Book Club

Can anyone recommend recent books with Muslims that don’t cater to westerners (e.g. What Strange Paradise) or are apologetic (e.g. Between Two Moons)?

It feels like a lot of English fiction with Muslims are them succumbing to western values or trying to fit into them, as opposed to staying with their faith. I’d love to read some where our faith finds us clarity and justice in this world. Or that the ultimate reward is worshipping Allah. Or something interesting in this regard?

Hey

Assalamu Alaikom book lovers

I haven’t read a novel in a very very long time. Books I read are typically those that have to do with improving lifestyle or something academic that’s related to my field of research.
In my teenage years, it was mostly James Bond style or Agatha Christie books since I am into action and crime mystery.

I want to read something more romantic for a change. A book that is best described as a not-put-downable•
Any recommendations?
Thanks

There’s an old Japanese proverb that I love:

“Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid of standing still.”

I don’t currently read books that don’t directly relate to my career (I’m all in on the grind lol) but I do love books of various genres, one being self improvement. Thus, I’ve resorted to reading book summaries (very Fahrenheit 451 of me, I know, but I promise you I’m thinking all day at work! 😂). I came across the following book summary and comparison on Reddit. I really enjoyed it and figured why not share here? It’s not like the marriage side is bringing anyone into my life 😭🤣

"Atomic Habits" vs "Can't Hurt Me" explained like you're five: one says make it so easy you can't fail, the other says make it so hard you can't stay the same, and they're both right for completely different people

These two books sit on the same shelf in every self-improvement collection. Both are about becoming better. Both sold millions of copies. But they prescribe opposite medicine. James Clear says remove friction, design your environment, and let systems do the work. David Goggins says embrace friction, seek suffering, and let pain do the work. The internet treats them like teammates. They're actually playing completely different sports.

"Atomic Habits" in simple terms:

Change is not about willpower. It's about architecture. Make the good behavior easy and the bad behavior hard. Shrink every habit to two minutes. Stack new behaviors onto existing ones. Let identity drive repetition instead of motivation. You don't rise to your goals. You fall to the level of the system you built around yourself.

"Can't Hurt Me" in simple terms:

You're soft. You know you're soft. The voice telling you to quit is lying about your limits. Real change happens on the other side of pain, not comfort. Stop optimizing your environment and start hardening yourself against it. You have 60% more capacity than you're using and the only way to access it is to voluntarily suffer until the guardrails move.

Where they agree:

Both say your current self is not your final self. Both say most people leave massive potential on the table. Both say consistency matters more than intensity over long time horizons. And both say the story you tell yourself about who you are determines what you're willing to do. Clear says rewrite the story through small identity votes. Goggins says rewrite it by surviving things your old identity said you couldn't.

Where they fight:

Clear says willpower is unreliable so stop depending on it. Goggins says willpower is a muscle so start training it. Clear says if a habit requires motivation you designed it wrong. Goggins says if a habit doesn't require suffering you chose it too easy. Clear builds downhill paths. Goggins runs uphill on purpose. Clear removes obstacles. Goggins becomes the person obstacles can't stop.

The deepest split is their model of the human being. Clear sees you as a system that can be optimized. Goggins sees you as a warrior that needs to be forged. Clear trusts the environment to shape behavior. Goggins trusts pain to shape character. Clear is an engineer. Goggins is a drill sergeant. Both produce results. They just produce different kinds of people.

When to read which:

Read "Atomic Habits" when you know what you need to do but can't get yourself to start. When the problem is procrastination, consistency, or building routines that actually stick. When your life has a stable foundation and you need a better operating system running on top of it. Clear is the book for people who need structure.

Read "Can't Hurt Me" when you've gotten too comfortable and you know it. When the problem isn't your system but your ceiling. When you've been playing it safe so long you've forgotten what it feels like to be genuinely challenged. Goggins is the book for people who need a shock.

Read both when you realize the complete person needs systems for the daily grind and the occasional raw confrontation with their own limits. The architecture gets you through Monday. The suffering gets you through the moments that define whether Monday even matters.

What are two books that gave you opposite advice and you needed both?

Gotta get back into reading books again! I remembered how I used to be sooo engrossed in a book back then that I didn’t realise many hours had passed heheh 🤭🤓📚

One of the things I really detest when it comes to writing a novel is when people just assume you just pull up to a desk and type away. This is a false assumption and is actually quite uncouth.

For some scenes or even dialogue, I have to research for hours before I even start writing.

Example - my protagonist for my novel was called Ren (Lotus in Japanese). But I didn't like how it sounded. I spent 30 minutes deliberating names and their meanings.
Ren--->Kiku---->Sakura---->Hasu--->Hasuki

Another example, before writing a scene where my protagonist interrogates a woman who owns an apiary, I researched the life cycle of bees and watched a documentary. I also listened to a podcast about beekeeping.

Finally, each chapter in my book has a Japanese word and its subsequent meeting. I had to map out what happens in every chapter and then name it accordingly. I also had to make sure I had the correct translations, otherwise it would be a disservice to the language itself.

Being a writer is not an aesthetic where you can just pick up a cup of coffee and pretend the spirit of Shakespeare has possessed you momentarily.

It is so much more than that.

DR. AIDH AL - QARNI, " Tersenyumlah " Smile
This book caught the young girl’s eye when she was 19 ( Maybe 🤦‍♀️
She wasn’t quite mature enough to grasp the meaning behind this sort of book, she bought it simply because the title was “Tersenyumlah” – she was so simple 😌. Maybe at the time she thought this book could fill her days with smiles (another simple thought 😌). Or maybe… or maybe… 🤷‍♀️
Ok, enough with the intro. Let’s get serious now.

" Orang yang senang tertawa, gembira ketika diberikan dan berbahagia ketika diminta."

" Saya berkelakar dengan kelakar yang pantas dan jika orang orang serius, maka saya pun serius. "

These are some of the beautiful lines from this book,

DR. AIDH AL - QARNI

Books giveaway tomorrow at Indigo, I guess there would be lineup though :)

https://www.indigo.ca/collections/10k

Is anyone reading anything interesting these days?