Wow that burgundy is a power color on you!!! Skin is luminous!!! Thank you for reminding me that I don’t have to follow any reading rules this year ! Happy reading !!
I love your videos and the style of your content! I absolutely can't wait for your review of The Idiot. Thanks for your videos and pls never stop making them 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Happy New Years Alana, I always look forward to your videos. I recommend adding Catcher in the Rye to your 2025 reading list if you haven’t read it already.
Would love to hear your personal take on it. It’s gotten enough praise over the years and I think a negative review would be more interesting to read/ watch
The outlander series is my all-time favorite, the TV show does not compare to the books. You are in for a treat with drums of autumn so much happens, oh my gosh, happy reading😊
@ when I tell you, oh my goodness brace yourself so much is gonna happen in that book, I called that the book where the whole family is reunited, get ready for an adventure❤️
Oh my gosh, so many that I've never even heard of! 🙄 Villette has been on my shelf since those dawg-gone Penguin Clothbound editions were released and I *still* haven't read it! Happy New Year...am I still allowed to say that?! 🤭 Thanks for sharing! 📚
Hi, Alana! Loving your chanel. Thanks to you, I picked up Stoner and I’m just completely obsessed with John Williams! “The idiot” is also on my list for 2025. Dosto never disappoints! Happy new year to you!
I love that shirt on you. The delicate ruffle is stunning. I'm glad to see Tokarczuk on your list. If you ever want more Polish writers Peasants by Raymond, who was also a Nobel prize winning writer, is excellent. Also, Solaris (which was made into a movie with George Clooney weirdly wasn't as good as I hoped). I like the list. Once I was stuck in life and I went for an art session with this local artist Laura Hollick. We made a collage and I couldn't find perfect pictures so I left all these white spaces. "I rather have nothing than perfect." She really liked it and said, "I'm glad you left some room for life to take you somewhere." I hope you'll allow some white space. I am rereading Brave New World. I read it in high school and loved it, so decided to see if anything changed. So far, loving it. I also want to read Educated by Tara W. I've been sooo into memoirs. I bought Before The Coffee Gets Cold on a whim but I'm really liking it. Happy New Year Alana. You look great.
I love the Windup Bird Chronicle. My one suggestion; don't try to solve the mystery. Enjoy the journey to it's conclusion. I tied myself in mental knots trying to guess what was happening and later realized that Murakami is a vibes read. The ending is only a small part of the enjoyment you can get from it when you let it wash over you from cover to cover.
Completely agree about the Southern California vibe and weather. I'm a Pacific Northwest guy. It suits me perfectly. Southern CA is kinda the opposite of that.
I enjoy your chats very much, and your reviews are always interesting. If I could only read 1 book in 2025 it would have to be War & Peace as I've read all the Big Dostoevsky's and Anna Karenina.
Im reading Notes From The Underground by your boy and its laugh out loud hilarious...Im looking forward to reading East of Eden and Crime and Punishment later in the year
great plans, looking forward to hearing all about them. I'm thinking the must read for me this year is going to be one of the ones you've championed Brothers Karamazov or East of Eden. I've read both Steinbeck and Dostoevsky before, but not those two. That being said, after reading Germinal I might end up going down a Zola rabbit hole for the rest of the year.
You have a great 2025 reading year planned! GURL...that Game of Thrones is going to be a HITTAH lol....I am planning to read Anna Karenina this year. My reading 2025 goal is to focus on quality and substance works!
Happy New Year! I started TheBrothers Karamazov before Christmas. I had to leave the family for a bit… to the right ho,I day vibe. But I’m back to this crazy family now!
My only TBR for this year is all three volumes of The Gulag Archipelago. I'm really bad with non fiction so I've decided to space them out four months apart starting in January. They have been on my shelves for years and I feel guilty about it. Other than that I hope to read some Steinbeck, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, and hopefully this is the summer I read Gone with the Wind. I love your channel. Look forward to all your videos and thoughts. Thank you for sharing and for always keeping it real. Have a wonderful new year! 🎊
Storm of Swords is a top 5 fantasy book. I can't wait to hear your thoughts about that one. Yeah Venice Beach is like a shanty town. I enjoyed North CA a bit more. Happy New Year.
Love your vids Alana. I literally picked up Books of Jacob a month ago and it’s on my list for this year as well. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.
A better plan than I got! I think my wing will be overwhelmed this year. My one must-read: my annual Zola. But, okay, Villette is in my cart--same edition you have in your mitt there. Maybe I'll tag along with you and make that a must too. My one Gissing was quite good: The Odd Women. Flows well, despite some creaky plot developments.
"New Grub Street" is more like British grunge which is hardly grunge 😆😸 But I just retried it after a long time and liked it 👍 There is some struggling writer poverty in there but with the British "genteel" sheen thrown over it!
