If you are new here and considering joining the HardcoreBook club I strongly encourage youth do so. I am just finishing my first year and it has been a truly transformative process. Benjamin is a brilliant and captivating lecturer who has a passion for literature that is, to use a cliché, truly contagious. The comments from fellow readers are insightful and have taught me a great deal and give me additional perspective. If I have to cut my budget anywhere Hardcore Book Club will be the last to go. I am increasingly concerned about the world around me much of which is out of my control. I truly believe that escaping into literature in the past 12 months has been not just a learning experience but has been positive for my mental and emotional health.
@@christopherw1509It’s David Copperfield. The lectures are (I think!) going to start in the next week or so, so there’s plenty of time to get on board and join in.
Do you know if the book club charge up front (I.e. the moment you first sign up, then again on the first of the next month) or do you make your payment on the first of the next month? This is one question I’ve always had about the book club, but haven’t seen answered anywhere.
One Hundred Years of Solitude Metamorphoses Madame Bovary The Sound and The Fury Canterbury Tales Brave New World/1984 The Iliad/The Odyssey The Three Musketeers Rebecca Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Finnegans Wake Emma Secret Charles Dickens book Some Shakespeare play
My college classics professor explained to us that epic, classic literature was a conversation across time: Homer called and Virgil responded.. Dante responded to Virgil, Milton to Dante, Shakespeare to Milton. I always loved that analogy because I understood then that literature, that stories, don’t arise discretely in a vacuum but rather along a timeline, and that they are a dialogue. I’m glad to see people are still reading. I’d like to join you for the upcoming year, if I can. 🙂
I think it was Stephen King that noted that all horror writers are attempting to answer Shelley - while all fantasy are answering Tolkien. In many ways the human condition throws up questions and literature attempts to answer them.
I’m making room in my budget to join this year. I’m sick of watching these videos every year wishing I could join. We’re making it happen! Used book store, here I come!
To be honest, your tone, cadence, speaking, use of language are just a few of the hidden reasons why I keep coming back to your channel on top of the obvious ones, books, selections and content. To see and hear Miss Morrison and Marquez listed next to the greats feels and IS as natural as breathing to me. Thank you! Looking forward to the sessions! 100 Years … a bona fide classic or as my professor once told us, will turn you into a true reader. A solid Dutch/South American fan by way of Amsterdam!
I'm in my second year of high school and read as a hobby; this channel is an absolute goldmine! The way you describe books and authors has always floored me and have made me admire you as a central figure in my reading journey. I'm very excited for this years Hardcore Book Club picks and hope to find some amazing recommendations this year coming up.
The fantastic thing about the internet is that a person can stumble across this video in a decade, follow the schedule, and watch the review videos of the scheduled selections! 😍
I just found your channel, as a Hispanic person who reads a lot i'm ashamed to say i've never read 100 years of solitude. I'm going to join you guys and check out the rest of your videos!
I love the show you make of revealing these every year, it makes it so exciting and really brings up the enthusiasm (at a time when I know I need the boost!) for a new year of sublime literature and excellent conversation!
Although I do not have the time to be a part of the hardcore literature bookclub being a full time sixth form student, I do deeply appreciate your podcasts and TH-cam videos. Through secondary school I wasn’t much of a reader but, thanks largely to your podcasts and TH-cam videos, the world of the western cannon has opened up before me and all I can think of now is tackling the greatest works - I’ve already read Ovid’s Metamorphoses and I’m thinking of reading Homer’s Iliad in Alexander Pope translation. I’m looking forward to your literature content for this year! Thanks Ben!
As an American, we've decided to try to combine Orwell's and Huxley's dystopian visions. Fewer and fewer people are reading challenging books, but they are banning them in schools just in case.
I’ve missed a lot last year here but every time I find myself watching this channel, I recognize what a gem you offer here. I’m beginning this journey this next year. THANK YOU.
🎉 The book club is totally worth the money and is great for those who want to tackle the great books but don’t know where to start or need some assistance. I have not seen another person as in depth and articulate regarding great works of literature as Benjamin. Treat yourself!
Other than having all the videos and extra material from Ben to study and support my reading(reason number one) it makes me feel the urgency to deeply study and finish every book because I am paying monthly for the privilege of high quality literature classes (can't slack off! Now even a bit!). It's a sense of duty, almost. I know I would never have been able to read Infinite Jest or Tales of Genji without his help.
Delighted to see Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Iliad on the list. Two of my favourite books ever. Finished Melville’s and McCarter’s translations of the Metamorphoses in 2024 and am, at present, attempting to read it in Latin. I anticipate that it will be a lifetime project.
2024 was my first year in the book club and my best reading year by far. Even when you don't particularly enjoy a book, you still get something valuable from it because the lectures and discussions are incredible. Thank you, Benjamin, for transforming lives.
Aw, thank you so much!! You have completely made my day. It has been so wonderful taking this journey through these great books with you this year. It makes me so happy to know you've found it so rewarding! 😊🙏
When you say bookclub has reputation of getting readers through difficult books, and not just getting through but coming to love them. That reminds me of Nietzsche's Amor Fati: "Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it….but love it".
