First of all CONGRATS ON GETTING 20k subscribers!! Yeah I know.. I'm pretty late to this video 😅 but since I've found your channel I've been binge watching all your previous stuff. And second, I loved this video. This one was an amazing mix of entertaining, informational and just plain old fun! Thank you so much for this. P.S - Do you think you could do another one of these? 👀 A 20k milestone celebratory Q&A perhaps? Worth considering.😁 Have a lovely day!
Aw, thank you so much! I really appreciate that :) You read my mind. I'm actually going to be asking for questions for our next milestone show, so I'd love to hear any you might have! And thank you so much for watching. Have a great day, my friend!
Congratulations Ben, Your contribution to the people who seek through great minds is insurmountable. You are literally trying to make this world a better place mate. I am quite indebted to your content as my life turned from competing insanely in rat race to live with the great characters and find tranquility within. May God be with you always.
Thank you, Saugato :) I'm so happy to hear you are finding tranquility within with these great books, and I'm grateful for your kind words :) God bless.
I just started watching you and enjoy the uniqueness you bring to the “BookTube” experience. Not only do you speak intelligently when discussing the great works of literature and answering viewers’ questions, you also share a lot of personal wisdom - e.g. your answer to the question of what you would do differently, knowing what you know now. As a 54-year-old woman, I had to nod in agreement with what you said, but even I learned something - that skills are more important than goals. Thank you, and keep up the great work!
I just found your channel and love it. Just finished “Crime and Punishment”, loved it. Also finished “ I Am Legend” by Mathesen and wasn’t too impressed. Now reading “Les Miserable” and it’s a great book. You are so interesting ….thanks
Thank you, Sharon! I'm happy to have you here :) I always preferred The Shrinking Man when it comes to Mathesen. It's great to hear you enjoyed Dostoyevsky, and are now onto Les Misérables. Let me know what you make of it! Happy reading :)
I've read Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl and it had an extremely profound effect on me. I actually found myself crying when he read the parts about Auschwitz and found that even though I could only read it one time, it made such an impact.
Congrats on 5k, you truly deserve it! Your videos and podcast are my favorite. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and passion for literature, I hope you know it really does have a profound impact on others.
I love your RU-vid channel! So inspiring and challenges me to find a playful and meaningful process to further immerse myself into the great literature . I recently retired and am loving the time to read. I love taking my walks with audiobooks. Really loving the performance of Dickens’s novels. Thanks so much for your knowledge and inspiration!!
Congratulation on the big milestone Ben! Your first answer just made me wonder should I scribble on my Everyman's collection... I have Montaigne essays, The Divine Comedy, Milton's work, and some other more, but I don't have the paperback version!
Thank you! Ah, well, I personally have a couple of Everymans (and Library of America volumes) that I have scribbled on. I keep them clean for the most part, but my hardback edition of Emerson's essays looks like a little piece of my soul - covered in ink :)
I am inspired by your energy for great great books. Even though I'm over 50 I change my paradime of books I've already read . Thanks of your work and time.
I'm a new subscriber, I've found you bc of your C&P video since it's a book I'm planning on reading later on this year! Love your diction and content, from what I've watched so far :) thank you for sharing your views and ideas online
Congrats on 5,000 subscribers! Reading internationally is something I have always tried to do. About 20 years ago, I rotated between four novelists in an effort to read as much of their fiction as I could. I went through Evelyn Waugh (English), Italo Calvino (European), Junichiro Tanizaki (Asian), and Vladimir Nabokov (naturalized American). I got to most of the translations of Calvino, Tanizaki, and the Russian fiction of Uncle Vlad. In the end I read 20 Waugh books. Waugh was always funny and fun to read, but the two monster Nabokov novels, The Dare and Ada, were boring. Tanizaki was a great experience, especially The Makioka Sisters. Right now I am filling in the few holes in particular writers, such as completing Far From the Madding Crowd so I can know I covered all of Hardy.
