How to Choose What Books to Read 

Carroll, I have a similar story. My English teacher, also at age 13, inspired me to become a lifelong reader. Some of the first classics I ever read were The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men and they were read in his class. I kept asking him for recommendations and we formed a bond. At the end of the year, he gifted me a novel he thought I would enjoy, and that was Gone With The Wind! How strange that we have this in common!

Much love to that man's memory...

@@katblack394 I’m sorta envious of you two. I’m late to literature and so far have read Brothers Karamasov, Wuthering Heights, another wild Russian Novel (The Master And Margarita), and was hesitant about further women writers, but now am reading Jane Eyre which I thought was going to be a dumb chic novel, but it is stunningly artful and beautifully suspenseful. I’m hooked by the art that I didn’t know would be there. I have a question if you have the time. I’m sort of a rebel and love Dostoyevsky and have the feeling I won’t be fond of Jane Austin’s books. Can you tell me if you prefer the Brontë’s to Jane Austin or other women writers, and what books by women writers you may recommend if I loooove both Emily and Charlotte Bronte so far. Thank you ♥️🙏🏻♥️

@@ambermoon719 The Brothers Karamazov is one of my favorite novels of all time actually. It's so intricate. I did my honors thesis on Jane Eyre many moons ago. I analyzed what the characters were reading within the novel - there's a pattern. I, myself, prefer the Brontë's to Austin, but both are fabulous. It all comes down to a matter of taste, I suppose. I'm obsessed with gothic lit at the moment, and love The Castle of Otranto and The Monk etc. I am currently reading everything vampire related - Carmila and The Vampyre, and even the serials Varney the Vampyre which I got as two HUGE bound editions from Amazon. I also love Paradise Lost, but I had a class where we analyzed it as a group. Thank goodness or it would've went over my head. I've never heard of The Master and Margarita. I will definitely check that out - thank you!

Thank you! I sympathise with you, Cynthia. I experienced the same thing for many years :(

Ditto

This so true.

Yes, rather like a meal-in a-glass powder; less than ideal, but easy to digest and provides some sustenance until the real food is available.

Sounds like you had an awesome English teacher :)

Amazing! I hope you enjoyed it :)

Thank you, my friend :)

Thank you, Brian :) I really appreciate that. I must say you had a nice mix there - Plato, Aristotle, Vonnegut, Fleming, Orwell - what fun, all of them! Cheat away :) I'll often disregard my own advice and consult my favourite critics' works before the works themselves. Thank you for watching and reading along!

Absolutely agree. This philosophy applies across all art forms!

Thank you for being here :)

Thank you so much! :)

Amazing :) You're in for a great journey!

Try Monte Cristo, in French! Free on kindle. It will improve your language.

I used to love them when I travelled a lot, and I still think they are a fabulous invention. We can have the Library of Alexandria in our very pockets. That's incredible! But it's been a few years since I've gotten much use from my Kindle. I've moved back to physical books - holding them, scribbling on them, collecting them, all helps increase appreciation and understanding. Feels very much like moving back to vinyl from digital tracks. More real and tangible. I noticed I'm better able to recall the physical books I read, and my enjoyment during the actual reading process is heightened. There's certainly a time and place for ebooks, but for those books you really want to cherish, I'd recommend getting physical :) Awesome question!

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Thank you very much for getting back to me! Great answer and it helped a lot. Appreciate it 👍🏼

Thank you for being here, Victoria! :)

Completely agree with you there, Sandra. I binge Agatha Christie around this time every year, so I'm enjoying her at the moment. Just watched a wonderful documentary on her from Lucy Worsley, which you might like if you haven't already seen it!

@@BenjaminMcEvoy I understand she recently wrote a biography of Dame Agatha also! Haven’t gotten it yet. The documentary sounds up my alley.

Agatha Christie is my absolute go-to for escapist reading. But I have to admit that, though I still find her very entertaining, in one way or another I am often disappointed in her resolutions. When I read her as a kid I thought the books were great. Now, I do enjoy her but the flaws are more apparent. Two Christie novels I would recommend are "Five Little Pigs" and "The ABC Murders."

That's awesome! I hope you enjoy it :) I'd love to know what you make of it!

Shakespeare :) What about you?

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Leo Tolstoy, Of course

I use fiction to expand into non-fiction - scaffolding it on. We're reading Anna Karenina in the book club, but that necessarily involves reading Plato, Pater, Freud, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and reams of history and scientific writings. And I'll read fiction as though it were non-fiction. Michener sounds fabulous. I'll have to explore him - thanks for the recommendation, Don Quixote. Please give my regards to Sancho ;)

@@BenjaminMcEvoy thanks for your reply. I will give Anna Karenina a go too. I really like the Russian authors and got alot out of Tolstoy's 'Kreutzer Sonata', The Devil - The Forged Coupon - After the Ball. But Dostoyevski has been my favorite - Notes from the Underground and Crime and Punishment. Will have a go at 'The Brothers Karamazov' - they say it is one of those life changing reads. Keep the videos coming - enjoying immensely! Are you on Goodreads by the way?

