"...I'm gonna pick up something fun and light, and I picked up 'Of Mice and Men'..." And my immediate reaction was: "oh no"

@oliviapg

6 күн бұрын

I nearly buckled over laughing at that

@GSBarlev

6 күн бұрын

@@frankwales did you read it in high school as well?

@frankwales

6 күн бұрын

@@GSBarlev No, later -- we did 'Catcher in the Rye' as a contemporary novel in English class. But still...

@Matt_The_Hugenot

5 күн бұрын

We did this book in the equivalent of 8th grade, talk about traumatizing.

@misslayer999

5 күн бұрын

@@frankwales I LOVED Catcher in the Rye. I mean I still do, one of my all-time favorites. I've read it probably 20 times(till the book literally fell apart) starting when I was 10. My older sister had it for school, and left it laying on the kitchen table. Ever the book fanatic, I was eating cereal one day and picked it up. It left a huge impression on me. Id never read anything like it before. I read it probably five more times before I finally had it as required reading in 11th grade. Needless to say, I OWNED that book report lol.

Sooo... I love this series about books, because it encourages people to read and share their own thoughts about books, and that's great. Which is why I just want to give a little shout-out here to your local library. Yes, you have one. They're all over the place, and they're great. They're FULL of books! And you can check them out, for ZERO dollars. And they have librarians, who will help you find books. And if your life gets busy, they'll renew your books if you're late to dropping them off. Please support your local library. Thank you!

@culwin

5 күн бұрын

"they'll renew your books if you're late to dropping them off." Well, they do that now, but before the pandemic they didn't... and I don't know if it's the case everywhere either... but yeah seems like most of them realized it was unnecessary to charge late fees the vast majority of the time

@JH-pt6ih

5 күн бұрын

I don't have a local library. It sucks - not just no library, but no inter-library loans. That's what you get with living in nowhereland.

@internetfox

4 күн бұрын

@@JH-pt6ih you have internet archive tho, which is sort of like a library. I feel u tho.

@metallsnubben

2 күн бұрын

My university library even does _auto-renewal_ on books that aren't in high demand, which feels like a great recipe for making me forget books until I move towns or something lol

"Flowers for Algernon" A mouse and a dumb boy become smart through a new drug. It is written from the POV of the 'Forrest Gump' character.

@acaryadasa

2 күн бұрын

Yes. That's a terrific book.

Having fun isn't hard--when you've got a library card!

The Twilight Zone is HUGELY influenced by Bradbury. Both are fundamentally about the mid-20th century culture shock visited on a whole generation of farmers who went to war, went to the moon, grew up on farms, lived in cities. It's all about this wistful Americana stuff, often with a dark vibe to it.

@LibertyMonk

6 күн бұрын

oh.

@AnthonyLewis-zi4rh

4 күн бұрын

The fact that Matt Colville is an Angela Collier fan feels very extremely correct.

Re: Age of Innocence. I think I'd be nostalgic for the Gilded Age too, if I'd just lived through WWI and the 1918 pandemic.

@SpacemanTheo

4 күн бұрын

That's the only problem with classics sometimes. You need to know the context of not only the time they're written, but the intended audience or at least why the author wrote it.

@Tolstoy111

5 сағат бұрын

@@SpacemanTheo Also she wasn't pushing nostalgia. She was being critical of the age.

"Two dudes who have rabbits." Oh, Angela. Yeah I bet that would have been a surprise.

@chrisl6546

5 күн бұрын

funniest description of that book, evar.

@mollymaybe

5 күн бұрын

@@chrisl6546 perfect answer to one of those describe a book incorrectly prompts

When you start reading in that accent.... GOLD!

@neilwilson5785

6 күн бұрын

I'm English and it made me feel very strange, in maybe a good way?

@PhillipRhodes

5 күн бұрын

I would pay money for an audio book read in that accent.

@rfreamon

5 күн бұрын

I'm just going to assume that was Dr Collier 's own Kentucky accent. Apologies if I'm wrong.

@wkgmathguy218

3 күн бұрын

@@rfreamon I didn't notice she has an accent. Of course I'm from Kentucky myself...

I only now realized how a lot of Master and Margarita could seem a lot less funny to anyone not from former USSR as a lot of it is satire of USSR things - communism, state-regulated art/religion. Anywhere else writing a strange book about Pontius Pilate would be "whatever, you do you", not an act of rebellion One of my all time favorites

@ruthenwernervandevrede-van9374

5 күн бұрын

I was not born in the USSR but I thoroughly enjoyed Master and Margarita. Maybe because as European born in the seventies I know more about the history behind it? A true masterpiece humour and defiance. Shame Angela really missed the point about this one.

@JH-pt6ih

5 күн бұрын

I was fortunate to have been made aware of the book by a former Soviet citizen that I got to discuss it with as I read it which I do think added to my reading of it.

