If anyone else loves Jane Eyre, I'd also recommend Rebecca by du Maurier. One of my favorite books now, I reread it every year around Halloween.

I was really surprised at how quick I read and enjoyed Moby Dick. Crime and Punishment I loved and flew through as well.

Moby-Dick is my favorite book. It benefits ENORMOUSLY from being read aloud on audiobook. I'm surprised there's no Dumas here. Either or both of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. I'm also fond of Thackery's Vanity Fair because I adore Becky Sharp, and Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin, because it's batsh*t insane. In the 20th Century, I really like some of Faulkner's pulpier novels (Sanctuary in particular, but also Intruder in the Dust; they're both crime novels), Hammett's Red Harvest, Edith Wharton's ghost stories, and Bulgakov's The Master And Margarita.

I was so shocked by how much I loved Moby Dick. I would add Lord of the Flies, maybe because I didn't have to read it in school. :-)

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

Lord of the Flies nearly made the list!

"It can't Happen Here", Sinclair Lewis

Graham Green is amazing. I read The Quiet American and End of the Affair. The first one blew me away.

My favourite is Don Quixote. Fun and funny with moments that make you forget it's 400 years old.

@allgirlreview433

27 күн бұрын

I categorize this book as one for 12 year old boys or people with the humor of such. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but farting nun jokes just aren't my cup of tea. LOL

@AvanToor

26 күн бұрын

@@allgirlreview433 That's quite reductionist. Believe it or not, I wasn't referring to the sophomore jokes.

@taylorr.1589

22 күн бұрын

Facts. The only way it's not on this list is because he's yet to read it. Book is pure entertaining and unironically laugh-out-loud funny.

@lightningninja6905

11 күн бұрын

​@@allgirlreview433as someone with the humor of a 12 year old boy, I'll say that there is (at least of what I read of it) some clever humor in there. (A different book by Miguel De Cervantes being in a book burning for bad books is a good example). I'd also like to say there are levels to crass humor. A nun farting is old hat without some context or other elements to make it work. If you wanted to see the peak of that type of humor, currently I'd say Monty Python is my fave.

The Moonstone was one of the most enjoyable classic books I’ve ever read. A perfect story.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

Yeah that's a fun one

Good list. I don't tend to read classics, but I've read a fair number of these for school in my teenage years. Only two other books I read in school come to mind: The Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome. I remember really liking those two.

Excellent list, I've read 7 out of the 10 and the other 3 are on my tbr. I will add to your list by indicating books that I think you and your viewers will like if you enjoyed these selections. Jane Eyre, I was also surprised how much I liked it, although it is not among my all-time favorites for various reasons. If you like Jane Eyre, I suggest you try Wuthering Heights, which was written by Charlotte's sister Emily and is even darker and to me an even more compelling read. I have not read any Wilkie Collins, I need to get around to Woman in White and his other works at some point, but a book that may be somewhat similar is Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I read this recently and was blown away, it is simply stunning. Dracula, of course! Everyone should read it, and if you do enjoy it I suggest reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley which is equally wonderful. I have not read Brighton Rock although I have read a number of other Graham Greene novels and he is an excellent author of serious literary "thrillers", perhaps my favorite is The Quiet American but I recently read The Heart of the Matter and was struck by how enjoyable and interesting it was. Of Mice and Men is one of my all-time favorites, I also read it in school as well as later in life and it was even more compelling than I remember from my younger days. I've read many of Steinbeck's novels and you mention Grapes of Wrath, but East of Eden is one that I think many readers would also find a very strong work with great characters and story. I have not read Johnny Got His Gun, but another book that appears to be somewhat similar is All Quiet on the Western Front, a terrific classic and hard to put down. I read it when I was young and it was instrumental in shaping my views of war, and then again recently. Brave New World is awesome and fun to read, probably a better read than 1984, which I also highly recommend along with Orwell's Animal Farm. To Kill a Mockingbird I read so long ago that I can't really speak about the book, but another classic about the American South that I really enjoyed is Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell. Lolita, hats off to you, CriminOlly for suggesting this book which is one of my all-time favorites and a great book for all the reasons you state. If you are the type of person who can read Lolita and enjoy it as a work of literature, you might also enjoy The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, which is a bit of a ghost story involving children and creepiness. But Lolita is sui generis and nothing else compares, at least in this genre, whatever it is. Edit: another classic that shares some of the themes of Lolita is Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. Perhaps not as entertaining but it packs some punch and it is mercifully short. I have to say Moby Dick was a fantastic story but I did not enjoy the experience of reading it. Another work by Melville that I loved is his short novella Bartleby the Scrivener. A note on Dickens: I recently read Little Dorrit and thoroughly enjoyed it. Dickens is not easy reading but he creates fantastic characters and interesting stories, worth the effort in my view.

