Indian Readers discussion

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”

– Mortimer J. Adler

Hoping great books happen this year, and with it, more time to read.

I like that quote!

I wish you a lot of good books in 2020!

All the best, Kru :) It's a wonderful quote.

Thanks dely and Kavi for your wishes.

Wishing you both loads of great books and reading as well :)

A few pages into Their eyes were watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, my first this year.

Tagged under - Woman author, Afro-American, Historical fiction, Feminist, and having a promising first line - "Ships at a distance have everyman's wish on board."

Posts to update

Popsugar 2020here

✔ IR Armchair 2020 here

✔ IR Indian 2020 here

Index to posts (Monthly)

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Biblio Bingo Challenge
✔Row 1
✔Row 2
Row 3
✔Row 4
✔Row 5

Monthly Challenge

JANUARY

✔1. Their Eyes Were Watching God
✔2. Things I Don't Want to Know
✔3. Anbulla Evaalukku: The Colour Purple - Tamil
4. The Emperor of All Maladies
✔5. Charlotte's Web
✔6. After Earth: Kitai's Journal
✔7.The Zoya Factor
✔8. Revenge
9. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
✔ 10. Men Explain Things to Me
11. Black Water Lilies

hi Kru...
here's to an awesome year , reading and otherwise :)

Thanks Em :) Means a lot

Wishing you a great year as well <3

Buddy Reads

1. Emperor of Maladies - Discuss
2. The Century Trilogy
3. The Master and Margarita
4. Bluebeard's Egg
5. Mrutyunjay

Biblio Bingo challenge

Row 1

✔1. Author’s debut - Near to the Wild Heart
✔2. Translated - Anbulla Evaalukku: The Colour Purple - Tamil
✔3. Snow / Winter / marooned / white cover - The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
✔4. Asian, translated (exclude Indian) Revenge
✔5. A mystery that was a best seller when it came out - Gayathri

Biblio Bingo challenge

Row 2 Completed

✔1. A book greater than 500 pages in your TBR for more than 2 years - Les Misérables
✔2. A book that will help you learn about a country, non fiction mostly, but fiction also ok. - Paris for One
✔3. Weird/unusual title - The Zoya Factor
✔4. Mood matters. Read any book that fits your mood with an explanation - Paarkadal - chose a native language book on a whim
✔5. Read a book about an ideology that is not your own (or)
Read an autobiography/biography of a man/woman written by same gender - Things I Don't Want to Know

Biblio Bingo challenge

Row 3

✔1. International author other than US and India - Lady Susan
✔2. A fiction in your native language that was the best seller of its time. லா ச ராமாமிர்தம் சிறுகதைகள் தொகுப்பு - 1
✔3. Free square - Their Eyes Were Watching God
✔4. Fairy tale retelling - Stardust (Ticked after finding this in the GR list of fairy tale retellings!!!)
✔5. Alternate history/short story collection - Kaatil oru maan

Biblio Bingo challenge

Row 4

✔1. A historical fiction based in India - The Queen of Jhansi
✔2. Finish a trilogy that you already started or read all three books - The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels
✔3. Debut book by author written in 2020 - We Were All Someone Else Yesterday
✔4. A feel good/ happy book - Chrysanthemum- one of those not so good days and just wanted to chill. This was an audio book I found in Storytel, read by Meryl Streep. Loved it
✔5. Reading out of comfort zone - Pet Sematary

Biblio Bingo challenge

Row 5

✔1. Book written by a woman author -Lihaaf
✔2. New York time best seller / Pulitzer/ Nobel - The Emperor of All Maladies
✔3. Give a book a second chance - The Tattooist of Auschwitz
✔4. A political novel - The Hate U Give
✔5. More than 5 colors in the cover - Dance to My Tunes: A collection of short stories - Pink, blue, yellow, orange, black, green and white

Wow.. All the best Kru!

Thanks, Prem :)

Wow! those are some great challenges, all the best! :D

Thanks, Em :)

wow Kru..
you give me an idea ..
organising by rows ...

good luck towards an awesome reading year, once again .

Thanks again Em :)

As usual, the most organised (and challenging!) reading thread. You are awesome Kru. All the best.

Thanks Gorab :) All the best to you as well!

Collection of Essays

✔1. Things I Don't Want to Know
✔2. Men Explain Things to Me

Collection of Short Stories

✔1. Revenge
2. Bluebeard's Egg
3. Black Vodka: Ten Stories
✔4. Kaatil oru maan
✔5. Dance to My Tunes: A collection of short stories

Looks a promising month. 7 books completed, 4 currently reading.

sooper!! what a beginning!

Kru wrote: "Looks a promising month. 7 books completed, 4 currently reading.


"
Awesome Kru :D

Thanks Aparna!

Reading Revenge, right now. Very interesting, dark and unfolds like a relay, carrying some part of one story into the other. The connection is so interesting that mind tries registering every detail to check the previous link, and getting ready for the next. Memory Police was the targeted book and somehow I started reading this book.

