Girl don't be afraid of Jane Austen, is an easy classic to read and its very entertainting, I'm on my second reading of it, really enjoying it, hope you give it try!
✨✨Books mentioned (just in case someone might need them) ✨✨ - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - Symposium and The Death of Socrates by Plato - Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche - A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf - Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde - The Plague by Albert Camus - Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez - The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin - 1984 by George Orwell - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl - Classic Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen - Dune by Frank Herbert
I LOVE how Leonie keeps reminding us to not let the pressure of social media make us do things and read books we don't even like, just because its popular or critically acclaimed, and to be mindful of what we're consuming. This is such a breath of fresh air in this community that can sometimes be very pushy and judgemental like, "you must read Dickens or Tolstoy and if you don't you're illiterate"
I teach Wuthering Heights in my AP Literature class, and I hyper focus on the fact that most of the relationships are SO TOXIC. We do not romanticize obsession and abuse in my classroom.
THANK YOU! This should be how books like that are taught. Maybe then teens/young adults (people in general really) wouldn't have such twisted ideas of romance
I'm going to be taking Wuthering Heights in my second semester for this year in AP Lit. I doubt my teacher is going to do the same because he's already romanticized it months before :)
I really don’t think the author meant to make it romantic though ? Like it’s very clear reading it that Catherine and Heathcliff are bad people in a bad relationship causing problems to everyone and that their nonsense almost ruins the lives of everyone around them for multiple generations? Like I didn’t not get a vibe I was supposed to find Heathcliff being an absolute pile of trash to be sweet and endearing 😅
If you feel Austen is confusing in english just read it in your first language. I did that is it takes a lot of the pressure and cofussion off. But I did read Emma in English because I already knew the story. But at first it was so hard, had to read each sentence 3 times haha. Classics are often hard to read in the original languages, maybe with the exception of Oscar Wilde or Dickens.
@@ayesha36 Unpopular opinion but Clueless is better. Like Josh isn’t 16 years older than Cher. That helps. I do suggest Emma. the 2020 movie because it’s amazing and I love it.
OMG I just made comment like this lol Here are some reasons why I think Leonie would like it: - super character focused - you get to follow a generational story that ties together (but the focus is definitely on Ava) - explores themes of life, love, obsession and wasted youth - cozy and mystical vibes! (also kind of autumnal tbh)
Very happy to see one more person interested in magical realism, particularely One Hundred Years of Solitude, which happens to be my favorite book of all time. If you want to read more about South American magical realism I'd also recommend *Isabel Allende's The House of The Spirits*
Can you lend me some motivation to finish 100 years of solitude? I'm STRUGGLING. I'm in the middle of reading it and I feel like it's not at all what I expected. I guess I went into it thinking since this book is super popular, it would be easily likeable but it isn't. It's not the type of book I would think would have as much mass appeal as it does.
@@abbeyroche2983 I appreciate the comment, not a lot of people are willing to ask something like this, giving up or DNFing the book instead, so thank you for asking. (and apologies for the long replies! Im just really passionate about this book) I think the important things to understand are the following: 1st - *Let’s get something obvious out of the way: Yes, it is a hard book to read.* This is not because of its prose, which I believe to be elegant and charming, but because it doesn’t follow a familiar narrative structure, or a stable cast of characters to guide you through the story. Multiple time periods can be mixed within the same sentence even, as the opener _“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”_ That line is insane, it describes the future action of someone in the present, who will remember something that happened in the distant past. That’s an example of how *the use of time and memory* may entice you (as it did me) or may frustrate you, as it’s done to others. It will take time for the structure and prose to click with you, or hell, it may never happen, (and that’s okay, but keep in mind this seems to be the problem for 90% of people who DNF this one). 2nd - *The characters are, if im being honest, garbage people.* They are not good. They commit all sorts of disgusting acts, hell, Coronel Aureliano Buendia wants to marry a literal nine-year-old, and that’s the tip of the iceberg, they can be wretched people. There’s a lot of incest, there’s abuse, and though it’s not exactly explicit, it’s not easy to go through some chapters. Back to the topic of human memory and time, the generations of men and women with the same names, and in some cases the same personality traits and similar storylines, can be terribly confusing. Most editions do come with a small family tree on the first page, this helps, but it can still feel jarring. You’re reading a story about seven generations of a family that seems entrapped in a loop of terrible decisions, mistakes, and tragedies. If you don’t pace yourself it can be repetitive, and boring.
3rd - *This book is not 100% fiction. Technically. It is a sort of political fable that represents the history of Latin America as a whole, and Colombia in particular. The work is best enjoyed by those with, say, leftist or progressive sensitivities:* As a South American man I can vouch for this. People like myself, leftists who have studied the political and social history of our continent, can see that the work represents an exaggerated version of our collective history, from our relation to the US and its neo-colonialist policies, to how we relate to ourselves and our cycles of instability, revolutions and military dictatorships. South America, though I love it with all my heart, is a bit of a wild place, where reality sometimes is stranger than fiction; A way to represent this is to have magical events take place and be seen as normal, which relates to superstition and mysticism, while technological development will be seen as miraculous, or a sort of foreign witchcraft. That’s the true core of magical realism, a way to explain our insane reality to the world. If you happen to be American or European, you may not be familiar with our history, and a *huge* part of the novel may very well fly over your head. If you’re conservative, or any flavor of right-wing, engaging with this material may be a big challenge.
4th - *Garcia Marquez was heavily critizised in his time for basing almost everything in his books in some aspect of his real life:* Macondo is exactly how he remembers his home town of Aracataca, Coronel Aureliano Buendia is modeled after his grandfather and Ursula Iguarin even shares the real last name of his actual grandmother, and so. Garbriel used his work as a way to reflect and analize his own life. The other consequence of this is that the books he wrote, this one being the clearest example, are mainly descriptive, with very very few lines of dialogue. For some readers, having characters that they just hear about, but never actually hear, is, again, incredibly jarring.
I read "The Lord of the Rings" at the beginning of this year (and loved it so much) and my tips are: - give it the whole of "The Fellowship" before you decide if you want to continue, because getting used to Tolkiens writing style takes a lot if time, but it is worth it - I would read in your first language (for me that was German), because getting used to Tolkien is already more than enough (but if you want to read in English that's also okay, I don't want to tell you, what you can and can't do) - prepare for the song breaks xD - just take as much time as you need, Tolkien fans already appreciate even trying Hope this was helpful Rici (from Bavaria/ Germany)
Personally, I think that the English is not actually very complicated at all! I struggled enormously with Tolkien's writing style not so much in the structure of his sentences or his word choice but in his *relentless* determination to let the reader know where the characters are on the map in EVERY. SINGLE. PARAGRAPH. It was a Chekov's gun type thing for me, where I kept expecting all this detailed geography to become a plot point, and it never did. Also absolutely seconding the song breaks. So many song breaks. The book has fantastic moments and the overall story is a work of art, but prepare for the actual reading of it to be very exhausting, at least that's wht it felt like for me.
But Tom Bombadill was a gift for humanity, despite his singing. I wanna read a whole book about him. He was so above the whole The World Is Ending stuff. Same goes for the vegetarian bear man in the Hobbit that somehow just didn't make it into tlotr. I would read 1500 pages about him.
Lord of the Rings is also one of the only book series where I think watching the movies first was a good way to go. It made the books a lot easier to read because I didn't have to stretch my brain to picture what Tolkien was talking about.
