A Little Detour

When you feel the impulse to do something completely off the chart and the impulse get's so strong that you almost can't think of anything else, then it's best to go forth with it.

Such an impulse struck me all day today when I wasn't in the mood to brew up another review, instead I wanted to share some more randomness. The past few days of this year were spent 9000ft above on the mountains and in the valleys of India. Finding serenity or being brave in the cold- call it what you may. As the year's motto for me is to 'Take it Easy', I'm loosening up from the monotony of literary content to share some things that just might be purely pleasing to look at and nothing more. Without getting too personal and crossing the boundary of oversharing, I hope you are will enjoy glancing through these little tit-bits of India as I rediscover it anew.

Change is always good.

View from a remote point from our drive in and around Shimla

Summer capital of the British

Our little trek to Mall Road was scenic as ever

Breakfast table view 

Turn around to face the stunning topography of Himachal at every corner

School's out - snow day at a local school

Serenity - the trees whisper cold wind in your ears

Hope you enjoyed this little visual treat, even if managed to refresh you for a minute. I'll be back with more reviews soon.

خُدا حافِظ

New Year, New Challenges !

I read 51 books in 2015 as per my Goodreads Challenge. That should make me feel accomplished. However on the contrary I didn't feel it's something to be proud of. I can read 50 books is a thing to say that sounds great. Borderline flouting. However, I am never challenging myself to something like that anymore for 2016.

Lots of lumpy books were acquired last year that sat on my bookshelf unloved. Due to the pressure of the challenge, I had to be cautious and try not to pick up anything more than 350 pages. Unnecessary pressure, no fun. Enjoying the stories became difficult as the plot lines got hazy,  I had to speeding past dialogues and characters and which caused my inability to a churn a well opinionated review. This is not how it should be.

Since 'Chill out and let it go' will be my newly adopted mantra for the year, the same will be applied to my reading. Thus I have set a reasonably realistic challenge of 20 books. That's it. Only 20. So I have liberty to read the massive books at my own leisure, take my time and genuinely get to enjoy the writing.  Not slacking but trying to re-instill my love for reading. I will also take this moment to mention that aside form my literary adventures, a few Islamic books too will be part of my reading stack due to obvious reasons.

It's amazing to see that over the two years my preference of reading material and choice of genre has changed so much that I feel proud of myself. From starting off my 'downtime' with Dystopia and Young Adult sci-fi and now going towards classic writers, literary authors and more matured content, I do feel it's become much more than just reading. It's evolving. My eyes crave to glaze through words that will stay with me. My kindle sleeps under my pillow will I cheat on it's ancestor of whispery pages, gorgeous prose and alluring covers.

I realize now the value of reading only 10 beautifully written books than just cramming in 50 or so. So without further adieu, here's to another fabulous year of wonderful books. Happy New Year and Happy Reading !