reading habit
Books Editor’s Note
It’s the second week of January, and I’m very pleased with my reading so far—I’m down three books, on to my fourth. I’m choosing to focus on immersing myself in the written word, given what’s happening outside the pages of my book. A lovely thing to browse at a time like this is the Lounge Fiction series of short stories in Mint, featuring giants of Indian literature like Perumal Murugan, Manoranjan Byapari, Aruni Kashyap and more. And now, some bookish news to start the day.
A list of good literary reads
One: A common new year resolution for us bookish types each year is getting started on that novel we’ve been dreaming of for the past 7 years. If you’re one of the chosen ones, add this, on CrimeReads, to your research plan: story-telling lessons you could learn from urban legends, immortal and indelible in our minds.
Two: Speaking of resolutions, Book Riot offers a list of reading goals of a more achievable variety. The aim, of any bookish resolution, is to simply read, really, and this handy set encapsulates that perfectly.
Three: Russia in the 1860s was seeing a boom in true crime accounts and detective stories alike. One such story caught the fancy of Fyodor Dostoevsky and promptly led to the genesis of one of the greatest novels of all time. The New Republic has all the (sordid) details of the times, its crimes and Dostoevsky in the midst of all of it.
Four: In Reader’s Digest, one reader reminisces about reading in bars. An atmospheric, genuinely loving ode.
Five: JRR Tolkien did not only write some of the most beloved and enduring pieces of fantasy literature, he was also a master prankster! LitHub details the many pranks he pulled at parties, in class and in life in general.
Six: The Guardian reports on Maya Angelou becoming the first black woman to appear on a US quarter. The coin came into circulation on Monday; more coins featuring remarkable women will be issued in the near future.
Seven: What does the phrase “book-wrapt” mean? How do books turn a house into a home? The New York Times investigates the love of being surrounded by books in one’s home, and how the book as a physical object provides solace and refuge.
Quick fixes, a.k.a. a few varied recommendations
My current read: I’ve just started volume one of ‘Deadly Class’ by the writer, illustrator and colourist team of Remender, Craig and Loughridge, called ‘Reagan Youth’, and it’s just so delightfully deplorable. Marcus Lopez attends the Kings Dominion School for the Deadly Arts where the teachers are mercenaries, classes are on how to dismember someone and he is getting trained to become an assassin. The art style is pleasingly manga-pop, and the plot is blissfully rife with high school shenanigans with a generous helping of murder thrown in. Just fantastic so far.
A childhood fave: I remember reading ‘Ella Enchanted’ by Gail Carson Levine as a young ‘un and realizing that this heroine was different from the usual fairy tale fare I had been exposed to until then. Ella is an unconventional princess who decides to make the best of a curse imposed on her and takes charge of her own destiny. A Cinderella retelling for all times.
Book-adjacent rec of the week: Shedunnit is a podcast hosted by Caroline Crampton “that unravels the mysteries behind classic detective stories.” If that sounds like something handcrafted for me, I think it probably was, and I couldn’t be more thankful to the powers that be. Crampton is an author and reviewer who reads mysteries by legends of the Golden Age of detective fiction—Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Josephine Tey and more—to find and discuss tropes and other common recurring themes, while also looking at real life cases that inspired these authors. Truly one of the most wonderfully enticing and informative podcasts I’ve ever come across.
Underrated author of the week: Alexia Gordon writes the absolutely charming ‘Gethsemane Brown Mysteries’ starring a reluctant detective who gets a highly unusual sidekick in the form of the ghost that lives in the cliffside cottage she finds herself residing in, in the Irish countryside. Gordon herself is a physician by day, and her heroine, Gethsemane, is an African-American classical musician par excellence who is confident in her abilities and doesn’t back down when confronted with injustice. Five books in the series are already out, all musically inclined in one way or another, and I want more people to read them so that we can discuss!
Bookish adaptation to watch out for: I recently rewatched ‘The Namesake’, based on the novel of the same name by Jhumpa Lahiri, and cried copiously, as I did while reading the book. It was bittersweet to watch Irrfan Khan in a role that felt like it was written precisely for him.
The adaptation I’m most looking forward to, however, couldn’t be more different: ‘Munich: The Edge of War’ on Netflix is out next week, based on Robert Harris’ ‘Munich’ about two friends from Oxford who find themselves on opposite sides during World War II. The novel was unputdownable, and by the look of the trailer, I imagine the movie will be no different.
Note: Reading Habit is curated by our books editor Anushree Kaushal. Want to send along recommendations, feedback or just say hi? Email her at kaushalanushree@gmail.com.