Mike, I want you to know that I'm addicted to your channel. For me, you have the perfect combination of fascinating books and great presentation. Exactly what a book tube channel should be.

@mikereadstheworld

2 ай бұрын

Wow! Thank you so much for the kind words. The hope is to keep on improving the presentation gradually!

I just found your channel today! This is a great topic for a vlog. Looking forward to learning about the books you are reading.

@mikereadstheworld

2 ай бұрын

Welcome aboard! I appreciate it and hope you can discover some more books you like.

Mike rocks the world. So many recommendations away from the ivory tower lists. Look forward to what’s next

@mikereadstheworld

2 ай бұрын

Hahah, you're funny! Appreciate it.

great video as always! 😊

@mikereadstheworld

2 ай бұрын

Thanks! So great that you are still following along! By the way, I picked up another Hungarian novel at a secondhand store that I had been interested in before I read "The Door", it's "Embers" by Sándor Márai. I am still keeping in mind the one you mentioned but it seemed like fate that Márai's book will have to be round 2 for Hungary....when I get to it of course 😂

@nicholasmanila

2 ай бұрын

​@@mikereadstheworld Embers is great! The Hungarian title for the book is particularly beautiful "A gyertyák csonkig égnek" which means "The candles burn until the end-stumps". It's funny that you found it recently as I actually just read it for the first time a few days ago! I'm really interested what you think of the second-half of the book. I felt it was an extremely unique and strange way to tell a story. I recommend looking into Márai's life as well. He was forced to leave Hungary shortly after writing Embers, due to some issues with the emerging communist government. He actually lived out the rest of his life in the states, where he continued to write and publish in Hungarian. He reminds me of the author you spoke about in this video. This sort of disconnect from the country of your birth. I don't think Márai ever lost his sense of being Hungarian, but towards the end of his complicated life I think his exile troubled him dearly (he committed suicide in the U.S in his late 80s). For example, his home town of Kassa (today Košice) was an important town culturally and economically to Hungary. But after the first world war, this town was given to Slovakia. The town's cultural Hungarian identity was no more. He was one of Hungary's most important writers in the 40s and unfortunately had to leave. I feel a lot of what he knew was gone, his hometown wasn't even in the same country anymore. Embers explores this theme as well, because the two men in the book reminisce about the old multi-ethnic empire of Austria-Hungary that no longer exists. They served as generals and everything they knew, quickly after the first world war, no longer existed. Anyway, sorry to write such a long message but it's very nice to see someone make content about Hungary in English! Hungary I feel, is a quite forgotten about country in the English- speaking world! I was actually thinking of starting my own blog about Hungarian literature here on KZread this year.

@mikereadstheworld

2 ай бұрын

@@nicholasmanila Awesome, it isn't very long so hopefully I can slot it in between some other countries soonish. That is fascinating how different the title is in translation and yet almost captures the same meaning. Thanks for the context to get me excited about reading it. Definitely let me know if you start a channel or plan to start publishing on your current channel, I will be one of the first subscribers!

@nicholasmanila

2 ай бұрын

@@mikereadstheworld I will be publishing on this channel, keeping it simple. :)

just work on the sound quality. Good cure for internet culture shit. Keep going!

@mikereadstheworld

2 ай бұрын

Noted, thank you. I've been procrastinating quality improvements for too long.