Books for Beginners

 “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire

Just watching movies and TV series nowadays to spend time. I guess a little amount of boredom is bound to creep into the activity, no matter how much you love them. Feeling like you are missing something, want to do something different? Here is the idea - start reading books. 

Books are invaluable treasure of humanity. If you are not reading books you are missing a very prominent part of life. You can find love, fiction, drama, thriller and many more things in a single book. If you are interested in history or future or both you can find them in books. So if you don’t have a habit of reading, we have one advice for you- make one.

Research conducted in 2009 at Mind lab International at the University of Sussex showed that reading was the most effective way to overcome stress, beating out old favourites such as listening to music, enjoying a cup of tea or coffee and even taking a walk.

Now, the question arises- where to start from? What should be read? Don't worry. We are here with some help and suggestions:

1.1984                          -GEORGE ORWELL

1984 is a fiction novel which was first published in 1949 and tells about the future of world in 1984 which is now past. It is based on the idea of psychological, technological, physical, and social dangers of totalitarianism and political authority; the importance of language in shaping human thought.

The book includes a number of social democratic ideas along with one of the most powerful renunciations of fascist thought ever written. The book is a political horror story of an every

man. This book have love, thriller, violence everything in optimum content and once you start reading you will not be even think of stopping in mid-way.

2.A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE-GEORGE R.R. MARTIN

This series has become gold standard for modern epic fantasy with sword and sorcery. This series includes seven books out of which five are published. HBO miniseries “A Game of Thrones” is based on this series. The fourth book, A Feast for Crows, debuted at no. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list upon its initial publishing in 2005 – the first fantasy genre book to do so.If you have slight interest in fantasy this series will amplify it by a very large factor.

This series contains characters you love or love to hate. Initially it starts at a slow rate but once you have been familiar with all the characters you will love this series absolutely.

3. HARRY POTTER SERIES               -J.K.ROWLING

This is also a fantasy series which revolves around Harry Potter a wizard and his friends. This book is a story of triumph of LOVE & EMOTIONS over SUPER EVIL. Since the release of first novel “Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone” the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide.It hasbeen translated into 67 languages .Last four books were consecutively fastest selling books in the history. No matters how many time you read these books they will feel like fresh and new.

This book contains fantasy, love, emotion, dark evil and everything that makes a book perfect.

4. ANGELFALL-SUSAN EE

This is more of a horror/thriller sci-fi paranormal novel with outstanding world building and well developed characters.

Angelfall doesn't portray its characters as superhuman (except the non-human ones, and they have plenty of flaws of their own) or gloss over the hardships they face. They squeeze a lot of mileage out of what they have, though, often in unexpected ways. This book may give you chills and possibly nightmares. So if you want to feel some thrilling experience than this book is for you. Once you started reading you will like to complete this book in single sitting. This book will suit best to people who love science fiction.

5. 5 POINT SOMEONE                    -CHETAN BHAGAT

Five Point Someone is a brilliant and perceptive debut novel by Chetan Bhagat, who recalls what seem to be the best years of one’s life at college (IIT). The New York Times called him the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history.

This novel is written in very simple and casual English so everyone can understand it. It is thoroughly enjoyable read. “Three Idiots” the second most earning movie of Bollywood was based on this book.

The book is an outline of an IITian’s typical routine and must read book.  If want to begin reading then this is the book for you.

6. Agatha Christie’s Works

Well, she truly deserves her title of Queen of Crime Fiction. Her books are truly amazing and liked by beginners and serious readers alike. Her most famous creation the Belgian detective going by the name of Hercule Poirot and his adventures in 14 novels and several short stories is truly a great read. Her other books featuring Miss Marple etc are also very well written with very interesting plots which, I am sure, any reader would love. So, go and start your reading with Agatha’s work. You won’t be disappointed.

When you’ve read a novel, you’ve lived through the story. You might not have murdered your pawnbroker, but you’ve tagged along through the whole messy business.  By the time the books start piling up around you, you’ve been a bank robber, a soldier, a member of thenouveaux riches and a beat cop. You’ve lived through all kinds of situations and visited all kinds of places, at least on some level. So just read a book and feel all these things right now.

THANK YOU.

