Category: 2021

Categories
2021 reading reading& writing

List: Books I Read in 2022! [58]

  • January = 7
  • February = 3
  • March = 6
  • April = 6
  • May = 8
  • June = 9
  • July = 4
  • August = 4
  • September = 4
  • October = 3
  • November = 3
  • December = 1
  • Total = 58

January 2022

1 // Life of the Party: Poems (Olivia Gatwood, 2019)

1 // New American Best Friend (Olivia Gatwood, 2017)

15 // The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams, 1979)

16 // Memory Minefield (Mel Torrefranca, 2022)

22 // The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams, 1980)

28 // Life, The Universe and Everything (Douglas Adams, 1982)

28 // In Praise of Older Women: The Amorous Recollections of András Vajda (Stephen Vizinczey, 1966)

February 2022

6 // The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller, 2011)

10 // In Praise of Slow (Carl Honoré, 2004)

23 // Insatiable: Porn–A Love Story (Asa Akira, 2014)

March 2022

4 // How To Think More About Sex (Alain de Botton, 2012)

6 // The Art of Asking (Amanda Palmer, 2014)

6 // The 5 AM Club (Robin Sharma, 2018)

6 // The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams, 1922)

9 // The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides, 2019)

10 // Hell Yeah or No—What’s Worth Doing (Derek Sivers, 2020)

April 2022

1 // The Emperor of All Maladies (Siddhartha Mukherjee, 2010)

4 // Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine (Thomas Hager, 2019)

4 // Gamify: How Gamification Motivates People to Do Extraordinary Things (Brian Burke, 2014)

6 // How to Make Love Like a Porn Star (Jenna Jameson and Neil Strauss, 2004)

16 // The Crying Book (Heather Christle, 2019)

29 // Learn More, Study Less (Scott Young, 2010)

May 2022

1 // So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Douglas Adams, 1984)

2 // Acts of Desperation (Megan Nolan, 2021)

8 // The Giver (Lois Lowry, 1993)

8 // The Art of Death (David Fennell, 2021)

14 // Art of Loving (Erich Fromm, 1956)

19 // What Are You Going Through (Sigrid Nunez, 2020)

27 // Mostly Harmless (Douglas Adams, 2018)

29 // The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. (Daniel Coyle, 2009)

June 2022

3 // Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life (Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia, 2016)

11 // Verity (Colleen Hoover, 2018)

15 // The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Taylor Jenkins Reid, 2017)

16 // Dirty Little Secrets: Breaking the Silence on Teenage Girls and Promiscuity (Kerry Cohen, 2011)

18 // Do No Harm (Henry Marsh, 2014)

21 // Boy Parts (Eliza Clark, 2020)

25 // Hyperfocus: How to Work Less to Achieve More (Chris Bailey, 2018)

25 // Pole Dancing, Empowerment and Embodiment (Samantha Holland, 2010)

30 // When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi, 2016)

July 2022

2 July // Delta of Venus (Anais Nin, 1977)

8 July // The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self (Michael Easter, 2021)

10 July // No Matter the Wreckage (Sarah Kay, 2014)

24 July // Heartburn (Nora Ephron, 1983)

August 2022

15 Aug // Toxin (Robin Cook, 1998)

21 Aug // Slow Days, Fast Company (Eve Babitz, 1977)

22 Aug // Sex and Rage (Eve Babitz, 1979)

28 Aug // Orange Is The New Black (Piper Kerman, 2010)

September 2022

2 Sept // Bunny (Mona Awad, 2019)

16 Sept // My Year of Rest and Relaxation (Ottessa Moshfegh, 2018)

17 Sept // Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career (Scott H. Young, 2019)

21 Sept // Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence (Esther Perel, 2006)

October 2022

15 Oct // The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck (Sarah Knight, 2015)

27 Oct // Everything Sad Is Untrue: (A True Story) (Daniel Nayeri, 2020)

28 Oct // The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Oliver Sacks, 1985)

November 2022

15 Nov // An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration From the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers (Danny Gregory, 2013)

21 Nov // Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning (Viktor Frankl, 1997)

25 Nov // Men Without Women (Haruki Murakami, 2014)

December 2022

11 Dec // Zen And the Art of Happiness (Chris Prentiss, 2006)

Categories
2021 reading& writing writing

Quit Playing Cool by Vlad Holiday

You know how every once in a while you come across something so beautiful that you feel so many emotions about it that you just have to go ahead and write about it? The beauty of something stirs you into creation, into composition.

