Revisited Hourly History and Read Subhash Chandra Bose

I had stopped downloading the free books from Hourly History for some time by now.

The Hourly History publishes two titles every week and makes it available free for two days. Every Friday, the subscribers get an email on the fresh arrivals. In addition to fresh new titles, some other titles are also made free. The audiobooks of many titles are also provided free of cost.

It was nearly two years back that I subscribed to their newsletter. I downloaded free books regularly for some time. I even wrote reviews on those books on my blog. In the case of two or three titles, I also posted a comment on the book product page on Amazon.

Gradually, I became disinterested in their titles. From the very beginning, I was critical of their content. I hold the same objections even now.

I gradually got disinterested because, in some of the emails, I did not get an offer of any new title as I had already downloaded many of them. There were some repeat offers.

Another cause of disinterest was that I was not able to appreciate the contents of some of the titles. The titles are generally biographies or trends in the history of a country. The main thing is that if you know something about a personality or an event, the reading of the title helps you to remember about the personality or the event. If your knowledge is more than what the writer of the title was able to tell, then you do not appreciate the content.

I have read many of their titles. I have posted reviews on some of the titles. But all the titles were not of much interest to me as I did not find the content adding to my information or understanding.

In spite of disinterest which I had gradually developed, I was impressed by their ability to frame the chapters. That had kept my interest alive in their publication and downloaded many of their titles. I read their titles but did not post any review on my blog or commented on their product page on Amazon.

On the whole, I was amused by the idea of Hourly feature of the series. Each book is generally spread over 40 to 50 pages. You can easily read them in one hour. On the whole, they are small pamphlets which are called books. The idea of smallness did not attract. Somewhere, it went against my perception of a good book. The counting of pages and words for me can never be the standard of judging the level of a book. The content should be written with responsibility. The language should be lucid. The author should be allowed to demonstrate his skill with words to express an idea. He may be brief in writing an opinion. He may be entitled to spend wordy fire to exhibit his art. But to restrict something to the few numbers of pages did not attract me. Gradually l learned that it was not only they who were doing that. Even Oxford University Press was indulging in such a type of product in the Short Introduction Series. I appreciate the brevity of expression, but the limit of pages or time for finishing a reading did not attract me as a standard of quality.

Recently when I received the email from the Hourly History, I clicked it open. I found that the structure of the body of the email has changed. There was a link to a website. On visiting the website, I found that it was more elaborative and informative about the Hourly History activity. The link to the website is given below.

LINK of the HOURLY HISTORY WEBSITE

It is prominently written at the website that the Hourly History is about the “Concise history books that you can read in one hour”. It is their USP.

One can learn from the details provided on the website that the Hourly History has published 229 as on February 8, 2020. It further tells that the Hourly History works with authors from all over the world. That is quite revealing. They do not tell the name of the authors. They claim that the author is Hourly History. But now they have accepted that they are more than one person. It is discernible to a critical reader from the narrations in different books. It is not the work of a single person. 

It is one of my other objections that they call themselves as writers of History, but they do not follow some of the basic norms of history. They do not reveal the source of their information. They give full play to the creative writing norms, but that is not meant for the history writing and literature. No doubt, History is also literature. A history book has to be written in a way that it gives an interpretation and observation. They perform that task. But it cannot be called history. They are just telling stories and using the term History for their accounts. 

On their website, the Hourly History has openly revealed that it is working from Ireland. Earlier it was not prominently shown in their emails. One could have learned about the place of origin only after minute scrutiny of the body of the email. Now, it is open that it is operating from Dublin, Ireland.

After a long time, I have downloaded another book from the email list.

I acquired the book titled "Subhas Chandra Bose: A Life From Beginning to End".

One can go through the preview from the embed review given below.

Another thing fascinates me that the Hourly History produces many titles which are specific to Indian History. Most of their titles are on European History, American History and the Middle East History. It seems that there is a writer on their panel who has good knowledge of Indian History.

The Hourly History has spelt the name of Netaji as Subhas. Being an Indian, I may spell it as Subash. I am not sure how would a Bengal native would pronounce his name.

There are eleven chapters in the book. The whole book is completed in 37 print pages. Does it fascinate any reader?

In 37 pages, the writer has brought out an image of Netaji. Many readers would not like to appreciate the version and picture which the essays depict. The writer has taken up the issue of the political conflict between Gandhiji and Subash. The author has also touched upon the personal life of Netaji. The childhood of Netaji has also been given a peculiar touch within the background of Bengali milieu.

A comment by the writer fascinated me, which he made about the correspondence which took place between Subash Chandra and his father. The writer found the contents of the letter as highly explosive, and he expressed astonishment that it did not attract the attention of the colonial government who had the policy of screening such literature and letter. Well, the writer has given his version.

The writer has used imagination to narrate the episode of the death of Subash Chandra in the air crash. Where did he found the description of his death? The author has not revealed that. It is another feature of the Hourly History books that in case of some titles, the writers demonstrate their imaginative skill at their best. A similar example can be suggested by mentioning the title on Rasputin. Some of their writers are probably good novelist or screenplay writers. It is my view.

