The Count of Monte Cristo WILL NOT be a chore. I read it as a March Mammoth years ago and now it's in my top ten of all time...it has everything, jealousy, friendship, romance, revenge, false identity, betrayal, .....so great⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Amazing! Can't wait to get to it :p

@justinthyme2666

6 ай бұрын

I’ve never heard of a March mammoth challenge. That’s pretty good. Much better than basketball, too.

@MelissaHolman-kt6oe

4 ай бұрын

I second this!! I’m reading it right now and it’s just so amazing. So hard to put down!!

One good way to protect your paperback books is to wrap them in clear contact paper, aka shelf lining paper. That’s what I do to all my books that I want to keep in pristine condition😊

@margaridasungoluiz7160

26 күн бұрын

I do that too❤

@margaridasungoluiz7160

26 күн бұрын

I do that too ❤

Great video, gave me some book ideas to go and look up as well. The Penguin covers are beautiful.

Thanks for sharing your collection. It’s a wonderful one. I’ve just started listening to audios and following along with a book while listening. I’m reading and listening to Gawain and the Green Knight, and it has really helped me digest it. I’ve tried it with others and I’m finding it works especially well with older classics and epic poems.

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Maybe I should try that too. I have a friend who does it and swears by it 😄

Nice video. Thank you, Ben. Love you big time man!❤️

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! 😄

The best use for kitchen cabinets I've seen yet. I like the aesthetics of the spines too. The covers can be either scary - War and Peace, strange - Wuthering Heights, or seem to fit the time period perfectly. What a great collection. Thanks for sharing it with us. 😊💙

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching! ☺️

Great video, it was so fun to watch. I'm so glad to have found someone that also didn't quite love Madame Bovary. Greetings from Angola

Impressive collection! Your comments on the books are fun to listen to 😂

Hi Ben, really enjoyed this, love me a Penguin Classic!!! I started reading all the classics in chronological order some years ago (I’m halfway through Shakespeare at the mo) and Penguin is my publisher of choice when I can get them.

You have the most hilarious personality!! I had so much fun watching this video! New subscriber 👍🏼

The old curiosity shop is incredible. Definitely worth a read

Thank you Ben. What a fine collection made all the better for your guidance.😁That was a rather good start to my day. Highly recommend The Count of Monte Cristo. Birthday read?

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

I'm looking forward to it! I'd like to get to it fairly soon...

@SabineThinkerbellum

2 жыл бұрын

The Count of Monte Cristo is so good !!!

I wonder if Penguin Classics was going for a more brutalist modern look to attract people. If they were I’m like you and prefer the old design ☘️. It’s nice to see a booktuber interested in older books too. ☀️I really like the black spines too.

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

I think you may be right. It makes sense they'd want to update it after so long but I wish it was at least a bit similar to before lol

It is a very comforting collection of black spine classics that you have. My black spine Penguin copy of Crime and Punishment must be close to 40 years old which ages me terribly, but is also deserving of a re read.

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Oh wow! Yeah, I'm really intrigued to read it again. And thanks!

it was fun...loved count of monte cristo which i read for the first time a couple of years ago..

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

I'm looking forward to it! 😃

Very nice :) Penguin black spines are by far my favourite editions of classics! Not just the design but also the notes are usually really good. However, like you, I really don't like the new design, I'm quite heartbroken and furious about this change to be honest because I hate having those two designs mixed on my shelf! (yes, I'm one of those people who get annoyed by stuff like this lol). As I live in Poland, it is so hard for me to get the older designs even if I want to order from online shops with used books because they have the same ISBN as the new design so you can't really rely on what people are selling if they don't post the actual photo of the book -.- Rant over, sorry :P I am seriosly considering moving to Oxford World Classics for future books because of this change, that's how much it annoys me! :) Yeah, Wives & Daughters is super boring, but North & South is so much better!!! :)) And the N&S TV series is to die for, just saying :)

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

I agree, a part of me dies a bit when I see the new design alongside the older one 😄 I'm also annoyed when the wrong edition turns up at my door ha. I will def have a look at North and South, I'm also keen to read Cranford :)

Thank you, really enjoyed this. I too have strong views on book covers and sentences starting with And and But as in The Midnight Library . . . 🙈

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

😄😄 Thanks for watching!

i wish they'd still print the really old school ones where it's just the title and the penguin and nothing else!!!! those seem to be really hard to come by and theyre soo cute

I love the black spine Penguins and don't even mind the new design (overly much), although my OCD gets traumatized over the stripes not lining up. Library of America gets all of their stripes to line up. Come on, Penguin, you're wrecking my brain!