I completely agree that some authors must be read in the totality of their works. My current list of such authors includes William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Isaac Asimov.
I was waiting for this video! This will decide whether I’ll join or not. I do believe I will. Your videos are really helpful Ben, and you’ve inspired be to chase the great books. I was already planning to join so I can get help with the Proust project (I plan to get the box set of Everyman’s for Christmas) and Blood Meridian. But I definitely believe this video will push me further to join the book club. 17:59 *gulp*
I few years ago I read Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm and We. We was my favorite of all. I look forward to a new year of reading Benjamin, thank you.
I was reading 100 Years of Solitude years ago and was about 100 pages in when a rather large scare occurred in my life due to a cancer diagnosis and I felt a need to turn to other authors (Whitman, Dante, Wordsworth, Hopkins) in order to face the fears and griefs and sufferings for a time. Full remission for many years now, and I have never returned to Gabriel Garcia-Marquez as simply seeing the book would bring me back and so, about five years ago, I gave my copy to a local library. Your description of it has me intrigued to read it finally. Are you starting in January then?
It’s so funny, I knew I liked your videos I just didn’t know why but now it hit me. I actually was ‘failed’/brought down a reading level my first year in American university. After going through that remedial class and passing it, I entered English 1 and ended up with a teacher you remind me of - Professor Ali was his name. In his class we read some books you’ll be reading this year - Brave New World and 1984. In a 16-week term we read those two, a Nietzsche book the title I can’t remember (it had a fallen angel on the cover I think), Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and Don Delillo’s White Noise (White Noise was the hardest for me). He had such a love and joy for reading that has stuck with me. When talking about controversial works like 1984 he had us discuss/argue about an insanely controversial (putting it mildly) piece of art often called ‘Piss Christ’. Those classes/lectures seem to have really stuck with me nearly 16 years later. I was a Communications major and also for my last semester at university, I had to take a semi non-humanities course to fill credits. I took a class on Shakespeare basically reading 1 play per week and we hit some of the classics. This class was one of three required for all English majors at my university, I don’t fully remember the other two, but I feel like it was writers potentially even Milton and Chaucer. I was the ‘glutton for punishment’, all the English majors were looking at the guy who wasn’t and going ‘why are you here?1’ 😂. My love of the Bard did take me and my family on a London vacation to The Globe but not Stratford and very soon (this December month) to the Folger Shakespeare Library here in Washington DC. Best of luck to you Ben!
When it's raining here in Siberia we (my husband and I) say that's a Macondo. You gave me the idea to offer books to our dauhters for the New Year. One of them will be by Marquez. So, they will understand why we mention Macondo. After Master and Margarita it can be a good choice, at least a journey in a different poetry : it's also a mix of religious myth, tragic history of the country and people, poetry and very picturesque characters.
Ben, I am pumped for next year! My mom and I have been reading "The Sound and the Fury." It is quite an interesting masterpiece, which has prompted me to dive into Faulkner. Starting the year off with Gabriel Garcia Marquez is auspicious because I was planning on reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" during the early part of next year. I am looking forward to the conversations next year. I am, however, trepidatious when it comes to "Finnegans Wake." Yet, I shall boldly go forth. Cheers to this wonderful list! I love the new background! It is quite befitting a well-read gentleman such as yourself. Happy reading!
Very excited about the selections for the Hardcore Literature Book Club in 2025! This year I will really need to spend a lot of time on another plane. Starting out the 100 Years of Solitude is perfect. If you are thinking of joining, I can highly recommend it. Ben McEvoy's lectures are extraordinary and make for a deep reading experience.
Really great books on this list Ben! I would join you but I'm working through my own list at the moment. I'll be reading all of these at some point except for Rebecca I believe. Presently I have finished the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It was very eye opening to pre-Statehood America. I'll be watching y'alls progress and I'll watch your reviews as I read certain books. Thanks for the amazing video and the passion you put in these books. Love and Peace.
Many thanks - great choices! I definitely will pick up a few of those. Thanks for mentioning "We" from Y. Zamyatin as well in connection with 1984 and Brave New World. There is the theory that We influenced/inspired Orwell greatly. Happy reading! 📚
Thank you Ben - you have helped me so much and given me such positivity. Your insightful videos and podcasts are always such a great pleasure to watch and listen to. I have learned so much from you. I am very excited to watch this! I wish you all the very best 😊
I am a new subscriber . I am excited to reread books as well as the new especially authors I’ve wanted to read. Thank you for your hard work and Introducing new books and authors to my list.
Well, this schedule could not be more fun. Thank you for all the hard work and love that went into it!! While I grinned each time a new book was announced and am truly excited for the syllabus, I am surprised how melancholy I feel at the idea of coming to the end of The Shakespeare Project. That’s been such a meaningful journey for me. I’ll be forever grateful for the guidance through our friend Will’s cannon.
