I discovered you only last week, but I honestly love your videos!! I could listen to you talking about books for hours!! Btw, I’ve finally started His dark materials and I’m glad that you recommend it too! I’m even more excited now 🤗
His Dark Materials - YES, YES, YES :) Fiction books do not make me cry, generally, but this trilogy did. The story and the characters totally filled my heart when I was reading it...
Honourable mentions: The "Rivers of London" series by Ben Aaronovitch, The "Earthseed" duology by Octavia E. Butler 5. "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel 4. "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman 3. "the long way to a small angry planet" by Becky Chambers 2. "Dolores Claiborne" by Stephen King 1. "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi
I've watched and listened to you talk about Frankenstein for years now, and it's because of you Willow that I read it 3 years ago. It's been my favourite book ever since
I grew up in the US, and had to go to church every Sunday. My mother was the child of missionaries in Papua New Guinea. I remember sitting in church one sunday and the pastor talked about Philip Pullman's books and how evil they were. ...So I checked those books out of the library as soon as I could. I'm due for a reread tbh, but I remember some of the metaphors and imagery about the harm of organized religion being really strong.
Hearing you talk about convenience store woman (also one of my favourite books) genuinely brought tears to my eyes. It's a phenomenal work and the way you describe your experiences living in the world today, navigating the experiences and emotions the book describes is so relatable. I'll have to check out the other works!
Amazing! I LOVE Frankenstein, maybe not as much as you, but I agree with everything you say about it. I think it's one of the most underrated classics as it just doesn't get talked about enough.
hi willow! i recently subscribed to your channel, and i want to thank you for the recommendations, you talk with a lot of passion and i love that! i’ve been debating whether i should read Frankenstein next and you pretty much convinced me! also i noticed you love a good detailed book, i’m from brazil, from bahia and i want to suggest you a great author: Jorge Amado he’s really good at describing places and his narratives are evolving!
You’re so passionate about Frankenstein, you make me want to revisit it …💚.. My personal favorite is Salem’s Lot from Stephen King, I also love and have obsessed over Mexican Gothic…it was the first time I read about my culture and my gothic black heart in a story…really wonderful if you get a chance to read it
1. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. (I own 13 editions and counting. 2. Home going by Yaa Gyasi 3. The Awakening by Kate Chopin 4. Let the Right One In by John Ajvade Linqvist 5. Bunny by Mona Awad Also love Frankenstein and His Dark Materials they’d be 6. And 7. Alongside all the Shardlake novels ♥️🇵🇸🍉🧿🍉🇵🇸♥️
1. Piranesi 2. This is How You Lose the Time War 3. Middlegame 4. The Westing Game 5. Frankenstein Honorable mentions: Percy Jackson (original 5 book series), The Locked Tomb series, Book Lovers, Vicious, Six of Crows, The Monster of Elendhaven, If We Were Villains
My top five is I capture the castle by dodie smith Circe by Madeline miller Swan song by Robert mcammon It by Stephen king The book thief by Marcus Zusak
I need to re-evaluate mine. (Fiction only) For a long time, I've said it was 5. (varies: Declare by Tim Powers; Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, or Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia McKillip) 4. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel 3. Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson 2. Imajica by Clive Barker 1. Little, Big by John Crowley
My top five: 1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 2. The Martian by Andy Weir 3. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman 4. The Princess Bride by William Goldman 5. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman is on my top 5 as well. I love all three of them, but my favorite has to be The Subtle Knife (USA title, the second book in the trilogy). The whole world of Cittàgazze and the plight of those who live there was so captivating and horrifying. These books definitely pushed me into a higher level of reading and more into young adult/adult fiction as a kid. There is another book out by him now in the same world, "the book of dust" (again, USA title). I have it but haven't read it yet.
My top 5 favorite books of all time 5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 4. Frisk by Dennis Cooper which is thematically similar to Northanger Abbey, fight me, they're the same book (...they're really not the same book) 3. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. Why do I love the works of authors that people wanna stab to death? 2. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Honorable Mentions: Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende 1. I don't have a number one favorite of all time yet. I have a blank-space baby where I'll write that title.
You explain what Convenience Store Woman is about so well. It's one of my favorite books too. I think of it so often since I read it. No other work of literature has explained the way I experience my own autism so well.
Yay !! So happy to see Frankenstein is still your #1 fav 🙌🖤 would love to read your poems inspired by this magnificent book. My favourite book is Wuthering Heights but Frankenstein is definitely among my top favourite books of all time.
Fun fact: I'm reading If We Were Villains right now! My top 5: 1. The Secret History 2. Elena Knows 3. I Who Have Never Known Men 4. Piranesi 5. The English Understand Wool
My Top 5 favourite books of all time would be: 1. Frankenstein 2. The Name of the Rose 3. The Last Unicorn 4. Yellowface 5. Babel As I already knew that Frankenstein is your favourite book and you always speak so highly about most of my other favourites, I was especially curious what your other picks might be. Now I feel like I have to read all of them and might find a few new favourite books! Thank you for the suggestions 😍 (P.S.: My first language is German - in case my English wasn't pefect)
Difficult choice for my top 5, but lets have a go! 1) Brian Jacques - Redwall [the novel & the whole series!] 2) Poppy Z. Brite/William Joseph Martin - Exquisite Corpse 3) Kameron Hurley - The Light Brigade 4) Annalee Newitz - Autonomous 5) Alice Oseman - Loveless BONUS BOOKS/COMICS! 1) Kelley Armstrong - Dime Store Magic [really the whole WOTOW series though...] 2) Tillie Walden - On A Sunbeam 3) Nakatani Nio - God Bless The Mistaken [series] Great video, & thanks for making my brain work, Willow!
Love listening to you talking about your favorite books. I hope to have the courage to read "Frankenstein" soon. My top 5 reads: "Piranesi" - Susanna Clarke "Parable of the Sower" - Octavia E. Butler ( so hard to choose just one from this author) "The Sword of Kaigen" - M. L. Wang "Tainaron. Mail From Another City" - Leena Krohn "The Prophet" - Kahlil Gibran
If we were villains was like a 3 star for me UNTIL. I got to the end and it punched me in the fucking GUT out of nowhere. I always can tell where books and movies are going and I predict the plot twists, so when a book can surprise me, I end up adoring it. It was just so painfully real to the human experience. Ugh great book
🇯🇵 I’ve just been to Japan for the first time and read two translated Japanese works on my Kindle (Aosawa Murders and the Kamogawa Food Detectives) but didn’t choose Convenience Store Woman… that might be next ☺️
I was sad to see Ishiguro is not in your list. I started following you because you were the best at reviewing books by him and I continue to follow you because I realized your recommendations are always books I end up loving. Also, just love listening to your critiques. They are spot on. My favorite books of all time are: 1. The Hobbit, (this is my context driven one and I own several editions of it) 2. The buried Giant (also own a few different editions) 3. Frankenstein (thank you for this one! Never would have read it if not for you) 4. Dune (I know you don’t love this one but it blew my mind) 5. A Wizard of Earthsea (haven’t read it in ages, so…) I would have to re-read them and see if they still hold but I want to read all of the ones in your list first, so that will have to wait.
I guess this is a spoiler but I can’t leave you wanting. I’m doing a video soon on my favourite authors, and I didn’t want any overlap with the books featured here. He’s still my favourite author, but I didn’t want to fill this list with at least two of his books.
I share two of your favourites. Now I must go get If We Were Villains and Convenience Store Woman. Mine would include a Pratchett, probably Guards, Guards although I love the witches the best. I just read Bunny so I need to let it sit but I adored it. Is it shameful to love Dune? I don’t know what it is about that book but I have re read it many times.
I haven't read as many books as you lol. No where near. I'm a slow reader 😞 📚 Books I do particularly enjoyed reading though include: An Unwanted Guest The Lady in the Tower The Haunted Queen The Turn of the Screw The Red Queen Lady of the English The Whistling The Book of Accidents
Thank you for this video! Your passion for reading really comes through. I decided to get Little, We were Villains, and Convenience Store Woman, as I hadn’t heard of them before and they sound so interesting. His Dark Materials is one I own and need to read. Same with Frankenstein, maybe that would be a good choice for spooky season.