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

😄😄

I enjoyed your video. :-) My Penguin Classics collection is growing too, but it's competing with my Oxford World Classics. I love each equally, but for different reasons. I've recently started collecting Norton Critical Editions. I appreciate the notes and contextual/critical essays. I'm half through The Count of Monte Cristo. I'm loving it. I think you'll love it, too. :-)

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I'm excited to start Count of Monte soon... Also, it's bad but I've never picked up a Norton Critical Edition!

@bunnygirlerika9489

Жыл бұрын

I love Oxford World Classics! Theres many books that penguin has that i wish they had as well.

I don't seem to appreciate Penguin Classics as much as I should but your video made me rethink things. They are quite accessible and cheap where I'm from. I also love the vintage classic with red spine but they don't have extra notes and intro like penguin classics. Lovely collection. I'll get me some penguin classics now 🤤 Btw, you'll love Crime and Punishment if you love Donna Tartt's The Secret History. The new penguin classics looks horrid 😵

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Aw thank you! I'm glad to have made a convert haha I have a handful of red spine vintages too. And I'm really looking forward to getting to crime and punishment again!

Yes i prefer the old design too, and I have an older copy of wuthering heights with dark blown over trees, makes a bit more sense haha. I wasn't a fan of the new dickens covers but that Martin Chuzzlewit cover may have single-handedly changed my mind.

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Haha, if ever I find that Wuthering Heights cover anywhere I will snap it up.

All the voices you do is sending me 😂🤣😂

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

😄🤪

All the voices you make made this so fun to watch 😆

@doomantidote

Жыл бұрын

😊😋

I do this with Folio Society and hardback Everyman's Library editions. I have some sort of radar for them.

Ah, the good old colour stripe at the top of the spine! This was the scheme, as I recall: Red - English language from wherever (plus some notable old translations that was a short-lived series) Yellow - modern European languages Purple - ancient Greek and Latin Green - pretty much anything else (Asian, Arabic, probably Indian and African) Funnily enough, the Mahabharata is also the book on my TBR list I'm most intimidated by, but that's because I've got the FULL version of it translated by Bibek Debroy, which clocks in around 6000 pages in total. As for the Quran, I don't know about etiquette in discussing it, all I really know is 1) strictly speaking Muslims believe it's impossible to translate as such because the text is literally of divine origin so any other language rendering of it by mere humans necessarily lacks the divine character of the orignal, and 2) any time I've tried to read it has been kind of hell cos it doesn't behave like "normal" books for want of a better word and it kind presupposes some familiarity with the Bible and with events surrounding the creation of the book. Infernally hard. I've seen that edition of Hesiod and Theognis and put it back on the bookshop shelf after looking at the introduction and seeing the translator be kind of sniffy about them both which just made me wonder she bothered translating them. (Cf. Lydia Davis's translation of Madame Bovary) All of Virgil is variously knocked off from Theocritus, Hesiod and Homer, all of whom I like better. Dryden's translation of the Aeneid at least gave me a sense of the original as epic poetry much better than the old Penguin prose translation did (the rather blunt ending definitely feels less abrupt in Dryden). Haven't read Fagles' version of this, but I'm not a big fan of what I have read by him. Not my flavour of verse.

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for all these insights!

If you put your classic books in alphabetical oder and take photographs on your phone, when you are out and about and come across one you can get your phone and check if you already have it. It's what I do. I'm looking forward to reading some Russian classics this year and also Count of Monte Cristo and Moby Dick. New to this book tube malarkey and finding my way around. Best wishes.

Read The Golden Ass this year, laughed and there is such a beautiful description of a specific goddess towards the end. No spoilers 😅

I bought Poetics of Space because I'm reading House of Leaves and he references it many times in the novel. So much so that Danielewski wrote the introduction on this copy of Poetics of Space, so that's neat. Unfortunately it's one of those books that I want to understand the contents of really badly, but it's clearly written for people with a bit of a background in philosophy, which I don't really have except in a really broad way.

I bought the Oresteia penguin classic because the woman on the cover behind the veil is so beautiful and creepy and mournful.... its second have and has tons of notes in it/has been crushed. I just know some highschool kids stepped on it in the stepwell of their moms mini van lol

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Haha, I don't mind a bit of pencil notes in a book but if there's a lot then I have a problem. I need to get a copy of the Orestia!

What a classics collection! A lot I've not heard of which is nice! Some to look into! I'm with you on liking the black covers, some of the pictures on the front really aren't very attractive to look at which I think could potentially put people off of they haven't read classics or many before! One I always return to is Jane Eyre! Do you have a favourite? Or one you've read more than once? X

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Jane Eyre definitely up there! And I'm really excited to get to Dostoevsky again. Thanks for watching! 😃

Classics are my comfort zone. If you hold the book steady and in close up shot, I may be able to grasp the name of the book and also that of the author. This is my humble suggestion.