@arctic_haze

23 сағат бұрын

Not solely in the Soviet Union but everywhere behind the Iron Curtain.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who likes The Master and Margarita 😞 But it hits different in Russian! My copy also came with A Young Doctor's Notebook, a series of his short stories about working as an inexperienced physician in a remote village. So miserable and surreal, it becomes funny.

@acollieralso

4 күн бұрын

Based on the comments here I am the only one who didn't like it.

@piotrwieckowski9607

Күн бұрын

@@acollieralso I think it's normal you did not like it because you are not the target audience. The book is very much meant for a soviet block audience and is nonsensical without that cultural background

@GWigWam

22 сағат бұрын

I quite liked it. Seemed more of a critique of soviet systems and hierarchy than of their atheism specifically; but I'm probably missing something without the cultural context.

I was born in 1970 and remember my Saturday morning cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny who had a recurring obstacle character (no name given(*)) whose defining characteristic was that he was huge and strong and dumb and would just grab Bugs and hold him saying , "I will love him and pet him and name him George." Being less than 10 at the time, I had no idea what that was referencing, but I found it amusing later in life. (*) no name given that I remember in the show, but we all know now it would have been Lenny.

@bookshelfhoney

5 күн бұрын

Ohhhhhhh that's what that's referencing?! Haha I never realized

@timg6125

4 күн бұрын

I think it was the abominable snowman. kzread.info/dash/bejne/nISYqsOHopO1cbw.html

@d3nza482

4 күн бұрын

Abominable Snowman is the character. You know... the Yeti. The episode is The Abominable Snow Rabbit.

"Cannery Row" is a really gorgeous Steinbeck book that is a lot less tragic! He describes the community of Monterey like critters in a tidal pool

If you'd like a short Steinbeck palate cleanser I recommend Cannery Row. Fun, good characters and setting (based on real people Steinbeck hung out with in those days, along with Joseph Campbell!)

@paulm.8660

4 күн бұрын

My thoughts as well! Mack and the boys will forever live rent-free in my head

@tarico4436

4 күн бұрын

I would add "The Wayward Bus" and "The Pearl" to your "Cannery Row" list. Those are my 3 favs from Steinbeck. They tell me I'm missing out on "East of Eden" and "The Grapes of Wrath" but oh well.

@meesalikeu

3 күн бұрын

@@tarico4436yeah to the pearl 🎉

Oof East of Eden fucked me up.

@andy8041

6 күн бұрын

Me too, buddy. Me too. It's my favorite book now.

@fredbobberts5753

5 күн бұрын

Yah Rocky go

@Amira_Phoenix

4 күн бұрын

I loved it enormously, especially the ending. Also, there's a line about Chinese ink paintings, and the white dude doesn't believe those exist 😂😂😂😂😂

I worked in a used/rare bookstore for 20 years or so. I had a lot of time to read and could take any book I wanted as long as I remembered to return it. The classics tended to disappoint me. A common issue was that the problems and concerns discussed in the novel didn't translate very well into contemporary society. So, it wasn't the author's fault that I didn't like it, they apparently succeeded in entertaining their own contemporaries. Of the ones I did like, it wasn't the plot or drama as much as is was getting a real sense for some other place and time. I was also doing research and publishing technical articles at the time and sometimes I wanted to give my brain a rest and found myself enjoying science fiction pulps from the 30s and 40s. The writing, of course, was generally bad, but the authors knew how to pace the story and put in the occasional twist. As a way to pass the time when my brain was on idle, they were fun. Another thing I liked about working in a bookstore was that I could grab a book I had never heard of, sit down and read it. Now and then, it ended up being a pleasant surprise.

@arthurswanson3285

4 күн бұрын

I'm having the same problem w Plato's Republic. Too much of it is about the basic assumption that there is a class of men who are above everyone else and how society is supposed to be structured around them and their aspirations. And everyone else are slaves. Fuggem.

"The Legend of Curly's Wife"

@aboynam3dblu3

5 күн бұрын

Sounds like the third City Slickers movie.

@Amira_Phoenix

4 күн бұрын

That's a start

Once upon a time in 1973, my mom and I decided that we wanted to go to the movies and relax with a “fun and light” lowbrow western. We chose “High Plains Drifter”.

@bookshelfhoney

5 күн бұрын

Oh yikes

@sandracraft517

5 күн бұрын

My favorite ghost story!

@arthurswanson3285

4 күн бұрын

I want to see it now. Was born in 73.

@meesalikeu

3 күн бұрын

check out the beastie boys cover 🎉

"Good ahmens" - Sometimes she just throws something out like that and it blows my mind.

@neilwilson5785

6 күн бұрын

Accents are cool

@fredeisele1895

4 күн бұрын

Is that how they say it in Eastern Kentucky?

@TheJlennick

6 сағат бұрын

I thought she’d said “Good Almonds” for a hot second before my brain caught up. Pronunciation is an amazing and diverse thing!