Reading is all about enjoyment for me even when I’m learning something. I loved Jane Eyre as a teenager. Dracula and To Kill a Mockingbird are favorites of mine. I enjoyed Moby Dick when I read it in either high school or college; however, I enjoyed “Bartleby, the Scrivener” so much more. I want to read The Woman in White and Brave New World at some point.

I'd add All Quiet on the Western Front, which I read after you talked about a few months ago. Just fantastic and very modern. Maybe The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, though it's been a while since I read it.

Dracula is one of my favorite books as is To Kill a Mockingbird. I remember reading it when I was 14 and being just crushed when Tom was found guilty just like Jem.

I’ve read 5 of these so I’m truly surprised! Great reviews, Olly!!👍🇺🇸

@CriminOllyBlog

13 күн бұрын

Thank you, Diane!

There is no better start to this kind of list than Jane Eyre!

@CriminOllyBlog

20 күн бұрын

Thought you’d enjoy that!

My favorite classic is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It is in my opinion the greatest book ever written, I loved it so much.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

I do have that one. Hopefully I’ll get to it one day!

Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone is even more fun. War and Peace is a slog but Anna Karenina is a delight. And a deeply enjoyable book that people are almost as resistant to trying as Moby Dick (which I too loved) is George Eliot’s Middlemarch.

I just want to add my two cents to recommend Candide by Voltaire. It's hilarious.

@ellagoreyshorrorstories7524

25 күн бұрын

Awesome choice!

I stumbled onto your channel while researching the purchase of a Kindle Scribe and accompanying cover and appreciated not only the content of your videos but the overall impression I got of you by watching them. I am an avid reader so I was obviously interested in your opinion on this subject. And it made me a subscriber. I tried reading Moby Dick a couple years ago. I mean I really tried, but gave up about two-thirds of the way in. Melville was just too hard to read. It seemed as though one sentence often took up most of a page. There was no fun or entertainment there for me. I’ve added a couple of your suggestions to my reading list. So many books, so little time. A classic I’ve enjoyed reading time and again is Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. James by Percival Everett is a very recent twist on Twain’s premise. It’s the same story told by Jim. Anyway, thanks for the effort and honesty you share with us.

To understand the appeal of "classics," it's important to understand the difference between "pleasure" and "enjoyment." "Pleasure" is the feeling of satisfaction that comes with having our expectations met. Enjoyment is the feeling of excellence, growth, and self-transcendence that comes with being challenged and rising to the occasion to meet the challenge laid down. The most enjoyable activities are games we play slightly "over our heads:" enough to make us stretch, but not further than our grasp can reach. My recommendation would be for a balanced reading diet of "pleasurable" books that meet our expectations from their genres and "enjoyable" books that do that but also more. There are good things to be found in reading that are lost if we only ever read for what you call "self-betterment." But there are also good things -- the best things -- that are lost if we only ever read for what might be called "self-satisfaction:" that is for "pleasure" as opposed to "enjoyment." PS: Don't give up on Dickens and Tolstoy! They are not "stuffy," though some ways of reading them may be!

Some great books there! I've always considered Steinbeck to be America's Shakespeare because he understood the human condition so well.

Try A Christmas Carol to get into Dickens. Easy read and scarier than I would have imagined.

@lightningninja6905

11 күн бұрын

I've yet to complete it as I'm currently struggling to get back into reading, but there are some absolutely fantastic lines in there.

Thank you for the video, Olly. Some great recommendations there. I now want to read all of them.

