all insanity to humans, to be scientific and true. I love the ending how Veronika and Eduard ran away to seize the last remaining hours of her life. It has affected me the way The Alchemist has. It left me enlightened from the feelings that I have been having lately like the idea of life as a never ending routine every day. This book is a must read, highly recommended for discerning readers.

Be crazy! But learn how to be crazy without being the center of attention. Be brave enough to live different.

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Baguio Side Trip: Strawberry Fields Forever in La Trinidad, Benguet

(c) ArdentArrianne.blogspot.com
Strawberry Farm at La Trinidad, Benguet

While indulging in my post-Christmas trip to Baguio last year, I decide to go on a little side trip: Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad, Benguet. Well, yeah, this is no longer part of Baguio and is, at least, a 30-minute jeep ride away. But boy, this place left me humming The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever for more than a week!

(c) ArdentArrianne.blogspot.com 
Strawberry Farm at La Trinidad, Benguet

"Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to strawberry f fields, nothing is real and nothing to get hung about, strawberry fields forever." -Strawberry Fields Forever, The Beatles

(c) ArdentArrianne.Blogspot.com
Strawberry Farm at La Trinidad, Benguet

(c)ArdentArrianne.Blogspot.com
Succulent strawberries waiting to be harvested 

 I guess you're already aware that picking your own strawberries here is insanely more expensive than getting it in the market. You can typically get a pack for more or less 100 pesos. But inside the farm, a basket of freshly picked strawberries will cost you more than 200 pesos! But don't worry, entrance and picture taking is definitely free. 

(c)ArdentArrianne.Blogspot.com
Houses perched on the lush side of the mountains partly hidden from the clouds.

(c)ArdentArrianne.Blogspot.com

I was like a 5-year-old girl on the loose excited to pick strawberries and take pictures of the breathtaking scene! Aside from strawberries, I also saw oranges, lettuce, cucumbers, and a variety of other crops planted there. 

(c) GoBaguio.com

How to get to Strawberry Farm for Dummies:

I can only give you the same directions we took:

1.       Go to Session Road.
2.       Look for the public jeeps going to La Trinidad. (How? Ask around.)
3.       Tell the driver to drop you off at Strawberry Farm.
4.       After 30 minutes or less, voila! :)

I have no idea what you’re going to do if you have your own car, although I think that’d be easier.  That being said, I suggest you hit Google Map. :)

Interworld

Interworld by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading this book inside the bus on my way to work and on my way home, seated on my regular spot near the window that captures the view of the tree-lined expressway I journey every day.

Interworld is a light and easy read that resurrected the giddy and imaginative child inside me. It was not boring like other sci-fi books I dread reading. It was in every way very effective in killing my boredom from long hours of commute and I also loved how the story was narrated in a very "I know what you're thinking, don't ask me" tone.

I was utterly amazed at how they managed to combine the distinct writing personalities of Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves in this wonderful collaboration. I was still able to recognize the touch of both authors, in a complementing way that doesn't upstage one or the other. Good decision of not letting on the tube though, for it will only be slaughtered by tube executives who only have advertising and profit in mind.

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MORTAL LOVE

By Elizabeth Hand

Paperback, 384 pages
Published June 28th 2005 by Harper Paperbacks (first published 2004)
ISBN 0060755342 (ISBN13: 9780060755348)

 

Within her is the world. A time there was when Venoraxia was lost to us with all our hope. A girl seen as an elder flower. You make her owls when she wants to be flowers.

This marvelous read is from one of National Bookstore's crazy sale last April of this year. The book was marked down more than  ten times its original price, imagine from 585Php or 13.60USD to only 50Php or 1.62USD. I must admit that this played  a major factor why I bought it too.

As a Fine Arts major, I was easily captivated with its cover of  a woman in a Renaissance inspired oil paint effect. Set on a magnificently romantic Victorian era, is an interesting love affair of a young and struggling painter and his muse.

It won my interest in and I enjoyed the way Elizabeth Hand narrated and depicted the paints, the art materials and the process of painting in an incredibly  "matter of fact "tone. Through this, it was almost effortless to imagine how each scene should seem to be. It was a unquestionably a page turner as the characters of the period painter Radborne Comstock and the modern day writer, Daniel Rowlands was unbelievably exciting.

I was both intrigued and mystified how Evienne Upstone was to Larkin Meade, and Radborne Comstock was to Daniel Rowlands connected despite  more than a hundred years of time difference. I easily fell in love with the book and with the ways the narrative was as well as details.

Unfortunately, that ended all too soon as I figured I was down to its last thirty pages and I still don't understand most parts of it. The plot became so complicated that it was impossible to end it in a matter of few pages.  Actually, the plot created a plot out of the plot of another plot. I knew I wasn't going to like how it's going to end and I was right. Larkin ended up with Comstock's manic depressive descendant and for whatsoever reason it began an abrupt reroute on a portal of something. This is where I totally got lost.

The desire for something hopeless, for what is already gone, for what can never be yours. 

The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing

by Melissa Bank
Mass Market Paperback, 274 pages
Published March 29th 2005 by Penguin (Non-Classics) (first published 1999)
ISBN0143035479 (ISBN13: 9780143035473)

You can feel that he wants to own you,-not like an object but like a good dream he wants to keep on having.

One of my best girlfriends in the office suggested I read this book. Honestly, I was hesitant to so at first since that pal was fresh from a break up I thought this book was a stereotypical "how to" on moving on, and I knew I didn't need that stuff at the moment. But then, she told me it wasn't and somehow, I trusted that friend's judgment.

I must say that Melissa Bank did a wonderful job on this book. It was light and easy read without compromising the substance and the wits of the story. I'm sure a lot of women would recognize themselves as the typical Jane in the book who underwent and felt the different stages of love and relationships.

The book teaches us the irrefutable fact of life that whether we like it or not, we will get hurt and we can't do anything about it for it's something inevitable. Jane in the story, in fear of ruining a budding romance, tightened up and followed a pathetic guide on dating. Thus resulting to her sounding like a snooty high school girl that almost drove the man of his dreams away.

It simply tells us how women encounter trial and errors with men and life, which sometimes end up with a chaotic turn of events. These disastrous situations  that most of us dread a lot makes us a stronger and wiser person each time. It notes that we can't always go by the book when it comes to living and loving since it's never always the same problem that requires the same equation.

"You try to plan your life but that's not how it works."