Just release the Kentucky accent. We all know it’s just bubbling under the surface, trying to come out 😂

I was supposed to read Grendel for a college class, but the week before I realized I had to switch to a different class. It's been on my shelf ever since. I'm definitely going to pick it up next

I find it strange that Pride and Prejudice seems to get a pass while Age of Innocence doesn't regarding rich people and their petty rich people problems. Pride and Prejudice is also about a bunch of rich people where the main financial insecurity isn't so much in becoming poor as much as it is becoming less rich. Yes, Age of Innocence did satirize Gilded Age culture heavily. The major sticking point of the book isn't really supposed to be that these are all terrible people (they aren't heroes, but I very much don't think they're that horrible), but that the culture in which they live in pressures them to make choices that are terrible for their lives that they can never undo and forever have to live with. I think the issue you might have had with it is that culture has moved so far past the 1870's and 1920's that it might not have resonated. People in 1920 would read it and go "Wow, people 50 years ago were so dumb and stupid and their culture didn't make any sense and was actively detrimental to people's lives." It's not that dissimilar to books now talking about how bad culture was in the 1950's or 60's, it's just that us in the 2020's resonate with that more because it's more relevant to us.

@Broken_robot1986

6 сағат бұрын

I hated both.

@Tolstoy111

5 сағат бұрын

P&P is a satire. And if those women don't find husbands they were staring poverty in the face. That's how inheritance laws worked there and then.

@Tolstoy111

5 сағат бұрын

@@Broken_robot1986 What did you dislike about P&P? It's so witty and charming. Jane Austen pretty much invented the modern novel as understand it.

Angela, I always enjoy your take on everything. You might like Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine” and Theodore Sturgeon’s “More Than Human”. Thank you for reminding me about “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Charlotte Gilman’s beliefs and life were very interesting and impressive especially for the time in which she lived.

I’d recommend “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse if you haven’t read it already. Like ”Of Mice and Men,” it’s a short read that does an excellent job of developing interesting characters. I found it to be a really calm and beautiful meditation on finding meaning in life.

@williamlyerly3114

4 күн бұрын

Siddhartha is indeed a classic. Got me to read a lot of Herman Hesse in the early ’70s

@nedmerrill5705

3 күн бұрын

_Demian._

@meesalikeu

3 күн бұрын

can’t love that one enough 🎉

@acaryadasa

2 күн бұрын

I loved all of Hesse's books as a teen/young man, but I revisited them a few years ago as an old fart, and was significantly less impressed. It all seemed overly simplistic, even juvenile to me now.

At 11:59 you told us not to laugh, and I'm going to respect that. So instead I'll say I'm _so sorry_ for the gut-punch. I read _OM&M_ in high school, and even though I'm pretty sure I knew how it ended, I still felt utterly unprepared for actually reading it. Also: I'm sorry-I don't remember any sort of discussion of agency around Curly's wife, specifically. What I remember the theme being was that, in the dust bowl, there's not really right and wrong or blame or dreams, there's just _stuff that happens_ as people struggle to survive.

With Nobokov is like a codependent relationship where you keep reading because the writing is amazing but you question the characters so you stay for the ride. You cannot write horrible characters if your writing is "meh". So no. you dont need literary training to "get" Age of innocence. Also pretty sure Pulitzer price winners in that age was because of the world at that time so its hard that a book that old can resonate in 2024

9:38 ME TOO! Trying to decipher phonetic dialect when reading a book is the best way to break the suspension of disbelief and ruin the whole thing :(

@camipco

3 күн бұрын

And Mark Twain's feels really racist. I mean, I get by the standards of his time he is radically anti-racist. And the fact he's writing black characters who have any depth at all is remarkable for a white dude at the time. But also, like, his blaccent is super uncomfortable to read.

The Yellow Wallpaper is just spectacular. I read it in college (thirty years ago) and it made me a Charlotte Perkins Gillman fan for life.

@AndPennyThought

6 күн бұрын

The Yellow Wallpaper always stuck out to me; it really united my love of psychology and literature and helped me see value in my struggle with mental health.

@Bluefooted23

6 күн бұрын

I agree. Fascinating story, albeit terrifying.

Steinbeck often uses women in his stories...awkwardly. A lot of the time they exist largely as objects for the male character's story or as symbols of the innocence or "good" of humanity

@CF565

4 күн бұрын

This is an important point, that this was a career-long shortcoming of his work. While it's a bit of a copout, I think he's somewhat a product of male narrative conventions of the time which almost always trivialize/instrumentalize women- Steinbeck wasn't exactly doing avante-garde norm-shattering work, his work is fairly straightforward usually, he's mostly an exceptional storyteller and with a commanding sense of how to build emotionally resonate narratives. I think Curly's wife kinda works in some ways being one-dimensional, bc the work is thinner and more fable-like than his more sweeping epics, and she's presented as seen by a milieu of alienated men in a patriarchal society and economy who are denied the opportunity for full rich lives, as an object apart representing temptation, desire, fragility, precariousness, and the consequences of crossing class and social hierarchies.

