The 10 Smallest Books I Haven't Read
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ค. 2024
- It's easy to not read big chunky books, but takes real dedication to not read shorties. Here are the smallest books on my TBR!
Have you read any of these? Let me know. What are the shortest books taking up tiny amounts of space on your bookshelves?
#TBR #booktube
I haven’t read any of these, but I love the focus on smaller books! It seems like a good variety to choose from, too. I love the new angle for filming and all of your books behind you :).
The good thing is when people say they are really good then I am more likely to read them 😁
This was a fun video. Honestly, the smallest books on my shelves frequently get read because they’re quick and easy while the thick books tend to languish until I’m feeling inspired. 😅I’ve been wanting to check out some of Saint-Euxprey’s writing beside The Little Prince for a long while. That one sounds good. I haven’t gotten into so many classics, but I really appreciate how many countries you’ve covered with your selections.
I think I actually prefer longer books generally too, but that is the way of things! I weirdly had this book before I had even heard of The Little Prince 😂
It's nice to see some smaller book videos as most people, including me, tend to focus on big books. I'm saving mine do shorty September I think, but it's always nice to have a short book here and there!
I think I've got 10-12 shorties that I can use 👍🏻
I like the new angle for filming 😊
I do generally prefer big books too, but I am more likey to read a small one if someone raves about it 😁I kinda want to try and do a Heather and read a book a day in september.
@@AaronReadABook the gauntlet has been thrown down!! No way I could manage that, but I admire those who can 😊
An Unsuitable Attachment focuses on Ianthe Broome, a well-bred woman who works as a librarian even though she inherited a private income from her parents. She doesn't lack for suitors but finds herself attracted to the new library assistant, a younger man of lower class origins and without much income. Her friends and acquaintances find this possible attachment "unsuitable."
This reminded me that I'm about due for another read-through of Barbara Pym's novels. I also have the newest biography waiting for me -- The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym. She is one of my favorite authors.
I've loved all the books I've read of hers.
Antigone is brilliant. Try Aristophanes’ Lysistrata too, it’s hilarious. I’d really like to read Rumpole of the Bailey. Some great books there 😊. Fab video
Lysistrata I do have on ebook, I suppose technically I have all greek things on ebook as you can get them all free. It does sound funny so I might tackle that one first.
Antigone, either in the Complete Greek Tragedies translation, or the Robert Fagles translation is great. The shortest books I have are some plays, and some of the shorter works of Freud.
My other copy is Fagles, I enjoyed his translation of The Iliad although I've read no other. I need to read more plays generally.
Fagels' translation is very good. I like his, Lattimore, Chapman, and Pope's translations. I was at one time quite obsessed with Homer and spent a long period of time studying the first book of the Iliad in Greek.
Oh man if you've got Lysistrata, you should get to it sooner rather than later. Its brilliant and hilarious.
I didn't know Trollope could write short books! 😂
I've heard lots of good things so I'll definitely get to that one soon.
Rumpole is something that's been recommended to me for yonks so, like you, I must try to read one of the books. I thought the most interesting part of Moby Dick was the Nantucket section so your sea book (I forget the title now) interests me. I also own In the Heart of the Sea and haven't read it. I assume it's pretty good? I think my favourite sea book was Redburn by Herman Melville, not as long as Moby Dick and far more interesting to my mind. Your mileage may vary of course.
I think I need to re-read Moby Dick, I remember falling asleep on the train a lot whilst reading it many years ago when I was new to commuting. I love sea books, the Aubrey & Maturin series is my favourite series ever probably. In The Heart Of The Sea is Nantucket heavy from what I remember.
Antigone is wonderful. The Ancient Greek plays hold up amazingly well - humans gonna human. This is one case where I'd say read the introduction - much of the tension is based on Greek rules around burial of the dead/afterlife and if you don't know what those are up front much of the characters' motivations will be obscure. You also need to go in knowing the Oedipus myth and the backstory of the characters - which all of the contemporary Greeks would also have known up front. This is not the source of the myth, but even way back then a riff/retelling. Most good editions have an introduction that frames the story and explains that stuff.