Thank you :) That's such a cool story, and what a great approach to becoming highly well-read. I love the idea of picking authors that resonate and mining through their oeuvre. Nice to see Junichiro Tanizaki here - wonderful writer :) Once you've gotten through Far From the Madding Crowd you'll have covered all Hardy? That's impressive stuff!
Love your channel. There are many American writers whose books I have enjoyed. Maybe you could comment on them sometime. Dreiser "Sister Carrie' , Steinbeck "The Grapes of Wrath" , Upton Sinclair , Sinclair Lewis. I also have enjoyed many English and Russian books. America loves you !
Thank you, Carroll :) I adore Steinbeck, both 'The Grapes of Wrath' and 'East of Eden'. I'm currently planning a podcast on 'Of Mice and Men'. I must say I haven't read too much Dreiser, so I'll order some of his works in. Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis are important writers - of the former, 'The Jungle' is very resonant - I need to read both more deeply however! The American writers currently on my bedside table are Flannery O'Connor, Tennessee Williams, John Williams, and Toni Morrison. I need to do a whole video, as American Literature is an incredible tradition.
I’m curious what your thoughts are on Shakespeare film adaptations. I’ve seen some that I thought were cute, but kinda gimmicky, like the Romeo and Juliet with Dicaprio, but I’ve also watched about 3 different versions of Macbeth (the 2015 one with Michael Fassbender, Polanski’s 1971 version, and Throne of Blood), and the only one I really enjoyed was Kurosawa’s film. I think it has to do with my not necessarily enjoying seeing the plays on screen as Shakespeare presented them, but rather with a more clear vision, as with Kurosawa. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Gimmicky is the perfect word for many of them. Whilst I applaud what Baz Luhrmann was going for with the DiCaprio movie version, I much prefer the Zeffirelli 1968 version. Like you, Cody, the only movie adaptation that really stands out for me is the Kurosawa adaptation of King Lear - the gorgeous 'Ran'. One of my personal favourite films. Interesting because they translated/adapted the sentiment, the feel, of Shakespeare rather than the words. I aim to do a whole video on this early in the new year, but it's gotten to the point where, seeing so few adaptations that do Shakespeare any justice, I feel like I've got to go and do one myself. I'm sure, however, I would find that the task is monumentally difficult, and discover why there are so few great productions. Having said that - when one does find a great production, it is all the more resonant for its rarity. I think of the Pete Postelthwaite King Lear at the Young Vic in 2009. I was mesmerised. It saddens me that I will never get to see this again, nor do we much footage of it.
I really like to watch or see different productions of the plays, particularly those I know well. It may seem repetitive but I think it really deepens your understanding. There will be productions that aren't so good inevitably. Henry V was one of our A level texts and I have seen a number of film or stage productions. The best to date was by a company called Antic Disposition who did it as a play within a play set in a field hospital in the first world War. It was stunning.
Congrats! 👏🏻 I really like the idea of marginalia, but I get a bit OCD with my books 😆 I don’t really like writing on the pages. I sometimes write my thoughts / memory recall exercises on a separate notebook, but that might not be very practical.
Proust in original version is in one very thick book. I read it, but I still prefer the audiobooks. Actually, Proust in audio is way more digestible, the language and style works wonder for that media. Actually, I read (or listen) twice completely, I read each part as the first book of every year...every 7 years I start over
Congratulations on reaching the 5,000 mark. Ilove your enthusiasm, Benjamin, and your very sensible approach to literature and reading. I'd like to comment on several things you said but only one troubled me. You seem hesitant to treat plays as literature (with the exception of Shakespeare). What about G.B. Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Sheridan, Congreve not to mention the Elizabethans like Marlowe. ? Because I write plays myself, I question that approach. Writing for performance is a lot more difficult than writing simply to be read. That's true of plays, and screenplays and even speech writing. Also, performance oriented writing requires a great deal more focus and control over one's material. Plays that lack focus and meaning don't do very well. And many of the best novelists have also been playwrights.
Thank you, Frank :) I must say I'm certainly not hesitant to treat plays as literature, my friend! The theatre was my first love, and I return to its literature on a daily basis. Last night I was enjoying (if that's the right word?) Arthur Miller's Crucible. I read Wilde consistently, ever since falling in love with him at university. I played in an amateur production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. During lockdown I found myself rereading and enjoying adaptations of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. Beside me as I type, I have Brecht and Artaud. I used to see a play every couple of weeks or so. Productions of Mamet and Pinter have a special place in my memory. I applaud your vocation as a playwright - I personally hope that when I'm older I can put on some productions of my own. It's perhaps my strongest ambition. So, don't worry, I'm 100% team theatre over here ;)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Congrats since you been doing Chekhov have u ever thought of adding his plays to ur book club? i suggest The Seagull or The Cherry Orchard.
@@shaanparwani Oh, yes, absolutely! We currently have a deep-dive into his short story, 'The Lady and the Dog', with some more on the way, but you're right that those two plays are tremendous. I'm planning some watchalongs of great productions :)
Since you were happy about some reading suggestions, I thought I might suggest Alamut by Slovene writer Vladimir Bartol if you haven't read it yet, it's a great read. :)
33:32 I recently finished Anna Karenina (Thank you for responding to me about the haystack section recently.) and it made me really interested in Christianity, so Tolstoy succeeded in what he was doing😅 As Japanese, though, I felt that his way of thinking is peculiarly similar to Buddhism, which inwardly searches peace, rather than seeking salvation outside. I am not a religion expert so I am just saying what I felt by reading his writing through Levin. Your information made me think again. Thank you!
There is no ONE Christianity. Different dominations have different interpretations and practices and that does not even count differences within a sect. Think Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits just within Roman Catholicism. BTW, Tolstoy is still officially excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church.
I subscribe to audible, myself. I love it. I've already listened to many of the books you've discussed. The last ones were Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I've also noticed similar themes in these books even though they seemed ostensibly different. I'd love to discuss more on that. I think we both could agree that both are Gothic, and speaking of which I prefer my vampires to be of the Anne Rice variety, and my favorite play was and is Othello, followed by Antony & Cleopatra! (Shh! Shakespearean spoiler alert: they all die!)
This were great cuestions. And, I wonder, if you mind, what do you think of a chronological reading - from the myths of Gilgamesh, Hesiod, Homer, to the present authors. Im trying to do this, reading one a month; although I love the idea of slow reading, and, yet, I object, saying to myself that I should do ut because in that way a would be able to understand the evolution and influence everyone has had
I mus say as well that I would also be reading one book of poetry every six months (the psalms and the sonnets of Shakespeare), one book every three months about ethics/policts and 1 book every 4 months of what I please. I would really lover your opinion on this as I am a 21 years old guy trying to read more and wide befote Im 25.
I think a chronological reading is a wonderful idea. One would be so intensely knowledgeable after a couple of years of chronological reading. It would help one see all the different influences and relationships, and would explicate every great writer one meets. I have a podcast on Gilgamesh in the works you might enjoy :) I also think one per month is a perfect pace. Your reading program looks tremendous to me - exciting stuff, Axel :)
We actually have an ongoing lecture series at the book club on reading the Bible as great literature. We've dealt with Jonah and Job so far, and have Genesis, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms on the not-too-distant horizon. Having said that, I would like to put some more content out here on religious works from different traditions!
Lots of interesting questions! I have a question myself. I'm about to wrap up November 1916 by Solzhenitsyn and will start my first read through of Don Quixote. I have the Smollett translation. Would you say that it's a good translation?
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Solzhenitsyn is fantastic! His imagination handshakes well with his in depth exploration of history. It reminds me a lot of War and Peace. I will be getting the next 3 books in The Red Wheel soon: March 1917 parts 1, 2, and 3. I read one article talking about how he writes at too great a length in The Red Wheel, which I can see where they're coming from. He's definitely one of my favorite Russian writers, behind Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who are basically on the left and right hand of God at this point in Russian literature. Lol.
(Sorry, I did not mean to hit send, this is a continuation of my request for book recommendations on my 10 European authors challenge.) I thank you in advance for any recommendations you would like to make!
