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@readinwithro

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💐literary, classics, philosophical
current: lord of the flies, william golding
📍london
💌 [email protected]

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who would have thought that posting about books online would gift me with such a valuable friend as I have found in @readinwithro. To many more days together filled with books, great conversations, cafes, movies and much more <3

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WOD: QUINTESSENTIAL
(adjective)

When a person, place, or thing meets or represents the ideal version of that thing.

Shared by Rosie (@Readinwithro)

Rosie is a fellow word lover, and makes beautiful content inspiring us all to read more. Take a look at her page 📖

#wod #wordoftheday #intothewords #quintessential

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Something to think about today.
Do you agree with this quote ? Check our bio for more and don’t forget to Subscribe like and share

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A little moment to celebrate The Duke! 👏

THE DUKE making the longlist of the International Booker Prize has been an amazing experience all around. As Matteo Melchiorre’s first novel, Antonella Lettieri’s third literary translation and Foundry Edition’s tenth book published, we were all very new to this and didn’t expect it at all. We are so delighted to be among such auspicious company in the Booker fold, and couldn’t be happier that it has made more people aware of this extraordinary work that we love so much.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out and for all the support we have had through this, especially to the booksellers, reviewers and of course to the wonderful team at the Booker Prize. We wish all the best luck to the shortlisted titles.

We also wanted to share some of our favourite reviews and photos with you! 💙

If you loved reading The Duke, the best way to support us it to share your love of the book with a friend, or leave a review on your book platform of choice.

“The Duke has a little bit of everything alongside the intriguing village politics, a love story, espionage, a family curse, a biblical storm and generational secrets which all come to a head in a satisfying way.” @sammys.book.nook

“this is a novel about mad obsession, about losing oneself to fury and revenge. on the surface, it’s a small town drama that becomes incredibly addictive. who knew you could become so invested in a man’s fight for his land??? but beneath the surface, melchiorre interrogates man’s obsession with the past, ancestry, nobility, heritage, and ownership.” @amuchneededbreak

“This is the kind of book that you’ll want to sink into for long stretches on a weekend to luxuriate in its unhurried storytelling. From the first pages, it reads as if there’s a great mystery afoot, and part of the pleasure is figuring out what that mystery even is. “ @ktlee.writes

“This novel reminded me of the sheer beauty of getting lost in a bigger novel that is all-consuming […] I underlined many a passage. I absolutely loved my time with the Duke.” @This_bookish_thing

#internationalbookerlonglist #theduke #translatedfiction #italianliterature

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Lately, my reading life feels like an alternate reality: two buddy reads colliding with a solo literary pilgrimage. I’m not just reading; I’m inhabiting these pages. Each book is an address punching me “this is your home”, not where you live literally.
Somewhere between Helen, Bernardo and Dorothea the trio that’s wrecking me on a sub atomic level for my own well being and honestly, I don’t mind. Home is wherever the next paragraph takes me. The mantra I’m inhaling.🤭

And here is my year’s final storm of stories. Ten books that were never picked on a whim, but planned, almost prophetically, at the start of this year.
Mood reading has never been a soft spot for me as the left hemisphere of my brain is too weak to pick up one of the finest books out there and I get to read it whenever I want. Life would’ve been soo magical then.
But mapping drafts, tooling authors and their works even if it involves chronology gives me nothing but a deep loving sleep at the end of the day hence the planned reading. I’ve always been a deliberate reader, a keeper of structured chaos but mind me there were a few wild card entries that crash my TBR gates (and how gloriously they did). Damn, they’re reminding me on every page why they made this dramatic appearance in my life.
December will witness the fallout with my bookish bombs. The ones that made me rethink everything I knew about stories and about myself. The book of the months, the reviews which are left, the craving for more authors and what not.. but let’s focus on here, shall we? #10beforetheend challenge🌷

Books showcased in here—
>The story of the lost child @europaeditionsuk
>The book thief @blackswan___official
>Blue Nights @4thestatebooks
>Resistance, Rebellion and Death @randomhousebooks
>The shadow of the wind @orionbooks
>The cost of living @penguinbooks
>Kudos @faberbooks
>The Master and Margherita @penguinclassics
>The town and the city @penguinrandomhouse
>Don Quixote @penguinbooks

I’m tagging some of my favourite readers to see what universes they’re diving into before this year closes its last chapter. Let’s do this.✨

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NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS 📚

my absolute favorite editions.

featuring:
TRANSIT
beware of pity
FAMILY LEXICON
stoner
OUR SPOONS CAME FROM WOOLWORTHS
abigail
DOWN BELOW
the door

What is your favorite New York Review Book??