The Idiot carried me through into 2021 and that January along with its vibes are solidly in my mind thanks to the wonderful time I had reading The Idiot. Was my first Dostoyevsky and probably sits as my most enjoyable? It's not as complex and layered as The Brothers Karamazov so I'm tempted to reread it soon. Just so digestible, endearing and still raises some of D-Money's classic questions. Also you majorly put me onto Villette in another video so I'm gassed you'll be picking it up again in 2025, I look forward to reading it alongside you. Thanks for the great video yet again x
Hi @maryzhang, would love it if you'd share your thoughts on Margaret Mitchell when you get to "tomorrow is another day". A video on your own channel perhaps? I'd waited for years with bated breath to read GWTW, it was caught up in some legal shenanigans and couldn't be recorded as an audiobook until 2006, SUPER dyslexic can't read any other way I'm afraid. When it finally did come out I wanted Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh to just jump off the pages at me but...I found the most enduring bit of wisdom in the whole brick, I mean book, was Rhett Butler's astute observation near the very beginning that the North was destined to win the war because they had ALL the manufacturing capacity. I'm an old black dude so I really couldn't properly enjoy Rhett's reluctant agreement to "join your damn klan" , I'm just speculating here but this had to be a nod to Huckleberry Finn saying that he'd "go to Hell then!" As for Mammy's constant fainting fits...come on now Margaret! I hope you Enjoy!
Hi Alana, WOW! Sounds like you're planning on being a busy girl in 2025! I'm glad you're scheduling some room for rabbit holes. That TBR is so fluff-free you might want a few palate cleansers in betwixt, something lightweight and easy like…The Gulag Archipelago. 🤣
I like that you are not setting a numerical goal. I have decided to take that road this year. I observe that persons set a big number and can't remember the books so well. I like to absorb my books and I just want to read. That was what I really liked about books as a child and even now when I read a book that really affects me. This year, my greatest need in reading is not a book count but actually reading my books despite my busy schedule. Reading most days is my priority this year since I don't have a book count goal this year. I want to get through all of R.F. Kuang, Nicola Yoon, Fredrik Backman and Sally Roooney's works because I really like their writing styles and the messages in their books. Dystopian, critical fantasy, sci-fi and literary fiction are the genres I really want to dive into this year. I hope to really reflect on my reading quarterly according to how those are set up with my job. My workload differs at certain times of the year. Since I made these decisions, I feel free and excited about reading again like I used to be. I am actually excited in a different way when I see my bookshelf. Yay! 🎆
If I can only read one book this year it would be 1Q84. I figure the length and contents would be enough to occupy me for a good chunk of the year. Last year I read Murakami's After Dark at night with a cold beer and pre-prepared playlist on TH-cam and it was awesome experience. The music really elevated the book and had me so engrossed I lost track of time. I also recently bought The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. I accidentally got Cockrell's translation for Crime and Punishment which isn't the usual "recommended" version... I guess we'll see how that goes lol.
The one book I really want to read this year is Divine Days by Leon Forrest. I've had this on my shelves for over a year and I'm finally starting it this month.
Hey girl 😂. I can’t wait to see the review for all of these that you mentioned. You have such gems on your shelf! Morning and Evening 🤌🏽! I have New Grub Street, a dense book about a writer is an auto buy for me. Outlander! I keep saying I’m going to finish it for years. Maybe I’ll start by rewatching your reviews!
I love ur vids and also i love this advice i only have a 25 books for ‘25 book list and thats it i dont have any more strict goals bc i think these made reading exhausting so to speak in ‘24 (also youre such a gorgina ❤❤) also on the one book Q i think a bit of a cheating answer but i want to finish the Neapolitan quartet this year
I just finished a reread of A Storm of Swords. Haven't read it since before watching the show and it's still as great as I remember. That's awesome that you can go into it blind, hope you enjoy. I'm also planning a reread of Of Mice and Men. I read it in high school and I remember enjoying it but that was a long time ago. Otherwise my plans for the year are to start reading some of the Russians, I already have The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina on my shelf, so they are my starting point.
In 2024, I decided to spend my free time reading. I low-balled the quantity of books I anticipated reading and came up with 12 books. In September I reached that goal (Yay me 🎉) and readjusted my goal by adding on two more books. I finished the year with 20 books. In 2025, I'm repeating the goal of 12 books. As far as books I want to read, I am planning on the audiobooks of "Moby Dick":and "The Count of Monte Cristo." I began Monte Cristo a few years ago and was loving it but had to drop it. I want to start again and finish it this year.
I’ve already broken my vow to read only from my bookshelves! My TBR is ridiculous. I have a milestone birthday this year and I’d really like to reread all of the books I hated in high school including Moby Dick and Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, The Bell Jar and Player Piano. With all of that said if I were allowed only one “book” this year it would be the Complete Jewish Bible. I look forward to your next video. 🎉
It sounds like you went to Small World Books in Venice Beach. As someone who moved from the Midwest to LA 16 years ago, I was laughing at your description of LA. I felt that way for about a year. Now, I've gone native and don't even notice any of the weirdness.
Happy New Year, Alana! The Idiot is my winter book; I want to finish it this year. I also have The Books of Jacob and Flights should have read it. I've never been a person who had to read a set number of books in a year. As a slow reader, I don't read over thirty-five books in one year. At least 40% of books I read are fiction, but I manage to tie fiction to nonfiction (a reason for my ability to retain what I read). I'm doing one re-read of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and I need to get to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. As I'm writing, reading Flights and Song of Solomon is a good idea since both books have flight as a theme.
I have no idea where you are, but I hope you’re ok with Chicago. 🤔 When I was a kid I saw _The Seventh Cross_ (with Spencer Tracy) on TV and was enthralled by the story - never knew it was a book, but, depending on your review I may run out and grab it.
Sounds like a FIRE 🔥 year!! Currently I'm reading Les Miserables (over 3 months) and Doctor Zhivago. Taking both really slow. If i could only read one book it would be War and Peace. I'm thinking of starting it in December. I know that's an odd time but I think it fits better in the winter😅
I want to read one big book a month (January is The Children’s Book). I want to limit the number of 2025 releases and focus more on my TBR. And I want to read one new-to-me author each month, starting with Clarice Lispector. I’m looking forward to this year’s reading.
I’m just finishing ‘Emma’ by Austin. But for 2025, I’m looking forward to reading ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ by Kazantzakis; ‘And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks’ by Burroughs and Keroauc; & ‘Demons’ by Dostoevsky.
Oh dear me! A Stranger who has the Plague and is a Junky is a rough gate to the city. According to Pete Seeger and his Weavers 🎶 there are eleven others and I'm pretty sure they're all easier. Are you a big Russian reader, D$, L.T. ect? I don't suppose C.S.L. has ever smacked you over the head with The Screwtape Letters has he?
I've been hearing about several Vigdis Hjorth books. I need to pick one up I've read that Dostoevsky collection. The Crocodile was very funny. Meek Creature was maybe my favorite. I have a Septology bindup to read at some point. I'm always paralyzed by choice. There are so many books!
I have decided that I NEED to finish in 2025 The Talented Mr. Ripley series by Patricia Highsmith. I also want to read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. After watching this video, I've added Villette and The Seventh Cross onto my tbr. Jane Eyre is on my bookshelf too. Should I read Jane Eyre first, or Villette? I would love to hear your opinion!
@@willardmiller8702 LOL YES!!! They are great as a pre-work out. They also keep my blood sugar stable while I’m recording videos for long periods of time. 🤣
Hi @willardmiller, Ha ha ha, if we're back to Alana's background, I'd like to know what happened to the other 2453 pages of Proust, I hope you didn't loose them!😂 Many years ago when books on tape were literally on cassette tape, I was reading Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I had borrowed it from my local library and had it strapped to the back of my motorcycle, it fell off and I ended up buying them a new copy, $ ouch! But it's a great book.
Hi Alana, I'm so glad you got me to revisit Eden, it had been a long time for me and it was just as good as I remembered. So much different from Grapes, even better if that's possible. Steinbeck really did come as close as anybody ever has at condensing many generations of received wisdom down to just one coherent narrative. Even GOD had to use 66 books for the same purpose.
Oooooooooh, I’m stoked to see all of these on your list! The only I’ve read is Villette(didn’t care for it, tbh). Im going to be stalking your channel for reviews on many of these! The one book I would love to read in 2025 would be the definitive biography of Hitler by Ian Kershaw.
Does anybody know why this happens or how to prevent it. Every once in a great while I'll type out a response and send it, then I'll check the next day and it's not there. So I'll re-do the response, then next day they will BOTH be there?!? TH-cam😈!
my TBR for 2025: Revolution of Marina M. by Janet Fitch Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell Station 11 by St. Mandel If on a winter's night a traveler by calvino Far from the Madding Crowd by Hardy I capture the castle by Smith Near to the wild heart by Lispector Crime and Punishment by D Money lol Reread from high school: Hamlet, julius caesar, and Macbeth by Willy "The Bard" Shakes Chocolat by Harris Metamorphoses by Ovid Cloud Atlas by Mitchell Tender is the night by fitzgerald Love in the time of Cholera by Marquez House of the spirits by allende thirteenth tale by Setterfield Mythos by Fry The nutcracker the Enchanted Sonata top tbr for nonfiction: Elon Musk by Isaacson
Katherine by Anya Seton is one if my favorite books of all time but I have not picked up anything else by her 😐 What would you recommend? I also want reat the Brothers Karamazov this year.
My plan for 2025 is to spend $0 on books! I have 100 books at my disposal, amazon credits, a library card, and I just got one of those 50 Classics for Kindle for Free. I am not sure I have any other real goals for the year. I might continue my rule of not DNFing books although it is tough.
I am reading Brothers Karamazov and also all 5 Game of Thrones in 2025. And a bunch of other books….Have had Villette on my shelves forever, maybe it’s time.
Hi Alana, I hope you're enjoying your Idiot. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Prince Myshkin vs. Adam Trask as literally stand ins for Christ. Or what about The Grand Inquisitor or Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov or Smetdyakov or Rogozhin vs. Cathy Ames as stand ins for Milton's Satan? Poor Steinbeck must have been soooo mad at Gwyn when he invented Cathy. Ha, ha, ha! I felt bad for her after she dumped John and he wrote that hit piece about her, so I married her, it was a bad idea.🤣 John was right.
