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I'm currently reading this and am struggling to get through it. I picked it up for my first read of the year due to all the rave reviews and I wanted to start the year off with a strong read. It's failing miserably. 🙄

Okuuurrrrr!!!! Facts! I’m on the third book. 😂

You look good with that shirt.

Ah yes another Dostoevsky book😌 If I like an author I binge read all their works. So I shall test just the tip with Crime and punishment. And if I like it, like a true warrior, I'll get all his works and become an official D rider(pun intended)😤😤😤

Wind Up Bird Chronicle has great moments but essentially goes nowhere lol

Many thanks for your review. But Alana could you add the page of quotes in the book? It will be so helpful ❤

it is absolutely necessary to have different point of views and accept that not everybody needs to like the same things. I like you and your channel precisely because you have your own opinion and don't want to mould yourself to what everybody else says. Keep doing what you are doing!

The job of a critic is to critique. I don’t think people calling themselves critics or reviewers who refuse to actually engage critically (not negatively; critically and as objectively as possible) should actually be calling themselves that. Those people are just outsourced marketers or PR staff.

Happy New Year! I started TheBrothers Karamazov before Christmas. I had to leave the family for a bit… to the right ho,I day vibe. But I’m back to this crazy family now!

I enjoy your chats very much, and your reviews are always interesting. If I could only read 1 book in 2025 it would have to be War & Peace as I've read all the Big Dostoevsky's and Anna Karenina.

My current read is probably my book this year and it's A Liitle Life

I’m just finishing ‘Emma’ by Austin. But for 2025, I’m looking forward to reading ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ by Kazantzakis; ‘And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks’ by Burroughs and Keroauc; & ‘Demons’ by Dostoevsky.

I think you'll really like New Grub Street! I read it in 2024 and thought it was great. Also can't wait to see your reaction to A Storm of Swords!

Hi @willardmiller, Ha ha ha, if we're back to Alana's background, I'd like to know what happened to the other 2453 pages of Proust, I hope you didn't loose them!😂 Many years ago when books on tape were literally on cassette tape, I was reading Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I had borrowed it from my local library and had it strapped to the back of my motorcycle, it fell off and I ended up buying them a new copy, $ ouch! But it's a great book.

Hi Alana, WOW! Sounds like you're planning on being a busy girl in 2025! I'm glad you're scheduling some room for rabbit holes. That TBR is so fluff-free you might want a few palate cleansers in betwixt, something lightweight and easy like…The Gulag Archipelago. 🤣

Hi Alana, I'm so glad you got me to revisit Eden, it had been a long time for me and it was just as good as I remembered. So much different from Grapes, even better if that's possible. Steinbeck really did come as close as anybody ever has at condensing many generations of received wisdom down to just one coherent narrative. Even GOD had to use 66 books for the same purpose.

Hi Alana, I hope you're enjoying your Idiot. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Prince Myshkin vs. Adam Trask as literally stand ins for Christ. Or what about The Grand Inquisitor or Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov or Smetdyakov or Rogozhin vs. Cathy Ames as stand ins for Milton's Satan? Poor Steinbeck must have been soooo mad at Gwyn when he invented Cathy. Ha, ha, ha! I felt bad for her after she dumped John and he wrote that hit piece about her, so I married her, it was a bad idea.🤣 John was right.

It sounds like you went to Small World Books in Venice Beach. As someone who moved from the Midwest to LA 16 years ago, I was laughing at your description of LA. I felt that way for about a year. Now, I've gone native and don't even notice any of the weirdness.

I want to squeeze in White Nights, too

Read White Nights & Notes From Underground 2024, The Idiot is also up next for me in 2025. Happy New Year!

East of Eden... DYNAMITE.

Im 16 and I'm almost finishing Near to the wild heart but I feel like I don't have a critical thinking when reading, i've read since i was 3 but I never make anything out of books, I just finish reading it and then put it back on my bookshelf. Do you know how to get 100% out of a book you're reading?

🤣 You’re so into your commentary and some of the books don’t resonate with me right now, but do I see an Ensure next to Crime and Punishment?

I like that you are not setting a numerical goal. I have decided to take that road this year. I observe that persons set a big number and can't remember the books so well. I like to absorb my books and I just want to read. That was what I really liked about books as a child and even now when I read a book that really affects me. This year, my greatest need in reading is not a book count but actually reading my books despite my busy schedule. Reading most days is my priority this year since I don't have a book count goal this year. I want to get through all of R.F. Kuang, Nicola Yoon, Fredrik Backman and Sally Roooney's works because I really like their writing styles and the messages in their books. Dystopian, critical fantasy, sci-fi and literary fiction are the genres I really want to dive into this year. I hope to really reflect on my reading quarterly according to how those are set up with my job. My workload differs at certain times of the year. Since I made these decisions, I feel free and excited about reading again like I used to be. I am actually excited in a different way when I see my bookshelf. Yay! 🎆

What did you study in college?

I have no idea where you are, but I hope you’re ok with Chicago. 🤔 When I was a kid I saw _The Seventh Cross_ (with Spencer Tracy) on TV and was enthralled by the story - never knew it was a book, but, depending on your review I may run out and grab it.

I'm looking forward to reading Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and finally finishing Madame Bovary!

