Picnic at Hanging Rock is definitely more of a vague vibes sort of book. I enjoyed it when I read it, but I think Peter Weir's film adaptation is much better -- partly because movies as a medium I think are way better suited to that kind of intuitive storytelling than books, and partly because it's just a genuinely excellent movie.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

I was recommended that movie back when I reviewed the book and forgot about it. Won't make the same mistake twice 😅

I’m glad you liked Player Piano as I think it’s a little underrated. Lots of my other favourites on here including Frankenstein, Childhood’s End and more Vonnegut haha

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Getting more and more relevant everyday 😅 I've been recommending that one a lot

I read 23 books this year, which is great for me because I’m a slow and picky reader, and 9 of them were 5 star reads!

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Pays to be a picky reader when you only read 5 star books :)

Awesome list! I will take a lot of inspiration from it and will definitely try to pickup a Vonnegut in the near future. I am currently about halfway through The Martian by Andy Weir and really enjoying it but next one on my TBR is Book of Skulls and was amazed it was so low on your list since I heard many great things about it and was really glad I found a second hand copy of it in my local second hand store here in Sweden. I've only read one Silverberg so far which was Downward To Earth and absolutely loved it. Congrats on getting so far with the reading challenge and can't wait for next year's content!

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

The book of Skulls was great but I read so many awesome books this year that it had a lot of competition. The Martian is a lot of fun glad you're enjoying it

Great job on the year!

Congrats on a great year of reading!

Great list. Congrats on the number of books this year. They are quite diverse. Because of your recommendation I just placed an order with my local bookstore for Never Cry Wolf. Can't wait to check it out when it comes in.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Happy to hear that. You will love it I'm sure :)

Oh, and congratulations on the 46 books. That's a great year.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Thank you 😊 A new record!

Love seeing the Alchemist ranked so high! It makes me sad that it gets so much hate. The Alchemist literally changed my life and set me on a new path and I will be forever grateful for that book.

@felipe.watanabe23

5 ай бұрын

His books are not very well received here in Brazil, many people consider them poor written and full of self help quotes. I think he is good as a songwriter, but we have much better authors like Clarice Lispector and Machado de Assis.

@mattj2118

5 ай бұрын

Yes, the alchemist was great. But I do have to say it’s not as good as your own book. Mr. Spooner, No Treason is absolutely amazing.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

I've become aware of the hate recently but luckily I read the book before any of it could taint my opinion

You hit the nail on the head with Mote in God's Eye. Aliens, and the interactions with humans, I was onboard 100%. The three midshipmen on the planet? 100%. Humans chatting with humans about empire stuff... ZZZzzz. Player Piano is on my TBR pile.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

I'm interested in what you think about Player Piano. Seems like it would be a very decisive book when put in modern context

So glad you put Sirens of Titan so high - all the way through I was hoping you were going to name it ... By the way, I think those 5, plus Slaughterhouse 5, are his best, so I wouldn't worry about reading too many more. And I write as someone who started a Ph. D on his books, but he was writing them faster than I could write about them! 😊

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Very interested in your findings about Vonnegut. Certainly someone worthy of being studied

Congratulations on a wonderful reading year! "Never Cry Wolf" is one of my favorites as well. Farley Mowat has written some other memorable books. "The Dog Who Wouldn't Be", "The Boat That Wouldn't Float" and many more. The "Never Cry Wolf " movie is also quite good. Happy New Year!!🎆🎇 Thanks for making these videos.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching :) I've been on the lookout for other books by him but have somehow never seen one

That was a great list. I'm adding Never Cry Wolf to my TBR. My top 5 books of the year were Sea of Rust by Cargill, Slewfoot by Brom, The Island by McKinty, The Kind Worth Killing by Swanson and The Troop by Cutter. Honorable mention An Honest Man by Koryta. Artemis is a great book, was ranked perfectly. Patiently waiting for another Andy Weir offering. Here's to a productive reading year and keep pumping out the videos sir...

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

I will do my best. Happy I could influence you in that direction :)

Sounds like you had a great reading year! Keep up the good work, I always enjoy your reviews. Oh by the way, since you mention Vonnegut a lot, have you ever read Galapagos? It was the first Vonnegut book I read, and remains to this day my favourite of his.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

I haven't read that one actually and it's good to know there's still some good ones out there. I appreciate that

I like how you get right into it.

