It could be a cultural thing? Sometimes people will say words like 'you know' or 'eh' or equivalents depending on the region they live in. I have noticed a lot of New Yorkers who visit Canada will have the abundance of 'you know' in their sentences, just as an example.
My 13 year old daughter who is an avid reader was blown away by The Picture of Dorian Gray. She said "how can I go back to other newer books, when these sort of books exist". As a classic lover, that made me happy
Just out of curiosity, but did your daughter read the abridged version of Dorian Gray or the updated version that kept everything that the author wrote? I read Dorion Gray in an older publication of Oxford Classics and when my grandma got me a new edition from another publisher, I was surprised to learn that the older publications left a lot of the original out.
Those remarkable works persist because of their quality. She may not have read “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde. My mother used to read it to me, although my older brother would sob too much at the ending, so he would get Jack London stories instead.
damn then we read that book at the same age :D and truly changed my opinion on the books i drove towards before and since then my tastes did a whole 180 :))
We know mark, we know.. This is the thing that brings us all together as readers of classical literature, it’s universal and you will always, always find people who read and love them..
You're a man after my own heart! Everything you said, I was like "yes yes! I get it. I do that too!" Absolutely loved this video and your take on all your books. You have a lovely collection
I have been a fan of classic literature since I was a teenager and Penguin Classics is perhaps the most complete and best source for the great classics.
Funnily enough Frankenstein was also my entry point into the classics and reading in general. I’m not sure why. I just remember thinking, “wow I can’t believe words can be so beautiful and you can talk about such profound ideas…what else is out there that I haven’t read.”
I picked up the Tempest when I was in high school to see if I could figure out Shakespeare without a teacher and kept reading classics ever since… The problem is, aside from online I don’t know anyone that has read the Iliad, Les Miserables, Count of Monte Cristo, Anna Karinina… no one to talk with about them…
I think maturity has something to do with reading classics. Also, the teacher who is passionate about the literature and inspires you will have an influence. Certain professors just made the books for me.
Great video! One of the most influential authors of 20th century is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. His must reads are "The Gulag Archipelago", "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", and "Cancer Ward".
If you're going to read 20th century Russian authors please may I recommend Mikael Bulgskov who wrote The White Guard and The Master and Margarita - the latter a satire which Russians were amazed he'd got away with.
I really want to read Cancer Ward one day. I have much of his works including all three volumes of Gulag Archipelago, but that one sticks out most to me.
I just spent the last year listening to "East of Eden" on audiobook and I absolutely loved it. I can't stop thinking about it and am looking for that same feeling again. I think 2022 might be the year of classics for me. I want to read "The Picture of Dorian Grey" badly !
I've just found this channel and Film Frauds, both excellent. Congratulations. I'd like to share my story of getting into the classics. I also thought anything with the adjective "classic" attached to it was bound to be boring. When I left school I went into teacher training college. Our education lecturer, as a way of widening our thinking, recommended certain book titles, mainly fiction, that dealt with child psychology in an insightful or challenging way. Among them were A Member of the Wedding, Lord of the Flies, and My Childhood by Maxim Gorky. Nah, I thought, bound to be boring. After I qualified, while browsing in a bookshop, I came upon My Childhood, and on impulse, bought it. I was blown away! I bought Fathers and Sons, A Hero of Our Time, Eugene Onegin, War and Peace and others in quick succession. Then, because of that experience, I tried classical music and discovered the genius that is Beethoven. Strange how one chance decision can change so much. Your choice of books is certainly challenging, but your enthusiasm for the books on Greek philosophy makes it an area I should try. If I were to recommend one classic novel to you, it would be one that reversed my story, in that classical music inspired it. After listening to the magnificent Verdi Requiem, I read the notes and saw that it was dedicated to the author Alessandro Manzoni. Who could inspire such music and why? Manzoni wrote just one novel, The Betrothed and I'll leave it up to you to discover how very important this book is, not just to Italian literature, but to the Italian language. It's exceptionally readable and is one of the most neglected books of European literature. BTW, of COURSE, you've read Nietzsche, that's a 2001 a Space Odyssey poster I spot on your wall!
I have Don Quixote for months now in my shelf collecting dust because I'm so intimidated to read it coz it's too longggg lol. But I'm really curious to see for myself how such literature still survive to this day. Thanks for the video! It encourages me to read more classics. I'm currently reading Frankenstein and you're right, it's so much different and better than the movies. The novel really makes you think.
Really loved this video! The book that got me back into classics after years of contemporary fiction was"Mrs. Dalloway." Took me weeks to get through the ~130 pages but I'm still thinking about it, can't recommend it enough!
So inspiring for me as someone else who didnt care about books as a teenager. After years of watching just movies and shows, I started collecting classics and biographies 2 years ago with little motivation to read more than 20 pages at a time Now im about 150 pages into 50 different books and hellbent on finishing War & Peace. Funnily enough, Shakespeare and Gatsby were the few things I did like in high school.
