Here’s a list of all the books I have read or plan to read this year. (In shaa Allah).

Usually at the start of the year, I make a tentative list of books I wish to read – from my long TBR and the books I own (a bit too many). I also give myself some genres or themes to read more books about. This year is all about Japanese and Indian translated literature, English classics, Islamic and Qur’an tafseer analysis.

Plan to Read

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Read So Far

Read List 2024

January
1. Superpower on the shores 5/5
2. Power of trees 5/5
3. Kokoro 2/5
4. Garden of evening mist 4/5
5. The guest cat 2/5
6. Britt Marie was here 5/5
7. Imaginary Rain 2/5

February
8. Bear town 3/5
9. The word for the world is forest 4/5
10. Lessons from Surah Kahf 5/5
11. Fire Bird 4/5
12. At Bertrams Hotel 2/5
13. How do you live? 4/5
14. Sweet Bean Paste 3/5

March
15. Shades of Blue 5/5 great insights – true to words for Bangalore 2024
16. Quran

April
17. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing – 2/5 (too much non sense smarty know it all kind of crap book)
18. Gathering Moss – 5/5 Amazing!!
19. Swiss family Robinson – 3/5 too much preachy and kind of flat but okay
20. Welcome to Hyunam Dong Bookshop 4/5 each chapter felt like short stories with same characters and settings. Warm, reflective. A but longer than necessary but a good read.
21. Emily Wilde Encyclopaedia of Fairies – 5/5 – a book to drown yourself into. Amazing cozy funny read from the first page to the last
22. The Cat Who Saved the Books 5/5 some great quotes. Heartwarming story. Typical Japanese – which I love
23. Remarkably Bright Creatures – got confused it with Soul of an Octopus thinking it’s nonfiction. No regrets. Good book, warm vibes. A bit typical american writing. 4/5
24. Anxious People – 4/5 – full of twists and turns. Funny in many places. Maybe don’t agree with everything written but overall great read.
25. A Bird on my windowsill 3/5 – a book made out of thought dump. I could write such a book too! But you will have to be very famous before it to get penguin as a publisher. Some passages were lit, some out right meandering.

May
26. Savi and the memory keeper – 2/5 – stor y may be good for teenagers, but writing is not what I enjoy these days. Middle grade. Pretentious kind of.
27. Songbirds – 4/5 – good writing. Good story minus the glorification of fornication.
28. Resolve – 4/5 – captures nuance of Indian society very well.
30. Potpourri – 5/5 Ruskin Bond short stories collection.. as good as ever to read.
31. Kafka on the Shore – 25% then dropped – 1/5 – bekaar in one word.
32. Desi Delicacies – 50 % – 2/5 – some entries are ok but mostly all these stupid modern so called muslims.

June
33 Honeybees and Distant Thunder – 3/5. Totally about piano and music. Kind of liked imagining vague piano playing in head. A bit dragged – your usual Jap lit. Some tidbit texts didn’t agree with.
34. The Maiden – started nicely then all nonsense – did not like – Bakwas.
35. The Traveling Cat Chronicles 5/5 – beautiful, calming and sad book
36. The Housekeeper and Professor – 5/5 – terrific amazing absolutely beautiful
37. Forces of Nature – Bekkar show off kinda science book. 2/5
38. The Beauty of Everyday Things – in some places ok, mostly drag-on 2/5 – Not yet finished
39. Vesper Flights – 4/5 –
40 Surah Yusuf – 5/5

July
41. Book of Beginnings – 3/5
42. Psalm for the wild-built – 3/5 – made me laugh in many places and felt warm in others. But theological nonsense and LGBTQ thing totally soured the whole experience for me. Not bad as a story, bad as certain components in the plot . What is this thing with authors these days adding one gay or lesbian character to make their book more likeable?
43. Aranyak – 4/5 (loved everything, a blog post coming up. Except nature is not for worship).
44. Moby Dick – 4/5 – has created a storm of obsession in me about everything ocean and whales.
45. Prayer for the Crown Shy – solarpunk books like this create too optimistic an utopia. Or maybe overly hopeful considering the never ending greed of humankind that’s hurtling us towards no utopia but a straightforward dystopia (already in the making by all sort of wrong world leaders). And yet. And yet. That’s what it is about – to be hopeful, to stay hopeful till last moment like Musa AS and his miraculous staff. A very refreshing read (minus the theology and gender nonsense perspective) – 3/5
46. More days at morisaki bookshop – 5/5
47. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea – 4/5 stars for beautiful romance, great characters, feelings, settings etc. since it’s mythical I will take it as it is – a fiction story with good plot. Don’t agree with idol worshipping things.

August
48. As Long as Lemon Tree Grows – 5/5 – for great plot characters etc .. halal relationships. But. There was no need to extra fanfiction quality post epilogue content. That made the whole thing too cheap.
49. A Month in the Country – 3/5 – But I don’t know how to rate it . I liked the summer/autumn tone of the book. I liked the self restraint of protagonist regardless of his head musings of Mrs. keach. I liked the war – recuperation theme . I didn’t like too much of Christian stuff put in nor the painter being a Muslim (which is so complicated) did the painter paint himself falling to hell because he committed suicide or is it because he thought he would go to hell because he converted to Islam (not a particularly great conversion story from either Muslim or Christian perspective). So a balanced 3 star of I liked it but didn’t like certain things too.
50. Under the Sea-Wind – 5/5 – This book is a love letter to the sea and all the creatures that depend on it. I love how RC gives names to her protagonists and then go on and describe their experiences without anthromorphising them, she details their real experience in the way they might feel – fear, elation, satisfaction etc. I am glad this book is part of a trilogy because I am not done yet with my ocean love.
51. Conveniece Store Woman – 5/5 – commentary on rotten society and an autistic individual with a purposeful life (one that keeps her going) but still people rallying on about how she should “cure”  herself.
52. Turtles all the way down – 5/5 – we all have obsessive thoughts but some people can’t stop it – can relate to anxiety part and excessive sweating issues . Good book with real issue and beautiful feelings. Also, why didn’t I read this before?!
53. Where the Crawdads Sing –

September
54. Kingdom of God
55.

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