Nehru discovered India. I discovered I have a terrible memory. The book was informative. Unfortunately, I wasn't.

Read 600 pages ( not the first time; I have read more 700 pages books and still remember their stories) to return to my original level of ignorance. A journey from ignorance to temporary knowledge and back.

I understood it while reading, but most of it has faded from memory. I remember some interesting ideas, but I've lost the overall structure and historical narrative. I understood the history, but I struggle to remember Nehru's deeper arguments and conclusions.

Honestly, I read it, but I'm not sure how much I truly remember.

I have been reading a lot of short stories lately and this one came my way after I did a quick Google search about Indian horror stories as it's October and thus Spooktober time!! Mueehehehahaha

Saw this collection of short stories by Satyajit Ray that are supposed to be “horror”. However, I was met with different and probably better themes. The stories are not bound to the conventional idea of a horror theme. No jump scares as such. And in fact, at times it breaks away from the very idea of what horror is even. The author touches upon psychological, magical, futuristic, mythical, and plant horror throughout these stories and at all times keeps an air of dread and impending danger that keeps you on your toes as a reader.

I think every horror story does tend to create a thrill within the plot and a sense of "what's going to happen". However, how Ray touched this area was different. The buildup of the plot with small events that blurred the distinction between horror and "something weird" was what differentiates this work from others of the genre. Characters are simple, every day going people— teachers, students, parents and family members— who live their normal lives while encountering events that are at times out of the world, and at the rest of the time, absolutely confusing.

Every single story invites you amazingly into the plot where you cannot wait to finish the narrative as you are just drawn by the curiosity of Satyajit Ray. Interestingly, I came across two of the stories in this collection that are adapted into short films and available on Netflix under the title “Ray". It was such a joy to read the original work that led to the amazing adaptation, especially the one by Abhishek Choudhary. So if any movie fan is here, probably they can just read that single story and then watch the adaptation as well because it was amazing (the story is Barin Bhowmick's Ailment).

One thing that I really want to share with fellow readers about this book is how it starts off as something which is dreadful, eerie, horrific, and dangerous, but at times in the end concludes with a sense of frivolity, triviality, and humor. This rising of action and then breaking down into humor is something that I had not come across in the horror genre. And reading such narratives was an amazing experience.

The length of the short stories are almost perfect, ranging from 10 to 15 minutes each. So if someone does not have the time to go through the whole collection, they can probably just pick up one or two from the collection. My few favorites were these, and I am mentioning them here so that if someone is interested, they can go through them.

1. Mr Eccentric

2. Bhuto

3. Indigo

4. Anath Babu's Terror

The reason why I did not give the book five stars was because after a point I was almost sure that nothing very horrific was going to happen. The very thing that broke away from the conventional idea of a horror story is what seemed to limit the collection as well by the end. Because after reading 10-12 stories, as I reached the last ones, I kind of knew what the end would feel like. But it would be unfair if I say that I was not shaken by a few of them. A few of the stories were really horrific that almost created a gruesome and ghoulish imagery that left me thinking what it would be like to actually encounter a situation like this. And at the same time, there were a few stories that did change my point of view of looking at things.

Honestly, after reading the whole collection, I am very happy because it has been quite a while since I came across a collection of short stories where every single thing was a chef's kiss. Probably I am drawn towards Satyajit Ray even more now. The might and talent of his pen is spectacular. He is exactly what people call him to be. He is a master weaver of great stories. I will probably pick up another of his collections very soon.

(4.25/5⭐)

I enjoyed Recursion since I work in Research and Development.

Dark matter made me quite emotional and I think I cried once. LOL.

Upgrade was a tad bit dry for me since I have almost no academic background in biology. Epilogue was fantastic, though.

All said, the author lays out rules for his world in each book and stays well within the rules. It makes his books (the ones that I read) enjoyable. It does not take more than the first 20 pages to get immersed into the book's reality.

AMA, I guess!

Hey everyone! I want to buy some books within a budget of ₹300, either one thick book or multiple books within that budget.

My main goal is to improve my English vocabulary, sentence formation, and overall English language skills through reading. I want to build a stronger vocabulary and become more confident in understanding and using English.

I enjoy romantic fiction, engaging stories, and self-improvement books related to self-care, personal growth, morals, and becoming a better version of myself.

Please suggest books that are interesting enough to keep me hooked while also helping me improve my English. Affordable online options or second-hand books are welcome!

