Ponniyin Selvan

Have been reading Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki this weekend. Went to sleep at 2 or 3 AM because of it. The way the author has described the beauty of ladies- Ilaiya Piraatti Kundavai, Pazhuvoor Ilaiyaraani Nandhini and the lady of beauty and strength Poonguzhali, deserves a "wow!"
For eg, let me tell abt one instance where the author compares the beauty of Nandhini and Kundavai : He says Nandhini has a face as round as a moon, while Kundavai has a beautiful oval shape as if shaped by a sculptor.
I sometimes have the habit of skipping the over-descriptive lines in a book. But here, it became impossible. How many different ways has he followed to describe each situation that I wonder what I wud have done if I ever wrote such a book :-)). I wud have copied the lines, pasted it many times, did subtle changes each time - one set of description for a city/place, one set for the description of beauty of a lady, one set for the courage and strength of a charismatic King/"Veeran" would have been sufficient for me to write the whole book.
But I wonder how the author is able to write a different yet interesting description abt each place.
Somehow I feel, its a kind of pride to say that I am in the elite society who has read this gem of a book.
A must read!!!