3 tips that helped me get through ze Rainbow book. #nofeartoughbooks Livestream tomorrow at 8pm MDT on Clark's channel: / @clarkelieson Patreon: www.patreon.com/rcwaldun?fan_... NEWSLETTER: www.litpublication.com/
@Hemlock Drinker If you're looking for a good English translation, the one by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky is the one to go for. I always check with Russian novels to see if they're done a translation as they're the best Russian to English literary translators in my opinion. Crime & Punishment is an excellent book and not particularly difficult I'd say, definitely go for it.
same, i am reading crime and punishment because I heard a lot of good and incredible thing about dostoevsky. So far, really love the book. I read the wordsworth classic edition translate by Constant Garnet, to me it is fairly good
I started reading a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky "Notes from Underground " and when I finished it I felt like I saw the world from a whole different perspective but I felt deep down I already knew, however was frightened to admit it.
@@aliquidcow Yeah. Garnett's a decent translator, but it drives me nuts how she handles Tolstoy. I went to the pains of getting a Pevear & Volokhonsky translation of Anna Karenina and it was a huge improvement. I have a Paternak Slater translation of C&P but I've only read the Garnett version so far. I'll see whether it's any good.
I think "reading less" to avoid burnout is less important than knowing what your comfort level is. What works for one person may be far too little or far too much for another, difficult book or not. To me, it diminishes the joy of a difficult read to treat it like an explosive device. Sometimes life requires hard work. Do the work, or don't.
I read the Brother's Karamazov in a month reading 30 pages a day. It was definitely worth it! And reading less, but consistently, gives you the opportunity to appreciate the book more.
As I prepared to discharge from a rehab facility this summer, I quite randomly and unexpectedly happened upon a copy of The Brothers Karamazov sitting on a cart in the hallway (I sincerely doubt any other residents had read it). I took it w me and it is on my stack of "to-read" books. Looking fwd to it. Oh, I almost forgot to say, the one other heavy reader who was in there w me was reading Gravity's Rainbow! (And we are both named Nick, interestingly) I wanted to trade/borrow it when he was done, but he described it as a "slog" and we parted ways before I could borrow it b
@@TupDigital Yeah, I think GR is all decoration, no real content. If you want to read an amazing novel I would recommend The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño. It's a long novel, but not much more than 600 pages, and is so worth it!! I also personally love Henry Miller. Sexus and Plexus, the first two books of his trilogy, are both brilliant.
I’m almost halfway through Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. I was intimidated for the longest time because it’s nearly 800 pages and I’ve heard it’s a philosophical beast. But now that I’ve gotten through a decent chunk by reading about 30 pages per day, the initial intimidation I felt is gone. Do I still have to re-read chapters, take notes, and talk with my brother who read the book to help with comprehension? Yep lol. But instead of being intimidated, I’m having a blast dissecting and talking about the different philosophies in this book. Reading a little bit every day really does make an enormous difference 😌
I'm taken aback by how necessary videos like this are to get people into reading nowadays. There is a very common misconception that you should read a certain way at all... The idea that you need to literally read FAST in order to read "more" turns reading into this sort of skill-based, self-betterment, elitist activity and ultimately turns people away from reading by removing all of the pleasure that can be derived from it..
This comment is so on point. I'm sick and tired of all the "how to speed read" videos on YT - as if speeding through a book is the whole point of reading it. Good books should be savoured.
totally agree !! when I read a scene with a conversation in a book then I read it with my inner voice at the speed of regular conversation...I want to be involved in the novel...I don't see it as a speed challenge...
yes. I used to read a gazillion books a year because I had a lot of free time (I'd read atleast a book a day) but now that I'm busy I barely ever due to that mindset
I agree completely. Moreover, most female reviewers, which is most reviewers on book tube, read mainly YA books even though they are average 30 years old themselves. So who reads adult books these days?
A few months ago I finished don quixote, and I thought that it would be a lot more different then it actually was. The way people actually talk about certain books that aren’t necessarily hard to read but are long or just old can really strike a fear in you.
Davi no, I am Brazilian this is the first time someone knew where the picture came from. I did not read it yet but I am planning on reading it. But I am currently reading a collection of short stories of his.
@@spinhozag.3972 Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas é um dos livros mais incríveis que eu já tive a oportunidade de ler. Assim que possível de uma chance.
I don't think any line of literature struck me like lightning the way Pynchon described the rocket strike that happened while Roger Mexico was tickling Jessica somewhere around page 60. The way it ends with the Visage of death appearing in the house with them and the line "Try to tickle me" ending out the section was absolute brilliance. Any writer should be happy to write an entire tome of drivel if only to impart a captivating scene like that, but fortunately for all the hijinks and absurdity Pynchon throws in to make the length of the work more amusingly bearable, he's more than capable of writing an entire novel full of such scenes. And the depth with which he blends all these elements together to craft foreshadowing and metaphor, and bring comparisons of ESP to Pavolovian conditioning, it's all astounding. A lot of it is hard to get through if only because Pynchon writes at so many different levels and frankly includes more detail than necessary sometimes, but it's all to keep pace with the furious movement of the story, the rush to figure out how to predict or prevent these rocket strikes from killing you before they land on top of your head. The moment-to-moment paranoia and anxiety of living under the condition that you wouldn't even hear your death coming, you'd just be obliterated in an instant and you never knew when that instant may come. It's a masterpiece of literature, even at it's most confounding and ridiculous parts.