@@Live_your_Dreams_Everyday Oh, you would love Hadji Murat too if you loved those. Dostoyevsky is fantastic. I'm currently rereading C&P. I'm afraid I'm not on Goodreads!

Orwell Complete Essays : have not exhausted any of the essays.

5:39 Since joining the book club, one of my favourite things is how you give us links to relevant documentaries, non fiction etc in relation to the chapters we’re reading that week. I’m learning so much!

Blood Meridian is about the types of real events that happened in the American West. I think these are important books particularly for Americans to read. So much of what went on in the West has been whitewashed and sanitized. Most Americans don't know any more about the West than watching westerns.

​@@buster9106 Well, for a _real_ take on the American West, I might suggest a history like _Son of the Morning Star,_ (Evan S. Connell) which is specifically about the Battle of the Little Big Horn, but flashes back to the causes and history leading up to that event. For real events I would suggest reading history and not novels. _Son of the Morning Star_ is most assuredly _not_ sanitized. A Cannon should include some history and biography, too.

@@nedmerrill5705 I read a lot of history and nonfiction as well as fiction. But I know people who find reading fiction a good entryway into a part of history that are unfamiliar with. I've done that myself. I'll definitely look up Son of The morning Star.

More cleavage? 😂

It sounds like you've explored many of Stephen King's influences, so you've probably already read Bram Stoker's Dracula. If you haven't, I'd recommend that one. It holds up well, is fast-paced, the language isn't too antiquated, and it's a great gothic adventure story. For Sci-Fi, I'm really into anything by Ursula K. Le Guin ('The Left Hand of Darkness' is great). Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series is great fun. And then there's Ray Bradbury, who is always wonderful to read. I enjoy 'The Illustrated Man' every year!

@@Yesica1993 oh wow that’s perfect!! I read a little bit of 2001 a space oddessey, and I actually was able to comprehend and read it, so bet, thanks for the reccomendation! Sounds like what I been looking for:)

Don't beat yourself up, it's great that you're reading. I found it difficult to get into The Classics when I was young as well. For me the most accessible and purely entertaining of the books that use old worldy language is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Great horror story but also hilarious. Oscar Wilde had an epigrammatic style. Which is basically a posh way of saying he tells a lot of brilliant jokes. And he is very clear. I also loved Frankenstein. I found that easier and more thrilling than Dracula. Main thing is to not feel guilty about what you're reading. I remember being 20 and thinking 'I don't understand or like Classic literature so I must be thick.' But you'd be surprised how much you change over time. Just cause you don't like posh books now doesn't mean you won't later in life. In my reading life I've found there's often been a right book for the right time. I've picked up stuff I thought was terrible 10 years ago and immediately clicked with it. Another classic I love purely as an unbelievably taut thriller is 1984 by George Orwell. Very exciting, scary and easy to read.

One final point, mate - bare in mind that literature isn't separated into The Classics and Everything Else Which Is Actually Shit. There are some incredible writers who are very well regarded but don't show up on University Syllabi. If you want a great popular writer who is incredibly entertaining, funny, accessible but also very sophisticated, try Elmore Leonard. I think he is generally considered to be the greatest crime novelist that has ever lived. He was a huge influence on Tarantino's early films - Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction- and Tarantino's Jackie Brown is an adaptation of Leonard's classic novel Rum Punch. The other really great Leonard adaptations are Get Shorty, Out of Sight and if you're including TV shows then 'Justified' (loosely based on some of his characters). You pretty much can't go wrong with Leonard. I particularly love the three books I have mentioned above and 'Riding The Rap', '52 Pick-Up' and 'Freaky Deaky', which has one of my favourite opening chapters ever. Stephen King is a huge Elmore Leonard fan. I would also highly recommend True Grit by Charles Portis (also adapted into two films). I'm not generally a huge fan of Westerns, but it is such a captivating, thrilling story, and it's told so lucidly, with such warmth and humour. I would say that is a perfect book. There isn't a word out of place. It's one of the most purely entertaining stories I've ever read. Also, try 'No Country for Old Men' by Cormac McCarthy. A quite terrifyingly pulse-quickening thriller. Clockers by Richard Price is a sprawling epic crime novel that was a huge influence on The Wire and is a strong contender for greatest contemporary crime novel. Lush Life by Price is also very good. Also, my other favourite crime writer- James Ellroy. I would recommend his 'L.A. Quartet' and his memoir 'My Dark Places' in which he investigates the murder of his own mother (really). Just keep reading, mate. You'll be surprised how one book can lead to another.

Sorry- genuinely finally. Couple of horror recommendations: Shirley Jackson- I particularly like her short stories. Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Terrifying. King is a huge fan of Ghost Story as well. Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. And of course The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby.