2025

1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (4/5)

good book, the whole christian evangelism propaganda was overdone in my opinion, but it is tolerable.

2. South Sea Tales by Jack London (3.75/5)

Some Robinson Crusoesque short stories that I really enjoyed reading. I liked The House of Mapuhi, Mauki, and The Heathen a lot.

3. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (5/5)

I love this book so much, for so many reasons. As a child, I used to open this book to the scene where Buck pulls a thousand pounds for John and read it over and over again. Simply wonderful.

4. White Fang by Jack London (5/5)

my third consecutive Jack London book, I can’t get enough of his writing. I wish I read this when I was in school. For me, this is better than The Call of the Wild as far as the writing and story go. I am going to go around for the next few days asking everyone I run into to read this book.

5. Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford (4/5)

I hadn’t realised how much I missed this sarcastic percy jacksonesque humour until I started reading this book. I finished this in one sitting, which is something childhood me wouldn’t really think was anything special but many winters have passed since I read a book cover to cover without stopping.

both the dialogue and monologue are great, the plot kinda darkens and pales simultaneously towards the end but it was still very enjoyable to read. also, the subject matter is clearly dark, and the humour does a very good job of being thoughtful as well as effective.

6. Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips (3/5)

wasn’t too bad, although I felt that narration + dialogue were far stronger than descriptions in many places. I have no clue what that Weed character is doing in the book except as a literary device for more exposition, and even that is a weak justification.

I am updating the review on my website a month after reading it, and one thing that stands out is how certain aspects of the book linger on for a long time. The whole Civil War thing, and rustic descriptions of rural America. Very enduring. I can see why it appealed to the Pulitzer folks.

7. The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter (4/5)

this writing has some of the best self-deprecating + existentialist humour ever written. some parts would go real viral on substack/blog-screenshot-twitter. the plot gets weak at some places and the ending is lacklustre. almost like it was written in the hope that it would be adapted into a movie.

8. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude (4.75/5)

there is nothing that hasn’t been said before about this, so I wont waste my time. I loved reading the book, it never felt long, or boring, or difficult, or any of the usual excuses people give for not picking it up. The first time I read it, I simply didn’t have any historical background to appreciate it, but now I get why Tolstoy wanted to write this book.

Obviously, he has a very strong anti-Napoleon bias, and that put me off in some sections. But can we really blame the Russians for not liking Napoleon? His ideas on history are coherent until the epilogue, and then they get into youtube video-essay script territory. As far as characters go, Napoleon was my favourite (no surprises there) followed by Prince Andrei. Absolutely despised the entire Kuragin clan, and Anna Pavlovna, and Pierre Bezukhov. While the Kuragin’s and Anna Pavlovna are just despicable people, Pierre is guilty in that he is a comfort-seeking man, the worst of the lot.

docked a quarter star for all the forced Napoleon hate, Vive l’Empereur!

9. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (2.5/5)

what was that in the middle? the most pointless backstory ever. The Sherlock stuff was cool. but that flashback ruined it all.

10. Odyssey by Stephen Fry (4/5)

I am rather unfairly partial to the Allen Mandelbaum translation of The Odyssey (because it was the first classic I ever read) and so I am not going to say this was a great retelling or anything.

However, I think Fry’s four volumes on Greek Myths are incredibly important for how all-encompassing they are. My first exposure to the Ancient Greek myths and legends was Mandelbaum’s translation of the Odyssey, and then I picked up the Robert Graves book on Greek Myths off a shelf in my school library. After reading that, I was so captivated that I searched far and wide for other such books but never found any.

Children now wont have to search farther than the next book in the series. Athena smiles on Stephen Fry.

11. The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond (2/5)

quaint and nice, but also drawn-out in some places.

12. 1984 by George Orwell (5/5)

This is essential reading. The writing is so powerful, and prescient. One can argue that the idea of the thought police is very far away from most people’s concern, especially in light of the recent resurgence of free-speech absolutists. But I think this book is about Fear, and how it paralyzes and eventually snuffs out everything brilliant and unique about humans. I might read Brave New World sometime soon, that one is about Greed.

13. Napoleon by Andrew Roberts (5/5)

the last great man in history

Vive l’Empereur!

14. Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant (4.5/5)

Wow it was only near the end of the book when Durant was writing about China did I bother to check when it was written, for there was no mention of Mao. Now that I write this, I should’ve realized something was off when he didn’t write about the Indian Independence. This book was written almost a hundred years ago, that is a very long time back to be writing about history. Especially when so much has happened in the last hundred years.

A really good book apart from that, the writing is very engaging, and Durant has genuine respect and admiration about the civilizations he writes about. There is a lot of focus on culture and societal description rather than just military/geographical history, and that was super interesting to me. This book can be used as an encyclopedia of history, because of how well it is organized into sections. It allows you to see the big picture, and identify recurring themes and patterns.

I learnt that the word “saw” has an alternative meaning that means “a proverb or maxim”. Quoting from page 183 of the book, “so old is the modern saw that we live on one-fourth of what we eat, and the doctors live on the rest.”

Some examples of writing I thought were very nice, not directly related to history:

“the world of beauty and the world of money never touch, even when beautiful things are sold”

“Men look to love and life for everything; they receive a little less that that; they imagine that they have received nothing: these are the three stages of the pessimist”

“The very basis of the Higher Man’s character is an overflowing sympathy towards all men. He is not angered by the excellences of other men; when he sees men of worth he thinks of equaling them; when he sees men of low worth he turns inward and examines himself, for there are few faults that we do not share with our neighbors. He pays no attention to slander or violent speech. He is courteous and affable to all, but he does not gush forth indiscriminate praise. He treats his inferiors without contempt, and his superiors without seeking to court their favor. He is grave in deportment, since men will not take seriously one who is not serious with them; he is slow in words and earnest in conduct; he is not quick with his tongue, or given to clever repartee; he is earnest because he has work to do—and this is the secret of his unaffected dignity. He is courteous even to his familiars, but maintains his reserve towards all, even his son.”

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