The song Quit Playing Cool by Vlad Holiday as sent to me by my parabatai did that for us, for both of us. And we both wrote things, that turned out to be wildly different from each other, and yet relating to the same emotions of longing and yearning.

I’d thought of writing a page for every verse in the song. But lo, that didn’t work out and here we have only one page, with seemingly abstract terms and phrases and emotions.

This again catalysed a realisation. We just write what we’re feeling inside of our hearts. When we’re hurt, then even if we were to sit to write about love, we’d end up rhyming of heartbreak and ache. When in love, even death feels poetic. It’s not the content of the topic at hand that makes us feel, but the emotions stirring inside of us. All my writing from a specific phase of a hyperfixation on a person or policy resembles each other, even when dealing with a variety of topics. Yeah.

Another thing is that this feeds my admiration for boudoir photo and videography. Boudoir photography is a form of professional photography that is intimate, flattering the curves and beauty of the client’s body. Boudoir, which is French for a woman’s private dressing room, inspires the intimacy of this genre of photography. And I may or may not be experimenting with this genre.

Anyway. Here it is. Here’s the song:

[Verse 1]
I like how you dance
When you’re by yourself
A bottle of wine
Dreaming of dirty things
Make me stay the night
Like you want to
Let me help you lose your mind
Like you want to

[Chorus]
Quit playing cool, I like you
Forever baby
I’ll stick with you, like I should
Forever baby

[Verse 2]
You’re a shimmer of wavering light
When it’s too dark to see
And you’ve made me come to terms
With my mortality, baby
Kiss me till you bite
Like you want to
Let’s fuck all through the night
Like you want to

Quit playing cool, I like you
Forever baby
I’ll stick with you, like I should
Forever baby

Forever baby

Live young ‘till we die
Like you want to
Let’s fuck all through the night
Like you want to

And here is my parabatai: (I LOVE THIS SO MUCH AAH)

An empty hotel room. Clean sheets. Bare closets. Open windows. A lone ashtray sitting on the table.

She imitates the room, stripping naked.

Cherry red heels strewn across the bathroom floor. They almost look abandoned next to the bucket of wine. The window above the bathtub lets in a soft mellow light, light that dances with the soap on her skin.

Why does the sun feel better on skin that is bare? Why does the air feel like a living, physical presence when she slides out of all her different layers?

The curtains feel softer against her palm, The wood coarser under her gliding fingertips.

The bed more inviting by the moment. Like starving hands eager to trace every curve, every freckle.

And why does it feel better than being touched by another?

In this room, in this space, she is the centre of everything.

Like a top let loose, she can spin on her feet, hands above her head she can spin all she wants.

Knowing she is worshipped by the air, the curtains, the bed, the mirror, the ashtray and even her own red heels.

Oh the sensation!

To dance, to sway, to stretch and turn, to feel every movement of her body as she commands it.

As the light fades outside, she too slips into something darker. Going from soft skin to pulled up hair and long black earrings.

From the sun warm and bright to a single yellow lamp, casting seductive shadows on her body.

From detached silence to a song blasting on the radio.

Desire had never felt more real or more futile.

But as she left the room, her scent lingered in the air with the promise of that desire.

Desire so intense that even the song yearned for her.

And here’s me: (i only kinda like this. wanted to extend it, but ok. it’s a mess, idk, i’m not answerable. i had fun writing it. the all new format was fun.)

the door opens—(and my death it is)—her in a bathtub—(or was it you?)—why do i look at you—(and think of her)—you’re singing of desire—(making it rise in me)—your legs shapely, perfect—(or is it my love, my imagination?)—i don’t know what i am writing—(do i need to?)—i don’t know if you love me or not—(i don’t want to)—i am happy in my fantasies—(there’s you, there’s me, there’s us)—what is the meaning of love—(your red plastic heels in my hands)—your hands soapy—(do they look sexier on the flesh of my skin or gliding across the flat wooden vastness of the table?)—why do you have to be this way—(how do you make me be like this?)—why can’t you love me back—(do i want you to?)—why do you kill me—(kiss me already, for fuck’s sake)—let’s lie in the bed together like thousands before us have and drink wine off each other’s skins—(let’s name it a new emotion)—let’s call our love something else—(and maybe it will be spared, maybe we will be spared)

(oh, will you just look at these gorgeous shots 😳)

Categories
2021 thoughts on things

On Quitting Books.

