All posts tagged: Reading

rainbow colours with floral book motif saying read with pride

Discovering Authentic Voices: LGBTQ+ Books to Explore Beyond Pride Month

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If you’re tired of all the rainbow washing and lip service, turn to some fabulous books written about, for, or by the LGBTQ+ community.
In recent years, there has been a surge of LGBTQ+ books being published, and the quality of these books has never been better. They showcase stories that celebrate the rich diversity of human experiences.
I wanted to highlight some of the best LGBTQ+ books in various genres I have encountered in my reading experience.

poster to encourage reading during the summers

A Summer of Reading: Keeping Kids in your Community Engaged

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Summer holidays are a time for children to unwind and enjoy leisure activities. However, what if we could disguise educational activities as fun without them realising it? Blending education and recreation will help reduce screen time while they continue to develop skills and knowledge without feeling like they are being burdened with more schoolwork. I wanted to encourage a Summer of Reading program filled with fun events for the kids so that they are productively engaged indoors during their holidays.
The aim of organising a Summer of Reading activities for kids was to help them find the joy of reading books. I hope this post encourages you to try something similar in your communities.

Baby with a board book

Encouraging the Love of Reading: Tips for Parents to Inspire Kids to Read

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Reading is an essential skill that is fundamental to a child’s development. However, in recent years, there has been a growing concern that children are reading less due to increased screen time and a lack of interest in books.
In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of reading for children and provide tips on encouraging kids to read. We will also examine how the lockdown has affected reading in kids and provide insights into the types of books that children prefer.
I hope that this inspires parents and caregivers to foster a love of reading in children and unlock the many benefits that reading has to offer. You might even be inspired to start a reading habit for yourself!

collage of book covers of biographies

7 Must-Read Biographies: Stories that Inspire and Inform,

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I love stories. These stories become even more meaningful when you know they’re true. I’ve not always read non-fiction, and I started reading biographies even later. Since then, I’ve read stories from people’s lives that are inspiring, heart-breaking, and relatable.  I cannot classify the stories I’ve read into good or better stories. Each book brings its own charm. However, some books are well-written, and some books pull you in and make you pause as you feel each word that’s penned down. This is a list of those books. Decoded by Jay-Z It gave me a refreshing perspective of the hip-hop culture and rap music – a genre I always overlooked. The lyrics have been beautifully written and explained and is comparable to pure poetry. That is not to say that there isn’t some lousy hip-hop doing the rounds (pointless violence and sex), but good rap, as Jay Z points out, is very powerful and has several layers. Even the cover of a Rorschach blot is a stroke of genius…just like rap music, it conveys different …

baby with a book

For the Love of Books: How to Raise a Reader?

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I love reading. I’ve loved it ever since I can remember. I don’t remember where I picked up the habit because no one else in my family was interested in or had any time for reading as a hobby.  When I started college, I first came across people who romanticised reading. You’d never catch them without a book with them. They’d pride themselves in how many books they carried on their travels because they’re more important than clothes or shoes! Then came the Internet memes asking boys to find girls who read over every other type (whatever that means). I’ve seen parents proudly showing off how their kids are glued to books at the dinner table and prefer the company of books over people. Let’s not even get into the topic of book hoarding. I love books, and I have done all of these things mentioned above. But I am also a practical person. I’m not going to carry a book unless I know I’m in for a long wait. On my travels, I would …

woman on a chair reading a book with a cat on lap

Around the World in Books

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I got the idea from a newspaper article about a teenager reading at least one book from each country in the world. What a novel thought! Why hadn’t I thought of that? All my life, I’ve read about the adventures of various White kids and adults.  We’re told how Enid Blyton books are quintessential childhood stories even though my childhood didn’t resemble it in any way. Even contemporary writers widely available in my adulthood were White. I have written previously about my quest to diversify mine and my son’s bookshelves. Here, I talk about this in detail. I’ve also added my list here, so if anyone’s interested in expanding their reading list or even help me with recommendations.  What I learned about what I read When I started paying attention to who I read, I decided to make an Excel Sheet by region and country. I was pretty surprised by what I saw, although I shouldn’t have been. The UK and US columns overflowed, while the India column was relatively modest. Even within the UK …

Gajapati Kulapati series of 4 books

Book Review: Gajapati Kulapati

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Ganesh Chaturti is the perfect time to talk about our favourite elephant. The Gajapati Kulapati series by Ashok Rajagopalan, published by Tulika Books, is a favourite in our house. We bought the first one when our son was about a year old, and now five years later, we have the complete set and still love reading them. The story is simple and hilarious. Each book is about an adventure Gajapati Kulapati has with his friends in the village where he lives. The sound effects will make kids and adults giggle with delight. There are four books in the series. We meet the same characters in each book and love to see how they’re getting on. Tulika Books publishes these books in Indian regional languages as well. They’re sure to delight young readers for a long time to come. We recently had the pleasure to attend a book reading by Ashok Rajagopalan at a children’s festival. He not only enthralled the kids, but also the adults and patiently signed copies for kids after the event. Note: …

Top 10 Free Ebooks you need in your Library

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Who doesn’t love free stuff? When it comes to books, I can never have too many. I would always have to worry about storage while purchasing physical copies of all the books I wanted. Now, with Kindle, I can read to my heart’s content. The best part is, there is such an immense repository of books that have crossed their copyright period and are now available to download and read for free. All you need to do is download the Kindle reading app on any of your devices if you don’t want to invest in a Kindle. If you already have a Prime membership then Amazon’s Prime Reading programme gives you a wide selection of books that are included in your membership, hence free to read. I have previously written about the benefits of an e-book reader. You can read and decide what works best for you. So, without further delay, here are my top 10 free Kindle ebooks you need to read. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is one of my absolute favourites. Such …

Kindle Paperwhite ebook reader with the cover of Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

For the reading addict: Paper Books vs E-Books vs Audiobooks

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If you have ever tried to decide between getting a paper book, ebook or an audio book then you understand the challenge most people face when trying different modes of reading. While they all contain the same information from the books, there are differences in each medium. If you’re trying to cut your reading expenses and make reading more efficient I will explain the differences and help you choose a format that works best for you. A few years ago, if you asked any boomer or Gen Xers if they’d switch to e-books, you’d probably hear them gasp and scowl in horror at the thought. E-books are so impersonal. I could never give up the touch and feel of REAL books. It’s blasphemy to even think of reading on a screen. I know because I was one of those who turned their noses up at the thought of anything apart from a paper book. (We shall discuss book snobbery in another post.)  Physical paper books have been around for centuries and will never go out …

Pile of books next to a small wooden deer

Reading Challenge: 2018 (Prologue: On Diversity)

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When you have read 50 books in a year, it’s safe to say not all of them can be (or need to be) reviewed. Even the ones I want to talk about are too many for a single post so I’ve divided them in three parts (and this rant). I used to read whatever book piqued my interest at the moment either because someone recommended it to me or the blurb was well written. Then there was a list of books that were considered well known and famous.  After reading some ‘classics’, I wanted to add contemporary books to my list as well so I would try and look (mainly on Goodreads lists) for interesting books released in that year. What I realised as I documented my reading lists, is that my list was very lop-sided – very Western, very White. I had not explored Indian authors since English Lit classes in college. My list barely had any authors from countries other than the UK or US. I found that to be a dreadful shortcoming; …