How serendipitous! Merely a few moments after I asked my gardener to get some cornflowers for the garden I came across this page as I went back to my Turgenev. #turgenev #summer #flowers #gardens #cornflower #russianliterature #novels #reading #asportsmansnotebook #gardening #lahore

The City as a Character LLF 2025 Writers narrate their experiences of immersing in key metropolises: #Berlin, #Athens and #Lahore. David Wagner, writer of Lives and Four Apples among other works; Sofka Zinovieff, fiction writer and host of the podcast Athens Unpacked; 1/2

Bear in mind also, ye wild critics, ye scrapers-up of words harpies who mangle the intentions & inventions of every one, that as children do we only laugh, & as we travel onward laughter sinks down & dies out, like the light of the oil-lit lamp. Honoré de Balzac - Droll Stories

"Tsundoku" (積ん読) – The fine art of hoarding more books than you could ever read, while maintaining the delusion that, "One day, I’ll get to them." 📚✨ #SoManyBooksSoLittleTime #writingcommunity #amreading

The Cantos of Hell Reading Dante Alighieri’s Inferno in the dead of the night #Dante #thedivinecomedy #Reading #classics #poetry #italianliterature #Lahore #nightreading #SpringBreak

How literature transports us. A spring day dedicated to a book set in the coldest and direst of winters and about the human spirit to withstand the worst of brutalities. #russianliterature #classics #solzhenitsyn #gulags #lahore #literature #spring #reading.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. — A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Looking forward to my two sessions in the 13th edition of LLF The City as a Character Friday, Feb 21, 2025. 5.45 to 6.45 pm. Hall 1 Viewing Home from Afar Sunday, Feb 23, 2025. 3.00 to 3.55 pm. Hall 3 #llf2025 #LLF #LahoreLiteraryFestival

ایک نئی نسل کے قاری کا میرے دونوں ناولوں پہ تبصرہ پڑھ کر خوشی ہوی #غروبِ_شہر_کا_وقت #چاند_کو_گل_کریں_تو_ہم_جانیں

‎I spoke about my novel Ghuroob e Shehr Ka Waqt at Al-Mawrid at their kind invite. A well run research institute adding value to society in various important ways and good to engage with a keen and curious audience. ‎⁦‪#ghuroobeshehrkawaqt‬⁩ ⁧‫#غروب_شہر_کا_وقت‬⁩

The full interview with Tariq Ali sb at launch of his memoirs at #FaizFestival2025 youtu.be/Pu1GoaQGMgs?... #Lahore, #pakistan #progressivepolitics, #imperialism, #capitalism, #Palestine #literature, #leftpolitics, #dictators #liberalpolitics #democracy, #fiction, #Islamophobia

A Valentine’s 💘 Day special. A love story from a different era and during a very difficult time. youtu.be/wP2ImecrpSg?...

The Horseman on the Roof is a memorable romantic adventure in the best tradition of the French novel. Its most striking feature are beautiful descriptive passages & the sense of horror & the macabre it brilliantly conveys as it brings to life the ravages of the 1832 cholera 1/3

I received the first stash of the freshly printed Pakistani edition of Pakistan’s Experience with Formal Law: An Alien Justice and it looks gorgeous. Here are the first ten signed copies ready to be couriered tomorrow to those who had ordered in advance and asked them to be inscribed #AnAlienJustice

A spring afternoon and the magic tree #Lahore #spring #Lahorespring

And it’s been published. The new and updated Pakistani edition of Pakistan’s Experience with Formal Law: A Alien Justice. Will be available at Lahore International Book Fair starting on February 5th and in major bookshops soon. And can be ordered directly from Book Corner. 1/2

Folks I shall be at the Lahore International Book Fair on Thursday February 6 from 5-7 pm for sure & may be a bit earlier & later as well. Hope to see you there. All my books including the latest ed of An Alien Justice will be available at Book Corner stall. Hope to see you there

I am quite overwhelmed by this deeply reflective and incisively thoughtful assessment of my novels Snuffing Out the Moon and Ghuroob e Shehr Ka Waqt by Nikhil Kumar sahib that has appeared in the prominent independent Indian digital publication Scroll. This is the first and 1/3

For many years Tariq Ali has been one of Pakistan’s few globally recognised public intellectuals, an articulate & resounding voice against the banes of #imperialism, #capitalism, #authoritarianism, #apartheid & #Zionism, a champion for peoples’ movements for liberty & 1/3

Looking forward to this year’s Faiz Festival. It will have a lot to offer. Do join us. #faizfestival2025

Very happy to share that I’ve accepted an offer by the Paris based publisher ÉDITIONS BANYAN to publish my novel #GhuroobeShehrKaWaqt in French. It will be translated by Rosine-Alice Vuille who has translated works leading contemporary Urdu writers Khalid Javed & Rehman Abbas.

Wonderful to have a detailed conversation with #TariqAli sahib yesterday where we spoke about his recently released memoirs #YouCan’tPleaseAll & its multifarious themes. This conversation will be shown at the forthcoming #FaizFestival2025 where the book will be launched.

Hard to get clearer views with so much light pollution in the cities but a very bright Venus and fairly bright Mars and Jupiter visible in the Lahore night sky #planetaryalignment

نوبل انعام یافتہ ناول نگار اورھان پاموک کے مشہور ناول دی میوزیم آف انونسنس پہ میرا تجزیہ اور استنبول میں واقع اس عجائب گھر کا تصویری سفرنامہ۔یہ ناول ایک لازوال عشق کی کہانی بھی ہے اور ایک عظیم شہر سے محبت کی کہانی بھی۔ دیکھ اور سن کے بتائیے کیسا لگا۔ youtu.be/Jwrq_eqvhiU?... #kitabdost #osamareads

The Museum of Innocence is an ode to obsessive, unrelenting, passionate love - except none of these words quite convey its intensity or perseverance. What best describes such love is the concept & term Ishaq عشق that we find in classical Persian, Urdu, Hindi & Punjabi poetry. 1/4

‏Very happy to share that my book Pakistan’s Experience with Formal Law: An Alien Justice now coming out in a lovely Pakistani edition with a new, updated introduction. Originally published by Cambridge University Press in 2013 in UK & US editions and in 2014 in an Indian 1/3

Always wonderful to come across a discerning and appreciative new reader who has connected with your work. A lovely review. #chandkogulkarentohumjanen #چاند_کو_گُل_کریں_تو_ہم_جانیں Image credit @zunairsaeed_

Started on a whim some months ago & happy to say that I have by now done 21 #bookvlogs in #Urdu on a variety of local & global, non-fiction & fiction books. Do listen, subscribe, & share if you feel that we should be talking much more about ideas & books esp with younger 1/2

Believe it or not but the very first #ElifShafak that I’m reading. I was dissuaded & not interested earlier for multiple reasons. Only just started but this one seems very much up my alley - multiple historical periods, ancient history, a common thread & elegant prose. Let’s see.

Naysayers and cynics can’t be cured but I believe that when you decide to live somewhere you stay hopeful, loyal, grateful and appreciative. I for one am very glad that PIA flying on European routes. 1/2

ایک ملک ہے جس میں شہری حقوق سلب ہو چکے ہیں، لوگ لاپتہ ہو جاتے ہیں اور ان کو کوئی خبر نہیں آتی، عدلیہ آزاد نہیں ہے، ایمرجنسی قانون کا نفاذ ہے اور پولیس اور خفیہ ادارے کے پاس غیر معمولی طاقت ہے۔ اور یہ ملک ہے ریپبلک آف آئرلینڈ۔مستقبل قریب کا ڈسٹوپیا۔ 1/2

A story of our time - Irish writer Paul Lynch’s #BookerPrize 2023 winning novel #ProphetSong is a dark, dreary & deeply compelling exploration of a democratic polity getting overtaken by an authoritarian government & degenerating from order into disorder, ruled based 1/4

In anticipation of a new year and wishing everyone a blissful one #happynewyear2025

In anticipation of a new year and wishing everyone a blissful one #happynewyear2025

6 humans in space, gazing below at planet earth 🌎, overwhelmed by its beauty, wondering how the miracle of life took place on this rock in the midst of boundless darkness, and whether we are destined for the stars. Orbital - a fascinating book. youtu.be/8JsOF9Kosgo?...

My vlog on The Orbital by Samantha Harvey that won the Booker Prize 2024. A story of great poetic flair and philosophical depth. A great read! #bookerprize2024 #bookerprize #orbital #fiction #novel youtu.be/8JsOF9Kosgo?...

