Saurabh's bookshelf: read en-US Sat, 25 Jan 2025 23:43:47 -0800 60 Saurabh's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Easy Way to Stop Smoking: Join the Millions Who Have Become Non-Smokers Using Allen Carr's Easyway Method]]> 6618 224 Allen Carr 1402718616 Saurabh 3 4.23 1985 The Easy Way to Stop Smoking: Join the Millions Who Have Become Non-Smokers Using Allen Carr's Easyway Method
author: Allen Carr
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:
Penguin publishers were like-- "You know it's gonna sell like hotcakes!"
]]> If You're Not Yet Like Me 9455819 55 Edan Lepucki Saurabh 3 2024 3.53 2010 If You're Not Yet Like Me
author: Edan Lepucki
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves: 2024
review:

]]> The Bet 2895911 Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich 48 Anton Chekhov 0895986841 Saurabh 4 4.14 1889 The Bet
author: Anton Chekhov
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1889
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/16
date added: 2023/08/16
shelves:
review:
Fifteen years to get adolescent nihilism?
]]> The Stranger 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Saurabh 4 4.04 1942 The Stranger
author: Albert Camus
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/04
date added: 2023/05/12
shelves:
review:
The book kind of gives you a persona that you can use in your life("in a good way or not"-- to analyze this will destroy the core of that persona), the persona being that of the main character, though as I feel when asked to write or describe what this persona contains of--it will not be an easy job. The book contains philosophical ideas but not like those that you can give a day of your life to examine/verify/understand it. What took me by surprise was that in France public executions were being conducted till 1939.
]]> Ghachar Ghochar 30267604
Elegantly written and punctuated by moments of unexpected warmth and humor, Ghachar Ghochar is a quietly enthralling, deeply unsettling novel about the shifting meanings—and consequences—of financial gain in contemporary India.]]> 118 Vivek Shanbhag 014311168X Saurabh 5 Anyway had a great time!]]> 3.88 2013 Ghachar Ghochar
author: Vivek Shanbhag
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/12
date added: 2023/05/12
shelves:
review:
Loved every part of it, except for, maybe, the narrator's detest of noble acts. Even when he's narrating it in retrospect. Maybe, it is my shallow understanding of noble acts and their repercussions, or, the text-- might be suggesting the narrator's realization after the unsettling thoughts in the end, or, both.
Anyway had a great time!
]]> The Catcher in the Rye 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Saurabh 5
What do you think of this book 30 or 40 years old me?]]> 3.81 1951 The Catcher in the Rye
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/09
date added: 2023/05/09
shelves:
review:
If it's a red flag, then it's my pleasure having one.

