Books.

Read William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
And Anita Desai's Fasting, Feasting.

First off,
Julius Caesar.
It was a play about the famous assassination of Julius Caesar.
It was in some olden form of English,
So there was some difficulty reading it.

Here's an tongue-in-cheek 'abridged' version of it. source
*forgive me for a little cuss words, I want to keep it original*

BRUTUS: I love Caesar!
CASSIUS: He's a power-hungry bastard. I think we should kill him.
BRUTUS: Dude, we totally should.
DECIUS: Happy Ides of March, Caesar. Ready to go to the Senate?
CAESAR: I dunno. My wife just had a dream about you and the rest of the senators washing their hands in my blood, so I think I'm going to call in sick today.
DECIUS: Okay, I'll just tell the guys that you're a pussy who lets his wife tell him what to do. They'll understand.
CAESAR: I'll get my coat.
*Caesar skips off to the Senate, confident in the knowledge that he's in a Shakespeare play, where dreams don't predict anything and main characters never get offed*
CAESAR: Hey, why didn't anyone tell me it was Bring A Dagger To Work Day?
THE ENTIRE FUCKING SENATE: WE KEEL YOU!
CASSIUS: Good, he's dead. Now to hold a huge funeral and let his best friend deliver the eulogy to the large, violence-prone mob.
BRUTUS: Cool. Take it away, Antony!
ANTONY: So the guys who killed Caesar aren't bad guys, really...
CROWD: WOOOO! WE LOVE BRUTUS!
ANTONY: ...but Caesar was generous and humble and basically god on earth, and they totally killed him in cold blood.
CROWD: RAAAAAAA! KILL THEM ALL!!! *grabs torches and pitchforks and kills fucking everyone, including a random poet who has the same name as one of the conspirators. I'm not even joking.*
BRUTUS: Man, ruling Rome was a lot more fun when we weren't being invaded by Octavius.
CAESAR'S GHOST: BOOGEDY BOOGEDY BOOGEDY! AVENGE...oh, wrong play. Uh...BOOGEDY!
BRUTUS: Oh, hey Caesar.
CAESAR'S GHOST: Uh...that's it? Not even an "eek?" Fine, whatever. I'm going to see you a second time, by the way. BOOGEDY!
BRUTUS: Huh. That was weird.
CASSIUS: GOD DAMMIT WE'RE LOSING THE WAR! I AM OVER THIS SHIT. Hey you, hold my sword while I impale myself.
SERVANT: Sure thing.
CASSIUS: *dies*
BRUTUS: Let's see: Rome is being destroyed, all my friends have either been killed or committed suicide, my wife just poisoned herself, and I'm about to be captured by enemy soldiers. *turns to audience* HEY, DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?
AUDIENCE: SUICIDE TIME!
BRUTUS: THAT'S RIGHT! *dies*

THE END.

EPIC.

* * *

Next up: Fasting, Feasting.

Book about India,
Woman discrimination,
Treading foreign lands,
Traditional marriage,
Religion,
The dysfunctional society we live in,
Conservative upbringing,
The longing to break free,
Superficially skin-deep views of the norm,
... etc. etc.

Doesn't have any EPIC events that leads to drastic character changes,
Probably a more ... subtle ... gradual ... change ... for one of the characters.
Stereotypical views on traditional Indian families.

... etc. etc.

Started on Friday; finished Tuesday. (my reading, not the story)

Hmm. Okay book I guess. Nothing too serious or deep, but definitely has a lot of literature elements in it.

p.s. both books are in the SPM English Literature syllabus.
Not that I'm studying them or anything,
Just for casual reading.

-Kritz