Compiled by :

Ashok Vishnoi

CSE II yr.

Book your Book online

Online Bookstores in India

Here we are trying to create a list of online stores you can head to to find your favorite titles. We will be adding more details as the post develops.







Flipkart.com - Very Reliable. Excellent deliveries. Costly in comparison to other online book buying avenues. 









Landmarkonthenet.com - Similiar to Flipkart. Almost matches their deliveries and generally cheaper.









Homeshop18.com - One of the cheapest online book buying option available right now. Collection is nice. Their delivery though, is a bit lax.

Shopping.indiatimes.com - Another excellent book-buying avenue. They generally have lots of discounts offer going on which makes their deals even more cheaper. Their collection is good and delivery is also satisfactory.

uread.com - A lesser known but good online bookstore out there. Their collection is decent and price is also comparable to Landmarkonthenet. Their delivery is also quite satisfactory.







Indiaplaza.in - Okay delivery. Quite cheap prices (cheaper than flipkart and Landmarkonthenet).

Join us

We have just crossed one year into existence this August and the journey has been quite enlightening. It started with all the cliché stuff with people highlighting all the ways this was not a bright idea, or at least the flaws in the plan. We’re not still sure if it is a bright one, but I guess we could do without bright as long as we get to read all we want.

We experimented with a lot of stuff and iterated along the way. This has now left us with a basic understanding of what works and what doesn’t and the problems that need to be solved.

The paths that are in front of us right now are in the verticals of marketing, expanding collection, helping people read, financials, design, book recommendations and community creation. All of these claim their own time and effort.

This requires an expansion from the present 5 member team, which bring us to the present recruitments.

We highly value a good team. Passionate people who love books and share our vision of making more and more books accessible to people and hence helping them read more.  More specifically, here are the qualities that we look forward to:

1. Love for reading: This is the glue that gels us together. Improving a service that we use and cherish ourselves is one of the biggest drivers.

it's not something everyone relates to and we need people who do

Frequently asked questions

1. What is bookshelf?

Bookshelf is an initiative started by a few students of IIT Roorkee to help people read more.

2. How does it work?

Really short answer (RSA): A renting system for books.

We have a collection of books for you to choose from. We follow a renting system. You select a book and pay a deposit when taking it. When you are finished reading the book, we deduct the rent from the deposit and return you the balance.

3. How much does it cost?

RSA: Rs. 20 for 10 days.

The deposit on a book is NOT equal to the actual price of the book. It's a meagre Rs 100 for each book. This deposit will be returned to you once you are finished with the book. The rent is Rs. 20 for a time period of 10 DAYS.

Contributions from junta, then and now

Bookshelf started with a personal collection of 30 odd books. Then came surprises in form friends coming out with their contributions to the collection and a lot of serendipitous interactions regarding books, ending in friendships.

The cause had an enigma that attracted people, brilliant ones at that.

The potential of bookshelf in R-land seemed bright and we ended up with 150 books to offer by the end of the last semester. It was clear that contributions were the way to go. It ballooned our collection (which was, and is, never sufficient) easily and the books started moving among people more swiftly, safely and timely.

Alongside, as the collection grew, so did the required hustle. There was a need to refine the system so that contributions could be rewarding and fulfilling for people. We did recognize the fact that people are more than willing to be a part of this but we still felt that be it as good in its own right, it still couldn’t substitute a concrete model.

So coming on to the specifics, here is how it works.

How can you contribute: You just have to fill this form by clicking here or the bottom of this post and list the books you would like to contribute. That’s all.

An Introduction to bookshelf

Bookshelf started out about a couple of years ago in Rajiv Bhawan with a mission to promote reading and discussions in IIT Roorkee. We have gone through a lot of experiences since then. We tried new things and tested new platforms, iterating all the while to make the process of renting and reading smooth and agile.

The developments bring us to our present form, though far from a stagnant one, it does reflect the experiences and feedback that we got from all of you, specially the early testers.

This post is for the benefit of those who are not yet familiar with how bookshelf works and what underlying values it encompasses.

How it works? 

We have a collection of novels. You can rent out the one you want by depositing a small sum of money (much less than the cost of the novel). You read and return the novel. We deduct a rent and return the deposit back.