Saved by the Book

I was bored outta my wits at this particular birthday gathering on Saturday. Not only I was feeling under the weather, there weren't anyone I knew at the party *sob sob* The only thing that kept me company was my book, coz my husband had to mingle with his friends.

I had "The Other Hand" by Chris Cleave with me. (It's quite a controversial book, a little on a social/political issue, but more on a clash of identity within ourselves. It kinda questions, who exactly are we and how we want to be derived by others? Protagonist: Little Bee, a young Nigerian girl who managed to free herself from a detention centre with 3 other girls. She sought help from the only English family she knew in UK. The story, very slowly, and "poetically" unveiled the dark secrets these characters held close to their hearts)

Sorry, I digressed :P Now, back to my story. So anyways, as I was saying, I WAS BORED. So, quite "anti-socially" I took out the book from my bag. (Yes, I carried quite a big handbag with me so I can bring my book along wherever I go :P) As I was about to close the book to get a drink, suddenly, out of nowhere, a very gentle voice asked, 'Hi, what are you reading?'

At first, I thought it was coming from my head. Then I saw someone waving her hand to me on my left, so I turned, and saw a very beautiful Indian lady, probably in her early 30s. Again, she asked what was I reading.

You can't imagine how excited I was when she asked me that question. It almost felt as good as when your boss said to you, 'You look tired. Why not take a paid leave today?' Yes. It was thaaaaat unbelievable, and felt thaaaaaat good!

With that, my tongue started rolling on a long continuous verbal diarrhoea on what the book was all about. Guess what was her response? 'Umm...sounds interesting...'

Ok, when someone says that, it could me only two things, that he/she really means it, or that he/she wasn't paying attention and didn't know what else to say. But because I was on a book high, I didn't know which category she belonged to. (It really didn't matter anyway LOL I AM an INSENSITIVE BOOKAHOLIC. SO WHAT :P)

Then she asked, 'You love books?'

My eyes lit up and quite immediately I said, 'Yes! Yes!' (Not the climaxing kinda way, mind you :P)

Our conversation started from there. And I found out, she was also a bookaholic like me! And her sister too, who was just sitting in front of her. Then we shared our "bookaholic" symptoms with each other like "reading even with one eye opened, trying to read every moment we can, thinking of the book when we're at work, etc." It was only then, I started enjoying the "party" haha

Then we talked about what every other bookaholic would have - fav books/authors/what's the book about/book exchange/book meets bla bla

It was for the first time, a book became an ice breaker for me. Usually, I get the 'what an anti-social' look whenever I take out my book to read at a gathering that doesn't really concern me. And it was that special Saturday, that I WAS SAVED BY THE BOOK! ;)