Rishi Giri
Paperbacks

In my last post, I mentioned some books that I came across and skimmed through pages. They were on my reading list, as well.

Recently, for valid reasons, I thought it would be nice to get the hardcopy of some books that I like - even of those which were not in my reading list. Ebooks are getting a little uneasier for my eyes, and I donā€™t have any plans to buy a kindle. Although the amount that has been spent, it feels like adding some more money to purchase kindle might have been a decent choice.

The books that were in the reading list -


Fyodor Dostoyevsky is one of my favourite writers, so I kept him on top of the priority list. Even though Iā€™ve not read his books from page to page, I do have watched countless videos on him and his work, have read hundreds of quotes from this books, and memorized a couple of them. As of now, I bought The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and Crime and Punishment.

Coming to Franz Kafka - since his books are not heavy, I decided not to buy them. I had already read Metamorphosis using my phone, so Iā€™m sticking to ebooks for his works. I genuinely liked Metamorphosis, so, in future, I might purchase it to keep it on my table.

Update: After some back-and-forth, I ordered Metamorphosis. I feel like a hypocrite now.

The next book that I bought is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy after accidentally stumbling upon a video by TED-Ed - Why Should You Read Tolstoyā€™s War and Peace?. To reduce the further risk of boredom, I watched a review, as well.

George Orwellā€™s 1984 and Animal Farm comes under the section of my favorite books. Being read both of them once, I decided to buy them without any hesitation.

Whatā€™s next?

In 2018, I heard about Friedrich Nietzsche, and since then, Iā€™ve been thinking about reading his books. I did read Beyond Good and Evil, but I hardly remember anything. My fresh understanding regarding Nietzscheā€™s philosophy didnā€™t help me to get to know anything beyond his words. In 2019, I read BGE again, but I understood some of it.

This time, with a little bit of familiarity with philosophy and some understanding of Nietzscheā€™s work, Iā€™m giving myself another chance to read his books. It is one of the reasons I bought Beyond Good & Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Recently, I even started reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but kept it aside as I thought it would be decent to follow the right order to read Nietzsche, which is -

Again, Iā€™m skipping The Antichrist, The Twilight of the Idols, The Genealogy of Morals as Iā€™m genuinely interested in reading Beyond Good and Evil.

Coming to Albert Camus, who is one of my favorite philosophers.

ā€œShould I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee? But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.ā€
ā€• Albert Camus, A Happy Death

After reading that quote, I was genuinely surprised. I wanted to understand what the writer has to say. I had no reason to interpret it in my way.

One of the things that Iā€™ve learned in 2019 is when you read something, keep your interpretation aside for the sake of prevention against the absurd relation with your situations and thoughts with what youā€™re reading. I donā€™t want to go into the details, but I might write about it in the upcoming days as to why I donā€™t relate to what I read. Reading does not mean creating a void for yourself.

Important : While reading A Happy Death, I couldnā€™t find that quote which made me read Camus. Itā€™s surprising as the quote is available on Goodreads. If thereā€™s a criterion regarding the authentication of quote submission, Iā€™m not aware of it. However, the availability of the false quote does show the flaw of Goodreadsā€™ quote submission process.

In 2019, I was aware of who Camus is, but I never really read any of his books. During the lockdown, after wasting half of the month, I thought it would be nice if I read something, I picked The Myth of Sisyphus out of nowhere. Later, I read The Stranger, The Fall, and The Plague.

Why did I buy The Myth of Sisyphus? I genuinely like the book. Thereā€™s no other reason.

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is something that I need to read again and again. Thatā€™s why I purchased it, as well. Iā€™m highly interested in evolutionary biology, and this book lays the foundation of it. I donā€™t understand how humans are the product of godā€™s creation. Honestly, it does not make any sense, at all.

Iā€™m not an atheist, theist, or agnostic. I genuinely donā€™t like to put tags or labels on myself. I might write about the reason for it soon.

Coming to The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud. I havenā€™t read much of the pages of this book, but Iā€™m curious about the complexities that dreams carry. If the dreams are meaningful and have something to do with us, sensibly, I need to understand what they bring on the table. One of the reasons I bought this book is that my dreams are absolutely weird. I remember the time when I used to wake up at a specific time, drenched in sweat, no matter when I fell asleep.

I use an app called ā€œDream Catcherā€, where I try to write what I remember from the cinema of sleep.

I havenā€™t read The Politics by Aristotle, Prophet by Khalil Gibran and Why Iā€™m an Atheist and Other Essays by Bhagat Singh, but I found them interesting. On the other hand, they were not costly, at all, so I didnā€™t have to think much whether I should purchase them or not.

For now, Iā€™m not buying Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault, The Castle by Franz Kafka, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene