Ohhhh….that’s a fun debate that I don’t see anyone having. Is entertainment a hobby? My gut says no…a hobby has to involve active participation to get that entertainment. But then you have all the work that goes into conventions….and the communities around hobbies and fandoms do map into eachother really neatly. Hmmmm 🤔
@@dstinnettmusic There's definitely a line somewhere, someone who puts on a tv show as background noise wouldn't count as a hobby, but a "cinephile" who is more heavily interested in tv and film would definitely count. And as you mentioned fandom can definitely become a hobby
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, knowledge manifests itself in radiant dreams that shimmer like the wild sun." - UtilityLimb
It's true. It was only marginally harder to give up book buying as compared to coffee. It still took 6 years, and 3 house shifts. I still read all the time though (only buying them if I Have to have them).
This. My dad had hundreds of books. He read a lot but not even close to half of them. Just liked buying and having books. I think because it made him feel noble or something. If you like READING books, read them and sell them for super cheap on ebay or marketplace when you're done.
The best part of the “in a real disaster people are actually pretty helpful” thesis is that when there actually was a Lord of the Flies situation and a bunch of schoolboys got stranded on an island, they made a chore chart and a rain cistern and a badminton court and when one of them got injured badly they took care of him and reassigned his chores on the chore chart. For a learn-a-ton, doorstopper book rec, The Guns of August is a giant, beautifully written, incredibly detailed account of how World War I started.
Well one difference between that group of Tongan schoolboys and lord of the flies is that the kids in lord of the flies were posh British boys (culturally educated to value hierarchy and bully each other- it’s WW2 era so the school they’re coming from is the school system that “another brick in the wall” was written about) Certainly this line of argument is entirely separate from Golding’s intent, he was trying to say that Rousseau was wrong by positing “even posh British boys would descend into infighting and brutality if you stranded them on an island” (note that that’s with an “even”), and the event you’re describing is certainly counter evidence on that matter- but I saw this idea somewhere and find it interesting and I already typed all this up so might as well send
@@voidify3I don’t know, I think when systems well and truly collapse or are absent, people’s tendencies to care for one another supersedes the ingrained cultural norms
@@meesalikeu I mean...don't kids at a certain age push boundaries? And even further, aren't the conditions different? That house "study" you mention is they give the kids everything they could need AND want, they are American kids born and raised, and they had a wide age range. Id even wager they incited the drama in some way, they certainly did for the Prison "experiment". "Damn, can't believe this age group that is the most boundary-pushing age group pushes social boundaries in a situation where it's the only thing to really do"
Big, huge, massive recommendation for James Baldwin. His essays aren’t just good reading, they’re in that short list of literature so profound and insightful that you can sense it changing who you are as you read. That’s just my personal experience of course, but The Fire Next Time is famous for a reason.
The problem I have with buying books is that I frequently buy them not because I definitely want to read them, but because I want to be the sort of person who lives the sort of life where I will have the attention and energy to read them. So I have a lot of books that, in principle, I know I will like. In practice, I cannot get them started.
What just helped me this week was picking up a random self-help book off a free shelf and connecting with it, specifically because that’s something totally opposite to my normal, “intellectual,” picks. Reading something which is indistinguishable from sources you’ll easily read on the internet can make it seamless to start reading again if you’re in a slump.
You've gotta add more Ursula Le Guin to your shame stack if you're into feminist scifi masters like Joanna Russ and Octavia Butler. The Dispossessed is incredible, though you may learn more than you can bear to know. A clearersighted and more generous author there has not been
Seconded! LeGuin belongs in anyone's collection who is at least mildly interested in science fiction. Haven't read Russ or Butler yet, but from what I've heard, the same goes for them.
I learned to read before I started school. No one can tell me how that happened but however it came about it was the single most important thing in my life. Reading gave me a place to go when I didn't fit in anywhere. It taught me about the world outside of my experience in such a way that became my experience. It not only led me to the answers of my questions but to questions I hadn't considered yet. Born in the 50's I grew up in the 60's and 70's, two of the most historic and trauma filled decades in this country's history. Reading taught me to develop critical thinking skills that were essential for navigating those years. The internet may be a repository for all human knowledge up to today, but going online just isn't the same experience as opening the pages of a book and giving yourself over to the words on the page. I'm holding this work of art in my hands, and doing so brings me closer to the author. The difference between having a conversation with a friend or exchanging text messages. Reading is everything.
We keep unread books to remind ourselves to be humble and curious. The larger our collection of unread books, the more we know we do not know. They signify potential. (or at least, that's what I say to myself, looking at my overflowing TBR shelf)
I had a shame stack that over 15 years became an entire shame shelf. When moving earlier this year I decided to donate every book that I had at some point bought but never read, no matter how much I thought I would like each book. It must have been around 150 books. It was really tough to let go of my carefully curated selection, but in end those books are better off in the hands of people working on building their own shame stacks than sitting on my shelf collecting dust.
your intro reminds me why i am so glad i registered for a library card when i moved a few years ago. i have been renting e-books from libby or hoopla the past 2 years & it's saved me major bucks
Say Nothing is brilliantly written nonfiction with something most nonfiction books don't have - a twist at the end. It's informative without being overwhelming with exhaustive detail and is a near-perfect primer on The Troubles. The best nonfiction always makes me want to visit the places being written about and this book was no exception.
Something I do to make myself more willing to experience new art is I make a numbered list of everything I want to read/watch/play/listen to and then use a random number generator to see what I'll be getting to next. I find it works quite well for me to actually make myself excited for new stuff since there's an element of mystery to what's coming. Not sure if it would help you read these books or not, since you said you've already read 70 books this year, so evidently you're not exactly lacking motivation in general!
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series is wonderful. Each book has a bit different feel, and while life aboard ship and naval battles are part of the series, the character development and relationships are what bring me back to them again and again.
The master and commander series isn’t really about ships, it’s a story of friendship between the captain and his surgeon. Most people grow super attached to these characters. When I finished the entire series it was so sad not to have more stories about these two characters. That’s probably why there is so much fan fiction.
One of the best films I had never heard about before watching it as well! Amazing acting, story as well as a technical marvel. Only knew there had been plans for sequels, but had no idea it was based on a book series. I take it I better stay away from them given how much I enjoyed the characters in the film that obviously did too poorly for a sequel.
LA Theatreworks has an exceptional version of Arcadia if you or other commenters would enjoy listening to a full cast perform it. Your local library may have it, but it's also all available for purchase and download, or free on soundcloud!
