When I was thirteen years old I had an English teacher who inspired me to become a dedicated life long reader. At the beginning of every class he began with the same question. "Has anyone read a good book lately?" One girl always had a new book to talk about, and I was in awe of her. My mother had a copy of Gone With the Wind, and I began reading it. Never had I been as addicted to anything as that book. It consumed me. I was sad when I finished it because I knew that I would never read anything as good as that. I've now read many hundreds of books that have enriched my life and I have become part of many authors lives. That teacher was an educational saint. The local newspaper wrote a tribute about him and his influence on his students. Interestingly, I have four brothers and two sisters who have absolutely no interest in reading. The only exception is the newspaper. My father told one my siblings, "The only reason you read the paper is to see who got busted."

@katblack394

Жыл бұрын

Carroll, I have a similar story. My English teacher, also at age 13, inspired me to become a lifelong reader. Some of the first classics I ever read were The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men and they were read in his class. I kept asking him for recommendations and we formed a bond. At the end of the year, he gifted me a novel he thought I would enjoy, and that was Gone With The Wind! How strange that we have this in common!

@magdalenaholt2967

Жыл бұрын

Much love to that man's memory...

@ambermoon719

Жыл бұрын

@@katblack394 I’m sorta envious of you two. I’m late to literature and so far have read Brothers Karamasov, Wuthering Heights, another wild Russian Novel (The Master And Margarita), and was hesitant about further women writers, but now am reading Jane Eyre which I thought was going to be a dumb chic novel, but it is stunningly artful and beautifully suspenseful. I’m hooked by the art that I didn’t know would be there. I have a question if you have the time. I’m sort of a rebel and love Dostoyevsky and have the feeling I won’t be fond of Jane Austin’s books. Can you tell me if you prefer the Brontë’s to Jane Austin or other women writers, and what books by women writers you may recommend if I loooove both Emily and Charlotte Bronte so far. Thank you ♥️🙏🏻♥️

@katblack394

Жыл бұрын

@@ambermoon719 The Brothers Karamazov is one of my favorite novels of all time actually. It's so intricate. I did my honors thesis on Jane Eyre many moons ago. I analyzed what the characters were reading within the novel - there's a pattern. I, myself, prefer the Brontë's to Austin, but both are fabulous. It all comes down to a matter of taste, I suppose. I'm obsessed with gothic lit at the moment, and love The Castle of Otranto and The Monk etc. I am currently reading everything vampire related - Carmila and The Vampyre, and even the serials Varney the Vampyre which I got as two HUGE bound editions from Amazon. I also love Paradise Lost, but I had a class where we analyzed it as a group. Thank goodness or it would've went over my head. I've never heard of The Master and Margarita. I will definitely check that out - thank you!

Great points! I often feel that I wish I could discuss books with someone, especially these great works, but I don't know anyone that also reads them. None of my friends read the same type of books.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I sympathise with you, Cynthia. I experienced the same thing for many years :(

@annewoodborne1254

Жыл бұрын

Ditto

@richardfox2865

5 ай бұрын

This so true.

I met a high school literature teacher that once told me exactly what you say: the more you read, the more demanding you become in regards to the quality of your readings. It's fascinating!

This is true. The classics expand my mind so much so that it makes very simple books almost to easy or mindless. Still, there is a place for them because in times of stress, the simpler books are soothing.

@ant7936

Жыл бұрын

Yes, rather like a meal-in a-glass powder; less than ideal, but easy to digest and provides some sustenance until the real food is available.

I struggle with whether or not I should reread a book. There are so many books I'm dying to read for the first time, there's only a few books that I have ever read multiple times. Two of my favorite books are Jane Eyre and Crime and Punishment. I've read those at least three times. I joined a book group during covid and reread some books. I noticed how much differently I interpret these books after reading them again after 20-30 years.

I feel like literature is a labyrinth. Each great text gives me the next direction, but I don't think I'll ever reach the centre

My dear English Lit teacher taught us a boatload of English history alongside our study of Shakespeare and chaucer. He said it was important to understand what was happening in the writers world .