Clement’s here! This is great! I’m reading One Hundred Years of Solitude because of the Netflix series as you say. I hope I’d be quick enough to read most before 11/12 when the series premiere (it’s Part 1 by the way)…
What an incredible list! I have so many of these books and haven't read them yet so your timing couldn't be better. Also, I thought you should know that your influence looms large. I live in India and I recently invited a friend home who I hadn't met in a decade. He looked at my bookshelf with Clarissa, Middlemarch, Blood Meridian and he told me, 'You're watching way too much Benjamin Mcevoy...' 😂
Dear Ben, please get out of my head! ;) I already had six of these on my personal to-read list for 2025, I can't believe you chose them also. I'm most excited for Ovid, 100 Years of Solitude and Madame Bovary, as it will be my first time in their company. Here's to a great year of reading for all of us!
If I was forced to choose, Madame Bovary may be my favorite novel of all time; an utter masterpiece. What a phenomenal collection of absolute classics for the upcoming new year!
Love Madame Bovary, Rebecca and Emma. Emma is my favourite Jane Austen novel. I wonder what that says about me? 😊 I love your channel. Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year, Ben! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss literature. X
The worst thing that happened to me last year was that my payments to the book club were blocked due to some new regulations on international payments in my country. This list is tantalizing, to say the least. Some of these would have been re-reads for me. Introduced myself to Faulkner not very long ago, with his Light in August. My best wishes to all the members of the book club!
I read and studied the Sound and he Fury when I was ag university...a long time ago, and you are right in so farcascit is a challenging, disturbing read. (The last adjective being the one that stuck into my mind) yet I think I was not mature enough to get into such a book at the time). I am also loo’ing forward to reading the Canterbury Tales ! Thanks once again !
Ben - it's like you peeked in my mind and made this video. Ovid, Flaubert, Faulkner, Chaucer, Finnegan's Wake, more Dickens, and more Shakespeare were all on my short list of 2025 books to read. I can't wait to join with others.
one can say the likes of Flaubert invented "no such thing as bad publicity" he sounds like an author after my own heart particularly with that quote "an author in his book must be like God of the universe, present everywhere and invisible nowhere." what a superb selection 📚
Hi Ben. I have been following your channel for the past year and when you post a video for a new book discussion I really enjoy it. Is evident that you take your time for each video and each one is made with dedication and love for the written word. I am very pleased with your selection of books for 2025. Of all the books I am not familiar with OVID and Daphne de Maurier, I can’t wait for those videos.
Wow, I mentioned to you a while ago I was trying to read all translated novels in 2025, on my personal TBR has 3 Musketeers, Iliad, Canterbury Tales (original Middle English so a somewhat of an exception) and 100 years of solitude. I won’t be reading in the same order as you, but may have join the Hardcore Literature BC and go through your lessons as I read!
I have to say, as i started my journey into reading again, this experience of community is exactly what i was looking for. I'm a serial dipper in and outer, but in the last couple of years I have really finished books and I am so proud of that. I would love to find ppl to chat to about my truly beloved books.
I’ve been reading One Hundred Years of Solitide for the first time recently, amazing work, possibly one of my favourites ever! Edit: I also read The Sound and the Fury just a month or two ago and loved that as well! For anyone diving into that one next year for the first time, the first chapter is easily the most difficult but will make sense by the end if you pay close attention, if you get frustrated please don’t give up!
Im so excited for 100 Years of Solitude. It is one of my favorite books, so an in-depth tour of it with your group will be an excellent way to start the year for me. Yay!
Thank you!! The Magic Mountain was actually on my longlist, so I have a strong feeling we will have Thomas Mann's masterpiece appearing in the future! Phenomenal work 😊
The way I jumped when Ben mentioned Ovid's Metamorphoses. This is so exciting! PS: I'm also excited with the spotify podcast lectures for 2025 since they've been my companion for years! ❤
Hey Ben, im actually reading The Sound and the Fury right now after putting it down twice earlier this year. It is challenging. But im passed part 1 so i think ive got it this time lol. But im really looking forward to your lectures on it and the groups discussion! Im really glad you picked it!
I've been meaning to do this for the past few years but always seem to fall off a couple months into the year. Going to try and make it one of my main bookish goals in 2025!
I'm glued to my seat and jumping out of it at the same time. I'm pulling books off my shelves, throwing things out of the way....found it. 😂😂😂 This!!!! IS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!
Outstanding and ambitious program. I've read quite a few of these works as I'm sure many of your viewers have, but they are all worthy of re-reading, and indeed some of them I have read more than once but wouldn't hesitate to read again. A few are on my TBR and I have to say they present a psychological hurdle, for example, The Sound and the Fury, and Finnegans Wake. Perhaps I will join!
Thanks for your great work Ben! I'd really appreciate what you do to make us fall in love with the great books ❤. I'm from Colombia and I'm really excited to reread One Hundred Years of Solitude with your guidance...
an absolutely incredible schedule-come paycheck i think i will finally be subscribing! out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on Ariosto's Orlando Furioso? i feel it especially underread today, but a really interesting work.
I usually wait until you make a how to read video before starting a new classic to see what themes I should be on the look out for but I didn’t think you would have 100 Years of Solitide on your list. I’m almost done with it but looking to forward to hearing on everything I missed during my own reading.
