Happy Birthday, Alex. What a fantastic video idea and mature tribute to the revelatory books that have shaped you these past few years. So many diamonds among your choices.
Thanks Lukas! And Art of Memoir is a breezy nice preface to rereading the memoirs in my opinion and has Karr's inviting writing style as ever in it too!
Happy birthday Alex!! I love your channel and your in-depth reviews sm. You are always so fantastic at communicating your thoughts about each book and author, and idk there's something so soothing in your voice that is so delightful to listen to! (i tend to listen to you as a podcast while i prepare dinner or when resting after a long day at work). also, i Iike that we have a pretty similar bookish taste so almost every book you recommend is probably going to be a new fave of mine. So thank u sm for the great recs!!! Hope you have an amazing weekend and birthday sweet soul. Much love from latin america
Happy birthday, Alex! 💐 I will forever be grateful to you for making me read the Idiot haha. Also I'm about to finish Fake Accounts and love how the two books are in conversation with each other despite being set in different stages of technological development, the Idiot even being explicitly mentioned. Generally a great list and I love the idea of picking books depending on how much influence they had on you in that specific time in your life!
Thank you! And I'm glad to have persuaded you on The Idiot! I noticed that too in Fake Accounts haha and with that mention is when I clasped my hands together and knew that it was going to be good lol
Happy Birthday, Alex! I'd say The Bluest Eye is the most influential book I've read so far. It made me want to read more Toni Morrison novels, and my worldview was really shaken by its insights on the darker aspects of love and on how people can create identities by defining themselves against outcasts of their community. It's also just beautifully written.
Thank you! : ) Bluest Eye almost made it on my list here! It's still the only Morrison I've read shamefully. Do you have a recommendation of where to start next with her? I was thinking Sula
@@whatpageareyouon That's exactly what I was going to say! Reading her novels chronologically was the best route for me. I also highly recommend A Mercy from her later novels.
happy birthday! I really liked how your framed this list around "influence" and not just your favorite books..its a great angle to think about with my own reading life. pilgrim at tinker creek would also be on my list I think, though I don't know if its one of my all time favorites now...the totally mystical intensity of that book gave me permission to feel passionately about little things.
yeah, I remember Lolita having its funny parts, despite its rep ~ i think it's really rewarding to connect development and new ways of thinking to specific books at specific times - was really fun hearing some of the highlights of your book journey ~ happy birthday!
was somewhat afraid the Lolita evangelists would have found my video somehow and try to tell me that it's "deeper" than my retention of it being funny in its own way lol but it was a surprisingly humorous read amidst its horridness haha. Thank you! : )
Thanks Rebecca! One time someone asked me why I read so much women and I asked him if he could first tell me three women writers he's read and the silence was devastating :')
Happy birthday! The first few books I read that felt like the equivalence of prestige drama were Lolita, East of Eden, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. After a steady reading diet of Agatha Christie and historical nonfiction, those 3 gutted me and made me go “wow books can be like this?” Most recently, Ottessa Moshfegh has made me feel the same way.
Thank you! I still need to get to Steinbeck! Trying to dip my toes into writers like Steinbeck and of his time, one o' these days. Have you heard Moshfegh is releasing a new book next year? I'm looking forward to it!
Alice Munro's books have been most influential in manifesting, for me, what fiction is capable of. I do also count Virginia Woolf's The Waves and several others here as among my very favorites. Thank you for your thoughtful and always intelligent reviews.
The UPTALK (Millenials' and Gen Z's UPWARD LILT at the end of almost every sentence and sometimes even clause) is a bit annoying and distracts from the otherwise interesting content. In this video it occurs less frequently. It happens most when you're thinking on the spot, formulating your thoughts. Your UPTALK could be serving as a way to signal "are you with me?" - "please hold on" - "how will I say this?" The result is a vibe that's questioning, unsteady, insecure and needy (uptalk functionally partially overlaps with phrases like "y'know what I'm saying?"). Research shows uptalk is a language feature of Millennials and Gen Z, especially women. Can be very distracting to older language users that do not use this feature. Older speakers may use uptalk once in a while, say when introducing a jargon term into the conversation, to check whether the conversation partners know the term, which they may acknowledge with a minimal response such as 'hm-hm'. Less UPTALK would make your videos more enjoyable for more viewers. Happy birthday! I love your channel and manera de ser!
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"Think of pokemon and the starter you choose and that feels like reading a Virginia Woolf book" my favourite quote on booktube this year thus far.
>:)
Happy birthday! Lovely video and talk. 📚I could listen to you talk about The Waves for hours. 🌊 Reading Woolf & Pokemon! 😂
:)
Happy Birthday, Alex!
Happy Birthday, Alex. What a fantastic video idea and mature tribute to the revelatory books that have shaped you these past few years. So many diamonds among your choices.
Great video, Alex. You reminded me that I really need to reread Karr's trilogy of memoirs (and need to read The Art of Memoir, for that matter).
Thanks Lukas! And Art of Memoir is a breezy nice preface to rereading the memoirs in my opinion and has Karr's inviting writing style as ever in it too!
