[OT] Official Books -|- Literature Thread

timekiller

Intermediate
Nov 16, 2013
105
0
21
Peshawar
Hey Guys anyone know where can i find this book called (The Crusades: Flame of Islam by Harold Lamb). any help would be appreciated.
 

shahbakht

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2008
1,486
0
41
To read list for first half of 2017:

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes --- Completed (8/10)
TV (the Book) by Alan Sepinwall & Matt Zoller Seitz --- Completed (8.5/10)

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Mason
This was a Man by Jeffrey Archer
The Whistler by John Grisham
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak
Dark Money by Jane Meyer



I tried to mix things up. Some are non fictional (politics + psychology) and some are fictional, both pulpy thrillers like Archer and Grisham, plus award winners like Zadie Smith and Maria Semple. Hoping to expand my taste buds. Let's see.
 

Web ITech

New member
Jan 21, 2017
0
0
0
In this era of Reseller Hosting where there is so much competition in the market with the different kind of facilities & opportunities provided, Web ITech is a hosting company that is one of a kind. Our main focus is to provide best packages for establishing your own business domain. There are many companies that provide the hosting functionalities but Web ITech provides you with multiple hosting facilities with best rate packages.
 

Ottoman

Senior
Sep 15, 2008
8,589
3
44
Wow Chhowni
I'm in the process of ordering a few books from Barnes & Noble but the shipping is killing it! Anybody else interested in purchasing books from there? I'll make a single order and we can then share the shipping charges between each other.

To put things in perspective, a 40$ order means I'm paying 24$ dollars worth of shipping. Larger orders bring the shipping proportion down considerably.
Tagging [MENTION=4840]shahbakht[/MENTION] [MENTION=19453]UltraViolet[/MENTION] [MENTION=10929]bravoguy[/MENTION].
 
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Ottoman

Senior
Sep 15, 2008
8,589
3
44
Wow Chhowni
See if there are any other books that you're interested in. Also, make sure the books you're ordering from abroad are unavailable in online book stores in Pakistan. Because at the end of the day, Readings, Liberty and Fabingo are a whole lot cheaper than Amazon/B&N most of the time
 

shahbakht

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2008
1,486
0
41
I'm in the process of ordering a few books from Barnes & Noble but the shipping is killing it! Anybody else interested in purchasing books from there? I'll make a single order and we can then share the shipping charges between each other.

To put things in perspective, a 40$ order means I'm paying 24$ dollars worth of shipping. Larger orders bring the shipping proportion down considerably.
Tagging @shahbakht @UltraViolet @bravoguy.

Ah, dude, thanks for the thought, but your timing is just a little off. I ordered some books from Amazon over the last few months and have already received all but one. So, in future, sure, I am interested, but the timing is bad at the time.


Good luck, anyhow. Cheers, mate.
 

bravoguy

Well-known member
Mar 30, 2009
1,162
4
43
43
Karachi, Pakistan.
Looking to buy this book locally The Haverghast Inheritance: An E.V.P. Mystery (E.V.P. Mysteries Book 1) can any one please help me out finding a copy or in digital downloadable format in pdf ?

Also, if anyone have read this book can share their reviews and thoughts.
 

shahbakht

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2008
1,486
0
41
Book #5 for 2017:

The Whistler
by John Grisham

Man, I gotta stop reading Grisham novels. They are only going downhill since 2008. His thrills ain't thrills anymore, the law ain't centre stage which I liked about his work. His protagonists are getting less interesting by each succeeding book.

Or maybe, just maybe, I am losing my taste for airport thrillers.
 

FUEL2009

☠️ Shakedown Artist ☠️
Jun 8, 2012
1,434
0
41
Karach!
My books library, ebooks because i stopped using physical copies after being addicted to epubs.

 

shahbakht

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2008
1,486
0
41
Finished Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler.

Synopsis: A 22-year old woman moves from a small town to New York, and gets a job as a waitress at a high end restaurant, where she learns about wine, love, heartbreak, friendship, drugs, and other life lessons.