You would love Les Miserables. Lots of adventure. And The Count of Montechristo of course.

@CriminOllyBlog

27 күн бұрын

Soooo looooong though

@circa1890

27 күн бұрын

Both are splendid! Also, The Scarlett Pimpernel - very fun, witty, and a quick read, if that's of interest. (Agreed that Collins is better than Dickens - was thought back in their day, too.)

@tracy9000

27 күн бұрын

@@CriminOllyBlog Those were the two I was going to suggest! Long, but so good. Well worth the page count.

@jshaers96

27 күн бұрын

It's one of those books that gets better the longer ago you read it. You only remember the good bits and forget it's padded out with intolerable rambles about the Battle of Waterloo and the Paris sewer system. A bit like Ulysses. After a while you realise you are reading the work of a total madman. A bit like Ulysses.

@AnnNovella

27 күн бұрын

@@jshaers96 🤣🤓 true! But nevertheless I loved it while reading it.

I love Jane Eyre. At the time there were people who wanted to ban it because they believed it would make girls/women want to be more independent. You may also enjoy Wide Sargasso Sea. It is written by Jean Rhys in the 1970s. It is meant to be a sort of prequel to Jane Eyre as it is about Rochester and his first wife. A classic I really enjoyed is House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. My husband has read Lolita but I have not yet. I plan on getting the audio version narrated by Jeremy Irons.

Treasure Island belongs on this list.

The Woman in White is my favorite book. If you don’t enjoy Dickens, try Great Expectations. Very fun, with a bit of a mystery at the center, and also one of his shorter books. Also: Robinson Crusoe, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Cousin Bette, The Vicar of Wakefield and The Mayor of Casterbridge.

@CriminOllyBlog

7 күн бұрын

Sadly, Great Expectations is one of the Dickens books I've tried!

@heleneh.6055

7 күн бұрын

Oh well!

I would have put in Three Men in a Boat (Not to Mention the Dog) by Jerome K Jerome, as it a fun and easy read. Also Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, who during his lifetime was compared to Dickens.

To me, female writers who have penned classics have always had a spunk that has rendered them timeless. Also, the worst thing you can do to a classic is be a puritan with a toxic fandom.

@jshaers96

27 күн бұрын

I'm sure we can all do with a bit of timeless spunk now and then.

@bluecannibaleyes

18 күн бұрын

As someone whose favorite classic is The Scarlet Letter, I feel personally attacked by that second sentence. 😅

@lightningninja6905

11 күн бұрын

​@@jshaers96 What a delightfully immature joke, love it!

I give credit to you for convincong me to read Moby Dick. I haven't read many classics. I read Wilkie Collins when I was a teacher in Kenya as well as Tom Jones. I 18th Century comedy - e.g. Richard Sheridan's School for Scandal. You also convinced me to attempt The Kindly Ones (a future classic?). Great vide as always. Thanks for sharing.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

The Kindly Ones definitely feels like it could be a classic in the future

This was a great video, Olly. I enjoyed it. What would I consider to be a "fun" classic? I guess it depends first on my definition of a classic. Frankenstein, Treasure Island and The War of the Worlds would definitely be on my list. Perhaps some Lewis Carrol, Kurt Vonnegutt, Frank Baum, or Agatha Christie might be there as well. It really depends on our personal definition of classic.

@lightningninja6905

11 күн бұрын

I haven't finished Treasure Island yet, but I come back to it again and again because of how ridiculously fun it is. It's really exciting to see Jim slowly get more and more involved.

Great list, Olly! I'm still a little wary of classics thanks to a lot poor experiences in the past (Dickens, I'm looking at you...) but you've definitely made me want to try some of these. From those classics I've already read and had a great time with I'd have to include Pride and Prejudice, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and The Master and Margarita. Fab video, mate 😀

Great selection! Can confirm the “fun” of Melville’s novels. I’ve read Pierre recently. A challenging book with all its digressions and changes of style, but the story is really gripping, an unexpected page-turner

Pickwick Papers is a lot of fun. So is Don Quixote. I'd also add Titus Groan to that list. Three Men in a Boat is up there as one of the funniest books ever written. Hahaha I loved to see your number one! I absolutely loved this book every time I read it, but it's been over 25 years since I last read it. Has such a bad reputation on Booktube, but I really want to reread it.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

I did try Titus Groan years as a kid and it was too much for me, maybe one to try again as an adult

just added JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN to my TBR! thanks for the list

@CriminOllyBlog

24 күн бұрын

Hope you enjoy it!