I feel shame is the friction between the imaginary self and the real self, but I must say it's very sad if the first takes over and life turns into this structured, organized, spotless experience. It's for the greater good remaining chaotic and spontaneous and natural and artless and messy and weird an quirky. So I still feel hoarding 30,000 unread books is not that bad as reading everything precisely like a well behaved school kid, and I never would feel shame about the former if that was my natural thing.
Re:Hope in the Dark: I haven't read it, but your description immediately made me think of Mutual Aid by Kropotkin, which focuses on his observations of both members of other species sacrificing their own security to help those around them and also some examples from human society. Its purpose is basically the same as how you pitched Hope in the Dark: convince the reader that people are fundamentally good-natured when enabled to be (i.e. when they are afforded immediate security and autonomy in their own life).
it's also interesting when compared to the whole competitive slant usually given to "survival of the fittest", the full tittle being Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, all the way back in 1902
Solnit wrote a whole book on the subject of how people after disasters are generally more good than bad, it’s called “A Paradise Built in Hell” and some of the examples she examines are the 1906 and 1989 San Francisco earthquakes, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. One of the main takeaways from her account of those was that most violence after a major disaster comes from government forces and vigilantes trying to reassert “control”, and she rightly questions why “looting” is so often treated as dangerous criminality to justify deadly force
I read The Things They Carried in my senior year English class. While I don't remember most of the exact scenes any more, it's still stayed with me all these years later. No one should ever have to go through the horrors in that book. You should definitely read it.
God Bless You Angela! A few vids ago you put in a good word for Charles Portis' True Grit. It's been on my list for a quarter century, just never seemed to get to it. Loved it! Will be re-visiting Grit quite a few times if God wills. Many Thanks!
I love the kappa book! This creature the 河童 (kappa) terrified me when I was young. I grew up in rural area and liked to wonder, my dad would always say to be home before dark or 河童 would kidnap me. I would leave cucumber at a shrine for them because I did not want to be kidnap, and sometimes it gets dark so suddenly! My book suggestion is a closed and common orbit by Becky Chambers. This is second book in the wayfarer series unfortunately but all of the books are very good. The books do not really have a clear plot/conflict like most western stories I have read, they feel like the “slice of life” stories in Japan. It is fun in sci fi because…yes I would love to read about your chores and the sort of “mundane” parts of living on space ship or alien world.
I'm a quarter of the way through the first book and am quite liking it (unfortunately, the inevitable reality of my Stormlight Archive reread has greatly slowed my reading pace on that book)
The PBS _Storied_ channel gives Akutagawa so much love whenever they do an episode about the traditional Japanese bestiary. His illustrations are simply incredible.
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" is one of my favorite movies. It isn't for everyone, but I felt like it gave a real sense of what life was like in the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy. Anyway, the books are good too, with the same disclaimer.
Agreed. I’ve read the first eight (well, listened to the audio versions). Some are better than others, but the overall series is fine. I’d love to see them make more movies.
The Remains Of The Day is my favorite book of all time. The thing that got me into it is just the diction, the way Stevens talks. It's platonically ideal English phraseology, has a very specific vibe. I went back recently trying to to make some observations about how exactly how he did it, and I couldn't figure it out. Incredibly subtle, pitch perfect performance of diction. Also a very personally relatable story to me, but YMMV on that kind of thing. With that said, IMO Ishiguro is kind of washed these days. When I got to the end of The Buried Giant back in like, 2013 I think it was, I chucked it across the room. Absolutely sadistic ending for no good reason. Kiara and the Sun came out recently and I thought it was interesting, but I do think it's kind of hard (contra Ursula K. LeGuin) to deploy sci fi conventions with literary intent, and it always felt a little too much like he was aping just that one scene from the movie A.I. with all the broken robots. With that said, I think A Pale View Of The Hills is, like, the Ishiguro book, if you're going to read just one of his books, or if you were going to keep a book around on the off chance that you might read it. A deeper cut of the purer essence of Ishiguro as a writer who deals with opportunistic misremembering, the stories people tell in part because of what they can't bear to acknowledge. Hits like a truck.
I’m glad some people have been able to retain the attention span to be able to sit down and read. After a lifetime of voracious reading, the advent of the cell phone has robbed me of the ability.
Your "book club" videos have actually been helping me to get through some of my shame shelf - and buy more books to put on it - so the problem isn't really solved.
Had to read The Things They Carried for school last year and while that normally makes a book worse, it still got me to borderline cry multiple times, it is SO good I still think about some lines from it
John Williams is an excellent writer, and NYRB consistently puts good titles back into print. Stoner is fantastic, and so are Butcher's Crossing and Augustine. From a fellow reader of plays: I also like Tom Stoppard, and I would also recommend August Wilson. I'm always telling everyone to read August Wilson. If you want to learn about the Vietnam War through reading, there are plenty of proper histories, but a work of journalism, titled "Fire Upon the Lake," by Frances FitzGerald, is one of the finest works of nonfiction I have ever read. She is an excellent journalist in general, but Fire Upon the Lake is one of the most poetic, studied, learned and thoughtful works of reportage ever written. Also, the memoir "Dispatches" by Michal Herr. I read "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain" the week it was published; I've been reading Saunders for a very long time, and having long followed his career, and knowing about his teaching, I was very excited when this book came out, and I loved it. The book exceeded expectations. (It also made me read several short stories I love and had not revisited in a long time.)
The Things They Carried is definitely about the Vietnam War, but whenever i read it, what really stands out to me is how much the book is about storytelling and the nature of stories. i really love that about it. you should read it!
Hope in the Dark: can confirm. When our city had a major earthquake the farmers brought water tanks in so people could drink, people organised free barbecues, students organised to dig out liquefaction mud. You could talk to anybody in the supermarket line about how things were going for you. But over the next ten years, dealing with insurance claims and constant road works ground everybody down and made them angry.
