The Bridge Across Forever

Once upon a time there was a boy, 18; and like every other boy in his age-group was carefree and aimed to be on top of this world, and that's what his problem was: he was unsure what really being on top of the world meant and felt like. Then, one day he came across a book called "The Bridge Across Forever" by Richard Bach, a book which changed the way he looked at things and changed him forever. From a carefree and someone who paid absolutely no attention to relationships, he was transformed into a boy who started waiting for his own soul-mate; was it the book or the subject that the book covered, which transformed him; or did the book just aided in making him think and acknowledging certain aspects of himself which were buried deep down inside which he had ignored for so long? Soon, he started realizing that "being on the top", is all about way you feel inside; it's all about doing something which makes you feel satisfied; it's about having the feeling of oneness, and calmness from within; it's about joining and completing the missing bits of the thing called life. He learnt from the book and started believing firmly that only things in life that matter are the things that you can share with someone special, he started watching & waiting for that "someone" to come into his life, someone to grow old with; someone who made the journey more beautiful than the final destination. I remember, how he felt "cheated" when he read about Bach and Leslie's divorce, how could soul-mates decide to go their own way? Isn't being soul-mates all about learning and sharing together, and he started doubting the entire idea of soul-mates. Then he realized, soul-mates is not about living together and sharing within this time-space continuum; it's something that transcends both time and space; there is no such place as far away; no such time as too long: overcome distance and all you are left is "here"; overcome time and all you have is "now": And in the middle of Here and Now, it's just "you" and "I" that really matter. So, are soul-mates perfect, and completely compatible? No, if you are perfect there's nothing to share, there's nothing to learn from the "other" person when you are fully compatible, if you don't learn; you stagnate, if you stagnate; you stop exploring a world so beautiful both outside and within…and yes, soul-mates doesn't mean living together; it's about learning from each other; either within this time-space or something which operates outside their realm, the fact is: you may stop loving someone, but you will never stop loving the time when you loved them. Why am I writing all this? Maybe, we teach best what we need to learn the most…but then, everything in this post maybe wrong.

Books of note

I've always been quite fond of reading and though it's been some time since I've read a book, a discussion with someone today got me talking about the books which have had some kind of influence on me, so here is the short list in no particular order:

• Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach
• Illusions by Richard Bach
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
• A Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Vanity Fair by W.M. Thackeray
• Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  
• Delhi Is Not Far (A Collection of Short Stories) By Ruskin Bond
• Best of O' Henry by O' Henry
• We, The Living by Ayn Rand
• Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  

I am currently reading Ivanhoe by Walter Scott (I've been trying to read that for past 2 months!), the to-read-next list contains Bhagvat Gita, Fountainhead among others. Any recommendations based on kind of stuff that I like reading (life philosophy, love stories et al)?

Oh, by the way I stumbled upon this quote on /. today, which I found to be quite funny:
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe!