I like all your tips and also use them frequently. Two more things that I do sometimes are: Read classics according to original publication order. It takes months, but I always write a short summary before I read the next installment, and so the story stays with me better. With classics, I also try to keep a "first reader's mind," meaning that I try to read it like a person might have read it at the time, with all its social and political context. It often makes the book more interesting and enjoyable.
hey, Britta. Thank you so much for this great advice. You remain my fave BookTuber. May I add that sometimes, research can be helpful for more recent books as well. For example, to me, reading Alexis Wright feels like sitting around a fire listening to my Indig elders tell stories. Pretty comfortable, really. But if you have not had that experience, maybe getting some basic insight into Indig world view and oral story telling might be helpful. I don't know if this happens for you, but often when I am reading a new author it can take 40, 70, even 100 pages to begin to really hear the authors voice. When that happens, I like to give myself permission to start over from the beginning once I think I am really starting to hear the author. Anyway, thanks again. See you next video.
🤣Marie-Kondo it!!!🤣Thanks, Britta!🌷Excellent pieces of advice, all five of them! I usually read the end notes when I’m referred to them in the text. However, I agree on the unpleasant breaking of the reading rhythm and of the enjoyment of the author’s style. This is why, if a passage is dense with notes, I reread it immediately after having read the notes. My latest combination of modern classic + 725 pages was Life: a User’s Manual by Georges Perec. Something which helped me decide to read it, knowing I’d most probably enjoy it, was reading a shorter work by the same author first (Things). I’m aware of the fact that it may not work with all authors, but in this case, for me, it did😊
Hi Britta! Excellent tips, well explained. I use the every day method as well and I tend to start big books around now, so I can finish them in the fall or Christmas holidays. I also sometimes read one to about half way, give up and try again a few years later. Usually that does the trick. With the magic mountain it took 3 times. If I reread, I'll look up much more about it.
Very helpful tips, thank you! I have been reading a lot of big books these past few years, The Tale of Genji, Washburn edition as the latest. I find that once you finish big books, they become less intimidating. These tips are a great way to begin.😃
I think the first big classic I tackled was War & Peace, I read it in 50 page chunks but I had only given myself a month to read it, the time pressure helped. Now, I don't have any problems reading bigger classic books, I think partly because I actually enjoyed W&P a lot more than I thought I would.
Last year I read Clarissa, which clocks in at 1783 pages. I did like you said and read just a few pages a day. Took me several months but I finished it! I like having a big book that I just read little by little like that.
Great advice as always. I just want to comment that sometimes we have to grow into a book. I remember that I tried to read Anna Karenina when I was in my twenties. Could not get through it. I tried again in my thirties, another failure. I did finish it with joy when I was in my forties. Just needed to mature for the book. 😅
I I enjoyed your perspective on this very much. It will be very helpful. My past attempts: I joined a booktube group to read Tomb of sand. Maybe, as you said, it was too large a people but I realized fairly quickly that I was not keeping up. I didn't understand enough about the politics and the hierarchies in India and what changes had happened in the country. I did enjoy listening to the people who did have that information and to hear how much they we're enjoying the book. For two other Mammoth books I did, as you suggest here, read 35 pages a day, my goal. It worked very well. Luminaries is up next for me. Gulp.
I usually start out really slow, doing 10 or so pages a day. Once I'm 1/3 or 1/2 way through, I'm finally invested and can read the second half in just a handful of days. 😁
Slow but steady works for me- Magic Mountain has been a bit glacial but I’ll get there 😉. I love big books and think the more you read them the more you love them, the intimidation factor disappears. So true about thinking you should like a classic, I think we feel if we don’t then it’s us not the book and that’s just simply not true!
I recently discovered reading the physical book while listening to the audio at the same time! It is amazing for me! All the benefits of both! For me the audio is faster than normal reading, (lol, my normal pace through a book I enjoy is 10 pages a day), and I know exactly how long it is going to take (useful for planning for book club reading), and I do get to see the text (underline, annotate) and remember everything much better. The only disadvantage is that I now have to buy the book twice, which seems unfair to me. I don't know why I didn't discover this sooner, I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and my partner even reads lots of books out loud to me, while I read along, cozied up on the couch. I just always felt that I needed to read important books on the page because I retain so much more from them then from audio alone.
I love to read a big book. This year has been Tale of Genji, not quite finished but will be soon. A couple of years ago I read the Studlhof Steps with my German group. At the time when reading it I really enjoyed it but afterwards I realised for most of it I had absolutely no idea what was going on! Oh dear. Maybe one day will read it again? Oh yes, I just remembered it was your influence that started me reading George Eliot a couple of years ago. Still have one or two to go but a most enjoyable reading experience.
