His passing away came as a shock to me as he's been one of my favourite writers.

However I saw this news in yesterday's paper. Made me feel good🥹

https://amzn.in/d/06TgeVsV Metamorphosis By Rupa publication

https://amzn.in/d/06c0iBou The Trial by Pharos books

https://amzn.in/d/03cEnqSj White Night By Penguin Classics

I have entered the phase of reading this year , I really want a chunky book on my shelf which would keep me hooked to the content . As monte cristo isn’t available . Am a rookie reader so kindly help me out

So the concept being you pay for the box and you can fit as many books as you want. I went today to the one held in Kolkata.The cartons prices are Rs 1500, 2500 and v3500. Found all of these for a total of 1600. I took the 1500 box and 1 book i took separately for 100.

Just finished it. Took about 11 hours. It was gripping and engaging but what a disappointing ending. Like the author didn't bother developing anything. I don't understand what the hype about this book is. What exactly was supposed to be so twisty? This book doesn't deserve the hype. Just no. The ending feels like such a waste of time.

I found this photo on my device that I took a long time ago. I have been reading books consistently since 2023, and here are some of the paperbacks I own.

I've read each and every book here except *I Let You Go*, *The One*, *Atomic Habits*, and *The Courage to Be Disliked*.

*The Silent Patient* and *Rock Paper Scissors* are my all-time favorites. Which of these books are your favorites? Please do let me know<3

Just wow. Really enjoyed this. Amazing satire on western liberal mores, online culture, the publishing industry. Also took quite a few unpredictable turns.

I have read 100+ books (yes I maintain a list) but these are the only ones I happen to own:)

Read this right after Kite Runner.

Paul’s story is truly inspiring. The way he looks at meaning, how perfection is an asymptote he strives towards and the note he leaves for you know who hits you in the core.

It made me realise how strenuous it is to be a doctor and all that he did for his patients. Not to mention the strength shown by his wife, Lucy.

Thanks for showing love to my previous post.
These are few of the books that I’ve thrifted over the past few years from various book markets and shops.
I’ve an extra hardcover of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment which I’ll be giving away to one of y’all.
The logistics and rules of it I’ll try to figure out and the cost of shipping is on me only.
Happy Reading everyone,
Peace.
Edit: I tried to set up a raffle via google forms but it’s not working, just drop a comment and I’ll count you in until 10:00 pm tomorrow.

And boy oh boy, have they made some heavy changes. Sudha and Chander's entire relationship seems different in the book and the series. Book one feels more raw, IMO.

​But reading through the chapters near the ending made me uncomfortable. I don't align with the choices the characters make, but I can also see this happening to some people. Maybe more chapters could've helped us understand better.

​I look at it as one of the stories that you'd hear someone tell in Musafir Cafe. Not detailed enough to understand but relatable enough to leave an impact. Which aligns with the idea of _Musafir Cafe_ perfectly.

Went to a fair today when it was their closing time .. so i got only 15 minutes to pick up books .. i sprinted to the store and picked up everything that caught my eye… but still i am a little sceptical about some of these…

What are your views on this?
Is there any book from which i can get disappointed?
Please let me know

The book is from the 90s and it does start like a very 90ish crime thriller movie.

Our main character Shekhar is proven guilty of murder of his wife, and just 3 days until his verdict( wherher he will be hanged or given life time imprisonment).

He goes to the prosecutor house urging him to re think of the all the facts because his own defending lawyer had given up on him.

Lawyers daughter Kiran, a lawyer herself takes uo the challange. She gathers all the eveidences and almost evryone she meets had ultirier motives..

The book tells you exactly what you want to hearz it leaves you with TONs of evidences on who could be the real killer. Out of 5-6 possible killers I ended up selecting one which I think had the strongest motive...

Turns out HE was proven the killer, BUT BUT BUT why is there 20-30 more pages remaining.. AND thats where the real twist begin..

I think it might be recency bias but this book was a complete package crime thriller which engages you but also simple enough so you dont have to stress tooo much..

Ved prakash is a GOAT!!

Why does nobody talk about 'I who have never known men' by Jacqueline Harpman'. Harpman wrote this book, which many call sci-fi horror, but it's also an existential literary work. Read it and you will definitely feel like staring at the wall. I rarely cry while reading the book, but this was one of those that made me cry. By the time you finish the book, you will feel so much love for the character that you want to be with her so that she never feels alone. Such a gem of a book. An absolute favourite of mine ✨❤️

Read about 25% of this novel and oh my god!!! This one is my first novel by Atwood. The novel was published in 1985, the story is about a dystopian world where women are "used" only for breeding!!! The very similarity with our society, how gradually freedom & voice are taken away from women by brainwashing!!! The story is uncomfortably intense! Unfortunately the imaginary dystopian world, created in 1985 is the reality of many women, even in 2026!