What do you think of this book 30 or 40 years old me?
]]> <![CDATA[Waiting For A Visa: Autobiographical notes]]> 28095962
About Author:
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 � 6 December 1956) (Father of Indian Constitution), popularly known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Modern Buddhist Movement and campaigned against social discrimination against Untouchables (Dalits), women and labour. He was Independent India's first law minister and the principal architect of the Constitution of India.
Ambedkar was a prolific student, earning a law degree and various doctorates from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, and gained a reputation as a scholar for his research in law, economics and political science. In his early career he was an economist, professor, and lawyer. His later life was marked by his political activities; he became involved in campaigning and negotiations for India's independence, publishing journals advocating political rights and social freedom for Dalits, and contributing significantly to the establishment of the state of India. In 1956 he converted to Buddhism, initiating mass conversions of Dalits.
In 1990, the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, was posthumously conferred upon Ambedkar. Ambedkar's legacy includes numerous memorials and depictions in popular culture.]]> 25 B.R. Ambedkar Saurabh 4 2023 ---------------------------
One less star due to Ambedkar's casual writing.
---------------------------
Also, can anyone tell me the reason behind the title, I didn't even find the word 'visa' in the text.]]> 4.57 1931 Waiting For A Visa: Autobiographical notes
author: B.R. Ambedkar
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1931
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/25
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: 2023
review:
Shocking; realized more evidently that education in itself never made a good human being, unless, of course, you alter the definition of education.
---------------------------
One less star due to Ambedkar's casual writing.
---------------------------
Also, can anyone tell me the reason behind the title, I didn't even find the word 'visa' in the text.
]]> Unhappiness (Short Stories) 33518583 Franz Kafka Saurabh 3 2023 3.25 1912 Unhappiness (Short Stories)
author: Franz Kafka
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.25
book published: 1912
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/17
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: 2023
review:
Just tell me what it means, if possible-- before I die.
]]> Before the Law 36275000 Before the Law (ұ: Vor dem Gesetz) is a parable contained in the novel The Trial(ұ: Der Prozess), by Franz Kafka. Before the Law was published in Kafka's lifetime, first in the 1915 New Year's edition of the independent Jewish weekly Selbstwehr, then in 1919 as part of the collection Ein Landarzt(A Country Doctor).The Trial, however, was not published until 1925, after Kafka's death.]]> 4 Franz Kafka Saurabh 4 2023 4.02 1915 Before the Law
author: Franz Kafka
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1915
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/17
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: 2023
review:
"Am I guilty before the law because I want to show that I want to know righteousness instead of me being righteous?"
]]> Once There Was a War 4800 The New York Herald Tribune, writing from Italy and North Africa, and from England in the midst of the London blitz. In his dispatches he focuses on the human-scale effect of the war, portraying everyone from the guys in a bomber crew to Bob Hope on his USO tour and even fighting alongside soldiers behind enemy lines. Taken together, these writings create an indelible portrait of life in wartime.]]> 256 John Steinbeck Saurabh 4 2023 3.83 1958 Once There Was a War
author: John Steinbeck
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1958
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/25
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> A Farewell to Arms 10799 A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield - the weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep. Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote his ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right.]]> 293 Ernest Hemingway 0099910101 Saurabh 4 2023 3.83 1929 A Farewell to Arms
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1929
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/17
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: 2023
review:
Peaceful; I mean, not the story, reading it was peaceful, until it wasn't.
]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Saurabh 5 2023 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/09
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Judgment and other stories]]> 16244632 137 Franz Kafka Saurabh 5 read-again, 2023 3.81 1912 The Judgment and other stories
author: Franz Kafka
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1912
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: read-again, 2023
review:
Short 7 pages with deep existential crisis.
]]> 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3) 10357575 The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.� A world that bears a question.� Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s � 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.]]> 944 Haruki Murakami 0307593312 Saurabh 3 japan, 2023 Book 2: 3.5/5
Book 3: 3/5

Read only if you're not that much into denouements.]]> 3.94 2009 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: japan, 2023
review:
Book 1: 4/5
Book 2: 3.5/5
Book 3: 3/5

Read only if you're not that much into denouements.
]]> Notes from Underground 49455 Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.]]> 136 Fyodor Dostoevsky 067973452X Saurabh 5
Part 1- 5/5
Part 2- 4/5

Notes from Underground is divided in two parts, the first part is where the Underground man tells us about his philosophy, his world view, first he argues that if someone is always looking for something that is good, will make him feel better, is there any freedom in his choice, then he goes on to argue that despite the non-existence of free-will, men, even if they know, will always want to act with will no matter how good or bad their life is, such desperation to act with will is nothing else but a medium to fulfil his own self, not a statement that he/she acts with will, in the second part, however, at least I felt this way, he wanted to answer the readers who after reading the first part asked--"How do one with such philosophy live a REAL life.", he begins the second auto-biographical part with the intent,

"Every man has reminiscences which he would not tell
to everyone, but only to his friends. He has other matters
in his mind which he would not reveal even to his friends,
but only to himself, and that in secret. But there are other
things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and
every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.",


the reading makes one believe that he was successful in bringing the last type of things.

Certain random quotes that had my scrutiny:
Part 1
Chapter 2:
"I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness—a
real thorough-going illness. For man’s everyday needs, it
would have been quite enough to have the ordinary
human consciousness, that is, half or a quarter of the
amount which falls to the lot of a cultivated man."

Chapter 4:
Can a man of perception respect
himself at all?

Chapter 5:
Of course, a minute or so later I would realize wrathfully that
it was all a lie, a revolting lie, an affected lie, that is, all this
penitence, this emotion, these vows of reform.

Chapter 8:
I answer for it, for the whole work of man really seems to
consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute
that he is a man and not a piano-key!

