Dear reader,
I juggle between TBR lists and mood reading. To my surprise and gladness, I am capable of doing both. My “voracious reader” phase started somewhere around the year 2018, thanks to the literature stream at university. That was the pre-covid era. The years that followed found me becoming a mood reader of sorts. Until 2025. I made a reading list because I had to stop buying more books and blow the dust on the ones that have been peeking yearningly through the glass on the shelf.
And a picture of my book stack!
I started the year with Donna Tarrt’s “The Secret History”. A revered book among my bookstagram mates and a frequent recommendation.
“Beauty is terror.
Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.”
Too hooked to look away. Donna Tartt's prose. It's a dark beauty in itself.
I like how the book explores and will explore the double-edged sword beauty is. Needless to say, it's not just about appearances but also about the thin line between beauty, passion and obsession and downfall. Too much of a good thing and it turns into an urn of poison.
Notebooks: a handy saviour. This year, I am also cataloguing my reading in a journal. Call it commonplacing or note-taking or any other academia term out there, but it's therapeutic. Indeed.
Until next time,
halin