I absolutely love your channel! Your enthusiasm for books is so contagious, I want to read everything you showcase! Circe was an amazing read! I re read it a few times a year because it is just so beautiful! The book I would like to read again for the first time is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I was captivated by it and I did not expect that at all! Thanks for the great video 😊
I absolutely loved Project Hail Mary and for the same reason: I never expected I would! Did it as an audiobook and that works ever so well, especially with Rocky’s musical language.
I'd love to read for the first time again The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. It's one of my all time favorites. I've read The Secret History and Giovani's Room. You, sir, have great taste.
Just discovered your channel. Love it. I so appreciate booktubers. I can’t read everything so I appreciate booktubers doing that for me. However I may need a separate storage unit for my TBR😅🤣😂I enjoyed Circe as well.Thank you🩷💜💚
That’s so funny because when I read the title of this video my first thought was also Piranesi! I’ve loved other books before but this one immediately left me with a feeling of “I could never recreate this feeling reading it a second time”. The Secret History has been on my to-read list for so long, I really need to finally start it!
I love your channel. You have so much passion; it's infectious. And I adore the variety you read. I just read Orlando this year for the first time. I loved it. I cried at the end. Because it was beautiful and it was over. I have Piranesi and Circe in my hot little hands, very ready for that first experience. Thank you for your videos!
I am planning to read the secret history this autumn and I'm so much excited to read it . I enjoyed circe alot ,the environment description ,circe's character the choices she made ... definately gonna reread it . And because of you I have so many books on my tbr thankyou for expanding my list, appreciate your work ❤
I also loved Secret History. It is one of the three from your list that I have read; I am eager to dig into the others. My choices, which are different if I were to choose tomorrow, include Tale of Two Cities and American Pastoral.
Great list of novels. I need to add these to by my to be read list . The book iI wish I could read again for the first time is East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
Thank you so much for this great list!! So many great recs, the first ones I haven’t read yet so super helpful. One Hundred Years of Solitude is an amazing book, I love latinamerican magical realism, and this book is a masterpiece! Really agree with LoTR and Circe. And if I could read again for the first time a book, or more like book series, I would pick Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books.. especially Night Watch!
Yes, definitely Piranesi. Kind of stopped me dead in my tracks. Also Hesse’s Siddartha. Read first as a teenager. Still think about his focus often. Check out Herve Le Tellier’s The Anomaly. Thought provoking. Thank you for all you do on your channel.
Not quite the same but I am reading the Count of Monte Cristo for the first time having avoided it for years, feeling I had already read it a few times because of the films. I'm about a third of the way through. It is going to take me some time but is excellent. Best wishes with what you choose to read.
Here are some books I would recommend that I’d love to read again (be warned this is long!): The membranes by Chi Ta Wei - such a beautiful speculative fiction book and short so great for a reading slump. Such an unexpected twist at the end. I was shocked. Has some beautiful writing involving lots of different traditional folklore from different parts of Asia woven into it. Also was published in 95 but covers very relevant topics such as climate change, corporate greed (specifically in the tech industry), gender identity and more. I can’t believe this book isnt more talked about! The rabbit hutch by Tess Gunty - by no means is this the best book I’ve ever read but I just had so much fun reading it. It’s fast paced as, at least for me, it read like a short story collection although thr character’s stories are very much interconnected. It’s a real fever dream book. The characters are so strange and interesting. The main character also has an obsession with Hildegard von Bingen and I have an obsession with her so that might be another reason why I liked it so much. The ending was a little anti climatic but I don’t think that’s a reason not to read it. Day of the triffids by John Wyndham - This is one I just don’t think will be as interesting if I reread. It’s a well known book but I weirdly never hear anyone talk about it! Anyways, considering it was written in the 40s by a man and is in the kinda sci fi or dystopian genres, I’m just so impressed by how Wyndham writes the male protagonist of the book (although the only thing I have to compare to is maybe 1984? I don’t read much from male authors haha) Like I constantly forgot that it wasn’t a contemporary novel, only being reminded by the use of words such as ‘queer’ in a different context than we would use now. Anyways back to one of my favourite male characters of all time! Firstly, the protagonist is a really empathetic character and understands that the women he observes and interacts with must have it worse than himself. Unlike other novels, the women are written so wonderfully, characters full of life, and our main character does not immediately view these women in a sexual way, nor does he ever really, and that’s all I’ll say without spoiling any plot. Secondly, whilst he is empathetic, he is logical. He doesn’t make rash decisions based on emotions that leave you the reader so angry as some other similar books do, but meticulously analyses his decisions. He just feels so real and so human. Very, very realistic. I think that’s a really hard thing for a writer to do, especially in this genre, and I just love it so much. There are a ton of other things I also loved but this is getting far too long. Also I switched to an audiobook on youtube two thirds through and the narrator was so great! I recommend!
not enough people talk about Wyndham! it probably felt contemporary to you because he basically invented the post-apocalyptic genre which became popular again in like the 2000s, as far as i can tell. if you haven't already read The Midwich Cuckoos, it's my fav of his ♥🐤
Great video🎉🎉🎉 my favourite book that I wish I could read for the first time again is Laura by Vera Caspary❤ also, I love Henry so I would take the comparison as a compliment lol😂 love your channel😊
Mine would be Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre. A friend of my parents went to East Germany a lot in the decade before the Berlin Wall came down, so this reminds me of this Cold War period. Saying that, I've just listened to A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes and Circe by Madeline Miller, which literally took my breath away.
Around a year ago I read Giovanni’s room and, recently, with absolutely nothing to trigger its resurgence in my brain, I’ve been thinking about it so so much. Especially that tragically beautiful final page and those last few lines! So heartbreaking and relatable as someone with failed queer relationships but even without all of those experiences. I must buy a physical copy soon but I’m not sure I would actually be able to cope with a reread…
Piranesi is definitely up there for me as a book I’d love to read again for the first time. I loved 100 Years of Solitude too ☺️ I won’t lie though, Bart. I DNFd Orlando this month. I absolutely couldn’t get into it at all. The writing felt so inaccessible to me, but I often struggle with classics for that very reason. Please don’t hate me 🫣😂