Reasons for reading it: the hype. Gotta say, the hype got to me. I had read good reviews regarding this in The New York Times and I respect the opinion of their writers. But it turned out to be a bad call, at least for me. I could not connect to this book one bit. It tried to come off as self-aware and edgy, but read very, very pretentious. And it didn't help matters that it consisted of paper thin characters. It is one thing to have your protagonist idolise a character, but to make them totally devoid of any personality is another thing. The romance did not work for me, the side characters were just annoying, the writing style was as if the writer wanted to cram all of her repertoire of stylistic choices in one novel. It is like Tarantino unleashing all his trademarks in one movie, but only done in a way that didn't work.

So, a paltry 2/5 stars. Skip it. You won't be sorry.
 
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shahbakht

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2008
1,486
0
41
Three Daughters of Eve
by Elif Shafak


This is the fourth book I have read from Shafak, and I am always left intrigued by her work. While I was immensely bored by the last book of hers that I read (The Architect’s Apprentice), the other two have been among my favourites (The Bastard of Istanbul and Forty Rules of Love). Her work encompasses elements that I find very interesting: spirituality, duality existing in a person, uncertainty, the boundaries of faith and doubt, and what happens when they intersect.
This latest book, Three Daughters of Eve, will have you believe with its title that it is a story of three women but, mostly, it is really a story of one woman, and two other women that she meets in her life, but these characters are never in the limelight. The three daughters in question are Peri, Shirin and Mona, described as the Confused, the Sinner and the Believer, and those epithets can give you a broad idea about the general direction this book takes. Shafak uses this trifecta to dissect themes like: role of religion in the modern world, especially Islam, friendship and resentment. The themes explored, plus the structure of the novel clicked with me, for two very big reasons.
Firstly, it is set in a university for the bulk of its length. I have a soft spot for academia set stories as I loved university life (only been four years since I graduated but I miss it every single day, less and less each passing day, but the wound is still there). The novel gives a pretty good overview into the life of a freshman student in Oxford, not necessarily very detailed, but enough that I was hooked. That was not the major point of the book, but the setting helped nail the landing for me.
Second, and more importantly, the book is about uncertainy. Standing between faith and doubt and not knowing which side to choose. The protagonist is Peri and she is uncertain throughout her life, always caught between dualities, her mother and father, her two friends, even in her own mind she has never held one thought unflinchingly, convincingly. All this comes to a plateau when she is made familiar to an enigmatic, intellectually profound professor of philosophy named Azur who teaches, simply, about “God”, not religion, but “God”. Her interactions with Azur make for the central plot point of the whole novel.
The book is a bit long, touching close to 400 pages, but I was not bored at all. The pages flew by because I was involved in the story thoroughly: I am uncertain in my convictions, I will admit, and I related to Peri a lot. Plus it has one of the closest depictions of introversion that I have had the chance to read in a novel. Peri can’t understand why she is the way she is, always torn between wanting to be an extrovert and like others, but can’t. It made for fascinating reading.
In conclusion, grand ideas are explored in this book with trademark Shafak elements like references to Sufism, dichotomy of faith and doubt, uncertainty in this world, place of religion in the 21st century, and unrequited love. While it did not end as satisfactorily as I wanted it to, and it did make a few narrative choices that I could have done without (Peri’s backstory went a bit too far with its “tragic”-ness, for example), nonetheless, I liked this very much and am looking forward to what Shafak does next.
 

FUEL2009

☠️ Shakedown Artist ☠️
Jun 8, 2012
1,434
0
41
Karach!
Guys I want to buy this book locally, if anyone knows from where is this available please let me know.

[h=1]The Life of Muhammad(sal'Allah'o'wassallam): Al-Waqidi's Kitab al-Maghazi[/h]
 

FUEL2009

☠️ Shakedown Artist ☠️
Jun 8, 2012
1,434
0
41
Karach!
Guys I want to buy this book locally, if anyone knows from where is this available please let me know.

The Life of Muhammad(sal'Allah'o'wassallam): Al-Waqidi's Kitab al-Maghazi
By the grace of Allah swt i got the above mentioned book.
 