Great subject! I think I've read 7/10 of these - still to get to Lee, Huxley and Trumbo. I think Melville is a great example of a book where you need to invest a bit to get into its groove in order to enjoy it.

Great list, friend. Moby Dick is my favorite too ♥️

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

Fantastic!

Have just finished The woman in white, took me a while but really enjoyed it.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

Fantastic!

Agreed on Dracula and Moby Dick, read them for the first time last year, Moby Dick in particular an incredible richness of detail led to me feeling engrossed in that world. Dracula a rattling good yarn. Dickens I differ in that I love his stuff. He can be very funny, and important themes of humanity and social justice.

Great list! Jane Eyre is a favorite read for me and it is surprisingly dark in places. The only Dickens book I enjoyed was Tale Of Two Cities, it was just more readable with an enjoyable plot. I think it depends on the teacher, even stuffy old classics can be bought to life with an enthusiastic, innovative, energetic teacher. I have Johnny Got His Gun on my kindle and really want to read it this year, and I love Metallica's One, which pays tribute to the novel. I also love The Great Gatsby, mainly because my Head Of Department and mentor bought it to life by literally getting the Matric students to dress up and "attend a party" one night, at school, set in the roaring twenties. There were props, flapper dresses, music, dancing, you name it. Alcohol free of course. Obviously the book deals with many themes and complex ideas, but what better way to capture a student's interest then to transport them to that period of time.

I completely agree with you. Unless you want to a an English Major or perhaps a writer, reading should be for pleasure- Jane Eyre is a very interesting book and in my opinion, a kind of wish fulfllment novel,. that many a poor girl in the 19th century could identify with. She´s working for a very attractive man, and he´s married to a madwoman, so when the madwoman dies she marries him. That, I think, accounts for its initial and perhaps continued, popularity. As to Lolita, it came out during my first year in college, circa 1958- Our English instructor knew that the book was discovered by a woman who just happened to be the mistress of the publisher or one of the senior editors. The book was a send up of a lot of Hollywood movie cliches in addition to its theme of a middle aged man falling for a young teenage girl.. Within a few years of its publication a lot of American women ( divorced or with young children) became very suspicious of men who came courting, afraid they were really after their daughters or perhaps even their sons.By the 60´s and early 70´s Nabakov was all the rage in English Lit cricles. Most people thought he was reaññy on to som,ething, but eventually people started saying he was gñorifying and legitimizing pedophelia. Back in the 80's when I was an Army JAG we had a real case of incest between a father and daughter at the base I was at. The family was from Appalachia and the father was a senior sergeant. He was accused of having a sexual relationship with his 13 year old daughter. They actually kept a double entry diary of the affair. Ther father was a rather talenmted poornorapher and went into romantic raptures about their sexual activities. and how wonderful it was. The girl was more cryptic and had a flattened affect. She would say.Yeah, I thought it was great, too.. The girl absoñuteñly refused to testify against her father, and the Military was unable to prosecute.. He was forced to retire, and probably returned to Appalachia as a local hero and success story.

Thanks so much for this list. I’ve never heard of Brighton Rock, but I’d love to hear a list of books you had to read in school, from an American interested in what other countries assign to their schools. From what I remember To Kill a Mockingbird was one that I actually enjoyed in school, but it helped that we also got to see a play with it. I don’t think I’ll ever get to Moby Dick, but I’ve seen that it’s based around a true story and that was fascinating to me!

Wind in the Willows 😊 Rebecca, Frankenstein!!

@abbysweat9202

27 күн бұрын

Rebecca is a favorite for sure! And that reminds me of another good The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Kind of the opposite to Rebecca.