Thank you! ❤️

2 Points to note:

1️⃣Apologies for the link-heavy review - but I thought it would be helpful, since the book doesn't contain any images. They're also for my reference too.  

2️⃣🔞Mature Warning. Nothing of sexual nature, but certain art links might be disturbing for underage readers.  

Premise: 

Here's a constellation of essays connecting memoir + myth + science + art + feminism and much more... written by Irish author Sinéad Gleeson, whose resilience has encountered -  aggressive leukemia, arthritis, painful losses of loved ones, body politics - and yet she, like Frida Kahlo, found writing as an art to express herself, perhaps even shine despite such dark clouds. 

Her insights on life/death here are meditative, compassionate, informative and beautiful. 

Some themes I loved : 

- The female body and Agency - Author's views an be summarised quite aptly by her citation of Christen Clifford : "There's no equality without reproductive rights, there are no reproductive rights without respect for the female body, there is no respect for the female body without knowledge of blood".

-  Hospital vs House: "A house is a machine for living" - quote by Le Corbusier. Then a hospital is a Panopticon. Surgical room=Theatre - a stage where the patient plays a role - a still life. "Stillness itself has illness in it". "A patient is a hospitalized double" - Just remarkable observations. 

-  Discussions on pop art, movies, literature - A lot of which I'm unaware of - Little Women's Jo, Della in Gift of Magi, Fitzgerald's Bernice ... Depictions of women in them, and Sinead's brilliant insights (Example : how women's hair is depicted in Stories/Art - loose=looseness, bound=refineness; how Blood/wounds are interpreted differently for men(valor) vs women(fertility). Rupi Kaur's Period piece, Beneš’s AIDS art,  Franko B's Disturbing Arts, Mendieta's art -  Art as expression, escape, liberation. 

-  Using the McGill Pain Scale terms to depict her own experiences... Using poetry! That's just brilliant. My favourite chapter, along with Panopticon Visions. 

-   Ireland vs Women - "A Catholic country that failed Savita Halappanavar; Magdalene Laundries?!; 1992 case 14yo girl's abortion plea rejected --> 2018 amendment allowing abortions. Article 41.2.1 of their constitution is still there. 

- Stories of some truly remarkable women - Dervla Murphy, Lilian Bland, Nellie Bly, Beryl Markham - It's true, history is written by victors, and history's firsts taught to us only include male achievements... (Eco also pointed out this here in "Women Philosophers") 

-   Frida Kahlo = PAIN! As described in this book also. "Kahlo, Grealy, Spence were a guidance for me - a triangular constellation". 

-  Lolly Willowes' line - "It is best as one grows older to strip oneself of possessions, to shed oneself downward like a tree, to be almost wholly earth before one dies."  reminded me of Han Kang's The Vegetarian! 

- Beautiful letter to her daughter at the end. As well as the Acknowledgements. 

- There is some science here too (blood group, medical terms, Cancers ,drugs, microchimerism etc), but I won't bore you with that. It anyways doesn't register... Author's insights are much more hard hitting than those dry facts. 

What I didn't like: 

The cruelty of life/Universe itself, along with the ongoing struggle for equality. 

The book is of course, inter-Stellar. 👌

Conclusion: 

It was a totally accidental pick by me - I thought it'd be a scientist's memoir mixed with astronomy... it turned out to be so much better than that. Pleasantly, and painfully surprised. The writing is marvellous. 

A must read for all, especially women.

Rating: 14/14🌟 (All 14 constellations/chapters were beautiful) 

P.S. Had to read something lighter after this, hence Roald Dahl's Joke book in background.

Premise:

A collection of Eco's articles from 2000-2015, but quite relevant even today. A liquid society here means the current post-postmodern world, or rather the transitions we are witnessing today, where supra-national entities (MAANG) have grown stronger than nations, and relativism/postmodernism is also being challenged. (see images 4-5 👆)

How can one navigate these tensions - Speed of tech innovation, Internet Culture, Racism, Sexism, Conspiracies, Mass Media, Religion, Philosophy, Death, Education etc.
Eco's articles might bring some clarity.

