Books about books: A Bibliophile’s Paradise

If books are a reader’s delight, imagine the boundless joy that books about books would bring. Indian literature too has some fine gems for readers to find, empathize, discover and fall in love with other readers and writers. Take a look at this very book-ish list of books about books. The Book Hunters of Katpadi: […]
Ten novellas to kickstart that reading habit

Situated between a sprint and a marathon, novellas are the perfect remedy for our shortening attention spans. Longer than a short story, and shorter than a novel, a novella contains the makings of just the right reading experience – a straightforward plot that does not meander, yet immerses you in a world entirely its own. […]
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag

Translated from Kannada to English by Srinath Perur Every time I find myself in a very messy situation, I end up saying, “sab gajar-bajar ho gaya hai.” Gajar bajar is to me the epitome of messiness. How I got hold of this word, I don’t know. But when I read Vivek Shanbhag’s Ghachar Ghochar, I […]
Top 10 Free books on Kindle Unlimited

Kindle, Amazon, ebooks, print books: the litereary world it seems will never stop debating about the pros and cons of each. As the world battles COVID-19, though, it seems we have a temporary winner. Ebooks are now our saviours in isolation, so I headed find free books on Kindle Unlimited and found these ten gems. […]
Timeless Tales from Marwar by Vijaydan Detha

Translated from Rajasthani by Vishes Kothari Timeless Tales from Marwar is a delightful collection of 17 short stories translated by Vishes Kothari from Vijaydan Detha’s Batan Ri Phulwari. They are steeped in the oral storytelling tradition and have belonged to the people for generations. And yet, as we read these tales, they seem to be […]
The Moving Shadow translated by Arunava Sinha

Puppets coming to life, robots falling in love, and death by a dream; The Moving Shadow: Electrifying Bengali Pulp Fiction, an anthology collected and translated by Arunava Sinha is a riveting set of seven stories and a novella. It features some of the adventure world’s favourite characters – from scientists and robots to murderers and […]
Valentine’s Special: Love stories with a twist

We love love. After all, what is more uplifting, more exalting and more inspiring than this wonderful emotion? But love comes to us in myriad forms, and there exist innumerable love stories that come with a twist. It exists in ways that do not fit the boxes we have created for it. It is sometimes […]
Shikhandini by Ashwini Shenoy

There is a scene in the Hindi film Badla when Amitabh Bachchan refers to Sanjaya from Mahabharata. Tapasee Pannu cannot identify Sanjaya. On being asked if she knows the Mahabharata, she tells Bachchan that she had read it in childhood and she knows its basic storyline. Like most Indians. We know the basic story of […]
The Far Field: A Review

Some books, like people, have ways of finding you. This is what happened with The Far Field. I didn’t find it, it found me. I had seen this book doing the rounds of social media long before it was long-listed for the JCB Prize, but never felt the urge to read it. Then, I came […]
A Patchwork Family by Mukta Sathe

A Patchwork Family would have definitely gone past my radar had it not been long-listed for the JCB Prize for literature. A short yet hard-hitting debut novel by a lawyer, this deserves a far wider reach. It’s a study of character as well as psychology, society as well as ideology on a personal and societal […]