I was a compulsive finisher—until I gave myself the permission to quit books I wasn’t enjoying.

We get too carried away in trying to tick off boxes and marking things as finished. As a principle, I didn’t tend to leave books midway. I considered it as a commitment to follow through to the last page. I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine, I’ll hold her hand cover to cover and beyond.

Too romantic, eh? Nah. A strange parallel clicked in place once when I was thinking about this. This commitment had the same levels of toxicity as following through with a bad relationship for 5 years. It’s bad for you, and you know it, and yet somehow for a multitude of reasons, you can’t seem to drop it.

A major part of the reason being societal pressure in one form or the other. Society-induced pressure that we put on ourselves. Of having an impressive number of books to have been read. Of being able to put a number on your Goodreads profile.

Life is too short to drag yourself through mediocre reads anyway.

Just over ten years after that fall in Paris, I finally stopped being a compulsive book finisher. I’d learned two things in particular that helped me quit. One, I realized literally NO ONE cares if I give up on a book except me. (And maybe the author, if I told them, which I wouldn’t do because…no.) Two, I realized that I’m going to die.

Jake Wilder, here

Quit more to read more!

(Will continue the thoughts of this one in the next one about reading less, but reading better, whenever that comes along. Until then, see ya and ciao!)

Further reading:

Why You Should Quit As Many Books As You Finish by Rosie Leizrowice, here.

It’s Okay to Give Up on Mediocre Books Because We’re All Going to Die by Janet Frishberg, here.

No One Cares How Many Books You Read by Jake Wilder, here.

Categories
2021 Uncategorized

Fiesta: The Theme Week in Visuals

Had so much fun!

Here is the beautiful poster for it—designed by yours truly—in all of its gold glory!

The first day + loads of pictures + vintage vibes + take me back in time + pretty scarf, red heels, golden round frame
photography, when your abbujan is too into it 🥰
cutie hu mai
the best dressed ladki!
specially gotten clicked with him even when the rain had started just because he looked really good
Felt real sexy the whole day + still loads of pictures + call me the ceo + hotness + they don’t call them powersuits for nothing + get a suit that fits and claim the world as your own + the heaviest regret of my life was changing from the formal pant of the suit to jeans and made my outfit semi-formal + i was actually supposed to be sent home for that
eye makeup ✨
yes. the shelf. i know.
I’m proud.
pyaar hi ho gaya, yes.
Felt so pretty and was saying it so much about myself, to myself that ammijan had gotten actually worried + truck load of pictures + felt so good, wrapped in silk + sexy in black and gold + everybody—all the guys, all the girls—looked so good + legs were dying afterwards though + how are you supposed to carry all this
jaw dekho jaw
the fourth day + didn’t feel like dressing up at all + people did ah-fuck-mazing though + no solo pictures at all + this showed how i have always been excited for things to start, but can remain interested and invested in them for only the first three days + i stopped doing my makeup after this
the only mismatch I’d done
best dressed aka most mismatched
misty cosplay + couldn’t wear the outfit to college so had to change out of it + not a lot of pictures again + spent the whole day at smoker’s; having fun, climbing trees, strawberry oreo shake, ctc sandwich + great people, great day + tiring af + no pictures with anyone
full vibe
lmao test day, death day + so glad i survived + comfort clothes = hoodie + track
the sexiest dressed
dard dikh raha h?

Now as a bonus, here have me taking a seminar on Folic Acid!
the first slide of my very sexy ppt
the meme that I’d added in the ppt, but was too shy to read out loud so I’d chuckled to myself and changed the slide real fast
🕊️🪦 our fallen friend
and here have a bonus odo-must ✨ may the mosquitoes never be on your side

Categories
2021 thoughts on things

I’m willing to suck at chess.

