Bookly-Wookly

 Perhaps God is too strong of a word. But the more I read astrophysics, the more my atheism fails me.  I do not, and will not criticize people's belief in God. Despite it's many faults, I do believe religion gives people immense strength. The belief of God and His miracles have pushed many of us into doing seemingly impossible things. Prayer can bring peace. Relief. Religion can foster love amongst hatred.  Of course, there are many arguments against God that I personally agree with. I will also acknowledge that God and religion are not the same thing. A person can believe in God and yet not be religious. And then there are the agnostics, obviously. Out of the four quadrants that combine atheism and agnosticism (agnostic atheist, gnostic atheist, agnostic theist, gnostic theist), the gnostic theists are the ones that I can never resonate with. I have- at different points of my life- adapted the other three quadrants. Obviously the phases of my life where I was an agnostic...

  A note on how our minds trick us and how planning made my life more chaotic than organized.  I have had those phases in my life- the random bursts of motivation where I would go and buy myself a new journal, label it as timetable, write "Day 1" on the first page. I have always been one of those people who work well when they romanticize their lives. That cup of chai. The melodramatic bollywood songs on a car ride back home. And of course, aesthetic journals and colourful pens and a neat schedule of how my day should look like.  They don't last, unfortunately.  The people who idealize the world can rarely stick to those ideals themselves. It took me some time to realize this. Success does not consist of drawing neat little lines on journals and planning for days ahead. This is what people will try to tell you. This is what they try to sell. Plan your day. Have a list of tasks. Make a timetable, stick it next to your desk.  Been there, done that. Does it work? I...

The human projection of love is flawed. And that is ironic because the human projection of love is "perfect". Love is supposed to be selfless, kind, non-discriminatory. Yet, it doesn't often feel that way. Love can feel heavy. Love ties you down to people, to places. Love brings pain and suffering and attachment. And that's where the divide actually arrives: our expectations of an ideal love and our reality. Because love is flawless, divine and yet, when someone falls in love, we suffer. Oh, how we suffer.  Not because we're in love. Suffering does not arise out of love but out of what we think love is. We don't fall in love with another person, we fall in love with our reflection in them. We fall in love with what they bring out in us. We don't fall in love with them. As a matter of fact, very few people have fallen in love. No, we get attached to people. And there's a huge difference. Attachment brings fear. Why? Because we don't want our lover t...

Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again… This famous line is of the book Rebecca- a beautifully spun romantic suspense that makes you dive right into the lovely, yet haunting, world of Manderley and its dead inhabitant- Rebecca. This book starts of with a dream that the narrator has about Manderley- her husband’s previous estate. Du Maurier describes Manderley in great detail- so much so that it feels real. This story is about a nameless young woman- our narrator- who marries Maxim de Winter, and subsequently becomes the mistress of Manderley. However, our narrator is young and is tortured by shyness and insecurity that is born of her own mind.   I found that this book focuses a lot on the first Mrs. de Winter- Rebecca- who haunts our narrator from the grave. Everywhere the second Mrs. de Winter looks, she finds the remnants of Rebecca. Our heroine paints an unrealistic image of Rebecca in her head- who was the perfect, beautiful wife and mistress of Manderley. "Reb...

Most novels, to my knowledge, are no less than 60,000 words. A daunting number, isn’t it? But there are many authors who write excellent novels of this length (if not more) and publish it in the market. The chief reason for their success is their determination, and of course, their hard work. While these two key factors play an important role, there are also a variety of tips and tricks that you might want to know while writing a novel. In this post, I will be sharing some of them. 1) Get an idea Yes, I know. This is the most obvious first step while writing basically anything. However, getting an idea isn’t that obvious or easy. In fact, I think it is harder than typing some sixty-thousand words. If you have an idea, you can proceed to the next step. But if you don’t, I have tips that can get you some: A) Observe: Creativity unlocks with observation. Look around you. Maybe you might find people you have some weird life experiences to share with you. Maybe your aunt might tel...

 If you haven’t gathered from my first post , I will repeat it again: I LOVE FANTASY.  It’s the only genre I can see myself reading on a bad day because it gives me the courage to face the world again. However, there are a lot of YA Fantasy books in the market and distinguishing the good ones from the bad ones might be difficult especially if you are new. But if you are having troubles in picking a book, do not fret! I got it covered! Here’s a list of my top five YA Fantasy novels. 1) Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare God, this book made my day. Heck, it restored my faith in humanity. I cannot express how much I loved this book. Buy Clockwork Angel here . 2) The Young Elites by Marie Lu. Where was this book all my life? I simply love it when the character aren’t the “good ones” but the “bad ones”. Marie Lu, in all honesty, is a damn good writer. Buy Young Elites here . 3) An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir Have you ever experienced your heart racing with thrill,...