Hello, I am brand new to your channel but watched you for a couple hours tonight. I'm hoping that you can help me with some reading advice. Last month, I gave myself a challenge to read 10 novels by 10 different European authors that were set in their home country by the end of this year. I'm actually having some difficulty in finding titles for the list. I want to read books that provide immersion into each country but are not too difficult to read.
I can indeed :) This was a fun little exercise. I wish you all the very best of luck with your wonderful reading project, Doris. Let me know how you get on! Here's my list: 1- England - Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) 2 - France - Les Misérables (Victor Hugo) 3 - Germany - Buddenbrooks (Thomas Mann) 4 - Italy - The Betrothed (Manzoni) 5 - Portugal - The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (Saramago) 6 - Spain - Don Quixote (Cervantes) 7 - Hungary - The Door (Magda Szabó) 8 - Czech Republic - The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera) 9 - Ireland - Ulysses (James Joyce) 10 - Norway - Hunger (Knut Hamsun)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Hello again Benjamin, I wanted to give you my first update to my European Authors Reading Challenge. I regularly read novels from British authors so had no problem with my England fulfillment. (I read: A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark and Watership Down by Richard Adams. (Incidentally, just finished A Passage to India by E M Forster that had been on my bucket list for a few years.) From your author suggestion, I selected and just finished a book by Jose Saramago that was available in my local library, Skylight. I did enjoy reading the book very much, and as you may know, this book was the first one that he wrote (at age 31) but it was not published until after his death. I may try to read one of his later books so that I can attempt to see comparisons/differences in his writing. (I'm still trying to convince myself that I can read some of the more lengthier novel suggestions that you sent to me. 🔜) Thanks again for your interest and encouragement! Doris
I am feeling a little bristly at the idea that Lord of the Rings is not literary. I don't think a book is mere escapism simply because it is a Fantasy work. Not that escapism is bad per se. I think the problem with LOTR is that some people read it when young and don't revisit it. I read it every 2-3 years on average and it is a book that grows with you and constantly brings up new themes to explore: the role of the fairy story/enchantment, Hope v Despair, the nature of evil and personal temptation and attachment, the pitfalls of power. And so on..and an underlying melancholy because nothing, however wonderful, can last. Including the enchantment that the book itself weaves.
Posso capire degli episodi.. Ma se hanno fatto almeno il 50% del corso così... Vabbè che in molti corsi i docenti universitari davano pesi eccessivi per ricattare Andrebbe denunciati immediatamente i docenti universitari che "caricano" i programmi con quegli scopi.
You remind me of Martin Seymour Smith ( Guide to Twentieth Century World Literature ) cannot believe your breadth of knowledge, and so young - are you slightly manic? Do not mean to offend. Your non-stop speed of delivery is exhausting -
Need say oscar Wilde and time in this video you must not like oscar Wilde Need talk about he work that sad me because he is brilliant you only talk about you favourite that way I don listen to you video has must and more
I personally would love to see you do a deep-dive into fairytales and folktales and which collections are best for people who are looking for traditional and unDisneyfied versions of the stories.
Thank you so much for the amount of time, energy, knowledge and heart ❤ you put into your channel with each video. Your channel has truly stirred me on to read the bigger classics and over my head. To step my game up so to speak. It has been a joy to take the slow deep read path. 📚
You're definetely one of a kind, i deeply admire you and aspire to get at your level of reading, please keep up the good work, you inspire me every day P.S: rn reading Anna Karenina haha P.P.S: Love from Dracula's country
My search for readable copies in book store Barnes and Noble was disappointing. Of the many you mentioned the one I could find was Middlemarch and it’s a heavy paperback but I would have rather had two books or a heavy one. Will be looking in used book stores and library friends book sale. That is where I found a huge War and Peace with good size print. If they are musty I call them my barn books and read outside. Love your channel
Many thanks for dedicating your time for answering these good questions. You were really helpful, and i really enjoyed it and learned a lot from you. You fill me up with enthusiasm for reading great literature. Thanks a lot and please keep up with this wonderful work. Best regards from Iraq.