I love your enthusiasm here! It's interesting hearing about your past experience of not liking/not really bothering to read classics in previous years and seeing how much that's changed! You have a great collection, granted I haven't read most of them- you have a lot more antiquity and philosophical works than I do. Also, after I hit subscribe and checked out your channel page, I noticed I've actually watched a handful of your film podcast videos. I'm also a big cinephile :)
Thanks for the video. Really enjoyed it. I've read a few classics as an adult such as Journey to the Center of the Earth and Pride and Prejudice. I want to read more. I had Les Misérables, Moby Dick, The Three Musketeers, Meditations on my list. I learned of a lot more in this video. Thanks again :)
This was awesome from beginning to end :) Great collection of classics! Nothing better than a thrifted classic ;) Keep those vids coming. I recommend Stoner by John Williams, I think you might like it :)
First time i watched this video was at the time you posted it, i remember seeing and not relating to the books as i wasnt an avid reader of philosophy back then. (AND I also gave up on counting the you knows far too quickly back then) Fast forward to today, I dont know how but i own and have read most of what you are talking about and relate to every word you were saying. I am definetely not ready for Pynchon, Kant & Joyce yet too. I got into philosophy through Sartre's Nausea and the Myth of sisyphus. Currently reading the 1400 pages full collection of essays of Montaigne from the everyman library edition. Love that they have included his travelouges and letters as well. A priviledged feeling to actually see the world from the eyes of a brilliant man who lived decades if not centuries ago. Dont know if you are still here and reading the comments but, THIS TIME I HAD TO COUNT THE YOU KNOWs, SO I COPIED THE TRANSCRIPTS INTO WORD AND USED THE Control F, AND OMG there were 119 of them, A little shortcut hehe. Would love it if you could post an updated video of your library & reading journey! EDIT: JUST SAW YOUR NEW VIDEO TITLED BASELINE!!! SO EXCITED TO CHECKOUT AND YOU GOT PROUST IN THE BACKROUND AH! SO CURIOUS TO SEE YOUR UPDATE!
Like you I have tremendous enthusiasm for great writers so can't help mentioning a relatively modern great writer - Roberto Bolano. A brilliant mind. Suggest starting with his short story collection "Last Evenings on Earth". Add Cortozar (stick with the stories), Bulgakov, Bunin, Chekhov, Marquez (stick with the novels), Joyce (Ulysses might take a couple of tries to get it, but when you do you'll understand), Woolf, Proust). Like you I could go on. I'm going to try a few that you mentioned, several of which I tried but which didn't grab me the first time around. Lastly, here's the mistake in our education system about reading. They don't instill the love of reading to start. No teenager wants to read "Silas Marner". Perhaps the greatest teacher I ever had, certainly the most influential from a developmental perspective, did this for me and my fourth-grade classmates. She told us to read whatever we wanted and write a one page book report. We read books about our favorite athletes, low grade fiction, etc. But we read. I believe that the students averaged 60-70 books. We were hooked. I'm going to save this video so when I want a suggestion or two I can jump in somewhere for suggestions. Thank you.
Like you, I read one book last year that began my love for classics. Mine was Crime and Punishment, and I've only read classics since finishing it. You blew through the Russians, so I don't know if you've already read it but, if not, please do! Subbed! been looking for a good classics-related channel for a while now and yours is perfect! And the only book I think you could add is Brave New World by Huxley.
I have tried twice in the past year to read Crime and Punishment, the first attempt I got to about page 105 and on the second attempt I only got to page 45 or so. I found the book very challenging because Dostoyevsky's brilliant writing puts you right into the headspace of Raskolnikov and you almost share in his misery. I plan on sitting myself down to and completing the novel front to back hopefully in the near future. I will definitely check out Brave New World! I've heard so much about it at this point that I really have no more excuses not to read it. Thank you for subscribing!!
@@drunzo363 Yeah, the only problem with Dostoevsky is that it makes you a little depressed while reading, so I understand what you mean. You seem to really enjoy films too, so I have to recommend my all-time favorite film adaptation of a classic: The Double (2013). It's technically based on the novella of the same name by Dostoevsky, but I think it is much better than the book. Ayoade, the director, was inspired by a bunch of old French films, so it doesn't feel like a modern movie at all. Keep on making great content!
@@meghanpfeiffer Thank you for the recommendation, I'll definitely check that out! Sounds like a film right up my alley. Thank you for the kind words!
You have quite a beautiful bookshelf and I thoroughly enjoyed viewing your collection. If you have still yet to read it, I would highly recommend Les Mis. It is absolutely incredible and completely blew me away when I read it. Also, Jane Austen is an amazing classics author to try out too. Particularly Pride and Prejudice or Emma. I would also recommend The Phantom of the Opera. Overall, you have an amazing collection though.
@@drunzo363 do you have any tips in understanding classics and philosophy? for instance understanding the wording in crime and punishment or in platos republic. any tips for beginners to understand the text ?
Checking this video out after a while, and this video might’ve gotten into my head without knowing it, because I read and loved “Of Human Bondage” at the end of last year
This was so fun to watch! I would recommend reading Candide by Voltaire, I found it really funny and interesting, and it is really short. If you haven't read any O. Henry short stories, I would highly recommend his. He is my favorite short story author, and was highly influential in the early 20th century. Just a few recs!!
Victor Hugo was Ayn Rand's favourite author. She modeled her Atlas Shrugged on Les Miserables. Putting politics aside, she was instrumental in repopularizing Victor Hugo's works on the United States. By the way, I love your collection. I enjoy the black spines of these types of editions.
We all start with used paperbacks (Penguin, Dover). Then we treat ourselves to budget hardcovers (Everyman's, LOA, Modern). Finally, we are tempted by the quality hardcovers (Easton, Franklin, Folio). Books can become a very expensive hobby indeed. I recommend ebay and etsy for rare finds.
Excellent video! :D I love your classics collection, and I'm a bit jealous not gonna lie. You have had way better luck thrifting than I ever had. You found some gems for sure. I recently read Suetonius' The 12 Caesars so I'd recommend you read that one too, such as a fun ride that one.
Read a bunch of Somerset Maughan novels Jan Feb 23 and enjoyed them. Maughan i think, reckoned Of Human Bondage to be his magnum opus and still on my TBR. Enjoyed your review, thanks.
This is so weird we look really similar and Frankenstein got me into classics as well lol super weird it's my favourite movie but when u were saying that a certain book inspired U to read classic I just knew you were about to say Frankenstein!