I found Wuthering Heights to be more of a revenge story. The “love” of the book is of the most, toxic, obsessional, and emotionally manipulative kind. The book is great, though; a very emotionally intense book, I thought. I also think it can be read as showing the effects of child abuse in adults, if I may offer my personal interpretation.
Def recommend getting to 100 Years of Solitude and The Left Hand of Darkness sooner rather than closer to the bucket! 100 Years is just an overwhelmingly beautiful book (I almost felt like words on the page were glowing while reading) and LeGuin's writing style and characterization are just as enjoyable and thought-provoking as her speculative themes. Appreciate the video as always !
Off topic, but I really really recommend Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The majority of the book consists of brief prose poems describing 55 fictitious cities that are narrated by Marco Polo, many of which can be read as parables or meditations on culture, language, time, memory, death, or the general nature of human experience. It's so magical and dreamy.
I'd recommend Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. It's a satire of gothic romance novels. I love gothic novels too, and although it's not as popular as Austen's other works, it's my favorite of hers ❤
Here is a magical realism I think you'd enjoy: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender Why I think you'd like i: - super character focused - you get to follow a generational story that ties together (but the focus is definitely on Ava) - explores themes of life, love, obsession and wasted youth - cozy and mystical vibes! (also kind of autumnal tbh) It is about a girl named Ava who was born with wings and was mistaken for an angel by a man who then becomes obssessed with her. It's very beautiful and I think it really suits your reading tastes based on you liking The Night Circus, The Picture of Dorian Grey, and Vicious (kind of... we also build to a showdown throughout the book)
Jane Eyre is so fun to read! I don’t now how but these 500 pages flew by like nothing. As for Pride… I prefer the movie. I don’t know why because I loved Austen’s style but I got bored a lot. I haven’t read Wuthering Heights yet but I’ve heard it’s quite difficult so I’m putting it off as much as I can. I do want to read it this year tho! And Frankenstein… girl, you’ll love it! Last but not least: Crime and Punishment… one of my fave books of all time. We had to read it for school and I ended up rereading it as soon as I finished reading it for the first time. Absolute masterpiece! I’m actually bracing myself for reading The Brothers Karamazov but it’s a thick book so it’s quite intimidating
With EAP, I recommend starting with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". I used to teach it in the literary intro class at university and it's somewhat "easy", yet creepy and exciting. It's also the first detective story. Have fun!
5:15 "Ambition, power, science, Gothic vibe, kinda scary" is a very good description of Goethe's Faust. Would recommend if you enjoy that sort of thing (Part 1, anyway. Part 2 is a bit crazy.) Great list btw! 👌
I was going to mention “Man’s Search for Meaning” after you mentioned philosophy, so I’m glad it’s still having an important impact on young people today. And kudos to you for promoting it!
ursula k. le guin was my dad's favorite author and you talking about her books so excitedly inspired me to finally start reading them in his memory even if those books have always intimidated me and i'm super grateful for it, thank you so much 🥺^-^
Hundred years of solitude is a really intimitading book but it is truly amazing. I'm sure when your're ready to read it you'll love it. And Le Guin has a really good novella called "The Wild Girls", I really reccomend it, it's a good place to start with her I think.
these books you chose are, all of them are super powerful stories of authors who wanted to share their side of the problems in the world. all of them touch to an edge where there is a wound whether that wound is painful or not. with this list, while you visit a frightening place full of totalitarian ideas, your next stop would be a world full of elves, then you sit for a tea with a philosopher, then try to find your own meaning in life. as a lover of all these genres and all these books you have listed i enjoyed your bucket list so much! thanks for encouraging people to enter the world of real books :)
Pride and prejudice is really worth it. It was the first classic I read at 14 and I have reread it various times and there is always something new to catch.
I just read Pride and Prejudice in October being a non-native speaker, and I really recommend using Spark Notes as a crutch, when you finish a chapter!! I found that it aides me whenever I don’t really understand a certain interaction, it just clears things up!! The writing is definitely a bit challenging but I think the story really makes up for it!!
Dracula by Bram Stoker is one book I want to read ( its on my bukcet list) and I am currently reading it~ it's taking some time because it is an old book and the writing style is old but so far I love it and its the first time I have ever felt uneasy or a little scared from reading a book
Pride and Prejudice is my favourite book of all time! I hope you enjoy it as well. Before I read it for the first time, I watched the BBC mini series with Colin Firth. It is so good and really helps to understand the story. Personally, I find Jane Austen easier to read than the Brontës, especially as a non-native speaker. Another tip for Wuthering Heights: I think it helps when you don´t approach it as a love story but instead read it as a revenge and a villain origin story. Have fun with these classics!
Jane Eyre is the best book i've EVER read. It has such an interesting plot and pulls you in and has so many plot twists its so good! I promise you'll move it!!
I currently have 50 pages left in Crime and Punishment and I already anticipate a feeling of immense accomplishment. However, I definitely understand why you're struggling with it. I personally expected to get a lot more insight into the inner workings of the main character, but mostly he's just delirious, highly confused and has a lot of encounters with a lot of different people that at least while you're reading it don't really seem to amount to that much? The book at times really confused me, but in retrospect I would still say that I'm highly impressed by it. Let's see what that last bit holds. The next book I'm planning to read is also sort of from by book bucket list: 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It's apparently sort of the origin of modern dystopian literature and Orwell and Huxley drew a lot of inspiration from it. In October, a new edition came out that is introduced by Margaret Atwood and I snatched that right up (along those lines, The Handmaid's Tale is definitely a must-read in my opinion).
I find that Pride and Prejudice as an audiobook can be very fun, I read it twice and am listening to it right now actually. The humour comes through even more.
I think the Jane Austen you would really enjoy is Northanger Abbey, which is based on gothic literature. Also Persuasion is definitely the best one! Don't be afraid, they are very easy to read and I think her humour is still very accessible today.
The left hand of darkness is one of my favourite books of all time. I fortunately got to study it in my final year of highschool and understand the contextual concerns, the nuances, and just Le Guins beautiful world building and writing. I want to read more from her because I've only read a few books!
November is the PERFECT month to read Jane Eyre! I would read Pride and Prejudice at the start of Spring, just because the book and the Keira Knightley movie give major early springtime vibes. I bet you're gonna love both books!
@@barbara9315 well i still have a long tbr but last Black Friday I bought around 50 books and I just now finished them. Unless there is a big sale such as Black Friday I only allow myself to own 5 unread books at a time and I read what I’m in the mood for so I open 2-4 books at once as long as their different genres. Books are meant to be read ya know so I don’t buy if I think it will sit on my shelf.
I absolutely loved Jane Eyre, but I admit that I read it in French (my native language), and I don't think I could have read it in English, but definitely give it a try ! The Plague by Camus is really good, I read it for school, and even though I remember being bored for a good half of it, I think it is an important read, and some parts are absolutely beautiful. Also, in that book the plague is actually a metaphor for the rise of fascism ! Ursula K Le Guin is such a wonderful author ! I only read some of the Earthsea books, and the second one, The tombs of Atuan, is now one of my favorite books of all time
One hundred years of solitude is AMAZING! I’m from Colombia and it’s a mandatory read here. It’s a very beautiful book but the family tree it’s confusing because a bunch of people have the same names so if you can get an edition that has the family tree in it that would be great! 🤍
I think Left Hand of Darkness is a great place to start with Le Guin. I think you might really like Muriel Spark; she's not as fundamental as those mentioned here, but she's a great mid-century writer. I adore the Brontes and Woolf, and I'm in the middle of a readalong of all Austen's books. Might I also rec Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I did a Russian phase, Pushkin is a great nonthreatening one to try. Eugene Onegin was great. I'm working on some french right now, started Zola's 20 book series on the rise and fall of a family through a few generations among the upheaval of 1800s. LotR is great. You can get bogged down near the beginning, but once it syncs up with the movies more or less, it's beautiful.