You got some chunkers there! They should make for some good reading. I had also read Metamorphosis in high school as required reading, and I finally reread it last year. I thought it was genius, and hilarious, and I want to read it again! You make me wanna take the jump into Game of Thrones and Outlander. One book or series I want to read this year is Lord of the Rings. Finally!
I think Dostoyevsky's "A Bad Business" is aka "A Disgraceful Affair." If that is the case it is a winter must-read and you guessed correctly on it: I have always found it darkly hilarious 😸😆 and read it most winters. It's about a boss who in a big "liberal egalitarian" mood decides to show up uninvited to the wedding feast of a poor employee 😆😸
@@alanaestelle2076 With your varied reading interests, you seem adaptable 😉 But yeah, I'll admit, SoCal is something else. Half of what people see on screen is true. And that's A LOT.
Can't wait for your thoughts on The Idiot; it's my second favorite Dostoevsky. I would like to re-read it in the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation (I've only read the Henry & Olga Carlisle one) but I'm probably just hunting for any excuse to re-read it. Prince Myshkin 🫂This year I hope to get started on the Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy. I've had them around for years but never cracked them open. Perhaps this is the year!
Wow that burgundy is a power color on you!!! Skin is luminous!!! Thank you for reminding me that I don’t have to follow any reading rules this year ! Happy reading !!
@@FinallyMajor thank you!! Happy reading!
I noticed the same thing. It's such a nice shirt.
@ thank you!! I forgot I had this shirt! I’ve had it for YEARS!
I love your videos and the style of your content! I absolutely can't wait for your review of The Idiot. Thanks for your videos and pls never stop making them 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Thank you! :) I plan to keep the reviews coming.
Brothers Karamazov is the book for me this year! Happy 2025 Alana!
definitely read that book. the alyosha and ivan segments are worth it alone. i was glad to see the idiot on her list
I’m 50 pages into TBK. Where does it open up to the reader and the words come alive?
@@MonteCristoKaramazovI’d say about page 100 on. Before that Dostoevsky is just introducing the family and story.
@@javhari55 I have had it on my list for ages! I hope you'll like it! 🤓
@@antoninima9007 did you manage to tackle it?
Happy New Years Alana, I always look forward to your videos. I recommend adding Catcher in the Rye to your 2025 reading list if you haven’t read it already.
@@tc3583 happy New year! I’ve read it twice and I hated it both times 😅
Would love to hear your personal take on it. It’s gotten enough praise over the years and I think a negative review would be more interesting to read/ watch
The outlander series is my all-time favorite, the TV show does not compare to the books. You are in for a treat with drums of autumn so much happens, oh my gosh, happy reading😊
I’m lowkey nervous about Drums of Autumn lol
@ when I tell you, oh my goodness brace yourself so much is gonna happen in that book, I called that the book where the whole family is reunited, get ready for an adventure❤️
Oh my gosh, so many that I've never even heard of! 🙄 Villette has been on my shelf since those dawg-gone Penguin Clothbound editions were released and I *still* haven't read it! Happy New Year...am I still allowed to say that?! 🤭 Thanks for sharing! 📚
@@Lu.G. haha you’re still allowed to say it ;)
Happy new year!
Hi, Alana!
Loving your chanel.
Thanks to you, I picked up Stoner and I’m just completely obsessed with John Williams!
“The idiot” is also on my list for 2025.
Dosto never disappoints!
Happy new year to you!
Thank you! Happy Reading and Happy New Year to you as well :)
Happy New Year Alana!!
I lived in Northern California and I loved it.
But Im an East Coast man. lol
You have an interesting book list for 2025!!
Happy New Year! haha yea, I'm definitely team East Coast haha
I love that shirt on you. The delicate ruffle is stunning. I'm glad to see Tokarczuk on your list. If you ever want more Polish writers Peasants by Raymond, who was also a Nobel prize winning writer, is excellent. Also, Solaris (which was made into a movie with George Clooney weirdly wasn't as good as I hoped). I like the list. Once I was stuck in life and I went for an art session with this local artist Laura Hollick. We made a collage and I couldn't find perfect pictures so I left all these white spaces. "I rather have nothing than perfect." She really liked it and said, "I'm glad you left some room for life to take you somewhere." I hope you'll allow some white space. I am rereading Brave New World. I read it in high school and loved it, so decided to see if anything changed. So far, loving it. I also want to read Educated by Tara W. I've been sooo into memoirs. I bought Before The Coffee Gets Cold on a whim but I'm really liking it. Happy New Year Alana. You look great.
@@martasoltys9091 thank you so much!! Yes more Polish authors please! And I feel like I’ve heard of Peasants by Raymond.
I love the Windup Bird Chronicle. My one suggestion; don't try to solve the mystery. Enjoy the journey to it's conclusion. I tied myself in mental knots trying to guess what was happening and later realized that Murakami is a vibes read. The ending is only a small part of the enjoyment you can get from it when you let it wash over you from cover to cover.
Windup bird chronicle is a masterpiece and all I can say is🍝😅
Thanks for the tip! Hopefully I can get to it this year.
Great selection. Always good to have a variety of TBRs
Variety is the spice of life!
Completely agree about the Southern California vibe and weather. I'm a Pacific Northwest guy. It suits me perfectly. Southern CA is kinda the opposite of that.