[This is mostly just for me. A reminder for myself. Maybe some sentences might seem in contradiction on the superficial level, but since they are all a part of my belief system, they’re all aligned with one another on a deeper note.]

I’m willing to suck at chess for a while. 

The climb can be hard, but it doesn’t have to suck. You have to have fun along the way up the hill. That’s what I’m aiming at.

Getting better at chess? Yes, sure, I want to. But I wouldn’t mind if that’s just a consequence of having fun while I’m at it. 

But then again, maybe to actually get to at it, I’ll have to put in the necessary number of hours and efforts and play to win, instead just for fun? I don’t know. I’ll see, I’ll figure it out. 

My mom pointed this out in me. Currently even, I do sure play to win but I just don’t want it that hard, y’know? You shouldn’t just be playing, you have to compete.

  • Be someone who plays chess, not someone who sucks at it. Make the game a part of your identity, not the rating. Don’t keep saying to yourself that you suck at it. That will only make it a part of your identity. On the same note, I think I have to change my own narrative too. Since a year now, I have “been trying to learn chess”. I’ll have to change that to “been learning chess” now. Slow and steady, make it a part of your identity. 
  • It’s okay to suck as a beginner. The trick is to stick long enough with it to actually get better at it. Most people quit at the beginner stage (where the progress is slightly difficult and requires efforts) or at the plateau stage of learning (where the progress begins to stall). Whenever you’re starting something new anyway, you’ll suck at it and it’ll be a terrible blow to your ego always. Learn to see beyond it. Learn to fight and persist despite the blows. 10,000 hours. You need to put them in to learn any skill. Honest 10,000 hours of efforts. Don’t quit, let it hurt your ego. You can only get better at something, by sucking at it first. It’s okay if you fail, the trick is to keep at it. Hamesha comfort zone mein thodi rehna hh. Losing takes guts. Trying takes guts.
  • Maybe you lose, yeah. So? Maybe you lose a lot. So? So what? Don’t let it bother you too much. Don’t let it get in the way of you trying. Don’t let it let you quit trying. Fuck you, and fuck your ego. 
  • Think long-term.
  • It’s intense, mate.

I’m willing to suck at chess for a while to get better at it. 

//Playing OTB chess at our college’s sports week was so fun! Even though I got eliminated in the first round itself. But okay. I’m learning. The experience was great.//

Interested people can read more about the cognitive benefits of playing chess here. Its written by me only for the site that I’m doing a reward driven content writing internship.

Categories
2021 thoughts on things

Why don’t I post?

I don’t know, I believe it’s just simpler that way. Personally. Atleast for me, it is.

The primary reason is: I fear context collapse. Like, the pictures and captions I’d use for close friends differ very wildly from the ones I’d use for college friends or for family or for cousins or from casual acquaintances. Everyone gets different parts of you. There’s no general way I can be that’s appropriate for everyone, without dulling certain aspects of me, without cutting away certain parts of me. And I don’t wanna do that. So I don’t post. So that every time talking with anyone, new or old, I’m free to pick which parts of me do I wanna show and focus on.

Like, yes, obviously I do want people to know that I can hold a headstand, but no, thank you, I would not put up a picture for anyone (including a certain slightly creepy guy from eight grade) to look at. Instead of being careful about who I let into my circle of updates (which would require so much vigilance and which wouldn’t work out anyway), I would prefer to let everyone in and avoid putting myself up.

I do keep the occasional stories though. The temporariness of them takes my concerns away.

I wouldn’t want my family to see me the same way my friends do, right? And I interact with a lot of different people in a lot of different ways, both (semi) professionally and personally. I’d like everyone to come up with a blank slate for me to write on. This way I can put up a different side of me for everyone according to the context, and that’s great. That even helps me with developing my own sense of self by letting me variate and experiment with a multitude of different ways.

And capitally, I like the freeness that comes with clicking pictures and not them having to be “IG worthy.” It lets me click pictures for the sake of memories. Idk, it’s probably because I don’t trust myself with something as addictive as IG. Maybe I think I have terrible self control. Maybe I’m afraid that I’ll lose myself once I start putting myself up. Whatever it is, I don’t. And that’s okay. The only thing because of not posting that has happened is I’ve just gotten hella number of questions till date, just that, nothing else.