"Left hand of darkness" is good, but I don't think I'd recommend it as a starting place because it has kind of a weird structure that I don't know would work for a lot of people. "The Birthday of the World" is a short story collection that really shows off LeGuin's ability to build a realistic-feeling world a short page count, as well as the way she likes to explore different cultural setups and their impacts. It includes a story that is a follow-up to LHD, where she tries to get across some things about this non-gendered society that didn't come across clearly to audiences in the original.
If you are hesitant about picking up Toklien I suggest the audiobooks narrated by Andy Serkis. He played Gollum in the movies and just the way he reads the books makes them feel more modern. Also maybe start with the Hobbit(Serkis narrated that as well) since it isn't technically part of the series, you could just read that and be done if you wish.
So many of the classics on your bucket list are some of my favorites! Good choices!! Highly recommend using audio books to help you get through some of those more challenging classics. I did that when I first read Wuthering Heights but only ended up needing to listen to the first few chapters on audio before devouring the rest by myself. It's actually now my favorite book of all time.
Thank you for introducing us to Ursula K. Le Guin's other books like The Dispossessed! I guess they're sorta famous lol but i never knew abt it and I'm much more interested in these ones rather than the most famous series :)
One hundred years of solitude is a generational tale of a family legacy and as you explained the magical realism is more to magnify real life situations, I think you will love it!
wow, I was never a person who thinks about books like "I should read this one and this one before I die", but I just love your videos so much I'm ready to watch anything, and it really was fun, haha. Much more fun and less oppressing if I may say so than all this NYT's and other lists "3000 books you need to read right now" little note: I also considered Austen books as something scary and hard to get, but it is actually funny and easy, especially Pride and Prejudice! honestly, sometimes I wish I can find something similar and easy to read in modern "romantic" books but nothing comes even close. totally is my comfort read for any times, and I will be looking to see your review to it, I just have a feeling you'll love it 😍
Excited to see someone has Edgar Allan Poe on their reading list. He's my favorite American author (and my favorite overall poet). Even if it takes you awhile to get your hands on a full copy of his poems and short stories, I heartily recommend reading his poems "Alone," "A Dream Within a Dream," and "Annabelle Lee" as soon as you can. And for his short stories, "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Tomb of Lygeia," and "The Fall of the House of Usher" are all fun places to start. If I had to suggest a specific collection of his works, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" was always my favorite as a kid (they're the ones my dad used to read to my brother and I before bed when we asked for a scary story), but Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque has a couple of his more famous works as well.
Hah I had to do an Austen vs Brontë thing for a levels. After 2 years of studying I deffo preferred Jane Eyre just in terms of readability. Austen’s plots about the country life is not for me. Hitchhiker’s is super fun! I remember reading it and finding it enjoyable and strange you’ll probably whiz through it. Going to add the plague, brave new world & the essay on DEATH onto the list. Loved the video like always g
These are all great books! I would like to see a video from you reviewing all these books once you eventually get through them. I would recommend starting with Wuthering Heights. Its my favourite book ever, and I would say it is much more of a gothic book than it is a romance.
the only difficult thing about jane austen is maybe the older language but you get used to it after the first couple chapters and the humor is still super accessible! i binge read all of her books in the beginning of quarantine and she’s now one of my favourite authors!
If you're worried about not getting the tone of Austen's humour, I'd really recommend watching the 2020 Emma adaptation to get a bit of a feel of Austen's humour, but mediated through a 21st century lens - it does a great job of picking up the more ironic, satirical notes in Austen's writing. Also, Emma is absolutely my favourite novel of Austen's.
100 years of solitude is amazing! Very intricate, complicated family tree, and interesting way of telling the story. The magical realism aspects are very subtle, like one day it rains yellow flowers. García Márquez is an amazing writer, definitely recommend
I don't know why but I find that book so intimidating. Maybe because it looks so long.. but I keep reading amazing reviews and I know it's a beloved classic, yet I keep putting off reading it because I'm so so scared it will be super slow.
Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were some of my first classics that I read, so you definitely will be fine. I did struggle with people having similar names and some of the historical context, but luckily, there are many resources online to get around that issue.
I just finished the Hitch-Hiker´s Guide to the Galaxy for the second time and not only loved it but liked it even better, so i would 100% recommend it!
Loved the "booket" list vid! "Life...don't talk to me about life..." Sounds like Camus or perhaps Dostoevsky but without giving away spoilers this can be found in that other great work of philosophy "The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy." Think you're gonna love it!
This is a great list. I have personally read Frankenstein and it is one of my favourites of all time, I also have read some Jane Austen (Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey) which didn't blow my mind or anything but I still really enjoyed them and I will reread them. I am curious what you think about Wuthering Heights because people either love it or hate it. I fell into the former category. There are some on this list that I also will like to read such as Brave New World and Jane Eyre. Thanks for the recommendation of The Myth of Sisyphus. I am actually planning to reorganise my books after I finish and hand in my final essay, and I want to finally make a death section. It will involve some non-fiction about death, fiction books on death, books featuring afterlives, reapers, and so on. I can't wait to finally have this selection on my shelf.
What a coincidence! I just finished pride and prejudice last night. I always wanted to read Jane Austen but I was intimidated by the English. But it an easy read. She has a nice way of writing so you should give it a chance. I'm reading northanger abbey now and the romance she writes is so wholesome.
I just finished my first le Guin yesterday. Lathe in Heaven. it was super interesting reading a near-future sci-fi written in the '70s because it was set in 2002 and seeing things she speculated on end up being true was a little scary.
Philosophy student here. If you want to start reading Nietzsche I would strongly recommend you start with either the Birth of Tragedy or On the Genealogy of Morality. Beyond Good and Evil is great, but incredibly complicated: not only does that one in particular require some background knowledge about western philosophy, but its aphoristic style makes it so much worse, if you wish to understand Nietzsche properly. Either way, tasteful list: good luck gettin round to reading all of the books on it.
OMG that fear of not knowing enough about literature to read a book is a whole mood. Like fairly recently I finished both Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and After Dark by Haruki Murakami and I feel stupid because I hated them?? Like they're praised so much that I feel like I'm missing out on something :c
Some great books on your list, especially LOTR & the LeGuin ones. Some that i always recommend people should read before they die are Discworld (absurdist fantasy) and Flowers For Algernon (sci-fi)
I went back and re-watched your section where you're talking about Nietzsche. I didn't know he was considered a "red flag" but I assume it is an extension of the super common misunderstandings about him and his philosophy. Just googling his name and red flag seems to confirm that, but please let me know if you know why he's considered a 'red flag'. Anyway, his sister got control of his estate when he went into decline and died (1900). She took excerpts from his journals and had some questionable people piece together a text. The Nazi's then badly co-opted the already misattributed book and, based on a misreading of Nietzsche's writing, used the will to power. The far-right now are using the will to power as well. The problem is the will to power did not mean a will to physical power, which is what these groups tend to make it out as. Nietzsche also broke with his sister because she (and her husband) were super anti-Semitic and Nietzsche thought anti-Semitism was dumb. Like, outright, wrote about it being a bad thing over and over. TL:DR Most people don't take the time to read and learn about Nietzsche and just take the surface level understanding of figureheads like JBP as the truth. I would recommend starting with The Will to Power if you want to understand why incels and the far-right seem attracted to him. Just keep in mind, it can barely be called his philosophy because it was heavily edited from his notes and parts are speculated as being completely fabricated by the editor(s) his sister used.
