I’ll be honest — Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari took me five years to complete. My actual reading time was two months, but I consumed 50% of the book within the last two weeks — prior to that were simply phases where I waited for myself to grow into it. It wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy it; it’s because this book is a vessel of information overload. You learn so much that you end up struggling to retain even half of it. Even now, I carry away only fragments: glimpses of civilizations, revolutions, the evolution of humankind, and the many economic systems we’ve built and left behind. It’s not a book you can fully absorb…
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A Three Month Reading Curriculum: October to December 2025
As a reader, I can tell you this: books can either show you a reflection of who you are right now, or they can hint at who you might become further. I tend to stay stuck between the lines of the chapters rather than rush to the last page, I don’t see reading as a task to finish. It’s more like a ritual for me, a way to learn, and sometimes, have a conversation with myself. That’s why I started thinking about a reading curriculum. And yeah, I know — ‘curriculum’ sounds kind of formal, like you’re back in school with a stack of assignments. But this isn’t about racing through a…
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Book Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
This book can surprise you with its narrative, and it can also make you clench your fists in rage at the same time. The book is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. It is one of those wild rides where you’re deeply invested one moment, then fuming the next, and engaging in a monologue with your wall about the deep-rooted issues in our societal structures. It’s sharp, it’s witty, and it gets under your skin — not because it messes up, but because it’s too good at showing you all the ways in which the world can be unfair to women. And yet, somehow, it’s also weirdly comforting and full of courage.…
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Book Quotes to Make You Think | Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
When I picked up Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, I didn’t expect it to sit with me the way it did. Some parts left me numb, others gave me hope, and a few lines stopped me mid-read just to take a breath. Frankl’s words aren’t just lessons from history; they’re reminders that even in the most unthinkable suffering, we still have the choice to hold on to meaning. In this post, I’ve pulled together the quotes that resonated with me most while reading. These are the lines that made me reframe how I think about my own struggles. I hope they do the same for you. Survival and Its Moral Costs 1…
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Diving Deep into Sapiens: Why Technology Alone Isn’t Enough?
Today, I read a passage from Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens that had my attention for a while, and might have yours too: “The Chinese and Persians did not lack technological inventions such as steam engines (which could be freely copied or bought). They lacked the values, the myths, judicial apparatus, and sociopolitical structures that took centuries to form and mature in the West and which could not be copied and internalised rapidly. France and the United States quickly followed in Britain’s footsteps because the French and Americans already shared the most important British myths and social structures. The Chinese and Persians could not catch up as quickly because they thought and organised…
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Reading Experience: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Reading Man’s Search for Meaning took me through an emotional journey, beginning with numbness and heaviness, then shifting into intellectual challenge, and concluding with a feeling of motivation and renewed perspective. The Reading Journey For me, the concentration camp experiences were far more impactful than the later chapters on logotherapy and tragic optimism. The camp narrative evoked a blend of emotions within me, though at first, it almost stripped me of them. The tone Victor Frankl adopts in the first half is so detached — almost deadened — that as a reader, you mirror it. I wasn’t confused about the impact of what he was describing; I understood it. But the way he wrote about those events…
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A Brainy Reading List: Inspired by Keep Sharp by Dr. Sanjay Gupta
If you’ve ever been haunted by the possibility of dementia, you’re probably not alone. In a world that glorifies productivity but rarely practices brain health, Keep Sharp by Dr. Sanjay Gupta is a much-needed reality check. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is not just a trusted neurosurgeon and medical correspondent; he’s also a clear voice cutting through the noise around aging and cognitive decline. In Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age, he uses his medical expertise to busting myths and offer practical lifestyle changes, to remind us that it’s never too early — or too late — to care for our brains. But here’s something special: Sanjay Gupta doesn’t just offer you…
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What White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky Reminded Me Of — Bollywood Edition.
You know how sometimes you’re reading a classic Russian novel about existential crisis, loneliness, ek tarfa pyaar and you suddenly think, wait a minute… I know this from somewhere. That’s exactly what happened when I read White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a sad, four-night-long torment of unrequited love, hopeful delusions, and one very lonely man who just wants to be seen. Argh! The number of Nice-Guy-Syndrome and Friend-Zone memes I witnessed when reading reviews of the book had me roll up laughing. As I finished reading, I couldn’t stop but think that the book reminds me of some Bollywood movie that I know of. It took me right about 5 minutes to pin-point, and…
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Finding Comfort and Connection with Days at the Morisaki Bookshop — Reading After-Thoughts :)
When I picked up Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, I was craving something light — a fiction that didn’t need me to intensely analysis the passages or use my intellectual muscles too much. After being deeply immersed in Sanjay Gupta’s Keep Sharp, which is a science-driven guide to protecting your brain from cognitive decline, I needed a gentler read. And this book turned out to be exactly that: a soothing, binge-worthy read that pulls you into short bursts of life and literature. Blurb Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a booklover’s paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked…
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My Search for Soft-Hug Reads: TBR for my soul.
We can also call this blog post my personal plan to emotionally cuddle myself into books because the reality has started to become a little too real these days. **grunts** Hi. It’s me, again. Local introvert, socially awkward book human, reporting from my work-desk. As someone who hasn’t read a lot of “comfort” reads yet, I wanted to build a TBR list for the soul—a little collection of books I hope will hold me gently when I need it most. If you’re looking for the same kind of warmth, maybe these will find a place on your shelf too. Lately, I’ve been craving books that don’t make me feel heavy…