I really enjoyed The Things They Carried Most of it felt like a Clint Eastwood miniseries except for ONE CHAPTER THAT'S ABSOLUTELY FRIGGING WILD. also, to add to your pile, 'this is how you lose the time war'
I'm one of the odd people who liked Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans. I picked it up when visiting my parents once back when it was new. My mom is an avid reader, but I don't usually like the same books she does; this was one she was reading with her book group. I was intrigued by the title -- who are "we" and why were we orphans but no longer?? So never be ashamed to say you judge a book by its cover and get caught by it. WWWO was Ishiguro's foray into a detective novel, and I love detective fiction. What made me love this work is it has a textbook case of an unreliable narrator; you the reader know from the start there is something really odd about the detective's inability to solve the mystery -- and it all comes down to the unacknowledged psychological trauma most "orphans," even when adopted, go through. Is it his best? No. But it is accessible and IMHO, a page-turner. So on my shame list is any better-known work by Ishiguro, none of which I've gotten around to reading. 😊
Last Summer I read James Baldwin’s Another Country with Bright Lights Big City. The two read well together. Belated Happy 100th Birthday James. “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” -James Baldwin
The Things They Carried is great. I re-read the fantastic title story recently and you can attack it one a story at a time. I’m sure that you don’t need any more books for now, but I’ve just looked at my re-reading shame pile (things I read over 20 years ago), and I’m looking forward to The Third Policeman and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. You can’t go wrong with either of those. Also, thank you for the Liebowitz video. I loved it. One of the best and strangest autobiographical books I’ve read.
I agree that there is no shame in enjoying beauty, just it isn't the reason to buy a book- unless you are specifically collecting the cover art. The content of the book is the reason to buy a book.
I've come to frame this sort of thing as the intuitive sense that 'i'm not actually ready' and the time will come when I find it and then it will resonate; because I'm in the headspace or have different experiences or just a different place in life.
The Golem is a Jewish classic! It's about the genesis of the Golem, a soulless man made of clay (like Adam before God breathed into his nostrils to give the breath of life, if you read the Tanakh) that is used to protect Jewish communities from violent mobs. Adding - I was also disappointed by first Kazuo Ishiguro (I read The Buried Giant) also because it sounded like an amazing premise, but the execution was not good. I'm going into my next Ishiguro without reading anything about the plot so as to have no expectations to be dashed.
TRUTH : we live in a society that bombard us with stimuli, so we feel compelled to do stuff that we don't really want or need. That's why you have a shame stack: you like the idea of reading way more than reading itself.
I haven't read The Hours, but I have seen the movie and I looooooved it. It hits different if you've struggled with depression, and I watched it at the height of mine. It's beautiful and tragic and I'm due for a rewatch. I need to pick up the book!
The grapes of wrath is one of the most sad and miserable books every written its Great i love Steinbeck. Try Canney row its a very pleasant and fun read.
Cannery Row is a good suggestion for Angela...or anybody for that matter! Tortilla Flat is very funny too, same time, place and people. Ever test drove Travels with Charlie? Worlds' best travel story...not 100% true, but based on his own cross-country trip near the end of his life...very good read!
I liked "The Remains of the Day" but I agree that "Never Let Me Go" is probably a better book to start with. I also thought "The Buried Giant" was surprisingly interesting & well-written. I haven't gotten around to "Klara and the Sun" but sounds like that's a good thing?
@@ABC_Guest Klara and the Sun is excellent. I enjoyed "Remains of the Day" and thought "Never Let Me Go" was even better, but I might just prefer Klara and the Sun to both of them, so I have to disagree with Angela on that one... Lots of good books suggested in this video though. Makes me want to read at least some of them...
Never Let Me Go, for the win! Remains of the Day might be his best book. But most important? No, say I. Reading all 8 novels is a plan, they are so few, & all good. Then the question is reading order. But my theory is, I don't know enough about another reader to suggest that plan. First choice, even if the best, is a crap shoot, & 50/50, even if they finish the one, whether they pick up the next. That's why I'd want the first to be the one not to have never read. If she gets around to that one, she'll have read the one I consider least dispensable. No spoilers, but I read the book & watched the film, both several times. The author is careful not to tell us too much too soon. I enjoyed each rehash. I got enough mileage out of it every time. I'll say there's a moral of the story that I knew was coming. It affected me even so. It was more important than the gimmick. BTW, Never Let Me Go is SciFi. Remains of the Day is not. As such, the questions it poses are specific. That's why it's not just a starter book, it's the must-read one, if there is to be only one. Like, if one reads only one Le Guin story, I'd want it to be Lathe of Heaven. Or even The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. The Dispossessed is arguably her best. But I take a minority stance on Omelas. From a physics angle, walking away is like quantum nonlocality: spacelike separation doesn't dissolve the conundrum. The core mystery was always there, but separation exacerbates it. Omelas is the Trolley Problem, & walking away is like spacelike separation. The responsibility persists. We decide how we are to be. We can't just walk away from our morals. My last word: The comments with reading ansatze are perhaps more useful than specific book recommendations. That said, I didn't notice anyone mentioning Iain Banks' Culture books. For a Star Trek fan with Dr. Collier's problem of depression after books that make her sad, I can suggest starting with The Player of Games. P.S. Whereas, Use of Weapons may be the best Culture book. Kind of a case in point.
The thing about Master & Commander and its following books is that they’re not the usual ship books- they talk plenty about jibs and mizzens but have a central character just as likely to be lost about that as the reader. O’Brian’s fav author is Jane Austen, and he specifically takes a lot from her style. So the books are like a Regency Era Kirk and Spock gallivanting around the world being the best of friends. On a ship. (Tbh, i read the first, wasn’t sure i wanted to continue, and then got a weird urge and devoured every single one)
Reading about certain parts of history, or just the daily news, can make us sad Angela. However it helps if you have someone you love to talk to about it. Tell your partner or a close friend you would like to be able to go to them when something upsets you. Then sit down and tell them how you feel when you need to. It really helps to share things. ❤🙂
I feel like this is inevitable in every hobby, table top strategy players have their gray box of unbuilt minis, Lego collectors have unbuilt kits, gamers have expansive libraries of unplayed games, makers and artists have their list of unfinished projects or unused materials. You love a thing so you end up getting more of it than you can reasonably consume
Fun fact: the biggest “problem” in a lot of disaster areas is how many people who don’t really have the skills to help show up…it gives me a warm fuzzy that there’s that level of goodness in the world, but it isn’t helpful. Tough issue.
Great TBR list. I'd love to read all these myself. I've only read two so far, "Grapes of Wrath" and "Remains of the Day" and they are both great. Have to disagree with you about Klara and the Sun and Ishiguro, though. I love the very restrained style of his prose and the way he makes you read between the lines by forcing you to think as much about what's not being said as what is being said. Maybe he's an acquired taste, though, and if so I hope "Remains of the Day" changes your mind 🙂 (and if it does I'd definitely recommend "Never Let Me Go")
I read the Patrick Obrien series while commuting to college. Unfortunately, I commuted by automobile, and I was driving. Anyway, great books for the book stack. The book stack gods are pleased.