@@ayesha36 The majority of what Peterson says about Nietzsche is just really bad interpretation. I'd have to go through his videos again to give you examples but there are plenty of other people, with even more credentials than myself, that have already made videos about it.
Hello! I've been watching your videos for a while now, but I don't know if I've ever commented. Loved this video, and I wanted to highly recommend "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," it is so much easier to read than I expected and highly enjoyable. I read it because it was a pivotal/classic sci-fi novel as well. I found it hilarious, and even if you only read that book/story and not the whole series, you should totally do it! ASAP! I can't believe I waited so long to read it.
I read One hundred years of solitude for the first time when I was 14. To this days (32yo) it is one of my all time favourites, reread multiple times. I will read it again soon!
Hello ! If you have difficulties to dive in "Crime and Punishment", I advise you to read "The Gambler", a shorter book written by Dostoevski. My russian teacher at university recommended me to start reading Dostoevki's books with "The Gambler" rather than with "Crime and Punishment" not to frighten me from russian literature. I followed her advice and I am looking forward to reading other books from Dostoevski such as "Crime and Punishment" now. Hope that might help you :)
Pride and prejudice is actually easier to read than you think! It was like the 1st proper classic unabridged I read. I did read it with the audiobook to make things easier but it's fun and enjoyable
Some of my favorite EAPs, and I haven’t read a ton but: tell tale heart, fall of the house of usher, the murders in the rue morgue… I tend to like his horror collection more than detective collection overall. Detective can get a little dry for me, probably because he kind of created the blueprint so I’ve read the formats before
Ursula le Guin is fantastic! She is my favorite scifi author. The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are both amazing. If you end up liking Douglas Adams with his absurd humor, I recommend checking out Terry Pratchett. He did something similar with his Discworld series
I pretty much never read classics and was really intimidated by pride and prejudice, but once i started reading it was actually pretty easy! there are a few words and phrases that aren't used any more but it's usually fairly easy to guess based on context or it isn't that essential to the story
Reading Jane Eyre right now. About halfway through - it’s interesting that it’s written in first person as even though this story was written in a time 200 years ago, one can relate so much to how the main character thinks. We (or at least I don’t) get confronted with the scenarios that the main character might - but given the time, I was surprised that Jane does question her role in different society’s/hierarchies the same way im sure I would.
A few days ago I decided to take a break from fantasy, I mean, not only read fantasy. And I want to dive a little bit on classics, so this video is perfect! I am curious about Weathering Heights, also I brought with me for my year abroud 'Anna Karenina'. And if some of you want a good classic, please read Gone With the Wind, I LOVED THAT BOOK. And please, READ THE LOTR!!!
If you find you enjoy The Hitchhiker's Guide, you might enjoy Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. series. Jody Lynn Nye took over writing the series after Asprin passed.
Don’t be intimidated by Pride and Prejudice. It’s old and a classic, but definitely one of the easier classics (which is why it’s often an intro to classics for many people). I read it in middle school and didn’t have any trouble. Jane Eyre is a little bit more difficult, but not too bad especially if you’re familiar with the story already. Wuthering Heights is definitely the most difficult of the three…and honestly, I personally wouldn’t really classify it as a romance unless you’re one of those people that likes to romanticize toxic people/relationships lol. Crime and Punishment, LOTR, Dune and 100 Years of Solitude are all really good and some of my favorites! And if you like 100 Years of Solitude you should read The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, my favorite book :)
If you want to do a buddy read of sorts, you could listen to Pod and Prejudice, and podcast where two women, Molly and Becca, also read Pride and Prejudice. It is spoiler free as Molly is also reading it for the first time, and Becca acts as a guide of sorts, without giving away any of the plot and provides a lot of insight into Jane Austens world and humor. It's great fun even for people who are not currently reading the book! Also, if you already have audible you might want to check out Rosamund Pike's narration of the book - it is perfection! If not, there are a lot of free versions on youtube for example.
I am the exact same about LOTR! Have to get to it at some point. Don’t worry about Pride & Prejudice, it’s really not too dense at all, especially if you have seen the BBC adaptation or the movie! 📚
For Pride and Prejudice, as a non-native English speaker myself, I highly recommend watching the 2005 film first, because it will give you an idea of the sarcasm and humor, but it still differs from the book in many ways so the book will still be fun and seem new (the book offers more of Darcy's perspective)... And then when you've read the book and hopefully loved it, you can watch the 1995 BBC adaptation which is truer to the book 😄 can't wait to hear your opinion on it!
Girl don't be afraid of Jane Austen, is an easy classic to read and its very entertainting, I'm on my second reading of it, really enjoying it, hope you give it try!
I agree! Jane Austen is great and not as intimidating as some other class lit authors. Pride and Prejudice is an easy start
Agree. Frankenstein OTOH least fir me not so much.
Sense and sensibility.
As a Dutch person who has read multiple classics i personally found Jane Austen really hard and difficult to read lol
I found listening to an audiobook is more enjoyable.
✨✨Books mentioned (just in case someone might need them) ✨✨
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Symposium and The Death of Socrates by Plato
- Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
- A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
- Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
- The Plague by Albert Camus
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
- Classic Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
- Dune by Frank Herbert
Thank you dude. I needed this.
Thank you so much for this!
Thank you ! Hope u have a lovely day.
THANK YOU!!
@@chelli6555 hope you have a lovely day as well 😄
I LOVE how Leonie keeps reminding us to not let the pressure of social media make us do things and read books we don't even like, just because its popular or critically acclaimed, and to be mindful of what we're consuming. This is such a breath of fresh air in this community that can sometimes be very pushy and judgemental like, "you must read Dickens or Tolstoy and if you don't you're illiterate"
I teach Wuthering Heights in my AP Literature class, and I hyper focus on the fact that most of the relationships are SO TOXIC. We do not romanticize obsession and abuse in my classroom.
THANK YOU! This should be how books like that are taught. Maybe then teens/young adults (people in general really) wouldn't have such twisted ideas of romance
I'm going to be taking Wuthering Heights in my second semester for this year in AP Lit. I doubt my teacher is going to do the same because he's already romanticized it months before :)
I love the Hobbit and the fellowship. I start to get bored once we get to the two towers, but I love the characters in the books.
Thank you. Am tired of people acting like they weren't toxic. The book is good but that doesn't mean the relationship are good too
I really don’t think the author meant to make it romantic though ? Like it’s very clear reading it that Catherine and Heathcliff are bad people in a bad relationship causing problems to everyone and that their nonsense almost ruins the lives of everyone around them for multiple generations? Like I didn’t not get a vibe I was supposed to find Heathcliff being an absolute pile of trash to be sweet and endearing 😅
If you feel Austen is confusing in english just read it in your first language. I did that is it takes a lot of the pressure and cofussion off. But I did read Emma in English because I already knew the story. But at first it was so hard, had to read each sentence 3 times haha. Classics are often hard to read in the original languages, maybe with the exception of Oscar Wilde or Dickens.