So excited to be starting off with 100 yrs of solitude. I read it a few years ago and kept thinking this past year that i really should revisit it again. Can't wait to chat with the community about it! 🎉
Incredible list!! I'm gonna try my best to keep up with it while reading the other books I've been reading on the side. But this one really seems to have some titans in it
I'm thrilled to have an opportunity to reread Homer with the group. I loved reading the Lattimore back in 2020 and I think I'll use this is an opportunity to compare it with the Fagles, whose Aeneis I'm loving. I've been really pleased to see a lot of younger people giving Homer a first read after hearing the musical adaptation, Epic. It's a great time to return to the Greeks!
I believe this is going to be the year I join the club! I am (at long last) finishing my bachelor's in English this year, and I think this will be the perfect thing to keep my mind busy as I figure out my next steps. I can't wait!
I've recently discovered your channel and I'm so excited I did! I'll definitely be joining the 100 years of solitude read! I've wanted to dive into post modernism so I think that would be a decent start before pynchon or Wallace. Currently, im reading The Brothers Karamazov and The East of Eden. Reading them both at the same time has been fascinating! Seeing the two interpretations of Genesis and how their philosophies impact the stories. Impeccable!
I can't wait. Today I was reading Sylvia Plath's journal and she wrote about Faulkner's The Bear. I thought the coincidence to synchronistic not to share, so here is what she had to say: The Bear a magnificent story except for the infuriating, confused (deliberately and uneedfully) fourth section, a bumbling apocalyptic rant about landownership and God and Ikkemotubbe and such rot. The rest, a clear honest recreation of an archetypal image, the great bear with the man's name, who is, in his way, large as Mobi Dick. The Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962.
I’m just discovering this channel. Thoroughly enjoying the episodes. Is there a way to financially support ? Also, how does the book club work? Do we sign up for live chats or is it video releases? Pay or free? Thank you in advance
What an incredibly compelling program for next year! I am especially excited for the dystopian double-bill. I have been wanting to revisit these books for a while now as a way of better understanding or processing the more dystopian elements the world is already confronting. I also do enjoy everything gothic, so was very pleased to see different types of gothic literature represented in the syllabus. The only selection I will admit to being a bit of a challenge for me is Emma, as I will admit that she is my least favourite Austen heroine. Having said that, it will be interesting to see if my perspective has changed at all now that I am older than I was the last time I read it. Thanks for giving us something to very much look forward to in the coming year!
If you are new here and considering joining the HardcoreBook club I strongly encourage youth do so. I am just finishing my first year and it has been a truly transformative process. Benjamin is a brilliant and captivating lecturer who has a passion for literature that is, to use a cliché, truly contagious. The comments from fellow readers are insightful and have taught me a great deal and give me additional perspective. If I have to cut my budget anywhere Hardcore Book Club will be the last to go. I am increasingly concerned about the world around me much of which is out of my control. I truly believe that escaping into literature in the past 12 months has been not just a learning experience but has been positive for my mental and emotional health.
@@zissizalana6850 There are a lot of very good quality and affordable second hand book shops on line. I use them a lot.
That is precisely what you will find in this book club, a lot of rewarding exchanges that will make your reading more enriching.
Maybe I’ll join in January. I might now if I knew which Dickens novel they’re reading.
@@christopherw1509It’s David Copperfield. The lectures are (I think!) going to start in the next week or so, so there’s plenty of time to get on board and join in.
Do you know if the book club charge up front (I.e. the moment you first sign up, then again on the first of the next month) or do you make your payment on the first of the next month? This is one question I’ve always had about the book club, but haven’t seen answered anywhere.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Metamorphoses
Madame Bovary
The Sound and The Fury
Canterbury Tales
Brave New World/1984
The Iliad/The Odyssey
The Three Musketeers
Rebecca
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Finnegans Wake
Emma
Secret Charles Dickens book
Some Shakespeare play
This is my Mariah Carey "it's tiiiiime" moment of the year.
😂❤
You absolutely killed me with this one 😂😂😂
I don’t understand.
My college classics professor explained to us that epic, classic literature was a conversation across time: Homer called and Virgil responded.. Dante responded to Virgil, Milton to Dante, Shakespeare to Milton. I always loved that analogy because I understood then that literature, that stories, don’t arise discretely in a vacuum but rather along a timeline, and that they are a dialogue. I’m glad to see people are still reading. I’d like to join you for the upcoming year, if I can. 🙂
I think it was Stephen King that noted that all horror writers are attempting to answer Shelley - while all fantasy are answering Tolkien. In many ways the human condition throws up questions and literature attempts to answer them.
I love this so much!
So interesting.
I’m making room in my budget to join this year. I’m sick of watching these videos every year wishing I could join. We’re making it happen! Used book store, here I come!
Bout to cancel my Xbox subscription for this in 2025 lol
To be honest, your tone, cadence, speaking, use of language are just a few of the hidden reasons why I keep coming back to your channel on top of the obvious ones, books, selections and content. To see and hear Miss Morrison and Marquez listed next to the greats feels and IS as natural as breathing to me. Thank you! Looking forward to the sessions! 100 Years … a bona fide classic or as my professor once told us, will turn you into a true reader. A solid Dutch/South American fan by way of Amsterdam!
