I Cud Hav Had 17… But I Chose to Have 19 Chapters

by Ashutosh Srivastava

This is the story of a person who met a lot of temporary people in his life. If you meet a girl in a new place, be it a college, a coaching centre, a train, an office or any other place, and if you find her beautiful, you will definitely try to approach her. You will, maybe, send her a friend request on Facebook. She might accept your request or she might not. But, one thing is quite definite, that she will visit your profile for sure. This is us; this is human psychology or just the mentality that we have developed over the years. It's a story of a person meeting different girls with whom he could have had some chemistry, but there was always some or the other 'but'. He had some good features, but his bad ones outnumbered the good. He did some magic, due to which he was able to change his life. Being overweight for him was among his major tensions. However, he lost 30 kgs of weight in six months, and consequently, the people who used to hate him started liking him. The gym freaks are often considered as dumb and writers are often considered as genius. He acted of being both.

296 pages, Paperback

Published January 18, 2016

Reviews

[Ravi Gurunani]

Book Name- I Cud Hav Had 17... But I Chose to Have 19 Chapters 
Author Name-  Ashutosh Srivastava
Publisher- Notion Press 
Pages- 285 
Price-299


REVIEW- This is the debut novel by Ashutosh Srivastava and as a debutant author has done quiet good job. Author has brilliant narrating skills which makes the book page turning.

Book Title and Cover- Book Title is suitable to the storyline and so is the Book Cover. Book Title is catchy which gains the attention of the readers.

Language- Language is simple and  easily understandable but attractive. Even the new readers can find the book easy to read.

Narration- To be honest, i read the book in one go because of the narration. Author has amazing narrating skills which hooked me till the end. Some one liners are given, which were making book interesting.

Storyline and Plot- Storyline and Plot is strong. It is the journey of Rudra, the main character from childhood to his graduation and becoming a writer and how he remained single all this time. 
Author has penned down some brilliant things which we all have experienced and this makes reading interesting.

There are  fewer technical problems which are very minor and can be ignored. Few more one liners would make the story more interesting. 
Also author has added 2 chapters which can inspire you to do what you love and to do what you think you cannot do.

Ratings

Book Cover and Title- 4/5 
Language Justification- 3.5/5 
Character Justification- 4/5

Final Rating- 4/5

So, I Cud Hav Had 17...But I Chose to Have 19 Chapters is light fun to read book which will be surely entertaining and inspiring too. 
You can get your copies on Amazon Flipkart or nearby book store.

[Vivek Dwivedi]

Book Criticism is a challenging profession. Many a time you are challenged with a book that tests your patience, other time your comprehension skills and attitude. This debut work of Mr. Ashutosh Srivastav challenged me on the first front. It tested my patience like no other book. The book discusses the youth and youthfulness of a certain Mr. Rudra who meets not one but 17 girls during the said duration. I read about first five of them and that's that. Till the fourth entry, everything seemed logical, even somewhat genuine. In came fifth and some more of the knowledge that preceded with each last chapter and a girl and I was done. Mr. Ashutosh has filled this book with 285 pages. They are a lot of pages for a debutant writer. He can certainly write and plan. He tries to put forth a perspective, a story and plan for each of his girl and chapter but the issues is with the trying part itself. Ashutosh tries to clarify that not each of them Rudra has fallen in love with and neither all of them even hit on him and it's praiseworthy that he celebrates a category that always fall in that 'cliched' in-between but those outcomes or perspectives that are coming out of each chapter aren't inspiring enough. First of all, it's hard enough to speak of having 17 girls in one's life, harder still is to elaborate on their importance in the said person's life. No wonder if a reader loses count of all the previous girls and their names if he is somewhere fixated in the middle of the book. I found this book devoid of all logic and it makes for an uninspiring read.

On the technical fronts, it scores more than it loses upon. I nevertheless had the problem with book cover though. If your book's title is as big as 'I Cud Have Had 17.....But I Chose to Have 19 Chapters', you might have done away with spelling even poor 'cud' right. What was Could's fault in it, I didn't understand. Editing, as it's become quite a norm now, is poorly done. 'Did Not + Verb's 2nd form' find their presence in many pages and leave a sophisticated reader in bad taste. Spacing between two words at places is lost and they look oddly conjoined. But for a paperback edition, page quality is exemplary. However, the blurb and author's bio on the back cover is written in very fine print; author's bio seems even fading in front of your eyes. These dissimilarities need to be worked upon immediately for they don't make the book look 'good' in reader's eye. We have already discussed the plot-lines in detail, so that's a serious no-go. However, I shall award points to this book mainly on the basis of massive efforts put in by Mr. Srivastav and shall congratulate and bid him good luck for future endeavors.