Chapter 9:
But man is a frivolous and incongruous creature, and
perhaps, like a chess player, loves the process of the game,
not the end of it. And who knows (there is no saying with
certainty), perhaps the only goal on earth to which
mankind is striving lies in this incessant process of
attaining, in other words, in life itself, and not in the thing
to be attained, which must always be expressed as a
formula, as positive as twice two makes four, and such
positiveness is not life, gentlemen, but is the beginning of
death.

Chapter 11
You doubtlessly mean
to say something, but hide your last word through fear,
because you have not the resolution to utter it, and only
have a cowardly impudence. You boast of consciousness,
but you are not sure of your ground, for though your
mind works, yet your heart is darkened and corrupt, and
you cannot have a full, genuine consciousness without a
pure heart. And how intrusive you are, how you insist and
grimace! Lies, lies, lies!

Part 2
Chapter 10:
And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an
idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted
sufferings? Well, which is better?

Come, try, give any one of us, for instance, a little more
independence, untie our hands, widen the spheres of our
activity, relax the control and we � yes, I assure you �
we should be begging to be under control again at once.]]> 4.21 1864 Notes from Underground
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1864
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/15
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves:
review:


Part 1- 5/5
Part 2- 4/5

Notes from Underground is divided in two parts, the first part is where the Underground man tells us about his philosophy, his world view, first he argues that if someone is always looking for something that is good, will make him feel better, is there any freedom in his choice, then he goes on to argue that despite the non-existence of free-will, men, even if they know, will always want to act with will no matter how good or bad their life is, such desperation to act with will is nothing else but a medium to fulfil his own self, not a statement that he/she acts with will, in the second part, however, at least I felt this way, he wanted to answer the readers who after reading the first part asked--"How do one with such philosophy live a REAL life.", he begins the second auto-biographical part with the intent,

"Every man has reminiscences which he would not tell
to everyone, but only to his friends. He has other matters
in his mind which he would not reveal even to his friends,
but only to himself, and that in secret. But there are other
things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and
every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.",


the reading makes one believe that he was successful in bringing the last type of things.

Certain random quotes that had my scrutiny:
Part 1
Chapter 2:
"I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness—a
real thorough-going illness. For man’s everyday needs, it
would have been quite enough to have the ordinary
human consciousness, that is, half or a quarter of the
amount which falls to the lot of a cultivated man."

Chapter 4:
Can a man of perception respect
himself at all?

Chapter 5:
Of course, a minute or so later I would realize wrathfully that
it was all a lie, a revolting lie, an affected lie, that is, all this
penitence, this emotion, these vows of reform.

Chapter 8:
I answer for it, for the whole work of man really seems to
consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute
that he is a man and not a piano-key!

Chapter 9:
But man is a frivolous and incongruous creature, and
perhaps, like a chess player, loves the process of the game,
not the end of it. And who knows (there is no saying with
certainty), perhaps the only goal on earth to which
mankind is striving lies in this incessant process of
attaining, in other words, in life itself, and not in the thing
to be attained, which must always be expressed as a
formula, as positive as twice two makes four, and such
positiveness is not life, gentlemen, but is the beginning of
death.

Chapter 11
You doubtlessly mean
to say something, but hide your last word through fear,
because you have not the resolution to utter it, and only
have a cowardly impudence. You boast of consciousness,
but you are not sure of your ground, for though your
mind works, yet your heart is darkened and corrupt, and
you cannot have a full, genuine consciousness without a
pure heart. And how intrusive you are, how you insist and
grimace! Lies, lies, lies!

Part 2
Chapter 10:
And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an
idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted
sufferings? Well, which is better?

Come, try, give any one of us, for instance, a little more
independence, untie our hands, widen the spheres of our
activity, relax the control and we � yes, I assure you �
we should be begging to be under control again at once.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5)]]> 8921 256 Arthur Conan Doyle Saurabh 4 4.15 1902 The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1902
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/14
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves:
review:
“Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.�
]]> Notes on Grief 57032570 Notes on Grief is an exquisite work of meditation, remembrance, and hope, written in the wake of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's beloved father’s death in the summer of 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged around the world, and kept Adichie and her family members separated from one another, her father succumbed unexpectedly to complications of kidney failure.