Hi Olly. This is a terrific list. I was thinking, in listening to you talk about "being forced to read" books in school, that maybe you just didn't have the right English teacher. 😉 Other "classics" that you might enjoy: Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Tale of Two Cities, The Stranger, A Farewell to Arms, The Things They Carried, Fahrenheit 451...I'll stop. I could go on and on. If you really loved To Kill a Mockingbird, you might also like a book that was written in the 1990's--one I used to teach. It's called Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. (He was an English teacher before he made it as a writer, and he included in this novel tropes from Mockingbird and from Romeo and Juliet, books he used to love to teach.) It's a murder mystery/courtroom drama/fisherman-seafaring story. One of the main characters is even named Ishmael! It deals with a lot of the same themes as Mockingbird, but it is set in the post- World War II years in the US Northwest, though it flashes back to W.W. II also. It hasn't been around quite long enough to be a classic, but I think you might really like it. 😊

Lots of great books here. Happy that you enjoyed Moby Dick. So many look at it and see it as a big old book and don't give it a chance. Have you read Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories? Not sure you'd like The Scarlet Letter (though I do), but you might enjoy his short stuff which is often quite weird and creepy.

Btw, have you read the nonfiction book, The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman? The author makes a compelling case that the character of Lolita was in fact based on a real person. I found Weinman’s book to be most compelling and engaging.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

I haven't. I'll have to look it up

I agree with you on The Woman in White, I definitely prefer it to The Moonstone. Absolutely love Lolita, although I always feel awkward trying to explain why it's so good. One note on Nabokov is that he actually learned to write in English before Russian, which may go some way in explaining why he's such a fantastic writer in English. I would also strongly recommend Pale Fire, an absolutely bonkers book of his about a poem by a fictional poet, deconstructed by a possibly insane critic. Nabokov's memoir detailing his childhood in Russia prior to the revolution Speak, Memory is also beautifully written and well worth a read.

Some of my favourites of all time in this list - particularly To Kill A Mockingbird, Brave New World and Dracula. Great list. Really must get around to reading Moby Dick. Read War and Peace this year though and enjoyed it, although not as much as I enjoyed Les Miserables 😊

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

Les Mis does seem to be getting a lot of love in the comments!

Of the books you discussed here which I have read, I can agree they were not boring (though Moby Dick did teeter on that precipice). I was shook by how enjoyable Jane Eyre was.

I think you would enjoy Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illych-a dark psychological drama about failure, regret, and the hollowness of human love. And it’s only a short novella-get it in the Penguin 60s Classics edition.

If you liked Moby Dick then I would recommend The Sea Wolf by Jack London

Glad you included the amazing Jane Eyre. Have you read Germinal by Emile Zola? Not exactly "fun" but absolutely thrilling. Conrad is not for all tastes, but I thought Lord Jim was great. Finally, Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini is on my "to read" list and I suspect would fit nicely in this category. Thanks for the videos!

@CriminOllyBlog

27 күн бұрын

Jane Eyre is a 5 star banger! I haven’t read Zola, but have read Heart of Darkness by Conrad which I liked a lot. Thanks for watching!

I was surprised when you mentioned Jane Eyre. I think it's a great book; it's as if Jane grabs you by the collar and pulls you into her story. But I guess I assume it appeals to women more than men -- the same with Jane Austen. At any rate, I was glad that you really enjoyed it. A list like this is going to be very personal; it conforms to what is fun for you. So anyone else can't say a certain book was a bad choice, for example. But I can't resist bringing up one of my favorites -- Huckleberry Finn. If you've never read it, give it a try. I suggest reading it out loud so you get the flavor of the dialect, or perhaps an audiobook would be even better.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

Yeah Jane Austen I've tried and didn't like, but Jane Eyre was wonderful!

Ollie, ollie, ollie. I heard you say Lolita and I thought okay, let's see where he goes with this. But then you said Moby Dick and I began to question your sanity. I've tried to Read Moby Dick and frankly, I would rather go to the dentist lol. Just messing with you but that was a bold pick for sure. My classic pic would be Slaughterhouse-Five. Kurt Vonnegut makes me proud to be from indiana, I just love what he stands for. And I'm also a veteran so the concept of being unstuck in time explains PTSD so well for something that is so hard to explain. And he does that vonnegut thing where parts of the book are so strange and then he describes Dresden and I'm openly weeping. So it goes.