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like you had an awesome English teacher :)

One of the first books I read on my own in college was John Fowles “The Magus”. It lead me to harpsichord music (I was already well into classical music LPs), Modigliani and modern art, and greek mythology. I have, over my life, reread it six time. I prefer the original ending. And each subsequent book kept expanding my consciousness wider as you explain. I have never had, since college, others who read the books I read, and discuss them at the level I want to discuss them. In college, I read literature (Kafka, Hesse, Dostoyevsky, Camus…) on my own, but I spent a lot more time reading philosophy (from the Pre-Socratics on, but ending up feeling most at home in existentialism) and various religious texts in my search for identity (which only came when mixed with life experience). Zen, the Kabbalah, Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism,Taoism, Islam, St John of the Cross, Teressa of Avila, Madame Blavatsky, Alister Crowley…. Only after retirement did I study the Bible and understand it. I am young at heart and, although much of what you speak off I have already learned, it is your passion for literature that makes me comfortable with you as a mentor.

Good reading is like good living. Love that.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

9 ай бұрын

Thank you, my friend :)

I have such an anxiety about not being "cultured" and not reading enough (and not taking in enough from these works - not making the read worth it). I end up reading too much stuff at the same time and feeling a bit helpless and foolish.

Last year I watched your video on Anna Karenina, and after a couple months finished it, and all I can say is thankyou.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

3 жыл бұрын

Amazing! I hope you enjoyed it :)

I love your idea of treasure hunt reading, I have found so many beautiful pieces of art through this method, from books to music to paintings and more. However I tend to read more than popular works whether it's classics or holy scriptures or otherwise because I feel if I were to only pick up the celebrated works, I might miss on something that may be obscure but for me might be way more beneficial and only reading popular works would lead to a Zipfian slope which leaves many lesser known but great works completely untouched and forgotten.

Brilliant. Thank you for articulating what I look for in a book. So glad I found you.

Great video, that's really the way to read the great works, and actually not only for books but it applies to evrrything from movies to music to paintings. But people sadly don't have the patience for that

@BenjaminMcEvoy

3 жыл бұрын

Absolutely agree. This philosophy applies across all art forms!

Benjamin I really appreciate what you do. You are correct about reading more than one thing from an author and the little non-technical reading I did in my career was concentrate on a few authors . ( Plato and Aristotle along with Kurt Vonnegut, Ian Fleming and Orwell ... LOL)... One other thing. Your advice about reading something before going to others for commentary is good for most but when one is 70+ and trying to catch up for waisted time one must cheat a little. Thanks again for the videos.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, Brian :) I really appreciate that. I must say you had a nice mix there - Plato, Aristotle, Vonnegut, Fleming, Orwell - what fun, all of them! Cheat away :) I'll often disregard my own advice and consult my favourite critics' works before the works themselves. Thank you for watching and reading along!

6:07 - as a singer with some experience in opera, I'd say that the first step to understanding opera is knowing what opera IS. Opera is (usually) old, foreign, musical theater. That's it. Composers and writers wanted to give their audiences a taste of the foreign, which is why so many shows are based on myth, or pulled from foreign countries. Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado" is set in Japan because at the time everything Japanese was very popular in England. But if you set the show in England and give all the characters English names it becomes a very English show. If you can find translations of operas in your language, or with subtitles, then your experience will be much more enjoyable. Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love" is a fun show to keep an eye out for.

Ben, hello - I'd like to say thank you again. I'm rereading a book, and the author referenced art heavily; on my first read, I flew through these passages and references but since watching you, I understood that how you taught me/us to read is how I've always wanted to experience books. So this time, I'm looking into the art pieces mentioned and ask myself why these specific ones were chosen and let me tell you something... I'm happy! i would describe the feeling of satisfaction better but this is all I at the moment, I'm so delighted, I feel like the story has opened up ,and although I had not forgotten the plot, the experience almost feels new now that I'm slowing down, and dissecting it how you've advised, so thank you for sharing with us.

I choose books based on whether I think that the book will provide me with interesting humans. I always think of story in relation to John D MacDonald’s definition: something happening to someone that we have been led to care about. The ability to create “real” personalities in fiction will always fascinate me.

This a great channel! Thanks so much for sharing!

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for being here :)

You say you only choose books that "nourish you deeply," yet you also have professed a love for Stephen King and described him as "pub food." I am not making a comment on how or what a person SHOULD read (to each their own, I just hope more people read in general), I'm just wondering how your own habits expressed elsewhere line up with your advice in this video. Personally, I like going back and forth between "literature" and "pub food." because I get different types of enjoyment from them. The personal, emotional, and artistic savoring that I gain from Chekhov and Tolstoy is wonderful, but sometimes the excitement and creativity of pulp sci-fi like Bova or Bear are exactly what I'm craving. I enjoy and appreciate both experiences but they certainly engage at different levels of our humanity.

New to the channel and like it. I’m interested to hear what you think of GK Chesterton. I struggled with Everlasting Man. Have you read it? What do you think?

I revisited under milkwood from your first list if you were doing an Oxford Uni course, I read it at high school and didn't understand it. I found an animated version with Richard Burton and now I can see why I didn't understand it LOL. I understand it a little better now, it's funny and a little saucy in parts. Glad I went back to it.

thanks for great program about books.

If you watch this using CC (subtitles), you'll discover at 6:04 a new opera, "strauss's deflated mouse," and "this is how you get into opera." 🙂

Wonderful channel ! Thank you very much!

@BenjaminMcEvoy

2 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! :)

I've felt guilty about not keeping up with popular writers (mostly because I don't usually like them much) so thanks for making me feel good about reading and enjoying old books!

Thank you. Your comment is very timely. I have a reading list of highly recommended books. Then, I see books on offer, and I can't resist buying them! I then get torn between reading the books I've bought and buying the recommended books! Thanks for your thoughts on this. I should prioritise my efforts. Otherwise, it's like going out for a steak dinner and always ending up in MacDonald's!

Finally tackling Middlemarch this year! Wrapping the entire Lord of the Rings series at last-my late summer reading. Head back to Dickens, Austen, and Tolstoy ASAP! I tend to want shorter or mid length novels, for I tend to be impatient, and I yearn for changes in my reading experience. Nevertheless, I press on.

Nietzsche also disliked Baudelaire, for similar reasons to Tolstoy. He wrote to a friend that he had underlined all the lines he had read in The Flowers of Evil that reminded him of the loathsome Wagner, and sure enough, found out later that they had had correspondence and that Baudelaire loved Wagner's music. Also, Nietzsche's theory of art in The Birth of Tragedy is similar to Tolstoy's own view of art - art as a communal celebration of life, not purposeless aestheticism - which he believed was psychologically impossible anyway.

Love reading classics but I don't have anyone to discuss it with. I love L.M. Montgomery. I am surprised you never talk about it her books. I'm loving your contest. I'm sad I did not discover you before.

Hi Benjamin, you say we should “choose the ones (books) that stood the test of time”: don’t you think that by doing so we are going to miss the “future classics” that are being written today? Shouldn’t a literature enthusiast be looking for works that will stand the test of time? Many thanks for all the great content you are publishing!

Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann. Best description and interpretation of Beethoven's Opus 111: piano sonata 132 his last. This led me to his Grosse Fugue string quartet. Thomas Mann really expanded my musical consciousness. Listening to Opus 111 you reach the giddy heights of other- worldly. Mann's words.

What are your thoughts on Kindles/Ereaders? Can one get the same experience reading the classics, or any great literature for that matter, with an ebook versus a physical book?

@BenjaminMcEvoy

2 жыл бұрын

I used to love them when I travelled a lot, and I still think they are a fabulous invention. We can have the Library of Alexandria in our very pockets. That's incredible! But it's been a few years since I've gotten much use from my Kindle. I've moved back to physical books - holding them, scribbling on them, collecting them, all helps increase appreciation and understanding. Feels very much like moving back to vinyl from digital tracks. More real and tangible. I noticed I'm better able to recall the physical books I read, and my enjoyment during the actual reading process is heightened. There's certainly a time and place for ebooks, but for those books you really want to cherish, I'd recommend getting physical :) Awesome question!

@foreverdissenting3675

2 жыл бұрын

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Thank you very much for getting back to me! Great answer and it helped a lot. Appreciate it 👍🏼

I’ve just started reading Anna Karenina 💙

@BenjaminMcEvoy

3 жыл бұрын

Amazing :) You're in for a great journey!

Yes, to all you said. However, I’d argue there’s also room in one’s life for books that just give you joy. Sometimes between Dickens and Dostoyevsky, I just want to sink into an Agatha Christie.

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

Completely agree with you there, Sandra. I binge Agatha Christie around this time every year, so I'm enjoying her at the moment. Just watched a wonderful documentary on her from Lucy Worsley, which you might like if you haven't already seen it!

@sandraelder1101

Жыл бұрын

@@BenjaminMcEvoy I understand she recently wrote a biography of Dame Agatha also! Haven’t gotten it yet. The documentary sounds up my alley.

@marcevan1141

Жыл бұрын

Agatha Christie is my absolute go-to for escapist reading. But I have to admit that, though I still find her very entertaining, in one way or another I am often disappointed in her resolutions. When I read her as a kid I thought the books were great. Now, I do enjoy her but the flaws are more apparent. Two Christie novels I would recommend are "Five Little Pigs" and "The ABC Murders."

This makes me want to reread Anna Karenina. I first read it five or six years ago and loved it. I still recall many scenes (the dinner early in the book with Levin and Oblonsky) as well as mental images (the night fields on the farm with all the laborers.) BUT I’m a keen French language learner who’s only read Swann’s Way and no other volume of Proust. Shouldn’t I read In Search of Lost Time next? I’ve always wanted to keep going, but forgot too much of the first volume.) I truly can’t decide. Your videos help me to re-address the question of what to choose, and why.

@ant7936

Жыл бұрын

Try Monte Cristo, in French! Free on kindle. It will improve your language.

Living in the South Island of New Zealand, I can attest to its beauty!

New sub thank you!

@BenjaminMcEvoy

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for being here, Victoria! :)

Great video! My suggestions for works to read are Arthur Conan Doyle, C. S. Lewis, (I know your blog speaks highly of him), and one of my favorite of all writers: Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was the great writer of America. He spawned influences to many other writers like Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft and many dark speculative fiction writers of the years. Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman. Check out Poe and live out his work.

I am the only person I know (i.e., have met), who has read both Moby Dick and Don Quixote. I read both with a study guide so I learned more about what the authors implicitly included. I can recognize the significance of books like these, but neither would ever be my favorite. The favorite book I ever read is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I know it is not hardcore literature, but sometimes I want lighter, immediate pleasure. I do not consider this book to be fluff and I have no guilt. I would like to know if you ever read lighter books like this; and if so, what are they?

Random and not related but you kinda look like Joe Alwyn 😮 also love your channel ❤

Maybe you could give a video on how to teach the great books. I’ve taught a great books curriculum to high schoolers over the past few years, but it is really difficult to get teenagers to read and discuss what they’ve read. Of course I remember when I was their age, I did not enjoy reading either. I’m sometimes afraid that what Aristotle suggested about teaching youths political science is true about literature also.

At 43, and having lost my father two years ago, I feel an urgency to read the greatest of the classics. I’ve been an avid reader since childhood, but I’ve spent far too much time slumming it without garbage books.

I bought Anna Karenina just because of this channel lol since it is always his example of great literature. I haven't started it yet. Hopefully it is as great as he says

@BenjaminMcEvoy

9 ай бұрын

That's awesome! I hope you enjoy it :) I'd love to know what you make of it!

I have zero people in my life who enjoy reading, though my 21 year old son and my 13 year old daughter are getting there. Talking about books today is nothing more than looking at different KZread comments sections. I’m going to have to join the book club!

Thoughts on modern books? Maybe, how to choose modern stuff?

Either 'Hamlet' or 'The Divine Comedy' is the best book that I have read (so far) ; Pride and Prejudice' , 'Lolita' and 'Middlemarch' are runner-ups.

Is it better when listening to an audio book, to listen to a dramatised reading or to one read by an actor from the page. Thank Thank you.

Once I read Don Quixote back in January, it ruined the vintage pulp crime fiction I used to prefer.