I'm in my second year of high school and read as a hobby; this channel is an absolute goldmine! The way you describe books and authors has always floored me and have made me admire you as a central figure in my reading journey. I'm very excited for this years Hardcore Book Club picks and hope to find some amazing recommendations this year coming up.
“Absolute goldmine”❤❤❤
Congratulations for committing yourself to reading great works at such a young age- don’t forget to write your thoughts as you go.❤
The fantastic thing about the internet is that a person can stumble across this video in a decade, follow the schedule, and watch the review videos of the scheduled selections! 😍
This is my Spotify wrapped
I just found your channel, as a Hispanic person who reads a lot i'm ashamed to say i've never read 100 years of solitude. I'm going to join you guys and check out the rest of your videos!
Well you can fix that in a month or so!
I love the show you make of revealing these every year, it makes it so exciting and really brings up the enthusiasm (at a time when I know I need the boost!) for a new year of sublime literature and excellent conversation!
Thank you so much!! It makes me so happy to know you enjoy these schedule launches! Here's to another year of great reading, my friend! ☺
Although I do not have the time to be a part of the hardcore literature bookclub being a full time sixth form student, I do deeply appreciate your podcasts and TH-cam videos. Through secondary school I wasn’t much of a reader but, thanks largely to your podcasts and TH-cam videos, the world of the western cannon has opened up before me and all I can think of now is tackling the greatest works - I’ve already read Ovid’s Metamorphoses and I’m thinking of reading Homer’s Iliad in Alexander Pope translation. I’m looking forward to your literature content for this year! Thanks Ben!
As an American, we've decided to try to combine Orwell's and Huxley's dystopian visions. Fewer and fewer people are reading challenging books, but they are banning them in schools just in case.
😂
I’ve missed a lot last year here but every time I find myself watching this channel, I recognize what a gem you offer here. I’m beginning this journey this next year. THANK YOU.
🎉 The book club is totally worth the money and is great for those who want to tackle the great books but don’t know where to start or need some assistance. I have not seen another person as in depth and articulate regarding great works of literature as Benjamin. Treat yourself!
I wish I had 21 pounds free each month to join.
I agree, it's so worth the money.
Other than having all the videos and extra material from Ben to study and support my reading(reason number one) it makes me feel the urgency to deeply study and finish every book because I am paying monthly for the privilege of high quality literature classes (can't slack off! Now even a bit!). It's a sense of duty, almost. I know I would never have been able to read Infinite Jest or Tales of Genji without his help.
Money? What money 😂
I don’t see any information re: joining nor re: payment, but I am very interested.
Yay, my favorite video of the year! ❤
Aw, thank you, Anna!! 😊
Delighted to see Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Iliad on the list. Two of my favourite books ever. Finished Melville’s and McCarter’s translations of the Metamorphoses in 2024 and am, at present, attempting to read it in Latin. I anticipate that it will be a lifetime project.
2024 was my first year in the book club and my best reading year by far. Even when you don't particularly enjoy a book, you still get something valuable from it because the lectures and discussions are incredible. Thank you, Benjamin, for transforming lives.
Aw, thank you so much!! You have completely made my day. It has been so wonderful taking this journey through these great books with you this year. It makes me so happy to know you've found it so rewarding! 😊🙏
When you say bookclub has reputation of getting readers through difficult books, and not just getting through but coming to love them. That reminds me of Nietzsche's Amor Fati: "Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it….but love it".
I have read One Hundred Years of Solitude but very enthusiastic about reading it again with Ben and all of you!!
You perform a great public service with your spirited advocacy of the great books of literature. Well done, Ben!
Thank you so much, Eric!! I really appreciate that!! :)
I completely agree that some authors must be read in the totality of their works. My current list of such authors includes William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Isaac Asimov.
That's such a beautiful list, Anna!! I completely agree with all of those! 😊
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Thank you! What authors would you add to this list as indispensable?
Ben, I can’t express how much I have benefited and learned from your channel. Best wishes for 2025!
Aw, thank you so much, Samuel!! I really deeply appreciate that, my friend ☺🙏
I was waiting for this video! This will decide whether I’ll join or not. I do believe I will. Your videos are really helpful Ben, and you’ve inspired be to chase the great books. I was already planning to join so I can get help with the Proust project (I plan to get the box set of Everyman’s for Christmas) and Blood Meridian. But I definitely believe this video will push me further to join the book club.
17:59 *gulp*
This is going to be my first year joining the Bookclub. I’m starting with Anna Karenina. I’m very excited.
I few years ago I read Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm and We. We was my favorite of all. I look forward to a new year of reading Benjamin, thank you.
Amazing choices! I’m so excited to join and luckily 90% of these titles are on my TBR shelf. You’re a true literary treasure. 😊
Yay, thank you so much, Sarah! I really appreciate that! And I'm so excited to dive into these great works with you 😊
I was reading 100 Years of Solitude years ago and was about 100 pages in when a rather large scare occurred in my life due to a cancer diagnosis and I felt a need to turn to other authors (Whitman, Dante, Wordsworth, Hopkins) in order to face the fears and griefs and sufferings for a time.