@abbysweat9202

28 күн бұрын

Also I apologize for any mistakes in my post, my cat is currently sleeping on my right hand so I am having to use my left hand and navigate voice to text lol.

@CriminOllyBlog

28 күн бұрын

😂😂

@CriminOllyBlog

28 күн бұрын

Slaughterhouse Five is a great suggestion! And yeah I know Moby Dick might be a controversial pick 😂

@abbysweat9202

28 күн бұрын

@@CriminOllyBlog I applaud your conviction lol

@racheledwards2352

27 күн бұрын

Moby Dick is one of my favorite books. I find it fascinating

A classic we had to read in school in Germany, and the only book I really liked back then, was “All Quiet on the Western Front”. Reread it last year, and it's still as heartbreaking and bleak as before! And, I actually prefer “Fahrenheit 451” in terms of dystopian novels, so another recommendation! :)

Great list. Maybe do a modern classic list eg A Clockwork Orange, Dune etc

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

That's not a bad idea....

I also enjoyed Moby Dick, much to everyone else’s dismay 😅 I’d say it boils down to reading it not only as a novel, but as a sort of zeitgeist/almanac of the time in which it was written. The fact that I majored not just in English but also in history, might have something to do with my enjoyment and keeping an open mind.

I love classics - I have to read Moby Dick this year.

I listened to Moby Dick last year, read by Frank Muller. It was great. I was surprised at how erudite Ishmael is (I read it a thousand years ago in school and only remember the whaling details). I've read all the others on your list (or listened to) except Of Mice and Men and Brighton Rock. Brighton Rock sounds fun. I fear Of Mice and Men will make me cry...

I like The Master and Margarita (a bizarre Russian book), Rashomon (a kind of creepy Japanese novel), and Kokoro (Japanese).

I was forced to read the Brontë sisters as well as Austen at university. Long time ago now so I don’t remember a lot. Pretty sure there was a bit when the vicar fell off his bicycle. Then they all danced for no reason. The end.

My favourite classic is "Simplicissimus" by Grimmelshausen

Good list. I completely agree with you about Dickens. His sentences are way too long for me and he takes forever to describe things! I think he was paid by the word! If you liked Wilkie Collins's books, you may also like "Lady Audley's Secret" by Elizabeth Braddon.

Moby Dick is a real pleasure to read for exactly the reasons you give.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

Yeah there's just so much there to keep you interested

I love 💗 Steinbeck’s writing! Have you read his novel, East of Eden? I loved this novel. I will add a Brave New World to my reading wishlist. To Kill A Mockingbird Bird is definitely a favorite ❤ for me. I read Dracula because it’s one of my husband’s favorite novels. I liked that Mina Harker is a strong female leading character. I liked the various POVs throughout the novel in the form of journal entries. However, I felt it was too long and drawn out. Plus, the language used at times was too flowery for my taste. The topic of blood transfusions in the novel piqued my curiosity as I didn’t blood transfusions and blood typing was known about at the time Dracula was published… this lead me to do a bit of online research about blood transfusions and blood types.

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

No, I do have East of Eden I think, but I haven't got to it yet

I had the same problem as you. I didn’t sit well with Dickens (maybe because he has so permeated the culture he’s preaching to the converted). I’ll take a look at the books you’ve recommended. Thanks very much.

I'm with you - I infinitely prefer Collins to Dickens, and Woman in White is my favorite too. Very interesting list! I've had Brave New World on my TBR for a while, maybe I should bump it up. I was reading Moby Dick, but I stalled. It's not that I don't like it, and it is indeed strangely fascinating and compelling, but I was surprised to find how little the whole Ahab vs. Moby Dick storyline is in it. I do want to finish it, but it's sure taking a long time.

@abbysweat9202

27 күн бұрын

You have to read a Brave New World right this minute. I don't want to say it's required reading but everyone should read it lol.