When i read Ulysses by James Joyce the first time i read half the book and then i just needed a LONG break so i took several months off from reading it and when i finally picked it up again it only took a month or two to finish it. I felt very accomplished afterward :-)
haha, YES, I was just telling my bookish friend that the appearance of books must fit the theme. There is something very weird about reading Charles Dickens' Hard Times in those gorgeous teal and gilded Macmillan editions! it doesn't feel right; his book should be a tattered, broken spine falling apart kind of copy. Maybe those editions match Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence or some other book about rich people 😆
If you like Dr Samuel Johnson you should read Boswell. The tour by Johnson and the Journal by Boswell is a masterpiece. Theres a beautiful edition by Everymans Library would highly suggest
Thank you for the recommendations! I will definitely check those books out. I also plan on venturing into the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe soon as well.
Which author/book would your recommend to start reading russian literature? I really enjoyed this video and I’m already looking forward to more classics reviews of yours!!
I would highly recommend Leo Tolstoy! I read his book "War & Peace" earlier this year and I was astounded at Tolstoys conviction and philosophy as well as the magnificence of his prose (I read the translation by Anthony Briggs - highly recommend). War & Peace is historical fiction that follows the Russian aristocratic perspective of the Napoleonic wars, from the years 1805 to Napoleons 1812 invasion of Moscow. My first video on this channel is about some tips I have for those interested in reading the book. I would also highly recommend Mikhail Bulgakov's book "The Master & Margarita." A hilarious, tragic, and suspenseful novel dense with various themes and supernatural elements. I had an exceptioanlly hard time putting the book down. There is a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of it that has a brilliant translation, I would definitely recommend getting that copy if you are interested. Another famous author is Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I have read a few of his short stories as well as his novel "Notes from Underground" which was brilliantly written but remarkably sobering. I have not gotten around to his more famous books like "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov" yet but i definitely plan on reading them in the near future! I hear such great things about them. There is a famous quote from Kurt Vonnegut which goes, "There is one other book, that can teach you everything you need to know about life... it's The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but that's not enough anymore.” Hope this was helpful!
Thank you! And definitely give Monte Cristo a shot, it is action packed and is probably the greatest revenge story in the history of literature. Once the action starts it is very difficult to put the book down. I cannot recommend it enough.
Love this!!! keep the vids up and coming! P.S. Don Quixote is pronounced don key-hoe-tay Just thought it might be of use! Do you have a goodreads? I recommend it!
Thank you! And thank you for correcting me, I formed this bad habit of accidentally mispronouncing the title of the book during the time that I read it and I have been trying to shed that habit ever since. I do not currently have a goodreads but I do plan on making one sometime in the future!
Start with A Tale of Two Cities when it comes to Dickens...especially if you love the French Revolution. I'm blown away by the fact that you're a mechanical engineering major AND you love literature as much as you do. Very interesting video!!!
Also, try John Donne, a contemporary of Shakespeare. The HBO movie, WIT (2001) introduced me to his works back in 2004. The link below is an excerpt from the film where they discuss Donne's work. th-cam.com/video/SaIKbDGhnHo/w-d-xo.html
There are many booktubers that will talk about classic literature. If you want recommendations, I will be more than happy to point you to them. I am happy to have found another booktuber who speaks about classics and classic literature.
@@TiffWaffles Hello Tiff! For the past few months, I also started seeing other booktubers who focuses on classic literature. Please do so, I would love to hear more about your recommendations!
Hi. I'd like to recommend Benjamin McEvoy, Marian H, tokyochemist (i trust her taste in japanese classic literature), Fiction beast, Read A Day Club, the Black Ponderer, JuanReads, Ahead of the curve.... and those are channels if you need more classic lit & philosophy contents.
this was amazing, finding fellow lovers of classic literature always makes me so happy! my personal favourites are les misérables, the picture of dorian gray, doctor zhivago, tolstoy's short stories, the importance of being earnest, anything written by dickens and tess of the d'urbervilles :) i also read italo calvino's why read the classics last year and adored it
ahh i’m so happy to find a booktuber talking about classics !! i appreciate modern fiction but i’ve never been able to get into it like classics so i can’t wait to see what else u put out,, this is such a lovely vid to watch as a nerd lmao
just as a warning - i wouldn’t recommend trying Finnegans Wake by James Joyce anytime soon,, it’s considered his masterpiece but it’s also considered hugely inaccessible, most scholars can’t even agree on the plot of it :-//
I also love reading classics and my favorite booktubers that talk about them include Eric Karl Anderson, BookishTopics, SupposedlyFun, whatpageareyouon, Claire Fenby and lucythereader (just to name a few)!
@@prodomango712 it depends upon the book. If the writing is too dense (if that's the term here), then it's a book that many will not be able to read because of the language or the sophistication of the plot, discussion, etc. It's part of the reason for why I stick to fiction or historical nonfiction when it comes to classic works instead of picking up a book on philosophy... Which goes over my head and makes me angry since I can't understand it. But maybe it's my little scientist brain thinking that philosophy is too hard to understand.
Oh, yes, just love that too. My paperback copy dates from 1968 (!) and a quote from the Times Educational Supplement reads " ....just when you think the whole thing is a funny satire, a chilling wind out of Ingmar Bergman country blows and yet again, as you search for some moral significance, there are pages of sheer and beautiful fantasy". Sums it up pretty well. It's unique.
I normally skip through the boring bit in the beginning when folks monologue but this was really entertaining and interesting. Good job man, keep putting these out.
I doubt very many people have even read it. If the Bible wasn't forced upon people through manipulation and fear by the immense power of religion, I'll bet almost no one would have ever heard of it.
This was such a great video! My recommendations would be Dante’s Inferno, Charles Dickens and the English Gothics (since you love Frankenstein) - Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Oscar Wilde, etc. All a must for a classics shelf :)
I just picked up The Divine Comedy and can't wait to make the journey with Dante! Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde are current blind spots for me that I soon hope to remedy. I intend on reading The Pickwick Papers and Dorian Gray later this year. Thank you for the kind words and recommendations!
Your story makes me really happy and your enthusiasm is very infectious! I feel like I've read a ton of classics but have still only scraped the surface and its so much fun. I really miss thrift shops...