Philip Jose Farmer wrote a book called The Purple Book, I think it is three connected novellas. I thought of this book when you mentioned the purple book which was Simak's They Walked Like Men.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

If it's actually a purple book then I'd love to have it in my collection :)

@vilstef6988

5 ай бұрын

@@bookjack An early paperback edition is indeed purple 💜

I only started getting into reading this year. I was never a huge reader, but I picked up a book I found on the for of my garage called "One of the Boys" by Daniel Magariel. My parents don't know where it came from, but I ended up flipping through the pages and it was the first book I read not assigned by my school. Now I love reading and I read around 19 books this year.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Congratulations, and welcome to the reading club. What was your favorite book you read in 2023?

Thanks for the They Walked Like Men recommend--didn't know this book existed (Simak wrote a LOT)/iIf you like "lighter/funnier" Simak, I recommend his Goblin Reservation. Published in 1968, I theorize that it's Simak trying to be psychedelic. An aside: I think the readers who really love The Moviegoer are the readers who are also film fanatics (esp. TCM--those old school movies/ my aunt and father are film nuts, and they both love this book). I liked it, but prefer (and recommend) the author's Love in the Ruins--a satirical/bitter SF novel extrapolating off of the nightmare social trends of the 1960s. Kind of a bummer, I have to admit.... Just discovered your channel; neat stuff--I think I'll stay awhile: Thanks!

@bookjack

4 ай бұрын

Glad you're enjoying my videos! Guess I would have enjoyed it a little more if I was a movie snob 😅

Clarke's The City and the Stars is a rewrite of his first novel. The original was called Against the Fall of Night. The two books have the same plot, but details vary. I liked Fall of Night better.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Good to know. I'll check it out if I get a chance. I wonder if that would count as a re-read

@vilstef6988

5 ай бұрын

@bookjack they are very similar. since City and the Stars was a rewrite, it would be fair to consider it a reread

I’ve seen the movie Never Cry Wolf 3-4 times, which is beautiful, humorous, and heartbreaking. Maybe it’s time I read the book.

@bookjack

3 ай бұрын

Definitely! You are in for a treat

Good review. "Frankenstein", eh! Maybe if I could have waded to the end.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

I can definitely see why some may DNF. It get difficult to wade

I have some of Peter Matthiessen’s books, by which I mean-books he owned. His library was sold to a shop dealer near me, and I bought some (but not all)-so there are several books with his bookplate here. It doesn’t *matter*-it’s just fun.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Doesn't matter just like that Hemingway sticker but it's fun you're right :)

You're so right. A little bit of Vonnegut goes a long way. I've read all of them. That F&SF anthology looks cool. I have a lifetime subscription to the magazine, which I started reading in 1982. I think I would have ranked most of these books similar to the way you did.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

We do tend to agree a lot. I think that's one of the premier anthologies that covers a large span of sci-fi. Makes sense since they've been around for so long

@LiterateTexan

5 ай бұрын

The only book on here I disagreed with you on was The Midnight Library, which I really disliked, even though it was clearly an homage to one of my favorite movies.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

It's a Wonderful Life?

@LiterateTexan

5 ай бұрын

@@bookjack Yes. Lots of little Easter eggs, too

Randy Ray sent me here! 😎📚👍

@bookjack

4 ай бұрын

Awesome! Thanks Randy!

#1: For me it was 1Q84. Best book I've read in 20+yrs. Midnight Library: Read it earlier this year. Currently re-reading on audio. If I need a Mage with One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them; In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.....I'm calling you first. I respect anyone that has 35,000 subscribers , but Matt could go on and pontificate as to why belly button lint is the greatest thing humanity has ever seen. Very happy I found this channel #NotDisgusting

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Wow high praise. Maybe I can dedicate the first half of 2024 to that book 😅 lots of people seem to think the same

I can't believe you put Death of a Salesman below a book that you forgot you read, but good list!