Expanding on her original New Yorker piece, Adichie shares how this loss shook her to her core. She writes about being one of the millions of people grieving this year; about the familial and cultural dimensions of grief and also about the loneliness and anger that are unavoidable in it. With signature precision of language, and glittering, devastating detail on the page--and never without touches of rich, honest humor--Adichie weaves together her own experience of her father’s death with threads of his life story, from his remarkable survival during the Biafran war, through a long career as a statistics professor, into the days of the pandemic in which he’d stay connected with his children and grandchildren over video chat from the family home in Abba, Nigeria. In the compact format of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, Adichie delivers a gem of a book--a book that fundamentally connects us to one another as it probes one of the most universal human experiences. Notes on Grief is a book for this moment—a work readers will treasure and share now more than ever--and yet will prove durable and timeless, an indispensable addition to Adichie's canon.]]> 86 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 0593320808 Saurabh 3 2023 4.26 2021 Notes on Grief
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/07
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: 2023
review:

]]> Animal Farm 170448 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]> 141 George Orwell 0451526341 Saurabh 4 2023 4.07 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/28
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves: 2023
review:
Humans in most places are so predictable.
]]> <![CDATA[Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World]]> 25744928 One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results.

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories-from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air-and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.]]> 296 Cal Newport 1455586692 Saurabh 4 4.16 2016 Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
author: Cal Newport
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/06
date added: 2022/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky Saurabh 5 4.26 1866 Crime and Punishment
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/13
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves:
review:

]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.]]> 272 Oscar Wilde Saurabh 5 In the end I feel like Wilde left us with a problem to think upon-- just after Dorian killed his friend Basil it starts to set in that Dorian has become evil and because he never had to face any consequences of his actions he started to dwell on thoughts that justified his killing; now, in the end when people reached through the window in the top room where painting was kept, they saw the painting as it was originally painted by Basil and Dorian lying down on the floor with a knife stabbed in his body by himself.
Now, there could be two different reasons to explain his death.
1) He was bad: he did bad things, albeit he had no consequences of that in his beauty but punishment was given to him as psychological suffering to maintain balance in universe, in the end when he tried to kill the painting too and end the suffering, the power who was behind saving his beauty had to kill him.

2) He was good: Two scenes-- Dorian alive and happy, and painting as it was painted; Dorian killed himself, and painting as it was painted. It could be that this book was never with "unrealistic events" as people say. The painting never altered. But of course Basil too saw it. The notion that it was all inside Dorian head is quite tangible and do not require much explanation, but what about Basil? Basil before seeing the picture was told by Dorian that it was Dorian only who was behind Sibyl Vane's death, but he could not see that on his face so he too saw that in the picture.

Keeping all this in our head, we should also focus on what Oscar Wilde said after the book was published--
"Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.".
Of course what world thinks of oneself and what one thinks of oneself could be bad and evil, but what one aspires to could never be evil and bad.

Leaving with us the question-- "Did Dorian really committed anything bad?"

I have read the book, but it's still not completed.]]> 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at: 2021/12/11
date added: 2022/11/15
shelves:
review:
Absolutely astounding book.
In the end I feel like Wilde left us with a problem to think upon-- just after Dorian killed his friend Basil it starts to set in that Dorian has become evil and because he never had to face any consequences of his actions he started to dwell on thoughts that justified his killing; now, in the end when people reached through the window in the top room where painting was kept, they saw the painting as it was originally painted by Basil and Dorian lying down on the floor with a knife stabbed in his body by himself.
Now, there could be two different reasons to explain his death.
1) He was bad: he did bad things, albeit he had no consequences of that in his beauty but punishment was given to him as psychological suffering to maintain balance in universe, in the end when he tried to kill the painting too and end the suffering, the power who was behind saving his beauty had to kill him.

2) He was good: Two scenes-- Dorian alive and happy, and painting as it was painted; Dorian killed himself, and painting as it was painted. It could be that this book was never with "unrealistic events" as people say. The painting never altered. But of course Basil too saw it. The notion that it was all inside Dorian head is quite tangible and do not require much explanation, but what about Basil? Basil before seeing the picture was told by Dorian that it was Dorian only who was behind Sibyl Vane's death, but he could not see that on his face so he too saw that in the picture.

Keeping all this in our head, we should also focus on what Oscar Wilde said after the book was published--
"Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.".
Of course what world thinks of oneself and what one thinks of oneself could be bad and evil, but what one aspires to could never be evil and bad.