Thanks to you I'm currently reading a Tough book about the history of the church and I'm pretty happy with my constancy. I also noted about I'm not gonna understand everything in my firsts reading but I can say that I'm truly learning and enjoying this. So, thanks for all your Tips. ❤
Naked Lunch will come as a breeze after GR. I’d recommend reading one chapter, vignette really, a night until you finish it. It’s brutally hilarious, disgusting, and clever in the most beautiful of ways. It’s been my absolute favorite since I read it a decade ago and remains as such.
THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT I DON'T HAVE TO READ A 100 BOOKS THIS YEAR JESUS Edit: wow, I've never recieved so many likes on a single comment before. Thanks :')
lol yeah. This has been my most "unproductive" year in terms of reading. I probably read like 10 books max. One of them was a short (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) so it doesn't even count).
Congrats on finishing GR. One of my all time favorite books. I would love to see a video discussing more in depth your impressions of the plot, structure, and prose style! It is certainly a piece which invites extensive commentary.
Great video, I just started Swans Way, and am committing to 5-10 pages a day only. The sentences in this book are so dense that my brain feels like it's going to explode, so I figure by starting slow it will take the pressure off. Maybe I'll pick up the pace at some point but I'm not going to try to rush it at all.
Honestly thank you so much for making me realise the beauty of slow reading! It's about quality and in-depth understanding rather than reading several books a month.
Nice work man glad you could get something out of it, I felt I had about 1% after reading it! You're also totally right, the book almost transforms the second time you read it, it becomes far more understandable, far funnier. If I'm not poor and broke soon I'll join the Patreon and watch your reviews soon, have a good one
I finished "Master and Margarita" and I am so proud....It was just around 400 pages, but it was a supremely dense book, and to be honest, it is so detailed and so vivid, it feels like seven books in one. Thank you RC.
@@user-yc6vr8vn5j yeah, it was really great. It was touching my soul like no other book before. Next Russian book will probably be Anna Karenina I guess 🤔
@@Bartnick81 my only issue was to get into the names and all their abbreviations but it got better and better until there were some characters that were only marginal at the beginning and it was a bit difficult to pick this scene up and process it
Currently 200 pages into Gravity's Rainbow so glad to hear from someone on the other side! Have been completely taken in by its sprawling scope and thematic density - not to mention Pynchon's astonishing - if at times overwhelming - prose. Will be lucky to have finished it by 2021 at this rate however!
I love the slow, steady, "stick with it" approach. After many *years* I finally finished reading Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas by taking that approach and just sticking with it, rain or shine. Fortunately it's a very straightforward memoir so it was not hard to get back into. I would recommend getting into the habit of just reading, before tackling difficult material, or you might get discouraged. Also, life is short, are you reading to have bragging rights, or because you truly find it enlightening?
Totally on board with the consistency strategy, currently doing it for Don Quixote, reading a chapter a day. I'll be finished with the book before the year ends :D
The Count of Monte Cristo is so exciting a novel that it hardly took me a week to finish it!! Of course, I didn't get most of the text's nuances but a second reading will help with that I'm sure. :)
Instead of reading a certain amount of pages a day I read at a certain amount of time, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and it helps me tremendously. I don’t get burnt out on reading this way. It allows me to enjoy the time I get to read because I’m a very busy college student who spends most of my time studying, not reading for fun.
"this is a trippy read".. haha yes. one of my reading sessions was at the end of dropping a tab.. and my god the prose is absolutely nut-so and hysterical
I'm working my way through Ulysses. Can affirm that consistency is the key. I'm also tracking whether / what I read every day, which motivates me to pick it up. Another thing that helps a lot is reading alongside a good audiobook recording. I'm reading Ulysses along to an audiobook that is not only well-recorded but which also includes additional sound effects that are wonderfully atmospheric. Listening to the words while reading along also brings home how beautiful the prose is.
Hats off to you for tackling GR esp. being so young. Such books need to be reread every decade, because as you acquire life experience, you are able to glean new insights I read GR in two weeks listening to it on Audible and then I immediately re-read it just to begin to make sense of it. I've been reading recorded books for 30 years now while I work and do hobbies. I found it an excellent way to tackle large books and still get stuff done that needs doing such as making a living. Listening to recorded books has allowed me to read War and Peace four times, Moby Dick twice, Don Quixote twice, the Aubrey/Maturain series twice etc. Currently I'm reading Infinite Jest as I remodel my retirement home. Having now retired i'm going to return to reading hardcopy for an hour each morning.
I reeeeeally want to read The Brothers Karamazov and Middlemarch to round out this year. Already freaking out at the undertaking but videos like this are making me feel better!