Penguin Books = best book publisher of classic books. Penguin black spine collection = best collection of classics books ever [And I was not sponsored by Penguin, I really like their editions 😂].

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Me too 😄 and I agree!

No way!!! I’m also reading the Decameron ~ not the linguine classics tho because they don’t translate it to my native language (Greek)

Trust me you'll never regret picking up the count of monte cristo :⁠-⁠)

Subscribed.

Nice collection, Ben! I really loathe the new Penguin Classics design 😫what was the point in changing it when it was so elegant and iconic?

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! You don't seem to be alone with that opinion haha

I recall you pointing out that Anna Karenina's breasts had made it onto the Wordsworth edition of The Moonstone, no idea what they had to do with either book. This is quite a prolific collection of black-spined Penguin classics - I'm certain they've changed the Wuthering Heights cover, although they do seem to do that often as well. I hope that your collection continues to grow, and that you're able to seek out those with orange texts, for the white simply looks too matter-of-fact.

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Ooo I must have a look if they've changed WH... and yes, I'm not sure what that decolletage has to do with either book too 😄

What's your opinion about Oxford World Classic covers?

That War & Peace cover just before the 3:00 mark is unfortunate. ^J^ What are the chances that the redesigned Penguin covers and spines are more cost-effective?

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

Very likely I feel!

I TOTALLY AGREE ABOUT RHE NEW COVERS , the ones with the orange look so much more appealing and now I’m getting all my black spines second hand so they have the old covers lmaoo

Hello🙂 Nothing to do with Penguin Classics, I was just wondering if you read "If we were villains" by M. L. Rio...I am reading it now and it reminded me of you...being an actor...

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

I haven't! I will look it up :)

@mariannaalbek679

2 жыл бұрын

If you get around reading it I will be very interested to hear what you think of this practice teaching theatre. I know nothing on the subject so it will be cool to hear what you think.

The thing about Frankenstein is that it asks the reader. Who is the Monster. the Monster or the Creator?. I could not get into Moby Dick. Aniother one i couldn't do was Les Miserable. I love the Russian writers.

Did you try Canterbury tales yet? How is it? I'm thinking to buy myself a one

@doomantidote

Жыл бұрын

Yes! That translation is great :)

Can u do your modern penguin classics

@doomantidote

Жыл бұрын

That's a good idea 😃

OH (sniffle, sniffle) my favorite card is gone..... oh what a terrible day that portends !!! (sigh)

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

It's still there don't worry! 😄

@Leebearify

2 жыл бұрын

OH I am so relieved !! (big happy face)

@Leebearify

2 жыл бұрын

Please read the Poetics in Space it reminds me of Flatline, maybe, could be ???

I will give value to the aesthetics of books. I like having a collection that looks indistinguishable among its members. I sigh with disappointment when I buy a book online thinking it will match its brothers and sisters already in my possession only to discover it is "unique" in some way or another. I have an itch in my brain that will not go away until the offending book is passed on from my library. Conformity is key in the world of book collecting. It is a problem, I know.

@doomantidote

2 жыл бұрын

It is frustrating I know! I wish there was a way of knowing which edition was arriving at your door but hey ho lol

You are my friend’s uncle

I really hate the new design of the black Penguin Classics. On the shelf when placing the old and the new Penguin Classics together, they don't match and they clash horribly.

The quality is just terrible, i cant believe how popular they are 😭

I detest two writers: James Joyce and Thomas Hardy. Hardy is soooo descriptive in his writing that it becomes soporific ! Had to read Tess for 'O' Level and Far from... for 'A' Level 😔 As for JJ....had to read "The Dubliners" for 'A' Level and attempted the other so-called novels with all those neologisms....not for me. For someone who is an avid and voracious reader the Penquin books are OK and Wordaworth ones ? Well,who cares because they look battered as soon as you get them home 😂 All the Best from Cheshire.

@apollonia6656

8 ай бұрын

PS: Forgot to say I read all of Dostovesky but categorically refuse to attempt Tolstoy's "War and Peace" for the nth time ! Why are Russian novels so long ?

@user295.

7 ай бұрын

@@apollonia6656 you don't really wanna go into war and peace expecting a traditional novel. tolstoy himself said his first proper novel was anna karenina. treat it like an education of history and the effects of war, against the backdrop of the characters

Do u have turrets bro

Should treat The Mahabharata with the same respect as the Quran because it is also a religious book 😅

Marry me, sir.

Yeah definitely War and peace cover sucks

My first vid from you and im binging your vids now haha just wanted to get back to this and introduce you to libib. Its how i catalog all of my book. And its free! You might want to check it out so its easy to know which ones you have and you dont