What about non fiction? What about historical fiction like Michener? Those books are very long but full of researched collected facts where Michener read countless books himself to get the core of his story. I spent a month on Centennial but found I knew more about Colorado and the US West than almost anyone I came across. Also gave me leads into reading many more with associated topics, but the main barrier is time (as always)

@BenjaminMcEvoy

3 жыл бұрын

I use fiction to expand into non-fiction - scaffolding it on. We're reading Anna Karenina in the book club, but that necessarily involves reading Plato, Pater, Freud, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and reams of history and scientific writings. And I'll read fiction as though it were non-fiction. Michener sounds fabulous. I'll have to explore him - thanks for the recommendation, Don Quixote. Please give my regards to Sancho ;)

@Live_your_Dreams_Everyday

3 жыл бұрын

@@BenjaminMcEvoy thanks for your reply. I will give Anna Karenina a go too. I really like the Russian authors and got alot out of Tolstoy's 'Kreutzer Sonata', The Devil - The Forged Coupon - After the Ball. But Dostoyevski has been my favorite - Notes from the Underground and Crime and Punishment. Will have a go at 'The Brothers Karamazov' - they say it is one of those life changing reads. Keep the videos coming - enjoying immensely! Are you on Goodreads by the way?

@BenjaminMcEvoy

3 жыл бұрын

@@Live_your_Dreams_Everyday Oh, you would love Hadji Murat too if you loved those. Dostoyevsky is fantastic. I'm currently rereading C&P. I'm afraid I'm not on Goodreads!

@riskybusiness7291

3 жыл бұрын

Orwell Complete Essays : have not exhausted any of the essays.

@larastone9881

Жыл бұрын

5:39 Since joining the book club, one of my favourite things is how you give us links to relevant documentaries, non fiction etc in relation to the chapters we’re reading that week. I’m learning so much!

I appreciate your points, although I also disagree with you. Personally I do believe that some of the pop culture books will stand the test of time or can deeply nourish the soul. It does not change your points at their core in any way. :) I argue there is one more beautiful piece of literature that I enjoy that both classics and moderns fulfill. (In fact you need both) and that’s historical fiction which enables the stories and emotions of humanity to come off the page of history. For myself it sticks with me in a deep and impactful way. In summary I both agree with you and sit a little more in the middle to proper in pop culture reads for the same reasons.

At this stage of things I find my choice in books is an instrumental way to pass the time. Therefore I like detective fiction.. If we take Tolstoy's war and peace and look at the last seventy pages he launches into an analysis of what he considers a perfect society. I read enough to understand it was far from perfect.So in some ways I think detective fiction the perfection of dialogue is an end in itself. The study of imperfect human beings is a way of understanding democracy.

Hi Ben. Long time. Im in the middle of Joyce's "Dubliners" in preparation for reading "Ulysses" some day. The current book is not inspiring at all and is really pretty negative. Hard to finish this one when there are so many other books to be read.

If YOU don’t mind, I want to ask a question,Who is your favourite writer?

@BenjaminMcEvoy

2 жыл бұрын

Shakespeare :) What about you?

@frenspanglish

2 жыл бұрын

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Leo Tolstoy, Of course

Heh, heh, heh. I just told the missus, "I've had my moment of self-parody for the day --- I just realized I'm doing a serious literary survey of the King James Bible and Shakespeare because I've outgrown Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft."

It doesn't seem like certain genres (like mysteries) would cut it for great literature, or books that would be chosen as nourishment. How does a book like Blood Meridian fit in - does it reference other works of art like Anna K.?

@buster9106

2 жыл бұрын

Blood Meridian is about the types of real events that happened in the American West. I think these are important books particularly for Americans to read. So much of what went on in the West has been whitewashed and sanitized. Most Americans don't know any more about the West than watching westerns.

@nedmerrill5705

2 жыл бұрын

​@@buster9106 Well, for a _real_ take on the American West, I might suggest a history like _Son of the Morning Star,_ (Evan S. Connell) which is specifically about the Battle of the Little Big Horn, but flashes back to the causes and history leading up to that event. For real events I would suggest reading history and not novels. _Son of the Morning Star_ is most assuredly _not_ sanitized. A Cannon should include some history and biography, too.

@buster9106

2 жыл бұрын

@@nedmerrill5705 I read a lot of history and nonfiction as well as fiction. But I know people who find reading fiction a good entryway into a part of history that are unfamiliar with. I've done that myself. I'll definitely look up Son of The morning Star.