I've been meaning to read Emma since I rewatched Clueless...
si hard
@@ayesha36 Unpopular opinion but Clueless is better. Like Josh isn’t 16 years older than Cher. That helps. I do suggest Emma. the 2020 movie because it’s amazing and I love it.
But also … the step sibling thing 🫠
Magical realism is one of my favorite genres! One of my favorites is 'The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender'.
Loved that book I definitely cried
That is great book. Really sad.
I love that book so much!
OMG I just made comment like this lol
Here are some reasons why I think Leonie would like it:
- super character focused
- you get to follow a generational story that ties together (but the focus is definitely on Ava)
- explores themes of life, love, obsession and wasted youth
- cozy and mystical vibes! (also kind of autumnal tbh)
omfg yes I loved that one
I only started reading LeGuin’s books a couple years ago but she’s one of my favourite authors now, her writing is amazing!
Very happy to see one more person interested in magical realism, particularely One Hundred Years of Solitude, which happens to be my favorite book of all time. If you want to read more about South American magical realism I'd also recommend *Isabel Allende's The House of The Spirits*
ohhh thanks!!
Can you lend me some motivation to finish 100 years of solitude? I'm STRUGGLING. I'm in the middle of reading it and I feel like it's not at all what I expected. I guess I went into it thinking since this book is super popular, it would be easily likeable but it isn't. It's not the type of book I would think would have as much mass appeal as it does.
@@abbeyroche2983 I appreciate the comment, not a lot of people are willing to ask something like this, giving up or DNFing the book instead, so thank you for asking. (and apologies for the long replies! Im just really passionate about this book)
I think the important things to understand are the following:
1st - *Let’s get something obvious out of the way: Yes, it is a hard book to read.* This is not because of its prose, which I believe to be elegant and charming, but because it doesn’t follow a familiar narrative structure, or a stable cast of characters to guide you through the story. Multiple time periods can be mixed within the same sentence even, as the opener _“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”_ That line is insane, it describes the future action of someone in the present, who will remember something that happened in the distant past. That’s an example of how *the use of time and memory* may entice you (as it did me) or may frustrate you, as it’s done to others. It will take time for the structure and prose to click with you, or hell, it may never happen, (and that’s okay, but keep in mind this seems to be the problem for 90% of people who DNF this one).
2nd - *The characters are, if im being honest, garbage people.* They are not good. They commit all sorts of disgusting acts, hell, Coronel Aureliano Buendia wants to marry a literal nine-year-old, and that’s the tip of the iceberg, they can be wretched people. There’s a lot of incest, there’s abuse, and though it’s not exactly explicit, it’s not easy to go through some chapters. Back to the topic of human memory and time, the generations of men and women with the same names, and in some cases the same personality traits and similar storylines, can be terribly confusing. Most editions do come with a small family tree on the first page, this helps, but it can still feel jarring. You’re reading a story about seven generations of a family that seems entrapped in a loop of terrible decisions, mistakes, and tragedies. If you don’t pace yourself it can be repetitive, and boring.
3rd - *This book is not 100% fiction. Technically. It is a sort of political fable that represents the history of Latin America as a whole, and Colombia in particular. The work is best enjoyed by those with, say, leftist or progressive sensitivities:* As a South American man I can vouch for this. People like myself, leftists who have studied the political and social history of our continent, can see that the work represents an exaggerated version of our collective history, from our relation to the US and its neo-colonialist policies, to how we relate to ourselves and our cycles of instability, revolutions and military dictatorships. South America, though I love it with all my heart, is a bit of a wild place, where reality sometimes is stranger than fiction; A way to represent this is to have magical events take place and be seen as normal, which relates to superstition and mysticism, while technological development will be seen as miraculous, or a sort of foreign witchcraft. That’s the true core of magical realism, a way to explain our insane reality to the world. If you happen to be American or European, you may not be familiar with our history, and a *huge* part of the novel may very well fly over your head. If you’re conservative, or any flavor of right-wing, engaging with this material may be a big challenge.
4th - *Garcia Marquez was heavily critizised in his time for basing almost everything in his books in some aspect of his real life:* Macondo is exactly how he remembers his home town of Aracataca, Coronel Aureliano Buendia is modeled after his grandfather and Ursula Iguarin even shares the real last name of his actual grandmother, and so. Garbriel used his work as a way to reflect and analize his own life. The other consequence of this is that the books he wrote, this one being the clearest example, are mainly descriptive, with very very few lines of dialogue. For some readers, having characters that they just hear about, but never actually hear, is, again, incredibly jarring.
I 100% recommend audiobooks for Austen´s books. The comedy is a lot easier to understand that way!
Agreed! Plus they're all for free on youtube
Edit: also on Spotify :)
Great suggestion. Thanks!
I promise I'll read these books before I die, but your thumbnail was absolute perfection
The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy is hilarious and witty. There are many great readers of this series in TH-cam if you want to listen to it free.
I read "The Lord of the Rings" at the beginning of this year (and loved it so much) and my tips are:
- give it the whole of "The Fellowship" before you decide if you want to continue, because getting used to Tolkiens writing style takes a lot if time, but it is worth it
- I would read in your first language (for me that was German), because getting used to Tolkien is already more than enough (but if you want to read in English that's also okay, I don't want to tell you, what you can and can't do)
- prepare for the song breaks xD
- just take as much time as you need, Tolkien fans already appreciate even trying
Hope this was helpful
Rici (from Bavaria/ Germany)
Personally, I think that the English is not actually very complicated at all! I struggled enormously with Tolkien's writing style not so much in the structure of his sentences or his word choice but in his *relentless* determination to let the reader know where the characters are on the map in EVERY. SINGLE. PARAGRAPH. It was a Chekov's gun type thing for me, where I kept expecting all this detailed geography to become a plot point, and it never did.
Also absolutely seconding the song breaks. So many song breaks. The book has fantastic moments and the overall story is a work of art, but prepare for the actual reading of it to be very exhausting, at least that's wht it felt like for me.
But Tom Bombadill was a gift for humanity, despite his singing. I wanna read a whole book about him. He was so above the whole The World Is Ending stuff. Same goes for the vegetarian bear man in the Hobbit that somehow just didn't make it into tlotr. I would read 1500 pages about him.
Lord of the Rings is also one of the only book series where I think watching the movies first was a good way to go. It made the books a lot easier to read because I didn't have to stretch my brain to picture what Tolkien was talking about.
I found Wuthering Heights to be more of a revenge story. The “love” of the book is of the most, toxic, obsessional, and emotionally manipulative kind. The book is great, though; a very emotionally intense book, I thought. I also think it can be read as showing the effects of child abuse in adults, if I may offer my personal interpretation.
Def recommend getting to 100 Years of Solitude and The Left Hand of Darkness sooner rather than closer to the bucket! 100 Years is just an overwhelmingly beautiful book (I almost felt like words on the page were glowing while reading) and LeGuin's writing style and characterization are just as enjoyable and thought-provoking as her speculative themes. Appreciate the video as always !
Off topic, but I really really recommend Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The majority of the book consists of brief prose poems describing 55 fictitious cities that are narrated by Marco Polo, many of which can be read as parables or meditations on culture, language, time, memory, death, or the general nature of human experience. It's so magical and dreamy.
I’m about to read “into the war” by him.