From the 19th Century, I'll pick The Wandering Jew by Eugene Sue. From earlier, I'll mention The Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. From the 20th century, I'll suggest The History of Mr. Polly by H. G. Wells (not SF). I loved Dracula and Johnny Got His Gun. Jane Eyre was a surprise hit with me; it wasn't that I thought I would dislike it, more like I thought things could go either way. The Woman in White was a recent read for me, whereas I read The Moonstone decades ago, and I like both - both fun, for sure. I tend to spend most of my life not really wanting to read Lolita, but we'll see. I have read Nabokov - Bend Sinister - so he's not a complete mystery to me. I vastly prefer The Confidence-Man by Melville, over Moby Dick. But I did really enjoy Moby Dick, from the point when the whale finally showed up. Not before, alas. Tough going. I'm Team Nineteen Eighty-Four, instead of Brave New World...but I do love both; maybe the difference is something you've touched on: I read Brave New World for school, I discovered Nineteen Eighty-Four on my own, no deadlines, no essays, no homework, no teachers running the book through their personal mental shredder and handing out thoughts on it. Also read Brighton Rock for school, but that's okay - loved that one too. Good picks all around, Olly!

Haven't read all the books here but sorry Lolita was so boring I almost couldn't finish it. I struggle with classics, the only one I really enjoyed was the Three musketeers by Dumas

I was made to read Of Mice and Men when I was 14. I don’t know how I would feel if I picked it up as an adult. I just know that I wasn’t ready then. I haven’t read Steinbeck since. It definitely left a bad taste in my mouth Ps. I thought Lolita was very interesting and I’m glad I wasn’t forced to read it in school

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

I really think so many people get turned off books for life by what they're forced to read in school. Glad that for you it was only Steinbeck!

@gracewinchester-baggins4205

25 күн бұрын

@@CriminOllyBlog I’m very thankful that I didn’t disengage from all reading. I’ve liked reading for a long time. I’m dyslexic, so I mostly read audiobooks because it is a lot of work. I bring it up, because it means I’m pretty picky. A book has to be worth my time.

Cant help but think that this idea popped into your head after engaging in Greg's Discord, recently? 😂

Oooh, I've actually read most of these (have not read Jane Eyre, Mice & Men or Johnny Got His Gun, and didn't finish Lolita). To Kill a Mockingbird is probably my least favourite of them, it's a book where I appreciate the skill of the writing and the evocation of the time and place, but I thought it was too impressed by its own righteousness and its determination to push an Important Message. I think what you say about not liking books you had to read at school is fair (I certainly enjoy Shakespeare very much in spite of how we learned about him at school), and since we had to do TKAM at school I always wondered if that was really why I didn't care for it... but I reread it a few years ago and I appreciated it more but at the same time perhaps found myself more annoyed by it as well.

I love Collins, Stoker, Steinbeck and Lee but I would not consider any of them "fun"... You certainly provoked a lot of comments! 🙂

@CriminOllyBlog

27 күн бұрын

😂😂 yeah I think fun can mean different things when you’re talking about books vs real life

You've probably already read them, but The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. PG Wodehouse is fun, especially the Psmith books. East of Eden was great, too.

@CriminOllyBlog

27 күн бұрын

I didn’t like Dorian Gray at all (which surprised me!) Love Wodehouse though

@tyghe_bright

27 күн бұрын

@@CriminOllyBlog I actually prefer Wilde's essays to his fiction. I feel like his wit shines there.

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@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

LMAO

O-ly it rolls out the tongue 👅

Okay, I don’t know if it’s considered a classic or not, but it certainly deserves to be one and is probably my favorite book of all time: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I can’t think of a book I’ve enjoyed more and that opinion is shared by everyone I’ve recommended it to. It’s a tragedy the author never lived long enough to see its popularity grow.

Great list. I have read most of them and will check out the ones I have not yet read. I love To Kill A Mockingbird, wonderful book. Lolita ia a great read too ( as you said). I have to disagree with Moby Dick. My God! It bored the arse off me. Yes it IS about Whaling and THAT is the problem. It starts off exciting. But by about page four that ship has already sailed (no pun intended) and it's all whaling, whaling and more bloody whaling. Sorry for the rant. I have never really let my feeling about this book out before. (CAPS for emphasis. I am not shouting. :)

I've read six of these and DNF'ed one (Moby Dick) though I may go back to it. I had to read Johnny Got His Gun for a US History college class back in the 1970's. That is unforgettable.

