1) The Brothers Karamazov 2) Infinite Jest 3) Paradise Lost 4) Old Man Goriot 5) The Canterbury Tales 6) House of Leaves 7) Moby Dick 8) Blood Meridian 9) The Count of Monte Cristo 10) A Little Life
I’m 79 years old and autistic. 19th century literature saved my life by allowing me to understand a bit about how neurotypical minds and bodies work. War and Peace was the most important. I began my summers, junior high through college, with a complete reading. Tolstoy seemed to cherish every human being and every human experience.
I am a 55 year old autistic, and War and Peace is my challenging read for this year. Another BookTuber said that if I read a chapter a day, I will finish the book in a year, since it has 365 chapters. However, I am only 3 days in and I want to read more chapters. However, the autistic in me wants to stick to the rule I made for myself. So you read this book every summer for 6 summers?
My father's advice for Russian literature was to write down each character's name the first time you encounter it and add the other parts to it as they come up. First name, nickname, patronymic (-ovich for men, -ovna/evna for women), surname, and titles because the same character can be addressed different ways based on the other characters' relationship to them. So Grand Duke Andrei Ilyovich Rostov might be call Dre by his parents and sister, Andrei by his wife or mistress, Andrei Ilyovich by his cousins, in-laws, or friends from school, Grand Duke Andrei by a member of the Royal family, and Grand Duke Rostov by his business associates or distant acquaintances. Having a chart to reference can help immensely. I loved Crime and Punishment but found Brothers Karamazov more difficult. Either way, I hope you love it or at least find it thought provoking.
Brothers Karamazov is an exquisite novel, but it is difficult. Luckily in my copy the names were all listed in the beginning, along with the nicknames which there are many. It’s a novel that I want to read again, and one that will sit with me and affect me probably forever.
I remember reading Crime and Punishment at 28 and having an existential crisis. It was the first book I'd sat down and read properly in about 15 years since reading the LOTR trilogy. I realised I'd wasted 15 years of my life NOT reading.
If you love both of those books, you should check out Dr. Peter Kreeft. He is a philosophy professor at Boston College and is coming out with a book soon about the greatnest and beauty of those two books.
I hope you returned to it and read it properly after that. So many people think it's a flex to say they have read great books quickly but it's the fastest way to miss swathes of detail. The great books should be read and re read over the long term, so you can live them
I can't recommend Moby Dick enough. I got into reading as a hobby last year and it was probably the 4th or 5th book I had read. It's absolutely amazing and the ending makes all the crazy pointless chapters about whaling and the "science" of whales worth it. Chapter 32: Cetology is kind of the first chapter that really makes people say "What am I reading?" and Chapter 54: The Town-Ho's Story cements in my mind that Herman Melville may have written a large chunk of Moby Dick with humor in mind.
The Count Of Monte Cristo is my favorite book of all time! I got so invested in trying to find out how he was going to exact his revenge without any casualties who dont deserve anything to happen to them. I promise it gets more interesting after the first 200 pages. Once you hit that mark youre gonna be golden! So good.
My da introduced me to The Count of Monte Cristo right after I'd read The Three Musketeers when I was 10. I loved it. I reread Dumas in French when I was in college. They're my better in French.
Moby DIck is worth the effort. Killer difficult! I started it many times before finally getting through it. I think it is indeed the greatest novel ever written. The feeling of accomplishment when done is amazing. As you read it you are continually amazed by Melville's genius.
spot on review about Count of Monte Cristo. Really enjoyed it and yeah... you should read it soon. The hardest part of the book is the length and holding it up to read it 'cause it's chunky. lol
The Brothers Karamazov is brilliant. It's a mystery novel that is told through the exploration of three brothers and their father. Each brother represents a different aspect of the spiritual ideologies of the time. You also get the Grand Inquisitor's chapter which is often read and taught on its own as it is like its own brilliant novel within another brilliant novel. Moby Dick is THE Great American Novel and says so much about the United States and the destructive obsessions that destroy us. The Count of Monte Cristo is a great book (I read most of an unabridged version in jail and finished it at home). Blood Meridian is brutal and not the easiest read due to its lack of regular punctuation.
My personal advice regarding Infinite Jest is to just focus on character and plot. I think people get bogged down with all the end notes and details and clues (which are all fantastic to get into!) but might be better suited for a second reading. I say embrace a little confusion and stick with the personalities that are so beautifully developed :) Nobody can get it all on the first go-through, or at least I sure didn’t.
I’ve been wondering if Infinite Jest is difficult to read using an ereader. I won’t be able to quickly flip through the “pages” so I’m thinking I really need the hardcopy?
I’d recommend a hard copy. The flipping through the end notes is vital to the experience in my opinion (3x read it’s one of my favorites). There is a lot of end notes that further the story and I’d say it is worth it to read them the first go around.
I agree. I would also add that if you get a bit confused because you lost your concentration for 10 or so seconds, you should just keep reading and you will catch up easily the reading experience more fluid.
Hi, just discovered you. I don't know if you like Audible, but I listened to Crime and Punishment on there narrated by Will Poulter and it was amazing., he was so good that it gave me confidence to read more of the Russian big hitters. A Little Life has stayed with me for a few years now but with a sense of achievement. Look forward to watching more vlogs of yours 🌻
Love your list! I read Moby Dick in Feb and it is totally worth it. The chapters are short. Read it a chapter or two at a time and experience it. It's remarkable.
Listening to the audiobook is how I was able to complete Moby Dick after a couple previous attempts and I’m so glad I did. It does help if you love ships and don’t mind learning about the whaling industry. It has my absolutely favorite final line in a book, beautifully melancholy and haunting.
I struggled to get through that book. So much dry material where he goes on and on about out dated information about whales. This was a long time ago I read it though, maybe I’ll return to it.
You are going to love the count of monte cristo, it's not a hard read at all, yes it is big but it doesn't feel long. One of my favourites of all time, top 3 for sure maybe number 1.
Blood Meridian is absolutely astonishing. Not read anything for a while that made my jaw drop like this did. Perhapa even the best writing Ive ever come across.
it really is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. which is (prolly intentionally) ironic considering the subject matter. it's also one of very few books that actually had a lasting effect on me and how i look at the world. years later, i still think about it constantly. it's both beautiful and ugly, simple and profound, and a whole bunch of other adjectives that I can't think of right now. hands down my favorite book of all time, there's just nothing else like it out there. at the same time though, I understand that it's not for everyone.
I'm reading it now. I'm enjoying it, but very early in I realized it was gonna be a book I had to put down between chapters and take a break with. Some of the most brutally violent things I've ever read.
It’s a tough read, but Blood Meridian is absolutely incredible. Tells such a complex story and the antagonist is imo one of the most interesting and well constructed characters in fiction
If you get thru Cantebury Tales, try The Decameron, a collection of stories about 7 women and 3 men trapped in a villa outside Florence hiding from the Black Death. Written in 1353.
Don't be intimidated! Do what I do: I look up everything that I don't know historically or a word that I'm not familiar with, and I love doing that. I have a master's degree and I also feel that my education could have been a lot better, mostly because of how lazy I was. My comprehension and reading has greatly improved with my age.
I did the same with Les Miserables. I thought I had quite a good vocabulary until I read it! Luckily it was on kindle so I could just click on look up. It took me a month as I wanted to take my time and savour it. No point rushing a good book.
Infinite Jest is challenging, dense, and the kind of book you need multiple bookmarks. Loved it when I finally got through it but it took genuine effort.
Yep it's definitely the type of book where you get out of it what you put in. It took me about 2 months of solid reading to finish it and I had to make loads of notes to keep track of all the characters, timelines etc. But it's a reading experience I will never forget. I honestly can't think of another book that had the same level of impact on me as IJ did.
I tried. I may try again at some point, but I got to a footnote within a footnote that said "Don't ask", and I just felt like DFW was intentionally wasting my time. I read House of Leaves more recently, and although the format was somewhat similar, I enjoyed it quite a lot and got more out of it.
@@trashteamracing8262 I'm not sure what age you are, but maybe IJ is one of those novels you need to read when you're young and impressionable and willing to go along with novels that are a bit more out there. I read it when I was 20 and primed for a novel that was weird and experimental and challenging, whereas now 13 years on I don't think I'd be as willing to spend dozens of hours reading a book like that. Just a thought. I might be way off.
@@trashteamracing8262 good comparison. DFW seems to go out of his way to make the experience of reading Infinite Jest challenging to a fault. Personally, I believe all of these things: the length, frustration (for the reader). I don’t have a problem with it and kind of assume that was the whole point of the book. A humans normal life is definitely long (especially when you’re working), and finally; the reader is challenged simply by way of being forced to essentially read a textbook. TL;DR life is long and full of challenges and so is this book
Thanks for joining in on the fun! Your selection is excellent, particularly in terms of choosing difficult books that don't vie merely to be difficult; rather, their difficulty stems more often than not from just requiring focused attention. If any readers opt to read the books you suggest here, they will have learned something vital about reading generally, the merits of focus and of opening one's expectations. I do have some advice about Infinite Jest (if you don't mind unsolicited advice): I recommend reading Brief Interviews with Hideous Men first. That's how I got started with David Foster Wallace, and I found that Brief Interviews offers up the various technical tricks of Infinite Jest but at a more manageable length and register, making for a smooth transition, mentally, into DFW's dense, despairing, enlightening magnum opus of Infinite Jest. All the best, bud!