And one more thing: no one notices if you don’t post, and no one cares. So I rather do what I would prefer more, send direct pictures to the ones I want knowing about it. My people that is. The ones who care. The ones who are genuinely interested in what I’ve been upto and not just who click on my story just because it’s there. I never want to be anyone’s “just because it’s there.”

I like some aspects of my life private, because so much of me is already public. I’m way too revealing IRL, and to keep a balance, I avoid being so virtually. Keeping some things about me to myself helps me preserve my sense of self.

And it takes too much time. Too much time, too many efforts go into these things once you start posting. Idk about anyone else, but if I start, I’ll fall down in the black hole of editing and curating and filtering. I would rather instead prefer to put that time and mental energy somewhere else. That’s another reason.

I don’t think I’m superior or preach that everyone should stop posting. No. Nothing like that. It’s just I don’t want to, so I won’t. If you want to, you do you. You do whatever you want, whatever suits you. This is not a question of moral superiority, just our own personal preferences.

I found another parallel in music. I don’t take recommendations from anyone. No one except my two favourite people. Legit no one else. Do I think other people’s taste in music is inferior? No. Obviously not. They’d be listening to the same songs as us. But I don’t want to share that part of me. For no solid reason. Just because I don’t want to. It’s just some part of me that I’ve kept to myself and to the ones I love.

In one sentence I’d say: I don’t post because it’s just simpler that way.

8th September, 2023:

There’s something unnatural about curating all of one’s best moments, best smiles, best angles, best people and making a catalog of them and putting them out there. We humans are always a mix of the light and the dark, the good and the bad, the hard and the soft. The curation only allows for the light, the good, and the hard. It just doesn’t work that way. I can’t feel it working for me. I’d feel unnatural, artificial, fake of sorts. I don’t post because it’s just not human.

Categories
2021 thoughts on things

Improv Comedy & Life Lessons

What is Improv, anyway?

Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers.

On the spot. On the stage. Unscripted. Imagine.

And Why Is It Supposed To Matter?

I read extensively on the internet about the concepts that can be taken away from improv comedy, and their preparatory games, and put to use in the way we think about our everyday lives. There is so much here that can be applied to everything from personal development to parenting to improving our relationships.

Putting everyday life and ideologies on trial, imagining variations on reality, and questioning the things we take for granted—all of these are more or less the same and very important strategies to widen our horizons and stretch our perspectives.

I don’t really remember how did I start reading about improv, but I guess, it’s only by following along these tangents that we can get to an awakening, right? Follow these tangential concepts, ride on the rainbow, and you’ll get your pot of good luck.

The One Single Takeaway: The “Yes, And” Approach

If someone were to ask me to mention ONE single thing to take away, then without a doubt my choice would be the “Yes, and…” Ideology. It is the most basic rule of improv.

“Yes, and…” thinking is a rule-of-thumb in improvisational comedy that suggests that a participant should accept what another participant has stated and then expand on that line of thinking.

No matter what your partner says during a scene, your job is to build on that, by agreeing with (“yes”) and adding to (“and”) their statement. To do improv successfully, you need to establish characters and plot through collaboration (“yes, and”) rather than negation (“no, but”).

Now how can we apply this to our relationships?

The primary rule is to see yourselves as two collaborating individuals. Yes. And then work towards something that would stretch your brains and broaden your possibilities.

Listening to and being receptive towards the other person—be it your scene partner or your lab partner or your life partner—is really important. Actively listening to them, fully investing yourself in the moment and conversation. Because as Susan Messing said,

If you’re in your head then you’re not here with me.

Susan Messing

Further Reading:

Book recommendations from my side!

1) Training to Imagine:Practical Improvisational Theatre Techniques for Trainers and Managers to Enhance Creativity, Teamwork, Leadership, and Learning (by Kat Koppett)

2) Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation (by Charna Halpern, Del Close, and Kim Johnson)

(psst, if anyone would like to have the pdf versions of these books, I’d be happy to oblige! Let me know in the comments, or hit me up on email or Instagram.)

Bonus Quotes!

My fav improv quotes that apply to life:

No one looks stupid when they’re having fun.