I added it to my tbr list, thank you.
@@whateverbabe if you want to, let me know if you liked it when you're done with it :)
@@HusseinSheekh he was such an amazing writer! Hope you like it
I'd recommend Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. It's a satire of gothic romance novels. I love gothic novels too, and although it's not as popular as Austen's other works, it's my favorite of hers ❤
Oh yes, I loved it!
I read it in high school and am rereading it now at age 47!
I second that
Actually yeah! I feel like it would suit Leonie's taste more, rather than P&P. The heronie in that one is just so much more interesting as well lol
Yeees it’s so good and funny
My biggest advice when it comes to classics is that just listen to the audiobook versions if you find it hard to read them
Here is a magical realism I think you'd enjoy: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Why I think you'd like i:
- super character focused
- you get to follow a generational story that ties together (but the focus is definitely on Ava)
- explores themes of life, love, obsession and wasted youth
- cozy and mystical vibes! (also kind of autumnal tbh)
It is about a girl named Ava who was born with wings and was mistaken for an angel by a man who then becomes obssessed with her. It's very beautiful and I think it really suits your reading tastes based on you liking The Night Circus, The Picture of Dorian Grey, and Vicious (kind of... we also build to a showdown throughout the book)
Jane Eyre is so fun to read! I don’t now how but these 500 pages flew by like nothing. As for Pride… I prefer the movie. I don’t know why because I loved Austen’s style but I got bored a lot. I haven’t read Wuthering Heights yet but I’ve heard it’s quite difficult so I’m putting it off as much as I can. I do want to read it this year tho! And Frankenstein… girl, you’ll love it!
Last but not least: Crime and Punishment… one of my fave books of all time. We had to read it for school and I ended up rereading it as soon as I finished reading it for the first time. Absolute masterpiece! I’m actually bracing myself for reading The Brothers Karamazov but it’s a thick book so it’s quite intimidating
I felt the exact opposite about Jane Eyre
@@victor_734 me too. i actually dnfed it :(
With EAP, I recommend starting with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". I used to teach it in the literary intro class at university and it's somewhat "easy", yet creepy and exciting. It's also the first detective story. Have fun!
5:15 "Ambition, power, science, Gothic vibe, kinda scary" is a very good description of Goethe's Faust. Would recommend if you enjoy that sort of thing (Part 1, anyway. Part 2 is a bit crazy.) Great list btw! 👌
I was going to mention “Man’s Search for Meaning” after you mentioned philosophy, so I’m glad it’s still having an important impact on young people today. And kudos to you for promoting it!
Persuasion from Jane Austen is also so good, it’s one of my favorite books 💙
Yes! Totally my favorite Austen. And it’s so short and digestible. That second-chance romance is the best.
your list overlaps so effing much with my list + what I have already read and consider something everyone should read
awesome video!
ursula k. le guin was my dad's favorite author and you talking about her books so excitedly inspired me to finally start reading them in his memory even if those books have always intimidated me and i'm super grateful for it, thank you so much 🥺^-^
Hundred years of solitude is a really intimitading book but it is truly amazing. I'm sure when your're ready to read it you'll love it. And Le Guin has a really good novella called "The Wild Girls", I really reccomend it, it's a good place to start with her I think.
Leonie's makeup in the first clip is soooo gooooodddd
these books you chose are, all of them are super powerful stories of authors who wanted to share their side of the problems in the world. all of them touch to an edge where there is a wound whether that wound is painful or not. with this list, while you visit a frightening place full of totalitarian ideas, your next stop would be a world full of elves, then you sit for a tea with a philosopher, then try to find your own meaning in life. as a lover of all these genres and all these books you have listed i enjoyed your bucket list so much! thanks for encouraging people to enter the world of real books :)
Pride and prejudice is really worth it. It was the first classic I read at 14 and I have reread it various times and there is always something new to catch.
I just read Pride and Prejudice in October being a non-native speaker, and I really recommend using Spark Notes as a crutch, when you finish a chapter!! I found that it aides me whenever I don’t really understand a certain interaction, it just clears things up!! The writing is definitely a bit challenging but I think the story really makes up for it!!
ohh good tip thanks!
Dracula by Bram Stoker is one book I want to read ( its on my bukcet list) and I am currently reading it~ it's taking some time because it is an old book and the writing style is old but so far I love it and its the first time I have ever felt uneasy or a little scared from reading a book
Pride and Prejudice is my favourite book of all time! I hope you enjoy it as well. Before I read it for the first time, I watched the BBC mini series with Colin Firth. It is so good and really helps to understand the story. Personally, I find Jane Austen easier to read than the Brontës, especially as a non-native speaker. Another tip for Wuthering Heights: I think it helps when you don´t approach it as a love story but instead read it as a revenge and a villain origin story. Have fun with these classics!
Jane Eyre is the best book i've EVER read. It has such an interesting plot and pulls you in and has so many plot twists its so good! I promise you'll move it!!
Yes yes yes yes hichhiker’s guide to the galaxy! Definitely a must-read!
I currently have 50 pages left in Crime and Punishment and I already anticipate a feeling of immense accomplishment. However, I definitely understand why you're struggling with it. I personally expected to get a lot more insight into the inner workings of the main character, but mostly he's just delirious, highly confused and has a lot of encounters with a lot of different people that at least while you're reading it don't really seem to amount to that much? The book at times really confused me, but in retrospect I would still say that I'm highly impressed by it. Let's see what that last bit holds.
The next book I'm planning to read is also sort of from by book bucket list: 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It's apparently sort of the origin of modern dystopian literature and Orwell and Huxley drew a lot of inspiration from it. In October, a new edition came out that is introduced by Margaret Atwood and I snatched that right up (along those lines, The Handmaid's Tale is definitely a must-read in my opinion).
I find that Pride and Prejudice as an audiobook can be very fun, I read it twice and am listening to it right now actually. The humour comes through even more.
I think the Jane Austen you would really enjoy is Northanger Abbey, which is based on gothic literature. Also Persuasion is definitely the best one! Don't be afraid, they are very easy to read and I think her humour is still very accessible today.
The left hand of darkness is one of my favourite books of all time. I fortunately got to study it in my final year of highschool and understand the contextual concerns, the nuances, and just Le Guins beautiful world building and writing. I want to read more from her because I've only read a few books!
November is the PERFECT month to read Jane Eyre! I would read Pride and Prejudice at the start of Spring, just because the book and the Keira Knightley movie give major early springtime vibes. I bet you're gonna love both books!
Was refreshing because I need more books to read since I finished my physical tbr and this came up. Yay!
I need to become a vampire in order to finish my physical tbr list!!😂
@@barbara9315 well i still have a long tbr but last Black Friday I bought around 50 books and I just now finished them. Unless there is a big sale such as Black Friday I only allow myself to own 5 unread books at a time and I read what I’m in the mood for so I open 2-4 books at once as long as their different genres. Books are meant to be read ya know so I don’t buy if I think it will sit on my shelf.
One Hundred Years of Solitude raised my expectations about what a great book should be.
I absolutely loved Jane Eyre, but I admit that I read it in French (my native language), and I don't think I could have read it in English, but definitely give it a try !
The Plague by Camus is really good, I read it for school, and even though I remember being bored for a good half of it, I think it is an important read, and some parts are absolutely beautiful. Also, in that book the plague is actually a metaphor for the rise of fascism !
