1001 books to read before you die

     So I have always been fascinated with the 1001 books to read before you die list and have read quite a lot of them over the years but it has only been recently that I have made a concerted effort to actually try and conquer it! Now I know that I will never read the entire list and that I will not only read books from this list as there are so many wonderful books out there that need to be read. However I have decided that trying to will be extremely satisfying.

      I worked at a locally run for charity book sale recently and managed to grab a whole box full of them and in the last week I have read through quite a few of them. I am rarely disappointed with them as most of the books are well written and some include a touch of the bizzare.... which brings me to... "Like Water for Chocolate" which, according to one review I read, is supposed to be a book of "magic realism". What is really was is something else entirely.

    The story itself was really absorbing and everything I usually look for in a book, descriptions of characters, foods and daily life wrapped into an intriguing plot....and then something bizarre happens. Reality distorts and things like chickens attacking each other and every one throwing up at a wedding and tears so volatile that it creates a waterfall are incorporated into the story. And this is where I find it hard to reconcile. The reality is so simple and normal and although the story does have as slight  undercurrent of fantasy running through it, the jolt into the fantastic is so severe that I found myself blinking and turning back pages to see what I had missed. Then the story settles back into itself with no obvious repercussions or questions about what just happened and a tendency for the characters to take these bizarre events all in their stride.

I found this book not unlike being buffeted by a wave in what I thought was a still lake...

    Overall I can see the appeal this book has and it certainly played with my head in a way no book ever has quite done before but after reading the thing I had a headache and a curious sensation of unhinged reality for quite some time afterwards...