Your Library is fantastic. It has everything from Ancient classics, to philosophy, to modern classics, and politics. Now only some theology is missing. Nice well-rounded collection. Respect.
I’m nearly influenced by TH-cam to collect classics editions because of how pretty they look.. nearly. But I’m still thrifting my way through my collection. The one thing I like is finding annotations on my thrifts, it’s second closest to actually discussing the book with a friend.
You NEED to add Pale Fire by Vladmir Nabokov. I read somewhere that Nabokov made his writing like a chess problem. The whole structure of the novel is well thought out. I absolutely loved it. I recently finished One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was quite dense but the last sentence of the book will forever be ingrained in my heart. I also don't think you mentioned George Eliot's Middlemarch. It is a chunky book but every sentence is so beautiful like it belongs on a wall to be displayed. Really enjoyed the video! Glad I found your channel!!!
Okay, you have sold me on Pale Fire, I have to check that out now. I hope to get around to reading One Hundred Years of Solitude this year as it's been on my reading radar for quite some time now. I have not yet read Middlemarch but due to its reputation I had to pick it up once I spotted it in a thrift store. Thank you for the kind words and recommendations!
Wow, those three books you mention are also among my favourites of all time. Mark's channel seems to be a place where we can meet other people who share our enthusiasms.
Just found your channel and I’m enjoying it. I don’t have any edition of Les Miserables but that Penguin deluxe edition there is so wild looking that I must have it! Also wanted to say that none of that trifecta- Infinite Jest, Gravity’s Rainbow, and Ulysses - are impenetrable. Those are three of the most amazing reading experiences I’ve had. Gravity’s Rainbow was an absolute game-changer for me; it had a profound effect on how I perceive the world. Keep up the great work.
I totally get that you find Kant hard to digest. I am german, and I got taught some his basic ethics in my philosophy class; we had a brilliant teacher who explained them very well, but even though I therefore knew what Kant was getting at, I found the excerpst we worked with rather hard to read. He was a groundbreaking thinker, but not a very good stylist; his german prose is famous for being awkward and wordy; it's pretty exhausting even if you understand what he is talking about. I guess that carries over into the translation. If you like revenge plots and philosophy, "Michael Kohlhaas" by Heinrich von Kleist should be right up your alley.
That's the design. A population of critical thinkers is very dangerous to the King. A population who shares the values of the King is very useful to the King.
I find your story very inspiring - so many of us were taught classics badly, and many of us in adulthood regret ignoring the opportunities they presented. Your passion is obvious. The only gap I can see is Proust. Love your videos.
I got to 53 "you know"s and gave up counting... good video tho! love a good classic :|
It could be a cultural thing? Sometimes people will say words like 'you know' or 'eh' or equivalents depending on the region they live in. I have noticed a lot of New Yorkers who visit Canada will have the abundance of 'you know' in their sentences, just as an example.
@@TiffWaffles read the description in the video :)))
My 13 year old daughter who is an avid reader was blown away by The Picture of Dorian Gray. She said "how can I go back to other newer books, when these sort of books exist". As a classic lover, that made me happy
Your daughter’s taste is amazing😍
Just out of curiosity, but did your daughter read the abridged version of Dorian Gray or the updated version that kept everything that the author wrote? I read Dorion Gray in an older publication of Oxford Classics and when my grandma got me a new edition from another publisher, I was surprised to learn that the older publications left a lot of the original out.
Those remarkable works persist because of their quality.
She may not have read “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde. My mother used to read it to me, although my older brother would sob too much at the ending, so he would get Jack London stories instead.
damn then we read that book at the same age :D and truly changed my opinion on the books i drove towards before and since then my tastes did a whole 180 :))
That's awesome!
We know mark, we know..
This is the thing that brings us all together as readers of classical literature, it’s universal and you will always, always find people who read and love them..
You're a man after my own heart! Everything you said, I was like "yes yes! I get it. I do that too!" Absolutely loved this video and your take on all your books. You have a lovely collection
I have been a fan of classic literature since I was a teenager and Penguin Classics is perhaps the most complete and best source for the great classics.
Funnily enough Frankenstein was also my entry point into the classics and reading in general. I’m not sure why. I just remember thinking, “wow I can’t believe words can be so beautiful and you can talk about such profound ideas…what else is out there that I haven’t read.”
I picked up the Tempest when I was in high school to see if I could figure out Shakespeare without a teacher and kept reading classics ever since…
The problem is, aside from online I don’t know anyone that has read the Iliad, Les Miserables, Count of Monte Cristo, Anna Karinina… no one to talk with about them…
I think maturity has something to do with reading classics. Also, the teacher who is passionate about the literature and inspires you will have an influence. Certain professors just made the books for me.
Great video! One of the most influential authors of 20th century is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. His must reads are "The Gulag Archipelago", "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", and "Cancer Ward".
If you're going to read 20th century Russian authors please may I recommend Mikael Bulgskov who wrote The White Guard and The Master and Margarita - the latter a satire which Russians were amazed he'd got away with.
And 200 Years Together.
@@folksurvivalBased.
I really want to read Cancer Ward one day. I have much of his works including all three volumes of Gulag Archipelago, but that one sticks out most to me.
I just spent the last year listening to "East of Eden" on audiobook and I absolutely loved it. I can't stop thinking about it and am looking for that same feeling again. I think 2022 might be the year of classics for me. I want to read "The Picture of Dorian Grey" badly !
If you liked 'East of Eden' try 'Middlemarch' by George Eliot or 'Freedom' by Jonathan Franzen.
I've just found this channel and Film Frauds, both excellent. Congratulations.