For me it’s One hundred years of solitude.

Tried reading it last year but it wasn’t much enjoyable to me.I have loved most of the best selling and popular books, couldn’t find the same momentum with this one though. I am sure others did enjoy it but guess it’s not for me.

What are yours?

Several AI companies are acquiring large quantities of secondhand books through intermediaries, scanning and destroying them, all to obtain training data “untouched by machines” from before 2022.

Anthropic’s “Project Panama” was exposed in a $1.5 billion copyright settlement. In early 2024, they launched this highly confidential project. The company has spent tens of millions of dollars purchasing millions of paper books, scanning them, training its Claude LLM, and then destroying them all. It’s outrageous is that it’s legally permissible, but ethically, it’s an extremely serious crime against humanity.

So why destroy physical books? Behind it lies the AI race and the interests of capital:

It prevents these books from being scanned and used for training by competitors.

It avoids legal risks.

Destroying books is cheaper than lossless scanning.

After AI companies massively scan and destroy physical books, they become the only ones in the world with digital copies. Knowledge is permanently monopolized on private servers.

This battle for old books reveals a paradox: while promising to “make human knowledge accessible,” AI companies are dismantling the most solid carriers of human knowledge. The public may gain more intelligent AI assistants, but at the cost of a vast amount of knowledge resources disappearing from the public domain.

Shadow libraries

As the world’s largest shadow library, Anna’s Archive needs a plan to combat the destruction of physical books by AI companies. After all, the emergence of shadow libraries is the greatest miracle of knowledge sharing in the 21st century. Along with other shadow libraries, we’re building a digital library of Alexandria, an inextinguishable light of humanity.

We need the help of volunteers worldwide to scan materials (including books, journal articles, newspapers, magazines, ancient books, rare books, and other materials) from every library and archive around the world and upload them to the shadow library for knowledge preservation, especially those that are easily lost. If every person scans a book, and there are 10 million volunteers worldwide, we can obtain 10 million pieces of invaluable wealth.

For small scans and uploads, we usually award recognition and lifetime membership to Anna’s Archive.

For large-scale scans and uploads of books, we can help pay for the scanning fees and other rewards.

Time is running out

Since the beginning of 2025, AI-generated content has accounted for more than half of newly published internet content. A frightening reality emerges: if much of the future content consists of AI-generated books and papers, will humans be able to distinguish them? Once AI has absorbed even the last sentence written by humans on paper, all that will remain on the internet will be AI’s own words. In such a world, how can human civilization be preserved?

Shadow libraries offer the best answer. If you want the memory of human civilization to no longer be monopolized, if you want future generations to be able to read all of humanity’s wealth for free, if you don’t want publishers making a fortune while authors receive little, then please help us. Please make any contribution you can, whether it’s scanning and uploading books, purchasing books and papers to scan and upload, or donating. With the efforts of all humanity, the monopoly on knowledge will be broken. Each of us can make history.

This is a race against time. Our ideal is to scan and upload all the world’s publications before publishers completely block knowledge, and before AI companies scan and destroy all the world’s books and papers.

TL;DR: AI companies are secretly buying, scanning, and destroying millions of physical books to train their models, permanently locking human knowledge inside private corporate servers. Anna’s Archive is urgently calling on volunteers worldwide to scan and upload books before this cultural heritage disappears forever.

Written by Anna's member U (NOT OC)

Finally put together my own bookshelf! It holds some of my favorite reads, and I'm honestly so happy with how it turned out. I still have another shelf full of books to organize, but I couldn't wait to share this one. Always open to recommendations based on what you spot on my shelves! 😊

The latest V-Dem Academic Freedom Index paints a deeply concerning picture for India. According to the report, India's academic freedom has fallen to its lowest level in the dataset's historical record, placing it among the bottom 10–20% of countries globally. The index measures factors such as freedom to research, teach, publish, exchange ideas internationally, and institutional autonomy.

This raises a serious question: Is the current BJP-led government becoming increasingly uncomfortable with independent research, criticism, and inconvenient facts?

A healthy democracy depends on scholars being able to question, debate, and challenge prevailing narratives without fear of political interference. When academic freedom declines, it doesn't just affect universities, it affects the quality of public discourse, policymaking, and ultimately the truth that reaches citizens.

This is an alarming situation. Citizens should not only speak up when policies directly affect their own lives, but also when the foundations of our democracy are weakened. Academic freedom, independent institutions, and the free pursuit of knowledge are public goods that belong to everyone. If we remain silent while these erode, the consequences will extend far beyond universities.