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My Friends is my favourite of the four I've read so far and James is a close second. I'm Australian and live in the suburbs about 60 mins from where Stoneyard Devotional is set, on the Monaro Plains, The Monaro Hwy is 2 mins from where I live and the road I use to go into the Canberra city centre. It's blurbed as being set in the Australian Outback, which is just laughable to me. People, mainly Public Servants, commute to work in Canberra from that area. Stoneyard Devotional isn't even Charlotte Wood's best book, The Weekend and The Natural way of things are better books. If you're going to buy an Australian novel, Praiseworthy by Indigenous author, Alexis Wright, is the one I'd buy. It's utterly brilliant, subversive, sharpwitted and orginal. I just can't believe it wasn't on the list. It is streets ahead of the ones I've read. I'd be really surprised if Charlotte's book is even shortlisted. In her interviews, she says The Booker isn't even a prize she follows herself. I suspect she's probably embarrassed by the nomination over Wright's novel. Wright has been shortlisted for The Miles Franklin Prize so far and Stoneyard didn't make the shortlist. Anyway, I hope it helps with her book sales. Hope you enjoy the ones you get to read 🙂

I gulped some tea around 27:00 and, well, some of it is now on my shirt. Can't say I've read the book you refer to... and I'm not sure I ever will after watching this!

Thank you so much for this, Daniel! I’m so curious about Enlightenment! Thank you again.

The Swerve is nonfiction, about the discovery of the one and only copy of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura in a monastery in, I think, 16th-century Germany. I started to read, but didn't get through it before it had to be returned to the library. I'd like to check it out again one of these days.

Your take on author names had me rolling. It's somewhat true how a really unique name will increase my interest in reading a book. I think my prime example of that is Ottessa Moshfegh.

“ i’d like the fact that it was short and it made the long list”. That made me giggle and “Irish squared“. There’s so much humor in your videos. I have to watch them twice. Having said that, I haven’t had much luck with lists. Maybe too much MFA for me.😊 Deliciously Dutch and Jewish is up my street so I will look out for that book. Shalom and aloha brother.

Rita Bullwinkle is surely a joke name. Colin Barratt's alter ego.

Oh no! If your judging books by the voting name of the author I’m in trouble.

I liked Orbital, but it's not a Booker winner IMO. She's far superior to Max Porter. I can recommend "Headshot". I might pick up the Kushner when it comes out and the only other one I' interested is the Colin Barrett.

Wonderful video - but I'm not sure about that grandiose title! I mean, Jack Edwards got his longlist books directly from the Booker Committee - and he's (marginally) cuter than you are!

Love your take on the authors' names. 🤣Makes me feel less guilty for (at least occasionally) judging books by their covers.

Hi, I am Italian and I discovered Jhumpa Lahiri by the "Italian side". I read by chance "In other words" (the italian version) about her struggles to learn the Italian language. Then I continued reading "Whereabouts" a novel as a mosaic of small sketches of the life of a solitary woman in Rome. The third book was "Roman Stories". I finally read the Italian translation of "The interpretes of maladies" so let me say I came full circle. I also read an anthology curated by Jhumpa Lahiri: "The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories". Forty stories by forty different writers of the 20th century. Some very well known and some less known (even in Italy). I knew some of the most famous but I appreciate some of the less known today (faded for various reasons). When examining all these authors as a study of languages, translation, and identity, we find a perfect support for your observations on Jhumpa Lahiri's themes. Many of these authors were translators, some of them were born in other countries or lived abroad for a period of time. Sometimes they came from the countryside and had to face the 'new world' of a big city and the difference between standard Italian and their local language (in Italy there are more or less 30 local languages in addition to standard Italian - widely spoken in the past, less used today but still alive). So I think we can say that Jhumpa Lahiri embraced the Italian language not despite its themes, but equally, from a different point of view and reality.

Thanks for going through all the published ballots, Daniel. This was fun and I think a great reading list on the whole for someone who wanted to catch up with the 21st C in books.

Jonathan Strange made it to booktube’s list. And so did The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

We all know that happen. But their are collecting books. There arw not for every day use.

i felt abandoned, to be quite dramatic about it, when lahiri left english....as she was somenone i loved...but your review makes me feel she's still available to me..

wonderful review :)

Returning to reading her thanks to your review. So, automatically thinking Eleanor Rigby. Jhumpa Lahiri. It works, doesn't it?

And is it Israel's fault that guy is such a natural-born bastard? Imagine thousands of characters like him convening together. I suspect that without Israel things would be even worse. Tragedies happen all the time sadly; we all wish they didn't. I don't think I'll be rushing to read this book.

What a great haul! You should go to the UK every month! 😉😂

I wonder if the sprays I use to set my watercolor paintings would seal the cover print that is rubbing off? I will try that and see if that protects the paint that comes off!

I think Viet Thanh Nguyen's next book is called 'Grandstanding'

wow...thanks and God bless you and yours too....i read and enjoyed the antrim..though i just watched videos back to back and that may have been hauled in the other one..i liked it.