I'm definitely very east coast haha
I enjoy your chats very much, and your reviews are always interesting. If I could only read 1 book in 2025 it would have to be War & Peace as I've read all the Big Dostoevsky's and Anna Karenina.
Im reading Notes From The Underground by your boy and its laugh out loud hilarious...Im looking forward to reading East of Eden and Crime and Punishment later in the year
@@MoneyCodez he’s hilarious 🤣
You’re gonna love C & P.
Just started The Brothers Karamazov a few days ago! Happy reading Alana! ❤️
@@mariahouchaimi5750 hope you enjoy it!
great plans, looking forward to hearing all about them. I'm thinking the must read for me this year is going to be one of the ones you've championed Brothers Karamazov or East of Eden. I've read both Steinbeck and Dostoevsky before, but not those two. That being said, after reading Germinal I might end up going down a Zola rabbit hole for the rest of the year.
Sounds like an amazing reading year! I’m hoping to get to Villette this year, too.
I can't understand why I'm so obsessed with the shelves behind you being slanted 🤔
@@mucchet because it also drives me crazy lol
The one book I want to read this year is Borges' Collected Fictions.
You have a great 2025 reading year planned! GURL...that Game of Thrones is going to be a HITTAH lol....I am planning to read Anna Karenina this year. My reading 2025 goal is to focus on quality and substance works!
OMG people keep saying that about this Game of Thrones!! I'm nervous hahahah
Happy New Year! I started TheBrothers Karamazov before Christmas. I had to leave the family for a bit… to the right ho,I day vibe. But I’m back to this crazy family now!
Happy New Year! That family is crazy LOL
My only TBR for this year is all three volumes of The Gulag Archipelago. I'm really bad with non fiction so I've decided to space them out four months apart starting in January. They have been on my shelves for years and I feel guilty about it. Other than that I hope to read some Steinbeck, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, and hopefully this is the summer I read Gone with the Wind.
I love your channel. Look forward to all your videos and thoughts. Thank you for sharing and for always keeping it real. Have a wonderful new year! 🎊
OOOMPH Talk about going big or going home!!!!!!
Just ordered Animal Farm last night because I feel the same way!
Storm of Swords is a top 5 fantasy book. I can't wait to hear your thoughts about that one. Yeah Venice Beach is like a shanty town. I enjoyed North CA a bit more. Happy New Year.
I keep hearing Storm of Swords is a ride. Venice beach is ..... it's something lol. Happy New Year.
Love your vids Alana. I literally picked up Books of Jacob a month ago and it’s on my list for this year as well. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.
Thank you! Hope you're enjoying Books of Jacob!
The Idiot was also supposed to be my first book of 2025 but I ended up getting a ton of books for Christmas so it will be a summer 2025 read now lol
I think you'll really like New Grub Street! I read it in 2024 and thought it was great. Also can't wait to see your reaction to A Storm of Swords!
I'm excited for both of these!!
A better plan than I got! I think my wing will be overwhelmed this year. My one must-read: my annual Zola. But, okay, Villette is in my cart--same edition you have in your mitt there. Maybe I'll tag along with you and make that a must too.
My one Gissing was quite good: The Odd Women. Flows well, despite some creaky plot developments.
"New Grub Street" is more like British grunge which is hardly grunge 😆😸 But I just retried it after a long time and liked it 👍 There is some struggling writer poverty in there but with the British "genteel" sheen thrown over it!
Loool gotta love British grunge
I mean they gave the world Thomas Chatterton sort of THE suicidal poet, but even in the painting of his death he has a gentility about him!!
The Idiot carried me through into 2021 and that January along with its vibes are solidly in my mind thanks to the wonderful time I had reading The Idiot. Was my first Dostoyevsky and probably sits as my most enjoyable? It's not as complex and layered as The Brothers Karamazov so I'm tempted to reread it soon. Just so digestible, endearing and still raises some of D-Money's classic questions.
Also you majorly put me onto Villette in another video so I'm gassed you'll be picking it up again in 2025, I look forward to reading it alongside you. Thanks for the great video yet again x
Yaaaaaas to Villette!!
The one book I want to read this year is Lonesome Dove.
I'm reading "Gone with the wind". It is chunky, but I am committed!!!
That is a chunky one!
Hi @maryzhang, would love it if you'd share your thoughts on Margaret Mitchell when you get to "tomorrow is another day". A video on your own channel perhaps? I'd waited for years with bated breath to read GWTW, it was caught up in some legal shenanigans and couldn't be recorded as an audiobook until 2006, SUPER dyslexic can't read any other way I'm afraid. When it finally did come out I wanted Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh to just jump off the pages at me but...I found the most enduring bit of wisdom in the whole brick, I mean book, was Rhett Butler's astute observation near the very beginning that the North was destined to win the war because they had ALL the manufacturing capacity. I'm an old black dude so I really couldn't properly enjoy Rhett's reluctant agreement to "join your damn klan" , I'm just speculating here but this had to be a nod to Huckleberry Finn saying that he'd "go to Hell then!" As for Mammy's constant fainting fits...come on now Margaret!
I hope you Enjoy!