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#whatsinmybag book girl edition🪴

The bag carries my survival kit, but the only thing here missing are my spectacles, telescope lens kit and new books because what is a wandering bibliophile without proof of her own chaos?

September for me is a season of productivity and a sly trickster of transitions—summer slinks away, autumn sidles in, and my TBR threatens mutiny. My book of the month is Khalil Gibran’s Prophet and his selected works, and a Didion that that quietly dismantles my sanity in parallel.
I have so many new books arriving and desperately wanted to add in here, but they’re soo special, I would make a new post instead.

I’m also shamelessly granting the universe permission to wreck my mind before December, for great upheavals are best reserved for the fall. Consider this my invitation to the grandest transition of all: a season where books weigh more than reason.🍂

And I’ve tagged such beautiful souls who just uplifts the vibes of this community, to do this challenge, and for the others, please consider yourselves tagged in.

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Okay, so I was supposed to do this in June but time slipped past me like a Clarice Lispector sentence.🫠
So here I am—fashionably late, emotionally raw, and bookishly overwhelmed—doing the #midyearfreakout

The kind of books I read so far are the ones that I’ve cried, re-read, raged, and rewritten parts of myself through them. So let’s dive in, shall we?

>Total books read— 33

>Total pages— Let’s just say enough to start a small philosophical cult💀😌

>New releases I haven’t read but I’m looking forward—
•The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
•The Book Censor’s Library by Anton Hur
•Dogheart by Anne Serre
•A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
•The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

>Most Anticipated books so far—
•Shuggie Bain — devoured like it owed me answers
•M-Train by Patti Smith — Patti is my patron saint
•A Gentleman in Moscow — finally read it, and yes, I lived in that hotel too

>Longest and shortest book—
•Longest: 4321 by Paul Auster
•Shortest: How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Time by Michel de Montaigne (tiny but mighty)

>DNF— I don’t do that

>Biggest surprise—
•Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector — there’s no plot, no arc, just prose like electricity
•Boulder by Eva Baltazar — didn’t see it coming. It hit hard.

>Fav New Author/(s)—
•Elena Ferrante (raw and relentless)
•Clarice Lispector (queen of the unknowable)
•Joan Didion (she doesn’t write—she carves)

>Books that made me cry—
•Shugie Bain — cried till I forgot my own name
•4321 — Paul Auster, how dare you
•East of Eden — pain but poetic

The books I’ve devoured since July: a handful of quiet stunners aren’t reflected here but deserve their own space. I’ll be talking about those soon in another post.
Sorting through stories that shook me wasn’t easy — neither is narrowing them down.
But here we are. Tagging 20 readers I trust to spiral beautifully through their own mid-year mess.🌷

Xoxo, elle!

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If someone had told me months ago that May 2025 would be the best month of the year, I wouldn’t have believed it. But it truly was — and I’m so grateful. I traveled, met incredible people, received beautiful new books, stayed in a dreamy glamping spot… and celebrated my birthday on the 24th. Grateful, always, for the people I choose to have around me. 🌿✨

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Scorching heat, stubborn routine, and here I am, caffeinated and committed. Life lately feels like a delicate standoff between chaos and quiet conviction. New books keep arriving like small, personal revolutions, and I’ve promised myself: more honesty, more edges. Wanted to do this challenge ever since I wanted to, so here it is—
#artofannotating

💌DO YOU HIGHLIGHT?
well sometimes. When I have the luxury of time and the delusion that this craft is purely for my private satisfaction. On those days, the highlighter becomes a wand and I, a very caffeinated wizard.

💌WHAT PENS DO YOU USE?
Sakura Pigma Micron for precision so sharp, it might just annotate my soul :D, archival ink that refuses to fade, just like my opinions. But when I’m feeling like a romantic with deadlines, it’s the Lamy fountain pen that swoops in because even my marginalia deserves elegance.