Im just over 300 pages into Infinite Jest. First time reading it, and It. Is. DENSE! But, when it hits, it HITS. Im loving it so far. Just be patient and take your time and I think youll manage just fine. EDIT: I finished this book a little over a month ago, and its become one of my all-time favorites. So. Damn. Good!
@@PaperbackJourneys I cannot speak highly enough about Ben McEvoy. His videos are, to me, like getting an English degree. Obviously in the most positive way possible. His Patreon is well worth the subscription.
I am a massive fan of House of Leaves. Thank you for including it in your reading list. You're plan to dedicate 10hrs a day to reading is brilliant! This book needs, almost requires time, focus, and sometimes a deep dive in to Google. For anyone out there who hasn't read it, I recommend going into to cold. No spoilers. No Wiki. Just step into it and see where it takes you. Some thing to know, it looks like you may have picked up the "full color" edition, which is likely the most available copy. ( look into the lore of the books publishing for more details on this). If you would like to take your reading and engagement of the book a bit further, I'd recommend finding a hardbound copy as there will be something additional to interact with. Best of luck. This is not for you. much es sein
yeah nah im not reading any book that requires me to look up stuff on the internet just to understand it. If a book cant capture my attention on its own without requiring me to do external searches it isnt a book worth reading.
I read it a few years ago and thought it was an interesting plot ruined by up-its-own-arse pretentiousness. In the hands of a good writer who's more interested in story rather than showing off it could have been great.
Oh good luck with House of Leaves! It made me learn that I cannot do long footnotes. My brain can't handle a page of an interruption and then continue. I gave up after 2 tries at it
It took me a very long time to read House of Leaves. I gave up and went back to it multiple times before I finally figured out a way to read it that worked for me. It's interesting and I like the unconventional style, but it wound up not being for me, even after investing so much time and effort to read it.
I used two or three book marks at a time and went with the flow if things got confusing. Reading mainstream comic books was actually pretty good training for the style
Don't think you'll find Canterbury Tales overly challenging. Granted, I read it many years ago but aside from the language, my enduring memory was how funny and charming it was.
I think your observation is on point. I realized about three tales in that I didn't enjoy the travelers' stories at all and moved on to another book. If you enjoy those though, you can get through the language.
The Count Of Monte Cristo is my favorite novel of all time. Edmond Dantes imo is the best written character in all of literature. Absolutely phenomenal book. You definitely have the best translation. The Penguin edition. Very easy to read and understand. I truly hope that you start reading it soon. I get so excited for the reader who begins it because I KNOW that the experience will be extraordinary for them😊
@@piperspurpose3005 I waited years to start this book because I was so intimidated by the length and I wasn’t particularly into revenge stories. Oh how wrong I was! Absolutely spectacular!😊😊😊😊
Thank you for reading these books and saying that we don't have to. Because, I have zero interest in any of these books. I appreciate it so much that I subscribed to your channel. !
HAHA! Yeah I don't blame you. It's a bit of a departure from the types of books that I usually talk about on the channel and I'll certainly keep reading my beloved Stephen King and other Sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. I think I'll just be mixing in some of these heavier books too. Thanks so much for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoy the videos.
5 more books that are notorious for being challenging: - The Recognitions by William Gaddis - Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner - The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann - In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
A favorite quote from the professor in Animal House: Don't write this down, but I find Milton probably as boring as you find Milton. Mrs. Milton found him boring too. He's a little bit long-winded, he doesn't translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible. But that doesn't relieve you of your responsibility for this material. Now I'm waiting for reports from some of you... Listen, I'm not joking. This is my job!
I loved Moby Dick! It is one of my favorite books! Count of Monte Cristo was a wild ride and you will be on the edge of your seat when things get good! It is a little long though. I have to read Infinite Jest still but it has me blocked so we are working on that. Classics and "hard" books can really surprise you. I read War and peace last year and loved it so much I was shouting in my car about some drama as I listened to the audiobook.
Found your channel from this video and started following after listening to the first couple of minutes. Very articulated and elocuent. A pleasure to hear. As a non native speaker, your video is both easy to understand and interesting. Greetings from Uruguay.
I started and stopped House of Leaves before it finally clicked on my 3rd try. I was staying in a cabin in remote central Maine in the US and the atmosphere just made it work. Instead of hiking and fishing like I had planned, I read the book in about 2 days and was completely terrified the whole time. It was incredible. I highly recommend reading the accompanying Pelican Poems and Three Attic Whalestoe Letters if they are included in your copy.
The most challenging book I’ve ever read is The Concept Anxiety by Sören Kierkegaard. I’m trying to read more and more philosophical books, just to expand my horizons and soon I’m going to read Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche. I think it’s gonna be a tough one but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless! I also want to get into Dostoyevsky. I have The Brothers Karamazov but I want to read Crime and Punishment as well as Notes From The Underground. Great video as always! :)
If you’re going to read Nietzsche, a good companion is ‘How to Read Nietzsche’ by Keith Ansell-Pearson. He was my teacher at MA level and his grasp of Nietzsche is unparalleled.
I gave up on Infinite Jest. But if you want to read it I think there's a fanwiki that will come in handy. One of the problems I had with it was that it was overloeaded with a lot, A LOT of abreviations that he only spelled out once and then expected the reader to remember what it stod for. All hail O.N.A.N!
A Little Life is one of the most depressing books I've ever read. I was emotionally drained afterwards. You can tell that the author is a gifted writer, but I'm not sure I can ever go through that kind of experience again.
For the Canterbury tales: read it in the original Middle English, there’s really no substitution for the original poetry. And having an understanding of English prosody, especially iambic pentameter, will be an immense help in reading and understanding the Middle English. It’s a steep learning curve but I picked it up rather quickly.
I've read House of Leaves a few years ago and it still haunts me. Lol. It was definitely a challenge, and the story is wild, but the format is maddeningly difficult at times. Currently I'm reading Shōgun and that book is also pretty difficult. It's a good story, but the way it's written and having so many characters, it can be hard to keep track of it all. But, I'm really enjoying it. And I like how the author incorporated Japanese into the book as if you're learning it along with Blackthorn.
Hello!! I’m new to your channel. Great list! I read The Count.. when I was a kid & remember really enjoying it. I read it so long ago that’s it’s on my TBR list. Moby Dick is one of my fav books. It’s true that Melville digresses rather frequently from his plot but IMO he was a genius so all it is worth reading. I also think it’s an allegory about America’s rapacious desire to conquer the continent, AKA “manifest destiny.” I also love C McCarthy esp The Road, which I actually think is a better book than Blood Mer but BM is def worth reading & great. My fav Russian is Chekhov & I’m not a huge Dostoyevsky fan tho I have his big ones on my TBR, along many by Tolstoy. Thanks!! 😊
I have started a few of the books on your list, but have only completed A Little Life. A Little Life was a two year project for me, because for one I didn't own it, and for 2, I got to certain points where I needed to put the book down and read something happier. I finished it in 2020, during lockdown and it had me in tears. I am not usually someone who cries at books, but this one left me emotionally bereft.
That sounds like quite a journey you had with A Little Life! I'm expecting it to be incredibly moving. I appreciate hearing about your experience-it definitely sets my expectations for the emotional depth of the book. I'm a cry baby when it comes to books at the best of times lol.
This is a well-rounded but highly ambitious list! I physically winced when you pulled out Milton: that's definitely a challenging one, though a rewarding read for its historical significance if nothing else. I hope you enjoy The Brothers Karamazov, it's an extraordinarily marvelous work that is often rightly described as a "life-changing" read, and one of the best novels I've ever encountered. I also just bought Blood Meridian a few days ago and am excited to read it. Good luck!
This is a great topic, I too wish, I had more of a reading awakening when I was younger, I feel like I discovered reading way too young in life. From your list of books, I hope you get a chance to read The Brothers Karamazov, I loved this book and the way that each brother explores a different philosophical ideas. I've also heard that the new Michael R. Katz translation of The Brothers Karamazov is amazing. A lot of these books sounds like essential reading us pretentious people, I fully support reading Infinite Jest, House of Leaves, etc for pretentious reasons
I just picked up JR by him. I’ve been looking for the recognitions since I finished Moby Dick last year, but I refuse to buy a new copy. Do you think it was worth the read?
@@darylsegrest4494 Try your local library. Also, last year (or the year before that) they rereleased it, so there may be more used copies around. I got mine from the library. Yes, it is worth a read and perhaps a reread (for me, anyway). I did not “get” all of it, for sure. I don’t know if you tried this book websites, but there’s Thrift books, Abebooks, Alibris, WOW (World of Books), Pango (they give you a $5 coupon when you first join for used books), and, of course, Amazon. Good Luck!👍 PS - there’s a copy for $23 on Thriftbooks and one for $21 on Amazon (both are paperbacks).
@@darylsegrest4494 Gaddis is a fantastic writer. The biggest problem with The Recognitions is it's length. I got through probably less than half of the approximate 25 hour plus audiobook version. I was very impressed by the quality of the writing but there are just so many sub plots going on. He should have just focused on a few characters and themes rather than overwhelming readers. How many people gave up just through the sheer size and lenght of the work. If he had written three shorter novels he would probably have gained an audience rather than staking everything on this giant behemoth of a book. I believe after the "failure "of The Recognitions he didn't publish anything for over ten years. He's way up there with Saul Bellow, very similar style. The audiobook is actually on TH-cam and the narrator is brilliant, really bringing it to life. You can find guides to the themes and characters online also, but it's a pretty human book with lots of humour.
