Ancient Historian & Author. I create videos on literature, ancient history, and pop culture.
If you would like to get in touch about review copies of books or potentially working together please feel free to email me at: [email protected]
For more information go here: jeanmenzies.com
If you just want to say hi I’m on most social media platforms as @jeansthoughs ^_^
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well I'm going in with pre-existing knowledge😏 (I have watched every episode of Horrible Histories and know all of the songs)
16:44 That's the ruins at Petra in Jordan.
I was annoyed with Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series for changing the designs of the books. It got to the last three and the publishers decided to change them from the beautiful deep coloured ones to a crappy jpeg photo- type thing so that the last three don't match, but it could have been worse - as Twilight was everywhere at the time that the last three books were published, they could have gone with a design that mimicked that (and the publishers did re-issue the earlier books with those covers on them.) On the whole, though, I feel like book covers in general aren't well thought out now - hardly any of the publishers issue them with real art on them any more. I also separate hardbacks from paperbacks and try to put the hardbacks on the bottom of the bookcase since they tend to be heavier and it stops the bookcase from toppling over.
I will say that Billy Bookcases are my favourite bookcases that I've come across, in part because they fit a lot more books than you think they would and they are very strong and sturdy. I've used bookcases from other companies before (Argos, and Vida Designs) but they aren't as roomy or as solid. Unfortunately, I've not been able to get as many Billy's as I'd like because of the cost of getting them delivered, so I've had to make do with other brands.
My main genres are: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Historical Fiction (with no fantasy elements), Natural History, Science, Craft and art, and pagan/mythology books. One set of books that will be a problem though are some Kelley Armstrong ones as most of them are UF, but she has written books in other genres as well so I might just stick all of her books together to save me trying to organize them. Many years ago, I used to read a lot of paranormal romance books and even the shop had a hard time categorizing those - as some were in the UF section, some where in the romance section and some were under paranormal romance...
13:59 okay so I'm fully aware that the minotaur in some myths is Pasiphae and Poseidon's child however there are different variants such as him being a child of Pasiphae and Minos, who was cursed by Poseidon for not offering a bull in return. So if you think about the bigger picture the minotaur may have had different parentage as it is. Also another thing about the fact that technically his half brother killed him (if we're going of what most myths say) this is not the only time this has happened. If I'm remembering correctly Theseus was technically also a child of Poseidon and had to retrieve a ring from the bottom of the ocean to prove it. As the original slayer of the minotaur has done the exact same thing we probably shouldn't question it when a similar person does the same. Anyway I'm just gonna going of my knowledge of greek mythology (I've been studying/reading it since I was 8 and have a strong desire to visit/live in Greece one day) and feel free to correct me on anything.
oh how sad, i have been enjoying your videos but stumbled upon your recommended books... Owen Jones? how can i respect your opinions//reccomendations when Owen Jones is att he top of your list. its quite impressive how awful of a human being that man is...
@@Enhancedlies you can’t have been paying close attention in my videos if you didn’t know I was a socialist 😂 anyway I shall carry on without your respect in seems
@@JeansThoughts i assumed by your queer references. You can be a socialist no problem! its Owen Jones himself, not his politics who is truly awful. And if you close your eyes to that, then that's just sad... I am very liberal myself, but the old-school kind and not the censorious bigoted, controlling (fascist, as they like to paint the others) type, as we have today... plus i am sure i will still enjoy some of your myth stuff as it's very good. Being a socialist doesn't change that. Just gives me more insight -
I am French and if you want to discover Zola, I can recommend The Assomoir, Germinal, Nana and La Bête Humaine (my favorite so far). In my opinion, The Assomoir and Germinal are the two most popular novels of the Rougons-Macquart cycle in France. Enjoy :)
I know this video is a year old but thank you so much for making it. Particularly the note from the editing room :) I am at the end of the 4th year of my p/t PhD and I have just begun a 3 month break due to health reasons and bereavement. I have felt like 'what's the point?' a lot this year and it's good to know others feel/felt the same during the PhD journey 🥰
Why you hate Aristotele?!
