Book Review: I Feel bad about my wrinkles by Nora Ephron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Ephron)
When I started the book I didn’t know who the writer was nor her accomplishments, it was sent to me by one of the readers group as part of Self Help books that this group was discussing. I was thinking while I was reading: omm I could say this, I know that, or that happened to me too; and the mind conversations went on until I finished the book and saw the last two pages! the writer had written all my favorite movies too? Then I thought, ok now I know why she is a very confident writer with no fear whatsoever, because she wrote “When Sally met Harry”, “You got mail”, “Sleepless in Seattle” and “Julie and Julia”. These movies had saved me from boredom, saved me from any problem that came and got cured because of watching these movies. I can tell you every line on them, and I can close my eyes and describe the places the actors go to and what they eat etcetera.
When I told my daughter about my ignorance? she frowned at me saying how can I not know the writers of your favourite movies. I tell you guys, my life has been wrong since the start, what I should have done is to be an intelligent reader or movie lover, I must know who is the writer or the script writer (I guess writer would suffice for both) what else did She or he had written, what prizes did the writer receive, is the story a best seller? what was the writers background, where is the writer from and so on. I realised that I am a haphazard reader (meaning: I just pickup a book and read it, without a thought, and if I like it I will buy all the books of that author (Like John Grisham, Jeffry Archer, Elif Shafak, Orhan Pamuk, Milan Condera (although this one I didn’t know how to think of his books))
Some times I will read a book because I need to know about a certain subject (economics for example), So I search the best sellers, and that is how I found Malcom Gladwell, by a simple search, then guess what happened, I went to Amazon, and ordered all his books. read them all, laughed, got upset about the state of the world, started teaching economics again. and so on.
Back to the book:
Age and death are somethings that we all become or would feel one day. I guess anyone would relate to the book, a young person or an old person. And if you are an old person (like me) I guess you should run for your life and start scribbling whatever on your mind. The world deserves to know how you feel and how you dealt with certain situations! The question about loving a certain house we had lived in is also a recurring mirage to all of us. I had lived in two houses that gave me similar feelings. One in New Zealand and the other in Dubai. I owned both of them as opposed to being a Tenant I mean ( I am so against renting and if I can count how many years of my life I had lived in a rented accommodation it won’t be much more than 9-10 years, all the rest were either in homes that I had either built myself or bought readymade. For this I am thankful.
The question about maintaining myself, I am never as extravagant as the author. A tub or two of creams would suffice and never ever bought Bath oil, but botox and fillers I had many and stopped eventually, My total maintenance in a month will not be more than a two hour visit to the spa for some massage or threading, or a mani-padi; to think of spending 8 hours a week in maintenance, beyond me .
Losing friends is something that I can also relate too. Many friends had died and I would say that they had died too soon. i miss them and I wish that I was able to spend more time with them or even knew that they were dying. I dont want to recall the death of my dad, that was the most devastating to me.
Wells, ok I have one on my computer, which I update annually along with the annual letter that I write at the end of each year to tell others what I did in that year. who are “The others” you may ask? they are those that read my blog.
Cooking: I am an avid cook, I like to create rather than copy, but I want to try a certain cuisine I must look up what spices they use, and the theory of how to thaw the meat and fish. of course I do start with following a recipe book, but then I totally forget about the book; somehow I look at the fridge, see what we have and cook accordingly (last night for example, we didn’t have much veggies, thus I cut burgers into quarters, fried them with onions, tomatoes, courgettes and spices, and poured eggs mixed with feta cheese on top. Let me tell you this, I dont think any cook book will have what they call a grandmother’s (thats me) perfect recipe like this one.
The writers love for New York seems to be immense. I fell in love with New York from the first film I watched ( I think King Kong climbing empire state building), and when I eventually became a traveller, I visited it three times, let me tell you guys, if you haven’t visited New York, something is missing from your lives for sure. i would add it to my travel list if I were you.
Basically, what I am trying to tell you here is that when you read a book, please write about it, its so important to let others know what your thoughts are. Also I am advising you to read more. life is a drag if you dont add all those spices to it, reading great books, watching great movies, traveling and living in style. do this and you will never age.
