Top literary blogs list: India's best literature blogs 2023 [also other great book resources]

Updated on 26/03/2023

We have been bringing out a list of best literature blogs in India, in English, for the last 9 years. 

The present list includes the best literature blogs in 2023,which are maintained by individual bloggers or their enterprises. There are many other good literary blogs that we know of, but they could not be included as they were not regular in posting. 

Indian English blogging, like other online formats of expression and socialization, is constantly undergoing changes. New, especially young, bloggers now create professional blogs as they no longer need blogging for their personal social networking needs. For personal shares and networking, they prefer instant platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp.

In India, much of the blogging on literature in local languages still remains hobby-centric, not professional. One area in which bloggers of Indian languages beat literary bloggers in English is classic and popular literature. The literature niche of Indian blogging is not as rich and engaging in English as in local languages, mostly because English is not the mother tongue of over 95% of Indians. Obviously, non-English writers can express themselves much better in their mother tongue than English-speakers whose mother tongue is not English. 

On the other hand, literary blogging in English is getting mature fast. It is much more professional in content, and the blogs are also maintained more professionally.  In the Indian English literary blogging scene, we find a mix of blogs, such as:
  • blogs by published authors
  • blogs created by those who want to take up literature/ writing as a career
  • book review blogs
    • standard blogs on book reviews
    • book reviews on sites such as Goodreads and Reedsy
  • literary blogs (even if they don't call them blog) in portals of newspapers/ magazines, publishers
People who are active in literature, whether as readers or writers, tend to open blogs for satisfying their literary urge. Till some years back, literary blogging in India was limited to sharing one's own writings/ musings and about good books one had read. Poems, short fiction and responses to blogging contests (e.g. Friday musings) ruled the literary blogging sphere. Now, the literary blogging scene is dominated by book review bloggers. Many book readers have graduated from just reading books to reviewing them. Some of them have established themselves and are reported to be making good money out of book review blogging.

Among review blogs, though all the bloggers are India-based, most books reviewed by them are written by non-Indians.
Authors/ writers also open blogs to promote their books. Many literary blogs maintained by writers give extracts of their books, sometimes give away their books, seek readers' opinion and engage in literary discussion. Their blog also acts as a hub for their social-cum-literary activities on social media and book platforms such as Goodreads.

Many literary agencies and book publishers have opened blogs as part of their portals to share updates. 

Publishers and agents maintain websites, but they seldom have rich literary discussion. 

Some years back, it was difficult for Indian bloggers to earn from literature niche mostly because there were very few English book readers, and readers did not buy books online. In recent years, the number of English book readers, web surfers and online book readers/ buyers has gone up significantly, and thus literary blogging in English is a paying niche in India.  

If you include non-fiction, the scope expands manifold. Many bloggers graduate into book writing and many writers open a blog in the subject of their expertise. Some bloggers whose blogs are listed in the Directory of Best Indian Blogs have reported that they have received writing/ speaking assignments and published books based on their blogging.

Indian literature blogs
 
In this compilation on Indian books and authors, we first give a list of top Indian bloggers in English followed by some very useful Indian English book resources.

Here is the list of top literature blogs in India. Blogs are arranged alphabetically according to the operative part of their URL.

abhijitbhaduri - Abhijit Bhaduri
abracabadra - Abracabadra
anuradhagoyal - Anuradha Goyal
bookedforlife - Booked for Life
bookgeeks - bookGeeks
bookishelf - The Bookish Elf
bookscharming - Books Charming
booxoul - Booxoul
ddsreviews - b00k r3vi3ws
durgadash - Pebbles and Waves
fantasticfeathers - Fantastic Feathers
ibooksta - ibooksta
inderpreetuppal - Inderpreet Uppal
indianbookcritics - Indian Book Critics
khyatigautam -Bookish Fame
khyatigautam -Bookish Fame
keveinbooksnreviews - Kevein Books and Reviews
newbooksreviewer - New Books Reviewer
nishitak - Nishita's Rants and Raves
njkinnysblog - NJKinny's Blog
outsetbooks - Outset
preethivenugopala - A Writer's Oasis
rainnbooks - Rain'n'Books
redpillows - Red Pillows
reviewbybookworms -Bookworm's Reviews
sabyreviews - Saby Reviews
storywala - Storywala
thebookdecoder - The Book Decoder
thebookoholics - TheBookoholics
thehungryreader - Of Books and Reading
thelastcritic - The Last Critic
thinkerviews - ThinkerViews
vidhyathakkar - Vidhya Thakkar
vinodekbote - Vinod Ekbote
vishytheknight - Vishy's Blog

For bloggers interested in literary blogging, we bring you these posts from the Top Blogs collection:

As you would know, we also compile lists of top Indian blogs in other categories. Here are two in creative categories:top Indian art and craft blogs

These are some quality resources on English books and authors, mostly book/literature columns on popular newspapers and magazines:

Times of India: The linked page has further links to book reviews and book launches. It also maintains a comprehensive directory of Indian writers.
Storizen: A web portal with good space devoted to book reviews, literary discussions, etc.
Free Press Journal: Book news, reviews
Hindustan Times: Mostly book reviews
New Indian Express: Book reviews, news
Outlook: Book reviews
Deccan Herald: Book reviews
Telegraph: Book reviews
Indian Express: Book reviews
Tribune: Book reviews
The Week: Mostly book reviews
Financial Express: Book reviews
Scroll.in: Book reviews
Asian Age: Book reviews
The Literature Times: Book reviews, also discussion on books
First Post: Book reviews, author interviews
Swarajya: Book discussions, reviews (not many)
Kitaab: Singapore based company dealing with publishing and books in Asian countries
The Hindu: Mostly book reviews. Some are paid articles.
Frontline: Book discussions. Only a few articles are free on subscription.
The Book Review: Magazine devoted to book reviews (paid subscription)

Tags: Best literary blogs, top literary blogs, top indian literature blogs, types of literary blogs, blog list 2023










Comments

  1. Arun SinghJune 10, 2020 at 8:11 AM

    Hello. All these are good. Me and my team also run a literary blog ekchaupal.com please do check it. And if it fits your criteria. Do add our name in the list.

    ReplyDelete

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