Myths & Legends - Anthony Horowitz (Book)

Myths & Legends - Anthony Horowitz. Last year while picking up my personal load from Blossoms (Bangalore) I picked up this book on a friends request. Guess I got the money from her but for some reason the book never got delivered to her because I just couldn't attend any of our own little book club meets :). And since the title was so enticing I couldn't resist reading it. On top of that I so far haven't read an Anthony Horowitz book and now with his sense of humor undoubtedly I will reading a few more at the earliest opportunity. I have read similar books of Rapidex series on Egyptian empires, Greek Gods and some hard to believe facts or call them myths & legends as here he claims. This book and its superb 35 stories refreshed my childhood memories and put a huge smile on my face throughout. Incredible was the experience I must say to go through so many amazing characters, I loved them so much that I started keeping a gap between the two legends :) hence I finished the book casually in guess some 15-18 days. No ways I wanted to read it any faster and not enjoy the myths with my eyes closed to imagine those unbelievable visuals that the Author created for us through his superb writing. I guess I will have to dig deeper to get the original stories in the longer format to enjoy them in a better way. I can't claim that I have read a lot of books on the subject especially when it comes to stories from African continent. Loved the way he disclosed why, when and how they started Mummifying the bodies of dead people. The Isis and Osiris angle was super romantic and a terrific love story (which will remind you of Game of Thrones). I had no idea before I read this book that mulberry fruit was actually white and not purple, how it turned purple in due course of time or what was the legend behind it was another terrific story. Ironically he has titled the book so aptly that even if you want to believe the stories, you won't but the way he puts the reason like just imagine why Winter is only of three months (at least in our part of the world) and why not longer? there actually is an amazing reason for that too. It was an experience of its own to know that there were or still are a loads of Greek Gods but what is even more hilarious is to know that even the king of Gods (Zeus) was afraid of his wife (Hera). Now King of Gods with his unending uncountable powers yet he becomes a mere mortal when it comes to handling his own wife :). On top of that he has uncountable sons and daughters (even wives), so many that after certain time I actually lost the count :). Yet the poor mans love story is heart touching, yes! yes! he did falls in love with a mortal and what his wife does to his mistress, you've got to read it yourself to know and what is this mistress connection with making of a Peacock is another fantastic episode. My favorite among the 35 stories is the story of a one eyed cyclops, he is such a cutie pie yet pays the price of being a monster, the way he takes his breakfast, lunch and dinner had me in splits. Plus the kind of knowledge that these cyclops (there is a community of cyclops if the legend is to be believed) have is simply unparalleled. You think Asgard was on or actually was some different planet? No Sir. Asgard was very much on earth itself and so were Thor and his naughty brother Loki very much on our planet only. They even have a day named after their name, take a wild guess which one or which one sounds closer to one of their names :) Just when I thought I have read enough stories about not only the Greek Gods or the Gods of the west of Japanese and Chinese Gods, he didn't shy away from giving us in details a great myth of an Indian wife tricking the God of death and how she wins her dead husband's life from the God is something you must have read earlier but you've got to read the same story in Anthony's words to enjoy it more. Whatever said and done about the myths and the legends, but one thing that I will recommend this book at least to all the males is that it does indeed answers the most unanswerable or shall I say most sought after question that "What women desire the most or What women actually want". Wow! Bravo to the answer as I just couldn't agree more. Not only the stories and the characters that this book is all about, its a must must read for its amazing illustrations too. On top of that they are all pencil sketches, black and white yet so amazingly beautiful that I haven't see something like this in a book ever. Have you read "Myths & Legends" or a similar compilation from any other Author? Do let me know how you liked it. And if you have read anything from Anthony Horowitz, do tell me which one is your favorite, I would definitely love to read more of him now at the earliest. PS: If it was you who requested me to get this book for you :) time to raise your hand and claim your book now.