Ankur Shukla

Alright, as I talked about Peter Cline's The Threshold series last year, I am still very much in love with the series. I did diss Book #3 Dead Moon last time and wished/wondered if Clines would ever bring back the glory days of 14 and The Fold to his reader. Well, we are all in for a treat! His latest book in the series Terminus brings back the story home, in the present day multiverse and its damn good! I loved each and every moment of the book and devoured it as fast as I could. For readers an...

So for this year, I have decide to read more comics and books about comics culture (and counter culture). This sounds like a pipe dream to me as I have always been a comic book nerd. To kick off this year, I am currently reading (a) Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us about Being Human by the legendary comics book artist/writer Grant Morrision, (b) Watchmen by Alan Moore which is rightfully the best graphic novel of all time, and (c) ...

Admittedly I have been absent from this space for a while now, This of course doesn't mean that I have stopped reading. I am still going strong with my reading lists and 2019 challenge with 45 books under my belt. But there has been some distractions, namely in form of my renewed interest for Nintendo video games. I have spent so many hours in the past months on old and new Nintendo video games as well as traveling more than usual. In my deference I did read 5 books on video gaming industry...so...

Today I want to talk about the Threshold Series by Peter Clines. This has three books todate v.i.z. 14, The Fold , and Dead Moon. Clines has built not only an amazing universe in the first two books but also created a set of very likeable and relatable characters in these 2 books. Without giving away any plot spoilers 14 can be best described as a weird mystery, to the likes of thebTV series Lost while The Fold is a solid sci-fi story with interdimenstional travels et al. In short both the books...

Its been a while since my last time here, and definetely the first of this year. As any aptly first of the year post goes. I thought lets talk a little about what I plan to read this year, I know its one months too late, but hey it's better than not doing this at all ( I think). So I completed last year on a high note, with 68 books under my belt. This year, again, I have signed up for finishing 60 books at Goodreads and hope to surpass the goal again. In the hindsight, I think I should also cr...

I recently finished reading Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Cerreyrou. The book details the inner workings of the (once a unicorn) startup Theranos and how the its founder Elizabeth Holmes tried to dream, build and eventually brought a disgraceful end to Therenos. Holmes, along with her #2 Sunny Balwani created an elaborate smoke and mirrors dream, misleading the investors and business partners as well as playing with the health of actual patients! The book also e...

To set the context, I like reading horror novels and its not because they scare me. On the contrary, horror stories usually do not scare me. There are very few horror novels where I have genuinely felt scared. Stephen King's The Shinning is one such books where it got me at some parts. There are some wildly acclaimed scary books, to the likes of Salem's Lot (King) or The Woman in Black (Susan Hill) or The Heart Shaped Box (Joe Hill) et al, where I was promised a good scare and it didn't! I also ...

In no particular order: Mikasa Ackerman (from Attack on Titan) Black Widow (from MCU) The Wasp (from MCU) Lara Croft (from the 2013 rebooted video game universe) Ginny Potter (from the books) Frances Neagley (from Jack Reacher books) Trinity (from Matrix) Ilsa Faust (from Mission Impossible) Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Edge of Tomorrow) Rita Vrataski (All you need is Kill) ...

So I finally finished reading the third (and the last book) in the Crazy Rich Asians series over the weekend. There are three books in the series viz. Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend, and Rich People Problems. These books are written by Kevin Kwan, with the movie adaption of the first one, took America on a cultural storm making it one of the top box office grossers this summer. While the movie markets the story as a romantic comedy, the books (all three of them) are far from it. At th...

If you are a fan of mystery/crime books, I would highly reccomend you books in the Agent Pendergast series. These are very skillfully written by the duo of Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston. Special Agent Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast is the modern day take on Sherlock Holmes. while he works for FBI, has very intersting background and almost always takes up grusome murder mysteries. There are clear inspirations drawn from Sir Conan Doyle's Holmes universe with a strong loyal sidekick, mysteriou...

Today is National Voter Registration Day! While I do not follow the fad of everyday is national something day, I feel any day that explicitly calls out people to exercise their fundamental right as the citizen of their country, is worth mentioning. And in today's political climate of polarized viewpoints, where often Idealogy trumps concience and humanity, making your voice count in a democratic system is the least you can do! If you are in the United States, today is more important than anyot...

Since 2017 I have been participating in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I pledged for 40 books last year and finished 2017 with 43 books and am currently at 45 books (and going strong). Am I selling myself short? I am also trying to incorporate the notion of digital wellbeing to my life and reading, via listining to audiobooks, is extreamly theraputic in that sense. Its not only something that I enjoy a lot but also keeps me off news cycles these days (that has a tendency to often put me in a ...