My favorite classic is Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. The Idiot by Dostoevsky is another.

Moby Dick is the greatest novel ever written. I've died on this hill a couple of times. If you haven't read I think you would like The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.

@jekw23

27 күн бұрын

It started well, but I lost interest after the whole “call me Ishmael” section. Never finished it but I’m assuming Ishmael gets the girl in the end?

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

lol

@CriminOllyBlog

26 күн бұрын

I haven't read that, I should. I'm pretty sure the hero in my first novel was reading it at one point

@jshaers96

26 күн бұрын

Unless you've read every novel ever written you can't possibly say it's the greatest ever.

I feel commenting is not enough and that I should fly to the UK and challenge you to a public debate. However, I will just say that "fun" is subjective. I have loads of fun with Dickens, but find most men's adventure novels almost physically painful to read. I suppose I could do a response video on supposedly "fun" novels that are actually ... well, fun. 😏

@CriminOllyBlog

27 күн бұрын

Yeah but Collins is MORE fun 😁 (although still less fun than Mack Bolan).

💚🖤

Second

I read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World last year. Hated it. 1/5 stars. I appreciate that it introduced/popularized concepts such as human cloning and dystopian societies and authoritarian government as far back as nearly a century, thus being an inspiration for other later more famous stories like 1984, Logan's Run and Blade Runner, etc, but that wasn't enough for me. I was reading this for entertainment, so as a piece of storytelling I just found it nearly unbearable. The characters, perhaps because they are lab-farmed "clones", are so two dimensional and blank and boring and shallow that I couldn't connect with them at all, even getting them confused with one another making the story harder to follow and enjoy. The author would serve up an idea that is fascinating, then describe it with disappointingly little detail, and then do absolutely nothing interesting with it in the story. There were so many ignored opportunities to explore intriguing ideas that I became bored and frustrated early on and never recovered. Thank goodness it was short and I bought it second hand, so didn't pay full price! I wouldn't recommend to anyone but completeist die hard sci-fi fans looking for notable early genre entries.

I would say Lord Of The Flies as it's short and thought provoking. I would not recommend 1984 as I think it's terribly written

@CriminOllyBlog

27 күн бұрын

That one nearly made the list!

@amyschmelzer6445

27 күн бұрын

Lord of the Flies is well-written, but it’s a terrible book. I reread it last year. I don’t remember hating it so much when we read it in high school. I like the dystopian genre so I have read 1984 but I think Brave New World and WE are better.

@keithparker1346

27 күн бұрын

@@amyschmelzer6445 why do you think it's a terrible book?

@amyschmelzer6445

27 күн бұрын

@@keithparker1346 The ending where the adult savior laughs it off thinking that what these boys have been doing is all fun and games. Children bullying and killing each other is no laughing matter.

@keithparker1346

27 күн бұрын

@@amyschmelzer6445 no it isn't but that's kind of the point plus the religious symbolism and general thing of breakdown of order

Well said. Yes, I agree that many of the Classics are Boring. Personally I feel Many "Classics" are just Very Poorly written Books. Literature as Taught and Categorized is Full of Poorly written Books. There are a lot of Feminist Authors who wrote Classic Books that are impossible to read and take seriously. There are Classics that are purely Propaganda filled with a political ideology that is Not widely accepted. Books have always been written for pushing agenda's not necessarily for Entertainment reasons. They are disguised as History, Romance, Drama, etc, Novels but their True purpose is to Influence people into Believing a Specific Ideology.

Great list until Moby Dick. God no! A far too long meandering, bore lol...

@CriminOllyBlog

27 күн бұрын

😂😂 I thought that one might raise a few eyebrows

@shane505

27 күн бұрын

@@CriminOllyBlog Very clever tactic lol...

Hi olive I liked Scrooge but, only this 2 months of reading for first time 🕰️ I seem buying more books and still my 6th book ever is it normal any way thanks for 10 review I have picked women in white . So i Oder it now. Bye