—Amy Poehler

The rules of improvisation apply beautifully to life. Never say no – you have to be interested to be interesting, and your job is to support your partners.

— Scott Adsit

I love improvisation. You can’t blame it on the writers. You can’t blame it on direction. You can’t blame it on the camera guy… It’s you. You’re on. You’ve got to do it, and you either sink or swim with what you’ve got.

— Jonathan Winters

The thing about improvisation is that it’s not about what you say. It’s listening to what other people say. It’s about what you hear.

—Paul Merton

Improv groups get stale when the members stop surprising each other.

—Greg Triggs

Just say yes and you’ll figure it out afterwards.

—Tina Fey

If we treat each other as if we are geniuses, poets, and artists, we have a better chance of becoming that on stage.

—Del Close

The fun is always on the other side of a yes.

—Martin DeMatt

Improvisation is the art of being completely okay with not knowing what the f___ you’re doing.

—Mick Napier

TL;DR: Say yes, have fun, don’t worry!

Or as he said once, when we were playing a game of chess and I was stressing over each move:

Enjoy karo, blunder karo, mast raho!

My Boyfriend

Until next time! Take good care of yourself! Drink water! ❤

:Dhriti.

Categories
2021 reading reading& writing

List: Books I Read in 2021! [87]

  • January = 6
  • February = 2
  • March = 7
  • April = 6
  • May = 21
  • June = 18
  • July = 5
  • August = 4
  • September = 1
  • October = 5
  • November = 10
  • December = 2
  • Total = 87

January 2021

3 // Trigger Warning (Neil Gaiman, 2015)

13 // Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury, 1953)

16 // The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You (Eli Pariser, 2011)

23 // Notes from Underground (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1864)

26 // Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Noah Harari, 2011)

31 // The Lost Book of the White (Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu, 2020)

February 2021

7 // On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong, 2019)

17 // Clean – Expanded Edition: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself (Alejandro Junger and Amely Greeven, 2009)

March 2021

10 // Walden (Henry David Thoreau, 1854)

15 // Chain of Gold (Cassandra Clare, 2020)

23 // Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (Adam Grant, 2016)

25 // Legendary Flexibility (Jujimufu, 2017)

27 // Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Yuval Noah Harari, 2015) 

28 // Ella Minnow Pea (Mark Dunn, 2001)

28 // Make It Stick (Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel, 2014)

7 // If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (Italo Calvino, 1979)

April 2021

9 // Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Cal Newport, 2016) 

12 // How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Country’s Top Students (Cal Newport, 2005)

15 // Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day (Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, 2018) 

20 // The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka, 1915) 

29 // The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity (Esther Perel, 2017)

May 2021

1 // How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less (Cal Newport, 2006)

4 // Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Mary Roach, 2003)

6 // Difficult Loves (Italo Calvino, 1970)

6 // Why Read the Classics? (Italo Calvino, 1991)

7 // Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes (Nathan H. Lents, 2018)

8 // Show Your Work! (Austin Kleon, 2014)

10 // How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (every Once in a While) Change the World (Michael Bierut, 2015)

12 // Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (James Clear, 2018)

16 // Crush (Richard Siken, 2005)

16 // How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (Jenny Odell, 2019)

17 // The Complete Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle, 1892)

17 // Great Goddesses: Life Lessons from Myths and Monsters (Nikita Gill, 2019)

18 // Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Expanded Edition: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment (Steve Harvey, 2009)

18 // Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown, 2014)

20 // When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (Daniel H. Pink, 2018)

20 // Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad (Austin Kleon, 2019)

20 // Steal Like an Artist (Austin Kleon, 2012)

24 // The Exact Opposite of Okay (Laura Steven, 2018)

29 // Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (Mason Currey, 2013)

29 // Conscious Loving: The Journey to Co-commitment (Gay Hendricks and Kathlyn Hendricks, 1990)

31 // Little Weirds (Jenny Slate, 2019)

June 2021

1 // Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity (Hugh Macleod, 2009)

3 // The Book of Delights: Essays (Ross Gay, 2019)

4 // Cosmicomics (Italo Calvino, 1965)

4 // Hands-On Chaos Magic: Reality Manipulation Through the Ovayki Current (Andrieh Vitimus, 2009)