I just finished Convenience Store Woman on audiobook. My goodness - what an incredible work! I've since moved on (rereading The Secret History - and now I'm even more convinced to pick up If We Were Villians) but Keiko will remain in my heart, as she has more humanity in her little finger than most of the characters that surrounded her. Some of those traits that Keiko exhibited that frustrated and outraged so many people are the exact traits that the human race is going to need in order to not wipe itself out. What an amazing work. Thank you Willow for sharing it!
My favorite book of all time is Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon. Genre bending it’s a mystery, a coming of age. Magical realism and horror. It’s so beautiful.
I love your reading suggestions and reviews Willow, as well as your perfect English accent. Thanks for you work! I've proudly subsctibed to your Patreon. Alice from Italy ❤
Okay, Willow, you've convinced me to buy If We Were Villians. It's been on my wish list forever. Frankenstein is also one of my favourites ever! The story behind the creation of the book is just as fascinating!
I don't think I can ever settle on a top 5. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have to be included but they only count as one because I always read them together and I'm cheating. Kitchen would probably go on as the first Japanese book that I read which gave me a love of Japanese literature. The other three spots could change on a daily basis
I'm so happy to hear you love Frankenstein! It's my favorite classic, it got me into reading, it changed my life, but most of the students in my english classes just say it's boring 😢 how??? Love your videos ❤
Also little is definitely one of my favourites too ❤ even though I don’t have a favourite …. Yet .. When I was a child books were everything to me , I was a proper bookworm devouring books - my fave were Nancy drew and the hardy boys , Enid blyton , classics like Anne of Green gables and Alice , all the Rowld dahls , goosebumps , Jacqueline Wilson … I’d always have my nose stuck in them. Then when I hit my teens my whole world as I knew it fell apart, as a result , I stopped reading .. the books for school were the likes of Silas Marner , to kill a mockingbird and albeit they are great works it didn’t rekindle my love. It’s down to book tubers like yourself , I after many years found that love again… and so I’ve a lot I missed out on , that I have to look forward to and catch up on .. and hopefully I will find my Frankenstein ❤❤ thanks willow x
Loved your enthusiasm presenting this list. I love Frankenstein but much prefer Dracula. My favourite book would be Alice In Wonderland… For weird surrealist fantasy check out An Alien Heat by Michael Moorcock - a funny love story about Victorian manners and sensibilities set in the opulent end of time where people can control and shape matter on a whim, and spend their time bored at parties trying to out-do each other. Gender and morality are fluid - throw into this a prim Victorian woman time traveller and an alien prophesying the end of the universe….
Our #1 is the same 🥰🥰I haven't even thought about a #2 let alone top 5 lol. But Frankenstein is #1. Otherwise I have a long list of "favorite books" that could go on and on lol. I really need to read Convenience Store Woman. I'm autistic and adhd, so I relate some to both lol.
I truly love His Dark Material ❤❤ read as an adult and it is a grand adventure. O just finished Little last month. Wow! If we were Villians recommend by you and loved it. What an imagination to create this! Your reviews have widened my reading and I am forever grateful!❤
I recently read Little on your recommendation and absolutely adored it. ❤❤ It will make my top reads of the year. Also love His Dark Materials. And I read Convenience Store Woman this year and it's great. Frankenstein!! I would find it incredibly difficult to choose my top 5 favorite books of all time. Probably, Watership Down would make the list, though.