@@basila6290 his emphatic disdain of women and his dull prose 😂
I stand by the Persuasion-Northanger Abbey double bill 😂 think Persuasion is the standout for me, the last letter alone does it ❤
Thank you for the content on classics. I have a question about language learning. Is it advisable to learn ancient Greek if I don’t have time to learn Latin as well? When we read the Greek writers, will I get comparable understanding as people who know both languages, or not?
@@AngLiu365 if you’re interested in ancient Greek literature then you only need to learn Ancient Greek - I don’t know any Latin 😊
@JeansThoughts Got it. Thank you for your advice! 😊
me taking notes
If you're not already I'd recommend signing up to the folio society emails - they do a sale once or twice a year. Finding them in a charity shop makes me actually giddy You have an amazing collection and I'm very jealous of the glass cabinet of treasures
My favorite classic novels are, Jane Eyre, Jude The Obscure,Wuthering Heights,Lady Chatterly's Lover,The Picture of Dorian Gray. My favorite Children's Classics are: The Wizard Of Oz,Dr. Doolittle, Alice In Wonderland, Heidi,Peter Pan, The Water Babies. Thank You for bringing these classics to the attention of others. Oh...I only can only picture Basil Rathbone,and Nigel Bruce as Holmes, and Watson....They were wonderful as a team !📚🫖💕
Cree que la Biblia es practica hoy dia?
amazing shelves, but now I'm curious why the orangutan trinket🤔
@@talio8266aha it’s a reference to Terry Pratchett’s discworld where the university librarian is an orangutang 😊
Poor things has been made into a movie. It was pretty interesting.
What a collection! I was particularly interested in that mushroom book and googled it and found out they also have Witch's Garden and Witch's Forest that I simply need!!
Dream office and bookshelves. Great job on arranging them so beautifully. Also thanks for the effort of filming and narrating off of this. Wow.
Jean, not book related, but what is the lipstick you are wearing?? 😍😍
It's the 'Maybelline Superstay Matte Ink Liquid Lip 320 Individualist' it genuinely does not budge aha.
Algernon Blackwood & William Hope Hodgson (died fighting WW1 IIRC) both wrote famous short stories about occult detectives Blackwood’s is John Silence which came before Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki The Ghost Finder. Both also wrote longer novella/novel length books in the same British Library series as well. Arthur Machen was a contemporary of both Blackwood & Hope Hodgson. And if you need a reason to read H G Wells, he belonged to the Fabian Society for a number of years, but left, so he is left-wing.
Algernon Blackwood & William Hope Hodgson (died fighting WW1 IIRC) both wrote famous short stories about occult detectives Blackwood’s is John Silence which came before Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki The Ghost Finder. Both also wrote longer novel length books as well.
I absolutely LOVE that Mercedes Lackey series, my favorites are the second one (One Good Knight, and the last one (Beauty and the Werewolf) they're some of the most fun fantasy romance I've ever read.
Beauty and the Werewolf is part Red Riding Hood part Beauty and the Beast, and I'm just a sucker for a BatB retelling.
Same, gimme all the beauty and the beast books. I'm gonna have to read this next I think and then find those other ones aha.
Loved this video! ❤
I'm so glad!
Thank you Jean, it's so nice to see books I´ve had on my wish list/shopping cart forever finally among other books I do have to see if I still actually want them or not. for example, the penguin book of Egyptian myths and legends has been on my shopping cart for almost 5 years and now I finally know!
Oooh you have to tell me which ones you order! Egyptian myths and legends is great.
Thank you for the great tour😊
No problem! I'm glad you enjoyed it ^_^
The Beauty and the Beast penguin classic sounds really interesting. You have such a great collection of books 💜
@@cuppa.books. I’m so excited to read it - it’s one of my favourite fairy tales
Your office library is gorgeous and amazing. 📚
@@badfaith4u thank you!!!
Love the video! Could you do a video on books about Arthurian myths?
