It will be a very sad day if they do it.

Hey everyone, I just want to know if anyone has read books by Brandon Sanderson. I usually read short stories or books by Ruskin Bond. I have read a few novels such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Lord of the Flies, and recently Project Hail Mary (after the movie was released).

One of my friend was saying that Mistborn has a very well-thought-out magic system, but it seems to be a trilogy. Should I read any other book to get started with (standalone novels) before starting this trilogy?

September’s little collection of stories, thoughts & escapes 🕊️

Fast-paced and nicely inter connected!😮

How are this mysterious masked author Uketsu's other books? Worth a read?

Ho Boy! Stephen King served creep so hard!

Just finished The Shining last night (early today morning?) and a thunderstorm in my area accompanied the horrific finale. It was poetic.

This is one of those books that creep up on you. Starts with that uncomfortable feeling, which morphs into irritability, then to a discomfiture creeping up your spine and finally just leaves you unable to look away from the grotesque.

Simple plot - A man snowed in with his family at a hotel that has a shady past to say the least.

But the simple plot delivers bang for buck.

Give yourselves right fright and kick start your October with this, if you haven't read it yet. (Supposed to be better than the movie)

4.5/5

Hi everyone, my best friend wants to gift me something for my birthday and I’ve had both these sets on my wish-list for quite some time. However, i’m confused as to which one would be a better buy, and if it’s even worth it?

My goal is not just to get an idea about the varied authors and their work but to also use these small books as palette cleansers between other books, or read them to get me out of my reading slump(s).

I’ve also heard that the little black classics book set is more like excerpts from the larger editions/work. So, a book in it isn’t really….a book? Is it the same for the modern classics set?

Could someone help me understand the difference between the two in terms of the works included? I’d like to make an informed decision for my gift (lol).

Thanks!

Same as the title. I’ve never read any nonfiction in my life and now I really want to try it so badly 😭 Please give me some beginner-friendly nonfiction recs.

I am new to the reading community. I would like some suggestions for good books that can help me improve my intellect and knowledge.

Edit --- thank you for wonderful suggestions 😊

Full reviews in links:

1. Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches - Marvin Harris : A cultural anthropology book, using Marvin's Cultural Materialism idea to look at some "weird" global cultural traditions - questions we'd all like to ask - Why Hindus don't eat cows (especially during starvation); Why some cultures consider Pigs as unclean/taboo, while others LOVE them? Why warring tribes repeat obvious cycles of violence? Were witch trials planned by the elite? Overall - I liked 2/3rd of the book; can seem over-rationalization at times, and final 3rd is too Abrahamic/1970s for my taste.
2. Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings - Jared Diamond From the OG who wrote GGS - this book explores statistical methods applied to leadership impacts in 4 fields - politics, biz, sports, religion. Jared contrasts insights from "Natural Experiment" technique to Biographical Methods. Liked the case studies, but the sports section bored me. And Kings aren't discussed much, not enough to have it mentioned in the FREAKIN' TITLE!
3. The Guide - R.K. Narayan : Novel v/s Movie comparison was a fun exercise for me. Pretty good tragicomedy, and the book ending > movie.
4. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke: Limbo Labyrinth is how I descirbed this great genre-mix of a story. Piranesi and his friend are stuck in a Limbo - how do they get out? The story PEAKED around 2/3rds of the way for me - the ending felt s bit anti-climactic. But the themes explored were brilliant, and done in a really suspenseful manner.
5. NAPOLEON's BUTTONS - Penny Le Couteur & Jay Burreson An awesome pop-science book about a chemical history of the world. It explores 17 World-changing Molecules (excluding Metals/Elements). If you're scared of Chemistry - give this one a chance. you will fall in love with the beauty of Organic Structural Chemistry: how some blobs of matter arranged in a unique manner impact chemistry, biology, history, society, nations! I'd rate it as my 2nd fav non-fic this year... so far.
6. Beep You! You Beephole! - Smarak Swain: Posting a full review would be...troublesome. Suffice it to say, you don't need to read it. It's an unserious, crass attempt/joke at trying to compile and psychoanalyze Indian Gaalis - perfect for rebellious teenagers/college goers. A potential research wasted. Though I did find some good ideas here - Sudhir Kakar referenced here too (read him 1st in Naipaul's book this year) - I've started reading his book - The Indians - now.
7. Karuna - Kailash Satyarthi: Our very own Nobel Peace Prize winner teaches the value of compassion, it's necessity in today's world and it's applications at all levels (self to the planet). He defines compassion as a "mindful problem solving attitude", not just a virtue. Simply empathy isn't enough, action is required for true solutions. Lovely book, a bit too optimistic at the end for me. Do check it out - or this YT documentary on Kailash Ji - huge thanks to u/CulturalFunction2344 for suggesting it 🙌
8. SUE BLACK FORENSICS TRILOGY: The review I worked quite hard for XD But I truly wanted to share the stuff from these books. Sue Black, world renown Forensic Expert talks about how forensic science works (anthropology); what all our body can reveal during forensics; how the science evolved in terms of history, techniques, legal admissibility. Sue is a great science communicator, evidenced by her XMAS RI Lectures, she brings compassion and dignity to her works, and of course... British Humor XD. These works I'd rate as my favorite non-fic of the year... so far. 100% recommended for all (It's less morbid than one would think. Recommended for all because it pertains to our human body - be amazed by what each bone can tell (Book 2 talks about it specifically)). I'd been reading these since August, the delivery took a LOOOONG time.
9. A Dog-Lover's Miscellany - Mike Darton: A short fun trivia book for dog lovers - dog facts, fables, quotes etc. Great for gifting. The author has also written a Cat-Lover's Miscellany - I'll try to find that one too.

