BookFabulous
  • Home
  • THE Blog
  • Meet the Author
  • Beyond The Blog
  • About

bookFabulous

Female culture vulture & unrepentant book addict on a mad quest to unlock the universal power of words one book at a time while in constant battle with the bathroom scales

I Need Not Have Suffered With A Cure Only Inches Away

11/9/2017

0 Comments

 
by Rana Asfour
Picture
The past three days have seen me struck down with a flu that has completely floored me and is turning my life into a nightmare robbing me of even my few hours of sleep as a long suffering insomniac. It feels like I'm dying.

Before you think it, I realise that my self-indulgent drama pales in the wake of current catastrophic world events such as Hurricane Harvey in Houston and now Irma on its destructive path to Miami as I type. However, with a capital H if you please, Bob Marley once said, 'A man is a universe within himself'. Some will of course argue that I've taken this quote out of all context in order to unashamedly use it  (or abuse it - your choice) for my own personal exoneration from a crime that can only be described as self-indulgent - and they are most likely right. However, in defence, I ascribe my unhinged and unbalanced reasoning to a blockage in all brain ducts responsible for 'seeing the big picture' brought on by a diminished oxygen supply to the brain as a result of influenza's worst affliction on my being: a blocked nose. I have been reduced to a snotty, snivelling, barely functional human being, highly contagious and wracked with a cough that renders a twenty-a-day smoker to a fumbling amateur.

And yet, as I wallow in a sea of pity surrounded by soggy tissues and Strepsils I cast my eye around my bedroom and spot a salvation that had been there, right under my blocked and swollen-red nose all along. A few months ago, at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature I purchased a book called appropriately 'The Novel Cure' written by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin. Aiming straight for the Index of Ailments at the back of the book I scroll down until I find the word 'flu' and then it's off to page 173
Picture
'The Novel Cure' - the cover I own is different than the one in the link.
These brilliant women have found a strange coincidence they write - a breakthrough I insist - 'that no medical doctor or scientific researcher has yet noticed, or even studied: the moment a flu patient begins to read an Agatha Christie novel marks the commencement of their recovery'. They recommend 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd', the novel that confirmed Christie's genius as a writer of detective fiction.

Their reasoning? They maintain that the aches, chills, fever, sore throat, runny nose - 'all these are nothing compared to the determination to work out the guilty party before Poirot'. Deliciously, under 'Common Cold' they list other books that can help a flu sufferer and are perfect when combined with a warm blanket and a hot drink. Some include 'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden, 'The Devil Wears Prada' by Lauren Weisberger, and my personal favourite 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd to name a few. They even have an entry for 'Man Flu' under which they recommend 'Les Misérables' - told you they were geniuses  - as if one needed a scientist to prove that one?!

And one last word for those of you who are shaking your heads right and left believing that nothing ever really beats a cold, they've got an entry just for you: It's also under C for 'Cynicism' or frankly under K for 'Killjoy'.

Oh and I'll have you know I'm feeling much better already :) 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Professional Reader
    Challenge Participant
    Paperblog

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    May 2011
    January 2011
    September 2010