@deirdre108

4 күн бұрын

I agree-I never thought that Steinbeck (along with Hemingway) created believable female characters.

@Broken_robot1986

6 сағат бұрын

I hear men all the time refer to their wives as "their better half". Kinda the same thing I think.

Wow it took me an unreasonable amount of time to realize that this is a secondary channel called acollier *also* instead of astro

I loved Grendel! What a great book!

A book that is an excellent piece of literature is "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. However it is actually based on a horrific true crime and is very disturbing.

Just choked on my coffee over the Mice and Men selection. That’s honestly hilarious. 😂 I’d recommend the Pearl.

I don't think I've seen anybody recommend Catch-22 yet. It came out just before the US ramped up in Vietnam and the setting is in WWII, so it's usually considered an anti-war novel. It's really much more than that, and is a study of the absurdity of human behavior, particularly when large organizations with power structures are involved.

@user-vy3th9vj2n

5 күн бұрын

Huge +1 to this. Catch-22 is an absolute masterpiece and I recommend it to absolutely anyone. I can’t imagine someone not enjoying it

@acaryadasa

2 күн бұрын

Great and important book, and also one of those extremely rare cases where I would also recommend the movie.

@davidand36

11 сағат бұрын

It's been 50 years since I read "Catch 22", but I still remember it being side-splittingly funny. A much less well-known piece by Heller that I also enjoyed is "Picture This".

If you haven't read them, I'd highly recommend either The Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas. Try to find modern and unabridged translations. I'd say Monte Cristo is the better book, but it's also a bigger time commitment. Three Musketeers is still very good, I remember thinking of it as a popcorn action movie in book form when I was a kid, but that might say more about the pacing of the books I otherwise read at the time.

@DaLiJeIOvoImeZauzeto

6 күн бұрын

Monte Cristo is great, highly recommended. Although I haven't read it since my teens, I read it twice back then and it's not a short read, some 1300 pages. It truly is the quintessential revenge and forgiveness story.

@manumaster1990

5 күн бұрын

Those are actually good and classic books, yes.

@HITABikes

4 сағат бұрын

Those books are good but the OG versions are so long

I don't know if you did this on purpose, but "here's how I felt and a little bit of why...." before actually talking any details was great. I've never read 'Of Mice and Men' and that pause right after you said "It is NOT about that" was a great opportunity for me to skip a few minutes ahead so I too can pick that one up with a clean slate lol

Travels with Charley was my favorite Steinbeck if you want to read even more of him :)

Great as always. RE: Steinbeck -- I highly recommend =reading= East of Eden (great retelling of the Cain Abel story, intertwined with California and Steinbeck family history; one of my favorites), and =watching= Cannery Row (quirky and funny, but has a bit of depth/philosophy). I'd be curious to hear your take on male vs female characters/roles in both. Grapes of Wrath is a powerful book, but a definite downer, man's inhumanity to man type stuff set in California Dust Bowl/migrant worker settings.

@Mj323_bb

5 күн бұрын

I own the Cannery Row movie and re-watch it every few years, so I did so again this evening: I still enjoyed it quite a bit, but it had a couple scenes that were a bit longer, slower, and darker than I remembered and definitely contains scenes that are dated either by the sensibilities baked into the 40 year age of the movie or the 80 year age of the novel. It's 75/72 on rotten tomatoes, which feels about right. I also sampled the Audible version and as I remembered, found it a more difficult listen. Meanwhile, it's time for a re-engagement with East of Eden, and I think the Audible version of that =will= work for me based on its sample -- but it's a pretty long book, so that will take time to complete.

They tried to make us read *Grendel* in 5th grade. *FIFTH GRADE!!* I don't think any of us really got it. Only thing I remember is Grendel flipping off the sky in the first chapter. (I guess 11 year old me thought that was pretty funny lol)

Between the two, I vote East of Eden - Grapes of Wrath is more of a slog. East of Eden is a masterpiece. It drags every now and then, but the generations of families, the interconnected stories, the moral questions - they're all terrific. It *is* a bit racist and misogynistic in parts, but beyond that, it is incredible.

@Amira_Phoenix

4 күн бұрын

Both racism and misogyny there are a satire

@jakebeach8308

4 күн бұрын

@@Amira_Phoenix to an extent, perhaps. The more egregious stuff. But we can't ignore that we're all products of our time. Things we class as racist and misogynistic now we're not considered as such then, so, while holding some belief or making some statement in his time may have been seen as being more forward thinking, it may still, by our standards, be racist or misogynistic. A good parallel - plenty of abolitionists, while being 100% against slavery, did not support letting black people (or women) vote, and even vocally considered black people as lesser than white, even if not deserving to be enslaved. Progressive for their time, absolutely, but still incredibly racist by today's terms.