Started reading A little life a few days before I saw this video. It’s so good. Yes it’s challenging in the fact it jumps back and forth to different perspectives but the one character is the central focus of the story. It has so many emotions. You will like this one for sure.
That’s an awesome challenge; I’m impressed. But a couple of those go beyond challenging yourself into punishing yourself. As for books that I found challenging, but ultimately rewarding… anything by Faulkner.
I basically just started Blood Meridian, probably why your video got recommended. So far it has really drawn me in by the way he describes the landscape, it’s almost biblical. Some parts are a bit confusing because of the punctuation and style but if you take the time to look things up it comes together. There is also not infrequent Spanish dialogue but this just adds to it. The writing is really great.
My adult son and I both read Infinite Jest this year (he finished and I'm still working on it) and you definitely need to read the footnotes and keep a dictionary handy, his use of esoteric words is unbelievable! Brilliantly weird. We are hoping to pick a classic book each year to read together. Loved this topic and seeing your selections. I have read most of them (I'm old, lol) but I'm still working through my "want to read" of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. I remember reading Cantebury Tales in high school and we acted out some of the stories aloud in front of the class. My parents had three daughters and my Dad was always giving me "boy type" books to read and The Count of Monte Cristo was his favorite, so he gave it to me in high school and we both loved talking about it together. I can't say I enjoyed being dragged to see Western cowboy movies with him as much, lol.
What a wonderful tradition to have with your son! Reading and discussing books together is such a meaningful way to connect. It sounds like you had a similar relationship with your Dad so it's cool you're passing it on. I’m looking forward to tackling Infinite Jest and its infamous footnotes. Thanks for the encouragement and for sharing a bit of your reading history-it’s inspiring to hear about your diverse experiences with these classics!
Your channel rocks man! Really glad TH-cam recommended it. If I may be so bold as to suggest a couple other daunting, but extremely rewarding reads- Robert Burton’s “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, and William James’ “The Varieties of Religious Experience”. And don’t worry- the latter isn’t a religious book, so much as an examination of divine or transcendent personal experiences on the individual level Blood Meridian and Moby Dick are two of my all-time favorites. Some scholars (including Ben McEvoy!) draw a straight line from Shakespeare to Moby Dick and finally to Blood Meridian
I feel you. I grew up in a city and neighbourhood where ... Shall we say my neighbours were drunks and their daughter often came by to eat with us. For a variety of reason I was a strange and meek child and I grew up in my own world, not fitting in and was most happy when my classmates ignored me, because any attention I got was rarely positive. For all that though, it afforded me that formal education. I was the first in my family to finish upper secondary and I ended my educational journey with an MA in Historoy and linguistics. Sometimes not fitting in can have benefits. I have only read 5 out of the 10 books you showed (though I just bought House of Leaves) and none of them were not as part of a Uni course, so kudos for wanting to tackle them on your own. The best advice I can give you in reading these books is get the annotated versions. It will add context that is often omitted. Often times great classics are great classics because they reflect the times they were written in. As an example, I just read Norwegian Woods by Murakami, because I like to torture myself. The books is, as most of the books you present are, literary fiction. It is basically an allegory for the youth movement that failed back when Murakami was young and it reflects the social problems with intimacy that the Japanese society has. To that effect, the characters feel a bit like cardboard cutouts and often nor particularly likeable or even relatable, and that is because they are, in fact, card board cut outs. They are stereotypes and each reflect a particular "archetype" within young people in Japanese society. What makes it a classic is the fact that all if this critique still holds true today. Murakami manages to capture something truly essentila about his society and has some very bitter and poignant things he wants to say. The problem is that you need to know all of this in order to undertand what you are reading and why it is good. I have never read Murakami before, simply because the people who read him in the west tend to be the pretentious types who do not understand how to read literary fiction or even what the point of it is and yet they still, in an attempt to sound clever, pretend like it is the best book they have ever read. And that is a bit of a turn off for me. And maybe in some cases the story itself is in fact good (that is not the case for the surface story of Norwegian Woods btw, it was torture to get through ....). But often times it is a bit like people who watch Citizen Caine and claim that it is the best thing ever, not knowing that the reason it is seen as the best movie ever made is because it is basically a cinematic version of every single area of study you come into contact with on first year of university of you study film and media. The point is, get the annotated versions that gives you the context that you need in order to fully understand them. Often times that is not even enough (in the case of Fyodor Dostoevsky I would urge you to read up in Russian literature late 1800's as well as get a bit of a feel for the Russian history of the time, namely their relations to the rest of Europe, as well as the philosophical ideas leading up to this point. Dostoevsky is hard to read. Unless you really do just want to rad the surface level. In which case it is just a boring and at times a bit of a baffling read.)
house of leaves was so fun to read!! putting all the effort in was so good. it took me about a week start to finish but I read it for multiple hours at a time and it definitely made me feel uneasy. i personally liked a little life but I've heard very different opinions on it so I don't usually recommend it to people
I thoroughly enjoyed Brothers Karamazov. The translation I got made it quite easy to read. The real challenge for me was getting through the entirety of the text, just because of its length. The Russian names were intimidating to me at first but the text mostly uses their nicknames, which are much shorter and easier to remember. I read House of Leaves years ago and the first part (in conventional paragraph format) really did give me an eerie, weird feeling. The rest of the book, I just blazed through though, so I couldn’t fully appreciate it. I’m planning on reading it again one of these days though. The most challenging book I read was Dictionary of the Khazars. A relatively short book but its format is dictionary entries that are related to 3 different variations of religion. You can read it in any way you like (front to back, jumping back and forth between entries, alphabetically, etc) and you’ll have to stitch together the narrative yourself since it doesn’t tell a clearly linear story. Quite interesting to read. I had to make an Excel file to organize the dictionary entries because I read them based on how related each entry was to another.
Fascinating list, we are at very similar reading levels. I have read three on your list, pulled two more off my shelves to be read, and have noted the other five for future purchase. Thanks!
I read Pere Goriot last year, and it was great. "Hard" books I recommend, that are worth the "struggle"; The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann and Essays by Michel de Montaigne.
I completely echo your thoughts on British schooling! Going to uni, I found myself having to play catch up on certain texts and still have such enormous gaps lol. I feel like I cheated with Moby Dick because I read Billy Budd, Sailor by Melville but I do eventually want to get to Moby Dick. Fantastic list!
Absolutely love the idea of this video there needs to be more off it!! There are definitely some books on my TBR that are so daunting to me and I keep putting it off because it is so daunting! However what maybe could help is to do a buddy read? Not sure if you even have plans like that or if that's even possible now but I would love to be a part of a future buddy read on discord or something with whatever is next! Russian literature is notoriously dense and even with my relatively decent education I feel like I am not intellectually equipped to read it. Please don't feel bad about your education, there is no shame in that, on the contrary I applaud you for trying to tackle these behemoths of literature!! Blood meridian can also be found on my tbr, but one thing I avoid like the plague are books whose sole purpose is to smash my heart into tiny little pieces. Life is sad enough as it is kinda want to stay away from it in my escape literature.... My personal daunting book lists does include some russian literature like Crime and punishment [The brothers Karamazov as well] but also lots of 'classics' if that makes sense....in all genres really. Malazan Book of the Fallen is on my goal list at least the first book by end this year [there are 10 books...] honestly if you read blood meridian, I am going to drop everything and read it with you so help me God. Never read anything by cormac McCarthy and this book is so notorious I need to know what the hype is all about!
What a fantastic comment! Yeah I need to find out more about buddy reads and maybe start doing them on Discord. I need to set one up and then get active on there. When I start reading Blood Meridian, I'll definitely let you know my friend.
If you end up liking Milton, you'll probably love Blood Meridian -- also, try Dante, it's worth learning Italian to read it (Charles S. Singleton bilingual edition with commentary from Princeton UP)
I hope to change your mind about your regrets in terms of your basic education. I taught for 32 years and came to believe that we introduced great books too early. The life experiences you bring to THE BROTHERS K and other books on this list will deepen your enjoyment and appreciation in ways that a teenager could not perceive. Bon voyage as you wrap yourself in these new worlds. Your list gave me a couple of new books to read.
I just finished Moby Dick after having similar fears and a couple false starts - what helped me was the audiobook, especially for the whaling textbook portions. While of course it's ideal to be 100% engaged in every word, I think it's ok to let those parts wash over you while you walk or do chores or something, like a friend telling you all about their new hobby. The characters stole my heart in a way I really was not expecting and rarely find in classic lit tho so worth finding a way to read it that works for you! I listened to the version read by Anthony Heald and he brought a very endearing earnestness to Ishmael.
A Brazilian recomendation: "Epitaph of a Small Winner" aka. "Memórias postumas de Brás Cubas". It's a 1800s satire about the Brasilian elite... The book is narrated by Brá Cubas, a dead sarcastic man who revisit his life with a new acid look on his former life💀 “I am a deceased writer not in the sense of one who has written and is now deceased, but in the sense of one who had died and is now writing.”
@@PaperbackJourneys hey! So you have good taste then 😂😂😂😂 Great video, hope you take this recommendation, Machado is the best writer in Brazil, and for me one of the best in the world... Unfortunately for ages the world have been too much eurocentric in its culture. But im glad that nowadays people are reading from all the continents in the world. Keep up the good work and keep your eyes peeled for the Insulidian Phasmid 😂
The first 150 pages of Moby Dick are the most exciting pages of any book I have ever read. After that It evolves beyond just being a book about hunting a whale, but becomes about mortality, religion and life. It is life changing and very inventive.