Full remission for many years now, and I have never returned to Gabriel Garcia-Marquez as simply seeing the book would bring me back and so, about five years ago, I gave my copy to a local library.
Your description of it has me intrigued to read it finally. Are you starting in January then?
Hopkins and Whitman are both great sources of consolation!
It’s so funny, I knew I liked your videos I just didn’t know why but now it hit me. I actually was ‘failed’/brought down a reading level my first year in American university. After going through that remedial class and passing it, I entered English 1 and ended up with a teacher you remind me of - Professor Ali was his name. In his class we read some books you’ll be reading this year - Brave New World and 1984. In a 16-week term we read those two, a Nietzsche book the title I can’t remember (it had a fallen angel on the cover I think), Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and Don Delillo’s White Noise (White Noise was the hardest for me). He had such a love and joy for reading that has stuck with me. When talking about controversial works like 1984 he had us discuss/argue about an insanely controversial (putting it mildly) piece of art often called ‘Piss Christ’. Those classes/lectures seem to have really stuck with me nearly 16 years later.
I was a Communications major and also for my last semester at university, I had to take a semi non-humanities course to fill credits. I took a class on Shakespeare basically reading 1 play per week and we hit some of the classics. This class was one of three required for all English majors at my university, I don’t fully remember the other two, but I feel like it was writers potentially even Milton and Chaucer. I was the ‘glutton for punishment’, all the English majors were looking at the guy who wasn’t and going ‘why are you here?1’ 😂.
My love of the Bard did take me and my family on a London vacation to The Globe but not Stratford and very soon (this December month) to the Folger Shakespeare Library here in Washington DC.
Best of luck to you Ben!
When it's raining here in Siberia we (my husband and I) say that's a Macondo. You gave me the idea to offer books to our dauhters for the New Year. One of them will be by Marquez. So, they will understand why we mention Macondo. After Master and Margarita it can be a good choice, at least a journey in a different poetry : it's also a mix of religious myth, tragic history of the country and people, poetry and very picturesque characters.
Ben, I am pumped for next year! My mom and I have been reading "The Sound and the Fury." It is quite an interesting masterpiece, which has prompted me to dive into Faulkner. Starting the year off with Gabriel Garcia Marquez is auspicious because I was planning on reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" during the early part of next year. I am looking forward to the conversations next year. I am, however, trepidatious when it comes to "Finnegans Wake." Yet, I shall boldly go forth. Cheers to this wonderful list! I love the new background! It is quite befitting a well-read gentleman such as yourself. Happy reading!
Wow, first time I’ve encountered a book list where I’ve already read most of them. *feels all edumacated*
Very excited about the selections for the Hardcore Literature Book Club in 2025! This year I will really need to spend a lot of time on another plane. Starting out the 100 Years of Solitude is perfect. If you are thinking of joining, I can highly recommend it. Ben McEvoy's lectures are extraordinary and make for a deep reading experience.
Really great books on this list Ben!
I would join you but I'm working through my own list at the moment. I'll be reading all of these at some point except for Rebecca I believe. Presently I have finished the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It was very eye opening to pre-Statehood America.
I'll be watching y'alls progress and I'll watch your reviews as I read certain books.
Thanks for the amazing video and the passion you put in these books.
Love and Peace.
Many thanks - great choices!
I definitely will pick up a few of those.
Thanks for mentioning "We" from Y. Zamyatin as well in connection with 1984 and Brave New World. There is the theory that We influenced/inspired Orwell greatly.
Happy reading! 📚
Yay! Been checking constantly for this video to hit. ❤🎉
Yay!! Thank you, Jodie ☺
Thank you Ben - you have helped me so much and given me such positivity. Your insightful videos and podcasts are always such a great pleasure to watch and listen to. I have learned so much from you. I am very excited to watch this! I wish you all the very best 😊
one hour well spent ...a breath of fresh air you are ....enlightening as always 💌💌💌
Faulkner lived in an apartment building very near my house in Hollywood! This is an amazing reading list. Love it!
I am a new subscriber . I am excited to reread books as well as the new especially authors I’ve wanted to read. Thank you for your hard work and Introducing new books and authors to my list.
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate you being here, reading these great books, and sharing your love of literature with me! 😊
Well, this schedule could not be more fun. Thank you for all the hard work and love that went into it!! While I grinned each time a new book was announced and am truly excited for the syllabus, I am surprised how melancholy I feel at the idea of coming to the end of The Shakespeare Project. That’s been such a meaningful journey for me. I’ll be forever grateful for the guidance through our friend Will’s cannon.
Whoopee!! I have been looking forward to the release of the 2025 schedule!!! Sounds like the coming year will be an exciting challenge!!!
Clement’s here! This is great! I’m reading One Hundred Years of Solitude because of the Netflix series as you say. I hope I’d be quick enough to read most before 11/12 when the series premiere (it’s Part 1 by the way)…
What an incredible list! I have so many of these books and haven't read them yet so your timing couldn't be better. Also, I thought you should know that your influence looms large. I live in India and I recently invited a friend home who I hadn't met in a decade. He looked at my bookshelf with Clarissa, Middlemarch, Blood Meridian and he told me, 'You're watching way too much Benjamin Mcevoy...' 😂
Wow! Amazing story :).