very eclectic selection! I read "if we were villains" on your recommendation recently and adored it so much I will reread it soon, just to review the clues for that great ending! 🔍
I couldn't decide on my top 5 but one of them has to be "Juggling" by Barbara Trapido. I picked it up pretty randomly and the essay that the main character writes about Shakespeare's work really spoke to me at age 18 or so ("The tragedies are tragedies and the comedies are tragedies but the comedies are a better sort of tragedy") I guess I've read better novels over the years but at that specific point in time it felt absolutely right for me. Out of your top 5 I have read 3 and really liked them and now "If we were villains" has just climbed up my tbr list :)
Enjoying your recommendations!! I’ve read a book you had in a video a while ago „chain-gang all stars“ and I loved it :). Now currently reading the northern lights and I’m surprised im so much into it, so thank you. I loved Sayaka Murata too, but then I came across „Cursed Bunny“ by Chung and it was absolutely everything I thought Murata was for me - although, I don’t wanna compare these two:)
Yes! His Dark Materials! Philip Pullman's writing style in this trilogy is what made me want to become a writer exactly like him, with that elegant but not heavyhanded style. His detective series with Sally Lockhart was disappointing because the writing style was simpler, but I liked his Clockwork short story for the whimsy. When I was 12 and first read that trilogy I shipped Serafina Pekkala with Ruta Skadi and Lee Scoresby (but not Ruta and Lee together. Ruta would probably eat his rabbit.) I was disappointed by the heteronormativity saves the pantheist multi-universe ending. As I recall, the gay angels had one personality trait between them (ominously looming presences). I will contest that the best Dark Academia must be gothic! By your definition, gothic must have two out of the following- 1. a sense of location, 2. terrible people being terrible to each other, and 3. something supernatural. My favorites have gothic vibes, but something like Dead Poets Society only has the first one, A Separate Peace only has the second one and that's a reach because they're so young, and Fraternity only has the third after they [spoilers redacted] their school. Frankenstein is a good choice for #1. This month I'm working my way through The Last Man, also by Mary Shelley. I think it's good so far, I'm about a fifth of the way in. I should definitely add the other two to my TBR.
Oops..forgot I read cursed bunny by bora chung earlier this year. Another 4/5. Loved it even though I just couldn't give it a 5 cause I didn't get some of it.❤😂🎉
![[Live] : ONE FIGHT NIGHT 26 วันนี้!! “คริสเตียน vs อาลิเบก”](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UlIiZ3t8nHQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I just found you and it is so soothing to listen to you ❤ thank you!
I’m SHOCKED you didn’t put wuthering heights !!!!! Thought that was one of ur faves
I discovered you only last week, but I honestly love your videos!! I could listen to you talking about books for hours!! Btw, I’ve finally started His dark materials and I’m glad that you recommend it too! I’m even more excited now 🤗
Do you know the Frankenstein edition illustrated by Bernie Wrightson?
You exsplain books so perfect and always bring new exciting reads. Thank you
His Dark Materials - YES, YES, YES :) Fiction books do not make me cry, generally, but this trilogy did. The story and the characters totally filled my heart when I was reading it...
I sobbed over the end of the third book for about an hour straight 😭
Honourable mentions: The "Rivers of London" series by Ben Aaronovitch, The "Earthseed" duology by Octavia E. Butler
5. "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel
4. "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman
3. "the long way to a small angry planet" by Becky Chambers
2. "Dolores Claiborne" by Stephen King
1. "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi
I've watched and listened to you talk about Frankenstein for years now, and it's because of you Willow that I read it 3 years ago. It's been my favourite book ever since
Omg amazing!! 🥹
His Dark Materials 💙💜
I grew up in the US, and had to go to church every Sunday. My mother was the child of missionaries in Papua New Guinea. I remember sitting in church one sunday and the pastor talked about Philip Pullman's books and how evil they were. ...So I checked those books out of the library as soon as I could. I'm due for a reread tbh, but I remember some of the metaphors and imagery about the harm of organized religion being really strong.
Hearing you talk about convenience store woman (also one of my favourite books) genuinely brought tears to my eyes. It's a phenomenal work and the way you describe your experiences living in the world today, navigating the experiences and emotions the book describes is so relatable. I'll have to check out the other works!
i wish i look as good as you when i have a really bad cold - !!!thanks for the great recommendations - can't wait to read these.