    Categories

    All
    Abu Dhabi
    Adrian Mole
    A Humument
    Akhil Sharma
    Ali Smith
    Amman
    Andrew Thompson
    Annabel Kantaria
    April 2019
    Arabic Books
    Arabic Releases
    Arab Reading Challenge
    Archie
    Archie Comics
    Armenia
    Armenians
    Art Exhibitions
    A Song For Issy Bradley
    Author: Aaron Vlek
    Author: Abdo Khal
    Author: A.D.Miller
    Author: Ahdaf Soueif
    Author: Alastair Reid
    Author: Becky Wicks
    Author: Caitlin Moran
    Author: Carys Bray
    Author: C.J.Moore
    Author: Cynthia Ozick
    Author: Dale Carnegie
    Author: David Walliams
    Author: E.L.James
    Author: Emma Straub
    Author: Gail Tredwell
    Author: George Saunders
    Author: Helen Smith
    Author: Howard Curtis
    Author: JoJo Moyes
    Author: Kay Burley
    Author: Liane Moriarty
    Author: Mark Haddon
    Author: Martin Suter
    Author: Michael Morpurgo
    Author: Patrick Sfeir
    Author: Paul Craig
    Author: Rabih Alameddine
    Author: Rhonda Byrne
    Author: Ruth Field
    Author: Sabina Mahfoud
    Author: Sarah Waters
    Author: Sayed Kashua
    Author: Simon Montefiore
    Author: S.J. Watson
    Author: Stacy Gregg
    Author: Steven Galloway
    Author: Susan Hill
    Author: Tahir Shah
    Author: Tara Palmer Tomkinson
    Author: Terii Guiliano Long
    Azazeel
    Banipal
    Ben Lerner
    Book Awards
    Book Crawl
    Book Events
    BookFabuSNAPPED
    Book Recommendations
    Book Reviews
    Books In Arabic
    Bookstores
    BritCrime 2015
    Burning Man
    Cancer
    Children's Literature
    Chloe Combi
    Chris Ewan
    Circassians
    Claire Fuller
    Colm Tóbín
    Comics
    Coming Home
    Competition
    Cookbooks
    Costa Coffee
    Country: Jordan
    Crime Novel
    Dark Tides
    Dave Eggers
    David Lagercrantz
    Dawn Anahid MacKeen
    DC Metro Area
    Diana Morgan Hill
    Dr Seuss
    Dubai
    Dystopian
    Egypt
    Emirates Festival Of Literature
    Emma Healey
    Events
    Features
    February 2015
    Fiction
    Film
    Fiona Neill
    Fitness & Health
    Folio Prize
    Funny
    Genocide
    Granta
    Hala Malhas
    Hope
    Imagine Science Film Festival
    Independent Bookstore Day
    Inspirational
    Interviews
    In Time For The Weekend Reading Picks
    Issy Bradley
    Japan
    Japanese Literature
    Jenny Offill
    Jesus Of Arabia
    Jesus Of Arabia Review
    Jocelyn Henderson
    Julia Miles
    Justine Crow
    Katarina Bivald
    Laurie A Nelson
    Laurie Nelson
    Lebanese Authors
    Lebanese Films
    Let Our Fame Be Great
    London Literature Festival
    Mandarin
    Margret Atwood
    Marlon James
    Marsh Award
    Miriam Toews
    Nadine Labaki
    New Book Release
    New Releases April 2015
    Non Fiction
    NYU Abu Dhabi
    NYU Events
    Oliver Bullough
    Orange Prize For Fiction
    Patrick Dalton
    Paul McKenna
    Peter Swanson
    Poetry
    Politics
    Rachel Cusk
    Ragnar Jonasson
    Rana Asfour
    Reading Campaigns
    Reading Year
    Real Men Read
    Refugees
    REVIEWS/Fiction
    Reviews/Non Fiction
    REVIEW/Young Reader
    Saheer Asfour Habash
    Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize
    Saira Shah
    Samar Barraj
    Saudi Arabia
    Self-Help
    Self Publlished
    Sex And The Citadel
    Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid
    Shereen El Feki
    Shereen Malherbe
    Simon Callow
    Snowblind
    Sophia Ledingham
    Sreyus Palliyani
    Suleiman Al Hattlan
    Summer Exhibition 2015
    Summer Reads 2015
    Susan Barker
    Sylvia Plath
    Talks
    Terrorism
    The Ambassador's Wife's Tale
    The Date Night Manifesto
    The Desmond Elliott Prize 2015
    The Folio Prize
    The Girl In The Spider's Web
    The Good Girl
    The Gulf Wife
    The Hundred Year Walk
    The Little Book Of Nits
    The Millennium Trilogy
    The Samuel Johnson Prize 2015
    The Uncommon Type
    Thrillers
    Tom Hanks
    Virginia
    Wang Ting-Kuo
    Weekend Choices
    Women's Prize For Fiction 2013
    Writing Competition 2016
    Writing Tips
    Year Of Reading 2016
    Year Of Reading UAE
    Yosri Fouda
    Young Fiction
    Youssef Zeidan

Search Engine Submission - AddMe
Local Business Directory, Search Engine Submission & SEO Tools
Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from byzantiumbooks, Dmitry Karyshev, GalacticWanderlust, quietlyurban.com
  • Home
  • THE Blog
  • Meet the Author
  • Beyond The Blog
  • About