I want to squeeze in White Nights, too
Hi Alana, WOW! Sounds like you're planning on being a busy girl in 2025! I'm glad you're scheduling some room for rabbit holes. That TBR is so fluff-free you might want a few palate cleansers in betwixt, something lightweight and easy like…The Gulag Archipelago. 🤣
LOOOL I just ... don't have patience for fluff. I can't be bothered LOL
I like that you are not setting a numerical goal. I have decided to take that road this year. I observe that persons set a big number and can't remember the books so well. I like to absorb my books and I just want to read. That was what I really liked about books as a child and even now when I read a book that really affects me. This year, my greatest need in reading is not a book count but actually reading my books despite my busy schedule. Reading most days is my priority this year since I don't have a book count goal this year. I want to get through all of R.F. Kuang, Nicola Yoon, Fredrik Backman and Sally Roooney's works because I really like their writing styles and the messages in their books. Dystopian, critical fantasy, sci-fi and literary fiction are the genres I really want to dive into this year. I hope to really reflect on my reading quarterly according to how those are set up with my job. My workload differs at certain times of the year. Since I made these decisions, I feel free and excited about reading again like I used to be. I am actually excited in a different way when I see my bookshelf. Yay! 🎆
If I can only read one book this year it would be 1Q84. I figure the length and contents would be enough to occupy me for a good chunk of the year. Last year I read Murakami's After Dark at night with a cold beer and pre-prepared playlist on TH-cam and it was awesome experience. The music really elevated the book and had me so engrossed I lost track of time.
I also recently bought The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. I accidentally got Cockrell's translation for Crime and Punishment which isn't the usual "recommended" version... I guess we'll see how that goes lol.
Ooomph, I think with the Russians, translations can really make or break them.
The one book I really want to read this year is Divine Days by Leon Forrest. I've had this on my shelves for over a year and I'm finally starting it this month.
Next on my TBR is The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. 📖 📕 📚
Ohhhh I love all John Steinbeck novels, my favorite The Grapes of Wrath.
Hey girl 😂. I can’t wait to see the review for all of these that you mentioned. You have such gems on your shelf! Morning and Evening 🤌🏽! I have New Grub Street, a dense book about a writer is an auto buy for me. Outlander! I keep saying I’m going to finish it for years. Maybe I’ll start by rewatching your reviews!
Gurl, I'm about to put you on the payroll LOL
🤣🤣 we’re just a couple of book besties now
@ exactly 🤣🤣🤣
I love ur vids and also i love this advice i only have a 25 books for ‘25 book list and thats it i dont have any more strict goals bc i think these made reading exhausting so to speak in ‘24 (also youre such a gorgina ❤❤) also on the one book Q i think a bit of a cheating answer but i want to finish the Neapolitan quartet this year
I just finished a reread of A Storm of Swords. Haven't read it since before watching the show and it's still as great as I remember. That's awesome that you can go into it blind, hope you enjoy.
I'm also planning a reread of Of Mice and Men. I read it in high school and I remember enjoying it but that was a long time ago. Otherwise my plans for the year are to start reading some of the Russians, I already have The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina on my shelf, so they are my starting point.
I'm a lil nervous going into this Game of Thrones blind ... hahaha
Yes i needed this 😊because I am here trying to figure out which books to put on my list this year 🙏🏾
@@brennykay7147 🙌🏼
In 2024, I decided to spend my free time reading. I low-balled the quantity of books I anticipated reading and came up with 12 books. In September I reached that goal (Yay me 🎉) and readjusted my goal by adding on two more books. I finished the year with 20 books.
In 2025, I'm repeating the goal of 12 books.
As far as books I want to read, I am planning on the audiobooks of "Moby Dick":and "The Count of Monte Cristo." I began Monte Cristo a few years ago and was loving it but had to drop it. I want to start again and finish it this year.
Happy Reading :)
I’ve already broken my vow to read only from my bookshelves! My TBR is ridiculous. I have a milestone birthday this year and I’d really like to reread all of the books I hated in high school including Moby Dick and Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, The Bell Jar and Player Piano. With all of that said if I were allowed only one “book” this year it would be the Complete Jewish Bible. I look forward to your next video. 🎉
All of our TBRs are impossible LOL
I read Septology over Christmas last month and loved it, I hope you are able to get to it.
@@Patrick.__ I really hope I’m able to get to it. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
possible 'The Forsyte Saga' by John Galsworthy. been meaning to read this for quite a while
It sounds like you went to Small World Books in Venice Beach. As someone who moved from the Midwest to LA 16 years ago, I was laughing at your description of LA. I felt that way for about a year. Now, I've gone native and don't even notice any of the weirdness.
That's the name of it!! lol I just got back from LA again (before the fires...) and yea... it's a meme haha
Happy New Year, Alana! The Idiot is my winter book; I want to finish it this year. I also have The Books of Jacob and Flights should have read it. I've never been a person who had to read a set number of books in a year. As a slow reader, I don't read over thirty-five books in one year. At least 40% of books I read are fiction, but I manage to tie fiction to nonfiction (a reason for my ability to retain what I read). I'm doing one re-read of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and I need to get to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. As I'm writing, reading Flights and Song of Solomon is a good idea since both books have flight as a theme.