Amazing! I LOVE Frankenstein, maybe not as much as you, but I agree with everything you say about it. I think it's one of the most underrated classics as it just doesn't get talked about enough.
hi willow! i recently subscribed to your channel, and i want to thank you for the recommendations, you talk with a lot of passion and i love that! i’ve been debating whether i should read Frankenstein next and you pretty much convinced me!
also i noticed you love a good detailed book, i’m from brazil, from bahia and i want to suggest you a great author: Jorge Amado
he’s really good at describing places and his narratives are evolving!
Trans person who also read themself in Frankenstein. It’s my favorite as well ❤
You’re so passionate about Frankenstein, you make me want to revisit it …💚.. My personal favorite is Salem’s Lot from Stephen King, I also love and have obsessed over Mexican Gothic…it was the first time I read about my culture and my gothic black heart in a story…really wonderful if you get a chance to read it
I’ve been thinking about picking it up, actually! 🖤
1. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. (I own 13 editions and counting.
2. Home going by Yaa Gyasi
3. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
4. Let the Right One In by John Ajvade Linqvist
5. Bunny by Mona Awad
Also love Frankenstein and His Dark Materials they’d be 6. And 7. Alongside all the Shardlake novels
♥️🇵🇸🍉🧿🍉🇵🇸♥️
1. Piranesi
2. This is How You Lose the Time War
3. Middlegame
4. The Westing Game
5. Frankenstein
Honorable mentions: Percy Jackson (original 5 book series), The Locked Tomb series, Book Lovers, Vicious, Six of Crows, The Monster of Elendhaven, If We Were Villains
YES someone else who's read Middlegame! So underrated!
Convenience store woman at number 2 awesome. I wonder if Final Fantasy IX is in your top 5 favourite video games
Aye it is :)
My top five is
I capture the castle by dodie smith
Circe by Madeline miller
Swan song by Robert mcammon
It by Stephen king
The book thief by Marcus Zusak
I need to re-evaluate mine. (Fiction only)
For a long time, I've said it was
5. (varies: Declare by Tim Powers; Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, or Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia McKillip)
4. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel
3. Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
2. Imajica by Clive Barker
1. Little, Big by John Crowley
Declare rules! It seems to get better every time I read it. Tim Powers in general is one of my favorite authors. Nice to see the love for this one
Okay, before I forget. Can I just say you look absolutely stunning.
🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
Frankenstein is also in my top 5 🧡🧡🧡 so very perfect
My top five:
1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
2. The Martian by Andy Weir
3. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
4. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
5. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
You put so much reverence into these books it is astounding, I love Frankenstein but I could never word it the way you do
Wow, you’re so kind, thank you!
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman is on my top 5 as well. I love all three of them, but my favorite has to be The Subtle Knife (USA title, the second book in the trilogy). The whole world of Cittàgazze and the plight of those who live there was so captivating and horrifying. These books definitely pushed me into a higher level of reading and more into young adult/adult fiction as a kid.
There is another book out by him now in the same world, "the book of dust" (again, USA title). I have it but haven't read it yet.
My top 5 favorite books of all time
5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. Frisk by Dennis Cooper which is thematically similar to Northanger Abbey, fight me, they're the same book (...they're really not the same book)
3. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. Why do I love the works of authors that people wanna stab to death?
2. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Honorable Mentions: Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
1.
I don't have a number one favorite of all time yet. I have a blank-space baby where I'll write that title.
Persepolis is a real work of genius
You explain what Convenience Store Woman is about so well. It's one of my favorite books too. I think of it so often since I read it. No other work of literature has explained the way I experience my own autism so well.
Adding so many of these to my TBR! I also absolutely love Frankenstein and The Golden Compass
Yay !! So happy to see Frankenstein is still your #1 fav 🙌🖤 would love to read your poems inspired by this magnificent book. My favourite book is Wuthering Heights but Frankenstein is definitely among my top favourite books of all time.
Wuthering Heights almost made this list as well! We have good taste 😌
Fun fact: I'm reading If We Were Villains right now!