Cannery Row is my favorite book of all time. I too have some Steinbeck in the shame stack, along with some Jack Kerouac. Currently embarking on Atlas Shrugged
Hi Angela, I've read The Fire Next Time (I even have the same copy you do) and it's really amazing. I would certainly recommend it. But, I totally understand about the shame stack. I've had a lot of books that I felt like I "should" read, told myself I WANTED to read, but didn't really want to read, often for similar reasons to you -- "oh, I would learn so much" (it feels like an obligation or a chore) or the book is associated in my mind with something disappointing or unwanted (buying the book because you thought it had won an award, but it hadn't). I think the conclusion you reached, that you aren't going to read any of these books, seems like a mature one.
The Sense and Sensibility movie is worth seeking out! Ang Lee directed it, and Emma Thompson actually did the script. Jane Austen’s writing can be very abstract, in staying in the sort of witty high-level social analysis of what it is happening between people - a movie has to make choices to portray things more directly, and I think that movie is one of the best Austen adaptations I’ve seen in terms of making specific choices that seem in keeping with the book. S&S is my fav Jane Austen movie, despite being only like my #4 in terms of the books.
If you're looking to read about the troubles a good companion piece, its a movie though, is Kneecap. Its a fictionalised biopic about a hip hop group of the same name. They're members of the so-called ceasefire generation who grew up as the troubles ended and its about the Irish language and its place in youth culture
"A Scientist in Wonderland" by Edzard Ernst should be mandatory reading for anyone pursuing science. It is a wonderful story from doctor that becomes the first chair in alternative medicine. Initially, there is great support from the practitioners of alternative medicine because it is providing respectability to the "field", but this is short-lived when they discover that the goal is to use the scientific method to challenge the claims from alternative medicine.
The Grapes of Wrath might be the best book I've ever read; not my favorite, but the best. I was watching your video on "A Canticle for Leibowitz," and it made me want to recommend, "the Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco.
When I was in grad school a friend organized a reading of Arcadia. We had dinner first, I think, then passed out copies of the book, assigned parts, and read the whole play as a group. It was fun - I love doing play read-throughs and spending structured time with friends - but I don't remember being seriously impressed with the play.
My house came with a giant built-in book shelf that takes up half a wall so I've been buying cheap books for years to fill it up. I've read maybe 40% of my collection but I really love looking at everything and knowing that I'll read them all... eventually.
Confederacy of Dunces is still to this day the funniest book I've ever read. The stories of its origin and it's failed adaptations to the silver screen are also quite fascinating too.
Everything from Jhumpa Lahiri is wonderful. So, so good. She won the Pulitzer for Interpreter of Maladies, a book of short stories about relationships, immigration, foreignness and feeling foreign, losing touch with your roots, so many lovely things. Her prose is beautiful.
And women! Holy smokes! Clever, subtle women with complex lives and surprising little turns. Listen, there are no women in Master and Commander. And there are few in that entire series. Jhumpa Lahiri writes characters and dialogue so beautifully, no matter the gender. Everyone is a fully fleshed out human. But the women you want to hang out with and listen to.
Journey to the End of Islam is a fantastic shame stack book. You’d read it to learn, and while it covers difficult things it doesn’t make you terribly sad. Plus amazing cultural reflection on western culture of 80s-2010s.
When I first saw one of your videos (other channel) I wondered if you ever read fiction. Then in an older video I saw that you had some Diskworld books! Turns out you've read all fiction ever and have a book related channel 💥💥
The only way up is through. Once you realize just how awful people always have been and still are to each other, there's no other choice than to be hopeful and live the best life you can.
Stoner is great but if you love Westerns, as you've mentioned here and in another video of yours I saw, you should make Butcher's Crossing (also by John Williams) an addition to your list! Might be my single favorite Western (a favorite genre of mine). Literary without being stuffy or boring, and a thorough evisceration of the sort of "Go West, Young Man" mindset of Easterners "finding themselves" in the "wild" West, among other things.
I know the science in three body problem aint all there, but i will say it was so much fun to get my brain blasted apart by all the concepts throughout the course of the crazy adventure. The most unrealistic and oddly inspiring part about the book was people coming together to make decisions. If you ever do decide to make a review, analysis, or whatever i'd watch it
"reading is my only hobby" says the lady who gave us the gift of a 4 hr video about Picard
That video called to me like a mission from a higher power. It had to be done.
Ohhhh….that’s a fun debate that I don’t see anyone having.
Is entertainment a hobby?
My gut says no…a hobby has to involve active participation to get that entertainment.
But then you have all the work that goes into conventions….and the communities around hobbies and fandoms do map into eachother really neatly.
Hmmmm 🤔
@@dstinnettmusic There's definitely a line somewhere, someone who puts on a tv show as background noise wouldn't count as a hobby, but a "cinephile" who is more heavily interested in tv and film would definitely count. And as you mentioned fandom can definitely become a hobby
@@acollieralsoa mission from picawd
shame is down the stack. its down the stack
That’s what I thought this was gonna be about but then I noticed it’s the other channel lol
came here to make this joke. what a shame. guess it goes on the stack
you're reading on the beach. its down the shame stack
@@notarabbit1752your actually working on the stack while reading on the beach
You won the comment section. Your prize is just down the stack.
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read. “ - Groucho Marx
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, knowledge manifests itself in radiant dreams that shimmer like the wild sun." - UtilityLimb
Buying books and reading books are two completely separate hobbies.
It's true. It was only marginally harder to give up book buying as compared to coffee. It still took 6 years, and 3 house shifts.
I still read all the time though (only buying them if I Have to have them).
It used to be called 'collector' or 'antiquarian'
Though back then, the collected books were likely read...
😂😄Worthy to be an Aurelius Meditation
Most books I have read are in the local library.
This. My dad had hundreds of books. He read a lot but not even close to half of them. Just liked buying and having books. I think because it made him feel noble or something. If you like READING books, read them and sell them for super cheap on ebay or marketplace when you're done.
The best part of the “in a real disaster people are actually pretty helpful” thesis is that when there actually was a Lord of the Flies situation and a bunch of schoolboys got stranded on an island, they made a chore chart and a rain cistern and a badminton court and when one of them got injured badly they took care of him and reassigned his chores on the chore chart.
For a learn-a-ton, doorstopper book rec, The Guns of August is a giant, beautifully written, incredibly detailed account of how World War I started.