So having read neither of the books, but also loving Lolita, the thing that works about Lolita is that Nabokov is interested in understanding how the self-delusion of these horrible people works. The thing that is revealed isn't that HH's actions are evil, of course they are, we already know that (or should, terrifyingly there are people who read Lolita who seem to lack that knowledge), it's that HH's thought process behind those actions is rotten. And we see how it connects to the other ways he thinks. Like for example, feels very relevant now, this veneration of Classic Western European Civilization, which HH reveres and Nabokov reveals how the revering of that culture fuels that feeling of superiority that is partly driving HH. So yeah, maybe that's the difference between the two books I haven't read.

If you haven’t read Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights know going it is like Despair not Pride & Prejudice. A great book about terrible people.

Of mice and men was a tale of a way of life ending badly for everybody. The world was gearing up into an age where engine power would replace horse power and man power. The men were a multitude of ag workers chasing fewer oportunites, as the technologies made them redundant. As trucks replaced horses, fewer acres were planted in horse fodder. Fewer men needed at harvest. The poor girl was roadkill in a race to the bottom.

the thing about Master and Margarita is, going in the reader needs to be aware of the context. Bulgakov was from a religious family, his father was a scholar, a professor in Kiev Theological Academy, his grandfather was a priest, so was one of his brothers, IIRC. he knew the Bible, the history of Christianity, the history of religion - all very well, and this book is his summary of all that knowledge after he had distanced himself from the Russian Orthodox Church. the gist of it is, Satan comes to Moscow because he's conceived a new evangel for the Bible but he cannot write it because he's not human, so he needs someone to do it for him, he seeks out the Russian Faust and sets him up with the reincarnation of queen Margot, but as powerful as he is, his attempts are ultimately thwarted by the Soviet machine and its relentlessness. we have this book taught in schools (at high-school level in US terms), so it's required reading, but I can tell you from experience, for school kids it's just a well-written book about magic in 1920s Moscow. I straight up skipped the Judea chapters when I read it. so I feel you, this book was written with certain intentions, and modern readers have to be aware of that.

@chrisl6546

5 күн бұрын

And it's got a giant homicidal pyromaniac black cat running around setting things on fire with a primus stove!

@YTHandlesWereAMistake

5 күн бұрын

Thanks a lot for this. I have skipped over it, but have been to a play reenactment. While it was genuinely one of the best theater performances I've ever been to, the story itself didn't really click before I dove into comments under this video. That plotline makes so much more sense now, and perhaps I should've contacted a doc about my inability to sleep at night properly leading to falling asleep on lessons like literature back in the day. Some of those I remember really well, like Zamyatin's We discussed in previous video, and some, like this one - much less. Though I should admit I have a more scifi-esque taste.

When reading Mark Twain one must remember he was not a novelist, he was really a newspaper reporter. His novels are often kind of disjointed, with plot mechanics that can be a bit weird. Having said that, I enjoyed Puddenhead Wilson very much. Number one, it examined the fact of slave owners using their slaves for sex, an aspect that earned it some very bad reviews at the time. It was a subject that no one wrote of. It may also be the first murder mystery to use fingerprint evidence to convict a killer. Finally, it makes the point that the slaveowners son by his wife, who is raised as a slave, becomes like a slave in behaviour. At the end of the book, he is restored to his position as the plantation owner, but cannot deal with that situation. One bonus. Each chapter in the book is headed with an entry from "Puddenhead Wilson's diary". These chapter heading are pure Mark Twain, and worth the price of the book by themselves. As far as the dialect, there's not a lot of it in the book, and it is not there as a means of disparaging blacks. It is the way they spoke, and Twain would have been remiss if he had given them cultured English. Think of Pygmalion, where George Bermard Shaw gave Eliza a very thick cockney accent and speech. Without that, the play would have made no sense.

@camipco

3 күн бұрын

You're right about the context and importance of Puddenhead, and I think Angela acknowledge that. It doesn't mean the book is enjoyable to read today, however. As for how people spoke, I wouldn't be so sure. There's a lot of interesting (if you're interested in that sort of thing) historical research on this, and at least to some degree, the black dialog of this time period is only partly based in fact, and is at least to some extent a creation of media and expectations. Look up the history of Truth's "ain't I a woman" speech, for example. Just like with white folks, there were a very wide variety of black dialects depending on where people were from geographically and in social class, and that tended to get flattened to a stereotype in no small part perpetuated by anti-slavery white writers like Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

@throckmortensnivel2850

3 күн бұрын

@@camipco The difference is that Mark Twain was born in Missouri, a slave state, while Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Connecticut. Twain lived with slaves around him as he grew up. He would have been very familiar with the way they spoke. Twain was a person very concerned with that aspect of human speech. Read his "Fenimore Cooper's LIterary Offenses", especially rules 5, 6, and 7. Rule 5 begins: "They require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances..." Twain wasn't just making it up. He was born to it, knew it well, and in fact Pudden' Head Wison is set in a slave state town that would have been very similar to where Twain was born and raised.