Ursula K Le Guin is such a wonderful author ! I only read some of the Earthsea books, and the second one, The tombs of Atuan, is now one of my favorite books of all time
your makeup looks so cool!
One hundred years of solitude is AMAZING! I’m from Colombia and it’s a mandatory read here. It’s a very beautiful book but the family tree it’s confusing because a bunch of people have the same names so if you can get an edition that has the family tree in it that would be great! 🤍
I think Left Hand of Darkness is a great place to start with Le Guin. I think you might really like Muriel Spark; she's not as fundamental as those mentioned here, but she's a great mid-century writer.
I adore the Brontes and Woolf, and I'm in the middle of a readalong of all Austen's books. Might I also rec Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.
I did a Russian phase, Pushkin is a great nonthreatening one to try. Eugene Onegin was great. I'm working on some french right now, started Zola's 20 book series on the rise and fall of a family through a few generations among the upheaval of 1800s.
LotR is great. You can get bogged down near the beginning, but once it syncs up with the movies more or less, it's beautiful.
"Left hand of darkness" is good, but I don't think I'd recommend it as a starting place because it has kind of a weird structure that I don't know would work for a lot of people. "The Birthday of the World" is a short story collection that really shows off LeGuin's ability to build a realistic-feeling world a short page count, as well as the way she likes to explore different cultural setups and their impacts. It includes a story that is a follow-up to LHD, where she tries to get across some things about this non-gendered society that didn't come across clearly to audiences in the original.
If you are hesitant about picking up Toklien I suggest the audiobooks narrated by Andy Serkis. He played Gollum in the movies and just the way he reads the books makes them feel more modern. Also maybe start with the Hobbit(Serkis narrated that as well) since it isn't technically part of the series, you could just read that and be done if you wish.
So many of the classics on your bucket list are some of my favorites! Good choices!! Highly recommend using audio books to help you get through some of those more challenging classics. I did that when I first read Wuthering Heights but only ended up needing to listen to the first few chapters on audio before devouring the rest by myself. It's actually now my favorite book of all time.
Thank you for introducing us to Ursula K. Le Guin's other books like The Dispossessed! I guess they're sorta famous lol but i never knew abt it and I'm much more interested in these ones rather than the most famous series :)
One hundred years of solitude is a generational tale of a family legacy and as you explained the magical realism is more to magnify real life situations, I think you will love it!
Sister Outsider is fantastic. Super accessible and thought-provoking. I reference it routinely
nice! i'm excited to start it!
wow, I was never a person who thinks about books like "I should read this one and this one before I die", but I just love your videos so much I'm ready to watch anything, and it really was fun, haha. Much more fun and less oppressing if I may say so than all this NYT's and other lists "3000 books you need to read right now"
little note: I also considered Austen books as something scary and hard to get, but it is actually funny and easy, especially Pride and Prejudice! honestly, sometimes I wish I can find something similar and easy to read in modern "romantic" books but nothing comes even close. totally is my comfort read for any times, and I will be looking to see your review to it, I just have a feeling you'll love it 😍
crime & punishment and lord of the rings are at the top of my tbr too! love that you mentioned man's search for meaning, one of my favs ❤️
frankenstein is my absolute favorite book!! i would always always recommend
Excited to see someone has Edgar Allan Poe on their reading list. He's my favorite American author (and my favorite overall poet). Even if it takes you awhile to get your hands on a full copy of his poems and short stories, I heartily recommend reading his poems "Alone," "A Dream Within a Dream," and "Annabelle Lee" as soon as you can. And for his short stories, "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Tomb of Lygeia," and "The Fall of the House of Usher" are all fun places to start. If I had to suggest a specific collection of his works, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" was always my favorite as a kid (they're the ones my dad used to read to my brother and I before bed when we asked for a scary story), but Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque has a couple of his more famous works as well.
Hah I had to do an Austen vs Brontë thing for a levels. After 2 years of studying I deffo preferred Jane Eyre just in terms of readability. Austen’s plots about the country life is not for me.
Hitchhiker’s is super fun! I remember reading it and finding it enjoyable and strange you’ll probably whiz through it.
Going to add the plague, brave new world & the essay on DEATH onto the list. Loved the video like always g
pride and prejudice is so good! it's a very digestible classic and trust me the humour is still very relevant. 'tis one of my fave books heheh
These are all great books! I would like to see a video from you reviewing all these books once you eventually get through them.
I would recommend starting with Wuthering Heights. Its my favourite book ever, and I would say it is much more of a gothic book than it is a romance.
the only difficult thing about jane austen is maybe the older language but you get used to it after the first couple chapters and the humor is still super accessible! i binge read all of her books in the beginning of quarantine and she’s now one of my favourite authors!
If you're worried about not getting the tone of Austen's humour, I'd really recommend watching the 2020 Emma adaptation to get a bit of a feel of Austen's humour, but mediated through a 21st century lens - it does a great job of picking up the more ironic, satirical notes in Austen's writing. Also, Emma is absolutely my favourite novel of Austen's.
I got a tattoo of that Van Gogh painting two months ago! Crazy you mentioned that poster
100 years of solitude is amazing! Very intricate, complicated family tree, and interesting way of telling the story. The magical realism aspects are very subtle, like one day it rains yellow flowers. García Márquez is an amazing writer, definitely recommend
that sounds so wonderful!
I don't know why but I find that book so intimidating. Maybe because it looks so long.. but I keep reading amazing reviews and I know it's a beloved classic, yet I keep putting off reading it because I'm so so scared it will be super slow.
@@user-qu8zs7vs1x it is intimidating and tbh i only read it because I had to read it for school, but I'm glad they made me do it!
I absolutely adore Pride and Prejudice. I've read it a few times now. Very much looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it! ☺
Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were some of my first classics that I read, so you definitely will be fine. I did struggle with people having similar names and some of the historical context, but luckily, there are many resources online to get around that issue.
I just finished the Hitch-Hiker´s Guide to the Galaxy for the second time and not only loved it but liked it even better, so i would 100% recommend it!
Loved the "booket" list vid! "Life...don't talk to me about life..." Sounds like Camus or perhaps Dostoevsky but without giving away spoilers this can be found in that other great work of philosophy "The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy." Think you're gonna love it!
Have you heard of Junji ito?? I love his creepy stories! Plus his art style is GOOD(highly recommend)(manga)
My dad is very into the importance of the classics and loves Sci fi so Dune and Jane Eyre were two of my favorite books in middle school.
22:40 I appriciate how you hand partily hid the text on your cup so it read "late" while you talked about books to read before you die. Very fitting.
ohhhh nice
This is a great list. I have personally read Frankenstein and it is one of my favourites of all time, I also have read some Jane Austen (Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey) which didn't blow my mind or anything but I still really enjoyed them and I will reread them. I am curious what you think about Wuthering Heights because people either love it or hate it. I fell into the former category. There are some on this list that I also will like to read such as Brave New World and Jane Eyre. Thanks for the recommendation of The Myth of Sisyphus. I am actually planning to reorganise my books after I finish and hand in my final essay, and I want to finally make a death section. It will involve some non-fiction about death, fiction books on death, books featuring afterlives, reapers, and so on. I can't wait to finally have this selection on my shelf.
What a coincidence! I just finished pride and prejudice last night. I always wanted to read Jane Austen but I was intimidated by the English. But it an easy read. She has a nice way of writing so you should give it a chance. I'm reading northanger abbey now and the romance she writes is so wholesome.