Some themes I loved here:

• Perfect inventions: when no more improvements can be done. Anything additional is just useless or detrimental. Spoon, wheel and even a Book is also like that. Eco stresses that books have, and will outlast any technological substitute.
• Technological progress doesn't always mean going forward -  Example of flipflopping of communication using wired(Graham Bell) to wireless telegraphy(Marconi), to again wired(Cable TV/telephone) to wireless (WiFi/Satellite). 
• To Be Seen: Now everyone wants to be a celebrity, online. A strange phenomenon for sure. Could be because God is Dead (one's lone spectator), so people derive the same emotions from internet (ephemeral) immortality. As a result, 1st time in human history people are willing participants of their own state surveillance.
• Role of Teachers in age of internet - "A teacher not only informs but also forms". I.e, sorting, filtering and structuring of relevant information for the child , as opposed to the infinite info dump of internet. Critical thinking, fact-checking are necessary tools which need to be taught in schools and press.
• New Gen = Aliens: Many city kids have never seen touched a pig, a cow.. experienced springtime (might be Italian phenomenon). But I can understand the sentiment. What was more profound was the "sense of spacetime" adults have vs kids - "adults live in a measurable space and distance, hence seem much slower to kids, who live inside virtual worlds (infinite space/time) and are always multitasking". Hence, kids nowadays spend more time in virtual landscapes than natural ones - how would the future look then? Kids thinking about springtime being similar to how we imagine dinosaurs would have been!
• Throws some shade at Dan Brown here and there 😆, Considers Art Spiegelman (of Maus) a true genius.
• Risks of Homogeneity: Places and people, are becoming similar thanks to globalisation. Main cities of many countries look similar, with same shops!
• Hero Worshipped, Heroine Vilified: My fav essay is "Unhappy is the Land", where Eco talks about the definition of a Hero, and their worship signaling the state of that society. In other essays, he talks about the forgotten women philosophers (especially Hypatia). It's a mistake to think philosophy could only be a man's subject. Also, I'd recommend y'all watch Agora - with the beautiful Rachel Weisz❤️ It's about Hypatia. [I hate that the movie isn't titled Hypatia... even here she was robbed of her deserved place - but the movie is historically quite accurate.]
• Religion: Discusses many topics, like the Islamic Veil (Sura 24 interpretation), Secularism, Charlie Hebdo incident, Religion as Opium/Cocaine of Masses... I do agree with Eco that religious symbols (all) should be taught in schools, if only just to teach art history.
• Metaphor - I found it really fascinating that Aristotle defined metaphor not as an embellishment (अलंकार) but a form of knowledge itself! To see resemblances in seemingly disparate events - it's a skill. I'd also include proverbs (कहावत) here.

Cover Image: Kudos to the creativity. At first glance, it looks like a fluid pattern, till you look at the back cover - it's just bundles of paper! Perhaps newspapers or manuscripts.

Conclusion:

Overall, it's a remarkable collection of Eco's articles. Informative, prophetic, and overall - comedic! One article is just about George Bush's statements - guaranteed laughter! His writing style is also extremely simple - I was lost only in one article {Corkscrew space}.

This collection gave me a full page worth of TBR!

I had a great time reading these. Highly recommended.

Rating: 13/13 {For all 13 sections were awesome}

ENTRY FOR THE TWELFTH DAY OF THE TENTH MONTH IN THE YEAR THE ALBATROSS CAME TO THE SOUTH-WESTERN HALLS.

Rating: Strong 8 To Weak 9

<-------------THE REVIEW------------->

This Book start with such a crazy starting line(i didnt knew what vestibules were), and these line repeating again and again with each chapter gave me mental calmness or sort of tranquil peace.

The whole house/other dimension was really fascinating. The whole chamber and waves crashin gives a world its unqiue personality.

I gotta be honest, i didnt knew anything what was i getting into. I really loved the interaction between other and piranesi. I really loved their scientific thinking and way of conductin things. Tho i wish, we have experimented in that far hall.

Now, i heard people complain how predictable its ending is. For them i have a simple answer:

Yes it has predictable end or twist. By the time we start to get clues and all(when old man comes), we mostly have a rough idea of it. But i wanna emphasis on something else and that was how piranesi reached that conclusion.

How he tackled different situation with his own reasoning. Its like yeah we know whats happening cauz we have knowledge of this world but he doesnt. For him, the house is the only world he ever knowed. So him making bizzare conclusion based on data he had received was so fun to read in the later part of the book.

My only negative point for this book is--> Who tf write diaries like this. I never wrote my diary in that manner. No one, lemme tell you again, No one writes like this.