No doubt books just happen <3

Read in 2013. A recommendation from my cousin who also loaned me her paperback. Reading the first few pages in the crowded suburban train I was so shocked, on one side the difficult language, and on the other the heartbreaking description of the assault on Celie. I was a very different person then, and so an emotional bundle, unable to control my sobs. Such a powerful story that I finished within a week. -1 star because I couldn't take in the horrifying details.

After so many years reading the translation of the book in Tamil, made for a smoother, easier reading experience, keeping intact the same shocking experience. One of the best translations in Tamil, with no compromising on the deep spiritual, religious discussions. A satiating, nostalgic reading experience ❤

Deborah Levy...

Reading Levy after which I loved immensely, for the style, the lyrical prose, as in the way they flow, you hardly care what they mean, an intoxication, that drives you crazy, that doesn't want the sentence to stop ever, and still wanting to step into the meaning, both the superficial and the deeper ones. Kind of a romance.

This is a collection of her writings on self. Brief peeks at her childhood, family, her love for writing, her autobiography. Loved it. Have two more books by her, for this year - and

💞

slowed down a little, this week, busy with kids and work.

Managed to complete Revenge. How dark and enticing can Japanese writers get? Crisp, ending exactly when you turn needy. Connecting elements between stories, like props? or maybe not. The different ways a prop can end up in a story. Can't wait to read more of her. But like I always do, taking a short break from her books.

Short Stories are always winners ❤

June Readathon Book List -

1. Zora and Me
2. The Cursed Ground
3. Zora and Me: The Summoner
4. After the Quake
5. A Midsummer's Equation
6. Salvation of a Saint
7. Weedflower
8. The Memory Police
9. Wild Card
10. Wild Card

Popsugar 2020 (Post to update)

Regular
Completed - 32/40
Ongoing - 0/40

Advanced
Completed - 6/10
Ongoing - 0/10

2020 Challenge - Regular prompts
✔1. A book that's published in 2020 - Little Fires Everywhere
2. A book by a trans or nonbinary author
✔3. A book with a great first line - Their Eyes Were Watching God
✔4. A book about a book club - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
✔5. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics - (Paris) Les Misérables
✔6. A bildungsroman - The Body
✔7. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed -The Girl from the Attic
8. A book with an upside-down image on the cover
✔9. A book with a map - Reinees Iyer Theru
✔10. A book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club - A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea
✔11. An anthology - Pianos and Flowers: Brief Encounters of the Romantic Kind
✔12. A book that passes the Bechdel test - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
✔13. A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it - The Body
✔14. A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name - This Boy's Life author - Tobias Wolffe
✔15. A book about or involving social media - The Hate U Give
✔16. A book that has a book on the cover- Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
✔17. A medical thriller - The Patient
18. A book with a made-up language
✔19. A book set in a country beginning with "C" - (China) Life
✔20. A book you picked because the title caught your attention - Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon
✔21. A book published the month of your birthday (July) - I Am Not a Label: 34 disabled artists, thinkers, athletes and activists from past and present
✔22. A book about or by a woman in STEM -The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
23. A book that won an award in 2019
✔24. A book on a subject you know nothing about - The Beekeeper of Aleppo
✔25. A book with only words on the cover, no images or graphics -
26. A book with a pun in the title
✔27. A book featuring one of the seven deadly sins - Charlotte's Web (gluttony)
✔28. A book with a robot, cyborg, or AI character After Earth
✔29. A book with a bird on the cover - Haroun and the Sea of Stories
30. A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader
✔31. A book with "gold," "silver," or "bronze" in the title -The Silver Eyes
✔32. A book by a WOC So You Want to Talk About Race
✔33. A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads - Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
✔34. A book you meant to read in 2019 - Immortality
✔35. A book with a three-word title - Your Erroneous Zones
✔36. A book with a pink cover - Jasmine Days
37. A Western
✔38. A book by or about a journalist The Punjab Story
✔39. Read a banned book during Banned Books Week Walking With The Comrades
40. Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

2020 Challenge - Advanced prompts
1. A book written by an author in their 20s
2. A book with "20" or "twenty" in the title
✔3. A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement (a nod to 20/20 vision)- The Beekeeper of Aleppo
4. A book set in the 1920s
✔5. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics - The Aosawa Murders
✔6. A book by an author who has written more than 20 books - (Elif Shafak) The Forty Rules of Love
✔7. A book with more than 20 letters in its title - The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
✔8. A book published in the 20th centuryNear to the Wild Heart
9. A book from a series with more than 20 books
✔10. A book with a main character in their 20s - The Hate U Give

February

✔1. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
✔2. Paarkadal
✔3. Life Without Fear

Not a very promising month, with The Ministry of Utmost Happiness failing miserably. Though the beginning was very promising, the narration slacked after the intro of Tilo, totally went off tangent, turned a bunch of musings and what not, somewhere it turned into an autobiography and lost the momentum.

Life without fear was a personal read request from the author, having reviewed his previous work She: Ekla Cholo Re and was decent.

The best of February was listening to Paarkadal. Stories of the past bring with them the societal norms, orthodoxy of that period some of which just don't fit the present. But this was a very warm story, very breezy, and the language was calming.

