Archive - Dear Reader

Reading 400 Pages in a Day?

Dictionary of Lost Words • A Master of Djinn • Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions

Mar 17 •

February 2024

Happy Saraswati Valentine Day

Hello from an understudy to the goddess of procrastination.

Feb 14 •

December 2023

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

and happy new year

Dec 22, 2023 •

November 2023

Of Stories, Memories and Escape

I’ve been thinking about stories a lot these past few months. Reading has felt like a challenge, especially of late and holding on to the thread of a…

Nov 15, 2023 •

October 2023

September in October

What kind of a person sets out to find romance and instead chooses murder? Me. Obviously I’m talking about reading — from the creased titles of crime…

Oct 1, 2023 •

August 2023

Zen + The Lost Pianos of Siberia + King Kong Theory

Last week, a colleague asked me whether a certain feature is available on Substack “since you use it”. I’m pretty sure I must have winced in response…

Aug 27, 2023 •

June 2023

Yellowface and more

You know what’s most amusing about R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface? Imagining the legion of writers who, while reading the novel, would have felt they could…

Jun 11, 2023 •

May 2023

Old Babes in the Wood + Turn Every Page + More

I have friends coming over in about an hour, which you’d think is an indication that this is the wrong time to start writing — especially since this is…

May 7, 2023 •

December 2022

The Last Newsletter (of 2022)

Favouritest books, K-dramas and podcasts

Dec 31, 2022 •

November 2022

The Old Woman With the Knife + After Sappho + more

Earlier this month — it’s still November when I’m typing this. The last day and last hour of November perhaps, but still November — I was roaming around…

Nov 30, 2022 •

October 2022

Best of Friends + Treacle Walker + more

It’s firecracker night where I am, by which I mean it’s Diwali. Historically speaking, we South Asians are not really a firecracker culture — that would…

Oct 24, 2022 •

August 2022

The Satanic Verses + Glory: A Novel

Whatever you put next to this Rushdie novel is doomed to sound like a statement and/or social commentary.

Aug 16, 2022 •

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