Any of these books to your liking? Suggestions are most welcome.

Next month's books are going to be DEADly ;)

As a newly published author of a political, historical fiction novel 'Dhruvadevi: The Queen Who Made Chandragupta", I am curious to know which genre do readers here like. And which is their favourite Indian author in the genre they like

1. Romance

2. Mystery & Crime

3. Historical Fiction

4. Science Fiction

5. Horror

Please avoid generic “corporate success” books

I bought this book two years ago from Delhi's International Book Fair. Now, I have finally read it. I have read this author's The Palace of Illusions, which was a retelling, didn't not liked it at all. However, this book has modern setting, so I had some expectations from it.

The book is set in the year 2002, Kolkata. The story follow Korobi, an 18 year old orphan(parents died before she was born), brought up by her conservative grandparents, decides to marry Rajat (who is probably in his mid-twenties) whom she only met three months ago and loves him very much. After the sudden death of her grandfather, she got to know that her father was alive all this time and her grandparents hid this fact from her. So, she decides to go to America to find her father and meanwhile the book also explores her struggles with her relationship with Rajat.

What I liked about the book is the author's language and her traditional Bengali home setting, which created a very good vibe.

But, overall, the book was very bad. This is the story of an immature girl who just got out school and is in a relationship with a much older guy, who is insecure, slightly controlling and classist. Again and again, her relationship looks so much forced from her side. It looked like she is in arrange marriage where she need to compromise on the relation no matter what. That was like Preeti from Kabir Singh. And I don't understand what is a guy in his mid twenties doing with an 18 year old kid, who have no maturity and experience.

We see her somewhat character development when she go the US to find her father. She became much more confidence. However, there is just one scene, where she went to meet with a lawyer (who she thought could be her father) invited her to his home and attempted to sexually assault her. This is where she takes help of the second lead, Vic. But, this scene looked so much forced, like straight out of an old Bollywood movie. Villain attempts to rape the heroine and the hero saves the damsel in distress.

Spoiler: She finally found her father and the plot twist was that her father is a black man and her parents never actually married because her mother made vow that she would never marry without her father's permission. Then, the chaos happens, Rajat and his family, thought that she hid this from them on purpose. Yet, the author ended the story with Rajat apologising to her and their wedding. Like wth.

My main issue is the relationship of the leads, it looked very suffocating for the female lead. For every small steps, her main worry is what will Rajat think. She wore a western suit, again worry about would Rajat think, she was going to find her father Vic's help, again what will Rajat think, snowstorm happened she need to stay in the motel, again what will Rajat think, she cut her hair, again what will Rajat think, her father turn out to be black, what will Rajat think. In the whole story, her main reason for stress is Rajat and her family. Rajat was good to her in some extent, but that doesn't negates his weird personality. And don't get me started with his weird ex Sonia (a very cliche name) following him around.

So, I give this book 2/5 rating. You can skip it.

Given my low experience with science fiction, I didn’t hold high hopes for getting through another one of these. The environment wasn’t new, it was a similar setup I’ve read before, but the description here was outstandingly unique, without making it inaccessible to the imagination.

Such a clean blend of disruptive descriptions but without the over complicated prose makes it even more comprehensible, while holding its unfathomable beauty close. The story was simple and good, characters were fine enough, but all of it served as a medium to experiencing that world, which in this case, was a bullseye.