I'd like to share my story of getting into the classics. I also thought anything with the adjective "classic" attached to it was bound to be boring. When I left school I went into teacher training college. Our education lecturer, as a way of widening our thinking, recommended certain book titles, mainly fiction, that dealt with child psychology in an insightful or challenging way. Among them were A Member of the Wedding, Lord of the Flies, and My Childhood by Maxim Gorky. Nah, I thought, bound to be boring. After I qualified, while browsing in a bookshop, I came upon My Childhood, and on impulse, bought it. I was blown away! I bought Fathers and Sons, A Hero of Our Time, Eugene Onegin, War and Peace and others in quick succession. Then, because of that experience, I tried classical music and discovered the genius that is Beethoven. Strange how one chance decision can change so much.
Your choice of books is certainly challenging, but your enthusiasm for the books on Greek philosophy makes it an area I should try.
If I were to recommend one classic novel to you, it would be one that reversed my story, in that classical music inspired it. After listening to the magnificent Verdi Requiem, I read the notes and saw that it was dedicated to the author Alessandro Manzoni. Who could inspire such music and why? Manzoni wrote just one novel, The Betrothed and I'll leave it up to you to discover how very important this book is, not just to Italian literature, but to the Italian language. It's exceptionally readable and is one of the most neglected books of European literature.
BTW, of COURSE, you've read Nietzsche, that's a 2001 a Space Odyssey poster I spot on your wall!
Thank you for such a wonderful comment! I will definitely check out My Childhood and the Betrothed!
I have Don Quixote for months now in my shelf collecting dust because I'm so intimidated to read it coz it's too longggg lol. But I'm really curious to see for myself how such literature still survive to this day. Thanks for the video! It encourages me to read more classics. I'm currently reading Frankenstein and you're right, it's so much different and better than the movies. The novel really makes you think.
Really loved this video! The book that got me back into classics after years of contemporary fiction was"Mrs. Dalloway." Took me weeks to get through the ~130 pages but I'm still thinking about it, can't recommend it enough!
I'll check it out! Thanks!
"I havent read all of them obsiously im not a maniac" is peak comedy
So inspiring for me as someone else who didnt care about books as a teenager. After years of watching just movies and shows, I started collecting classics and biographies 2 years ago with little motivation to read more than 20 pages at a time Now im about 150 pages into 50 different books and hellbent on finishing War & Peace.
Funnily enough, Shakespeare and Gatsby were the few things I did like in high school.
I love your enthusiasm here! It's interesting hearing about your past experience of not liking/not really bothering to read classics in previous years and seeing how much that's changed! You have a great collection, granted I haven't read most of them- you have a lot more antiquity and philosophical works than I do.
Also, after I hit subscribe and checked out your channel page, I noticed I've actually watched a handful of your film podcast videos. I'm also a big cinephile :)
Thanks for the video. Really enjoyed it. I've read a few classics as an adult such as Journey to the Center of the Earth and Pride and Prejudice. I want to read more. I had Les Misérables, Moby Dick, The Three Musketeers, Meditations on my list. I learned of a lot more in this video. Thanks again :)
This was awesome from beginning to end :) Great collection of classics! Nothing better than a thrifted classic ;) Keep those vids coming. I recommend Stoner by John Williams, I think you might like it :)
Thank you for the kind words! I will definitely check out Stoner, as I've heard so much praise about it. Thank you for the recommendation!
First time i watched this video was at the time you posted it, i remember seeing and not relating to the books as i wasnt an avid reader of philosophy back then. (AND I also gave up on counting the you knows far too quickly back then)
Fast forward to today, I dont know how but i own and have read most of what you are talking about and relate to every word you were saying. I am definetely not ready for Pynchon, Kant & Joyce yet too. I got into philosophy through Sartre's Nausea and the Myth of sisyphus. Currently reading the 1400 pages full collection of essays of Montaigne from the everyman library edition. Love that they have included his travelouges and letters as well. A priviledged feeling to actually see the world from the eyes of a brilliant man who lived decades if not centuries ago.
Dont know if you are still here and reading the comments but, THIS TIME I HAD TO COUNT THE YOU KNOWs, SO I COPIED THE TRANSCRIPTS INTO WORD AND USED THE Control F, AND OMG there were 119 of them, A little shortcut hehe. Would love it if you could post an updated video of your library & reading journey!
EDIT: JUST SAW YOUR NEW VIDEO TITLED BASELINE!!! SO EXCITED TO CHECKOUT AND YOU GOT PROUST IN THE BACKROUND AH! SO CURIOUS TO SEE YOUR UPDATE!
Like you I have tremendous enthusiasm for great writers so can't help mentioning a relatively modern great writer - Roberto Bolano. A brilliant mind. Suggest starting with his short story collection "Last Evenings on Earth". Add Cortozar (stick with the stories), Bulgakov, Bunin, Chekhov, Marquez (stick with the novels), Joyce (Ulysses might take a couple of tries to get it, but when you do you'll understand), Woolf, Proust). Like you I could go on. I'm going to try a few that you mentioned, several of which I tried but which didn't grab me the first time around.
Lastly, here's the mistake in our education system about reading. They don't instill the love of reading to start. No teenager wants to read "Silas Marner". Perhaps the greatest teacher I ever had, certainly the most influential from a developmental perspective, did this for me and my fourth-grade classmates. She told us to read whatever we wanted and write a one page book report. We read books about our favorite athletes, low grade fiction, etc. But we read. I believe that the students averaged 60-70 books. We were hooked.
I'm going to save this video so when I want a suggestion or two I can jump in somewhere for suggestions.
Thank you.
Love these "gateway books." Great idea!
Wait this actually exists on TH-cam? Thank God for that New Years resolution you had Drunzo
Like you, I read one book last year that began my love for classics. Mine was Crime and Punishment, and I've only read classics since finishing it. You blew through the Russians, so I don't know if you've already read it but, if not, please do!
Subbed! been looking for a good classics-related channel for a while now and yours is perfect! And the only book I think you could add is Brave New World by Huxley.