My top 5:
1. The Secret History
2. Elena Knows
3. I Who Have Never Known Men
4. Piranesi
5. The English Understand Wool
Piranesi changed my entire being
My Top 5 favourite books of all time would be:
1. Frankenstein
2. The Name of the Rose
3. The Last Unicorn
4. Yellowface
5. Babel
As I already knew that Frankenstein is your favourite book and you always speak so highly about most of my other favourites, I was especially curious what your other picks might be. Now I feel like I have to read all of them and might find a few new favourite books! Thank you for the suggestions 😍
(P.S.: My first language is German - in case my English wasn't pefect)
A fellow Kuang fanatic 🖤
My forever favourite novel is also The Name of the Rose, I have read it at least four times - and I love the film too!
Difficult choice for my top 5, but lets have a go!
1) Brian Jacques - Redwall [the novel & the whole series!]
2) Poppy Z. Brite/William Joseph Martin - Exquisite Corpse
3) Kameron Hurley - The Light Brigade
4) Annalee Newitz - Autonomous
5) Alice Oseman - Loveless
BONUS BOOKS/COMICS!
1) Kelley Armstrong - Dime Store Magic [really the whole WOTOW series though...]
2) Tillie Walden - On A Sunbeam
3) Nakatani Nio - God Bless The Mistaken [series]
Great video, & thanks for making my brain work, Willow!
I think my top 5 in no particular order would be
1. The Hobbit
2. A Single Man
3. The Song of Achilles
4. Piranesi
5. Small Things Like These
Love listening to you talking about your favorite books. I hope to have the courage to read "Frankenstein" soon.
My top 5 reads:
"Piranesi" - Susanna Clarke
"Parable of the Sower" - Octavia E. Butler ( so hard to choose just one from this author)
"The Sword of Kaigen" - M. L. Wang
"Tainaron. Mail From Another City" - Leena Krohn
"The Prophet" - Kahlil Gibran
Got Frankenstein on the tbr. Recently read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which was excellent. Best wishes and happy reading.
If we were villains was like a 3 star for me UNTIL. I got to the end and it punched me in the fucking GUT out of nowhere. I always can tell where books and movies are going and I predict the plot twists, so when a book can surprise me, I end up adoring it. It was just so painfully real to the human experience. Ugh great book
🇯🇵 I’ve just been to Japan for the first time and read two translated Japanese works on my Kindle (Aosawa Murders and the Kamogawa Food Detectives) but didn’t choose Convenience Store Woman… that might be next ☺️
I was sad to see Ishiguro is not in your list. I started following you because you were the best at reviewing books by him and I continue to follow you because I realized your recommendations are always books I end up loving. Also, just love listening to your critiques. They are spot on.
My favorite books of all time are:
1. The Hobbit, (this is my context driven one and I own several editions of it)
2. The buried Giant (also own a few different editions)
3. Frankenstein (thank you for this one! Never would have read it if not for you)
4. Dune (I know you don’t love this one but it blew my mind)
5. A Wizard of Earthsea (haven’t read it in ages, so…)
I would have to re-read them and see if they still hold but I want to read all of the ones in your list first, so that will have to wait.
I guess this is a spoiler but I can’t leave you wanting. I’m doing a video soon on my favourite authors, and I didn’t want any overlap with the books featured here. He’s still my favourite author, but I didn’t want to fill this list with at least two of his books.
@@WillowTalksBooks Oh Wow!! Thanks for the spoiler, I can’t wait to watch that video 👏🏼
Little is one of my favorite books as well! Edward Carey is an exceptional story teller. Have you read Edith Holler? ✨
I’m planning to pick it up today!
I share two of your favourites. Now I must go get If We Were Villains and Convenience Store Woman. Mine would include a Pratchett, probably Guards, Guards although I love the witches the best. I just read Bunny so I need to let it sit but I adored it. Is it shameful to love Dune? I don’t know what it is about that book but I have re read it many times.
Dune is a complete masterpiece! I’ve been meaning to reread it recently as well :)
Great video! You are my favorite book reviewer. I also love your enthusiasm and that just makes me want to read more!
Thank you so much!
