Books of 2022

That's the most accurate meme I could find on why it is hard to pick up the next book after finishing one. Reading is wonderful, but getting out of a book- not so much. Still, I try to beat the book hangover and read consistently. How much do I succeed? Well, here's a list of books I read in 2022, the books I started but never finished, and the books I look forward to reading in 2023. Also, a short note on each of them since I'm too lazy(and busy, to be fair) to write a full-fledged review. But you never know. Never say never.

I read these😎:

1. Delhi Gathakal (ദൽഹിഗാഥകൾ)

A novel by M. Mukundan which portrays Delhi from

the 1960s up to the end of the 1980s through the eyes and life of the protagonist- Sahadevan- a young Malayali who lands in Delhi for a job. The Chinese attack on India, Indo-Pak wars, the 1975 emergency, the assassination of Indira Gandhi- the novel takes us through many chapters in the history of India and the impact it had on the people in Delhi- from the rich to the poorest.

2. Little Women part 1

Little Women- Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy! Penned by Louisa May Alcott in the 1860s, Little Women is the story of these four girls figuring out life as it comes- the joys, the pains, the hardships; the highs, the lows, the mundane; love, family and dreams. A whimsical, wonderful tale!!

3. Ikigai

Internet's most aesthetically pleasing book was a good read. Secrets of long life from the Japanese island of Okinawa, topped with a lot of Japanese proverbs. But the secrets are not really secrets- the will to adapt them to our own lives in the age of the internet? That's where the difference comes in, I believe. Pictures of the book feature an aloe Vera that got a new life credit to my roommate and the beautiful floral prints of an age-old bed sheet I took from home. And some excerpts and proverbs. Finally: a tutorial on how to start reading a book and how to finish reading a book😂.🌸

4. Persuasion

Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion, is not a whirlwind romance. It is a mature melancholic romance that ends with a euphoric catharsis. Slow-paced at first, this brilliantly woven novel grips your attention after a couple of chapters till you finish it. Austen novels 2/6 ✔

5. Metamorphosis

The name Franz Kafka misled me into thinking this will be hard to read. It wasn't, but it was. Behind the simple and fairly straightforward narration lies a complex and philosophical conversation. It is a brilliantly layered novella that can be finished in a day, but can keep you inside the questions it pose for weeks.

I started these but, didn't finish:

1. അമ്പലമണി (Ambalamani) -സുഗതകുമാരി (Sugathakumari)

2. കഥകൾ (Kathakal) -സുഭാഷ് ചന്ദ്രൻ (Subhash Chandran)

3. Frankenstein -Mary Shelley

4. The Namesake -Jhumpa Lahiri

5. Little Women part 2- Louisa May Alcott

TBR for 2023 (apart from finishing the above):

1. Wuthering Heights -Emily Bronte

2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo -Taylor Jenkins Reid

3. ഒരു സങ്കീർത്തനം പോലെ (Oru Sankeerthanam Pole) -പെരുമ്പടവം ശ്രീധരൻ (Perumpatavam Sreedharan)

4. ഭാരതപര്യടനം (Bharataparyadanam) -കുട്ടിക്കൃഷ്ണമാരാർ (Kuttikrishna Marar)

Will hopefully return next year with another reading update!