I actually just finished reading Moby Dick! Your worry about it testing your patience is well-founded, but the chapters are rather short (there's just so many of them). Think of it as a whaling journey in itself: sometimes you're working through chores, doing practical things, stuck in your head a lot staring out at the waves...until suddenly something exciting happens! I found that Ishmael is ultimately giving you something indispensable in understanding the gravity of his story: context. You will understand exactly the why and how of the ending, its depth, its philosophy, because of his exhaustive reflections and lessons on whales. But yes, I did still feel rather imposed upon before the penny dropped on its brilliance.
Blood Meridian is my favourite book, McCarthy's prose is so good it's unreal. The main challenge I think is the lack of punctuation/quotation marks but you adjust to that. The writing and the brutality in the story feels relentless, it's like a beautiful nightmare. I remember when I finished reading it literally felt like I was waking up, like I was surprised to remember that the normal world and other books existed.
You have a few of picks that match my own! Infinite jest, the Whale and Count of Monte Cristo. I have read House of Leaves and Blood Meridian, both of which are amongst my most revered books to date. I didn't find House of Leaves to be as taxing as many imply, granted it was presentationally atypical, but the language was not so difficult and it's story is superb. Blood Meridian was a more demanding read for me, the prose is dense and beautifully written, but the punctuation, particularly around speech is unusual. I had to learn to slow my standard pace to get into it (interestingly using the advice of Benjamin McEvoy!) and I'm so glad i did. Looking forward to seeing more from you and thoughts on your experiences!
The Count of Monte Christo and Blood Meridian are brilliant reads. I keep meaning to read a classic as it's been a while; I was thinking of reading East Of Eden but your video has reminded me that I have The Canterbury Tales on my kindle so that may be next!
I just read the first couple pages of East of Eden and it got me really excited to dive into it. The only reason I didn't continue through immediately is I had just finished Lonesome Dove and needed a couple shorter, lighter reads first. But the writing in the bit that I read was beautiful without being too pretentious, just like Lonesome Dove was.
First time I’ve heard of House of Leaves, thank you. Count of Monte Cristo isn’t particularly challenging as previously mentioned but it is long read😂. Some parts you will fly through and other parts can drag a little. Anyone who loves The Road deserves a sub 👍
Your pronunciations are really good, don't worry so much. 🙂 I have most of these on my TBR as well, and Brothers Karamazov and Count of Monte Cristo are books I want to tackle this year. I sometimes get overwhelmed about reading books but then I remember - we're often more capable then we believe and we can always put books down to tackle again another time. Best of luck, so glad I found your channel today! Subscribed and look forward to future videos. 🤩
For history on the "soundtrack" to House of Leaves.... Yes, Poe is Mark's sister. After their father died, he left a lot of audio tapes. He was a speaker/teacher. They both were captivated and inspired by it. Mark went and wrote his book, Poe went and wrote her album. It wasn't until they were in the middle of their projects that they discovered they were exploring the same subject matter, in a sense. Pretty neat. Good album. Haunting book. (pun intended).
@@PaperbackJourneysI just listened to your reading list and I'm very impressed with your taste for those timeless classics you've chosen as well as the "newer" titles on your list. I love the Dali clock too, it's a fantastic clock! I have 2 questions about it, if you don't mind. Does it actually work, and if so, could you please ask your wife where she purchased it?? I'm writing you from Vancouver, B.C. and I am hopeful that I can somehow procure one. Many Thanks, Un ID'd NTT and happy, cozy reading! ! !
I read Paradise Lost because I read a lot of Shakespeare and wanted to read English's second-greatest poet. Some people said it was Milton, so. . . It was like reading the opening credits to Star Wars with stars behind it and horns on full blast . Glorious!
i didn't finish Moby Dick, but I still plan on it. There are some weird plot choices ---but in a fun way so far. I just had other things going on at the time, reading fiction took a back seat.
Infinite Jest.... where to start?? I was told when I started to read it that 1)you must read the footnotes 2) You need to read the first 500 pages before it will make sense 3) tabs are a must. You won't be able to put it down!
Oh what a nice selection!! I am so looking forward to the reviews of those books, especially Infinite Jest. (Haha could relate a lot to the „down a pint education“, I’m not from England but from Bavaria;)
If it’s the joke I’m thinking of, I remember it as it happened in the part of the world I live in. Maybe it’s full of dirty jokes, but we don’t understand today.
So at this moment in time I've actually finished House of Leaves. This video was recorded a couple of weeks ago and since then I've finished it. I enjoyed it but it was sooooo weird. I hope to read Blood Meridian sometime in the next few months maybe. Thanks for the comment.
Some of these were already on my TBR and now I’m adding several more. House of Leaves has me the most intrigued, so I’ll definitely be seeking that one out soon. The idea of being terrified enough to need to get it out of my house has me very eager to dive in and find out what that’s all about. 😅
Yes Moby Dick is on my TBR too! I fell in love with the story when I read the children’s classic version with my son. It’s significant because he didnt like to read. It was a lot of trial and error finding the right thing for him. We read this together and we continue to discuss Captain Ahab and reference the story in our lives. And we discovered he likes classic stories of adventure! Like Tom Sawyer and all vs modern fantasy that most kids are reading. He is 15 mine but he must have been 9-10 when we read Moby Dick
Best wishes for a great challenge result. Milton and Chaucer poetic epics are fun and solidly illuminating. Russians tend toward depression time for me... Dumas a winner!
Great list, I've tackled half of these and not regretted it. I think you might like Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. Another tough and long read with the usual confusing Russian patronyms, but it's deeply moving and beautiful despite its often quite depressing setting
Good luck with your quest. I would do one maybe two of these monsters in a year. I'm wading through Moby Dick at the moment, not really worth it but then Cormac McCarthy said it was his favourite book. Blood Meridian is great like all his books.
Infinite Jest is a wild ride. It's so exceptional it doesn't seem long. The Count of Monte Cristo is wonderful. I'm trying to get brave enough to read Russian lit and will definitely rely on Benjamin Mcevoy for help. I admire you for challenging yourself. It's never too late to learn. It's so good for us! I hope you'll let us know how you fared.
1) The Brothers Karamazov
2) Infinite Jest
3) Paradise Lost
4) Old Man Goriot
5) The Canterbury Tales
6) House of Leaves
7) Moby Dick
8) Blood Meridian
9) The Count of Monte Cristo
10) A Little Life
I’m 79 years old and autistic. 19th century literature saved my life by allowing me to understand a bit about how neurotypical minds and bodies work. War and Peace was the most important. I began my summers, junior high through college, with a complete reading. Tolstoy seemed to cherish every human being and every human experience.
Glad to hear it ! How are you ? wish u a happy and long life ahead with all respect .
😊 jio
I am a 55 year old autistic, and War and Peace is my challenging read for this year. Another BookTuber said that if I read a chapter a day, I will finish the book in a year, since it has 365 chapters. However, I am only 3 days in and I want to read more chapters. However, the autistic in me wants to stick to the rule I made for myself. So you read this book every summer for 6 summers?
My father's advice for Russian literature was to write down each character's name the first time you encounter it and add the other parts to it as they come up. First name, nickname, patronymic (-ovich for men, -ovna/evna for women), surname, and titles because the same character can be addressed different ways based on the other characters' relationship to them. So Grand Duke Andrei Ilyovich Rostov might be call Dre by his parents and sister, Andrei by his wife or mistress, Andrei Ilyovich by his cousins, in-laws, or friends from school, Grand Duke Andrei by a member of the Royal family, and Grand Duke Rostov by his business associates or distant acquaintances. Having a chart to reference can help immensely.
I loved Crime and Punishment but found Brothers Karamazov more difficult. Either way, I hope you love it or at least find it thought provoking.
At some point, try Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. I consider it the best English language book of the twentieth century.
Brothers Karamazov is an exquisite novel, but it is difficult. Luckily in my copy the names were all listed in the beginning, along with the nicknames which there are many. It’s a novel that I want to read again, and one that will sit with me and affect me probably forever.
@@matthewgallant3622 I'm glad to hear there are copies doing that work to help the reader.
*Interesting! :O*
I remember reading Crime and Punishment at 28 and having an existential crisis. It was the first book I'd sat down and read properly in about 15 years since reading the LOTR trilogy. I realised I'd wasted 15 years of my life NOT reading.
IMHO quite possibly the best book I've read.
I read both, Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” and Tolkien’s LoTR, and greatly absolutely loved both.
I can't even imagine not reading. I can't even stand to eat lunch or dinner without reading material near by.
If you love both of those books, you should check out Dr. Peter Kreeft. He is a philosophy professor at Boston College and is coming out with a book soon about the greatnest and beauty of those two books.
I think no one ever forgets this book...and how it makes you feel, in their entire life. You have to read it to understand what I'm saying.
The count of Montecristo: It is a page turner! I read it in two days because I could not put it away.
600 pages a day?!?
Wow 2 days? That's rapid!!! I envy your reading pace.
@@PaperbackJourneys It is completely the book's fault. I could not put it away and I was on vacation.