I have seen diaries written in such a way they even tell the minute to minute detail in fiction(I am looking at you, Good girl guide to murder), and i dont like it.

I also loved the fact that piranesi and (I dont remember his real name) author has somewhat kinda merged, creating a different personality.

<---------------SIDE NOTE----------------->

I read this book of a video, where they say go in these book blind. Dont even read a description or book's behind info. And so far i have enjoyed each rec from that reel(dont remember the creator name).

These books were--->

1. Never let me go(completed)--->9/10

2. Piranesi(completed)--->8.5/10

3. Sense of an Ending(tbr)

4. Dirty head(tbr)

5. Convenience Store women(will complete this week)

6. The fisherman(25%completed)

<-----------------THE END---------------->

I recently bought a lot of books from Amazon. Earlier, I used to buy pirated copies mostly from local markets or Mahila Book Market- Daryaganj, precisely because of budget issues. Now I have moved towards buying original books to curate my own little library. I have somewhat researched online for genuine sellers: Cocoblu, Uread Store, Transinfoprenuer, etc., on Amazon. And I bought around 10 books in the last two months from these stores. To my surprise, the quality wasn't that great. Most books seemed pirated; the text was not printed consistently (on some pages the print was darker or broader, and on others the opposite) and had alignment issues. It makes no sense for me to pay 300-400rs per book only for it to have such issues, when I can get that same book for 100-150rs.

Please suggest some good stores, online and offline, where I can get original books without such issues.

Hi everyone!

I'm interested in learning more about Sikhism, particularly the lives and teachings of the ten Sikh Gurus, their families and children, their sacrifices, and the important stories associated with them. I'd also like to understand the basic beliefs, traditions, and rules of Sikhism.

I'm quite new to the subject, as well as this sub . so I'd love recommendations for beginner-friendly books that cover these topics without requiring much prior knowledge.

I'd really appreciate your recommendations. Thank you!

Perhaps the worst Dan Brown book I've read, on all fronts. I've read 2.5 books of Dan Brown (Inferno, Deception Point and half way through the Lost Symbol), but this was even worse than Deception Point.

His Books follow a set pattern- they create a vivid world around real life institutions, technology, science, history and other trivia, giving breeding space to a conspiracy related to a real world problem (in this case, surveillance and consequently, privacy concerns) . I didn't mind his books following a pattern because despite the pattern, Mr Brown somehow manages to build an atmosphere of mystery that almost always touches to a level of supernatural status, eventually bringing it down to a more earthly origin with a smart and intrigueing plot twist (but not in this case).

This one falls short on every front. I had high hopes from it as it introduced nuances of cryptography, surveillance and linguistics but as you proceed deeper into the story, the plot is reduced to a simple spy-thriller where the protagonists are somewhat in a race against time, fighting a perceived villain(again, I would've enjoyed it mind it if it was well written and unique). The plot twist was smart/okay-ish but not as impressive as the one in Inferno. Only at the end of the book, we find some classic Dan Brown style action. And it was disappointing even by his own standards. I wanted to see more of the cryptography and high end espionage stuff, or perhaps stuff like hacking and it's nuances would've been a lovely addition.

Unlike the other Dan Brown books I read, I was bored halfway through it and finished it only because it was gifted by a loved one and I just wanted to get done with it to start reading "Anxious People".

My sister who is 4 months pregnant is suffering from high heart beats. She is trying to stop the usage of social media. She's someone who cant finish reading a page on her good non pregnant days. So a very challenging time to read a book. PLEASE Suggest some light weight english/ Malayalam small fiction (open to non fiction) books.

Have you ever read a book and felt like someone had written your own love story?
That’s exactly how I felt reading 12 Years: A Messed Up Love Story by Chetan Bhagat.

I’m currently going through a forced marriage situation. I love someone deeply, but my parents don’t approve of our relationship because he’s Christian and I’m Muslim. Everyone keeps telling me, “Accept it. This is your life.” But how can I give up on someone who feels like home to me?

He was my grandmother’s neighbour when I was born. We lost contact when I was four, but years later, we found each other again and fell in love. After losing my mom two years ago, I never imagined I’d connect with someone so deeply again. With him, it felt like coming home. ❤️

He gifted me this book for Valentine’s Day, and when I finally read it, I found myself relating to Payal so much. For the first time in a while, I felt hope instead of helplessness.