You have such an amazing library. You’ve got me making a list of books a that’s a mile long.
I like your channel! I tried to send you a friend request on Goodreads but unfortunately i couldn't because you've reached the maximum of friends.
Love the witchy books ❤️✨
I just love the variety of books you have
You are so right about Lolly Willowes. Delicious
I want more more more aha
Jean, this is all so beautiful! When I finally visit again one day, you might not get me to leave your office :P
@@KathyTrithardt I have a pull out bed ready and waiting!!!!
@@JeansThoughts 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
The reference to the Cambridge alarim course gave me such strong flashbacks about how much emotional damage the book ending in the ereuption of pompeii did to me when i was 13 and studying it.
@@losttoinfinity I didn’t do it till I was like 18 so I still can’t believe they did that to kids 😅
Oh, I HATED Therese Raquin. Such grotty characters. I have ebooks of all of Zola's Rougon-Macquart series but Therese was such an unpleasant experience I've been loath to read any of them. Frankenstein-tremendous. Haven't read Study in Scarlet, nor indeed any of the Sherlock Holmes stuff, in decades. Must rectify that. Wasn't a mega-fan of Northanger Abbey when I read it recently, thought it felt too much like an early work (which, obviously, it was) and there wasn't enough gothicism in it. Need to get reqacquainted with Austen. Haven't read Argonautica, Jane Eyre, Lolly Willowes, Daphnis & Chloe or Winnie the Pooh. Should rectify all of those too (Lolly Willowes is the one I know least about), particularly the Milne. A bit late (I'm nearly 50) to be discovering those stories, perhaps, but I never read the Alice books until my mid-40s and I thought they were tremendous, so perhaps Pooh will be the same. Incidentally, and oddly, this is the *second* video I've watched tonight that mentions Milne's mystery novel... Crowley is an odd and difficult figure in so many ways, but so fascinating that no wonder Maugham wrote a book about him as early as 1908 before he was even at full notoriety. Haven't read the book but there's a 1926 film version which is really interesting (worth finding on YT).
Fortunately for you, Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset came out in the 1920s.
If you want to read more Zola, try Germinal. I read it decades ago and was very moved by it. Probably his one work that most deserves being called a classic.
I watch a lot of booktube (too much? hahah) and enjoyed this video so much - excited to see two books I hadn't heard of and your infectious enthusiasm! I also adore Frankenstein and your two Jane Austen picks. My favorites include Aurora Leigh, a novel in verse that shares themes with Jane Eyre, Arsene Lupin Gentleman-Thief, and most of Natsume Soseki's novels, especially Sanshiro and The Gate.
I would recommend Germinal next for a Zola read . I think your father would have loved that book . You’ll see why if you do get a chance to read it 😊
I have a lot of favorite books that are modern classics but the ones that are classics pre-1930s (in no particular order) are: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown, and Nutcracker & Mouse King/The Tale of the Nutcracker by ETA Hoffmann/Alexandre Dumas. Those are in my overall all-time favs list, and to name a few more to make it an even 10: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, aaaand...- okay 11- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and stories & poems by Edgar Allan Poe. If I had to choose one thing by Poe it would probably be The Cask of Amontillado. Honorable mentions that are childhood favorites are A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and, it's a little over the cutoff date but, Little House In The Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder was my favorite book when I was 8 and 9 years old. That was first published in 1934.
You said Winnie-the-Pooh and I immediately thought of this scene in Vicar of Dibley where their book club talks about Winnie-the-Pooh after they didn't read the actual book they were meant to. It's so funny!
I find Fables to be very interesting and compelling to Once Upon a Time.
I loved wuthering heights and rebecca
Thanks for your point of view, this is helpful. You're doing the Gods' work. XD
Nicely done
Neverwhere is quite sly in its use of language and it slips in sideways to talk about some important issues. It’s my favorite Gaiman and I recommend it.
One of my favorite classics is All Quiet on the Western Front. (I cried when I finished it.) Another favorite is To Kill a Mockingbird, which made me interested in Southern Gothic literature.