Well one difference between that group of Tongan schoolboys and lord of the flies is that the kids in lord of the flies were posh British boys (culturally educated to value hierarchy and bully each other- it’s WW2 era so the school they’re coming from is the school system that “another brick in the wall” was written about)
Certainly this line of argument is entirely separate from Golding’s intent, he was trying to say that Rousseau was wrong by positing “even posh British boys would descend into infighting and brutality if you stranded them on an island” (note that that’s with an “even”), and the event you’re describing is certainly counter evidence on that matter- but I saw this idea somewhere and find it interesting and I already typed all this up so might as well send
@@voidify3I don’t know, I think when systems well and truly collapse or are absent, people’s tendencies to care for one another supersedes the ingrained cultural norms
@@potatopotatow also a valid point!- I noticed this possible point halfway through typing and was considering mentioning it but decided not to
there is a new study where they locked some kids in a house for a couple weeks with a passive videographer and it went straight to lord of the flies
@@meesalikeu I mean...don't kids at a certain age push boundaries? And even further, aren't the conditions different? That house "study" you mention is they give the kids everything they could need AND want, they are American kids born and raised, and they had a wide age range. Id even wager they incited the drama in some way, they certainly did for the Prison "experiment". "Damn, can't believe this age group that is the most boundary-pushing age group pushes social boundaries in a situation where it's the only thing to really do"
Big, huge, massive recommendation for James Baldwin. His essays aren’t just good reading, they’re in that short list of literature so profound and insightful that you can sense it changing who you are as you read. That’s just my personal experience of course, but The Fire Next Time is famous for a reason.
Delay reading the stack by….. spending time talking about the stack. Love this.
The problem I have with buying books is that I frequently buy them not because I definitely want to read them, but because I want to be the sort of person who lives the sort of life where I will have the attention and energy to read them. So I have a lot of books that, in principle, I know I will like. In practice, I cannot get them started.
I feel this!
This is so true!
What just helped me this week was picking up a random self-help book off a free shelf and connecting with it, specifically because that’s something totally opposite to my normal, “intellectual,” picks. Reading something which is indistinguishable from sources you’ll easily read on the internet can make it seamless to start reading again if you’re in a slump.
The master and Commander series are some of the best books I've ever read. They are by far the funniest
"Collect books, even if you don't plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.". ― John Waters.
Respectfully,
“You are not what you own”
- Fugazi
:-)
You've gotta add more Ursula Le Guin to your shame stack if you're into feminist scifi masters like Joanna Russ and Octavia Butler. The Dispossessed is incredible, though you may learn more than you can bear to know. A clearersighted and more generous author there has not been
Seconded! LeGuin belongs in anyone's collection who is at least mildly interested in science fiction. Haven't read Russ or Butler yet, but from what I've heard, the same goes for them.
I learned to read before I started school. No one can tell me how that happened but however it came about it was the single most important thing in my life. Reading gave me a place to go when I didn't fit in anywhere. It taught me about the world outside of my experience in such a way that became my experience. It not only led me to the answers of my questions but to questions I hadn't considered yet. Born in the 50's I grew up in the 60's and 70's, two of the most historic and trauma filled decades in this country's history. Reading taught me to develop critical thinking skills that were essential for navigating those years. The internet may be a repository for all human knowledge up to today, but going online just isn't the same experience as opening the pages of a book and giving yourself over to the words on the page. I'm holding this work of art in my hands, and doing so brings me closer to the author. The difference between having a conversation with a friend or exchanging text messages. Reading is everything.
We keep unread books to remind ourselves to be humble and curious. The larger our collection of unread books, the more we know we do not know. They signify potential.
(or at least, that's what I say to myself, looking at my overflowing TBR shelf)
Sidenote on Arcadia: I saw a production of Arcadia 12 years ago and I still sometimes find myself crying thinking about it. Very powerful work
I had a shame stack that over 15 years became an entire shame shelf. When moving earlier this year I decided to donate every book that I had at some point bought but never read, no matter how much I thought I would like each book. It must have been around 150 books. It was really tough to let go of my carefully curated selection, but in end those books are better off in the hands of people working on building their own shame stacks than sitting on my shelf collecting dust.
your intro reminds me why i am so glad i registered for a library card when i moved a few years ago. i have been renting e-books from libby or hoopla the past 2 years & it's saved me major bucks
Another benefit is you don't need to move library books :)
You give a lot of other people hope. Thank you.
Contranarian! No obligation. Follow your heart.
Say Nothing is brilliantly written nonfiction with something most nonfiction books don't have - a twist at the end. It's informative without being overwhelming with exhaustive detail and is a near-perfect primer on The Troubles. The best nonfiction always makes me want to visit the places being written about and this book was no exception.
Something I do to make myself more willing to experience new art is I make a numbered list of everything I want to read/watch/play/listen to and then use a random number generator to see what I'll be getting to next. I find it works quite well for me to actually make myself excited for new stuff since there's an element of mystery to what's coming.
Not sure if it would help you read these books or not, since you said you've already read 70 books this year, so evidently you're not exactly lacking motivation in general!
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series is wonderful. Each book has a bit different feel, and while life aboard ship and naval battles are part of the series, the character development and relationships are what bring me back to them again and again.
The master and commander series isn’t really about ships, it’s a story of friendship between the captain and his surgeon. Most people grow super attached to these characters. When I finished the entire series it was so sad not to have more stories about these two characters. That’s probably why there is so much fan fiction.
One of the best films I had never heard about before watching it as well! Amazing acting, story as well as a technical marvel. Only knew there had been plans for sequels, but had no idea it was based on a book series. I take it I better stay away from them given how much I enjoyed the characters in the film that obviously did too poorly for a sequel.
A book you might like is Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. It is supremely beautiful.
“Ship Book” when discussing “Master and Commander” fanfic … whether that pun was intended or not, I lol’ed 😅
OMG YOU HAVE A SECOND CHANNEL! YES! MORE CONTENT!!!!! Thanks algorithm for the recommendation.
"Remains of the Day" is, imo, a perfect novel.
LA Theatreworks has an exceptional version of Arcadia if you or other commenters would enjoy listening to a full cast perform it. Your local library may have it, but it's also all available for purchase and download, or free on soundcloud!
I feel shame is the friction between the imaginary self and the real self, but I must say it's very sad if the first takes over and life turns into this structured, organized, spotless experience. It's for the greater good remaining chaotic and spontaneous and natural and artless and messy and weird an quirky. So I still feel hoarding 30,000 unread books is not that bad as reading everything precisely like a well behaved school kid, and I never would feel shame about the former if that was my natural thing.