Love these. I've read quite a few biggies using #3, small but consistent - for me that's about half an hour every morning, 10 or 12 pages - most recently In Search of Lost Time, which took me a year and three months 😅 but was an amazing reading experience. Highly recommend! I'm thinking Les Miz or Count of Monte Cristo next...
Gosh, yeah. When I read _Middlemarch_ (my first Eliot) it was partially as you suggest, for reasons other than pure pleasure, and I didn’t get pure pleasure either. Now I’m making slow progress through _Daniel Deronda_ and it’s turning out to be pure pleasure. These are some good tips; I’m fond of “mammoths” but going in armed only with optimism isn’t always the best way.
Great tips. I almost always read chunky classics as a long slow read. I usually find them too hard to read more quickly. My only additional tip is one that Steve Donoghue has for translated works. Try sampling different translations first and see which one works for you rather than relying on the most popular or recommended translations. I've only failed to finish one massive book and it was The Tale of Genji. I read 10 pages a day and had to stop at 110 pages. I realized I was dreading picking it up and it took a long time to read each day. I have the same edition you have, and it may be the translation that is the issue. I have a more modern translation in an ebook that I hope to try at some point.
Great points Britta, you can't approach a lot of these books the same way you do normal sized books. I use audio, not just to get into the book, but to get through it. Audio really does help with foreign names and pronunciation. This can even be books written in English. I'm thinking of Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, not that long, but set in 19th century Iceland, and full of Icelandic names. I'm listening to Hisham Matar's My Friends at the moment, which is longish for me, and enjoying the Arabic and Libyan pronunciations. I got through Moby Dick on audio 8-10 years ago. I know that thre is absolutely no way that my interest could have withstood reading the actual book. But I downloaded a free version where each chapter was narrated by a different person. Some famous and accomplished, Simon Callow, Tilda Swinton. Some just regular people who weren't that great as narrators. I listened to it whenever I took my dogs for a walk. And only then. I had absolutely no expectation to listen to it at other times. I enjoyed it that way, with reservations, and never need to read it again!
I think my expectations hurt my attempt to read Don Quixote. Everyone always talks about how funny it is, so I kept expecting it to be much funnier than it was. In the end I gave up at page 100.
What translation did you read? That can play an enormous part in the enjoyment of a translated work. I found the Rutherford Penguin one to be quite funny, the audiobook version is quite comical too with Sancho having a cockney accent. The Edith Grossman translation is often considered one of the best. I think with Don Quixote there’s a lot more going on than comedy, especially the further into it you get. Me and my wife still laugh at a Sancho quote ‘in times of grief, bread brings relief’ 😆
This was very helpful as I’m reading two very big books: one fiction and one nonfiction: The Pickwick Papers and The House of Government about the Russian revolution and the houses designed for the communist bigwigs. I’m enjoying them both and have to accept that it will take me awhile: Dickens is 800 pages and the other is almost 1000! I was also reading, like you, Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad, but I became too overwhelmed. I did, however, read her translation of The Odyssey, which I loved.😊
This is great timing! I love doing some research while reading a big book, particularly when I want to better understand a reference or time period. I've just started Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez and the English translation clocks in at 725 pages... the reminder of consistent x pages/day is much appreciated as I begin! It's how I've tackled a few classics/big books in the past (Vanity Fair, War and Peace, and anything Marlon James come to mind). Whenever I do buddy reads, we always set x pages/chapters per day - it varies based on the flow of the book and our energy, but the consistent reading (as you mention) is key for us.
Great tips. I should do more researching before I pick up big books, like Ulysses. Ulysses is the one I find the most difficult. I don't find the Russians hard to read, just takes time and the names are obviously difficult. My dad has been to Russia so I ask him how to pronounce the names, but sometimes I forget right after he told me.
I recently read Crime and Punishment. What I learned is I'm not really missing anything! It was a mental slog. Some in my book club want to read Shakespeare and I know he is loved by many but I think I'm going to opt out. Do you enjoy reading Shakespeare? Thanks Britta
Yay for big books and yay for us tackling big books together this year !
I like all your tips and also use them frequently.
Two more things that I do sometimes are:
Read classics according to original publication order. It takes months, but I always write a short summary before I read the next installment, and so the story stays with me better.
With classics, I also try to keep a "first reader's mind," meaning that I try to read it like a person might have read it at the time, with all its social and political context. It often makes the book more interesting and enjoyable.
Useful advice for my Victober reading
hey, Britta. Thank you so much for this great advice. You remain my fave BookTuber. May I add that sometimes, research can be helpful for more recent books as well. For example, to me, reading Alexis Wright feels like sitting around a fire listening to my Indig elders tell stories. Pretty comfortable, really. But if you have not had that experience, maybe getting some basic insight into Indig world view and oral story telling might be helpful. I don't know if this happens for you, but often when I am reading a new author it can take 40, 70, even 100 pages to begin to really hear the authors voice. When that happens, I like to give myself permission to start over from the beginning once I think I am really starting to hear the author. Anyway, thanks again. See you next video.