5 // Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (Jaron Lanier, 2018)

6 // How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci (Michael J. Gelb, 1998)

6 // Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)

6 // Do the Work (Steven Pressfield, 2011)

10 // Let It Out: A Journey Through Journaling (Katie Dalebout, 2016)

13 // The Sun and Her Flowers (Rupi Kaur, 2017)

15 // The Princess Saves Herself in This One (Amanda Lovelace, 2016)

15 // Our Men Do Not Belong To Us (Warsan Shire, 2014)

15 // Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth (Warsan Shire, 2011)

17 // Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty (Nikita Gill, 2017)

17 // Your Soul Is a River (Nikita Gill, 2016)

17 // 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think (Brianna Wiest, 2016)

19 // Chain of Iron (Cassandra Clare, 2021)

23 // I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry (Halsey, 2020)

July 2021

11 // The 4-Hour Workweek (Tim Ferriss, 2007)

12 // The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (Nicholas G. Carr, 2010)

12 // Depression & Other Magic Tricks (Sabrina Benaim, 2017)

23 // Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan, 2012)

31 // Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations (Alex Harris and Brett Harris, 2008)

August 2021

20 // The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (Kim Edwards, 2005)

21 // Yesterday I Was The Moon (Noor Unnahar, 2017)

30 // The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde, 1890)

30 // Hold Your Own (Kate Tempest, 2014)

September 2021

12 // Will Grayson, Will Grayson (David Levithan and John Green, 2010)

October 2021

14 // 1984 (George Orwell, 1949)

15 // Flights (Olga Tokarczuk, 2007)

19 // F.U. Money (Dan Lok, 2009)

26 // Creative Journal Writing: The Art and Heart of Reflection (Stephanie Dowrick, 2007)

28 // The Meaning Of Things (Eugene Halton and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1981)

November 2021

4 // 40 Alternatives to College (James Altucher, 2012)

5 // Choose Yourself! Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream (James Altucher, 2013)

6 // How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, And Vanish Without A Trace (Eileen C. Horan and Frank Ahearn, 2010)

7 // Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Daniel H. Pink, 2009)

12 // Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body’s Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free (Joel Fuhrman, 2011)

12 // On Writing Well (William Zinsser, 1976)

13 // How to Build a Memory Palace (Sjur Midttun, 2016)

13 // 10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (While Studying Less) (Thomas Frank, 2015)

13 // The Art of Discarding: How to Get Rid of Clutter and Find Joy (Nagisa Tatsumi, 2017)

17 // Cobalt Blue (Sachin Kundalkar, 2013)

December 2021

10th December: I’m proud to say: none. (As I had decided to read no books for December to prioritise academics.)

18th December: Lmao no, I slipped, here’s one. 175 pages, read in a day:

18 // Slutever: Dispatches from a Sexually Autonomous Woman in a Post-Shame World (Karley Sciortino, 2018)

31st December: lol here’s another:

31 // Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (Nir Eyal, 2019)

Categories
2021 reading reading& writing

List: Books I Read in 2020! [Post-NEET]

  • October = 9
  • November = 5
  • December = 6
  • Total = 20

October

2 // Eve’s Hollywood (Eve Babitz, 1974)

3 // Damn Good Advice (George Lois, 2012)


5 // Origin (Dan Brown, 2017)


11 // A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini, 2007)


13 // Ways of Seeing (John Berger, 1972)


21 // Call Me By Your Name (Andre Aciman, 2007)


23 // Find Me (Andre Aciman, 2019)


23 // Next (Michael Crichton, 2006)


31 // Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)

November

3 // The Red Scrolls of Magic (Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu, 2019)


9 // The Ethical Slut (Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy, 1997)


14 // Circe (Madeline Miller, 2018)


15 // Digital Fortress (Dan Brown, 1998)


25 // Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts, 2003)

December

2 // The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown, 2009)


14 // Life of Pi (Yann Martel, 2001)


15 // Vagina: A New Biography (Naomi Wolf, 2012)


18 // Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (Cal Newport, 2019)


18 // The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (Angela Carter, 1979)


22 // Handmade: Focus in the Age of Distraction (Gary Rogowski, 2017)

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