🧢🧢🧢🧢🧢
I hope you returned to it and read it properly after that. So many people think it's a flex to say they have read great books quickly but it's the fastest way to miss swathes of detail. The great books should be read and re read over the long term, so you can live them
The Count of Monte Cristo is a fairly easy read and a favorite classic of many.
I can't recommend Moby Dick enough. I got into reading as a hobby last year and it was probably the 4th or 5th book I had read. It's absolutely amazing and the ending makes all the crazy pointless chapters about whaling and the "science" of whales worth it.
Chapter 32: Cetology is kind of the first chapter that really makes people say "What am I reading?" and Chapter 54: The Town-Ho's Story cements in my mind that Herman Melville may have written a large chunk of Moby Dick with humor in mind.
I agree with your first sentence exactly---minus the last word.
The Count Of Monte Cristo is my favorite book of all time! I got so invested in trying to find out how he was going to exact his revenge without any casualties who dont deserve anything to happen to them. I promise it gets more interesting after the first 200 pages. Once you hit that mark youre gonna be golden! So good.
I love it! I think it’s a fantastic story with fascinating characters 😊
My da introduced me to The Count of Monte Cristo right after I'd read The Three Musketeers when I was 10. I loved it. I reread Dumas in French when I was in college. They're my better in French.
@@parkerbrown-nesbit1747 I have The Three Musketeers too but have yet to read it
Moby DIck is worth the effort. Killer difficult! I started it many times before finally getting through it. I think it is indeed the greatest novel ever written. The feeling of accomplishment when done is amazing. As you read it you are continually amazed by Melville's genius.
spot on review about Count of Monte Cristo. Really enjoyed it and yeah... you should read it soon. The hardest part of the book is the length and holding it up to read it 'cause it's chunky. lol
Moby Dick is such a fun book. I've never heard anybody call it boring.
The Brothers Karamazov is brilliant. It's a mystery novel that is told through the exploration of three brothers and their father. Each brother represents a different aspect of the spiritual ideologies of the time. You also get the Grand Inquisitor's chapter which is often read and taught on its own as it is like its own brilliant novel within another brilliant novel. Moby Dick is THE Great American Novel and says so much about the United States and the destructive obsessions that destroy us. The Count of Monte Cristo is a great book (I read most of an unabridged version in jail and finished it at home). Blood Meridian is brutal and not the easiest read due to its lack of regular punctuation.
My personal advice regarding Infinite Jest is to just focus on character and plot. I think people get bogged down with all the end notes and details and clues (which are all fantastic to get into!) but might be better suited for a second reading. I say embrace a little confusion and stick with the personalities that are so beautifully developed :) Nobody can get it all on the first go-through, or at least I sure didn’t.
I’ve been wondering if Infinite Jest is difficult to read using an ereader. I won’t be able to quickly flip through the “pages” so I’m thinking I really need the hardcopy?
I’d recommend a hard copy. The flipping through the end notes is vital to the experience in my opinion (3x read it’s one of my favorites). There is a lot of end notes that further the story and I’d say it is worth it to read them the first go around.
I agree. I would also add that if you get a bit confused because you lost your concentration for 10 or so seconds, you should just keep reading and you will catch up easily the reading experience more fluid.
Hi, just discovered you.
I don't know if you like Audible, but I listened to Crime and Punishment on there narrated by Will Poulter and it was amazing., he was so good that it gave me confidence to read more of the Russian big hitters.
A Little Life has stayed with me for a few years now but with a sense of achievement. Look forward to watching more vlogs of yours 🌻
Thanks so much. I definitely listen to Audiobooks and I really Will Poulter as well. Thanks for the recommendation and for the comment 😃.
Love your list! I read Moby Dick in Feb and it is totally worth it. The chapters are short. Read it a chapter or two at a time and experience it. It's remarkable.
Listening to the audiobook is how I was able to complete Moby Dick after a couple previous attempts and I’m so glad I did. It does help if you love ships and don’t mind learning about the whaling industry. It has my absolutely favorite final line in a book, beautifully melancholy and haunting.
The book about fish in the middle defeated me.
@@lisaredwine4857 Just keep reading. It's an amazing, strange book.
I'm thinking about reading Moby Dick, but I think I want to read In The Heart Of The Sea first.
I struggled to get through that book. So much dry material where he goes on and on about out dated information about whales. This was a long time ago I read it though, maybe I’ll return to it.
You are going to love the count of monte cristo, it's not a hard read at all, yes it is big but it doesn't feel long. One of my favourites of all time, top 3 for sure maybe number 1.
Count of Monte Cristo is my #1. Joy. You will get the main point, and the nuance will come on future reads (time for my #4 in fact!)
Blood Meridian is absolutely astonishing. Not read anything for a while that made my jaw drop like this did. Perhapa even the best writing Ive ever come across.
it really is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. which is (prolly intentionally) ironic considering the subject matter. it's also one of very few books that actually had a lasting effect on me and how i look at the world. years later, i still think about it constantly. it's both beautiful and ugly, simple and profound, and a whole bunch of other adjectives that I can't think of right now. hands down my favorite book of all time, there's just nothing else like it out there. at the same time though, I understand that it's not for everyone.
I'm reading it now. I'm enjoying it, but very early in I realized it was gonna be a book I had to put down between chapters and take a break with. Some of the most brutally violent things I've ever read.
The Brothers Karamazov is potentially the best book I’ve ever read. Super rewarding! Good luck on your journey!
It’s a tough read, but Blood Meridian is absolutely incredible. Tells such a complex story and the antagonist is imo one of the most interesting and well constructed characters in fiction
If you get thru Cantebury Tales, try The Decameron, a collection of stories about 7 women and 3 men trapped in a villa outside Florence hiding from the Black Death. Written in 1353.
ten tales to spend the nights away
Decameron is great and genuinely hilarious in several places
Decameron ..Netflix series now
Don't be intimidated! Do what I do: I look up everything that I don't know historically or a word that I'm not familiar with, and I love doing that. I have a master's degree and I also feel that my education could have been a lot better, mostly because of how lazy I was. My comprehension and reading has greatly improved with my age.
I appreciate this comment on every level
Thanks so much for the encouragement. I appreciate it.
I did the same with Les Miserables. I thought I had quite a good vocabulary until I read it! Luckily it was on kindle so I could just click on look up. It took me a month as I wanted to take my time and savour it. No point rushing a good book.
Annotated editions can be helpful for this too
Infinite Jest is challenging, dense, and the kind of book you need multiple bookmarks. Loved it when I finally got through it but it took genuine effort.
Yep it's definitely the type of book where you get out of it what you put in. It took me about 2 months of solid reading to finish it and I had to make loads of notes to keep track of all the characters, timelines etc. But it's a reading experience I will never forget. I honestly can't think of another book that had the same level of impact on me as IJ did.
I tried. I may try again at some point, but I got to a footnote within a footnote that said "Don't ask", and I just felt like DFW was intentionally wasting my time.
I read House of Leaves more recently, and although the format was somewhat similar, I enjoyed it quite a lot and got more out of it.
@@trashteamracing8262 I'm not sure what age you are, but maybe IJ is one of those novels you need to read when you're young and impressionable and willing to go along with novels that are a bit more out there. I read it when I was 20 and primed for a novel that was weird and experimental and challenging, whereas now 13 years on I don't think I'd be as willing to spend dozens of hours reading a book like that. Just a thought. I might be way off.
@@trashteamracing8262 good comparison. DFW seems to go out of his way to make the experience of reading Infinite Jest challenging to a fault. Personally, I believe all of these things: the length, frustration (for the reader). I don’t have a problem with it and kind of assume that was the whole point of the book. A humans normal life is definitely long (especially when you’re working), and finally; the reader is challenged simply by way of being forced to essentially read a textbook. TL;DR life is long and full of challenges and so is this book
Thanks for joining in on the fun!
Your selection is excellent, particularly in terms of choosing difficult books that don't vie merely to be difficult; rather, their difficulty stems more often than not from just requiring focused attention. If any readers opt to read the books you suggest here, they will have learned something vital about reading generally, the merits of focus and of opening one's expectations.
I do have some advice about Infinite Jest (if you don't mind unsolicited advice): I recommend reading Brief Interviews with Hideous Men first. That's how I got started with David Foster Wallace, and I found that Brief Interviews offers up the various technical tricks of Infinite Jest but at a more manageable length and register, making for a smooth transition, mentally, into DFW's dense, despairing, enlightening magnum opus of Infinite Jest.
All the best, bud!
As someone who keeps placing Moby Dick in a personal top 3 books ever read. I'm delighted to see more people being genuinely interested in it.
Im just over 300 pages into Infinite Jest. First time reading it, and It. Is. DENSE!
But, when it hits, it HITS. Im loving it so far. Just be patient and take your time and I think youll manage just fine.
EDIT: I finished this book a little over a month ago, and its become one of my all-time favorites. So. Damn. Good!
The guy is Ben McEvoy. He is marvelous.
Agreed Martha. I think he's going to be a very useful resource for me.
@@PaperbackJourneys I cannot speak highly enough about Ben McEvoy. His videos are, to me, like getting an English degree. Obviously in the most positive way possible. His Patreon is well worth the subscription.
I am a massive fan of House of Leaves. Thank you for including it in your reading list. You're plan to dedicate 10hrs a day to reading is brilliant! This book needs, almost requires time, focus, and sometimes a deep dive in to Google. For anyone out there who hasn't read it, I recommend going into to cold. No spoilers. No Wiki. Just step into it and see where it takes you. Some thing to know, it looks like you may have picked up the "full color" edition, which is likely the most available copy. ( look into the lore of the books publishing for more details on this). If you would like to take your reading and engagement of the book a bit further, I'd recommend finding a hardbound copy as there will be something additional to interact with.