🤣Marie-Kondo it!!!🤣Thanks, Britta!🌷Excellent pieces of advice, all five of them! I usually read the end notes when I’m referred to them in the text. However, I agree on the unpleasant breaking of the reading rhythm and of the enjoyment of the author’s style. This is why, if a passage is dense with notes, I reread it immediately after having read the notes. My latest combination of modern classic + 725 pages was Life: a User’s Manual by Georges Perec. Something which helped me decide to read it, knowing I’d most probably enjoy it, was reading a shorter work by the same author first (Things). I’m aware of the fact that it may not work with all authors, but in this case, for me, it did😊
Thank you for your tips. Now I feel ready to tackle Middlemarch and other long books.
Hi Britta! Excellent tips, well explained. I use the every day method as well and I tend to start big books around now, so I can finish them in the fall or Christmas holidays. I also sometimes read one to about half way, give up and try again a few years later. Usually that does the trick. With the magic mountain it took 3 times. If I reread, I'll look up much more about it.
Very helpful tips, thank you! I have been reading a lot of big books these past few years, The Tale of Genji, Washburn edition as the latest. I find that once you finish big books, they become less intimidating. These tips are a great way to begin.😃
I think the first big classic I tackled was War & Peace, I read it in 50 page chunks but I had only given myself a month to read it, the time pressure helped. Now, I don't have any problems reading bigger classic books, I think partly because I actually enjoyed W&P a lot more than I thought I would.
Last year I read Clarissa, which clocks in at 1783 pages. I did like you said and read just a few pages a day. Took me several months but I finished it! I like having a big book that I just read little by little like that.
Great advice as always. I just want to comment that sometimes we have to grow into a book. I remember that I tried to read Anna Karenina when I was in my twenties. Could not get through it. I tried again in my thirties, another failure. I did finish it with joy when I was in my forties. Just needed to mature for the book. 😅
I I enjoyed your perspective on this very much. It will be very helpful.
My past attempts: I joined a booktube group to read Tomb of sand. Maybe, as you said, it was too large a people but I realized fairly quickly that I was not keeping up. I didn't understand enough about the politics and the hierarchies in India and what changes had happened in the country. I did enjoy listening to the people who did have that information and to hear how much they we're enjoying the book.
For two other Mammoth books I did, as you suggest here, read 35 pages a day, my goal. It worked very well. Luminaries is up next for me. Gulp.
Those are some great tips! Middlemarch is a great example. I'm closer today to doing just that because of your video. Thank you a bunch!
I usually start out really slow, doing 10 or so pages a day. Once I'm 1/3 or 1/2 way through, I'm finally invested and can read the second half in just a handful of days. 😁
#3 is absolutely right - it has worked for me a few times, and I get a few short novels read at the same time!
Excellent tips. Very doable. Thank you for sharing :)
Slow but steady works for me- Magic Mountain has been a bit glacial but I’ll get there 😉. I love big books and think the more you read them the more you love them, the intimidation factor disappears. So true about thinking you should like a classic, I think we feel if we don’t then it’s us not the book and that’s just simply not true!
I recently discovered reading the physical book while listening to the audio at the same time! It is amazing for me! All the benefits of both! For me the audio is faster than normal reading, (lol, my normal pace through a book I enjoy is 10 pages a day), and I know exactly how long it is going to take (useful for planning for book club reading), and I do get to see the text (underline, annotate) and remember everything much better. The only disadvantage is that I now have to buy the book twice, which seems unfair to me.
I don't know why I didn't discover this sooner, I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and my partner even reads lots of books out loud to me, while I read along, cozied up on the couch. I just always felt that I needed to read important books on the page because I retain so much more from them then from audio alone.
Love this list of tips! Very timely as we look forward to tackling Vanity Fair!
You just gave me a strategy for next semester when I have to get through a 1000 pages textbook. Thank you!!
Hello Britta, thanks for sharing these good ideas! I really appreciate your vidéos 😊
Great tips!
I love to read a big book. This year has been Tale of Genji, not quite finished but will be soon. A couple of years ago I read the Studlhof Steps with my German group. At the time when reading it I really enjoyed it but afterwards I realised for most of it I had absolutely no idea what was going on! Oh dear. Maybe one day will read it again?
Oh yes, I just remembered it was your influence that started me reading George Eliot a couple of years ago. Still have one or two to go but a most enjoyable reading experience.