Happy birthday Alex!! I love your channel and your in-depth reviews sm. You are always so fantastic at communicating your thoughts about each book and author, and idk there's something so soothing in your voice that is so delightful to listen to! (i tend to listen to you as a podcast while i prepare dinner or when resting after a long day at work). also, i Iike that we have a pretty similar bookish taste so almost every book you recommend is probably going to be a new fave of mine. So thank u sm for the great recs!!! Hope you have an amazing weekend and birthday sweet soul. Much love from latin america
completely agree. the most soothing voice.
thank you for such a thoughtful comment! This is really so touching to me, thanks so much x
Happy birthday, Alex! 💐 I will forever be grateful to you for making me read the Idiot haha. Also I'm about to finish Fake Accounts and love how the two books are in conversation with each other despite being set in different stages of technological development, the Idiot even being explicitly mentioned.
Generally a great list and I love the idea of picking books depending on how much influence they had on you in that specific time in your life!
Thank you! And I'm glad to have persuaded you on The Idiot! I noticed that too in Fake Accounts haha and with that mention is when I clasped my hands together and knew that it was going to be good lol
Happy Birthday, Alex! I'd say The Bluest Eye is the most influential book I've read so far. It made me want to read more Toni Morrison novels, and my worldview was really shaken by its insights on the darker aspects of love and on how people can create identities by defining themselves against outcasts of their community. It's also just beautifully written.
Thank you! : ) Bluest Eye almost made it on my list here! It's still the only Morrison I've read shamefully. Do you have a recommendation of where to start next with her? I was thinking Sula
@@whatpageareyouon That's exactly what I was going to say! Reading her novels chronologically was the best route for me. I also highly recommend A Mercy from her later novels.
happy birthday! I really liked how your framed this list around "influence" and not just your favorite books..its a great angle to think about with my own reading life. pilgrim at tinker creek would also be on my list I think, though I don't know if its one of my all time favorites now...the totally mystical intensity of that book gave me permission to feel passionately about little things.
thank you! I agree, there's something really inviting about how Dillard propels her ideas shrouded by this intense mysticism, so alluring
yeah, I remember Lolita having its funny parts, despite its rep ~ i think it's really rewarding to connect development and new ways of thinking to specific books at specific times - was really fun hearing some of the highlights of your book journey ~ happy birthday!
was somewhat afraid the Lolita evangelists would have found my video somehow and try to tell me that it's "deeper" than my retention of it being funny in its own way lol but it was a surprisingly humorous read amidst its horridness haha.
Thank you! : )
Happiest bird day, Alex. Love love this list and the strong female representation on here. I could listen to you talk about books for 27 years. 💕🎂
Thanks Rebecca! One time someone asked me why I read so much women and I asked him if he could first tell me three women writers he's read and the silence was devastating :')
Happy birthday!
The first few books I read that felt like the equivalence of prestige drama were Lolita, East of Eden, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. After a steady reading diet of Agatha Christie and historical nonfiction, those 3 gutted me and made me go “wow books can be like this?” Most recently, Ottessa Moshfegh has made me feel the same way.
Thank you! I still need to get to Steinbeck! Trying to dip my toes into writers like Steinbeck and of his time, one o' these days. Have you heard Moshfegh is releasing a new book next year? I'm looking forward to it!
Happy birthday! I enjoyed your recap of your most influential reads. Wow, Iove the cover of that edition of The Liars' Club, haven't seen it before.
Thanks Marian! One of my favorite book covers imo
Alice Munro's books have been most influential in manifesting, for me, what fiction is capable of. I do also count Virginia Woolf's The Waves and several others here as among my very favorites. Thank you for your thoughtful and always intelligent reviews.
Happy Birthday Alex! Wishing you a lovely day :)
Happy birthday!! 😊
I'm so nostalgic for my 2018 reading year as well! I read so many of my recent favourite books that year.
truly an unmatched year!! Thanks Lucy : )
Happy Birthday, Alex.
Happy birthday!!!!!
And thank you for the list!
I think if you like the hum drum of getting to know characters, check A Fine Balance!
I've been recommended that one a few times before! This is another sign for me to get to it
@@whatpageareyouon it's an epic read. But worth it!
Happy birthday! Have mine next week and am frankly terrified.
haha oh no!! Has it passed already? Happy belated birthday : )
@@whatpageareyouon It's tomorrow! Just got Theory of the Gimmick for it so it's going well so far.
Happy birthday. I thought you were a Taurus lol I also turn 27 later this month. 94's class.
haha I get that guess frequently! Happy birthday to you too!
Happy birthday!!
happy birthday Alex you are amazing and awesome and beautiful and gorgeous and handsome and of course these are all facts
The UPTALK (Millenials' and Gen Z's UPWARD LILT at the end of almost every sentence and sometimes even clause) is a bit annoying and distracts from the otherwise interesting content. In this video it occurs less frequently. It happens most when you're thinking on the spot, formulating your thoughts. Your UPTALK could be serving as a way to signal "are you with me?" - "please hold on" - "how will I say this?" The result is a vibe that's questioning, unsteady, insecure and needy (uptalk functionally partially overlaps with phrases like "y'know what I'm saying?"). Research shows uptalk is a language feature of Millennials and Gen Z, especially women. Can be very distracting to older language users that do not use this feature. Older speakers may use uptalk once in a while, say when introducing a jargon term into the conversation, to check whether the conversation partners know the term, which they may acknowledge with a minimal response such as 'hm-hm'. Less UPTALK would make your videos more enjoyable for more viewers. Happy birthday! I love your channel and manera de ser!
Huh
And if he’s 27, doesn’t that technically make him a millienial
tldr "i would prefer it if you sounded less like a millenial" 😅 yikes!