I have been awaiting the #JubilantJulyReadathon for a few days now. I am at 21% of the tagged book that has some 875 pages. I hope to read at least 50-75 pages a day and maybe finish it. I intend to devote at least 50 hours to reading for this 9 day #readathon. So excited to see whether I will be able to meet my goals. Thank you @Andrew65 for hosting. I am so so grateful for this.

You can‘t say ‘if this didn‘t happen then that would have happened‘ because you don‘t know everything that might have happened. You might think something‘d be good, but for all you know it could have turned out horrible. You can‘t say ‘If only I‘d…‘ because you could be wishing for anything. The point is, you‘ll never know. You‘ve gone past. So there‘s no use thinking about it. So I don‘t.

“Listen, happy endings is fine if they turn out happy,” said Granny, glaring at the sky. “But you can‘t make ‘em for other people. Like the only way you could make a happy marriage is by cuttin‘ their heads off as soon as they say ‘I do‘, yes? You can‘t make happiness…”

This is my first time participating and it's shaping up to be a Discworld readathon. I have managed to finish Mort, Wyrd Sisters, and Reaper man. I hope to diversify my reading in the coming days. Thank you @Andrew65 for hosting!

Poets have tried to describe Ankh-Morpork. They have failed. Perhaps it‘s the sheer zestful vitality of the place, or maybe it‘s just that a city with a million inhabitants and no sewers is rather robust for poets, who prefer daffodils and no wonder. 👇

In loneliness I have drifted this long way, alone. My torn and shabby robe could not keep out the cold. And tonight the sky was so clear it made my heart ache all the more.

I, on the other hand, still might not be considered a proper grown-up. I had been very much the adult when I was in elementary school. But as I continued on through junior high and high school, on the contrary, I became less grown-up. And then as the years passed, I turned into quite a childlike person. I suppose I just wasn‘t able to ally myself with time.

Picture Credits: literature and trees on tumblr

Give love. Receive love too. It is the only thing you take with you when you die, and because it is eternal, so are you.

Reading it is like unclogging a deep emotional sink that you hadn't realised you had deliberately plugged to not feel. The result is cathartic. Random bursts of tears keep spilling out. I am finally able to breathe.

I am finished with the main text. Now, on to, reading the critical analysis, and literary and historical background to understand it better.

"The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!"

I finished this book last night and as soon as I turned the last page, the lights went out and a storm came on with rain. It isn't supposed to rain in March. But, I would like to think that the elements were paying their tribute to the genius of Emily and her love for nature.
I have read this book in @sharread 's honour for the #SharReadathon.?

I have been thoroughly absorbed for the past three days or so in this absolute whirlwind of a book trying to finish it in time for #SharReadathon. Although, I still have a number of pages to go, the experience of reading it has been intense and rewarding. I am determined to finish it in the coming days. All the love and prayers for Sharon! May she rest in peace! 🌺

The supreme secret must be told to the Cabinet; first, that trees are alive; next, there is no crime; next, love, universal love, he muttered, gasping, trembling, painfully drawing out these profound truths which needed, so deep were they, so difficult, an immense effort to speak out, but the world was entirely changed by them for ever.

Hoping to do some bedtime reading for #Sharreadathon in the loving memory of Sharon! ❤️

Early mornings with Mrs. Dalloway continue as I read for #SharReadathon. I came across Sharon's comment on one of my posts welcoming me to litsy and I have been feeling emotional since at having lost out on the opportunity to get to know her better. I am shy so I find it difficult to be talkative. But, if you are reading this, please come say hi, or tell me a bookish or non- bookish fact about yourself. 💗
I'll go first in the comment section.

This turned out to be my first short story collection of the year. Shekhar, with his incisive strokes, manages to reveal a world that's brutal yet full of laughter and humanity. A world that's often ignored by politicians and general public alike and is forced to subside on the margins. He brings this world and its inhabitants into sharp focus and claims that "The Adivasi will not dance". He tells the stories of aboriginals and their plights.

?

This book is such a brilliant and incisive meditation on religion, immigration, love, terrorism, and family. The ending was like a jolt of shock. It reads like a contemporary fiction, which is what it, in fact, is. The characters are so real, you could almost imagine what it would be like to sit across a table and have a cup of coffee with them. What it would be like to be them. To be with them. Yet, there is a magical aura...

