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A review by thebookishelf
Mystical Tales For A Magical Life by Shubha Vilas
5.0
Amazing, awesome book! The kind that made me extra eager for my nighttime reading fix!
Took me a little time to get through the book. It has great depth and no wasted words. It is as thorough and well-researched as it is enlightening and captivating. I loved it. Author Shubha Vilas might have folded down about a million pages to refer back to particular points. I gained a lot of perspective about life. And he has a superb writing style; what a way with words!
"Mystical Tales for a Magical Life" is an extremely well-researched and well-written exploration of how India's ancient spiritual wisdom seeped into the culture.
All the stories in this book were so well put together, which in itself was great. I mean come on, gems like these are what make life worth living.
I adored all the stories I read, although some more than others. Keep in mind that everyone, myself included, has a preference when it comes to the mythology.
The stories author presents in this book are by no means exhaustive, but they are a great introduction to the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Puranas. The book is a riot of characters and colour burst from these pages. I cannot pretend to be any the wiser about Indian mythology, because, let's face it, there's a cast of thousands involved. And it's hard to keep track of them all. But I had a hell of a good time reading this.
In a way, the book reminded me of Gaiman’s Norse Mythology. Both books follow the same concept: the reworking of ancient myths to present them to a modern audience without losing any of their originality. And I think it’s a great idea. Shubha Vilas’ attempt carries much more of his own personality. And his own voice really shone through and I could tell that he really enjoyed writing this book.
I cannot begin to imagine how much effort went into writing this, there's so much information in this book. There are oodles of "facts" and more weighty matters revealed via footnotes. I learnt so much! From serious information to the humorous and whimsical. To top it all off, all of this is done without the book turning into a massive academic yawn.
Thoroughly readable and immensely enjoyable. I can't recommend it enough.
Took me a little time to get through the book. It has great depth and no wasted words. It is as thorough and well-researched as it is enlightening and captivating. I loved it. Author Shubha Vilas might have folded down about a million pages to refer back to particular points. I gained a lot of perspective about life. And he has a superb writing style; what a way with words!
"Mystical Tales for a Magical Life" is an extremely well-researched and well-written exploration of how India's ancient spiritual wisdom seeped into the culture.
All the stories in this book were so well put together, which in itself was great. I mean come on, gems like these are what make life worth living.
I adored all the stories I read, although some more than others. Keep in mind that everyone, myself included, has a preference when it comes to the mythology.
The stories author presents in this book are by no means exhaustive, but they are a great introduction to the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Puranas. The book is a riot of characters and colour burst from these pages. I cannot pretend to be any the wiser about Indian mythology, because, let's face it, there's a cast of thousands involved. And it's hard to keep track of them all. But I had a hell of a good time reading this.
In a way, the book reminded me of Gaiman’s Norse Mythology. Both books follow the same concept: the reworking of ancient myths to present them to a modern audience without losing any of their originality. And I think it’s a great idea. Shubha Vilas’ attempt carries much more of his own personality. And his own voice really shone through and I could tell that he really enjoyed writing this book.
I cannot begin to imagine how much effort went into writing this, there's so much information in this book. There are oodles of "facts" and more weighty matters revealed via footnotes. I learnt so much! From serious information to the humorous and whimsical. To top it all off, all of this is done without the book turning into a massive academic yawn.
Thoroughly readable and immensely enjoyable. I can't recommend it enough.