There's a problem with reading classic books. I read Moby Dick twice. Once at the age of nineteen and then again later in life. When I read it the first time, I thought it was really great and, because it was a classic, I thought that I would talk about it with people for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, even though it's widely regarded as a classic, no one has read it. So no one wants to talk about it. So I didn't convince anyone that I was smart. If you want to talk about books, read DaVinci Code or something. They won't think you're smart, but they might still like you. Good video, though! 👍

@perrydimes6915

6 күн бұрын

Lol, the horror of reading a classic and being excited to talk about it with everyone, only to realize people only talk about what they've heard about the book, because no one's actually read it, but everyone has an opinion on it

@Mj323_bb

5 күн бұрын

I tried reading Moby Dick multiple times between high school and middle age, but gave up repeatedly. Finally, about my 5th or 6th attempt, I managed to properly engage and was able to then read/finish it. So I now understand why it is considered a great book .. but it is/was/remains a difficult read.

@KitagumaIgen

5 күн бұрын

For the love of everything read something else, anything else then the da Vinci code. It is one of the stupidest books ever written

@whatsupthom

5 күн бұрын

i’m a nuisance and reference moby dick with my coworkers all the time. nobody has quit yet over it!

@JH-pt6ih

5 күн бұрын

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off-then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can." Or, perhaps, high time to re-read Moby Dick!!

I read a dozen 50 Shades books + The Iliad, so they all were like 300 years old, on average.

I was so happy to see another video about books from you :D The Orlando review was funny and true

I wasn't expecting to see "Numerical Recipes" on your bookshelf. I learned a lot from it and used its code examples many times over the decades. --

I have a sci-fi recommendation that's a bit introspective: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's the story of a woman who takes a long drive and reflects on the nature of her life and her past. I can't say much more, because that would spoil the sci-fi element of the book, but seriously I think about that book all the time it's really beautiful. There's also a movie adaptation, but I haven't seen it.

I was ready to recommend Pale Fire by Nabokov and then noticed you're a fan of his. But yeah, Pale Fire! Fun fact: the coiner of "hypertext," Ted Nelson, gives co-credit to Vladimir Nabokov for Pale Fire's non-linear and hyperlinked narrative structure. The book is wickedly funny, and VN has that wizardly command of English. Thanks for all the great videos!

@rsm3t

3 күн бұрын

The Dissertation, by R. M. Koster, has a similar nonlinear structure. I think it must have been inspired by Pale Fire. Both books are funny and excellent.

Here are a couple more I think you would like: Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I'm not sure how many people consider Arkansas "mid-Western". On the other hand, you should definitely do the Sunday coffee problems with your Kentucky accent.

My favorite book in high school was the Things They Carried by Tim O'brien. If you see it in a thrift store, I usually do. I think about it often. My mom says coming out in 1990 is too early for literature, tho lol.

I liked Lolita, I liked Despair even better, but my favorite Nabokov book (and his most inventive, imo) is Pale Fire. I won't say anything more about it because much of the fun is in the discovery. I highly recommend it. I've only read a couple of books by Steinbeck. The Pearl was a high school assignment and I didn't care for it. Cannery Row is an underrated comic gem.

i liked the movie of age of innocence. O think the whole plot is how the young wife is actually not innocent she knows what she has to do to survive. She's actually the most savy of the three.

@d3nza482

4 күн бұрын

Scorsese make good movie? Shockin.

@Tolstoy111

5 сағат бұрын

@@d3nza482 Why? He's great

WHAT! I didn't know you had a book channel. I'm so excited. Really loved this

If you want good classics about truly terrible people, my go to would be Wuthering Heights. It's better than Jane Eyre imo, which was written by the author of that book's sister, and is super underdiscussed as of late I feel. Also check out Stoner for one of the most interesting, multifaceted personalities in all of literature (imo). Oh, and, if you haven't read it, you gotta check out The Picture of Dorian Grey. Chapter 14 of that book was the moment that got me hooked onto literature and made me realise it could make me feel things. And (sorry to bombard you with too many recommendations, but) The Bell Jar is still one of the most harrowing, deeply resonating experiences I've had with a book, and the writing itself is so gripping and creative sometimes. I love it. And (sorry! last one, I swear) We Have Always Lived In The Castle is a shorty but a goody. I'm a sucker for not-trash horror that is actually well written and complex and interesting and without giving too much away, whalitc is one of my favorite unreliable narrators I've ever read. Check it out if you liked The Yellow Wallpaper, though it does have a different vibe from that.

@nom...

6 күн бұрын

Wow that came out way frickin longer than i meant lol Books are cool

John Gardner is delightful. I encourage you to look into his other works, especially The Sunlight Dialogues.

I bought Grendel and Despair on thriftbooks thanks to this video!!

"Grendel" is great. One of the benefits of having English Lit nerd friends in college was getting introduced to stuff like that.

East of Eden is fantastic (highly recommended). But so is Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row and the list goes on. Loved this capsule review episode btw.

Add Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday to your Steinbeck library.

