Water for Elephants and Kindle for Me

I learned three things about Kindle two weeks ago.

First, I didn’t know that Kindle users could lend books to their co-Kindle users until my cousin lent me one.  Two weeks ago, I asked my cousin if I could borrow her Hunger Games book series.  Unfortunately, she could only lend books once and they were already borrowed by her sister.

Second, not all Kindle books could be borrowed.  When I learned that I couldn’t borrow her Hunger Games series, I asked her to just send me any e-book.  She checked her list and discovered that she could not send some of the books to me, so she sent me whatever was available.  I ended up with Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

Third, I learned that borrowed Kindle books should be read within two weeks from the time it was borrowed.  When my cousin sent the e-book, I was informed that it would go back to the owner in two weeks’ time.  Geez, was I pressured.  Don’t get me wrong, I can actually finish a book in one sitting and make a novel look like a short story.  However, when you’ve got lots of things on your hands with so little time, it’s just so difficult to find time to start and finish reading a book.  It has an advantage though, I was forced to finish Water for Elephants before my deadline.  Now, I’m writing about it.

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Water for Elephants focuses on the life of a “ninety- or ninety-three-year-old” man living in a nursing home.  The man, Jacob Janjowski, narrates his experience of being devastated following the death of his parents due to a car accident.  Upon learning that his father was in debt just to provide him with an Ivy League education, he opts not to take his final exams as a veterinary student at Cornell University.  He then finds himself jumping on a train which happens to be a circus train owned by The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.  Thus, the start of his life as a circus worker.

Water for Elephants does not only describe circus life as it also touches other aspects of life such as frienship, love, and self worth.  Gruen succeeds in making readers love (and hate) the characters.  It is apparent that Gruen did an excellent job in doing her research about circus life.  In an interview featured in the latter part of the book, Gruen states that most of the characters and situations are based on true stories that she has gathered throughout her research.

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Water for Elephants has a film adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence.  The cast includes Robert Pattinson, Christoph Waltz, and Reese Witherspoon.  I haven’t seen the movie yet and I plan to watch it this weekend.  I’m interested in seeing the efforts done by Lawrence to illustrate animal cruelty, a circus setting, and the Disaster March, among other things.

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The author is a blogger working for Valve eCapture. You may reach her at valve.ecapture@yahoo.com or valve.ecapture@gmail.com. Thank you.