China in Ten Words is great! Very interesting and revealing. One of the college books that I really enjoyed.
Re:Hope in the Dark: I haven't read it, but your description immediately made me think of Mutual Aid by Kropotkin, which focuses on his observations of both members of other species sacrificing their own security to help those around them and also some examples from human society. Its purpose is basically the same as how you pitched Hope in the Dark: convince the reader that people are fundamentally good-natured when enabled to be (i.e. when they are afforded immediate security and autonomy in their own life).
it's also interesting when compared to the whole competitive slant usually given to "survival of the fittest", the full tittle being Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, all the way back in 1902
Solnit wrote a whole book on the subject of how people after disasters are generally more good than bad, it’s called “A Paradise Built in Hell” and some of the examples she examines are the 1906 and 1989 San Francisco earthquakes, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. One of the main takeaways from her account of those was that most violence after a major disaster comes from government forces and vigilantes trying to reassert “control”, and she rightly questions why “looting” is so often treated as dangerous criminality to justify deadly force
My partner just said "the book about the Troubles was untouched because it came out someone else's shame stack"
I read The Things They Carried in my senior year English class. While I don't remember most of the exact scenes any more, it's still stayed with me all these years later. No one should ever have to go through the horrors in that book. You should definitely read it.
God Bless You Angela! A few vids ago you put in a good word for Charles Portis' True Grit. It's been on my list for a quarter century, just never seemed to get to it. Loved it! Will be re-visiting Grit quite a few times if God wills. Many Thanks!
I love the kappa book! This creature the 河童 (kappa) terrified me when I was young. I grew up in rural area and liked to wonder, my dad would always say to be home before dark or 河童 would kidnap me. I would leave cucumber at a shrine for them because I did not want to be kidnap, and sometimes it gets dark so suddenly!
My book suggestion is a closed and common orbit by Becky Chambers. This is second book in the wayfarer series unfortunately but all of the books are very good. The books do not really have a clear plot/conflict like most western stories I have read, they feel like the “slice of life” stories in Japan. It is fun in sci fi because…yes I would love to read about your chores and the sort of “mundane” parts of living on space ship or alien world.
I'm a quarter of the way through the first book and am quite liking it (unfortunately, the inevitable reality of my Stormlight Archive reread has greatly slowed my reading pace on that book)
The PBS _Storied_ channel gives Akutagawa so much love whenever they do an episode about the traditional Japanese bestiary. His illustrations are simply incredible.
I also recommend Kappa, and Akutagawa wrote the short stories that would be adapted as the movie Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa!
I'd second the Wayfarer books. I had to read them all when #4 was nominated for the '23 Hugo...
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" is one of my favorite movies. It isn't for everyone, but I felt like it gave a real sense of what life was like in the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy.
Anyway, the books are good too, with the same disclaimer.
Agreed. I’ve read the first eight (well, listened to the audio versions). Some are better than others, but the overall series is fine. I’d love to see them make more movies.
The Remains Of The Day is my favorite book of all time. The thing that got me into it is just the diction, the way Stevens talks. It's platonically ideal English phraseology, has a very specific vibe. I went back recently trying to to make some observations about how exactly how he did it, and I couldn't figure it out. Incredibly subtle, pitch perfect performance of diction. Also a very personally relatable story to me, but YMMV on that kind of thing.
With that said, IMO Ishiguro is kind of washed these days. When I got to the end of The Buried Giant back in like, 2013 I think it was, I chucked it across the room. Absolutely sadistic ending for no good reason. Kiara and the Sun came out recently and I thought it was interesting, but I do think it's kind of hard (contra Ursula K. LeGuin) to deploy sci fi conventions with literary intent, and it always felt a little too much like he was aping just that one scene from the movie A.I. with all the broken robots.
With that said, I think A Pale View Of The Hills is, like, the Ishiguro book, if you're going to read just one of his books, or if you were going to keep a book around on the off chance that you might read it. A deeper cut of the purer essence of Ishiguro as a writer who deals with opportunistic misremembering, the stories people tell in part because of what they can't bear to acknowledge. Hits like a truck.
I’m glad some people have been able to retain the attention span to be able to sit down and read. After a lifetime of voracious reading, the advent of the cell phone has robbed me of the ability.
Your "book club" videos have actually been helping me to get through some of my shame shelf - and buy more books to put on it - so the problem isn't really solved.
I don't have a shame stack, but a Steam stack of shame.
Had to read The Things They Carried for school last year and while that normally makes a book worse, it still got me to borderline cry multiple times, it is SO good I still think about some lines from it
As someone who also used to read the same books over and over again, I think you're doing great.
John Williams is an excellent writer, and NYRB consistently puts good titles back into print. Stoner is fantastic, and so are Butcher's Crossing and Augustine.
From a fellow reader of plays: I also like Tom Stoppard, and I would also recommend August Wilson. I'm always telling everyone to read August Wilson.
If you want to learn about the Vietnam War through reading, there are plenty of proper histories, but a work of journalism, titled "Fire Upon the Lake," by Frances FitzGerald, is one of the finest works of nonfiction I have ever read. She is an excellent journalist in general, but Fire Upon the Lake is one of the most poetic, studied, learned and thoughtful works of reportage ever written. Also, the memoir "Dispatches" by Michal Herr.
I read "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain" the week it was published; I've been reading Saunders for a very long time, and having long followed his career, and knowing about his teaching, I was very excited when this book came out, and I loved it. The book exceeded expectations. (It also made me read several short stories I love and had not revisited in a long time.)
The Things They Carried is definitely about the Vietnam War, but whenever i read it, what really stands out to me is how much the book is about storytelling and the nature of stories. i really love that about it. you should read it!
Hope in the Dark: can confirm. When our city had a major earthquake the farmers brought water tanks in so people could drink, people organised free barbecues, students organised to dig out liquefaction mud. You could talk to anybody in the supermarket line about how things were going for you. But over the next ten years, dealing with insurance claims and constant road works ground everybody down and made them angry.
Baldwin's The Fire Next Time is a tour de force. Unforgettable. Read it first. You won't be able to put it down yet it can be read in one sitting.
Not only male booktubers love Stoner! My mum recently told me it’s her all-time favourite book. Yep , it’s in my shame stack.
Hilarious. I loved this. It's like there is a partition between you and the stack. Cheers.