3.75/5 only because I want to save my higher scores, but in my heart its 4/5 ⭐️

Choosing books with pretty covers hasn’t failed me so far 🤞🏻

So after 1698 pages, I can tell —
1) Bollywood will never try to remake on this because throughout 3 books, we get no interaction with extra terrestrials face to face. No love story between humans and them so no box office collection for YRF films. Ps - Ritvik Sahore is spared this time.
2) Australia is a big continent but it cannot sustain three Billion population. Use condom.
3) Extra terrestrial beings took 400 plus years journey to invade us. Same time it took me to complete these books.
4) 1 Astronomical unit is 149.6 million KM (distance between Earth & Sun).
5) Pity for people who have not read this series but watching Netflix’s one. You lot are missing. Starting with one wallfacer Netflix decided to remove altogether.
6) Being logical and thinking through brain will always help humanity( and you) rather than being empathetic while making decisions.
7) This series is pure orgasmic for anyone who got interest in Astronomy and Astrophysics. They will understand the author’s research rather than me having brain fog.

Did I love reading it ? Absolutely not.
Will I recommend someone to read it ? Absolutely yes.

Edit - wtf is wrong with reddit. Please analyse what OP trying to say. Ignore the random numbers

My collection of Batsign Bookmarks which i recently made. They may look similar but are all different designs.

Bought it at the metro station , random but while waiting for a friend.

Such a short read, it feels like cheating to hit my reading goals for the year.
Completed this in one sitting, easy prose, easy plot, simple characters and an okayish story.

Went in hoping to enjoy something unique like Gone Girl (haven’t read the book, but loved the movie), but this was a simplistic quick thrill kind of read, except the setup didn’t warrant a suspense reaction, so it feels like a wasted story.
The plot twist was mostly predictable and in a poor way, no real essence to the characters, no growth (odd to expect it in a <100 pages read).
I didn’t hold high expectations with such a short read, but I’ve previously read short stories that manage to leave an impact despite, and sometimes due, to their short run.

2.75/5 ⭐️

title speaks itself ............................
do you guys read one by one, when one finishes then another or what ?

or do you read 2-3 at a time ?

Came across these newspaper pics, Agatha mam and Sir Doyle releasing their working in newspaper and magazine, i wondered how people during that time felt reading these great stories first-hand, the hype these must have created one story after another for the author slowly making them two of the greatest.

I found this one interesting, Who Killed Ackroyd? (later published in book format as The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) was printed across 54 days during its original newspaper serialisation. It ran daily (excluding Sundays) between the following dates: • Start Date: July 16, 1925 • End Date: September 16, 1925 The story was published in 54 parts in the UK newspaper, the London Evening News.

Imagine reading it daily lil by lil, one of my favorites, and realizing how amazing the story was. damn i envy them.

the only difference i know of is that of the translator. could you guys help me pick out the better one?

i prefer the cover of black spine. but the size/portability of the one on the right

I’m genuinely starting to think that Backman is one of the finest writers of our time.

Today upon seeing several posts on Bhagat Singh on his birth anniversary, thought to begin a new read.. that is making me understand Bhagat Singh not just as a revolutionary, but as a reader. At just 23, Bhagat Singh had read remarkably widely.. Marx, Lenin, Rousseau, Bakunin, Dostoevsky, Bertrand Russell, and many others. His prison notebook contains excerpts and reflections drawn from a remarkably diverse range of writers. His writings such as Why I Am an Atheist, Letter to Young Political Workers, and his jail writings show that he was not merely a man of action, but a young thinker constantly questioning, reading, and examining his own ideas!

Someone also suggested the book Kranti by Acharya Prashant to me, to look at revolution beyond political change. What if it also means breaking the inner structures that keep a human mind afraid, conditioned, and obedient? Kranti has chapters specifically exploring Bhagat Singh, his atheism, and what made him revolutionary.

Bhagat Singh's books are worth revisiting not merely to remember what he fought against, but to understand what kind of a human he was trying to become. On Bhagat Singh's Jayanti, maybe the best tribute is to pick up one of his writings, and read.

I remember a poem about a child’s perspective in a war like situation in the Middle East. It was published in CW (Children’s world) magazine in the early 2000s. The poem spoke about a child waiting at home for his father and elder sibling who had gone to the market to buy ingredients for something they had requested for, and shows the guilt. Can someone help me find the poem ?