In Search of Good Books

As I darted my eyes across the shelves laden with books , I came across "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho on one of them. I bought it along with some other books for dd. I haven't read a fiction for ages but gave it a go before bed, reading about 40+ pages. And the next morning , finished the 170+ pages in between making breakfast for the family. It was a breeze reading the book, quite effortless, fluid.. The words flowing easily as they were simple and manageable. The backdrop was also one of my fave places; The Sahara Desert.
I checked the library catalogue if any of Paulo Coelho books were available to borrow. Unfortunately not. So I went to the bookstores to find some more books to read. I chose "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and "The Kite Runner" both by Khaled Hosseini, "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne and "Like a Flowing River" by Paulo Coelho which I read of his thoughts and reflection. I tried reading a few pages of The Kite Runner at the same time. It was descriptive and I found it initially difficult and not as fluid to read as Coelho's books. However, Afghanistan history/culture intrigues me. I had watched the DVD of "In Search of an Afghan Girl" the previous week about the refugee girl with the haunting sea green eyes on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. (I used to collect Nat Geo magazines monthly issues since I read an article of Ibnu Battuta in 1991. I still kept some of them}.
Once more , I gave "The Kite Runner" another try and finished it in one day. Then I gave "A Thousand Splendid Suns" a try and finished it in a day today. Compelling stories. How could people endure them?....