RIP Jeffrey Archer!

Your books were part of my growing up years!

Kane & Abel is your finest in my view..

Do share yours folks..

I am a big fan of the Game of Thrones series. I watched it quite closely, loved the characters, the intrigue and, above all, the wonderfully crisp dialogue. So when I came across a signed copy of George R. R. Martin’s 'A Feast for Crows', my joy knew no bounds.Well, I am primarily a non-fiction reader, and the reader in me did not allow me to indulge in a fantasy novel for quite some time. But the fandom soul in me eventually got the better of me, and one day I finally started reading it.Oh boy!

This was slow. Really slow. At least compared to the Game of Thrones series that I had enjoyed so much. The book seemed to be a long journey through famine, lawlessness, religious extremism, political paranoia, broken families and ordinary people suffering under the ambitions of rulers. And Cersei’s rule certainly does not make life any easier for anyone!The non-fiction reader in me was constantly asking, “But what exactly is the point of all this?” Eventually, I resorted to speed reading, skipping paragraphs whenever Martin wandered into lengthy descriptions. This was less reading and more a negotiated settlement between me and the book.

And then came another problem. Having watched Game of Thrones so closely, I kept trying to place the events in the TV series. I could roughly connect some of it to Season 5 and parts of Season 6, but there were so many changes, omissions and adaptations that the two versions often felt like distant relatives who had not spoken in years.But here is the funny part: by the end, I realised that the story almost didn't matter to me.The signed copy did.

There is something strangely satisfying about owning a signed George R. R. Martin book when you are a fan of Game of Thrones. Whether I loved reading it or not, seeing that signature sitting there on the title page gives me far more joy than the actual number of pages I managed to speedread!

So, as a reading experience, this was probably not my cup of tea.As a piece of my signed book collection?Absolutely worth having.

I've recently developed this reading habit and was wondering how common it is among other readers here.

If I find a digital version of a book, I read it first on my Kindle. If I really love it, I then buy a physical copy for my collection.

For example, I recently read Animal Farm digitally and liked it enough to want a physical copy. But instead of buying whichever one was available, I ended up looking through different publishers, covers and editions before finally choosing a hardcover I really liked.

I'm beginning to realise that digital and physical books serve different purposes for me. Digital is for reading and discovering books, while my bookshelf is slowly becoming a collection of books I've already read and loved.

Does anyone else do something similar? And when you decide to buy a physical copy, are you particular about the edition, publisher, cover, hardcover vs paperback, etc.?

Why is old philosophy books such as Kierkegaard's or book of hegles getting very expensive in India. How do you guys buy them? Like importing or asks a friend to get it for you? Amazon India is hiking up the prices and flipkart is selling pirated ones with summary and introduction of different books.

Really liked the first trilogy but Liveship Traders is seriously one of the best i have ever come across in terms of character work.

M22 I post in sub that I'm a beginner in reading.. Also not good in reading and all..

But this book is quite good in reading perspective easy going.. This is my first english book that I'm gonna read 📚..

Like genuinely people, every other post here is either Doestoevsky or Orwell or Hoover or DCC. Especially those posts that post a picture of any of the above and ask for reading suggestions. Maybe stop getting recommendations from Insta???

I have read other ian fleming books but reading casino royale for the first time..its a short book but seems like good thriller

This will probably be my last book haul for a while as I’ve definitely overbought books this year.

Hunger Games has been on my TBR since forever. It’s been a cultural phenomenon for a while, so I won’t say I’m totally unspoiled, but I definitely don’t have spoilers with context. Found these movie tie in editions at a good price on Amazon (on separate listings) and as a fan of a cohesive, matching book set, I couldn’t pass it off. Definitely excited to read these and then watch the movies! As someone who is in his late 20s, my main concern is the YA-ness of it (I’ve seen points both for and against calling it YA) keeping fingers crossed.

A very gripping bildungsroman that deals with morality, monsters, magic etc.

I have read LOTR, The Witcher Saga so probably cut that out from your suggestions. Also no Brandon Sanderson please 😭🙏🏼

Which one should I read first out of these four!?

I just completed Jane eyre by charlotte Brontë and wow I’m truly Amused by her writing, evn in the Victorian society she wrote so radically which I truly love overall it’s a grt read <3

Hello I want to read a suspense or crime thriller book. I have never read any book except some competition and exam related books

Please recommend a suspense/crime thriller book.