Love these. I've read quite a few biggies using #3, small but consistent - for me that's about half an hour every morning, 10 or 12 pages - most recently In Search of Lost Time, which took me a year and three months 😅 but was an amazing reading experience. Highly recommend! I'm thinking Les Miz or Count of Monte Cristo next...
I read War and Peace doing a chapter a day sometimes two.
These are great tips!
I had planned to read Middlemarch as a year long read a long and I didn’t even get 4 months in because I loved the book so much I finished it all! 😅
Middlemarch was part of my curriculum as a French student reading english literature in France, i have read it twice, great rewarding read😊
Loved this💖
Gosh, yeah. When I read _Middlemarch_ (my first Eliot) it was partially as you suggest, for reasons other than pure pleasure, and I didn’t get pure pleasure either. Now I’m making slow progress through _Daniel Deronda_ and it’s turning out to be pure pleasure.
These are some good tips; I’m fond of “mammoths” but going in armed only with optimism isn’t always the best way.
Great tips. I almost always read chunky classics as a long slow read. I usually find them too hard to read more quickly. My only additional tip is one that Steve Donoghue has for translated works. Try sampling different translations first and see which one works for you rather than relying on the most popular or recommended translations.
I've only failed to finish one massive book and it was The Tale of Genji. I read 10 pages a day and had to stop at 110 pages. I realized I was dreading picking it up and it took a long time to read each day. I have the same edition you have, and it may be the translation that is the issue. I have a more modern translation in an ebook that I hope to try at some point.
Great points Britta, you can't approach a lot of these books the same way you do normal sized books. I use audio, not just to get into the book, but to get through it. Audio really does help with foreign names and pronunciation. This can even be books written in English. I'm thinking of Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, not that long, but set in 19th century Iceland, and full of Icelandic names. I'm listening to Hisham Matar's My Friends at the moment, which is longish for me, and enjoying the Arabic and Libyan pronunciations.
I got through Moby Dick on audio 8-10 years ago. I know that thre is absolutely no way that my interest could have withstood reading the actual book. But I downloaded a free version where each chapter was narrated by a different person. Some famous and accomplished, Simon Callow, Tilda Swinton. Some just regular people who weren't that great as narrators. I listened to it whenever I took my dogs for a walk. And only then. I had absolutely no expectation to listen to it at other times. I enjoyed it that way, with reservations, and never need to read it again!
I think my expectations hurt my attempt to read Don Quixote. Everyone always talks about how funny it is, so I kept expecting it to be much funnier than it was. In the end I gave up at page 100.
What translation did you read? That can play an enormous part in the enjoyment of a translated work. I found the Rutherford Penguin one to be quite funny, the audiobook version is quite comical too with Sancho having a cockney accent. The Edith Grossman translation is often considered one of the best. I think with Don Quixote there’s a lot more going on than comedy, especially the further into it you get. Me and my wife still laugh at a Sancho quote ‘in times of grief, bread brings relief’ 😆
This was very helpful as I’m reading two very big books: one fiction and one nonfiction: The Pickwick Papers and The House of Government about the Russian revolution and the houses designed for the communist bigwigs. I’m enjoying them both and have to accept that it will take me awhile: Dickens is 800 pages and the other is almost 1000! I was also reading, like you, Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad, but I became too overwhelmed. I did, however, read her translation of The Odyssey, which I loved.😊
This is great timing! I love doing some research while reading a big book, particularly when I want to better understand a reference or time period. I've just started Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez and the English translation clocks in at 725 pages... the reminder of consistent x pages/day is much appreciated as I begin! It's how I've tackled a few classics/big books in the past (Vanity Fair, War and Peace, and anything Marlon James come to mind).
Whenever I do buddy reads, we always set x pages/chapters per day - it varies based on the flow of the book and our energy, but the consistent reading (as you mention) is key for us.
Enjoy Our Share of Night! It was this years' biggest surprise, as I didn't expect to like it as much as I did!
Great tips. I should do more researching before I pick up big books, like Ulysses. Ulysses is the one I find the most difficult. I don't find the Russians hard to read, just takes time and the names are obviously difficult. My dad has been to Russia so I ask him how to pronounce the names, but sometimes I forget right after he told me.
Sounds a great way to do it, if one must, but not for me anytime soon.😂
I recently read Crime and Punishment. What I learned is I'm not really missing anything! It was a mental slog. Some in my book club want to read Shakespeare and I know he is loved by many but I think I'm going to opt out. Do you enjoy reading Shakespeare? Thanks Britta
All these things work for me, but buddy reads definitely work best. Also some books deserve to get kicked out of the canon meanwhile in my opinion. 😜
Are you currently reading the Gengi large book, or do you already have a review video on it?
Read one page and then read the rest?