Things I love: Part one.

“Things I love” is a concept that is inspired from a green inked blog I stumbled upon recently. Originally called “Things I love Thursday”, the basic concept is to write about the things that made you happy over the week. It helps you appreciate the good in your life, the things that make it better than most; and to make you forget, however momentarily, the things that have been pulling you down. As soon as I read hers, I knew it was going to be my first post in 2011.

My version of it however, is not going to be weekly, considering how erratic I am as a blogger. Instead, I’m going to write about the things that make me happy over ALL the weeks. I think I’m going to write monthly or fortnightly, that seems like an achievable target. So yes, say hello to “Things I love” on Musings.



Erich Segal’s Love Story



The first time I read this book I was 15 years old, which I think is the ideal age for anyone to read this book. The age when interest in the opposite sex is only beginning to awaken, when the fascinating hope of a forever has been freshly set in motion, when the search for “the One” has been embarked upon, when loves are new, and when the seed of belief in true selfless love can be planted.

I first read it in a hotel room in Amritsar, while my parents enjoyed an afternoon nap, and finished it in just an hour. I picked it up from a quaint little bookstore in the market named “The Booklover’s Retreat”, when Dad promised he’d buy me a book, whichever one I wanted. I can’t remember why I picked this one up, I wish I could. I think it had to do with the aforementioned fascination with a forever. But I’m glad I did. It went on to becoming my favourite book, the one I read whenever I felt a little down and a little out of it all, the one I read after every failed relationship, the one I recommended to all my friends – male, female alike.

Love Story (spoiler alert!) is a book I fell in love with instantly. I fell in love with Jenny, I fell in love with Ollie, and I fell in love with Jenny&Ollie. I fell in love with the simplicity of its story, I fell in love with the fact that Jenny and Ollie called each other bitch and bastard rather than honey and dear, and that they started a life together against the will of his parents. I guess I related to that at some level. I even fell in love with the philosophy of “Love means never having to say sorry…” and believed in it for a long while. Now of course, as I grow older (not necessarily wiser) I realize that Segal may have used a little creative and artistic liberty that a younger me did not recognize.

The novel may not be considered the best piece in English literature, but it is home. It is what I think of when the going gets tough, it is what I read on days when things just aren’t sitting straight. It is the one thing that is constant; I feel when I read it now what I did on that November afternoon – a strange whoosh in my tummy, along with a sense of calm in the depths of my heart, mingled with just a few teardrops.

They’ve revamped the cover of the novel recently, and made it prettier with hearts. I personally like it much better than the photograph accompanying the post. But this is the cover of the book I read as a 15 year old. It is not the same book however; that one made a torn, dog-eared way to the box of books for donation my mother keeps. So did two copies after that. I blame it on the unusually high number of really bad days that create a need to reread the book. But I keep going back and buying myself a fresh copy to keep. There is no way I’m letting it out of my life that easily.