Ezhuthappuram (എഴുതാപ്പുറം) - Books and Banter

We talk about the Malayalam books we read in 2025. English books to follow in the next episode.

We talk about books that created reader's blocks as well as books that got us out of blocks. Another unstructured, casual banter with lots of digression, especially around piracy of books.

We had uploaded this a few months ago, but it ended up disappearing by magic. Re-uploading part 1 of the short stories episode

One of the much-loved actors and screenwriters in the Malayalam film industry, the OG screenwriter who redefined clean, intelligent comedy- Srinivasan passed away yesterday. We reminisce on the impact his writing had on our formative years, and pay our tribute to the legend ...

We do not claim to be poets nor poetry appreciators. But we took the bold leap of jumping into a conversation about poetry, both Malayalam and English. It was fun, went wa...ay longer than we anticipated, and showed that we should pay more attention to poetry.

We talk about the (the dearth in ) Malayalam science fiction novels, Isamov, Doctor Who, Chrichton, Silo series ,and much more...

John Scalzi, Max Brooks, science fiction world-building form the central topic of this episode, the penultimate in science fiction!

Do androids dream of electric sheep? Did the Martian movie drop the desert escape sequence from the book to avoid being an "aadu jeevitham"? Get the answers to these questions and more here, on Ezhuthappuram Science Fiction episode.

We talk about some of the original science fiction novels that we started with- Jules Verne, Conan Doyle, Jonathan Swift, H G Wells and the likes.

We talk about some of our favorite short stories, collections, and anthologies. This is really part 13.3 - 13.2 got stuck with some problems in recording :) . Hopefully we can recover it soon!

Since we dedicated an entire episode for Yakshi, we thought it was important we spoke about some other figures such as Chathan, Madan, Marutha etc. Here's that episode.

We start a new topic- the concept of Yakshis in literature and pop culture. Yakshis have been an integral part of lore and grandma's tales in Kerala. We discuss the role of Yakshis in fiction...

We talk about journalistic books of both kinds- responsible and vested, and books that remind us of our privilege.

While Lekha's out seeing the world, three middle-aged bookworms continue the nonfiction discussion, delving into philosophy, astrophysics, and books that help us better understand our habits.

Continuing with nonfiction, talking about historical accounts, Anthony Lawrence books, Wager, and other accounts. We briefly delve into how historical accounts are often written from a biased viewpoint, with perhaps a few unpopular thoughts as well.

The conversation is centered around the topics covered in The Sixth Extinction, Vinil Paul's historical accounts, and Cosmos. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910054-the-sixth-extinction?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BfUcWTQgjD&rank=1 https://www.instagram.com/vinil.paul/?hl=en https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55030.Cosmos?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_10

We talk about non-fiction authors, digressing aplenty as we are used to, but discussing Bill Bryson and Stephen King's non-fiction books.

Kiego Higashino, Jo Nesbo, Lajo Jose and more

Many of you, like us would have started this genre with those two stalwarts - Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle and Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie... We talk about those classics and how they got us into reading.

We discuss Andy Weir, Dan Brown, Sidney Sheldon, JK Rowling, and some Malayalam authors, and we notice the trend- every author has a shelf life!

Do authors have a shelf life? Can authors ever write continuously without losing the connection with the audience? The gang discusses this in depth, starting with Dan Browne and Matthew Reilly

We continue the discussion about the books that became best sellers, but were let downs from our personal perspectives.

We discuss books that went viral, but turned out to be let-downs when we read them. Chetan Bhagat, Amish, Stephanie Meyer and E L James!

We discuss the ribticklers and the laugh out loud moments in fiction, in this episode of Ezhuthappuram

We talk HP Lovecraft, other standalone fiction writers, older horror short fiction and Malayalam horror stories. Links - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34724 https://www.btboces.org/Downloads/6_The%20Monkeys%20Paw%20by%20WW%20Jacobs.pdf https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220772.Come_Closer?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=riSd5z5I6z&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/764347....