Happy New Year! You've got some HEAVY reading ahead!
I'm looking forward to reading Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and finally finishing Madame Bovary!
I really want to read Drive Your Plow!!
Can’t wait for the reflection on the Idiot! Happy New Year!
@@joshuaharwell1698 happy new year!
I think this’ll be a Brontë reread and Russian lit sort of year for me. 💜
Curious about Dr Zhivago and The Books of Jacob, looking forward to your reviews of those
I’m excited to read them!
I have no idea where you are, but I hope you’re ok with Chicago. 🤔
When I was a kid I saw _The Seventh Cross_ (with Spencer Tracy) on TV and was enthralled by the story - never knew it was a book, but, depending on your review I may run out and grab it.
Haha I do like Chicago - it’s a fun city! Though I don’t acknowledge deep dish pizza 🤣
Buckle up for A Storm Of Swords. A lot of fantasy reviewers have it in their top 5 fantasy novels.
oh snap!!!
I am starting the Idiot this month as well. I have so many I plan to read this year. This month I am also planning to read Ovid’s Metamorphosis.
Sounds like a FIRE 🔥 year!!
Currently I'm reading Les Miserables (over 3 months) and Doctor Zhivago. Taking both really slow.
If i could only read one book it would be War and Peace. I'm thinking of starting it in December. I know that's an odd time but I think it fits better in the winter😅
It's gonna be a lit reading year!!
I want to read one big book a month (January is The Children’s Book). I want to limit the number of 2025 releases and focus more on my TBR. And I want to read one new-to-me author each month, starting with Clarice Lispector. I’m looking forward to this year’s reading.
Good plan! I'm also trying to focus on my TBR and trying to ignore new releases haha
My current read is probably my book this year and it's A Liitle Life
Currently reading 😢
Wow thats a great reading. How about review of edgar allan poe. Well its your choice to make. Happy new year!😊
Happy New Year! I do want to get to Poe again at some point in my life. I haven’t read him since about high school
I’m just finishing ‘Emma’ by Austin. But for 2025, I’m looking forward to reading ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ by Kazantzakis; ‘And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks’ by Burroughs and Keroauc; & ‘Demons’ by Dostoevsky.
@JCloyd, OMG! The Hippos! Are you a Beat Reader or is this just a foray into madness for you?
@ i’m more of a Burroughs fan. Burroughs was one of my gateways to literature. Him and Camus…
Oh dear me! A Stranger who has the Plague and is a Junky is a rough gate to the city. According to Pete Seeger and his Weavers 🎶 there are eleven others and I'm pretty sure they're all easier. Are you a big Russian reader, D$, L.T. ect? I don't suppose C.S.L. has ever smacked you over the head with The Screwtape Letters has he?
@ can’t say that he has.
I read Hjorth last year and became obsessed. Is Mother Dead was hilarious is a surprising way,
@@litera.dreams3274 I’ve heard she was actually a funny author - in a drier way haha
I've been hearing about several Vigdis Hjorth books. I need to pick one up I've read that Dostoevsky collection. The Crocodile was very funny. Meek Creature was maybe my favorite.
I have a Septology bindup to read at some point.
I'm always paralyzed by choice. There are so many books!
Lol so many books, not enough time!
I want to try to read Cormac McCarthy this year. I have a few, but I wanna track down Blood Meridian. Some people say it's the Great American Novel.
I think I have that one, but I might be hallucinating LOL
I have decided that I NEED to finish in 2025 The Talented Mr. Ripley series by Patricia Highsmith. I also want to read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. After watching this video, I've added Villette and The Seventh Cross onto my tbr. Jane Eyre is on my bookshelf too. Should I read Jane Eyre first, or Villette? I would love to hear your opinion!
I would recommend reading Jane Eyre first!!
Your taste is impeccable 👌
🤣 You’re so into your commentary and some of the books don’t resonate with me right now, but do I see an Ensure next to Crime and Punishment?
@@willardmiller8702 LOL YES!!! They are great as a pre-work out. They also keep my blood sugar stable while I’m recording videos for long periods of time. 🤣
Hi @willardmiller, Ha ha ha, if we're back to Alana's background, I'd like to know what happened to the other 2453 pages of Proust, I hope you didn't loose them!😂
Many years ago when books on tape were literally on cassette tape, I was reading Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I had borrowed it from my local library and had it strapped to the back of my motorcycle, it fell off and I ended up buying them a new copy, $ ouch! But it's a great book.
Hi Alana, I'm so glad you got me to revisit Eden, it had been a long time for me and it was just as good as I remembered. So much different from Grapes, even better if that's possible. Steinbeck really did come as close as anybody ever has at condensing many generations of received wisdom down to just one coherent narrative. Even GOD had to use 66 books for the same purpose.
Oooooooooh, I’m stoked to see all of these on your list! The only I’ve read is Villette(didn’t care for it, tbh). Im going to be stalking your channel for reviews on many of these! The one book I would love to read in 2025 would be the definitive biography of Hitler by Ian Kershaw.
So funny, because I wanted to read more about Mao this year. 🤣 Hashtag fascist 2025?