March

✔1. Lihaaf
✔2. Pet Sematary
✔3. லா ச ராமாமிர்தம் சிறுகதைகள் தொகுப்பு - 1
✔4. Chrysanthemum

Only four books but they were all 5 star reads except for the anthology by La Sa Ra, wherein a few short stories weren't appealing.

Stephen King amazes like always, wandering a lot around the usual 70%, but probably I had the patience for it this time, and stuck to the reading.

Lihaaf was a different experience altogether. Listening to it during commuting was a thrill by itself, trying to look plain, but the narration excites you like a zooming vehicle over hillside, so I was uncontrollably shocked, sighed, relaxed and laughed throughout. I can't stop awing at this author who plays tricks in the minds of the reader, while the narration is itself comes across as clean.

Looking forward to read more of her in days to come, hopefully the end of this year, or whenever I set time to read Classics.

Chrysanthemum was another best of March. Story though simple had a wonderful positive message to it, rendered more strongly by the voice of Meryl Streep.

April

✔1. The Hate U Give
✔2. Gayathri
✔3. Paris for One
✔4. Lady Susan
✔5. The Queen of Jhansi
✔6. Along the Tapajós
✔7. Sheikh Chilli (Fully Illustrated): Classic Tales

May

✔1. The Problems of Philosophy
✔2. Near to the Wild Heart
✔3. Kaatil oru maan
✔4. The Aosawa Murders
✔5. Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom
✔6. Dance to My Tunes: A collection of short stories
✔7. Electra Vs Oedipus: The Drama of the Mother-Daughter Relationship
✔8. The Silver Eyes
✔9. Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet
✔10. ஒரு புளியமரத்தின் கதை
✔11. Mrutyunjay
✔12. Mercy
✔13. Black Friday: The True Story Of The Bombay Bomb Blasts
✔14. We Were All Someone Else Yesterday
✔15. The Forty Rules of Love
✔16. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
✔17. The International Day of the Girl: Celebrating Girls Around the World
✔18. In the Dark: The Science of What Happens at Night
✔19. Manga Classics: Sense and Sensibility

June

✔1. The Girl from the Attic
✔2. Zora and Me: The Summoner
✔3. Based on a True Story
✔4. I Am Not a Label: 34 artists, thinkers, athletes and activists with disabilities from past and present
✔5. Welcome to Your Period!
✔6. EVERYTHING EQUALS NOTHING:: The Universe for young scientists, mathematicians and philosophers
✔7. Haroun and the Sea of Stories

July

Tentative Reads -

1. Poems from the Moor
2. The Plague
3. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
4. Eye of the Needle
5. Forrest Gump
6. The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels
7. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon
8. Life
9. The Beekeeper of Aleppo
10. Art Matters
11. The Antichrist/Thus Spake Zarathustra
12. The Eternal Husband and Other Stories
13. The Ramgarh Literary Festival

Kru wrote: "
May


✔1. The Problems of Philosophy
✔2. Near to the Wild Heart
✔3. Kaatil oru maan
✔4. The Aosawa Murders
✔5. [book:Mary Ventura and the..."

whaaat? so you read these 19 books in May? I havent read 19 books this entire year. Kudos Kru!

Gorab wrote: "Kru wrote: "
May


✔1. The Problems of Philosophy
✔2. Near to the Wild Heart
✔3. Kaatil oru maan
✔4. The Aosawa Murders
✔5. [book:Mary Vent..."

It is list of books completed in May :)

11 and 16 were started early this year.

2, 4, 9, 12 and 15 had average page count of around 250-300, while the rest were all very small books.

Applause... irrespective of the statistics, this looks like a fabulous reading month!

Gorab wrote: "Applause... irrespective of the statistics, this looks like a fabulous reading month!"

:)
Thanks

May 2020 seems a good month with 19 books completed.

Checked the statistics and found 11 books started and completed in the month, with a total page count of 2698.

Rest started in previous months and completed in May.

Last lap of the June Readathon and completed 2475 pages across 10 books.

Started After the Quake. Longtime since I read Murakami. And with that jumping into the Team challenge of July and August.

Possible Reads for the Team Challenge

Cat's Eye
The Essex Serpent
Reading Turgenev
The Plague
The Interpretation of Murder
Flash Crash
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on Imperfect Science
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Eye of the Needle
Forrest Gump
Chocolate Wars
Tracks
The clockmaker's daughter
The Great Alone
Bookworm: A memoir of Childhood reading
Blindness
The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels
Life
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon
Twelve Red Herrings
Blind Assassin
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Where The Crawdads Sing
Art Matters
The Dead School
Little Fires Everywhere
The Ramgarh Literary festival
The Eternal Husband
The physician
The Wind-up bird chronicle
Immortality
Les Miserables
Purple Hibiscus
Lord of the flies
Factfulness
If you see me, Don't say Hi
The case against sugar
Killing Floor
Stardust
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Started the Team Challenge with

Completed 2 chapters, first with Librivox Audio, and then again from the kindle copy. Audio was good, but somehow reading those words in my own voice means so much more. Loving the writing, feeling overwhelmed since it is longtime since I read FD. Feels like meeting a beloved at yonder.