Haven't finished the video yet, but wanted to chime in before I forget. On the point of the amount of people reading these books; Yes it's extremely important to get more people reading these books. The comparison to traveling is false. While war and politics can change availability, geographic locations exist whether people go there or not. Literature exists only if there are people reading those works. Otherwise, publishers stop printing them. While some works are indeed still available thousands of years later, they are a select few. Some may argue that what's left is the best of the best, but that decision was made by others long ago. We can no longer independently verify them. Think of all the knowledge, greatness, and art lost in Alexandria.

impressive

Man I don’t even know what to read, I’m 20 years old, I love Stephen king books but I can’t really find anything else to read, I need the simplicity of Stephen king books but entertaining stories, I used to read classics but I’m so tired of old timey language, I love hp love craft but I’m so tired of rereading at the moment, anyone know of any entertaining books, maybe horror, sci fi, mystery idc I’ll take whatever brih

@BenjaminMcEvoy

Жыл бұрын

It sounds like you've explored many of Stephen King's influences, so you've probably already read Bram Stoker's Dracula. If you haven't, I'd recommend that one. It holds up well, is fast-paced, the language isn't too antiquated, and it's a great gothic adventure story. For Sci-Fi, I'm really into anything by Ursula K. Le Guin ('The Left Hand of Darkness' is great). Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series is great fun. And then there's Ray Bradbury, who is always wonderful to read. I enjoy 'The Illustrated Man' every year!

@ZigzagMan51

Жыл бұрын

@@Yesica1993 oh wow that’s perfect!! I read a little bit of 2001 a space oddessey, and I actually was able to comprehend and read it, so bet, thanks for the reccomendation! Sounds like what I been looking for:)

@joeb5765

Жыл бұрын

Don't beat yourself up, it's great that you're reading. I found it difficult to get into The Classics when I was young as well. For me the most accessible and purely entertaining of the books that use old worldy language is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Great horror story but also hilarious. Oscar Wilde had an epigrammatic style. Which is basically a posh way of saying he tells a lot of brilliant jokes. And he is very clear. I also loved Frankenstein. I found that easier and more thrilling than Dracula. Main thing is to not feel guilty about what you're reading. I remember being 20 and thinking 'I don't understand or like Classic literature so I must be thick.' But you'd be surprised how much you change over time. Just cause you don't like posh books now doesn't mean you won't later in life. In my reading life I've found there's often been a right book for the right time. I've picked up stuff I thought was terrible 10 years ago and immediately clicked with it. Another classic I love purely as an unbelievably taut thriller is 1984 by George Orwell. Very exciting, scary and easy to read.

@joeb5765

Жыл бұрын

One final point, mate - bare in mind that literature isn't separated into The Classics and Everything Else Which Is Actually Shit. There are some incredible writers who are very well regarded but don't show up on University Syllabi. If you want a great popular writer who is incredibly entertaining, funny, accessible but also very sophisticated, try Elmore Leonard. I think he is generally considered to be the greatest crime novelist that has ever lived. He was a huge influence on Tarantino's early films - Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction- and Tarantino's Jackie Brown is an adaptation of Leonard's classic novel Rum Punch. The other really great Leonard adaptations are Get Shorty, Out of Sight and if you're including TV shows then 'Justified' (loosely based on some of his characters). You pretty much can't go wrong with Leonard. I particularly love the three books I have mentioned above and 'Riding The Rap', '52 Pick-Up' and 'Freaky Deaky', which has one of my favourite opening chapters ever. Stephen King is a huge Elmore Leonard fan. I would also highly recommend True Grit by Charles Portis (also adapted into two films). I'm not generally a huge fan of Westerns, but it is such a captivating, thrilling story, and it's told so lucidly, with such warmth and humour. I would say that is a perfect book. There isn't a word out of place. It's one of the most purely entertaining stories I've ever read. Also, try 'No Country for Old Men' by Cormac McCarthy. A quite terrifyingly pulse-quickening thriller. Clockers by Richard Price is a sprawling epic crime novel that was a huge influence on The Wire and is a strong contender for greatest contemporary crime novel. Lush Life by Price is also very good. Also, my other favourite crime writer- James Ellroy. I would recommend his 'L.A. Quartet' and his memoir 'My Dark Places' in which he investigates the murder of his own mother (really). Just keep reading, mate. You'll be surprised how one book can lead to another.

@joeb5765

Жыл бұрын

Sorry- genuinely finally. Couple of horror recommendations: Shirley Jackson- I particularly like her short stories. Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Terrifying. King is a huge fan of Ghost Story as well. Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. And of course The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby.

Provocative thumbnail required for more subs my brudda

@BenjaminMcEvoy

3 жыл бұрын

More cleavage? 😂