Best of luck. This is not for you. much es sein
yeah nah im not reading any book that requires me to look up stuff on the internet just to understand it. If a book cant capture my attention on its own without requiring me to do external searches it isnt a book worth reading.
@@alolandonaldtrump8368what a silly and conceited way to live. "oh I will always know all I need to know, God forbid I learn a few new things"
I've already read it and would love to know what more is in the hard cover copy
I read it a few years ago and thought it was an interesting plot ruined by up-its-own-arse pretentiousness. In the hands of a good writer who's more interested in story rather than showing off it could have been great.
Oh good luck with House of Leaves! It made me learn that I cannot do long footnotes. My brain can't handle a page of an interruption and then continue. I gave up after 2 tries at it
It took me a very long time to read House of Leaves. I gave up and went back to it multiple times before I finally figured out a way to read it that worked for me. It's interesting and I like the unconventional style, but it wound up not being for me, even after investing so much time and effort to read it.
"This is not for you"
Damn sure wasn't for me😂
Did see him when he was touring with Poe. That was fun.
I used two or three book marks at a time and went with the flow if things got confusing.
Reading mainstream comic books was actually pretty good training for the style
Don't think you'll find Canterbury Tales overly challenging. Granted, I read it many years ago but aside from the language, my enduring memory was how funny and charming it was.
I think your observation is on point. I realized about three tales in that I didn't enjoy the travelers' stories at all and moved on to another book. If you enjoy those though, you can get through the language.
We did the Wife of Bath's Tale for A Level. Her tale is quite short and her prologue is very long, she is a right character, she's wonderful 😂
The Count Of Monte Cristo is my favorite novel of all time. Edmond Dantes imo is the best written character in all of literature. Absolutely phenomenal book. You definitely have the best translation. The Penguin edition. Very easy to read and understand. I truly hope that you start reading it soon. I get so excited for the reader who begins it because I KNOW that the experience will be extraordinary for them😊
It's my favorite, too!
@@piperspurpose3005 I waited years to start this book because I was so intimidated by the length and I wasn’t particularly into revenge stories. Oh how wrong I was! Absolutely spectacular!😊😊😊😊
Thank you for reading these books and saying that we don't have to. Because, I have zero interest in any of these books. I appreciate it so much that I subscribed to your channel. !
HAHA! Yeah I don't blame you. It's a bit of a departure from the types of books that I usually talk about on the channel and I'll certainly keep reading my beloved Stephen King and other Sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. I think I'll just be mixing in some of these heavier books too.
Thanks so much for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoy the videos.
@@PaperbackJourneys Sounds like a good plan and I look forward to it. -James
5 more books that are notorious for being challenging:
- The Recognitions by William Gaddis
- Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
- The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
- The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
"it's fine if you don't"
Wow thank you so much stranger from the Internet. I was worried what you would think
Right now you've given me attitude I've changed my mind. You DO have to read them. Get cracking! I want House of Leaves read by Sunday.
Paradise Lost is extremely difficult to read with full understanding. Good luck.
Thanks! I think I'm going to need it haha.
A favorite quote from the professor in Animal House:
Don't write this down, but I find Milton probably as boring as you find Milton. Mrs. Milton found him boring too. He's a little bit long-winded, he doesn't translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible.
But that doesn't relieve you of your responsibility for this material. Now I'm waiting for reports from some of you... Listen, I'm not joking. This is my job!
YOU NAILED IT.
It wasn't until I read "Seveneves" that I wondered if I could have done better in school.
Haha! Those humbling moments come along for me every and now and then.
Loved loved loved Seven Eves
I loved Moby Dick! It is one of my favorite books! Count of Monte Cristo was a wild ride and you will be on the edge of your seat when things get good! It is a little long though. I have to read Infinite Jest still but it has me blocked so we are working on that. Classics and "hard" books can really surprise you. I read War and peace last year and loved it so much I was shouting in my car about some drama as I listened to the audiobook.
Do you think that, having seen two versions on film, that I have fundamentally spoiled the edge of the seat experience of Count?
Found your channel from this video and started following after listening to the first couple of minutes. Very articulated and elocuent. A pleasure to hear. As a non native speaker, your video is both easy to understand and interesting. Greetings from Uruguay.
i love infinite jest. my favorite book of all time, as well as a little life. both have changed my life immensely, in different ways.
I started and stopped House of Leaves before it finally clicked on my 3rd try. I was staying in a cabin in remote central Maine in the US and the atmosphere just made it work. Instead of hiking and fishing like I had planned, I read the book in about 2 days and was completely terrified the whole time. It was incredible. I highly recommend reading the accompanying Pelican Poems and Three Attic Whalestoe Letters if they are included in your copy.
The most challenging book I’ve ever read is The Concept Anxiety by Sören Kierkegaard. I’m trying to read more and more philosophical books, just to expand my horizons and soon I’m going to read Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche. I think it’s gonna be a tough one but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless!
I also want to get into Dostoyevsky. I have The Brothers Karamazov but I want to read Crime and Punishment as well as Notes From The Underground.
Great video as always! :)
If you’re going to read Nietzsche, a good companion is ‘How to Read Nietzsche’ by Keith Ansell-Pearson. He was my teacher at MA level and his grasp of Nietzsche is unparalleled.
Don't feel intimidated by Old Man Goriot, it's not complicated and it's pretty fun, there is a lot of gossip going on. I read it in highschool!
I first read House of Leaves when I was 13 years old. I picked it up just by the cover at my local bookstore and it’s been my favorite ever since.
I gave up on Infinite Jest. But if you want to read it I think there's a fanwiki that will come in handy. One of the problems I had with it was that it was overloeaded with a lot, A LOT of abreviations that he only spelled out once and then expected the reader to remember what it stod for. All hail O.N.A.N!
A Little Life is one of the most depressing books I've ever read. I was emotionally drained afterwards. You can tell that the author is a gifted writer, but I'm not sure I can ever go through that kind of experience again.
For the Canterbury tales: read it in the original Middle English, there’s really no substitution for the original poetry. And having an understanding of English prosody, especially iambic pentameter, will be an immense help in reading and understanding the Middle English. It’s a steep learning curve but I picked it up rather quickly.
I've read House of Leaves a few years ago and it still haunts me. Lol. It was definitely a challenge, and the story is wild, but the format is maddeningly difficult at times.
Currently I'm reading Shōgun and that book is also pretty difficult. It's a good story, but the way it's written and having so many characters, it can be hard to keep track of it all. But, I'm really enjoying it. And I like how the author incorporated Japanese into the book as if you're learning it along with Blackthorn.
Hello!! I’m new to your channel. Great list! I read The Count.. when I was a kid & remember really enjoying it. I read it so long ago that’s it’s on my TBR list. Moby Dick is one of my fav books. It’s true that Melville digresses rather frequently from his plot but IMO he was a genius so all it is worth reading. I also think it’s an allegory about America’s rapacious desire to conquer the continent, AKA “manifest destiny.” I also love C McCarthy esp The Road, which I actually think is a better book than Blood Mer but BM is def worth reading & great. My fav Russian is Chekhov & I’m not a huge Dostoyevsky fan tho I have his big ones on my TBR, along many by Tolstoy. Thanks!! 😊
I have started a few of the books on your list, but have only completed A Little Life. A Little Life was a two year project for me, because for one I didn't own it, and for 2, I got to certain points where I needed to put the book down and read something happier. I finished it in 2020, during lockdown and it had me in tears. I am not usually someone who cries at books, but this one left me emotionally bereft.
That sounds like quite a journey you had with A Little Life! I'm expecting it to be incredibly moving. I appreciate hearing about your experience-it definitely sets my expectations for the emotional depth of the book. I'm a cry baby when it comes to books at the best of times lol.
This is a well-rounded but highly ambitious list! I physically winced when you pulled out Milton: that's definitely a challenging one, though a rewarding read for its historical significance if nothing else. I hope you enjoy The Brothers Karamazov, it's an extraordinarily marvelous work that is often rightly described as a "life-changing" read, and one of the best novels I've ever encountered. I also just bought Blood Meridian a few days ago and am excited to read it. Good luck!
This is a great topic, I too wish, I had more of a reading awakening when I was younger, I feel like I discovered reading way too young in life. From your list of books, I hope you get a chance to read The Brothers Karamazov, I loved this book and the way that each brother explores a different philosophical ideas. I've also heard that the new Michael R. Katz translation of The Brothers Karamazov is amazing.
A lot of these books sounds like essential reading us pretentious people, I fully support reading Infinite Jest, House of Leaves, etc for pretentious reasons
Prepare yourself for A Little Life!!! A challenging book (very challenging!) for me was The Recognitions by William Gaddis.
I just picked up JR by him. I’ve been looking for the recognitions since I finished Moby Dick last year, but I refuse to buy a new copy. Do you think it was worth the read?
@@darylsegrest4494 Try your local library. Also, last year (or the year before that) they rereleased it, so there may be more used copies around. I got mine from the library.
Yes, it is worth a read and perhaps a reread (for me, anyway). I did not “get” all of it, for sure.
