I caved to Bookstagram. Here are 5 books I actually recommend

Indian Express

10 hours ago

(Written by Manpreet Walia)
We are in our performative reading era. Spaces such as Bookstagram and BookTube are subtly laced with a performance. They often prioritise trendy titles over the quality of literature. These days, it is less about the depth of reading and more about the aesthetic of reading.
I bought a worn-out, second-hand, pirated copy of The Book Thief because it was all I could afford with my skeleton of a salary. I was recommended this book by someone in an obscure alcove of Instagram who had put up an artfully captured image of the book (a level of aesthetic I have never managed to capture myself) with the caption: 'Death narrated, the other side of death.'
I had always been a loyal aficionado of unreliable narrators, but death? It was the plot twist I gave in to the pull of. Zusak's Death collects souls, but beyond that, it observes and tags the protagonist as 'a book thief'. Apparently, Death is an unrelenting critic-in-passing.
Set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany, where lives vanished as quickly as candle flames in the wind, reading The Book Thief reminded me of the strange comfort only books can offer when the world is collapsing around you.
Although Erin Morgenstern broke ground in the literary world with her bestselling debut The Night Circus, for me, it is undoubtedly The Starless Sea that commands attention as the ultimate Morgenstern book. It is a book about books. There, I am sold.
I stumbled upon a video titled 'I did it. I finally read The Starless Sea' by The Clockwork Reader, Hannah, my book twin on the internet. Her suggestions evoke the best reader in me, and The Starless Sea invariably belongs in my top five books.
The water blue cover quite literally leads you to an underground magical sea. It is a labyrinth of stories within stories, secret doors, and whispered conspiracies. If I had to convince you in one line to read it, I would say: read it for the feeling of walking through a dream that you don't want to end. It is so magical that it feels like opening a book that smells of memory and possibility.
It was June 6, 2021, a hot summer day, when Anxious People brought even more warmth in my life. 'This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is. Especially if you have other people you're trying to be a reasonably good human for.'
It is a book about trying to be a grown-up. I often quote a lot from Anxious People on LinkedIn. Every now and then, I like to pop LinkedIn's imaginary bubble with a Backman quote and remind my 2,500 something followers that, really, none of us knows anything.
While all of this is underlined in the book, at its heart, it is about a robbery where strangers in a room come together to realise they have all been carrying the same invisible weight. It is hilarious at times and surprisingly real at others. I like to credit Anxious People as my rite of passage into adulthood. This book made it easier for me and I hope it does the same for you.
Okay, so now you know I like to read books about books. And you think you know me? Maybe you do, but I surely did not until I read The Midnight Library.
Midnight Library was my fairytale book, because I felt like a little girl reading it. I picked up The Midnight Library from my local bookstore and read the first chapter even before buying the book. The concept of infinite parallel lives could have been overwhelming, but Haig writes with such tenderness that you almost forget you are reading about life, death, and everything in between.
For most readers, living many lives through books is only a metaphor. But as we follow the protagonist, Nora Seed, we see that metaphor take its truest form as she quite literally lives multiple lives in the story.
The book turns regret, your least favorite feeling to hold on to, into something lighter, reminding you that maybe, just maybe, you are already living one of your best possible lives.
This book is a giant leap of faith into the living, breathing culture of readers and reading. And if you have long carried the label of a non-reader with pride, Taylor Jenkins Reid makes a compelling case to make you leave it behind.
In 2021, when I picked The Seven Husbands, it was Bookstagram's crown jewel of 'book covers you photograph next to your iced coffee.' I expected drama, glamour, and scandal and I got all of that and more but what I was not prepared for, was the ache at its core.
The book follows the unapologetically ambitious, flawed, and magnetic Evelyn Hugo. It is not a book that takes a lot of time to make you move along. And by the final page, you will feel as though you have been entrusted with a secret meant only for you, I know I did.
Taylor Jenkins Reid is a gifted writer, the kind whose prose feels destined to kindle a reader's truest love: the love of books.
(The writer is social media strategist with indianexpress.com)