LOOOOOL
@alanaestelle2076 Did I say something funny?🤔🤗
@@nikkivenable73 oooh there was another reply to this that was funny and I think YT deleted it 💀💀💀 I hate it when YT does that
Does anybody know why this happens or how to prevent it. Every once in a great while I'll type out a response and send it, then I'll check the next day and it's not there. So I'll re-do the response, then next day they will BOTH be there?!? TH-cam😈!
my TBR for 2025:
Revolution of Marina M. by Janet Fitch
Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell
Station 11 by St. Mandel
If on a winter's night a traveler by calvino
Far from the Madding Crowd by Hardy
I capture the castle by Smith
Near to the wild heart by Lispector
Crime and Punishment by D Money lol
Reread from high school: Hamlet, julius caesar, and Macbeth by Willy "The Bard" Shakes
Chocolat by Harris
Metamorphoses by Ovid
Cloud Atlas by Mitchell
Tender is the night by fitzgerald
Love in the time of Cholera by Marquez
House of the spirits by allende
thirteenth tale by Setterfield
Mythos by Fry
The nutcracker
the Enchanted Sonata
top tbr for nonfiction: Elon Musk by Isaacson
Katherine by Anya Seton is one if my favorite books of all time but I have not picked up anything else by her 😐
What would you recommend?
I also want reat the Brothers Karamazov this year.
The only other one of Anya Seton I've read is Dragonwyck. WILD lol
Great list! I also plan to cut out the fluff and keep my numbers lower. Dr. Zhivago is also on my must read list for 2025.
My plan for 2025 is to spend $0 on books! I have 100 books at my disposal, amazon credits, a library card, and I just got one of those 50 Classics for Kindle for Free. I am not sure I have any other real goals for the year. I might continue my rule of not DNFing books although it is tough.
I love this plan!! I plan to buy waaaaaay less books this year.
I am reading Brothers Karamazov and also all 5 Game of Thrones in 2025. And a bunch of other books….Have had Villette on my shelves forever, maybe it’s time.
@@artandbooks5850 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
1 book: The Grapes of Wrath :)
Hi Alana, I hope you're enjoying your Idiot. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Prince Myshkin vs. Adam Trask as literally stand ins for Christ. Or what about The Grand Inquisitor or Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov or Smetdyakov or Rogozhin vs. Cathy Ames as stand ins for Milton's Satan? Poor Steinbeck must have been soooo mad at Gwyn when he invented Cathy. Ha, ha, ha! I felt bad for her after she dumped John and he wrote that hit piece about her, so I married her, it was a bad idea.🤣 John was right.
Hmmm this comparison between Myshkin and Adam Trask could be interesting...
You got some chunkers there! They should make for some good reading. I had also read Metamorphosis in high school as required reading, and I finally reread it last year. I thought it was genius, and hilarious, and I want to read it again! You make me wanna take the jump into Game of Thrones and Outlander. One book or series I want to read this year is Lord of the Rings. Finally!
I love em chunky LOL Ooooooh do it! All of those series are fun in different ways.
Good lord, you are genuinely so beautiful!
@@wholelottaanime2408 you are very kind. Thank you!
@@alanaestelle2076can we go on a book reading date? Maybe read War and Peace :)
Wind Up Bird Chronicle has great moments but essentially goes nowhere lol
If I had to read just one book this year it would be Where Love Has Gone by Harold Robbins
Read White Nights & Notes From Underground 2024, The Idiot is also up next for me in 2025. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
You look good with that shirt.
Thank you!
@alanaestelle2076 you're welcome.
Planning to read: The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
Alana you have great reviews.❤
@@gail1249 thank you!
What did you study in college?
History and sociology
@@alanaestelle2076 I studied philosophy and theology.
1 book - Crime and Punishment
You are stunningly Beautiful the Red shirt is absolutely perfect on you. I will be following you 2025😁👍👍👍
Thank you!
I think Dostoyevsky's "A Bad Business" is aka "A Disgraceful Affair." If that is the case it is a winter must-read and you guessed correctly on it: I have always found it darkly hilarious 😸😆 and read it most winters. It's about a boss who in a big "liberal egalitarian" mood decides to show up uninvited to the wedding feast of a poor employee 😆😸
LOL D-$ is lowkey funny.
❤
@@SheanaJo ❤️
I’m all about the BOJ life
@@KDbooks I know you are 🤣
We want you to give a nickname for Myshkin P. i don't like his. word to mother
Haha don’t do SoCal like that. I love it here!! 😁
@@veis LOL! I ain’t my style 🤣
@@alanaestelle2076 With your varied reading interests, you seem adaptable 😉 But yeah, I'll admit, SoCal is something else. Half of what people see on screen is true. And that's A LOT.
Can't wait for your thoughts on The Idiot; it's my second favorite Dostoevsky. I would like to re-read it in the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation (I've only read the Henry & Olga Carlisle one) but I'm probably just hunting for any excuse to re-read it. Prince Myshkin 🫂This year I hope to get started on the Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy. I've had them around for years but never cracked them open. Perhaps this is the year!
I'm reading it now... I'm nervous for Myshkin ....