#spacestation #spaceexploration #earth #astronauts #cosmnauts #orbits #spacewalk #science #sciencefiction #humankind #humandestiny #Orbital #samanthaharvey #bookerprize #ISS #NASA 4/4 youtu.be/8JsOF9Kosgo?...

provoking, uplifting & inspiring book. This Urdu vlog offers a medley of the magic of her prose, NASA footage of earth from the international space station and music by Johann Strauss. Part of #kitabdost series and also #osamareads in collaboration with JOMO. #space 3/4

frightening expanse of space, space travel & human destiny. Lyrical, evocative & wonderfully descriptive, Orbital captures a day in the extraordinary lives of 4 astronauts & 2 cosmonauts as their space station makes 16 orbits around the earth in 24 hours. A truly thought- 2/4

Samantha Harvey’s Booker Prize winning novel Orbital is an ode to the delicate, unique, & spectacular pale blue dot called earth 🌏 & offers compelling philosophical, emotional & mystical explorations of the enigmas of life, emergence of human kind, human fraternity, the 1/4

Samantha Harvey’s Booker Prize winning novel Orbital is an ode to the delicate, unique, & spectacular pale blue dot called earth 🌏 & offers compelling philosophical, emotional & mystical explorations of the enigmas of life, emergence of human kind, human fraternity, the 1/4

I was introduced to Pakistani fiction in English by pioneers like #BapsiSidhwa. Her very fine #TheCrowEaters still resonates with me. The Ice Candy Man was made into a memorable film Earth. Had the opportunity to meet & interview her - a soft-spoken, mellow & graceful person. 1/2

Winters in Lahore

A great pleasure to read out a chapter from my forthcoming recreation in English of my novel #GhuroobeShehrKaWaqt that has appeared in the 8th edition/vol of the Aleph magazine. #Alephmagazine remains Pakistan’s foremost literary magazine in English & is always a wonderfully 1/2

کر دینے والی کہانی The Legend of the Sleepers یاد آئی تو میں نے اس تاریخی شہر کی کچھ فلم بندی کی اور پھر اس کہانی اور مصنف کی دوسری کہانیوں کے مشہور مجموعے The Encylcopedia of the Dead پہ تبصرہ کیا۔ یہ اس ولاگ ‪#kitabdost‬ میں پیش ہیں 2/2 ‏‪https://youtu.be/POBNn4mkJlw?si=D1nqbX86NwCxXVNP‬

‎پچھلے دنوں جب میں ترکی میں رومنوں کے شاندار قدیم شہر ایفیسس میں گھوم رہا تھا تو میرے ذہن پہ The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus یعنی اصحابِ کہف کا خیال بار بار آ رہا تھا۔ چونکہ ایک غار جو ان سے منسوب ہے اور جو اب بہت مخدوش ہے وہاں قریب ہی واقع ہے۔ اس پہ مجھے یوگوسلاو لکھاری دانیلو 1/2 کُش کی ہیبت طاری

‎پچھلے دنوں جب میں ترکی میں رومنوں کے شاندار قدیم شہر ایفیسس میں گھوم رہا تھا تو میرے ذہن پہ The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus یعنی اصحابِ کہف کا خیال بار بار آ رہا تھا۔ چونکہ ایک غار جو ان سے منسوب ہے اور جو اب بہت مخدوش ہے وہاں قریب ہی واقع ہے۔ اس پہ مجھے یوگوسلاو لکھاری دانیلو 1/2 کُش کی ہیبت طاری

Some months ago I uploaded my first vlog on books I am reading and which I really like. I am grateful to those who have enjoyed and appreciated my book vlogs, especially students. This is that first vlog. I am glad that the #KitabDost series has steadily progressed. 1/2

معاش کی تلاش میں مشرقِ وسطی جانے والے ان بد نصیبوں کے بارے میں ایک دردناک ناول جو غیر انسانی استحصال کا شکار ہوتے ہیں۔ اس ناول کا ایک عمدہ ترجمہ عزیز دوست عاصم بخشی بکر بیتی کے نام سے کر چکے ہیں۔ یہ ہے بنیامین صاحب کے معروف ناول گوٹ ڈیز پہ میرا ولاگ youtu.be/SGlQdH9QP9k?...