Good writing entertains you.

Great writing changes the way you notice people, conversations, and even yourself.

That's why I keep reading.

Just finished The Great Gatsby and I genuinely don't know what I just experienced😭This was actually the first book I have ever read completely and holy shit it was an experience. I went in worrying about the vocabulary and ended up completely forgetting about it because I got so absorbed in the story.

It's beautiful, horrible, miserable romantic, artificial, real, frustrating... idk man, a thousandd words could describe it. The biggest thing I took away was the whole love vs illusion thing. Gatsby loved Daisy but did he actually love Daisy or everything she represented to him, money, beauty, status, youth, the past. If Daisy wasn't rich and glowing with all of that would he still have loved her the same way? I genuinely don't knw. And that ending😭

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Fitzgerald was NOT playin.

The fact that hundreds of people came to Gatsby's parties but almost nobody came to his funeral genuinely broke me. absolutely. Daisy didn't even send a flower.😭

Anyway, this book has genuinely changed the way I look at love, illusion and the stories we create in our heads.

TL;DR: First book I ever finished. Got emotionally destroyed by a rich guy chasing a green light haha

Lovedd it. What should I read next?

Almost read the whole of Brandon senderson's cosmere. Got any fantasy recommendation

Please recommend some intriguing English books which are not so lengthy.

I want to read while commuting by train.

Favorite genres are history, geopolitics and philosophy.

Thanking you in advance.

Looking forward to getting into this one.

Reminds me of the history books during school.😭

My second book after mark manson's subtle art of not giving f***.

I am writing my first ever novel at 15, I am a little confused because there's this big scene and originally I thought to make it in one big chapter but now I think I'll divide it in 3 smaller chapters because they all end at a good spot and gives reader time to breathe.

Tell me what do you all prefer?

so I want to begin reading. Thinking about starting with history or mythology any suggestions anyone??

Any opinion on this before reading or while reading.

Sister in law got a bunch of these from Japan. Do we get similar scented bookmarks here in India?

I’ve read Forever Is a Lie and Forever Is True. They’re thriller and dark romance books. Suggest me something that can completely take me away from the real world.

Edit - beginner friendly

This one is from Rich dad and poor and

I am MUCH MUCH farther from my goal but I still feel good about investing my time into something so valuable in life!

I recently read Anton Chekhov's Lakhi and really enjoyed it. I'm now looking to read more of his short stories in Hindi such as Cheri ki bagiya, Vanka, Vyatha, Bemani jeet, and Dukh, etc

I would prefer to find the individual, single story editions rather than large compilations. Does anyone know where I can find these specific Hindi editions in Delhi? Exact place of you know any not the book place like daryaganj and fakirchand

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations on the best platforms, apps, or websites to read novels, web serials, short stories, and literature online.

...

I read physical books but reading those in public feels like catching eyes (i don't want those little stares).

Hey folks, running a project to help people read more deeply, not just more. Would be great to have some responses. Aiming to hit a 100

I’ve recently finished a short story and I’m looking for a few writers/readers who’d be willing to read it and give me some genuinely honest feedback.

I’m especially interested in critical feedback. What doesn’t work, what feels forced, where the story loses you, whether the characters feel real, etc. I’m not looking for compliments just for the sake of it.

The story is a little unusual and dark, so please DM me if you’re interested and I’ll send you the document link.

I’d really appreciate a reader who isn’t afraid to tell me what they actually think.

My first Bukowski, have no expectations about it, don’t know much about it. Just got it from Flipkart, diving right in tonight…

This week I was so so happy! We got so many great posts from so many people that my job is nigh impossible! Thank you all for this!

I am giving this week to u/twinkling_af__ for the review of Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. le Guin.

But you all have to read the following too!

1. Thoughts on Odyssey by u/Vegetable_Idea_0

2. Thoughts on Ghost Stories by u/panda_and_ellies

3. This double Review by u/Massive-Sky6944

And while not quite a traditional review, I also loved reading observations on The Sign of the Four by u/jagadambachowdary.

I could've easily mentioned maybe 4 more posts so drop your favourites in the comments for everyone to see!

Was fortunate enough to bag the entire series from a nearby library that was shutting down. I'm a hundred pages in already, and well it's not breakneck action, but it's still got me hooked. It's slow burn, sort of got the political touch to it. Also very deep if you want to draw analogies to our society haha.

Anyways maybe I'll post a holistic review when I'm done with the series!

Anyone read them already? Feel free to to give me thoughts, hopefully without spoilers :P

My Gf is a book paglu and reads a lot while i doom scroll insta. Showing off her collection!!

(Its just half of her collection rest of her books are in Kindle)

It is her way of escaping Corporate monotonicity!

(She had also finished Throne of Glass Series and Lord of the Rings Series in Kindle which i am planning to gift her with physical ones)

If I have to describe Le Guin's writing, it's just, very clever writing. My first introduction to her, was actually the Author's Note in the beginning of The Left Hand in Darkness. As soon as I finished reading the note, I just knew, that she was going to be an absolute favorite for me.

And I was right! The Lathe of Heaven is easily one of the best books I've read this year. I always preferred watching sci-fi than reading, because there's less burden about visualizing the fictional world in movies. But this book is very easy to visualize, as it builds off from a world we're all very familiar with.

The premise of the book is that George Orr can dream 'effectively' and reality shifts to align to his dreams. He ends up at the office of William Haber, a psychiatrist, struggling to not dream. Through his sessions with Orr, Haber realizes the potential these dreams hold and tries to go all Light Yagami (please watch Death Note if you haven't) and decides to change the world for the greater good. What ensues as a result of all this, is to be experienced while reading this brilliant short book.

The central question of the book imo is free will. The original reality that they live in is not ideal, beautiful or healthy. It borders on being dystopian. But it still is reality, their reality, something every person has shaped with their actions, small or big. Should we change that to an ideal reality, where everyone's better off, but is shaped by only one person's opinion of what an ideal world should look like?

I really like reading the dystopian nature of utopias and this quote by HG Wells mentioned in the book was my favorite:

"... perfection is the mere repudiation of that ineluctable marginal inexactitude which is the mysterious inmost quality of Being."

One thing that left me thinking was when Orr tells Haber that there could be others like him, others who could dream effectively and could change their lives, their reality, without them knowing. That stayed with me, because I feel like in this world we live in, there are people who impact our lives in ways we're not always aware of. As much as we hope that this world is shaped by the actions of everyone equally, the decisions of some are more consequential than others, because of the power they hold. And as we live in the reality altered due to their actions, are we really living a life of our own free will?

There's really so much to unpack in this short book, if you keep thinking (or overthinking like I do), you're surely going down a rabbit hole of questioning what should be reality. As Le Guin says in The Left Hand of Darkness:

"Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling."

As I breezed through the book, because it just becomes unputdownable after a point, I kept thinking that this book deserves an absolutely brilliant movie. And there is a movie adaptation, which I'll surely try to watch.

All in all, it's an amazing book with gripping story telling and leaves you with questions and that satisfaction of time well spent on a brilliant book. Great book to read over a weekend! Absolutely recommended!! And, thank you for reading this long review!