Next on my TBR is The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. 📖 📕 📚 Ohhhh I love all John Steinbeck novels, my favorite The Grapes of Wrath.

"I think man will never renounce real suffering, that is, destruction and chaos. Why, suffering is the sole origin of consciousness. Though I did lay it down at the beginning that consciousness is the greatest misfortune for man, yet I know, man, prizes it, and would not give it up for any satisfaction. Consciousness, for instance, is infinitely superior to twice two makes four. Once you have mathematical certainty, there is nothing left to do or understand there will be nothing left, but to bottle up your five senses and plunge into contemplation. Well, if you stick to consciousness, even though the same results is attained, you can at least flog yourself at times, and that will, at any rate, liven you up. Reactionary as it is, corporal punishment is better than nothing." *mic drop* *end of chapter 9*

Happy New Year Alana!! I lived in Northern California and I loved it. But Im an East Coast man. lol You have an interesting book list for 2025!!

I’ve already broken my vow to read only from my bookshelves! My TBR is ridiculous. I have a milestone birthday this year and I’d really like to reread all of the books I hated in high school including Moby Dick and Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, The Bell Jar and Player Piano. With all of that said if I were allowed only one “book” this year it would be the Complete Jewish Bible. I look forward to your next video. 🎉

I tried reading Faces in the Water, but I couldn't. I'm already in an anxious place. I couldn't read about someone being treated so badly.

Oh my gosh, so many that I've never even heard of! 🙄 Villette has been on my shelf since those dawg-gone Penguin Clothbound editions were released and I *still* haven't read it! Happy New Year...am I still allowed to say that?! 🤭 Thanks for sharing! 📚

I'm reading "Gone with the wind". It is chunky, but I am committed!!!

I love that shirt on you. The delicate ruffle is stunning. I'm glad to see Tokarczuk on your list. If you ever want more Polish writers Peasants by Raymond, who was also a Nobel prize winning writer, is excellent. Also, Solaris (which was made into a movie with George Clooney weirdly wasn't as good as I hoped). I like the list. Once I was stuck in life and I went for an art session with this local artist Laura Hollick. We made a collage and I couldn't find perfect pictures so I left all these white spaces. "I rather have nothing than perfect." She really liked it and said, "I'm glad you left some room for life to take you somewhere." I hope you'll allow some white space. I am rereading Brave New World. I read it in high school and loved it, so decided to see if anything changed. So far, loving it. I also want to read Educated by Tara W. I've been sooo into memoirs. I bought Before The Coffee Gets Cold on a whim but I'm really liking it. Happy New Year Alana. You look great.

Wow thats a great reading. How about review of edgar allan poe. Well its your choice to make. Happy new year!😊

You got some chunkers there! They should make for some good reading. I had also read Metamorphosis in high school as required reading, and I finally reread it last year. I thought it was genius, and hilarious, and I want to read it again! You make me wanna take the jump into Game of Thrones and Outlander. One book or series I want to read this year is Lord of the Rings. Finally!

Great selection. Always good to have a variety of TBRs

If I had to read just one book this year it would be Where Love Has Gone by Harold Robbins

Curious about Dr Zhivago and The Books of Jacob, looking forward to your reviews of those

I've been hearing about several Vigdis Hjorth books. I need to pick one up I've read that Dostoevsky collection. The Crocodile was very funny. Meek Creature was maybe my favorite. I have a Septology bindup to read at some point. I'm always paralyzed by choice. There are so many books!

The outlander series is my all-time favorite, the TV show does not compare to the books. You are in for a treat with drums of autumn so much happens, oh my gosh, happy reading😊

The Idiot was also supposed to be my first book of 2025 but I ended up getting a ton of books for Christmas so it will be a summer 2025 read now lol

great plans, looking forward to hearing all about them. I'm thinking the must read for me this year is going to be one of the ones you've championed Brothers Karamazov or East of Eden. I've read both Steinbeck and Dostoevsky before, but not those two. That being said, after reading Germinal I might end up going down a Zola rabbit hole for the rest of the year.

You have a great 2025 reading year planned! GURL...that Game of Thrones is going to be a HITTAH lol....I am planning to read Anna Karenina this year. My reading 2025 goal is to focus on quality and substance works!

I think Dostoyevsky's "A Bad Business" is aka "A Disgraceful Affair." If that is the case it is a winter must-read and you guessed correctly on it: I have always found it darkly hilarious 😸😆 and read it most winters. It's about a boss who in a big "liberal egalitarian" mood decides to show up uninvited to the wedding feast of a poor employee 😆😸

A better plan than I got! I think my wing will be overwhelmed this year. My one must-read: my annual Zola. But, okay, Villette is in my cart--same edition you have in your mitt there. Maybe I'll tag along with you and make that a must too. My one Gissing was quite good: The Odd Women. Flows well, despite some creaky plot developments.

The one book I want to read this year is Borges' Collected Fictions.

I love ur vids and also i love this advice i only have a 25 books for ‘25 book list and thats it i dont have any more strict goals bc i think these made reading exhausting so to speak in ‘24 (also youre such a gorgina ❤❤) also on the one book Q i think a bit of a cheating answer but i want to finish the Neapolitan quartet this year

I can't understand why I'm so obsessed with the shelves behind you being slanted 🤔