I don’t know if you tried this book websites, but there’s Thrift books, Abebooks, Alibris, WOW (World of Books), Pango (they give you a $5 coupon when you first join for used books), and, of course, Amazon. Good Luck!👍 PS - there’s a copy for $23 on Thriftbooks and one for $21 on Amazon (both are paperbacks).
@@darylsegrest4494 Gaddis is a fantastic writer. The biggest problem with The Recognitions is it's length. I got through probably less than half of the approximate 25 hour plus audiobook version. I was very impressed by the quality of the writing but there are just so many sub plots going on. He should have just focused on a few characters and themes rather than overwhelming readers. How many people gave up just through the sheer size and lenght of the work. If he had written three shorter novels he would probably have gained an audience rather than staking everything on this giant behemoth of a book. I believe after the "failure "of The Recognitions he didn't publish anything for over ten years. He's way up there with Saul Bellow, very similar style. The audiobook is actually on TH-cam and the narrator is brilliant, really bringing it to life. You can find guides to the themes and characters online also, but it's a pretty human book with lots of humour.
@@darylsegrest4494 yes, I think that it’s worth reading.
Started reading A little life a few days before I saw this video. It’s so good. Yes it’s challenging in the fact it jumps back and forth to different perspectives but the one character is the central focus of the story. It has so many emotions. You will like this one for sure.
A Little Life was incredibly sad but I found a lot of the details tedious. I didn’t cry until the very end.
Infinite Jest is that book I keep saying I’ll read one day but never do. I started it a long time ago and just couldn’t stick with it.
That’s an awesome challenge; I’m impressed. But a couple of those go beyond challenging yourself into punishing yourself. As for books that I found challenging, but ultimately rewarding… anything by Faulkner.
I basically just started Blood Meridian, probably why your video got recommended. So far it has really drawn me in by the way he describes the landscape, it’s almost biblical. Some parts are a bit confusing because of the punctuation and style but if you take the time to look things up it comes together. There is also not infrequent Spanish dialogue but this just adds to it. The writing is really great.
Glad to see Pete Goriot on your list. It is one of the books that made me a fan of Balzac.
My adult son and I both read Infinite Jest this year (he finished and I'm still working on it) and you definitely need to read the footnotes and keep a dictionary handy, his use of esoteric words is unbelievable! Brilliantly weird. We are hoping to pick a classic book each year to read together. Loved this topic and seeing your selections. I have read most of them (I'm old, lol) but I'm still working through my "want to read" of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. I remember reading Cantebury Tales in high school and we acted out some of the stories aloud in front of the class. My parents had three daughters and my Dad was always giving me "boy type" books to read and The Count of Monte Cristo was his favorite, so he gave it to me in high school and we both loved talking about it together. I can't say I enjoyed being dragged to see Western cowboy movies with him as much, lol.
What a wonderful tradition to have with your son! Reading and discussing books together is such a meaningful way to connect. It sounds like you had a similar relationship with your Dad so it's cool you're passing it on. I’m looking forward to tackling Infinite Jest and its infamous footnotes. Thanks for the encouragement and for sharing a bit of your reading history-it’s inspiring to hear about your diverse experiences with these classics!
Your channel rocks man! Really glad TH-cam recommended it. If I may be so bold as to suggest a couple other daunting, but extremely rewarding reads- Robert Burton’s “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, and William James’ “The Varieties of Religious Experience”. And don’t worry- the latter isn’t a religious book, so much as an examination of divine or transcendent personal experiences on the individual level
Blood Meridian and Moby Dick are two of my all-time favorites. Some scholars (including Ben McEvoy!) draw a straight line from Shakespeare to Moby Dick and finally to Blood Meridian
I feel you. I grew up in a city and neighbourhood where ... Shall we say my neighbours were drunks and their daughter often came by to eat with us.
For a variety of reason I was a strange and meek child and I grew up in my own world, not fitting in and was most happy when my classmates ignored me, because any attention I got was rarely positive.
For all that though, it afforded me that formal education. I was the first in my family to finish upper secondary and I ended my educational journey with an MA in Historoy and linguistics. Sometimes not fitting in can have benefits.
I have only read 5 out of the 10 books you showed (though I just bought House of Leaves) and none of them were not as part of a Uni course, so kudos for wanting to tackle them on your own. The best advice I can give you in reading these books is get the annotated versions. It will add context that is often omitted.
Often times great classics are great classics because they reflect the times they were written in. As an example, I just read Norwegian Woods by Murakami, because I like to torture myself. The books is, as most of the books you present are, literary fiction. It is basically an allegory for the youth movement that failed back when Murakami was young and it reflects the social problems with intimacy that the Japanese society has. To that effect, the characters feel a bit like cardboard cutouts and often nor particularly likeable or even relatable, and that is because they are, in fact, card board cut outs. They are stereotypes and each reflect a particular "archetype" within young people in Japanese society. What makes it a classic is the fact that all if this critique still holds true today. Murakami manages to capture something truly essentila about his society and has some very bitter and poignant things he wants to say. The problem is that you need to know all of this in order to undertand what you are reading and why it is good. I have never read Murakami before, simply because the people who read him in the west tend to be the pretentious types who do not understand how to read literary fiction or even what the point of it is and yet they still, in an attempt to sound clever, pretend like it is the best book they have ever read. And that is a bit of a turn off for me. And maybe in some cases the story itself is in fact good (that is not the case for the surface story of Norwegian Woods btw, it was torture to get through ....). But often times it is a bit like people who watch Citizen Caine and claim that it is the best thing ever, not knowing that the reason it is seen as the best movie ever made is because it is basically a cinematic version of every single area of study you come into contact with on first year of university of you study film and media.
The point is, get the annotated versions that gives you the context that you need in order to fully understand them. Often times that is not even enough (in the case of Fyodor Dostoevsky I would urge you to read up in Russian literature late 1800's as well as get a bit of a feel for the Russian history of the time, namely their relations to the rest of Europe, as well as the philosophical ideas leading up to this point. Dostoevsky is hard to read. Unless you really do just want to rad the surface level. In which case it is just a boring and at times a bit of a baffling read.)
I think this is a great video to make! No shame in the game of experiencin g your reading journey with books that might intimidate you. Proud!
Thank you so much. I really appreciate the support 😃.
house of leaves was so fun to read!! putting all the effort in was so good. it took me about a week start to finish but I read it for multiple hours at a time and it definitely made me feel uneasy. i personally liked a little life but I've heard very different opinions on it so I don't usually recommend it to people
I thoroughly enjoyed Brothers Karamazov. The translation I got made it quite easy to read. The real challenge for me was getting through the entirety of the text, just because of its length. The Russian names were intimidating to me at first but the text mostly uses their nicknames, which are much shorter and easier to remember.
I read House of Leaves years ago and the first part (in conventional paragraph format) really did give me an eerie, weird feeling. The rest of the book, I just blazed through though, so I couldn’t fully appreciate it. I’m planning on reading it again one of these days though.
The most challenging book I read was Dictionary of the Khazars. A relatively short book but its format is dictionary entries that are related to 3 different variations of religion. You can read it in any way you like (front to back, jumping back and forth between entries, alphabetically, etc) and you’ll have to stitch together the narrative yourself since it doesn’t tell a clearly linear story. Quite interesting to read. I had to make an Excel file to organize the dictionary entries because I read them based on how related each entry was to another.
Fascinating list, we are at very similar reading levels. I have read three on your list, pulled two more off my shelves to be read, and have noted the other five for future purchase. Thanks!
That’s great to hear! It sounds like we’re on a similar journey with these challenging books. I’m glad the list was helpful. Happy reading!
I read Pere Goriot last year, and it was great. "Hard" books I recommend, that are worth the "struggle"; The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann and Essays by Michel de Montaigne.
Loved The Magic Mountain..excellent read.
I completely echo your thoughts on British schooling! Going to uni, I found myself having to play catch up on certain texts and still have such enormous gaps lol. I feel like I cheated with Moby Dick because I read Billy Budd, Sailor by Melville but I do eventually want to get to Moby Dick. Fantastic list!
Absolutely love the idea of this video there needs to be more off it!! There are definitely some books on my TBR that are so daunting to me and I keep putting it off because it is so daunting! However what maybe could help is to do a buddy read? Not sure if you even have plans like that or if that's even possible now but I would love to be a part of a future buddy read on discord or something with whatever is next!
Russian literature is notoriously dense and even with my relatively decent education I feel like I am not intellectually equipped to read it. Please don't feel bad about your education, there is no shame in that, on the contrary I applaud you for trying to tackle these behemoths of literature!! Blood meridian can also be found on my tbr, but one thing I avoid like the plague are books whose sole purpose is to smash my heart into tiny little pieces. Life is sad enough as it is kinda want to stay away from it in my escape literature....
My personal daunting book lists does include some russian literature like Crime and punishment [The brothers Karamazov as well] but also lots of 'classics' if that makes sense....in all genres really. Malazan Book of the Fallen is on my goal list at least the first book by end this year [there are 10 books...] honestly if you read blood meridian, I am going to drop everything and read it with you so help me God. Never read anything by cormac McCarthy and this book is so notorious I need to know what the hype is all about!
What a fantastic comment! Yeah I need to find out more about buddy reads and maybe start doing them on Discord. I need to set one up and then get active on there.
When I start reading Blood Meridian, I'll definitely let you know my friend.
A friend of mine always tells me, when someone mispronounces a word, it’s because they learned it by reading it. There is no shame in that!