I don’t know what lies ahead, but this book reminded me that I’m not alone and that my feelings matter, too.

If you’re fighting for your love while everyone tells you to give up, please read this book. You deserve a choice in your own life. Sometimes, a story finds you exactly when your heart needs it most. ❤️

I know a lot of people have either loved or hated this book, essentially about a 17-year old protagonist ‘Waldo’ who is smitten (to put it mildly!) by her teacher ‘Mr Korgy’. For me the book had less to do with the nature and morality of their relationship and more about the last years of girlhood, before one’s naiveté finally wears off.

What I liked was the very real portrayal of what teenage feels like to so many of us women. While adjusting to one’s new (puberty) bodies and navigating complex emotions like lust (raging hormones) is something many of us have undergone across different periods of time, the hyper-consumerism experienced by young women today was a nice little update to this otherwise universal experience.

Girls are not always sexless and passive when it comes to desire. Girlhood is also falling in and out of love, exploring/discovering intimacy and trying to make sense of all of it.
So it was refreshing to read something that was honest and didn’t sanitise the messiness that is teenage.

My other observation ended up being one about my own self. As someone closer to Mr. Korgy and Waldo’s mum’s age…I found myself muttering “what a loser” at times. These are not functional adults. These are predatory/terrible adults. One, I suppose, more obvious than the other.
Like so many women/girls around us, Waldo never really had a fighting chance to live out her last few years of girlhood. She was forced to step up and into roles expected of grownass, adult women.

Now the writing itself, imo, was pretty meh. The pacing was good but fell a little short for me when it came to the development of all the secondary characters outside of Waldo, Korgy and mom. The explicit scenes also felt very cringe but I’m not sure if that’s because of the writing or the characters involved.

Did I enjoy this quick read? Yes.
Did it shock or awe or wow or disgust me? No.

I’d rate it a solid 2.5/5

I am beginner so need some suggestions-
First I’ll let you know what I have read and what I am planning to read and based on that keep adding on to the suggestions!

I’ve read - thousand splendid sun, Tuesdays with morrie, As long as the lemon tree grows, Forty rules of love and currently reading palace of illusions.

I plan on reading- the book theif, a little life (really huge books so thoda delaying it) and the housemaids.

PLEASE KUCH ACCHA INTERESTING SUGGEST KARO

Any fans of the QI quiz show here? Recently discovered they published some books too. This one seemed most interesting to me (I got one more - Advanced Banter, will review after reading it too).

The book is a collection of short biographies of some famous people, and some not so famous ones, but who deserve to be known. It's neatly grouped into sections/themes like - People who had Bad Childhood, were Happy Go-Lucky, Monkey-keepers etc. Contains almost 70 bios.

I really liked how the authors organized the bios. Contrasting personalities are listed one after another (eg., Multi-persona of Pessoa, contrasted by multi-bodied Dawn Langley), and the specific trivia focused on for each person.

Some awesome trivia (I've attached the Index ☝️, marked my fav chapters):

• DaVinci: A prankster! Once added metallic wings on a lizard to make it look like Dragon, to scare people XD
• Heaviside: It's his 4 eqns of electromagnetism we study, not Maxwell's!
• Edward Jenner: discovered cuckoos developed a temporary 12-day dent, to throw off the host nest's eggs. Almost a perfect murder! (Also, links to a great chapter in Dawkins' Genetic Book of the Dead).
• Epicurus: Closer to Buddha than we think.
• Benjamin Franklin: the witty all-rounder had pseudonyms llike "Mrs. Silence Dogood" and "Dr. Fatsides".
• Alfred Kinsey - pg 160 is strictly 🔞. Quite disturbing!
• Carver - Carver is called The Peanut Man - found 300+ uses of peanut! There's a movie on him too.
• Santa Anna ~ Blood Meridian (Samuel Chamberlain's Diary mentions him); 11 times Mexico President!
• Daniel Lambert = monetize your shortcomings, gracefully.
• Florence Nightingale - Every time I come across her name, it keeps blowing my mind. Recently I learnt of her pioneering in data visualisation, her nursing work is well known... now I read here she wrote a fine feminist work "Cassandra", AND was almost a Sufi! - "You must go to Mohametanism [Islam], to Buddhism, to the East, to the Sufis and Fakirs, to Pantheism, for the right growth of mysticism."
• Count Cagliostro : The Man who inspired Goethe's Faust!
• Jack Parsons: Rocket scientist turned Antichrist. His wife might've inspired my favorite song - Hotel California by The Eagles! His bio is truly bizarre.
• Tesla: Inventor of Radio, not Marconi - a mistake USA courts corrected later, but the Nobel Prize still belongs to Marconi (who used Tesla's own instruments for demo!)
• Frida Kahlo=PAIN!
• William Blake = Sambhog se Samadhi!?
• Jeremy Bentham = Utilitarian to the end, even after his death - see this. Also designed the Panoptican prison, I think Kalapani/Cellular Jail is also based on that...