I haven't read Of Mice and Men since high school, but I don't remember Curley's wife being blamed or anyone thinking that she was to blame. I remember the scene and it being extremely tragic, and us discussing the inevitability of George, Candy, and Lennie's fate. Curley's wife was kind of an extension of Curley, but to the extent that they were all in the same planter class and are the cause of the underlying issues that all of the farm hands face as workers (I remember Curley's wife being sympathetic and that played into the tragedy). The end broke me, and it is one of the biggest gut punches I've ever experienced. I guess it's good you didn't have it spoiled? If you liked Pride and Prejudice, I would definitely recommend Sense and Sensibility. It does require a bit more preparation as "sense" and "sensibility" have both changed their meaning since Austen wrote the book. The change in usage isn't too major, but it is enough of a change that I had to keep reminding myself of how the denotation (which the modern forward made me aware of, as well as the surrounding politics it satirizes or appear in the background that would have been obvious to readers back then).

Another couple of titles by John Gardner that I really liked: "October Light" and "Freddy's Book"

I was going to suggest "Grendel" when you mentioned "Julia," and then there it was!

My favorite book by Twain is his "Innocents Abroad", a story about a pilgrimage trip he went on, and his story "A Horses Tale", mostly because of the scene with Soldier Boy and the bullfight. "Even if I were dying, I would come"

A Steinbeck that is actually fun and light is 'Cannery Row'. I really enjoyed it

@Michael-Simpson

6 күн бұрын

I"ll second Cannery Row. But please read Travels with Charley as well. It's "non-fiction" from Steinbeck and a brilliant look into his process and philosophy.

Thank you for the reviews. I loved Gardner when I was in my 20's and your review has prompted me to read Grendel again. I tried some of his other books unsuccessfully but I did really like The Wreckage of Agathon. Even as a young adult, it seems, I was drawn to books that poke fun at philosophy.

As a native southerner, i love a genuine Southern accent. Can't stand it when Yankee or European actors try to sound like us

Never read anything by Steinbeck that I didn't enjoy but 'Grapes of Wrath' was definitely the favorite. If you haven't, check out 'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller. You and Yossarian kind of strike me as kindred spirits.

I was going to angry post about you hating age of innocence but then you figured out why :) Whoever told you it was like P&P was sooooo off the mark. the only similarity is that in both books, the women wear dresses.

If you like tight, short Sci-Fi and Fantasy books you'll love everything Roger Zelazny especially his earlier stuff like Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, and Eye of Cat. He wrote during the New Wave era (1960s-70s) that included Ursula K. Le Guin, Harland Elison and Michael Moorcock though Zelazny denounced the term for himself. It was a similar movement to the New Journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and Truman Capote but in non-fiction. It was this 60s-70s counterculture blended with the hope of the American space programs successes that led these authors to explore concepts like race, gender, religion, mythology, and technology in new ways being a bit more inclusive than the mostly male writers of the Golden Era.

If you’re going to read Grapes of Wrath, I suggest pairing it with Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb, as Steinbeck kinda stole her idea and then she wasn’t able to publish her book until recently.

I forgot about Grendel, and I do have to read it.

My degrees are in philosophy, so I mostly read nonfiction. Here are the fiction authors/playwrights who have never fallen off my "Someday Reread" and "Always Watch" lists: Edward Albee, Jorge Luis Borges, Ray Bradbury, Albert Camus, Lewis Carroll, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, James Joyce, Arthur Kopit, Carson McCullers, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, Harold Pinter, J.D. Salinger, Jean-Paul Sartre, William Shakespeare, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Stoppard, Mark Twain, M. de Voltaire. Hopefully you'll be inspired to share more on these!

Thanks for your reviews! It made me really happy to listen to them on an otherwise pretty gray day. I think you said you liked F.D’s Crime and Punishment, so my suggestions for more Russians are FDs Brothers Karamazov, (or if your in a hurry just the Grand Inquisitor story) Tolstoy’s Anna Karinina, Gogol’s the Overcoat short and Dead Souls. Chekovs the Seagull and Uncle Vanya are great plays. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is a great character. Wilde’s importance of being earnest is my vote for most hilarious play ever. Camus the Stranger is great, as is Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. St Exupery’s Wind, Sand and Stars has some really pretty writing. You’ve probably read Kafkas The Trial already but it may be worth a read if you haven’t. Erica Jongs Fear of Flying is pretty old school feminism but I enjoyed it.

I completely forgot about Grendel, and I LOVED the story when I was like, 15. I need a revival of this story.

I just stumbled across your video, and really enjoyed it. Thank you! Two comments: If you dare to try another Willa Cather, try Song of the Lark, which was NOT boring (at least to me). It is about a women in a smaller Colorado town who becomes a famous opera singer. It is a western, at least in part, but it is also a story about the struggles of a strong woman trying to escape the restrictions that she faces. As for Master and Margarita, it is easier to understand knowing that it is at least in part a satirical attack on the Soviet writer's guild that regulated what writers were allowed to publish, and controlled their status. Anyway, I really appreciated your analysis and descriptions of these books, and your honest and thoughtful opinions.