If you end up liking Milton, you'll probably love Blood Meridian -- also, try Dante, it's worth learning Italian to read it (Charles S. Singleton bilingual edition with commentary from Princeton UP)
I hope to change your mind about your regrets in terms of your basic education. I taught for 32 years and came to believe that we introduced great books too early. The life experiences you bring to THE BROTHERS K and other books on this list will deepen your enjoyment and appreciation in ways that a teenager could not perceive. Bon voyage as you wrap yourself in these new worlds. Your list gave me a couple of new books to read.
A great quest you’ve set for yourself. Congratulations!!
I just finished Moby Dick after having similar fears and a couple false starts - what helped me was the audiobook, especially for the whaling textbook portions. While of course it's ideal to be 100% engaged in every word, I think it's ok to let those parts wash over you while you walk or do chores or something, like a friend telling you all about their new hobby. The characters stole my heart in a way I really was not expecting and rarely find in classic lit tho so worth finding a way to read it that works for you! I listened to the version read by Anthony Heald and he brought a very endearing earnestness to Ishmael.
loved the video, watched it twice! and subbed!
Wow twice?? My algorithm thanks you haha!
A Brazilian recomendation: "Epitaph of a Small Winner" aka. "Memórias postumas de Brás Cubas". It's a 1800s satire about the Brasilian elite... The book is narrated by Brá Cubas, a dead sarcastic man who revisit his life with a new acid look on his former life💀
“I am a deceased writer not in the sense of one who has written and is now deceased, but in the sense of one who had died and is now writing.”
Oh that's a great line. Also... I see your profile pic! I LOVE Disco Elysium. Amazing game / experience.
@@PaperbackJourneys hey! So you have good taste then 😂😂😂😂
Great video, hope you take this recommendation, Machado is the best writer in Brazil, and for me one of the best in the world... Unfortunately for ages the world have been too much eurocentric in its culture. But im glad that nowadays people are reading from all the continents in the world.
Keep up the good work and keep your eyes peeled for the Insulidian Phasmid 😂
The first 150 pages of Moby Dick are the most exciting pages of any book I have ever read. After that It evolves beyond just being a book about hunting a whale, but becomes about mortality, religion and life. It is life changing and very inventive.
Ooooof you've given me the taste for it now mate! I need to read this thing.
I sailed through Brothers Karamozov and Crime and Punishment. The Idiot and Demons I’m lucky to keep the engine idling.
I bought the B&N edition of Count of Monte Cristo! I can’t wait to read it
I actually just finished reading Moby Dick! Your worry about it testing your patience is well-founded, but the chapters are rather short (there's just so many of them). Think of it as a whaling journey in itself: sometimes you're working through chores, doing practical things, stuck in your head a lot staring out at the waves...until suddenly something exciting happens! I found that Ishmael is ultimately giving you something indispensable in understanding the gravity of his story: context. You will understand exactly the why and how of the ending, its depth, its philosophy, because of his exhaustive reflections and lessons on whales. But yes, I did still feel rather imposed upon before the penny dropped on its brilliance.
Blood Meridian is my favourite book, McCarthy's prose is so good it's unreal. The main challenge I think is the lack of punctuation/quotation marks but you adjust to that. The writing and the brutality in the story feels relentless, it's like a beautiful nightmare. I remember when I finished reading it literally felt like I was waking up, like I was surprised to remember that the normal world and other books existed.
You have a few of picks that match my own! Infinite jest, the Whale and Count of Monte Cristo.
I have read House of Leaves and Blood Meridian, both of which are amongst my most revered books to date. I didn't find House of Leaves to be as taxing as many imply, granted it was presentationally atypical, but the language was not so difficult and it's story is superb. Blood Meridian was a more demanding read for me, the prose is dense and beautifully written, but the punctuation, particularly around speech is unusual. I had to learn to slow my standard pace to get into it (interestingly using the advice of Benjamin McEvoy!) and I'm so glad i did.
Looking forward to seeing more from you and thoughts on your experiences!
The Count of Monte Christo and Blood Meridian are brilliant reads. I keep meaning to read a classic as it's been a while; I was thinking of reading East Of Eden but your video has reminded me that I have The Canterbury Tales on my kindle so that may be next!
I just read the first couple pages of East of Eden and it got me really excited to dive into it. The only reason I didn't continue through immediately is I had just finished Lonesome Dove and needed a couple shorter, lighter reads first. But the writing in the bit that I read was beautiful without being too pretentious, just like Lonesome Dove was.
East of Eden just a brilliant book, you will love it.
East of Eden is one of my all time favorite books!!
I would highly recommend reading Tristram Shandy by Laurence Stern! We read it as part of our studies in college and it's wild.
First time I’ve heard of House of Leaves, thank you. Count of Monte Cristo isn’t particularly challenging as previously mentioned but it is long read😂. Some parts you will fly through and other parts can drag a little. Anyone who loves The Road deserves a sub 👍
Your pronunciations are really good, don't worry so much. 🙂 I have most of these on my TBR as well, and Brothers Karamazov and Count of Monte Cristo are books I want to tackle this year. I sometimes get overwhelmed about reading books but then I remember - we're often more capable then we believe and we can always put books down to tackle again another time. Best of luck, so glad I found your channel today! Subscribed and look forward to future videos. 🤩
For history on the "soundtrack" to House of Leaves.... Yes, Poe is Mark's sister. After their father died, he left a lot of audio tapes. He was a speaker/teacher. They both were captivated and inspired by it. Mark went and wrote his book, Poe went and wrote her album. It wasn't until they were in the middle of their projects that they discovered they were exploring the same subject matter, in a sense. Pretty neat. Good album. Haunting book. (pun intended).
That Dali clock is SICK!
Haha thanks mate! My wife will be happy with that. She bought it for me and told me to stick it in my background.
@@PaperbackJourneysI just listened to your reading list and I'm very impressed with your taste for those timeless classics you've chosen as well as the "newer" titles on your list.
I love the Dali clock too, it's a fantastic clock! I have 2 questions about it, if you don't mind. Does it actually work, and if so, could you please ask your wife where she purchased it?? I'm writing you from Vancouver, B.C. and I am hopeful that I can somehow procure one. Many Thanks, Un ID'd NTT and happy, cozy reading! ! !
I read Paradise Lost because I read a lot of Shakespeare and wanted to read English's second-greatest poet. Some people said it was Milton, so. . .
It was like reading the opening credits to Star Wars with stars behind it and horns on full blast . Glorious!
i didn't finish Moby Dick, but I still plan on it. There are some weird plot choices ---but in a fun way so far. I just had other things going on at the time, reading fiction took a back seat.
House of Leaves is a huge undertaking but it's so worth it! There was one point where I was sitting in my apartment and I swore the walls were moving
Infinite Jest.... where to start?? I was told when I started to read it that 1)you must read the footnotes 2) You need to read the first 500 pages before it will make sense 3) tabs are a must. You won't be able to put it down!
Oh what a nice selection!! I am so looking forward to the reviews of those books, especially Infinite Jest. (Haha could relate a lot to the „down a pint education“, I’m not from England but from Bavaria;)
The dirty joke in the Cantabury tales is hilarious.
If it’s the joke I’m thinking of, I remember it as it happened in the part of the world I live in. Maybe it’s full of dirty jokes, but we don’t understand today.
The whole book is full of dirty jokes.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Blood Meridian.
I've been psyching myself up for House of Leaves recently, too.
So at this moment in time I've actually finished House of Leaves. This video was recorded a couple of weeks ago and since then I've finished it. I enjoyed it but it was sooooo weird.
I hope to read Blood Meridian sometime in the next few months maybe.
Thanks for the comment.
@@PaperbackJourneys I'm consistently impressed with how much and how fast you read, I have to say.
Some of these were already on my TBR and now I’m adding several more. House of Leaves has me the most intrigued, so I’ll definitely be seeking that one out soon. The idea of being terrified enough to need to get it out of my house has me very eager to dive in and find out what that’s all about. 😅
Yes Moby Dick is on my TBR too! I fell in love with the story when I read the children’s classic version with my son. It’s significant because he didnt like to read. It was a lot of trial and error finding the right thing for him. We read this together and we continue to discuss Captain Ahab and reference the story in our lives. And we discovered he likes classic stories of adventure! Like Tom Sawyer and all vs modern fantasy that most kids are reading.
He is 15 mine but he must have been 9-10 when we read Moby Dick
Best wishes for a great challenge result. Milton and Chaucer poetic epics are fun and solidly illuminating. Russians tend toward depression time for me... Dumas a winner!
Great list, I've tackled half of these and not regretted it. I think you might like Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. Another tough and long read with the usual confusing Russian patronyms, but it's deeply moving and beautiful despite its often quite depressing setting
Good luck with your quest. I would do one maybe two of these monsters in a year. I'm wading through Moby Dick at the moment, not really worth it but then Cormac McCarthy said it was his favourite book. Blood Meridian is great like all his books.
Infinite Jest is a wild ride. It's so exceptional it doesn't seem long. The Count of Monte Cristo is wonderful. I'm trying to get brave enough to read Russian lit and will definitely rely on Benjamin Mcevoy for help. I admire you for challenging yourself. It's never too late to learn. It's so good for us! I hope you'll let us know how you fared.
I read War and Peace when I was 13. I found it very helpful to keep a list of names and nicknames for each character.
"A Little Life" is one of my favorite books. It's definitely an emotional journey. I have never cried so much while reading any one book.