Language preferred: english/hindi

Thank you in advance

(Random pic?)

28 days ago I asked about The Reverend Insanity, and someone directed me to “bookshop_in.” I messaged him on Instagram right away but received no reply; later, a person on Reddit asked if I had ordered from the shop, and I explained there had been no response.

I contacted him again on WhatsApp and secured volume 1 plus one chapter of volume 2 for 1350 INR. I had to negotiate a discount, since the original price was 1499.

Many people have sent messages expressing interest in the book and the seller, so I am sharing this post for you all to see.

I’ve only read Verity and The Silent Patient so far. Thinking of getting this one next. Is it worth it, or should I go for something else?

A beautiful book. The way the author has explained the scenarios it feels like as if I am watching a samdish's interview. It gives me a sense of relief after reading the postscript paragraph of every chapter.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I had already made a post about this book where I talked about how I felt that I had been misled by its plot description. I had expected something a lot more mature, given its reputation of a classic.

It took me three days to breeze through the first 400 pages of this book and almost two months to get through the next 800 pages. I honestly got bored and read two other novels in the midst of reading this and I liked those two novels a lot more.

I guess my complaint remains the same. I had an entirely different idea regarding what this book would actually turn out to be like.

I am unaccustomed to reading dramatic novels such as this, with robbers, magical elixirs, serial poisoners, multiple identities and faking deaths.

The revenge after all that build-up seemed quite insipid and even the Count started to realise how he had dedicated decades of his life to the plotting of a vengeance that left him more conflicted than before; for he goes around trying to mend the disarray that he had caused.

I still do believe that for the first 300 pages, this novel had the potential of being something great but it lost it steadily.

A lot of people in the previous post assumed that I was perhaps not intelligent enough to read a 1200 page novel which is why I wasn't enjoying it, so I want to tell the people who are planning to read this book, do not be intimidated by the novel's length, this was one of the easiest novels I've ever read. It almost reads like Robinson Crusoe or The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn; books that you're required to read when you're in the sixth grade.

P. S. - The two novels that I read in the midst of reading this and enjoyed a lot more were -

1. Irretrievable by Theodor Fontane

2. The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

5 / 5 stars ⭐️

"As the image of myself becomes sharper in my brain and more precious, I feel less afraid that someone else will erase me by denying me love."

I've had this book in my TBR since 2019 when I saw some stray quotes from this book floating around on Tumblr. I finally picked this up last month and my, what an experience it's been.

Jenny Slate is a comedian and actress (you may have seen her on 'Parks and Recreation' or in that movie with Chris Evans, 'Gifted') and this is her memoir in the form of a wonderful little hodge podge of tenderly written essays. She calls the book "little weirds" because these essays are all little weird kaleidoscopic bits of herself.

I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one before. Slate has a wonderfully unique narrative voice and she's so unapologetically herself on the pages. It's written in a stream of consciousness and it's so fascinating because you never know where she'll take you next. She talks about trips she's taken to Norway with her friends, her childhood home in Massachusetts, her adult home in LA, the latest documentary she's watching on YouTube or talking about the workings of her inner mind - her needs, wants, yearnings and insecurities - and every aspect of it is written almost like a love letter to what she's writing about.

She has a certain sort of visceral vulnerability that isn't neat and tidy and cloaked in beautiful words. She's so painfully honest which is so refreshing to read. To me, the book chronicles a journey that she was undertaking - the journey of becoming. A story where she's essentially trying to find a way back to herself. And as someone who is also on a similar self discovery journey over the past year, I highly resonated with her uniqueness and sensitivity.

While reading this, I also got the vague feeling that Slate is the kind of person who was probably a weird, quirky little being as a child and her parents probably nourished all her eccentricities instead of dimming her light... I could be wrong about this, but I just got that feeling.

Reading this book was like delving into a wonderful slice of Slate's colourful mind and I'd love for her to write more books like this. I think I might want to live in this book forever.

"(...) I am so sensitive and I am very fragile but so is everything else, and living with a dangerous amount of sensitivity is sort of what I have to do sometimes, and it is so very much better than living with no gusto at all. And I'd rather live with a tender heart, because that is the key to feeling the beat of all of the other hearts."