I haven't read as many books as you lol. No where near. I'm a slow reader 😞 📚
Books I do particularly enjoyed reading though include:
An Unwanted Guest
The Lady in the Tower
The Haunted Queen
The Turn of the Screw
The Red Queen
Lady of the English
The Whistling
The Book of Accidents
Thank you for this video! Your passion for reading really comes through. I decided to get Little, We were Villains, and Convenience Store Woman, as I hadn’t heard of them before and they sound so interesting. His Dark Materials is one I own and need to read. Same with Frankenstein, maybe that would be a good choice for spooky season.
I just finished Convenience Store Woman on audiobook. My goodness - what an incredible work! I've since moved on (rereading The Secret History - and now I'm even more convinced to pick up If We Were Villians) but Keiko will remain in my heart, as she has more humanity in her little finger than most of the characters that surrounded her. Some of those traits that Keiko exhibited that frustrated and outraged so many people are the exact traits that the human race is going to need in order to not wipe itself out. What an amazing work. Thank you Willow for sharing it!
Haha that made me laugh Frankenstein is my family !
I could listen to you talk about your favorites for hours. Also the HALLOWEEN NAILS! I love.
Sayaka Murata is phenomenal. I read Convenience Store Woman and Life ceremony. Still waiting for my Earthlings copy.
My favorite book of all time is Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon. Genre bending it’s a mystery, a coming of age. Magical realism and horror. It’s so beautiful.
I love your reading suggestions and reviews Willow, as well as your perfect English accent. Thanks for you work! I've proudly subsctibed to your Patreon.
Alice from Italy ❤
Thank you so much, Alice!
I’ve just rewatched your video about “If we were villains” - and WOW, your voice changing is AMAZING!
Okay, Willow, you've convinced me to buy If We Were Villians. It's been on my wish list forever. Frankenstein is also one of my favourites ever! The story behind the creation of the book is just as fascinating!
I read Little because of you ❤
I read it too because of Willow! And it might be in my top 5 as well
I don't think I can ever settle on a top 5. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have to be included but they only count as one because I always read them together and I'm cheating. Kitchen would probably go on as the first Japanese book that I read which gave me a love of Japanese literature. The other three spots could change on a daily basis
Convenience store woman is also one of my favorite novels. I'm autistic so Keiko just feels so relatable to me.
I'm so happy to hear you love Frankenstein! It's my favorite classic, it got me into reading, it changed my life, but most of the students in my english classes just say it's boring 😢 how??? Love your videos ❤
Sayaka Murata is a great author, I'd love to see her talked about more
❤ love this - I wish I found a book that means so much to me as Frankenstein does to you x
Also little is definitely one of my favourites too ❤ even though I don’t have a favourite …. Yet ..
When I was a child books were everything to me , I was a proper bookworm devouring books - my fave were Nancy drew and the hardy boys , Enid blyton , classics like Anne of Green gables and Alice , all the Rowld dahls , goosebumps , Jacqueline Wilson … I’d always have my nose stuck in them.
Then when I hit my teens my whole world as I knew it fell apart, as a result , I stopped reading .. the books for school were the likes of Silas Marner , to kill a mockingbird and albeit they are great works it didn’t rekindle my love.
It’s down to book tubers like yourself , I after many years found that love again… and so I’ve a lot I missed out on , that I have to look forward to and catch up on .. and hopefully I will find my Frankenstein ❤❤ thanks willow x
Loved your enthusiasm presenting this list. I love Frankenstein but much prefer Dracula. My favourite book would be Alice In Wonderland…
For weird surrealist fantasy check out An Alien Heat by Michael Moorcock - a funny love story about Victorian manners and sensibilities set in the opulent end of time where people can control and shape matter on a whim, and spend their time bored at parties trying to out-do each other. Gender and morality are fluid - throw into this a prim Victorian woman time traveller and an alien prophesying the end of the universe….
Hello to Wolstonecraft the cat
Willow talking about her favorite books? Yes, please.
Love your recommendations, I love this sort of genre anyway. 📚🎵😁
Our #1 is the same 🥰🥰I haven't even thought about a #2 let alone top 5 lol. But Frankenstein is #1. Otherwise I have a long list of "favorite books" that could go on and on lol. I really need to read Convenience Store Woman. I'm autistic and adhd, so I relate some to both lol.
Thank you for sharing your top five Willow.
