’’ I was once asked by a young boy why a woman wears pants and guys wear sweet smelling cologne.... so I said because there is a woman in every man and a man in every woman.... this is true of every sunsign ... but super true for a libra’’
When I first read these lines in 1996 from the copy of sun signs I had borrowed from my friend (my intention was to mug up the traits for every sun sign and impress people while I read their palms.... by the way I still don’t know how to!) I was awestruck. Not because of the apparent contradiction but because the statement somehow resounded a feeling I had always felt myself.
Being a tomboy throughout my life I kind of always knew that I would have been better of as a guy (infact for the first twelve or fourteen years of my life I would pray to god everyday about it). And thus when I saw madame goodman putting it in print it kind of comforted me to know that I wasn’t a radical product of misplaced gender identity.
And from then on slowly but steadily I began to read each and every line of this book... not to impress people but to know and unravel what each sun-sign had in store.
For the uninitiated.... the term sun sign means that if you are for example a gemini, the sun was in the zone of the zodiac called gemini when you were born, approximately between may 22nd to june 21st, both days inclusive.....
There are 12 sun-signs... namely.....
Aries- the infant-march 21st to april 20th
Taurus- the baby-april 21st to may 21st
Gemini- the child-may 22nd to june 21st
Cancer- the adolescent-june 22nd to july 23rd
Leo- the teenager-july 24th to august 23rd
Virgo- the adult- august 24th to september 23rd
Libra- marriage- september 24th to october 23rd
Scorpio- sex- october 24th to november 22nd
Sagittarius- knowledge-november 23rd to december 21st
Capricorn- experience- december 22nd to january 20th
Aquarius - idealism-january 21st to february 19th
Pisces- submission- february 20th to march 20th.
One just needs to match one’s birthday with the approx dates given here and know one’s sun sign and wallah you can begin!
Coming to the book.... the most important thing that one would notice and like about this book--- being laymen as we are....is the abject lack of jargon throughout the whole literature. Infact most of the book reads like a stories about different protagonists.
The book is divided into 12 sections for each of the sun-sign... further each sun-sign is sub-divided into the following headings...
how to recognise (say for example a scorpio)
the ---- man
the ---- woman
the ---- child
the ----boss
the ---- employee.
This easily accessible and highly readable format makes it an ideal sun-sign book for both the novice and the in-depth reader. If you haven’t got the time to know it all just read the section that you are most interested in and keep the rest for later.
In this book you would also appreciate the fact that Linda Goodman’s writing style is not cramped... infact her style is lucid, friendly, humorous and most important enjoyable. she does not give you cold facts... she explains things to you, makes you an active partner in a supposed discussion.... those who are aware of two Bengali literary luminaries rabindranath tagore (national anthem please) and sarath chandra chattopadhyay (of devdas fame, do you know him now?) would understand the point i’m trying to drive home. while the former explains everything , not expecting the reader to analyse; the latter makes the reader involve himself into the piece.
This book is highly recommended if you want to read and know about sun-signs in general... it is not for the more devout scholars... they can marvel at linda goodman’s other works.
star sign (not recommended for casual readers)
relationship signs (definitely not recommended)
love sings (highly recommended, but only after one finishes sun-signs)
venus trines at midnight/ goobers (the poetically inclined)
Read this book anytime you want, and its recall value being great you would definitely want to read it again and again.... and even after reading this article if the sagittarians and geminis don’t want to read the book, well you know what linda knew that you might not!
Happy reading to the rest of you!