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

Well it did have a big impact on me so that's high praise... Kind of

A couple of opinions I'm sure you desperately want to hear😂. One, you had a great year. Even (most of) the books at the bottom of your list weren't a waste of time, unlike a lot of the crap I read this year. Two, you could maybe read more anthologies. In my experience, they widen your reach and potentially lead to new authors/styles of writing that you might not find otherwise.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

I am going to try and do that next year and you're right I'm very happy with my picks, even the ones that landed near the bottom

Just finished The Left Hand of Darkness today, now reading the introduction, which I skipped. Glad I skipped it or it would have ruined the book. I believe it was your advice from a previous video to always skip the intro of books or risk spoilers.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

So glad to hear this. Would have been tragic to spoil that book

Never Let Me Go was singular. Nothing else of his had anywhere near the impact (for me.) Likewise Norwegian Wood is a bit singular in its tone, usually Murakami doesn’t bring the mood down quite so heavily. Picnic at Hanging Rock has a closing sequel (fwiw.)

@bookjack

3 ай бұрын

Murakami definitely dropped the mood in Norwegian Wood 😅 Right on my chest

@MotiviqueStudio

3 ай бұрын

@@bookjack His Rat books really set my expectation for him - breezy, quirky, sometime laugh out loud ridiculous. I have yet to read IQ84, but it's coming up in the not too distant future.

Oh man. Dying earth is in my top 10 series of all time. But I also love sirens of Titan so you are partly forgiven for you slander of Vance's Masterpiece

@bookjack

2 ай бұрын

Glad I balanced out 😅

Totally agree with a lot of these, others I'm looking forward to reading. Only differences for me are: I'm a big Graham Greene fan and Power and the Glory is my favorite of his, and I thought Childhood's End was just OK ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯. Great list though.

@bookjack

2 ай бұрын

That's the only Graham Greene I've read. Maybe he's just not for me?

@sgtwanderer

2 ай бұрын

@@bookjack Hard to say! A lot of his other works are more light-hearted and comedic than PatG, while still being political.

Read "Domestic Detention," then tell us what you think.

I request permission for spamming, thank you. (Feel free to just ignore this crap, is way too long, except the part I wrote in all caps, in which you might be actually interested). I made it I believe like 15 pages in "The Dying Earth", and ran away. There was like a wizard or something, iugh. I salute your perseverance. We overlap this year in “The Mot in God’s Eye” (OK, but meh), “City” (awesome, but please tell me more about the dogs, sir), and “Sea of Tranquility” (I forgot about this one, I had to check my list. I have no idea what it is about, it’s totally gone. I know it had like micro-chapters, that’s all I got). My sci-fi highlights this year include the Three Body Problem trilogy, which everybody says is great and it is. Food for thoughts for weeks and months. Also “House of Suns”, by Alastair Reynolds, and “The Sparrow”, by Mary Doria Russell (not totally sci-fi, tho, more like speculative fiction, but the premise is so interesting). Tangential, but still awesome: “I’M ALIVE AND YOU’RE DEAD”, THE BIOGRAPHY OF DICK by French author Emmanuel Carrère. If you’re a fan of Dick, this one is a must. Disappointments: “Solaris”. I didn’t get it at all, not a good sci-fi novel, neither a good psychological novel, something aborted in between. “2001”, although I could see why back in the day it was considered very good. The worst stuff I read: “The Grace Year”, by Kim Ligget (probably the worst thing I have read in my entire live, which is quite long), and that Weir dude, with “The Martian”. He is just terrible, sorry but not sorry. Every and each shifty pun drowns you in a deep and unshakeable c r i n g e. I read “The Parable of the Sower” a couple of years ago and it was deeply disturbing for me, for months. You find very often post-apocalyptical tales, but not so many stories about the apocalypses _while is happening_. I like that you focused rather in the positive aspects; I could never. Happy new year! I appreciate when you value books by the contribution they provide to your emotional health, even when I still wish Coehlo was erased from history. Maybe we here in Latam have seen him more closely for many years, I read “The Alchemist” more than 20 years ago.

@bookjack

5 ай бұрын

I had somehow never heard of The Alchemist before finding a pretty copy in a thrift store and deciding to read it. That was for the best it seems. Looks like we have a lot of reading overlap and enough conflicting opinions to have a fun conversation 😅 I will die on my Andy Weir Hill so beware 🤠