👇

So grateful to be part of this wonderful community. What better way to honor a bibliophile than to read! I choose this windy, stormy book that @sharread has deemed as a pick. My respects!!
#sharreadreadathon

I was thoroughly confused by the cover at first. But, ever since Clarissa has mentioned Sally, it just makes more sense. I am 30 pages in and so far Clarissa remembering Sally is the most readable part of the book, that is to say, I didn't have to go back and reread the same lines twice for it to make sense. It reads like revelation of one's mind to the reader. I look forward to the few minutes I get to spend in Mrs. Woolf's company each morning.

Marjory White, aged ten, wanted to be a widow . Questioned why, she gravely said that if you weren‘t married people called you an old maid, and if you were your husband bossed you; but if you were a widow there‘d be no danger of either.

One of my new year's resolutions is to read a short story a day. So, I compiled all my short story collections together and was surprised to see that only two out of ten were written by English speaking authors and all the rest were either Indian authors writing in English or their works translated in English. I decided to begin with "the loneliness of hira barua". The cover is absolutely stunning and it got a lot of buzz last year.

I read most of this book on my commute but I was glad that I read the ending in the comfort of my bed so I could stare sadly out of my window at the rainy sky. I think, one of the strongest character of the book was Mr. Tulliver, not only did he carry the story along with his firm, decided views, but also provided as a strong connection between pretty much all the characters. His headstrong nature was, at once, plot- propelling and believable.👇🏽

Talk about reading with a view!

1. Saddam Hussein's hanging and Iraq invasion and Barack Obama being the first black president of the USA

2. Bookstore

3. As a young adult, Khaled Hosseinei's The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns and Matthew Quick's Silver linings Playbook really made me realise the power a book holds.

Thanks @RamsFan1963 for the tag!!
@Eggs for creating this.
Wanna play? @batsy @Nute @LiteraryinLawrence @BookDragonNotWorm #wonderouswednesday

Ever since I first read Dickens's "A tale of two cities" two years ago, I have regarded him as the guy who puts me to sleep. But, since I have begun reading "Great Expectations", I have realised how funny he is. Dickens also uses this dramatic imagery alluding supernatural forces at work. It's quite exciting and I am looking forward to how it all turns out.

TW: Sexual violence
I started this book on a bus ride and I was quickly drawn in this unfamiliar, foreign world with an intensity that made me oblivious to the bustling chaos around me. Although, it is written from a young adult's perspective, the writing is deep enough to make you forget that. The characters are overwrought with struggle of staying afloat in a leaden world. Dichotomies are littered throughout the pages. 👇🏽

Today is my 1 year Litsyversary and I couldn't be more excited. Litsy has proven to be an oasis in the dreary realm of social media and I immensely enjoy the reading updates and life updates of all the people I follow on here. It feels like a kind, warm literary family and I am here for it. Hoping to be more active on here rather than a silent lurker. ❤️✨
#Litsyversary

As I finished reading the acknowledgement of the author at the end of the book, I took his advice and stared at the cover of the book for a minute. It is, indeed, art. As is every page of this whimsical adventure. What sets apart this book is the sense of hope it ends up giving the reader. The lesson of how to stay kind in a world that's anything but. And, how to still keep your heart open to the goodness imbued in other people. 👇🏾

"It's not fair."
"No. It's not. Life rarely is. But we deal with it the best we can. And we allow ourselves to hope for the best. Because a life without hope isn't a life lived at all."

This delightfully absorbing magical book and delicious potato pudding! This book gives me life. It makes the world and my own head a little more bearable. Loving it so much. 💓

But, as so often happens with people who might be described as spineless, he felt such a strong urge for one more shot at the old debauchery that he decided to go. And it suddenly occured to him that his promise wasn't valid anyway because he had already promised Anatole that he would go before promising Andrey that he wouldn't. Then he began to think all promises like that were relative, they had no definite meaning, especially if you imagined 👇

I don't read short story collections by Agatha Christie as a rule. I ended up reading this one almost unwittingly. Likemost short story collections, it was a mixed bag. Tommy and Tuppence open up a detective agency and taking inspiration from various classic fictional detectives proceed to solve miscellaneous cases. I didn't know most of the fictional characters but the playful banter between Tommy and Tuppence was fun, nonetheless.