I have tried twice in the past year to read Crime and Punishment, the first attempt I got to about page 105 and on the second attempt I only got to page 45 or so. I found the book very challenging because Dostoyevsky's brilliant writing puts you right into the headspace of Raskolnikov and you almost share in his misery. I plan on sitting myself down to and completing the novel front to back hopefully in the near future.
I will definitely check out Brave New World! I've heard so much about it at this point that I really have no more excuses not to read it. Thank you for subscribing!!
@@drunzo363 Yeah, the only problem with Dostoevsky is that it makes you a little depressed while reading, so I understand what you mean.
You seem to really enjoy films too, so I have to recommend my all-time favorite film adaptation of a classic: The Double (2013). It's technically based on the novella of the same name by Dostoevsky, but I think it is much better than the book. Ayoade, the director, was inspired by a bunch of old French films, so it doesn't feel like a modern movie at all.
Keep on making great content!
@@meghanpfeiffer Thank you for the recommendation, I'll definitely check that out! Sounds like a film right up my alley.
Thank you for the kind words!
Awesome collection man, I look forward to future reviews!
Currently reading the same copy you have of The last Days of Socrates.
You have quite a beautiful bookshelf and I thoroughly enjoyed viewing your collection. If you have still yet to read it, I would highly recommend Les Mis. It is absolutely incredible and completely blew me away when I read it. Also, Jane Austen is an amazing classics author to try out too. Particularly Pride and Prejudice or Emma. I would also recommend The Phantom of the Opera. Overall, you have an amazing collection though.
new sub. rarely see guys doing a collection of their classics ! let’s go
Thank you!
@@drunzo363 do you have any tips in understanding classics and philosophy? for instance understanding the wording in crime and punishment or in platos republic. any tips for beginners to understand the text ?
Just subscribed to your channel. I want to pick up the black tulip sounds interesting.
Checking this video out after a while, and this video might’ve gotten into my head without knowing it, because I read and loved “Of Human Bondage” at the end of last year
You should defiently make a series going into depth on every book that you have, i love content!
I love your poster of “Creature from the Black Lagoon”! One of my favorite classic movies! Love your book collection!
For me, Gone With The Wind got me started.
This was so fun to watch! I would recommend reading Candide by Voltaire, I found it really funny and interesting, and it is really short. If you haven't read any O. Henry short stories, I would highly recommend his. He is my favorite short story author, and was highly influential in the early 20th century. Just a few recs!!
Victor Hugo was Ayn Rand's favourite author. She modeled her Atlas Shrugged on Les Miserables. Putting politics aside, she was instrumental in repopularizing Victor Hugo's works on the United States. By the way, I love your collection. I enjoy the black spines of these types of editions.
I just ordered Plato the last days of Socrates
We all start with used paperbacks (Penguin, Dover). Then we treat ourselves to budget hardcovers (Everyman's, LOA, Modern). Finally, we are tempted by the quality hardcovers (Easton, Franklin, Folio). Books can become a very expensive hobby indeed. I recommend ebay and etsy for rare finds.
If you’re looking to read on the social contract, you may also find Leviathon by Hobbes of interest, and Locke’s treatise’s on government
The count of Monte Cristo was my first book even I rediscovered Classics ❤️
Excellent video! :D I love your classics collection, and I'm a bit jealous not gonna lie. You have had way better luck thrifting than I ever had. You found some gems for sure. I recently read Suetonius' The 12 Caesars so I'd recommend you read that one too, such as a fun ride that one.
Thanks Marianne! And thank you for the recommendation as well, I will definitely prioritize the 12 Caesars on my reading list.
Please do the video about Montaigne !!
Great recc on that Penguin Classics book, I have to pick that up ASAP and begin flipping through it
Really loved ur content. subscribed . edit : i finished Frankenstein like yesterday loved it !
Awesome!
Read a bunch of Somerset Maughan novels Jan Feb 23 and enjoyed them. Maughan i think, reckoned Of Human Bondage to be his magnum opus and still on my TBR. Enjoyed your review, thanks.
This is so weird we look really similar and Frankenstein got me into classics as well lol super weird it's my favourite movie but when u were saying that a certain book inspired U to read classic I just knew you were about to say Frankenstein!
When i read Ulysses by James Joyce the first time i read half the book and then i just needed a LONG break so i took several months off from reading it and when i finally picked it up again it only took a month or two to finish it. I felt very accomplished afterward :-)
haha, YES, I was just telling my bookish friend that the appearance of books must fit the theme. There is something very weird about reading Charles Dickens' Hard Times in those gorgeous teal and gilded Macmillan editions! it doesn't feel right; his book should be a tattered, broken spine falling apart kind of copy. Maybe those editions match Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence or some other book about rich people 😆
I, for some reason, didn't see your mic until like 5 mins. in, so I thought you really just talk with a hand up 😭
iPad Mini is the way I like to read books. I have read maybe 200 classics during the last nine years, all available for free download.
I wish I could give this video a thumbs up every time I watch it.
I'd love to hear what you think of Zola, Guy de Maupassant and Wilkie Collins. (Favourites of mine.)
Man, I will subscribe to you - greetings from Poland!
Absolutely, Moby Dick...the best book!
If you like Dr Samuel Johnson you should read Boswell. The tour by Johnson and the Journal by Boswell is a masterpiece. Theres a beautiful edition by Everymans Library would highly suggest
Oh wow I did not know that Everymans Library published Boswell! Thank you! I can't wait to check those books out.
Great collection! The German classics are missing, check out Magic Mountain or the Tin Drum
Thank you for the recommendations! I will definitely check those books out. I also plan on venturing into the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe soon as well.
Ditto! The Tin Drum, utterly seminal...
@@drunzo363 goethe is great!
Othello is Shakespeare’s best play
Are there some requirements for a book to be called "a classic"?
Western canon
Which author/book would your recommend to start reading russian literature? I really enjoyed this video and I’m already looking forward to more classics reviews of yours!!