CATALOGUE OF THE BOOKS WRITTEN BY SUMIR SHARMA

The Reason For Not Posting Any New Post For Long on this Blog

I have not stopped reading.

I have not stopped writing.

I have not remained away from this blog. I had watched it regularly.

I have not stopped blogging.

I have read new books during the period of absence from this blog. I consider reading and writing complementary to each other. I have written a post on my Author Platform on this aspect.

When I read a book, I always write on it in my diaries. It is another thing that after migrating to the Kindle reader, I have been writing in the note section of the Kindle. However, that cannot be called writing. I write private notes on whatsoever I read. It is a rule, but sometimes, I do not maintain my practice. However, I have observed that making small notes on Kindle is also a way of writing. The act of writing annotations is one part of writing and growth of understanding. Many self-improvement writers have suggested the methods of creating tags while reading. It is a practice which is followed by highly placed executives, lawyers, journalists, judges, scientists and others. In short, I am still writing. I have not posted any article for long on this blog. But I read and write during this period. I have already revealed in the previous paragraph that I have written on my other blog, which is titled "Author Page of Sumir Sharma". No doubt, I have started a new blog, and it is one of the reasons that I have remained away from this blog.

I want to reiterate one thing. I have remained sincere to my basic norm and ethic. I read, and I wrote. I would like to emphasis one aspect on this norm of reading and writing as one thing having two inseparable sites. There was a paradigm shift during this period. Let me share it here.

I have reviewed many books on self-improvement on this blog. Among many readers, there is a doubt about the efficacy and utility of such titles. It is a different issue. I would instead like to move to the point which I desire to make here. While living the course of synchronizing reading and writing, I have already emerged as a self-publishing author. A self-publishing author has to perform multiple tasks on his own even if he or she takes up the help of the supporting expertise of others. Borrowing a message of an editor, who herself is a self-publishing authoress, I found that such authors have to perform a work of a CEO of a company. They have to attend to the work of production, which is their first role, then, they do the publishing, then the marketing and the finance involved in all these activities and finally no doubt, the actual profit made out of all that.

On being emerging as a self-publishing author, the content of my reading also underwent a shift. I collected and read books on writing methods, writing skills, marketing of the books and related issue. During the course of such a reading activity, I would like to mention the titles of Derek Doepker who wrote “Why Authors Fail – 17 Mistakes Self-published Authors Make That Sabotage Their Success And How to Fix Them”; “Writing A Book A Week”, by Alex Foster, “How I Sold 80,000 Books, Book Marketing for Authors” by Alinka Rutkowska and many other related books and supporting self-improvements. I have not written any review on them. However, the reading of those books had left deep scratches on my brain, which influenced my vision of raising myself as a self-publishing author. There were many suggestions, a bundle of information, tonnes of data and different facts. I was able to appreciate many things written in those books.

 I believe I am not capable or grown enough to value some of the suggestions. Some of the advice, I think are not practicable for me in India where I live. However, a quantum of impact was there. I developed an understanding that as a writer, I must connect to readers through different media apart from the contents of my book. The aspiration of writing a perfect novel which entraps the attention of the whole world is an idea which is a delusion. If one can write a book, that thing is in itself an excellent thing to do. If the book is read even by a half a dozen readers who are not known to you, then you are a success. On Amazon and through Kindle, your book is at least open by the members of Kindle Unlimited. Even if, that happens, then as a writer, you are a success.

From the churning of words done by other authors on marketing, I picked the suggestion of connecting to readers apart from your book. There are numerous methods which are being suggested. Blogging is one of that. One of the tips is to develop an Author Page or Author Platform. If it is the message in the suggestion, and if I have understood it rightly, then It was what I did in-between.  I created two blogs instead. They are as follows.

1.       Author Page of SumirSharma.

2.       A Platform of Golden Kit toSelf-Publish the Writings in Hindi.

The blog Author Page is a general blog. Herein, the author talks to the reader about the topics relating to writing, writing skills, the methods of writing and related issue.

The Platform of Golden Kit is for a specific book of the author. In the blog, the author discusses the content of the book and issues related to the activity.

During these developments, I have derived some conclusions. They may interest many.

I have learned that the Self-Improvement books are not an inferior form of literature as some readers and discussions on this genre suggest. The style of Self-Improvement books in the genre of Non-fictional literature is a substantial cerebral activity. It relates to your present-day life. It provides solutions to the issues and problems which are real.

The second observation is that blogging is not a redundant thing. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube are the present-day buzz word. They have created a lot of commotion and blogging is sidelined in the din which has been raised. The activity has an intrinsic strength which would ensure its continuity. It is a meaningful activity which has its value. Too many people have ridden the waves of the cyber sea and raising a noise of their underdeveloped brains. Thumping the keypad with thumbs are far less productive than using all the fingers on the keyboard. The input methods may change, but the discourse which can be given through blogging is far ahead than the rest of the mediums. Even on Youtube, an over voice is needed. A stream of visuals may not be liked for long.

As far as the writers and readers are concerned, blogging can be an excellent platform to interact.

All such thoughts, readings, writings and activities are the reason behind my absence from this blog. I am here, and I will continue to post on this blog.

Catalogue of the Books by Sumir Sharma