Ritika Ruminates

Heya! As bibliophiles, we sometimes look for books about books, bibliophiles and books set in libraries or book stores. After reading some books in this sub-genre, here are some books that I recommend as a bibliophile (or a bookdragon, a new word formed by Bookstagram).    The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak- Is any list of books about book lovers complete without this one? It is a must-have on any book lover's shelf. The book features lead character, Liesel Meminger, who steals books to read. As the World War 2 intensifies in the Nazi Germany. she steals and reads books, finding comfort and strength in the written words. Its uniqueness lies in its narration of the events by Death itself. A solid 10/10 recommendation.  The Lost Bookshop  by Evie Woods- Set in Dublin (for the most part), it is a story of three characters and a disappearing bookstore! The author weaves elements of magical realism with the themes of feminism, books and familial relationships. The title...

  The theater is the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.                                                                                           - Oscar Wilde   Just as much as I love novels and poetry, plays hold an important part in my heart, mind and soul, as long as it is well written (which is subjective) and has good content of course.  From my undergraduate days, I have been exposed to several great plays, some of which have secured a place in my favourites. Several of the plays mentioned below were introduced to me through the syllabus for my graduation, and currently, master's in English. I have been exposed to canonical dramas, right fr...

My Best Reads of 2024 2024’s Top Reads: Stories That Captivated Me As of 22 December 2024, I have completed around 35 books, out of which I really liked some novels, plays, and a poetry collection. I am careful (or miserly?) about giving ratings, which can change with time. In this blog post, I am sharing my 4 out of 5 star ⭐ reads this year. Jumping straight to the list of books (in random order) which you can use as book recommendation and add to your TBR list, here we go: The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom:- This book tells the story of a talented musician, Frankie Presto, who changes lives by playing his guitar. Each time his playing impacts a life, a guitar string turns blue. Follow the life of this music prodigy, narrated by the personified figure of Music/Talent, as he changes lives with his strings. I picked up this book without many expectations (other than the author's name) during a reading slump, and the writing style and story kept me engrossed. Knife: ...

In my M.A. English class, we were reading and discussing Walter Benjamin's The Storyteller. The essay goes on to illustrate what storytelling is, who a storyteller is, the fall of oral storytelling, and so on. Our professor asked us which book we read some time ago that we remember and how it impacted us. This idea has been going on in my mind for several months too. I thought to post a blog post on this then but backed off the idea. These can be used as book recommendations if you haven't read them already. But after this essay and the push, here we go. Every good book we read adds to or contradicts our opinions. It adds layers to our existing opinions, makes us question our opinions or we try to come to a middle ground. There is an impact of literature on our personal growth. In this blog post, I will be focusing on fiction books with life lessons that hugely impacted my life and shaped my opinions. So without wasting our time, let’s dive in.  Books That Largely Influe...

Indian English poets who are worth reading.  Indian poetry is like a giant buffet—there’s something for everyone, from ancient delicacies to contemporary treats. India as a country has long contributed the genre of poetry, from vedic texts to modern musings. Some of the Indian poets in the last century (or more) have composed great poems in the English language. Whenever I hear someone say that India hasn't produced monumental literature (poems in the context of this blog post), it disheartens me to see an Indian underestimating their own literature and being ignorant of the perennial poems written by people of their country. English is as much an Indian language as it is of the UK and US. Indian stalwarts have widened the canon of English poetry or have made a canon of their own which can compete with British poems in the context of content and language.  During my under-graduation course and currently in my Masters, I have come across such beautiful poems composed by Indians...

Image Source- Inc. Magazine In recent times, as we all know, the attention span has reduced. Visual media, especially reels, have taken over reading. A few may even not read this blogpost till the end. 😅😂  BookTok and Bookstagram are abundant with book recommendations and reviews. But often, these books reels are flooded with smut. I know the pain for those who want real content in a book. When my Instagram was filled with these reels, I kept wandering which Insta algorithm I unknowingly tapped into.  A few viewers may get intrigued to read books motivated by the reels but can't bring themselves to read for whatever reasons. In this blogpost, I share names of some easy to read books (mostly from beginner point-of-view) to start your reading journey with, pick up your long lost hobby or even to get over the reading slump. If you are still here, let's go-  Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner- No reading list is complete without these 2 by ...