@qamarqammar7629 Ben's come a long way indeed. Here's to more!
Dear Ben, please get out of my head! ;) I already had six of these on my personal to-read list for 2025, I can't believe you chose them also. I'm most excited for Ovid, 100 Years of Solitude and Madame Bovary, as it will be my first time in their company. Here's to a great year of reading for all of us!
If I was forced to choose, Madame Bovary may be my favorite novel of all time; an utter masterpiece. What a phenomenal collection of absolute classics for the upcoming new year!
Thank you so much, Kenny! I really appreciate that! I completely agree. Absolute masterpiece and definitely a perfect novel!
Love Madame Bovary, Rebecca and Emma. Emma is my favourite Jane Austen novel. I wonder what that says about me? 😊 I love your channel. Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year, Ben! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss literature. X
The worst thing that happened to me last year was that my payments to the book club were blocked due to some new regulations on international payments in my country. This list is tantalizing, to say the least. Some of these would have been re-reads for me. Introduced myself to Faulkner not very long ago, with his Light in August. My best wishes to all the members of the book club!
I'm guessing you're from India. Why don't you try Axis Bank payments? It's been working for me.
I read and studied the Sound and he Fury when I was ag university...a long time ago, and you are right in so farcascit is a challenging, disturbing read. (The last adjective being the one that stuck into my mind) yet I think I was not mature enough to get into such a book at the time). I am also loo’ing forward to reading the Canterbury Tales ! Thanks once again !
Ben - it's like you peeked in my mind and made this video. Ovid, Flaubert, Faulkner, Chaucer, Finnegan's Wake, more Dickens, and more Shakespeare were all on my short list of 2025 books to read. I can't wait to join with others.
one can say the likes of Flaubert invented "no such thing as bad publicity" he sounds like an author after my own heart particularly with that quote "an author in his book must be like God of the universe, present everywhere and invisible nowhere." what a superb selection 📚
I was just watching your video on the different translation for Homer when suddenly this popped up.
Will come back here later :D
Wow!! That's amazing timing! 😃
Hi Ben. I have been following your channel for the past year and when you post a video for a new book discussion I really enjoy it. Is evident that you take your time for each video and each one is made with dedication and love for the written word. I am very pleased with your selection of books for 2025. Of all the books I am not familiar with OVID and Daphne de Maurier, I can’t wait for those videos.
I seem to have spent most of 2024 reading Genji… 😊
“Dystopian Double Bill.” A superb idea. I love it!
Wow, I mentioned to you a while ago I was trying to read all translated novels in 2025, on my personal TBR has 3 Musketeers, Iliad, Canterbury Tales (original Middle English so a somewhat of an exception) and 100 years of solitude. I won’t be reading in the same order as you, but may have join the Hardcore Literature BC and go through your lessons as I read!
And we all say in unison: “We love you Ben!”
I have to say, as i started my journey into reading again, this experience of community is exactly what i was looking for. I'm a serial dipper in and outer, but in the last couple of years I have really finished books and I am so proud of that. I would love to find ppl to chat to about my truly beloved books.
I’ve been reading One Hundred Years of Solitide for the first time recently, amazing work, possibly one of my favourites ever!
Edit: I also read The Sound and the Fury just a month or two ago and loved that as well! For anyone diving into that one next year for the first time, the first chapter is easily the most difficult but will make sense by the end if you pay close attention, if you get frustrated please don’t give up!
Im so excited for 100 Years of Solitude. It is one of my favorite books, so an in-depth tour of it with your group will be an excellent way to start the year for me. Yay!
Great list! (btw please do The Magic Mountain next year!)
Thank you!! The Magic Mountain was actually on my longlist, so I have a strong feeling we will have Thomas Mann's masterpiece appearing in the future! Phenomenal work 😊
The way I jumped when Ben mentioned Ovid's Metamorphoses. This is so exciting!
PS: I'm also excited with the spotify podcast lectures for 2025 since they've been my companion for years! ❤
So very excited for next year’s lineup. This book club has been the best decision I made in 2024. Thank you man!
Hey Ben, im actually reading The Sound and the Fury right now after putting it down twice earlier this year. It is challenging. But im passed part 1 so i think ive got it this time lol. But im really looking forward to your lectures on it and the groups discussion! Im really glad you picked it!
Been waiting for this Ben! Thank you ❤❤❤❤
Yay! I'm so happy to hear that!! Thank you ❤🙏
All my love to Benjamin from Guadeloupe 🇬🇵
I've been meaning to do this for the past few years but always seem to fall off a couple months into the year. Going to try and make it one of my main bookish goals in 2025!
I'm glued to my seat and jumping out of it at the same time. I'm pulling books off my shelves, throwing things out of the way....found it. 😂😂😂 This!!!! IS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!
And checking if the translations are good ones 😊
Outstanding and ambitious program. I've read quite a few of these works as I'm sure many of your viewers have, but they are all worthy of re-reading, and indeed some of them I have read more than once but wouldn't hesitate to read again. A few are on my TBR and I have to say they present a psychological hurdle, for example, The Sound and the Fury, and Finnegans Wake. Perhaps I will join!
