Latest

Charlie LeDuff's Work and Other Sins on everyday life in the city

Charlie LeDuff's book "Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts" is about places in New York that working people frequent like barbershops and bars, places where people like to chit chat. Visiting such places, the book provides a glimpse of everyday life for the working people

New Year's resolution to overcome information overload: Commonplace books

People have been complaining about information overload since antiquity. For example, in the first century AD, The Roman writer Seneca said that “the abundance of books is distraction.” With the invention of the printing press, the flood of information became even more unmanageable, and now information is being disseminated faster

How to deal with your unexciting life: Reading Stoner by John Williams

This novel is thought-provoking for a modern audience because we confront the threat of nihilism by trying so hard to be somebody, to differentiate ourselves from people in the past, and from the repetitive nature of the work we do.

Advice on writing from Annie Dillard

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard would resonate with anyone who has ever taken up some kind of creative work. A lifetime of wisdom about life and writing is condensed into a slim book of 111 pages. Loosely connected descriptions, anecdotes, and analogies somewhat form a full account of creative

Who is Halbrand? Could he be Sauron?

Approaching the end of the first season of The Rings of Power, we still know very little about Halbrand's past. For one thing, all we know about his past is discovered by Galadriel. In Númenor's Hall of Lore, Galadriel finds out that the insignia worn by Halbrand is the symbol

Duty and Sacrifice in The Lord of the Rings

"I am not made for perilous quests. I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?" (Chapter One, The Fellowship of the Ring" Most would agree that putting your life in danger for the good of the entire Middle earth is

3 reasons why Avatar is worth seeing

Avatar: The Way of Water, the first of four planned equals to Avatar is set to release on December 16. The sequel will explore the oceans of the planet and will use newly-developed underwater motion-capture technology. For those who missed it in theaters or need a refresher, Avatar has just

Evil in The Lord of the Rings

Elves might be graceful and powerful, dwarves might be strong and steadfast in character, but Hobbits are the center of the Lord of the Rings universe as the carriers of the One Ring. As simple creatures who do not wish for much, Hobbits are surprisingly resistant to the corruption of

Harfoots in The Rings of Power

When does The Rings of Power take place? There are four ages in the Lord of the Rings universe, and each age lasts approximately three thousand years. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings both take place in the Third Age of Middle Earth. Rings of Power, on the other

Why does Three Hundred Years of Longing miss the mark?

I was intrigued by the premise of Three Thousand Years of Longing: Alithea, a professor, attends a conference in Istanbul and is drawn into the stories of the city’s past. The orientalist approach towards the East did leave me disappointed, but there was something else that made the stories

Modernity and Where to Live in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard

In, 1876, when Chekhov was 15 years old, his family had to sell their possessions in the country-side and move to Moscow. Later, Chekhov himself also moved to Moscow to attend university. In 1904, the year of his death, Chekhov wrote his last play, The Cherry Orchard, which is about

Dark Airshaft in The Black Book

Orhan Pamuk's internationally acclaimed novel has been reviewed and criticized by many; yet certain chapters of the novel received a lot less attention compared to, for instance, "When the Bosphorus Dries Up." So, I've decided to write about a chapter which has been somehow disregarded as far as I am

Finding Love in the Time of Cholera

Simply called ‘El amor’ by Spanish speakers, Love in the Time of Cholera is certainly preoccupied with love but refrains from exhibiting it. On the contrary, it depicts love in confined settings, withdrawn from the public eye. I’ve read some reviews of this novel that question why ‘love’ is

Hamlet's Procrastination and Nietzsche

That one question that has been puzzling readers and academics of Shakespeare forever: Why doesn’t Hamlet take revenge when he finds out the horrible murder of his father? The high number of plausible explanations regarding his procrastination, and its success in making readers contemplate is what makes Hamlet so

On "Where the Wild Things Are"

In one of his interviews, Maurice Sendak, the writer and the illustrator of "Where the Wild Things Are," told that he doesn't start writing with the intention of creating a children's book. As "Where the Wild Things Are" is one of the first examples of fantasy in children's books, it