Disclaimer- This post is a product of random thoughts and my opinion and not backed by any research. The books and movies/series are mentioned only for examples and I have no intention of condemning them. Image Source - IMDb With the humongous collection of books and movies & series, it's evident that similar narratives will be observed and followed in many books, especially contemporary works. While some may be looked down upon, many other tropes are even admired and recommended.  Tropes here refers to elements in a story or relationship dyamics which is similar in many works of fiction across different authors and screenwriters. Example of tropes include grumpy × sunshine , fake dating,   enemies to lovers,   friends to lovers , marriage of convenience , ex-lovers runiting after long time etc. As a reader & viwer of mostly comedy and romantic genre, I can only mention similar narratives found in these genres. Here are examples of other tropes from various genr...

Image Source- The Guardian Happy Teacher's Day! Teachers can contribute a lot to our academic, sports, and personal growth. A teacher can make or break someone's interest in a subject or field. We all have had our share of good and bad teachers. Teachers who teach a subject with so much passion, build your interest in the subject (or at least help you survive the subject like Maths), guide you where needed, motivate you when you doubt yourself, build your confidence, etc. Their teaching and general behavior is so good that you attend lecture out of interest, and not merely for 75% attendance. In contrast, I've also had teachers because of whom my interest in the subject dipped and now I am quite miserable at it (my Hindi getting worse is what hurts me the most). It was so much so that if I happened to see them in public, I would run away before they could see me😂 My interest in English started during 10th board exams when my English teacher in tuitions would give positive ...

Image source- WildCat Tribune If you do not live under the rock and are active on Instagram, you would surely have come across many memes on Colleen Hoover (popularly known as CoHo), Chetan Bhagat, and the like. As funny as they are, and a good addition to the reviews, they can sometimes be quite judgemental and dismissive. After having seen memes on CoHo and her over-hyped books, I surely do not intend to read her books ever and waste my time. But in my early years as a reader, even I have come across and read books which aren't up to the standards and ended up disliking them or finding them just okay-ish. Those books which are considered average by the readers at large, I happened to even like a few of them.  Gatekeeping in literature can be in the form of not allowing one to be a part of book communities and book clubs, harshly judging and criticizing one's reading taste which can even demotivate one to read, etc. With time, having read sublime creations in literature, eithe...

Clicked by - Aarti Yadav My former friend introduced me to the habit of reading. When I was around 9 years old, she would bring encyclopedias for us to read. We read the encyclopedias at either our homes or the society terrace. Encyclopedias on various subjects brought us together- we would read and discuss various facts and information. In some ways, reading encyclopedias gave us a sense of acceptance in each other, which we both kind of desired, from society (I would be ridiculed for stammering and she was socially excluded due to her half-Chinese heritage). Seeing my interest, even my parents agreed to buy me encyclopedias to read, all of which I have kept safely even after 12-13 years. Encyclopedias somewhere even gave me my first friend of life, even though the friendship didn't last long. My habit of reading encyclopedias got broken a little bit after she had to leave the city without any notice (got to know later that it was probably due to her parents' divorce). I still...

Image source- Hotcourses Abroad Book piracy is one of the most important issues in the literary world now, along with plagiarism. Royalty from book sales isn't enough to pay the bills, even for the bestseller authors, and book piracy steals away their income even more. I have written about the issue of piracy in 2 of my earlier blog posts. To read those-  Free books apps and book PDFs: Disrespecting author's works How can we help the publishing industry Book borrowing etiquettes  (One additional blog, not related to piracy) By the way, I feel that book PDFs are at least honest about stealing the work, rather than physical pirated copies available in the market for purchase. If it is about piracy (which I do not support), it doesn't make sense to pay for a book to someone who pirates for a little less than the original. Why waste your money on a first or second copy then, if you will consume pirated copies of a book anyway?  Coming back to the point: Like any crime, t...

Image Source- Bookish Santa Very recently, like any other industry, publication industry had taken a hit because of COVID too. But in my opinion, publishing industry took some of the worst hit along with a few others. Not only COVID stopped the production for a meanwhile, but people started moving to other forms of entertainment, leaving behind one of the best forms of entertainment - reading.  It's not just COVID that made publishing industry suffer badly, but shift to endlessly scrolling on social medias and digital forms of entertainment like movies and series also drifted people away from reading. Along with losing the readers, authors and publishers face the grave issue of book piracy or literary theft, along with plagiarism. Buying a pirated book for less cost is just as equal to reading free PDF copy of the book, as the money actually doesn't go to the writer but people who pirate it. Check my earlier blogpost on book piracy here . Books and literary arts offer the best ...