Grendel is one of my all-time favorites, glad to find a fellow person of culture and taste.

Older than 20 years, 2004, I feel so old.

Before I read _Orlando_ I had seen the film, with Tilda Swinton, and I thought that was pretty cool. The film focuses a bit more on just gender than the book does. The book is as much about art and history and biography as it is about gender. It is pretty slow, and has some bloody long paragraphs for such a short book, but there really isn't a lot of plot, so it doesn't matter so much if you skip some of those. I still like it though. It's all about that feeling you get when you're so bored of society you want to shut yourself away in your stately home and write poetry and then, whoops! two hundred years have gone by. We've all been there, haven't we?

I've not encountered Despair but "this is a story about a gross disgusting weirdo" sounds like Nabokov wrote it for sure!

Nebraska is ABSOLUTELY considered west. Basically, any state that wasn't a state during the Civil War is 100% western, and even those that did, anything west of the Mississippi river is debatably western, especially Kansas or Texas or anything on the west coast.

@davidand36

10 сағат бұрын

I grew up in Oregon, and went through a phase in early childhood where I was excited about cowboys and the West, and became genuinely despondent when my father informed me that all of that stuff was actually east of us.

I am just starting your video but I wanted to comment before I forget. I appreciate how you separated boring from bad. Not all books that are boring are bad. A simple difference in culture can remove much of what motivates or immerses a reader. Because we don't understand the political, social, or economic environment of the time a reader might not be as connected as we would if we were reading a similar book with a social awareness in today's zeitgeist.

I highly recommend Pnin if you haven't read it! it's funny short and clearly inspired by Nabokov's own experiences. I also can't believe you find most of this stuff at thrift stores all I see is twilight and tom clancy.

Virginia Woolf's works often provide a profound exploration of the human psyche and the passage of time, which can be chilling when read with the knowledge of her struggles and eventual suicide. "Mrs. Dalloway" and "To the Lighthouse" are particularly noted for their introspective qualities and the ways they depict the characters' inner lives and perceptions of time and reality.

Two drops in a day? Crazy.

How can a classic be something older than just 20 years??? That would mean books I read as a young adult are considered classics?!?! Classics are stuff written before I was born. *storms off in a huff* ETA: Regarding the comment about reading about gilded age wealthy people, check out P G Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster books, first one is My Man Jeeves. Can't recommend them enough. Skewers the people of the gilded age, spectacularly.

@GSBarlev

6 күн бұрын

When it comes to cars, most insurance companies consider anything between 20 and 40 years old to be a classic (and anything older than that to be antique). Obviously books aren't cars, but it's a rule of thumb I've seen in other areas as well.

@technocore1591

6 күн бұрын

@@GSBarlev No. Classics are stuff that was old when I was kid. Period. *sticks my fingers in my ears* LALALALALA

@justinclloyd

6 күн бұрын

Right?! That makes Hyperion and Revelation Space classics, which I refuse to accept! :P

@ZaxololRiyodin

6 күн бұрын

Maybe you're just old 👴 👴 👴

@technocore1591

6 күн бұрын

@@ZaxololRiyodin Ridiculous!

You basically described why Age of Innocence is a satire. That someone can hate someone for not having the same taste in books after marrying someone for being virginal and young.

I want to suggest Gormenghast. Neil Gaiman wrote an introduction that I wholeheartedly agree with. The characters in the setting are absolutely unforgettable.

If you haven’t read them already an interesting pair of books to read is first “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac about the Beat counterculture that began in the late 40s and then follow it up with “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” by Tom Wolfe about the hippie counterculture that came afterwards in the late 60s.

The summary of Orlando killed me.

What're your thoughts on Flannery O'Connor? She's a short story author, not a novelist, but her stories are great if you're in the mood to read about weird, gross people you're rooting against. A lot of Steinbeck's short stories are also great, we read "The Harvest G*****s" in one of my American Lit courses in college and it's what got me to properly appreciate him. For beautiful writing, and in my opinion one of the only times written dialect really works, if you haven't read "Their Eyes Were Watching God," it's my all-time favorite novel.

Love listening to you sound-off on things. Please keep doing it thank you

as a kid Master and Margarita made me realise how much I enjoy urban fantasy. It’s so fun to read as well

You are so down to earth and genuine in your reactions, I watched all the way through and felt like I kinda know you now - it's been a pleasure to meet you, young lady. p.s. Now I want to watch your take on sci-fi, as well.

Pnin by Nabokov is short, intriguing and weird. Would recommend.

@rsm3t

3 күн бұрын

Add Pale Fire to that!

You should do all future videos with you country accent, love it!

If you like Nabokov, try Jorge Luis Borges. "Fictions" is marvelous.

The Yellow Wallpaper was a recent Cool Zone Media Book Club (podcast) read by Margaret Killjoy, and it was framed as a Gothic horror, even a bit Lovecraftian, so I was all ready for its creepiness. Not sure what I would've made of it if I had gone into it cold.