Leaving with us the question-- "Did Dorian really committed anything bad?"

I have read the book, but it's still not completed.
]]> 1984 40961427 Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life—the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language—and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.]]> 298 George Orwell Saurabh 5 4.24 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1949
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/30
date added: 2022/05/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1)]]> 78411
I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.

In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.

It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.

With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket]]> 162 Lemony Snicket 0439206472 Saurabh 4 4.02 1999 The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1)
author: Lemony Snicket
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/25
date added: 2022/05/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life]]> 50887097 A wondrous debut from an extraordinary new voice in nonfiction, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and—possibly—even murder.

David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake—which sent more than a thousand of his discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life’s work was shattered.

Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world.

When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool�a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet.

Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don’t Exist reads like a fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.]]> 225 Lulu Miller Saurabh 5 4.15 2020 Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
author: Lulu Miller
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/21
date added: 2022/05/22
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Epic. Could be life changing for some. Right now after first read I don't feel well equipped with words to write a review and also to write what giving up "Fish" meant to me.
]]> Who Will Cry When You Die? 289029
Offering 101 simple solutions to life’s most frustrating challenges, bestselling author and life leadership guru Robin Sharma will show you exactly how to recreate your life so that you feel strikingly happy, beautifully fulfilled and deeply peaceful. Specific lessons include how to: "Discover Your Calling," "See Your Troubles as Blessings," "Enjoy the Path, Not Just the Rewards," and "Live Fully So You Can Die Happy." This is a truly remarkable book that you will treasure for a lifetime!]]> 204 Robin Sharma 1401900127 Saurabh 2 3.96 1999 Who Will Cry When You Die?
author: Robin Sharma
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 2018/05/18
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tales of Demons and Gods (Volume, #3)]]> 31246215
Killed by a Sage Emperor and reborn as his 13 year old self, Nie Li was given a second chance at life. A second chance to change everything, save his loved ones and his beloved city. He shall once again battle with the Sage Emperor to avenge his death. With the vast knowledge he accumulated in his previous life, he shall have a new starting point. Although he started as the weakest, without a doubt, he will climb the steps towards the strongest.

Cultivating the strongest cultivation technique, wielding the strongest demon spirits, he shall reach the pinnacle of Martial Arts. Enmities of the past will be settled in this new lifetime.

“Since I’m back, then in this lifetime, I shall become the King of Gods that dominates everything. Let everything else tremble beneath my feet!”]]> 15 Mad Snail Saurabh 3 4.35 Tales of Demons and Gods (Volume, #3)
author: Mad Snail
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/05/22
date added: 2022/05/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Tales of Demons and Gods (Volume, #2)]]> 30361144
Killed by a Sage Emperor and reborn as his 13 year old self, Nie Li was given a second chance at life. A second chance to change everything, save his loved ones and his beloved city. He shall once again battle with the Sage Emperor to avenge his death. With the vast knowledge he accumulated in his previous life, he shall have a new starting point. Although he started as the weakest, without a doubt, he will climb the steps towards the strongest.

Cultivating the strongest cultivation technique, wielding the strongest demon spirits, he shall reach the pinnacle of Martial Arts. Enmities of the past will be settled in this new lifetime.

“Since I’m back, then in this lifetime, I shall become the King of Gods that dominates everything. Let everything else tremble beneath my feet!”]]> 15 Mad Snail Saurabh 3 4.41 Tales of Demons and Gods (Volume, #2)
author: Mad Snail
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/05/22
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tales of Demons and Gods (Volume, #1)]]> 30361129
Killed by a Sage Emperor and reborn as his 13 year old self, Nie Li was given a second chance at life. A second chance to change everything, save his loved ones and his beloved city. He shall once again battle with the Sage Emperor to avenge his death. With the vast knowledge he accumulated in his previous life, he shall have a new starting point. Although he started as the weakest, without a doubt, he will climb the steps towards the strongest.

Cultivating the strongest cultivation technique, wielding the strongest demon spirits, he shall reach the pinnacle of Martial Arts. Enmities of the past will be settled in this new lifetime.