The Remains of the Day ❤
I really enjoyed The Things They Carried
Most of it felt like a Clint Eastwood miniseries except for ONE CHAPTER THAT'S ABSOLUTELY FRIGGING WILD.
also, to add to your pile, 'this is how you lose the time war'
I'm one of the odd people who liked Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans. I picked it up when visiting my parents once back when it was new. My mom is an avid reader, but I don't usually like the same books she does; this was one she was reading with her book group. I was intrigued by the title -- who are "we" and why were we orphans but no longer?? So never be ashamed to say you judge a book by its cover and get caught by it. WWWO was Ishiguro's foray into a detective novel, and I love detective fiction. What made me love this work is it has a textbook case of an unreliable narrator; you the reader know from the start there is something really odd about the detective's inability to solve the mystery -- and it all comes down to the unacknowledged psychological trauma most "orphans," even when adopted, go through. Is it his best? No. But it is accessible and IMHO, a page-turner. So on my shame list is any better-known work by Ishiguro, none of which I've gotten around to reading. 😊
Michael Cunningham is amazing
Last Summer I read James Baldwin’s Another Country with Bright Lights Big City. The two read well together. Belated Happy 100th Birthday James.
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” -James Baldwin
Thanks for sharing the stack. The first part of having a hobby is admitting you have a hobby. Then enjoy - cheers.
The Things They Carried is great. I re-read the fantastic title story recently and you can attack it one a story at a time. I’m sure that you don’t need any more books for now, but I’ve just looked at my re-reading shame pile (things I read over 20 years ago), and I’m looking forward to The Third Policeman and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. You can’t go wrong with either of those. Also, thank you for the Liebowitz video. I loved it. One of the best and strangest autobiographical books I’ve read.
No shame in loving books as objects of beauty
I agree that there is no shame in enjoying beauty, just it isn't the reason to buy a book- unless you are specifically collecting the cover art. The content of the book is the reason to buy a book.
I came for the Picard and I stayed for the vibe
I have books everywhere and most of them I haven't read. It's nice to have them there just for the possibility of reading them.
literally becoming a book club
And we love it
I've come to frame this sort of thing as the intuitive sense that 'i'm not actually ready' and the time will come when I find it and then it will resonate; because I'm in the headspace or have different experiences or just a different place in life.
The Golem is a Jewish classic! It's about the genesis of the Golem, a soulless man made of clay (like Adam before God breathed into his nostrils to give the breath of life, if you read the Tanakh) that is used to protect Jewish communities from violent mobs.
Adding - I was also disappointed by first Kazuo Ishiguro (I read The Buried Giant) also because it sounded like an amazing premise, but the execution was not good. I'm going into my next Ishiguro without reading anything about the plot so as to have no expectations to be dashed.
TRUTH : we live in a society that bombard us with stimuli, so we feel compelled to do stuff that we don't really want or need. That's why you have a shame stack: you like the idea of reading way more than reading itself.
I haven't read The Hours, but I have seen the movie and I looooooved it. It hits different if you've struggled with depression, and I watched it at the height of mine. It's beautiful and tragic and I'm due for a rewatch. I need to pick up the book!
I’m glad that I’m not the only one who has that particular moment in Hey Arnold! Living rent free in their head…
What a weird episode.
I love your videos and channel. Thank-you.
Gonna start referring to my Steam library as my shame stack.
The Hey Arnold sound track absolutely slaps. Also, have struggled to finish books for years now
The grapes of wrath is one of the most sad and miserable books every written its Great i love Steinbeck. Try Canney row its a very pleasant and fun read.
Cannery Row is a good suggestion for Angela...or anybody for that matter! Tortilla Flat is very funny too, same time, place and people. Ever test drove Travels with Charlie? Worlds' best travel story...not 100% true, but based on his own cross-country trip near the end of his life...very good read!
@@dougirvin2413 Thank you for that i have not read that story yet will give it a read. Have a good day.
I would have suggested 'Never Let Me Go' by Ishiguro over 'Remains of the Day', but it would just sit in the shame stack anyway. 😅
I liked "The Remains of the Day" but I agree that "Never Let Me Go" is probably a better book to start with. I also thought "The Buried Giant" was surprisingly interesting & well-written.
I haven't gotten around to "Klara and the Sun" but sounds like that's a good thing?
@@ABC_Guest Klara and the Sun is excellent. I enjoyed "Remains of the Day" and thought "Never Let Me Go" was even better, but I might just prefer Klara and the Sun to both of them, so I have to disagree with Angela on that one... Lots of good books suggested in this video though. Makes me want to read at least some of them...
Never Let Me Go, for the win! Remains of the Day might be his best book. But most important? No, say I. Reading all 8 novels is a plan, they are so few, & all good. Then the question is reading order. But my theory is, I don't know enough about another reader to suggest that plan. First choice, even if the best, is a crap shoot, & 50/50, even if they finish the one, whether they pick up the next. That's why I'd want the first to be the one not to have never read. If she gets around to that one, she'll have read the one I consider least dispensable.
No spoilers, but I read the book & watched the film, both several times. The author is careful not to tell us too much too soon. I enjoyed each rehash. I got enough mileage out of it every time. I'll say there's a moral of the story that I knew was coming. It affected me even so. It was more important than the gimmick.
BTW, Never Let Me Go is SciFi. Remains of the Day is not. As such, the questions it poses are specific. That's why it's not just a starter book, it's the must-read one, if there is to be only one.
Like, if one reads only one Le Guin story, I'd want it to be Lathe of Heaven. Or even The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. The Dispossessed is arguably her best. But I take a minority stance on Omelas. From a physics angle, walking away is like quantum nonlocality: spacelike separation doesn't dissolve the conundrum. The core mystery was always there, but separation exacerbates it. Omelas is the Trolley Problem, & walking away is like spacelike separation. The responsibility persists. We decide how we are to be. We can't just walk away from our morals.
My last word: The comments with reading ansatze are perhaps more useful than specific book recommendations. That said, I didn't notice anyone mentioning Iain Banks' Culture books. For a Star Trek fan with Dr. Collier's problem of depression after books that make her sad, I can suggest starting with The Player of Games.
P.S. Whereas, Use of Weapons may be the best Culture book. Kind of a case in point.
Even though The Grapes of Wrath takes place during the Great Depression it touches on themes that are still going on in our politics today.
The thing about Master & Commander and its following books is that they’re not the usual ship books- they talk plenty about jibs and mizzens but have a central character just as likely to be lost about that as the reader.
O’Brian’s fav author is Jane Austen, and he specifically takes a lot from her style.