I would highly recommend Leo Tolstoy! I read his book "War & Peace" earlier this year and I was astounded at Tolstoys conviction and philosophy as well as the magnificence of his prose (I read the translation by Anthony Briggs - highly recommend). War & Peace is historical fiction that follows the Russian aristocratic perspective of the Napoleonic wars, from the years 1805 to Napoleons 1812 invasion of Moscow. My first video on this channel is about some tips I have for those interested in reading the book.
I would also highly recommend Mikhail Bulgakov's book "The Master & Margarita." A hilarious, tragic, and suspenseful novel dense with various themes and supernatural elements. I had an exceptioanlly hard time putting the book down. There is a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of it that has a brilliant translation, I would definitely recommend getting that copy if you are interested.
Another famous author is Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I have read a few of his short stories as well as his novel "Notes from Underground" which was brilliantly written but remarkably sobering. I have not gotten around to his more famous books like "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov" yet but i definitely plan on reading them in the near future! I hear such great things about them. There is a famous quote from Kurt Vonnegut which goes, "There is one other book, that can teach you everything you need to know about life... it's The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but that's not enough anymore.”
Hope this was helpful!
Crime & Punishment. I assigned it to my daughter before he started college and loved it.
I took a philosophy class on Kant and I still do not know what he was going on about.
Great video, I have some classics on my shelf but nowhere near the amount you have. I have Monte Cristo on my shelf but it intimidates me haha
Thank you! And definitely give Monte Cristo a shot, it is action packed and is probably the greatest revenge story in the history of literature. Once the action starts it is very difficult to put the book down. I cannot recommend it enough.
I have a small library, of maybe 1500 books, I can't stop, and truth be told, I don't want to.
Eugene Onegin--Onegin pronounced Oh-Nyay-gen I believe. I've seen the opera based on it, but I haven't read the book.
I guess there's just one question to ask you if you don't mind... have you read the secret history, and if so, did you like it?
Not yet! I have been meaning to read it ever since I heard about it. I hope to get around to it soon!
@@drunzo363 you'll love it. specially since you also love the classics.
Where do you like to buy your classics? Do you have any online recommendations? Thank you, great video!
Love this!!! keep the vids up and coming!
P.S. Don Quixote is pronounced don key-hoe-tay
Just thought it might be of use!
Do you have a goodreads? I recommend it!
Thank you! And thank you for correcting me, I formed this bad habit of accidentally mispronouncing the title of the book during the time that I read it and I have been trying to shed that habit ever since. I do not currently have a goodreads but I do plan on making one sometime in the future!
Very good collection, you have a lot of the same penguin classics I have. How many penguin classics do you have February 2024
Hi, Great video. What kind of microphone do you use for recording the video? Thank you!
This is probably my favorite yt video so far
I can relate much of what he said and I 😌
keep it up. Great list of books.
Hello, may I ask if you read Samuel Johnson's preface in the book you mentioned or just somewhere else?
Start with A Tale of Two Cities when it comes to Dickens...especially if you love the French Revolution.
I'm blown away by the fact that you're a mechanical engineering major AND you love literature as much as you do. Very interesting video!!!
Where have you gone, Mark? Really missing you. Hope you're OK.
What a great video
Also, try John Donne, a contemporary of Shakespeare. The HBO movie, WIT (2001) introduced me to his works back in 2004.
The link below is an excerpt from the film where they discuss Donne's work.
th-cam.com/video/SaIKbDGhnHo/w-d-xo.html
I can appreciate Shakespeare as a writer and a creative but I tried and just couldn't get into him
Hi. I would recommend to read “The life of Klim Samgin” by Maxim Gorky. Thanks for the video.
I love how passionate and devoted you talk about classic literature. I can feel your love for books through the screen.😁
finally, a booktuber who talks about philosophy and classic literature! love how passionate you talk about classic literature!
There are many booktubers that will talk about classic literature. If you want recommendations, I will be more than happy to point you to them. I am happy to have found another booktuber who speaks about classics and classic literature.
@@TiffWaffles Hello Tiff! For the past few months, I also started seeing other booktubers who focuses on classic literature. Please do so, I would love to hear more about your recommendations!
@@booker526 you can check out emmie
@@TiffWaffles I do, please point me in their direction :D
Hi. I'd like to recommend Benjamin McEvoy, Marian H, tokyochemist (i trust her taste in japanese classic literature), Fiction beast, Read A Day Club, the Black Ponderer, JuanReads, Ahead of the curve.... and those are channels if you need more classic lit & philosophy contents.
A man after my own heart. This was absolutely like a warm hug! I love your shelf/editions and your passion for classics.
this was amazing, finding fellow lovers of classic literature always makes me so happy! my personal favourites are les misérables, the picture of dorian gray, doctor zhivago, tolstoy's short stories, the importance of being earnest, anything written by dickens and tess of the d'urbervilles :) i also read italo calvino's why read the classics last year and adored it
ahh i’m so happy to find a booktuber talking about classics !! i appreciate modern fiction but i’ve never been able to get into it like classics so i can’t wait to see what else u put out,, this is such a lovely vid to watch as a nerd lmao
just as a warning - i wouldn’t recommend trying Finnegans Wake by James Joyce anytime soon,, it’s considered his masterpiece but it’s also considered hugely inaccessible, most scholars can’t even agree on the plot of it :-//
Very true. It puzzled me.
@@nemutai3596 umm, ambiguous plot isn’t a reason not to read it. The inaccessibility is part of the books magic.
I also love reading classics and my favorite booktubers that talk about them include Eric Karl Anderson, BookishTopics, SupposedlyFun, whatpageareyouon, Claire Fenby and lucythereader (just to name a few)!
@@prodomango712 it depends upon the book. If the writing is too dense (if that's the term here), then it's a book that many will not be able to read because of the language or the sophistication of the plot, discussion, etc. It's part of the reason for why I stick to fiction or historical nonfiction when it comes to classic works instead of picking up a book on philosophy... Which goes over my head and makes me angry since I can't understand it. But maybe it's my little scientist brain thinking that philosophy is too hard to understand.