I also still have to get to Things Fall Apart!
Your 'shortest' books mostly aren't all that short! GR tells me that most years I have at least one 'book' that comes in under 50pp...
Thanks for the heads up, I tend to not read the intros first because I hate spoilers but I will make an exception in this case. I vaguely know the Oedipus myth, and I have Robert Grave's and Stephen Fry's books on greek myths so I could read them too. I do have shorter books but I've read them all, I tend to not buy short ones in physical copies too and I didn't include poetry books either.
@@AaronReadABook Yeah, the Greek plays are short and are mostly based on stories that literally everyone watching them would already know, so there's pretty much zero introducing 'this is the backstory' or 'this is how this character is related to this one and this is why they're reacting in this way' - they just plop you in 'in medias res'. So do go in well informed - you'll get a lot more out of it. These are more about analyzing the characters and their reactions than just rehashing the plot, which everyone already knew. Antigone, for example, starts after a war in which both her brothers have been killed, and the war was over succession after the queen killed herself when she found out that her husband was also her son who killed his father etc etc - none of this is really explained in the play. It's kind of like you're coming in on the third season, episode 4 of a TV series.
@@erinh7450 I suppose if you took an Ancient Greek person to a modern play there would be some confusing parts for them too 😆
@@AaronReadABook LOL, it's like jumping into late-stage MCU movies without watching any of the previous ones! 🤣
Beyond Black sounds interesting and its on kindle unlimited! I downloaded it but who knows when I'll get to it lol. I'm always interested in mediums its embarrassing lol
It's dark humour, and an odd book. Her writing was always lovely though. There's lots of mediums and ghosts. I will warn you though there isn't a neat story to this, it's not plot driven at all.
Hey Aaron!! I’m a bit new to your channel & enjoy your vids!! I haven’t read a lot of these but have many on my TBR list. One I have read is Shane which I love with a few reservations. As with so many authors writing during the first half of 20th century, Schaefer drew stereotypical women & characters of color. Shane includes those problems but I allowed its positives-the redemptive powers of friendship and love- to outweigh those negatives. And Shane himself is a great character. I think the book is far superior to the movie version; interestingly, that screenplay was written by AB Guthrie Jr who won a Pulitzer for one of his western novels, The Way West. Anyway, thanks again!!
Sorry Aaron!! I stupidly forgot that I’ve posted on your channel before!!
I've been quite lucky with Westerns so far in that they have mostly had great female characters, but I can imagine a lot of them don't as you say. The Way West sounds interesting, I'll have to check that out too!
@@AaronReadABook I’m taking a road trip to Wyoming this summer so have been reading Wyoming writers and stories. Zane Grey wrote a book called Wyoming in which he expresses really backward ideas about the “proper” role for women. It may be the first & last ZG novel I read. But I’m glad you’re having better luck with this sort of thing!
@@susanneill7142 I've not tried him yet, but the Louis L'Amour book I read was surprisingly progressive and I guess they are the two major western writers
@@AaronReadABook I want to L’Amour!!
I must have read Things Fall Apart over 30 years ago so although I remember really liking it, that’s about it. I should make reading the whole trilogy a priority at some point. Not a huge fan of Cousin Henry but generally Trollope’s shorter novels don’t work as well for me because I love a big cast of entertaining characters. Lots of people really like it though so don’t let me put you off 😉
I didn't even know it was a trilogy 😁 I thought Dr Wortles did a good job of distilling Trollope into shorter form, in fact I'm pretty sure it was you who recommend it to me 😂 But yes, he's great at the chunkster
Yes it was 😉 it’s the really short ones that don’t work well usually- there are some real odd ducks amongst the ones I’ve read.