So the books are like a Regency Era Kirk and Spock gallivanting around the world being the best of friends. On a ship.
(Tbh, i read the first, wasn’t sure i wanted to continue, and then got a weird urge and devoured every single one)
Reading about certain parts of history, or just the daily news, can make us sad Angela. However it helps if you have someone you love to talk to about it. Tell your partner or a close friend you would like to be able to go to them when something upsets you. Then sit down and tell them how you feel when you need to. It really helps to share things. ❤🙂
I feel like this is inevitable in every hobby, table top strategy players have their gray box of unbuilt minis, Lego collectors have unbuilt kits, gamers have expansive libraries of unplayed games, makers and artists have their list of unfinished projects or unused materials. You love a thing so you end up getting more of it than you can reasonably consume
Fun fact: the biggest “problem” in a lot of disaster areas is how many people who don’t really have the skills to help show up…it gives me a warm fuzzy that there’s that level of goodness in the world, but it isn’t helpful. Tough issue.
We all relate to this. Finish one book but three more.
You’d make Umberto Eco proud
Great TBR list. I'd love to read all these myself. I've only read two so far, "Grapes of Wrath" and "Remains of the Day" and they are both great. Have to disagree with you about Klara and the Sun and Ishiguro, though. I love the very restrained style of his prose and the way he makes you read between the lines by forcing you to think as much about what's not being said as what is being said. Maybe he's an acquired taste, though, and if so I hope "Remains of the Day" changes your mind 🙂 (and if it does I'd definitely recommend "Never Let Me Go")
I read the Patrick Obrien series while commuting to college. Unfortunately, I commuted by automobile, and I was driving.
Anyway, great books for the book stack. The book stack gods are pleased.
Cannery Row is my favorite book of all time. I too have some Steinbeck in the shame stack, along with some Jack Kerouac. Currently embarking on Atlas Shrugged
read the word for world is forest today from a different video and i loved it!!! love getting recommendations here :)
Hi Angela, I've read The Fire Next Time (I even have the same copy you do) and it's really amazing. I would certainly recommend it. But, I totally understand about the shame stack. I've had a lot of books that I felt like I "should" read, told myself I WANTED to read, but didn't really want to read, often for similar reasons to you -- "oh, I would learn so much" (it feels like an obligation or a chore) or the book is associated in my mind with something disappointing or unwanted (buying the book because you thought it had won an award, but it hadn't). I think the conclusion you reached, that you aren't going to read any of these books, seems like a mature one.
The Sense and Sensibility movie is worth seeking out! Ang Lee directed it, and Emma Thompson actually did the script.
Jane Austen’s writing can be very abstract, in staying in the sort of witty high-level social analysis of what it is happening between people - a movie has to make choices to portray things more directly, and I think that movie is one of the best Austen adaptations I’ve seen in terms of making specific choices that seem in keeping with the book.
S&S is my fav Jane Austen movie, despite being only like my #4 in terms of the books.
If you're looking to read about the troubles a good companion piece, its a movie though, is Kneecap. Its a fictionalised biopic about a hip hop group of the same name. They're members of the so-called ceasefire generation who grew up as the troubles ended and its about the Irish language and its place in youth culture
Oooh I read The Things They Carried in high school and it stuck with me
your book buying habits remind me very much of my own
you can set aside 20 minutes of one day to start one of those short books! I believe in you!
"A Scientist in Wonderland" by Edzard Ernst should be mandatory reading for anyone pursuing science. It is a wonderful story from doctor that becomes the first chair in alternative medicine. Initially, there is great support from the practitioners of alternative medicine because it is providing respectability to the "field", but this is short-lived when they discover that the goal is to use the scientific method to challenge the claims from alternative medicine.
The Grapes of Wrath might be the best book I've ever read; not my favorite, but the best.
I was watching your video on "A Canticle for Leibowitz," and it made me want to recommend, "the Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco.
When I was in grad school a friend organized a reading of Arcadia. We had dinner first, I think, then passed out copies of the book, assigned parts, and read the whole play as a group. It was fun - I love doing play read-throughs and spending structured time with friends - but I don't remember being seriously impressed with the play.
My house came with a giant built-in book shelf that takes up half a wall so I've been buying cheap books for years to fill it up. I've read maybe 40% of my collection but I really love looking at everything and knowing that I'll read them all... eventually.
I love Arcadia! We read it in my highschool AP Calc Class in the post-test weeks
Confederacy of Dunces is still to this day the funniest book I've ever read. The stories of its origin and it's failed adaptations to the silver screen are also quite fascinating too.
Your stack of books, things I should be doing with my life, not so different, lol.
Everything from Jhumpa Lahiri is wonderful. So, so good. She won the Pulitzer for Interpreter of Maladies, a book of short stories about relationships, immigration, foreignness and feeling foreign, losing touch with your roots, so many lovely things. Her prose is beautiful.
And women! Holy smokes! Clever, subtle women with complex lives and surprising little turns. Listen, there are no women in Master and Commander. And there are few in that entire series. Jhumpa Lahiri writes characters and dialogue so beautifully, no matter the gender. Everyone is a fully fleshed out human. But the women you want to hang out with and listen to.
Journey to the End of Islam is a fantastic shame stack book.
You’d read it to learn, and while it covers difficult things it doesn’t make you terribly sad. Plus amazing cultural reflection on western culture of 80s-2010s.
My guilty shame is Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series. They are shallow, cliched formula fiction. The cotton candy of books. And I love them.
They are absolutely wonderful.
When I first saw one of your videos (other channel) I wondered if you ever read fiction. Then in an older video I saw that you had some Diskworld books! Turns out you've read all fiction ever and have a book related channel 💥💥
The only way up is through. Once you realize just how awful people always have been and still are to each other, there's no other choice than to be hopeful and live the best life you can.
Stoner is great but if you love Westerns, as you've mentioned here and in another video of yours I saw, you should make Butcher's Crossing (also by John Williams) an addition to your list! Might be my single favorite Western (a favorite genre of mine). Literary without being stuffy or boring, and a thorough evisceration of the sort of "Go West, Young Man" mindset of Easterners "finding themselves" in the "wild" West, among other things.
Stoner is incredible
I know the science in three body problem aint all there, but i will say it was so much fun to get my brain blasted apart by all the concepts throughout the course of the crazy adventure. The most unrealistic and oddly inspiring part about the book was people coming together to make decisions. If you ever do decide to make a review, analysis, or whatever i'd watch it