The audiobook version of Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy is really good!
One of the best introductions to Magic Realism and very reader friendly is “House of the Spirits” by Isabella Allende.
I just finished my first le Guin yesterday. Lathe in Heaven. it was super interesting reading a near-future sci-fi written in the '70s because it was set in 2002 and seeing things she speculated on end up being true was a little scary.
Philosophy student here. If you want to start reading Nietzsche I would strongly recommend you start with either the Birth of Tragedy or On the Genealogy of Morality. Beyond Good and Evil is great, but incredibly complicated: not only does that one in particular require some background knowledge about western philosophy, but its aphoristic style makes it so much worse, if you wish to understand Nietzsche properly. Either way, tasteful list: good luck gettin round to reading all of the books on it.
thanks for the tip!
OMG that fear of not knowing enough about literature to read a book is a whole mood. Like fairly recently I finished both Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and After Dark by Haruki Murakami and I feel stupid because I hated them?? Like they're praised so much that I feel like I'm missing out on something :c
Some great books on your list, especially LOTR & the LeGuin ones. Some that i always recommend people should read before they die are Discworld (absurdist fantasy) and Flowers For Algernon (sci-fi)
I went back and re-watched your section where you're talking about Nietzsche. I didn't know he was considered a "red flag" but I assume it is an extension of the super common misunderstandings about him and his philosophy. Just googling his name and red flag seems to confirm that, but please let me know if you know why he's considered a 'red flag'.
Anyway, his sister got control of his estate when he went into decline and died (1900). She took excerpts from his journals and had some questionable people piece together a text. The Nazi's then badly co-opted the already misattributed book and, based on a misreading of Nietzsche's writing, used the will to power. The far-right now are using the will to power as well. The problem is the will to power did not mean a will to physical power, which is what these groups tend to make it out as. Nietzsche also broke with his sister because she (and her husband) were super anti-Semitic and Nietzsche thought anti-Semitism was dumb. Like, outright, wrote about it being a bad thing over and over.
TL:DR Most people don't take the time to read and learn about Nietzsche and just take the surface level understanding of figureheads like JBP as the truth. I would recommend starting with The Will to Power if you want to understand why incels and the far-right seem attracted to him. Just keep in mind, it can barely be called his philosophy because it was heavily edited from his notes and parts are speculated as being completely fabricated by the editor(s) his sister used.
Figureheads like... Peterson? In what sense?
@@ayesha36 The majority of what Peterson says about Nietzsche is just really bad interpretation. I'd have to go through his videos again to give you examples but there are plenty of other people, with even more credentials than myself, that have already made videos about it.
Hello! I've been watching your videos for a while now, but I don't know if I've ever commented. Loved this video, and I wanted to highly recommend "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," it is so much easier to read than I expected and highly enjoyable. I read it because it was a pivotal/classic sci-fi novel as well. I found it hilarious, and even if you only read that book/story and not the whole series, you should totally do it! ASAP! I can't believe I waited so long to read it.
I read One hundred years of solitude for the first time when I was 14. To this days (32yo) it is one of my all time favourites, reread multiple times. I will read it again soon!
Hello ! If you have difficulties to dive in "Crime and Punishment", I advise you to read "The Gambler", a shorter book written by Dostoevski. My russian teacher at university recommended me to start reading Dostoevki's books with "The Gambler" rather than with "Crime and Punishment" not to frighten me from russian literature. I followed her advice and I am looking forward to reading other books from Dostoevski such as "Crime and Punishment" now. Hope that might help you :)
Great video! Loving that memento mori book choosing philosophy
Pride and prejudice is actually easier to read than you think! It was like the 1st proper classic unabridged I read. I did read it with the audiobook to make things easier but it's fun and enjoyable
The audiobooks for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series is fantastic since they’re read by the author, would highly recommend the audio
Weirdly enough, the dense "explanation" parts of 1984 were my personal favorite.
You will love 'Hitchhikers guide'!!!
Some of my favorite EAPs, and I haven’t read a ton but: tell tale heart, fall of the house of usher, the murders in the rue morgue… I tend to like his horror collection more than detective collection overall. Detective can get a little dry for me, probably because he kind of created the blueprint so I’ve read the formats before
Ursula le Guin is fantastic! She is my favorite scifi author. The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are both amazing. If you end up liking Douglas Adams with his absurd humor, I recommend checking out Terry Pratchett. He did something similar with his Discworld series
I pretty much never read classics and was really intimidated by pride and prejudice, but once i started reading it was actually pretty easy! there are a few words and phrases that aren't used any more but it's usually fairly easy to guess based on context or it isn't that essential to the story
I love the aesthetic of your videos
I would strongly recommend two books in magical realism genre by Italo Calvino - "If on a winter's night a traveller" and "Invisible cities".
Reading Jane Eyre right now. About halfway through - it’s interesting that it’s written in first person as even though this story was written in a time 200 years ago, one can relate so much to how the main character thinks. We (or at least I don’t) get confronted with the scenarios that the main character might - but given the time, I was surprised that Jane does question her role in different society’s/hierarchies the same way im sure I would.
A few days ago I decided to take a break from fantasy, I mean, not only read fantasy. And I want to dive a little bit on classics, so this video is perfect!
I am curious about Weathering Heights, also I brought with me for my year abroud 'Anna Karenina'. And if some of you want a good classic, please read Gone With the Wind, I LOVED THAT BOOK.
And please, READ THE LOTR!!!
that frankenstein edition is so pretty tho
what a great list! loved this video
If you find you enjoy The Hitchhiker's Guide, you might enjoy Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. series. Jody Lynn Nye took over writing the series after Asprin passed.
Don’t be intimidated by Pride and Prejudice. It’s old and a classic, but definitely one of the easier classics (which is why it’s often an intro to classics for many people). I read it in middle school and didn’t have any trouble. Jane Eyre is a little bit more difficult, but not too bad especially if you’re familiar with the story already. Wuthering Heights is definitely the most difficult of the three…and honestly, I personally wouldn’t really classify it as a romance unless you’re one of those people that likes to romanticize toxic people/relationships lol.
Crime and Punishment, LOTR, Dune and 100 Years of Solitude are all really good and some of my favorites! And if you like 100 Years of Solitude you should read The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, my favorite book :)
Had to read brave new world in high school and I loved it so much!
so good!
If you want to do a buddy read of sorts, you could listen to Pod and Prejudice, and podcast where two women, Molly and Becca, also read Pride and Prejudice. It is spoiler free as Molly is also reading it for the first time, and Becca acts as a guide of sorts, without giving away any of the plot and provides a lot of insight into Jane Austens world and humor. It's great fun even for people who are not currently reading the book!
Also, if you already have audible you might want to check out Rosamund Pike's narration of the book - it is perfection! If not, there are a lot of free versions on youtube for example.
that sounds so fun, thanks for recommending!
I am the exact same about LOTR! Have to get to it at some point.
Don’t worry about Pride & Prejudice, it’s really not too dense at all, especially if you have seen the BBC adaptation or the movie! 📚
For Pride and Prejudice, as a non-native English speaker myself, I highly recommend watching the 2005 film first, because it will give you an idea of the sarcasm and humor, but it still differs from the book in many ways so the book will still be fun and seem new (the book offers more of Darcy's perspective)... And then when you've read the book and hopefully loved it, you can watch the 1995 BBC adaptation which is truer to the book 😄 can't wait to hear your opinion on it!