💌WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WRITE?
What do I write? Everything. From existential spirals to why acknowledgments hit harder than breakups: nothing is spared. I have journals for thoughts, for feelings, for future me, and one for regrets (barely used, she’s the quiet one in the drawer). On good days, I write like I’ve been possessed; on others, I stare at the page like it owes me rent. Writing is basically an urban planning for my brain.

💌DO YOU USUALLY ANNOTATE ALL OF YOYR BOOKS?
Absolutely not. If I annotate a book, chances are it’s not staying in my emotional orbit for long—it’s a lovely guest, not family. The real ones, remain untouched: too sacred, too seismic. I spill coffee on the casuals, scribble across margins like I’m co-authoring; but for the literary gods, I maintain quiet, reverent journals. Annotating is indeed a calibrated act of emotional distancing.

💌WHY DO YOU ANNOTATE?
I annotate to trap fleeting thoughts before they evaporate into the abyss of forgotten brilliance. What once began as a frivolous affair, highlighting for the thrill of it; now feels like soul-mapping in ink. I don’t write in margins to impress the shelf spectators rather to revisit my past selves mid-thought, mid-chaos.
[contd in comments]

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#thingsiloveinbooks

I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while now — yk, the kind that sits in your drafts for days, sipping metaphorical tea and waiting for a mood. But honestly, this one feels more like a quiet manifesto. These are the things I instinctively look for when I open a book — the soft-checklist that shapes my reading experience, the little fundamentals that whisper “this one’s for you” when a story clicks. And I figured, what better way to decode my literary heart than by jumping into this thoughtful little tag?
So the things I actually love and look forward to whilst reading a book-

-Philosophical passages
-Hidden plot-driven narratives
-Ambiguity that lingers
-Characters who break archetypes
-Symbolism of settled themes
-The mundane made sacred
-Unexpected wholesome scenes
-Unspoken tension between characters
-Language that feels like weather
-Grief written in silence
-Found family done right
-Metaphors that stay with you
-When food carries memory
-Imperfect closure
-Vulnerability without dramatics
-Subtle rebellion in ordinary lives
-Soft power in female characters
-Cultural depth and Nuance
-Quiet moments that speaks volumes
And ofc the prose, the cover and some other non stated but equally imp points too..;)

Well, this was such a fun tag to finally sit down with — part introspection, part confession, and entirely true to how I read and what I treasure in books.
I’m tagging some brilliant bookish minds who I know will bring their own sparkle to this challenge — and if you’re reading this and feel tempted, consider yourself officially nudged. Go on, give us a peek into the secret things you love in books.

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• It is doubtful I can add anything that hasn't already been said about this work. Enjoy my attempt and some quotes. Honored to read this @thisispattismith.

🏁 Just Kids x Patti Smith
________________________________________

This is
beyond art

but along its edge, where it calls to those who, just kids themselves, are willing to listen… Patti Smith is willing to listen, and did, and still does. She gives herself to the aura of the art, be it songwriting, photography, or poetry. Whether she understands fully what to do with it, she feels and projects to the reader its power. Not mirroring the world in front of us, transforming it.

🕐

This is
more than a memoir—

it is a love letter from Patti to Robert, to art, to the reader. Her tragedies are recounted along with her successes; the failures and the breakthroughs; the regularities and exceptions… Smith’s humility still comes across, that is.

🕑

This is
humanity’s grace

and collected hearts that shine with a solemn echo, supernoval in when they reach our own waiting heart. Robert Mapplethorpe’s connection to Patti through the art and love shared is something so many of us will not experience and to have done so is a gift no less than divinely sent…

🕒

This is
a universal language

that speaks to you and you hear, and understand, that peace is her only option, bringing together a purgatory of the lost, children unseen yet all-seeing with the paradise of interpretation. A language of becoming, as Patti says, “We become ourselves,” reliquishing whatever the world has for us in our vision of the projection of our own imagination, something that Patti and Robert both sought to do.

🕓

This is
just kids

writing, seeing, freezing in time moments most of us lose forever. Never perfect moments, never never but moments that can grow solid and reveal something about ourselves, assuming we take the time to work for them. And Patti has done an incredible job of making us partners with her in her telling of her and Robert’s story.

As Joan Didion’s blurb on the inside flap states, this book is pure, honest, a true rapture of the heart.

🏴‍☠️ MEMENTO MORI, but the art will never…

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