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  • Necrokiller Necrokiller:
    Consoles can't even catch a break in titles developed exclusively for them 😢
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  • Necrokiller Necrokiller:
    "All of this lends the game distinctly last-gen look at times, which is compounded by image quality and frame-rate issues."
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  • Chandoo Chandoo:
    no jokes.
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  • Chandoo Chandoo:
    faraany3k said:
    So while Playing Control, I found a journal which said that a bathroom is missing in Islamabad Beurue of Control. With Alan Wake and Control seems to be connected worlds. Even our city is in the universe as well. No wonder those Trail 5 and Trail 6 are haunted.
    did you know you can see @NaNoW credited in the game too ? :p
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  • faraany3k faraany3k:
    So while Playing Control, I found a journal which said that a bathroom is missing in Islamabad Beurue of Control. With Alan Wake and Control seems to be connected worlds. Even our city is in the universe as well. No wonder those Trail 5 and Trail 6 are haunted.
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  • EternalBlizzard EternalBlizzard:
    faraany3k said:
    What is peoples obsession with Battle Royale genre. 6 minutes to find a match, 3 minutes to setup a match, 2 minutes to land, 10 minutes for scavanging maybe 2 3 gunfigts and its over. Multiplayer landscape is looking absolute dogshit.
    I tried playing Apex Legends once. Couldn't find a gun for 5 minutes straight. If I found a gun, I couldn't find the right ammo for it. Got killed fighting with my fists. Uninstalled it the next day.
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  • faraany3k faraany3k:
    What is peoples obsession with Battle Royale genre. 6 minutes to find a match, 3 minutes to setup a match, 2 minutes to land, 10 minutes for scavanging maybe 2 3 gunfigts and its over. Multiplayer landscape is looking absolute dogshit.
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  • M muneebjahangir:
    skip the villain arc
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  • EternalBlizzard EternalBlizzard:
    iampasha said:
    I usually stay away from animes. Vinland saga changed the way i look at my life, and my experiences within. I recommend every breathing human being to watch this animated masterpiece at least once fromstart to finish.
    After I watched it, I never felt like i watched a show. It was a friggin journey. I got way too attached to Thorfinn and seeing him grow up and find himself and get rid of all the negativity inside of him was just pure bliss.
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  • iampasha iampasha:
    EternalBlizzard said:
    Vinland Saga > Berserk
    I usually stay away from animes. Vinland saga changed the way i look at my life, and my experiences within. I recommend every breathing human being to watch this animated masterpiece at least once fromstart to finish.
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    Crapcom's RE Engine expose hogaya saaeen. This shit ain't worth experiencing on any platform. 🤷‍♂️
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  • Chandoo Chandoo:
    When a $399 console provides the same experience as a 4090. Yikes indeed saeen :sneaky:
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  • Necrokiller Necrokiller:
    that's a yikes saaaen
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    " Both PS5 and Series X have an unlocked frame-rate here, with performance that generally lies between 30fps and 45fps. That makes for a stuttering and inconsistent output in general play, no matter what you are doing at any given time."
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  • EternalBlizzard EternalBlizzard:
    Vinland Saga > Berserk
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  • faraany3k faraany3k:
    I absolutely hate parry and Sekiro made me love it, i hate sci fi and Mass Effect made me love it. This is the definition of genre defining experiences.
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  • Necrokiller Necrokiller:
    Forbidden West Complete Edition now available on your fav websites. And Nixxes showed Crapcom how it's done 👍
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  • Necrokiller Necrokiller:
    RE Engine is just utter shit for anything other than corridor design remakes
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  • Necrokiller Necrokiller:
    This is a console first developer. LMAO
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  • faraany3k faraany3k:
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  • Necrokiller Necrokiller:
    Even VRR can't rescue it 🥲
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  • Necrokiller Necrokiller:
    And yet PC version has the highest score. RIP who plays it on consoles.
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    Necrokiller Necrokiller: Consoles can't even catch a break in titles developed exclusively for them 😢