Little reminds me of The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal.
Good book! Little is better :)
@@WillowTalksBooks Well I loved The Doll Factory so I should def pick up Little!
You are so interesting! It's a pleasure to listen to you!
If We Were Villains sounds like everything I could want. "Fortune love you..." (Edgar, King Lear)
Oops again, meant a 4 out of 5 for convenience store woman. Still best book so far read this year!
I truly love His Dark Material ❤❤ read as an adult and it is a grand adventure. O just finished Little last month. Wow! If we were Villians recommend by you and loved it. What an imagination to create this! Your reviews have widened my reading and I am forever grateful!❤
I recently read Little on your recommendation and absolutely adored it. ❤❤ It will make my top reads of the year.
Also love His Dark Materials. And I read Convenience Store Woman this year and it's great.
Frankenstein!!
I would find it incredibly difficult to choose my top 5 favorite books of all time. Probably, Watership Down would make the list, though.
Oooh! Oooh! Willow's faves! So excited!
very eclectic selection!
I read "if we were villains"
on your recommendation
recently and adored it so
much I will reread it soon,
just to review the clues
for that great ending! 🔍
I couldn't decide on my top 5 but one of them has to be "Juggling" by Barbara Trapido. I picked it up pretty randomly and the essay that the main character writes about Shakespeare's work really spoke to me at age 18 or so ("The tragedies are tragedies and the comedies are tragedies but the comedies are a better sort of tragedy") I guess I've read better novels over the years but at that specific point in time it felt absolutely right for me.
Out of your top 5 I have read 3 and really liked them and now "If we were villains" has just climbed up my tbr list :)
Enjoying your recommendations!! I’ve read a book you had in a video a while ago „chain-gang all stars“ and I loved it :). Now currently reading the northern lights and I’m surprised im so much into it, so thank you.
I loved Sayaka Murata too, but then I came across „Cursed Bunny“ by Chung and it was absolutely everything I thought Murata was for me - although, I don’t wanna compare these two:)
Sorry you're under the weather. ❤️🌈🥄🥄🥄🥄🥄🥄🥄
❤📚📚❤️. Thanks for sharing. I've added Little to my Goodreads tbr.
I love Frankenstein! I read it for the first time last October.
Yes! His Dark Materials! Philip Pullman's writing style in this trilogy is what made me want to become a writer exactly like him, with that elegant but not heavyhanded style. His detective series with Sally Lockhart was disappointing because the writing style was simpler, but I liked his Clockwork short story for the whimsy. When I was 12 and first read that trilogy I shipped Serafina Pekkala with Ruta Skadi and Lee Scoresby (but not Ruta and Lee together. Ruta would probably eat his rabbit.) I was disappointed by the heteronormativity saves the pantheist multi-universe ending. As I recall, the gay angels had one personality trait between them (ominously looming presences).
I will contest that the best Dark Academia must be gothic! By your definition, gothic must have two out of the following- 1. a sense of location, 2. terrible people being terrible to each other, and 3. something supernatural. My favorites have gothic vibes, but something like Dead Poets Society only has the first one, A Separate Peace only has the second one and that's a reach because they're so young, and Fraternity only has the third after they [spoilers redacted] their school.
Frankenstein is a good choice for #1. This month I'm working my way through The Last Man, also by Mary Shelley. I think it's good so far, I'm about a fifth of the way in.
I should definitely add the other two to my TBR.
If you loved little i highly recommend madame tussaud by Michelle Moran this book is epic
Best book ive read so far this year 4/5.❤
The boy wizard who lived under the cupboard got me into reading for pleasure.
Okay :)
@@WillowTalksBooks I know she's horrible. That's why I didn't write out the series name. But that series got me into reading.
Wait I'm confused!! No Babel?? I thought you loved Babel 😱
I’m doing a video on my favourite authors soon, and I didn’t want any overlap with this video. In other words, just wait and see :)
Oops..forgot I read cursed bunny by bora chung earlier this year. Another 4/5. Loved it even though I just couldn't give it a 5 cause I didn't get some of it.❤😂🎉