Happy New Year, Ben! Great List. I still need to read War and Peace and 1984. That cover is great! Maybe 2023 will be the year. Song of Solomon is definitely on my list for this year. 😊💙
I also read Midnight’s Children this year, and it also took me a few months to get through for the same reason! But despite how difficult it was to get thought, you’re totally right, I couldn’t help but admire the sheer craft gone into it. Often once I started reading, I didn’t want to stop-it was only when I did stop that it was difficult to pick it up again 😅 I’m really looking forward to reading more of Rushdie’s novels eventually (like his one that’s being released next month!) I love classics but need to read more, so I’ve been enjoying videos like this from you! Cant wait for more in the new year ☺️
Hello Ben! Happy 2023 ❤ Wonderful to be thrown books at by you 🤗 and love that we’re not focusing on the *number* or rankings etc. I also fell head. over. heels. for Claire Keegan in December and I must must implore you to check out The Forester’s Daughter and Foster. 💔💔💔.
Happy New Year, Ben! Your reviews are wonderful, and this reading year was incredible for you. Currently reading Stoner and will add several more from your favorites to my reading in 2023.
Hi Ben, fascinating book selection. Love your content, always entertaining and informative. Hope you have a happy and healthy New Year and look forward to your modern classic choices 🌻
Your list is filled with books that I intend to get to one day. Indeed, I'm quite impressed with the number of classics that you took on last year. I kept wondering when Marcel would turn up - his presence seemed altogether inevitable. Although this video has left me somewhat terrified to try Coetzee. I hope that 2023 brings you a ton of favourites. Happy New Year 👍
Looooved the intro. And that slinky sweater. The ‘Celery’ moment really made me laugh, ridiculously. So did cumulatively. You always bring so much joy. At some point this year I’m going to have to get the fragments of Sappho.
Hi Ben ! Happy New Year! Thanks for another great and entertaining video. I would watch your videos, even if I don't read, yoz you always make me laugh. I am very grateful. I love Stoner as well....
Hi! First time in your channel and I’m glad I found it🤗Looking forward to read some of those books you mentioned. Your reviews intrigue me, motivate me to explore them. Happy New Year and Happy reading year! 📚👏👏👏
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich sounds fascinating. I'm definitely looking that up. The Sense of an Ending, you've convinced me on that one as well. I've been wanting to read Salman Rushdie's catalogue for a while now, but never seem to get around to it. I must make the time soon.
ok I need to read A room with a view soon. I hated A Passage to India with a passion and it put me off EM Forster. However he has written some amazing short stories so I know he can be good so I will overcome my bias and read it. Your word is enough honestly..Ive got Stoner and have been steeling myself to start t😃I've also got After Sappho which I'm very excited to read. I plan to start a book tube channel this year Ben, I am terrified and excited in equal measure but I'll be sure to let you know when my first video is up
We meet again, doom apocalypse🤣 I really liked the ending of Sense of an Ending tooo. Cool to see what made the cut. I still haven’t read 1984 somehow :s
Such great picks. I loooove EM Forster, just read Anna Karenina and loved it, and 1984 was one of my top 10 books of 2022!! (and I've never seen that copy of 1984 and it is so sexy)
I admire how you’ve tackled so many big classics this year and that you don’t even want to count how many books are on your fav list. 😄📚 I need to get that copy of Sappho as I imagine I’ll stare and stare at it like you do. I agree The Sense of an Ending is so flipping good. Are you interested in seeing the film adaption of it? I think it gives an interesting take on the story. Happy New Year!
There's a film adaptation?? 😳 I'll need to check that out... Thanks Eric. It would be fascinating to hear what you think of Carson sappho translation! 😁
@@doomantidote Yeah, it came out in 2017 and starred Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling. I don't think it got much attention but I thought it was well done and gave an interesting slant on the novel.
Happy New Year! Loved "Room With A View" last year and just read "Howards End", which has equally gorgeous writing, although I fear I overlooked some of the social commentary. I got talked into reading John Williams' "Augustus" recently and didn't really get on with the writing, which has made me leery of picking up "Stoner". Plus, being about to start a new life in a new city with a new job (yet again) at 30 means I probably don't have the patience for a book about the ills of a stable life. I've got "Midnight's Children" on my list for this year. Thanks for the warning! I liked "Small Things Like These" but the ending felt like a cop-out to me. Sure, he's gone on this to make this very difficult choice but now he has to keep making that choice, every day, in the face of everyone's disapproval and what does that look like? Does his marriage survive this unilateral decision he made? What about his business? I just thought there was so much that could have been done with this premise and Keegan stopped so early.
Such a wonderful list! If Not Winter is especially amazing. I haven’t yet read After Sappho, but it sounds like I must! If you haven’t seen it yet, you might enjoy some of the essays in Solnit’s Orwell’s Roses.
I wanted to yell - wait, where’s Marcel??? :DDD I totally agree with your take on Midnight’s Children - I’ve only read about half of it so far and I feel like I’ve been reading it forever… Yay, The sense of an ending! :D I love Barnes (apart from Elizabeth Finch...) and feel like he’s not talked about enough. My fave of his is Flaubert’s Parrot. :)
Those are some heavy books, thematically and physically. I have started 2023 with Anna Karenina so down the Tolstoy rabbit hole I go though I doubt I'll ever read War and Peace. I also think that if I were ever to write a book I would put the word flipping in the title just to hear you say it.
I just checked my StoryGraph stats and I read 81 books and 13 258 pages in 2022. (I have for the last few years read fewer books but more pages). This year was taken up from April onwards with my #1962project and "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" as it was published in 1962 is still on my list to read. Thank you for reminding me.
I am sorry, but I can only repeat myself. 😳 Please go and read Augustus by John Williams. It's one of my favourite books of all times. And I think it will be more your cup of tea.
They're out of print now but they are the old vintage classics editions (which are now the ones with big flowers on the cover). I got them all second hand, took some tracking down with some of them
Interesting that when doing a PhD course in English Literature (at a Brazilian university, as I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) I had the same reaction when reading Stoner, which I loved and hated, It has something boring and at the same time interesting, It is a book that someday I will have to reread. I also had the pleasure of reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time (A La Recherch du Temps Perdu) and it was an experience that took 3 months, and I must say that I enjoyed it a lot. I found your list of extremely good taste books, I started following your channel since today.
Oh dear. I truly disliked Stoner, both the book and the character. He was…self-absorbed? Annoying? Unwilling to try to brighten up his life in any way? Love A Room with a View and Ivan Denisovich. I read Midnight’s Children last year as well and found it to be a difficult read.