Beyond the Beautiful Forevers is great nonfiction that reads as fiction. If you've read Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, and enjoyed it, you'll enjoy Beyond the Beautiful Forevers, I think. Also was great to hear you mention Daniel Woodrell. I've read a couple of his books and think he is a brilliant writer. My most recent read by him was Tomato Red. No one I know can turn a phrase like Woodrell.

Oh I agree with you about Joseph Anton, and I might have included Zone of Interest by Amis. And The Trees. And I would also want Ducks, Newburyport 😮

Your negative reviews of books are gold.

So, next to no representation of SF, Thrillers, Westerns etc. Genre snobbery is alive and rampant! Diversity, what's that?

The difference between the two lists is interesting but both feel quite American which makes sense. That said I think Gilead is my favourite book on there 😊 I'm surprised My Brilliant Friend is top as it feels more of a popular book than a something that would win awards, but I think it is wonderful.

Was your wife hoovering the whole time or do you live inside an airport? 😬

I really like Murakami, but I wouldn't put him in any "Best of" list. Maybe as an honorable mention in a thousand best books of the 21st century.

You should follow up these two videos with your top 25 or 50 books of the 21st century. I’d be really interested to see your selections :)

Heard an interview with Auslander celebrating his new memoir, Feh. Never heard of him, searched and landed on this video. The interview was so fawning, nice to see a more balanced view of this author. His alleged self loathing in general seems disengenuine so I am not surprised by your assessment of his first memoir.

If I can just take a moment to comment on your presentation instead of your content. I really enjoy how you present. You're very animated and emphatic. I get a sense this is your natural way of being, but as a viewer, it's like I'm watching an actor who is emphasizing his words with his facial expressions and gestures.

Loved your take on Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

If I were to compile my personal top ten from the last 25 years (in no particular order) they would be: Jonathan Franzen - Freedom Roberto Bolano - 2666 Haruki Murakami - 1Q84 Karl Ove Knausgård - My Struggle Max Brooks - World War Z Bret Easton Ellis - The Shards Stephen King - 11/22/63 Lydia Sandgren - Collected Works J.M Coatzee - Disgrace Cormac McCarthy - The Road

I sent a DM to Coralie Bickford-Smith via Instagram to point put that the patterns had worn off the few copies of these I had bought. Replied saying basically that it wasn't her problem and I should take it up with the publisher

I think you're gonna love Wilkie Collins, his writing is incredibly modern. Looking forward to your review of The Moonstone!

Those tinted reading glasses are very fetching. 🥇As someone who who doesn't like hard backs I'm so jazzed about your paperbacks of Martyr and James. Wonder if there are options like that in the US?

This was an awesome book! Very thought provoking and full of hope.

I've never even heard of Ironbridge, what a wonderful shop. Hurlingham Books in Fulham has a decent penguin wall. The Moonstone is great. I was shouting at the screen to pick up the copy of The Pursuit of Love from the cart outside to no avail. I think you have the most wide ranging, geographically, bookhauls of anyone I watch, never expected Stoke on Trent to appear.

Pound land! Best wishes from Lancashire England!

I agree. I wanted to read Anna Karenina but it was only available in clothbound. I think people know these editions aren't good and buy the paperbacks making them frequently sold out.

OMG I absolutely love your trips and when you take us with you!!! Thank you so much !! Give your wife and family my best!

I thought a juggernaught was a giant wave .... you never stop to learn. ... and I still have my first school Atlas , long out of date concerning man made borders , but the rivers and mountains are still there.

Hello Daniel, I’m so happy your trip was so much fun! I went to Canada in May and have a lot of fun in bookstores. It’s the best thing! I also found a favorite author you might like. He’s like the Japanese Agatha Christie. His name is.Seicho Matsumoto and his newest book not available in the US yet is “Point Zero.” He’s credited with popularizing the detective novel in Japan. I’m now reading another book that had been translated a while back detective Imanishi investigates. I am over the moon about Japanese. Translated mystery and other fiction lately. I can’t walk as far as you can, but I did a lot of walking in Victoria Canada, sometimes 4 miles a day, which is more than my physical therapist recommends, I haven’t read the moonstone by Wilkie Collins, but I did read the woman in white which I really enjoyed. I also finished a Philip Roth Memoir patrimony. His writing is exquisite, but I have mixed feelings as I said in my last video. This was my first time visiting Canada and I just enjoyed the people the dogs, the books and most of all meeting my book to friend Lindsey in person. Take care of my friend. Shalom and aloha.

What a fantastic haul! And a lovely trip. The Iron Bridge Bookshop is on my bucket list. That wall of Penguins - wonderful!

The Big Clock is fantastic, that’s great to find the Penguin Green cover.

Very interesting. I didn't know that the single volume of Evelyn Waugh's "Sword of Honour" was an edited version? I've always wanted to read the trilogy. I shall buy the single volumes. Thanks for sharing your video!

Lucked into your first video on Paul Auster. Good to see you again and your books. Shalom!

Read Leviathan, Book of Illusions, and Timbuktu, my favorite for its unique point of view. He was an accidental author for me too.