Annie Kapur
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I am:
🙋🏽♀️ Annie
📚 Avid Reader
📝 Reviewer and Commentator
🎓 Post-Grad Millennial (M.A)
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I have:
📖 280K+ reads on Vocal
🫶🏼 Love for reading & research
🦋/X @AnnieWithBooks
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🏡 UK
Stories (2896)
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Book Review: "All Desire is a Desire for Being" by René Girard
I really don't want this to be a philosophy binge because that will hurt my brain, I know it. When I go down rabbit holes, I go far down. It's the middle of May 2025 and I've been reading a work I've never even heard of by a man I have heard of, but know very little about. All Desire is a Desire for Being is a strange philosophical text where the author looks at different human desires and how they are formed through imitation. He states near the beginning of the book: "We imitate the desires of those we admire. We want to 'become like them', to spirit away their very being." But he also goes on to clarify: "Desire is not mimetic only in mediocre individuals, those whom the existentialists, following Heidegger, branded as inauthentic, but in everybody without exception, even in those who appear the most authentic in our own eyes, namely ourselves." So, let's investigate!
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Nausea" by Jean-Paul Sartre
I've read this book before but I have to admit, I lost my copy. I vaguely remember leaving it somewhere (like that time I left my copy of Algernon Blackwood's collected stories at a job interview once a while back - that really annoyed me because I was enjoying that). But I have definitely read it before and I can't really recall whether I enjoyed it, but I recall being conflicted from time to time. This memory was remembered through being conflicted again whilst I was reading it a second time. There were a couple of things I don't really like about this book, but they are weighted with the few things that are fairly enjoyable.
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "A Fool's Alphabet" by Sebastian Faulks
I recently finished reading a book called Hermit by Chris McQueer and then there was that weird Latin-American HG Wells' inspired novel I read as well. I think it's safe to say that Sebastian Faulks is probably the more standard in terms of novel, out of three of these. A Fool's Alphabet tells the story of Pietro Russell from when his parents meet at the end of World War 2, all the way full circle around the globe to Switzerland. It's a great novel that is told through letters in the alphabet and honestly, that's quite a clever structure for a book that is supposed be more about moving emotions. I wasn't surprised I liked this one, I usually enjoy Sebastian Faulks' novels to some extent.
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "All the White Spaces" by Ally Wilkes
Yes, I have been reserving stuff at the library and I didn't think I'd like this one to be honest. I was on the fence about it but then again, I didn't understand myself. I enjoy Arctic horror and I've loved books like The Terror by Dan Simmons in the past and so, cold chilly horror should be my thing. I was shaky at first but I reserved it anyway after learning how long it was and so, it would give me a good day or so of reading. And reader, here's the conclusion: I really damn well enjoyed it. It was brilliant.
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Gallows Court" by Martin Edwards
Martin Edwards is one of my favourite people in the world of literature. He is the brains behind putting together and publishing the golden-age crime novels which form the British Library Crime Classics series and obviously, we all know how obsessed with those I am. I mean whenever I'm feeling a bit off or a bit down, I know I can head to Kindle Unlimited and find something that will engross me and distract me for some time. Of course, I have a lot of things in my life that distract me from reality - but that's one of my favourites. So, let's take a look at the efforts of Martin Edwards and how he has written his own golden-age crime novel...
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Geeks
Happy 84th Birthday to Bob Dylan!
When I first started off on Vocal, there was a time where I would write articles about Bob Dylan. A constant reminder of times gone by and a poet of the ever-present, Bob Dylan basically sums up American Folk Culture. I will spare you details of his life because I think everyone can use a Wikipedia page, this article is my opinion and so, you will be subjected to a discussion on what I have found to be some of Bob Dylan's greatest songs.
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Beat
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Less Than Zero, the debut novel by Bret Easton Ellis, was published in 1985 when Ellis was just 21 years old. Written while he was still an undergraduate at Bennington College, the novel became an instant sensation, capturing the disenchanted and nihilistic lives of Los Angeles teenagers in the 1980s. Inspired by Ellis’s observations of Southern California culture and the affluent, hedonistic lives of the people around him, Less Than Zero was heavily influenced by the music and media of the time, particularly the New Wave and punk movements.
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Mason & Dixon" by Thomas Pynchon
Oh lord have I got something to tell you. I found this book almost impossible to crack. It's April 2025 and I have been reading this book for about a week and a half almost constantly. I've taken it everywhere if not only to read a few pages whilst sitting in waiting rooms for appointments or on the bus to go somewhere. Thomas Pynchon is a challenging writer at the best of times, but I feel like this book was more about me breaking that wall than actually enjoying what I'm reading. There's a fine line there that I didn't have to deal with when reading Inherent Vice and I'm unsure what to make of it. So apart from me ranting about how weird this book is, let's take a look at a fairly interesting section: the storyline...
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Monkey Grip" by Helen Garner
I remember reading This House of Grief by Helen Garner and I was pretty excited to see what else she had available. Yet, alas I didn't seem too interested just yet. I waited, and I waited until Monkey Grip came into my periphery again. It definitely did not impress me as much as This House of Grief did but it was genuinely a pretty good book. The more I got into it, the more I started to enjoy it. It felt less emotional and linear than the former book and yet, still held the narrative together. Honestly, I am quite surprised she can write well in these differing styles.
By Annie Kapur8 months ago in Geeks
