Excerpts – Asha Seth

1984: An Excerpt

It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one’s own body… On the battlefield, in the torture chamber, on a sinking ship, the issues that you are fighting for are always forgotten, because the body swells up until it fills the universe, and even…

A Room of One’s Own : An Excerpt

“It would have been extremely odd, even upon this showing, had one of them suddenly written the plays of Shakespeare, I concluded, and I thought of that old gentleman, who is dead now, but was a bishop, I think, who declared that it was impossible for any woman, past, present, or to come, to have…

Serious Men – An Excerpt

By: Asha Seth April 5, 2019March 16, 2023

Book QuotesAmreading, Arvind Acharya, Ayyan, Book Reviews, books, Excerpts, Fiction, Indian Fiction, Indian Literature, Manu Joseph, Oparna, reading, Reviewers, Serious Men1 Comment

‘I am sorry,’ Acharya said, ‘I could not see you last night.’ ‘There is some progress with the cryosampler,’ she said, and gave him a print-out of an email. And that was how she was in the days that followed. Something in her was dead. He could see it in her eyes. The way she…

The Tattooist of Auschwitz – An Excerpt

By: Asha Seth March 18, 2019March 16, 2023

Book Quotes2019 reading challenge, Autobiography, Bookish, books, Excerpts, Fiction, Gita, Goodreads, Heather Morris, Lale, reading, The Tattooist of Auschwitz4 Comments

Baretski begins to tease Lale about the note and how he must have lost his touch with the ladies. Lale ignores his teasing, asks him if he’s read any good books lately. ‘Books? I don’t read books,’ Baretski mutters. ‘You should.’ ‘Why? What good are books?’ ‘You can learn a lot from them, and girls…

David Copperfield – An Excerpt

By: Asha Seth February 11, 2019March 16, 2023

Book Quotes2019 books, Amreading, books, Charles Dickens, Classics, David Copperfield, Dora, Excerpts, Miss Murdstone, reading2 Comments

I don’t remember who was there, except Dora. I have not the least idea what we had for dinner, besides Dora. My impression is, that I dined off Dora, entirely, and sent away half-a-dozen plates untouched. I sat next to her. I talked to her. She had the most delightful little voice, the gayest little…

The Last Mughal: An Excerpt

I have now divided my time between London and Delhi for over twenty years, and the Indian capital remains my favourite city. Above all it is the city’s relationship with its past which continues to intrigue me: of the great cities of the world, only Rome, Istanbul and Cairo can even begin to rival Delhi…

A Man called Ove – An Excerpt

By: Asha Seth January 10, 2019March 16, 2023

Book Quotes2019 books, 2019 reads, A Man called Ove, Amreading, books, Contemporary, Excerpts, Fiction, Fredrik Backman, Goodreads, goodreads challenge, reading, Swedish Literature11 Comments

Ove was, well, Ove was Ove. Something the people around her also kept telling Sonja. He’d been a grumpy old man since he started elementary school, they insisted. And she could have someone so much better. Maybe he didn’t write her poems or serenade her with songs or come home with expensive gifts. But he…

In Arabian Nights: An Excerpt

By: Asha Seth December 29, 2018March 16, 2023

Book QuotesBook bloggers, Book Quotes, Book Reviews, books, Excerpts, In Arabian Nights, Non-fiction, reading, Tahir Shah, Travel Fiction, Writing

“People think I am a writer,’ he would say, ‘and when they think that they are missing the point. I write things down but the writing is just a tool. It’s nothing more than ink arranged over a surface of wood pulp. If they had real insight, they would see that I am really a…

The Godfather: An Excerpt

“For the second time he saw Michael Corleone’s face freeze into a mask that resembled uncannily the Don’s. “Tom, don’t let anybody kid you. It’s all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it’s personal…

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared: An Excerpt

By: Asha Seth December 7, 2018March 16, 2023

Book Quotes2018 books, Allan Karlsson, booklovers, books, Books reading, Contemporary, Excerpts, Fiction, Humour, Jonas Jonasson, Malmköping, readers, reading, Sweden, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared4 Comments

You might think he could have made up his mind earlier, and been man enough to tell others of his decision. But Allan Karlsson had never been given to pondering things too long. So the idea had barely taken hold in the old man’s head before he opened the window of his room on the…

Kohinoor: The History of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond: An Excerpt

By: Asha Seth October 31, 2018January 29, 2022

Book QuotesAnita Anand, books, Excerpts, History, India, Indian History, Kohinoor, Nader Shah, Nonfiction, Peacock Throne, reading, William Dalrymple6 Comments

On 16 May, after fifty-seven catastrophic days in Delhi, Nader Shah finally left the city, carrying with him the accumulated wealth of eight generations of imperial Mughal conquest. The greatest of all his winnings was the Peacock Throne, in which was still embedded both the Koh-i-Noor and the Timur Ruby. The loot was loaded on…