“Since I’m back, then in this lifetime, I shall become the King of Gods that dominates everything. Let everything else tremble beneath my feet!”]]> 15 Mad Snail Saurabh 3 4.31 Tales of Demons and Gods (Volume, #1)
author: Mad Snail
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/05/22
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Homunculus 5 6468161 232 Hideo Yamamoto Saurabh 2 3.70 2005 Homunculus 5
author: Hideo Yamamoto
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2022/05/21
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Homunculus 6 2961822 200 Hideo Yamamoto 3770468147 Saurabh 2 3.85 2005 Homunculus 6
author: Hideo Yamamoto
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2022/05/21
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Homunculus 4 2939487 198 Hideo Yamamoto 3770466675 Saurabh 3 4.06 2004 Homunculus 4
author: Hideo Yamamoto
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/21
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Homunculus 2 2961821 200 Hideo Yamamoto 3770465792 Saurabh 3 4.23 2004 Homunculus 2
author: Hideo Yamamoto
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/20
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Homunculus 1 6468157 256 Hideo Yamamoto Saurabh 3 4.24 2003 Homunculus 1
author: Hideo Yamamoto
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/20
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Homunculus 3 2961820 208 Hideo Yamamoto 3770465806 Saurabh 3 4.11 2004 Homunculus 3
author: Hideo Yamamoto
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/20
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Archer 52585195
With the wisdom, generosity, simplicity, and grace that have made him an international bestseller, Paulo Coelho provides the framework for a rewarding life: hard work, passion, purpose, thoughtfulness, the willingness to fail, and the urge to make a difference.]]> 131 Paulo Coelho 152471187X Saurabh 1 3.67 2003 The Archer
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2003
rating: 1
read at: 2022/03/23
date added: 2022/05/21
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Saurabh 4 4.33 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/01/27
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)]]> 29056083
It was always difficult being Harry Potter, and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is the complete and official playscript of the original, award-winning West End production. This updated edition includes the final dialogue and stage directions, a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and playwright Jack Thorne, the Potter family tree, and a timeline of events in the wizarding world leading up to "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."]]> 343 J.K. Rowling 0540027340 Saurabh 4 3.42 2016 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/01/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Six Secrets Smart Students Dont Tell You]]> 22732195
If this is your opinion about smart students, this book will force you to think again. In simple, straight-forward terms, Six Secrets Smart Students Dont Tell You proves the truth of the saying, Winners dont do different things, they do things differently.

If you are a school or a college student looking to do well in the next exam or make a mark in school or college, this book is for you. If you are a concerned parent looking to help your struggling child, this book is for you.

Six Secrets Smart Students Dont Tell You is a book loaded with practical advice and homespun wisdom. Becoming smart is just a few pages away!

About the Author

Chandan Deshmukh R is a 24-year-old Bangalore-based Electronics & Communication Engineer by chance and SAP Basis engineer by profession. While in school and college, Chandan preferred reading smart students to textbooks. This enabled him to unearth a plethora of secrets, which are laid bare in this book.]]> 124 Chandan Deshmukh 9384030163 Saurabh 3 3.76 2014 Six Secrets Smart Students Dont Tell You
author: Chandan Deshmukh
name: Saurabh
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2014
rating: 3
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date added: 2022/01/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)]]> 6 734 J.K. Rowling 0439139597 Saurabh 3 4.56 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Toppers 33131242
At the elite school of Woodsville, manipulation and lies reign supreme. In the quest for the coveted spot of Head Scholar, stakes are raised, sides taken, and the student body turned into a pawn in a vicious game played by the toppers of Woodsville.

Witness an intense battle of wills, where the toppers overcome their demons only to unleash those lying in wait within others. Chaos and mayhem become weapons in their hands as the facades slowly begin to crumble.

But in their fight to be the best, they forget one thing . . . there’s always someone better.

Fast-paced, riveting and intense, Toppers is the edge-of-the-seat dramatic thriller you’ve been waiting for all year.]]> 236 Aayush Gupta Saurabh 4 4.18 Toppers
author: Aayush Gupta
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/01/06
shelves:
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]]> To Kill a Mockingbird 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Saurabh 5 4.25 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird
author: Harper Lee
name: Saurabh
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/06
date added: 2021/08/08
shelves:
review:
A hard to put down, will make you fall in love with Lee's writing and gives a character to look forward to in life.
]]>