I love how he talks about getting the books. The journey that ends in us having a new book, maybe with a back history, it's just lovely 🌟
I love when book youtubers talk about classics 🥰 I haven't read that much (yet!) but right now my favourite is definitely 'Master and Margarita'
I'm glad you enjoyed it! And yeah the Master and Margarita is just incredible, one of my favorite classics as well.
Oh, yes, just love that too. My paperback copy dates from 1968 (!) and a quote from the Times Educational Supplement reads " ....just when you think the whole thing is a funny satire, a chilling wind out of Ingmar Bergman country blows and yet again, as you search for some moral significance, there are pages of sheer and beautiful fantasy". Sums it up pretty well. It's unique.
Master and Margarita was highly affected by Goethe‘s Faust which is the Classic of German Literature :)
did u get her number --- she kinda weirdo ??? @@drunzo363
Probably won’t respond but have u read any Homer? Or Herodotus
I normally skip through the boring bit in the beginning when folks monologue but this was really entertaining and interesting. Good job man, keep putting these out.
I think the Bible has been the biggest inspirational book of the western literary culture
Don Quixote is right there, dude.
I doubt very many people have even read it. If the Bible wasn't forced upon people through manipulation and fear by the immense power of religion, I'll bet almost no one would have ever heard of it.
@@miguelbranquinho7235 Don Quixote isn't even close
@@seanisnotjohn Except it's universally considered the greatest western novel ever, and the first modern novel. What do you know that I don't?
@miguelbranquinho7235 That is absolutely isn't "universally considered the greatest Western novel ever"
This was such a great video! My recommendations would be Dante’s Inferno, Charles Dickens and the English Gothics (since you love Frankenstein) - Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Oscar Wilde, etc. All a must for a classics shelf :)
I just picked up The Divine Comedy and can't wait to make the journey with Dante! Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde are current blind spots for me that I soon hope to remedy. I intend on reading The Pickwick Papers and Dorian Gray later this year. Thank you for the kind words and recommendations!
The picture of dorian gray
I really wanted to read Dante's inferno.
Theres an anime of dantes inferno , its really good i would recommend it.
@@mxs8976 name of the anime?
Your story makes me really happy and your enthusiasm is very infectious! I feel like I've read a ton of classics but have still only scraped the surface and its so much fun. I really miss thrift shops...
this made me pick up frankenstein off my shelf, also makes me want to buy even more second hand classics aha
Your Library is fantastic. It has everything from Ancient classics, to philosophy, to modern classics, and politics. Now only some theology is missing. Nice well-rounded collection. Respect.
@17:50
"I'm not brave for this yet." 😂
This how I exactly feel when a book looks quite intimidating and daunting
I’m nearly influenced by TH-cam to collect classics editions because of how pretty they look.. nearly. But I’m still thrifting my way through my collection. The one thing I like is finding annotations on my thrifts, it’s second closest to actually discussing the book with a friend.
You NEED to add Pale Fire by Vladmir Nabokov. I read somewhere that Nabokov made his writing like a chess problem. The whole structure of the novel is well thought out. I absolutely loved it. I recently finished One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was quite dense but the last sentence of the book will forever be ingrained in my heart. I also don't think you mentioned George Eliot's Middlemarch. It is a chunky book but every sentence is so beautiful like it belongs on a wall to be displayed. Really enjoyed the video! Glad I found your channel!!!
Okay, you have sold me on Pale Fire, I have to check that out now. I hope to get around to reading One Hundred Years of Solitude this year as it's been on my reading radar for quite some time now. I have not yet read Middlemarch but due to its reputation I had to pick it up once I spotted it in a thrift store. Thank you for the kind words and recommendations!
Wow, those three books you mention are also among my favourites of all time. Mark's channel seems to be a place where we can meet other people who share our enthusiasms.
Despair by Nabokov is excellent s well.
Just found your channel and I’m enjoying it. I don’t have any edition of Les Miserables but that Penguin deluxe edition there is so wild looking that I must have it!
Also wanted to say that none of that trifecta- Infinite Jest, Gravity’s Rainbow, and Ulysses - are impenetrable. Those are three of the most amazing reading experiences I’ve had. Gravity’s Rainbow was an absolute game-changer for me; it had a profound effect on how I perceive the world.
Keep up the great work.
What an enviable collection! And very relatable to someone also in a STEM field who loves classics and reading in general. 🙂
Thanks, Sara! Glad you enjoy the classics as a STEM major too!
I totally get that you find Kant hard to digest. I am german, and I got taught some his basic ethics in my philosophy class; we had a brilliant teacher who explained them very well, but even though I therefore knew what Kant was getting at, I found the excerpst we worked with rather hard to read. He was a groundbreaking thinker, but not a very good stylist; his german prose is famous for being awkward and wordy; it's pretty exhausting even if you understand what he is talking about. I guess that carries over into the translation.
If you like revenge plots and philosophy, "Michael Kohlhaas" by Heinrich von Kleist should be right up your alley.
I feel like you and Emmie (another booktuber) would get along so well...
that’s how this was recommended to me 😭😭
That's the first thing I thought about when I first saw this on my recc list 😅 they have same taste.
omg yes!!
They would talk for hours...
yes omg
You definetely should try some latin american classic authors, some as: Clarice lispector (my favorite), Machado de Assis and Gabriel García Marques
Do read The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann 🤔
i love your passion about literature, it really makes your videos so interesting! Hope you keep doing this :)
Highschool just ruins everything 😤
That's the design. A population of critical thinkers is very dangerous to the King. A population who shares the values of the King is very useful to the King.
I find your story very inspiring - so many of us were taught classics badly, and many of us in adulthood regret ignoring the opportunities they presented. Your passion is obvious. The only gap I can see is Proust. Love your videos.