If one were to ask if Linus Baker was lonely, he would have scrunched up his face in surprise. The thought would be foreign, almost shocking. And though the smallest of lies hurt his head and made his stomach twist, there was a chance he would still say no, even though he was, and almost desperately so.
And maybe part of him would believe it. He'd accepted long ago that some people, no matter how good their heart was or how much love they had to

Where's the lie? 😂

The magic is gone! The Sherlock Holmes stories that kept me up at night reading five years ago now put me to an anxious sleep.
Eh bien, still better than struggling with insomnia!

"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope."

Persuasion is akin to a healing salve to an aching heart.

@Andrea313 Thanks for the tag! 💓
1. I am planning to start war and peace this week and I an excited and nervous.
2. I used to have a pet goat. At the moment, none.
3. That's HARD. Probably War and Peace. I trust Tolstoy to tide me over hard times after having read his Anna Karenina!
@Cupcake12
@Nute @batsy @vivastory Wanna play?

"They don't see the children. Not for who they are, only for what they are capable of."

Keeping myself hydrated and well read!!!

Over the course of Monsieur Poirot and Miss Marple series, I have come to expect and appreciate a tight knit family mystery involving conversation, very personal motives, jealousy, and money, of course! Unlike them, Tommy and Tuppence's debut is fraught with (mis)adventures! It did have a puzzling premise regarding the identity of "The Secret Adversary" and the red herring was done very well, indeed! But I was apalled at Tommy and Tuppence's ?

“All life is difficult sometimes”

Dame Christie gets it!

"That deep depression of despair, that dark desperate grief."
Such haunting beauty in these few words.

“Being as old as I am now,” said Miss Marple, “I suppose I can‘t help feeling that early death means missing things.”
One conviction that recurs in her fiction is how sacred life is, all life.
In the words of Monsieur Poirot, "I do not approve of murder."

"A very nice woman. The kind that would so easily marry a bad lot. In fact, the sort of woman that would marry a murderer if she were ever given half a chance."
Dame Christie has a penchant for dropping hilarious truth bombs! ?

"I have made a point of being always ready to disbelieve as well as believe anything that is told to me."
When I was reading Poirot, I couldn't imagine liking any of the other character that Dame Christie had created, and certainly not an elderly, gentle, fluffy spinster. Boy! Was I in for a pleasurable surprise?! Miss Marple books make me laugh while dispensing valuable world wisdom at the same time. These books are better able to express the ?

"To keep something wild is far more difficult than to preserve it."
Although, it sounds very american and modern from its title, it's really the most wonderous mix of Shakespeare and Greek myths. Although, I haven't read "A midsummer night's dream" yet, I suppose the gist is very well captured here. It has, in some part, the dream-like quality. It possesses raving madness and mad beauty. One of the things that distinguishes Christie from other ?

@Come-read-with-me is hosting a sweet giveaway to celebrate her friendship and litsy!
I first heard of litsy in a facebook group called Book Deals for Broke Bibliophiles. I am here and it's a warm place that has already inspired me to pick up some books that I otherwise wouldn't have. Its authenticity and warmth is certainly its USP.

Here's to friendships and reading! 🥰📚

On my quest to read all Poirot novels, this one stood out because of the brutality and violence done against innocence. Lady Stubbs is a simple- minded person and suggestible. I found myself uncharacteristically devoid of suspects here, as did Poirot, but when the truth came out, it wasn't so much thrill that I felt but an urge to cry for the loss. Dame Christie is truly a masterful author.

Wives madly devoted to unsatisfactory and often what appeared quite unprepossessing husbands, wives contemptuous of, and bored by, apparently attractive and impeccable husbands. What any woman saw in some particular man was beyond the comprehension of the average intelligent male. It just was so. A woman who could be intelligent about everything else in the world could be a complete fool when it came to some particular man.

"It isn‘t about the “Princesses” in the slightest. It‘s the Princes who are playing games. It‘s always been about them."

Soman Chainani has penned a beautifully intricate and hard-hitting tale that leaves you ruminating long after it's finished. The Disney princes are the only characters retaining their fairy-tale names and the girls, the so-called princesses, possess random names, the only distinction afforded to them is based on their hotness?