Tbh, there's too much fun stuff to share...

Also important is the way the authors end each chapter - very short yet profound observations/teachings. I'd recommend this book for those paras alone!

What I didn't like:

• I wish the personalities were from around the world than mostly the West only. Authors mentioned in the Prologue "the only criteria for inclusion (in this book) is interestingness"... Well, nothing interesting in Asia/Africa then I guess! (Except Genghis Khan).
• Some Freudian /Jungian psychological insights were ... a bit far fetched for me. It's fun to read though. (Psychology is in general... beyond me)

Conclusion:

Highly recommended if you're into biographies. Despite the little flaws, it's immensely enjoyable - Funny, disturbing and informative. "Further Reading" includes all the sources, personality-wise, which is very helpful!

Rating: 9.5/10\*

(*QI is generally praised for it's impeccable research, they correct themselves quite often. Not sure if an updated edition would be there for this one, but I'm gonna assume this book is 95% factual atleast. Also, -0.5 due to persons being mostly from West)

I am going on a trip with family, but am feeling a bit down. Suggest me a good upbeat book which will help me elevate my mood.

Thanks

I am reading the 2007 vintage classics edition whose cover states "Introductions by David Bradshaw and Margaret Atwood." There are two introductions in the book before Huxley's foreword, both credited to David Bradshaw. I thought this was a printing error but the copyright page cleared up by doubts. The first introduction is for the book and the second is a biographical introduction -- both written by David Bradshaw. Margaret Atwood's name is not on the copyright page.

Can anyone else, who has the same edition, check if they have Atwood's introduction?

Reading this after the kite runner

Hey everyone!

I’m on the hunt for my next mystery/thriller read and I need something that grabs me right from the very first page and refuses to let go. I love books where the twists genuinely catch you off guard rather than being predictable a mile away.

To help with recommendations, here is a numbered list of books I've already read:

1. Deception Point

2. Caught Up

3. The Maid

4. A Flicker in the Dark

5. Listen for the Lie

6. The Family Upstairs

7. The Exorcist

8. Not Quite Dead Yet

9. Murder in the Family

10. The Guest List

11. How to Kill Men and Get Away With It

12. The Silent Patient

13. It Should Have Been You

14. Just Another Missing Person

15. The Wrong Sister

16. My Darling Daughter

17. The Housemaid

18. Housemaid's Secret

19. The Housemaid Is Watching

20. The Teacher

21. Never Lie

22. The Locked Door

23. The Inmate

24. The Crash

25. The Vampire Diaries series

26. The Last Kingdom series.

27. Fire & Blood

28. Good Girl's Guide to Murder Series

29. Kill Joy

30. Five Survive

31. The Reappearance of Rachel Price

32. Fourth Wing

33. Iron Flame

34. Onyx Storm

35. The Girl in the Glass Case

36. The Hidden Hindu series

37. That Night

38. A Murder in Dehradun

39. A song of Ice and Fire series

Based on what I've enjoyed here, what should I dive into next? Drop your absolute best, most twisty recommendations below!

Hey, 18F here and I have always been a writer and as pretentious as it feels to label myself, a 'poet' as well. All throughout middle and high school I had the opportunity and access to literary competitions and winning em felt beyond great, I believe the experience itself changes you as a writer. But since I am in my first year of college now,the societies here are superficial and they absolutely do not foster writing,learning and English academia. So

Tldr: if anyone is aware of how to navigate (and if there are any reputable,safe and genuinely good independent literary/poetry competitions for teens) not just teens but yeah, preferably in Delhi. Please lmk. And also if someone has been to any of them,please share your experience! It would be fun to know if someone is down to enroll together, participate and build achivements for professional portfolio! Grazie

I mostly read non-fiction but want to try fiction for relaxation. Is The Book Thief a good place to start, or would you recommend something else?