Hello.  This is Dr. Shahnaz Ahmed with Living a Life Through Books. Today is a dreamy journey.  Or maybe not dreamy at all.  It’s about those great moments in a book that make you re-read those lines over and over and over again like you can’t get enough of that one scene.  I’m going to sound completely contradictory to one of my earlier podcasts about not reading romances.  I don’t mind them.  I do go awwww at those super cute moments and in true girly fashion I wish for a hero like that.  Oh Dear. I actually said that out loud in a podcast.  Oh well. Let me back up.  The podcast earlier talking about not reading romances, was more that I didn’t want to read a book that was half sex and half story. I want the full story.  I want a love revealed through love, not revealed because the characters banged loud the night before.  That’s not my cup of tea.  So, what am I talking about here?

Well, for me Emma comes to mind.  That last scene with Mr. Knightly when he returns to finally propose to Emma and she’s afraid he’s going to tell her that he loves Harriet and there’s that friction there and it’s just oh heart-wrenching and you just hold your breath while you are screaming at Emma internally.  Let him speak woman!  And finally, she allows him to talk and you can breathe again and smile and take another breath.  Life was going to be good.  It’s the dialogue of true love and wanting.  We can’t be friends any longer.  I cannot continue like this.  I didn’t pull out the book and I’m not quoting but I’m paraphrasing from memory. So, close enough.  But it’s just one of those scenes that I’ve personally read several times.  It’s been a while since I picked that book up, but if I do, I’ll go straight to the back and look for one of my favorite proposal scenes.

OK, I’ll switch from cheesy to non-cheesy great moments.  Monk who sold his Ferrari.  I know I bring this book up a lot.  I really really really enjoyed this book.  If you’ve listened to every episode of this podcast, I’m hoping you’ve at least considered reading that book.  I talk about it all the time and I haven’t read it in a few years.  I think I lent my copy to a friend and then purchased an ecopy but that’s beside the point.  It’s got this one scene where the monk has his friend doing push-ups.  And he’s pushing him to the limit and well, it starts off easy and finally the friend is done.  He’s like I can NOT go on.  And the monk says, OK.  Give me 5 more and you can stop.  And so he does.  And the lesson there.  You can go on long after you think you cannot.  I think about the whole, push yourself thing.  It’s so true.  We think we have pushed ourselves to our limits but I don’t think we even come close most of the time.  If we were to think, OK, let’s work this out, for 5 more minutes or do 5 more reps, could we? I think we could go 10.  For real.  Unless we started off with pushing to what we think is our limit.  So, there are 2 limits.  One is what we perceive and one is the reality that we can push to. It’s just one of the scenes and moments in the book that truly sticks out to me.

I definitely haven’t read too many books or haven’t been blown away too many times, but Memoirs of a Geisha comes up under memorable moments.  Those of you who have followed this podcast, already know that I’ve spoken about this book in the “Can’t sleep, can’t put it down” episode. Interestingly enough, the beginning and the culture shock that kept me reading is now what stayed with me for amazing scenes.  I think there’s a scene towards the end where our heroine puts herself in a compromising position so Nobu San will essentially not want her anymore.  Well, what ends up happening is the guy she has the hearts for sees her in that same compromising position and she feels she has lost it all. If you know how the story goes after Nobu San leaves her, the main guy, I can’t remember names, I’m sorry, but the hero of our story is finally interested in her and wants to have a relationship with her.  He realizes that she intentionally cut her ties with Nobu San and was free to move on. There was a message about how You can’t be tied to your past and expect a new future.  When she gave up her life with Nobu San, it opened her future with the one she wanted.  I think there’s a lesson there.  A hard lesson.  A lesson of courage.  Sure, for her, it was accidental, and with fiction, the hero can forgive her transgresses and everything can be honkey dory.  But what about real life?  Are we willing to quit on what’s normal or usual to go out into the unknown and seek the illusion or a possible reality?   Are we bold enough to put ourselves out there, leave what we know, what’s comfortable, but not wow behind in search of that elusive something we are looking for?  I spoke of characters and courage in the last episode.  I wish I had that kind of courage.  I don’t, but moving forward leaving what you know behind, is not easy. Not at my age when I’m established with what I do.  This concept is not just for relationships, it’s for jobs, for friendships, for hobbies. To drop something and move on is a good concept, but easier said than done.

Some of my readers will be upset if I don’t mention Harry Potter.  The scene when Harry gets angry in Dumbledore’s office.  That scene where he starts breaking things and your heart just goes out to the poor guy who has been through hell and back and yet cannot find respite.  That’s my Harry Potter scene.  Sure. There are a ton of scenes you can pick up from the books.  Gosh, it’s 7 books for heaven’s sake, but that one just sticks out.  I cannot tell you why, but I think it’s because of the emotional content.  I think it speaks to the pain within us.  To our want to just explode with grief and to still be understood and accepted.  Yes, that’s what it represented for me.

So, here I am talking about my favorite book moments.  I think in some ways these moments take me away from my reality and transport me to a better place.  I’m curious. What are your favorite moments from books?  The wow moment, I can’t believe that, moment.  The moments that were humbling or the moments that taught you something. Would love to hear from you all.

For now, this is it for Living a life through books.  Until next time, this is Dr. Shahnaz Ahmed signing off.  Remember to water the seeds within you.  It’s time.