Hello, Benjamin! good to hear you!
Thanks for your great work Ben! I'd really appreciate what you do to make us fall in love with the great books ❤. I'm from Colombia and I'm really excited to reread One Hundred Years of Solitude with your guidance...
Thanks for a wonderful reading year, Ben! Looking forward to Homer ☺️ warm wishes for 2025!
Aw, thank you so much!! I'm really excited for Homer too. Here's to another great reading year in 2025 😊🥂
an absolutely incredible schedule-come paycheck i think i will finally be subscribing!
out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on Ariosto's Orlando Furioso? i feel it especially underread today, but a really interesting work.
Been waiting for you to do Finnegans Wake for a while! Looking forward to what content you put out on it!
Just joined in time for Hardy, and am absolutely hungry for 2025! Can't wait.
Jesus Christ Ben, Finnegan's wake ???!!! I'm not ready for it
Tried reading it years ago. One of those you want to throw across the room lol.
Another 🔥 video from the most 🔥 BookTuber. Also, what is the name of the painting at 3:38?
My yearly thanks of gratitude to you Benjamin. Have a great 2025 !!
Thank you so much, Vishweshwer! I appreciate you!! Here's to a great 2025 😊
I usually wait until you make a how to read video before starting a new classic to see what themes I should be on the look out for but I didn’t think you would have 100 Years of Solitide on your list. I’m almost done with it but looking to forward to hearing on everything I missed during my own reading.
I am so excited! This will be my first time subscribing to the book club and I can’t wait to get started at the beginning of the year!!!
So excited to be starting off with 100 yrs of solitude. I read it a few years ago and kept thinking this past year that i really should revisit it again. Can't wait to chat with the community about it! 🎉
I love this channel so much and I'm excited for the 2025 reading list!
Breathtaking selections for next year. I cannot wait! Looking forward 2025!
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate that! Here's to another fantastic reading year 😊
Incredible list!! I'm gonna try my best to keep up with it while reading the other books I've been reading on the side. But this one really seems to have some titans in it
I'm thrilled to have an opportunity to reread Homer with the group. I loved reading the Lattimore back in 2020 and I think I'll use this is an opportunity to compare it with the Fagles, whose Aeneis I'm loving. I've been really pleased to see a lot of younger people giving Homer a first read after hearing the musical adaptation, Epic. It's a great time to return to the Greeks!
I am so excited for these! Lots of rereads and a couple new to me reads. It also gives me a Finnegan's Wake deadline ❤❤❤
Faulkner?! I’m in! 🙋♂️
I believe this is going to be the year I join the club! I am (at long last) finishing my bachelor's in English this year, and I think this will be the perfect thing to keep my mind busy as I figure out my next steps. I can't wait!
I've recently discovered your channel and I'm so excited I did! I'll definitely be joining the 100 years of solitude read! I've wanted to dive into post modernism so I think that would be a decent start before pynchon or Wallace.
Currently, im reading The Brothers Karamazov and The East of Eden. Reading them both at the same time has been fascinating! Seeing the two interpretations of Genesis and how their philosophies impact the stories. Impeccable!
I can't wait. Today I was reading Sylvia Plath's journal and she wrote about Faulkner's The Bear. I thought the coincidence to synchronistic not to share, so here is what she had to say: The Bear a magnificent story except for the infuriating, confused (deliberately and uneedfully) fourth section, a bumbling apocalyptic rant about landownership and God and Ikkemotubbe and such rot. The rest, a clear honest recreation of an archetypal image, the great bear with the man's name, who is, in his way, large as Mobi Dick. The Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962.
Speaking of dystopia, what are your thoughts on Atwood's Oryx and Crake?
All right Ben! Thanks for this!
Thank you, Daryl!! :)
Emma is my favourite novel!! But almost everyone I know despises her.
Woooow!!! Amazing reading list! 🥰👏👏👏
Thank you so much, Maria!! 🤗
I last read 1984 IN 1984 as required reading my junior year of high school. I look forward to revisiting it and all the others on this list!
Wow!! That's so cool! I'm very excited to hear what you make of your return to this great work today :)
Wow! What a schedule! 🤯💣 Thank you for 100 Years, Marquez is one I have long waited for!
I’m so excited for the lectures on Finnegan’s Wake!
Looking forward to 2025 Book Club!! Thank you muchly much!
I’m just discovering this channel. Thoroughly enjoying the episodes. Is there a way to financially support ? Also, how does the book club work? Do we sign up for live chats or is it video releases? Pay or free? Thank you in advance
What an incredibly compelling program for next year! I am especially excited for the dystopian double-bill. I have been wanting to revisit these books for a while now as a way of better understanding or processing the more dystopian elements the world is already confronting. I also do enjoy everything gothic, so was very pleased to see different types of gothic literature represented in the syllabus. The only selection I will admit to being a bit of a challenge for me is Emma, as I will admit that she is my least favourite Austen heroine. Having said that, it will be interesting to see if my perspective has changed at all now that I am older than I was the last time I read it. Thanks for giving us something to very much look forward to in the coming year!