Ruined by reading...

...is the title of the blog I stumbled upon. Of course I came across it while googling Shah Rukh :P

It reminds me of how I've often mused about the way I've turned out in life due to my incessant reading during childhood. At more than one occasions I have regretted that habit, or more correctly, the choice of my reading materials. Here I am, stuck in the middle of my conventional upbringing and my liberal-minded head. I dare say it often makes me feel more compassion for the plight of others than they rightfully deserve.

I like the attempted review he wrote on Anupama's book. My very honest opinion was it's too short.

I've bought the Mother of All Books!

Shah Rukh's fandom has to be the easiest on my pocket of all the other fandoms I've been in so far. I can count on one hand the stuff I've bought relating to him (with all the movies being relegated to just 'DVD' tag). The most expensive purchase has to be the one I made yesterday, and even that can be tax-exempted so it's 'free of cost' come next year.

Yep. I bought the 4-kilo thing. I love the chapters on 'The Others' that he did. I think those are the most brilliant. I haven't read the first few, but that's coz I was very clear about not wanting to read it in one linear progression.

What made me bought it, finally? Well, I did want to buy it the day I bought Anupama's but like I wrote, I didn't have the budget, it being bleedin expensive as it is. But reading the excerpts of the book whetted my appetite and I thought ...what the heck, one day I may not feel this strong urge to read it anymore so I might as well do it now. I couldn't find it at the bookshelf (although I did find Amitabh's biography) and I had to wait for nearly half an hour for the bookstore people to get it for me from whereva, but it's worth the wait.

Okay, I confess. What I wanted was Shah Rukh Can (can you blame me? Look at the cover!), but not finding it on the shelf, I couldn't bring myself to write down the title and ask the bookstore girl to find it. I was too embarrassed. I didn't want to be identified as a Shah Rukh fan, or anyone's fan, at a counter. I'm an extremely shy person, and this is the first time I have ever deliberately asked for a book about a celebrity at a bookstore. With 'Still Reading Khan', the title is vague enough (it sounds like fiction) and once the book was in my hand, it didn't matter if they knew whose biography I was searching desperately for coz I could just scram outta there to another counter to pay for it, and thereby escaped scrutiny. The entire time I was waiting at the counter, I put on my 'stone-faced, cultured and polite' mask on to hide my awkwardness every time I ask the girl whether the book was found yet.

I won't do a book review on it coz I generally suck at doing reviews. But it did make me want to change several things in my blog, namely my post labels. It also made me want to write a whole bunch of emails to the author coz while reading it, my brain was flooded with words I wanted to say about what 'Shah Rukh Khan' means to me as a fan. I may or may not write those emails, depending on my laziness, but I do applaud his effort. I absolutely agree that there're more books to be written about Shah Rukh because post-Still Reading Khan he has gone and done more stupendous things that need to be recorded. And it'd be cool if someone who writes as well as Mushtaq does would continue writing about Shah Rukh.

Why write biographies? Well, don't you know? It's one of the ways (I would say, the most effective way) to immortalize a mortal, darling. You'll understand the impact of Mushtaq's and Anupama's and all the other biographers' written words 100 years down the line. Be patient and wait for it, if you're still alive by then, that is.

I want this book...

...but it's bleeding expensive like OH MY GOD. It costs about RM275 in Kinokuniya and so heavy that if I were to throw it at a dog, it'd die a sudden and painful death (while the book remains in mint condition). Although, I'd have to perform the purifying ritual on the book afterwards and it'd be all wet and destroyed.

Hmmph, I can't even make a dog joke in my SRK blog without feeling sensitive about it now. Drat.

Mustaqji had this to say about the 4-kilo book:
"There is so much to SRK, Just one book is not enough, I think round about 90-95 books will do justice." (link)

And this is what SRK had to say about it when asked whether the books and documentaries being made on him indicate an early retirement:
"It's a subtle hint. In the last three years there have been three books. I think people are making sure that one book is released every year so that I finally get the message." (link)

I found SRK's comeback dog joke and told myself why not... XD. So I'm pasting it here:

When asked to elaborate, SRK told HT City, “Aamir had said it was a joke that his dog was named after me… and I said if it was a matter of [a] sense of humour, then my joke would have been that I also wanted to name my pets after Aamir, but my pets vehemently refused. My wife said people don’t understand your jokes, so please refrain from doing so... though I felt it was quite funny but I didn’t say it at that time. Nobody said anything about stooping low, etc. Stooping low would be a height joke.” (link)

...o-ke, maybe it's a height joke and a dog joke rolled into one, as only SRK can do. See, when I read this I can definitely see it's a joke. It's sarcastic and funny. I wish serious, intellectual *cough* artistes will refrain from writing 'jokes' at someone else's expense in their blogs in the future. I (and quite a number of their own fans) just can't seem to get the humour.