I was effectively putting this book down 10 minutes ago, but then decided to see what RU-vid had to offer about it and now I’m gonna give it a go following your recommendations!
In this video you bring up a good point that I don't think gets talked about nearly as much. You explained how the first read is just to get the framework and a general idea of things, and it's not until your 2nd/3rd+ reads where you really start to fully understand and appreciate it. This is true of pretty much all great works, and this is my reasoning for why I don't really care about spoilers for media (even though all my friends think I'm crazy). A topic I see come up sometimes is "What piece of media do you wish you could experience again for the first time?" and personally I think to myself, "nothing? why would I want the first experience again when most great works are significantly better upon rewatching/rereading?" For the argument of spoilers specifically, I almost *welcome* them for things I haven't experienced, since more often times than not hearing a cool spoiler for something has gotten me interested in experiencing it (the most recent example being Chrono Trigger; if I hadn't heard a spoiler about a major twist in the story I would have never played it, but I'm very glad I did as it's an amazing game).
When starting a difficult read, simultaneously start an Excel sheet or a Google sheet, to track your reading. In the left column goes the date, and in the right column goes the page number. For really disciplined reading, project your reading ahead of time, so that if the target is to read 15 pages a day, the approximate finishing date is automatically known, or vice versa, if there is a target date, the required number of pages per day will become clear. Works like a self-paced metronome or galley drummer :)
I have read Infinite Jest and actually really enjoyed it and LOL'd a lot during reading it. Even if I didn't understand every single word. I had to fight the OCD urge to look up every word, but it has been advised that you don't HAVE to understand every single word. The footnotes and subchapters were a world within themselves. I have always loved to challenge myself to read "above my paygrade" so to speak. Ever since I was a kid, and they used to hand out those Scholastic magazines for children's books, I wanted to read Stephen King when I was like 9. And so, yeah I read Pet Sematary when I was WAAAAAAY too young for it. Best thing I ever did. 😊
Robin, I like the fact you suggest, 'when reading it for the second time.' I have just finished this book and don't intend to go back to it for some time! 🤣 Love the video.
Read TCL49 and just finished V. to prepare myself for Gravity's Rainbow. Obtaining an understanding of Pynchon's style and prose really helps in the long run as well as acknowledging that not everyone will get everything out of a Pynchon novel on the first read. I've become so captivated by the historical periods in which Pynchon chooses to base his novels around, each one being set at a crux or major transitional point in society and human history. I can't wait to read Mason & Dixon next year. Great video and advice! Do you plan on reading more Pynchon in the future?
What do you think of using time as a daily metric? I do one hour (minimum) of reading instead of a page-count but this video is making me consider changing. The one hour a day system neatly fits with the rest of the day's schedule, but the number of pages read will vary each day--sometimes considerably. While the page-count system doesn't tell you what time you will or won't be done and may then mess with your schedule, but the number of pages will be consistent. Either or, having one of the two is better than none.
I am reading it right now. I just wish Pynchon believed in chapter breaks lol! I think one issue with the book is it's all over the place; you start getting interested in what's going on and then the characters and setting change. But maybe your 15-30 rule is a good one!
I like your videos and I think you have great advice for tackling tough books. However I don't think reading 'tough' books for the sake of showing you can is a good idea. My reading habit only developed when I read books that I wanted to read and felt would give some benefit to my life. I'm always tempted to read books that will give me 'clout' that i can post on my goodreads or drop in conversation to impress people. I imagine everyone that reads feels this same urge from time to time. I specifically have this urge with regards to Gravity's Rainbow. To try and avoid this I ask myself this question: 'if i could never tell anyone that I had read this book, would i still go ahead and read it?' Literature exists as attempts by people to use language and metaphor to try and convey the ineffable. It's not about clout, it's about what the book does to you when you read it. Read things you think will do powerful things to you, not ones that look like they should. Everyone reads at their own level, and as long as you feel like you get something meaningful out of it then you are reading the right thing.
I strongly agree with what you have written. In my opinion, having watched this several times, I never got the feeling of reading something just for clout. Maybe it's just me in that I don't read or do anything for that matter if I don't truly want to just to say I did that. I feel like it should be a personal experience that enriches your life and can merely be brought in conversation whenever the subject of literature arises. Could be just me though, I can't particularly fathom doing something just for clout. I don't get it 🤣✌
Currently reading 禁愛, the chinese translation of the Japanese literature forbidden colours by Yukio Mishima. Thank you for motivating me to start and completely changing my mindset with reading literatures!
Mason Adams It’s called Forbidden Colours! I’m not far enough into the book to talk about its story yet, but the duality and hypocrisy of the main character is extremely enticing, can’t wait until the second main character shows up and interact with him
I suffer from bipolar disorder and anxiety, which makes it hugely difficult for me to get into new routines and stick to them. Your video really made me appreciate the habit of reading every day before going to sleep that I picked up as a child. If I hadn't, I'm not sure I'd be able to nowadays.
I agree with your tips. But i personally think the daily goal should be more flexible. For example, i read Infinite Jest and Ulysses on two different summers. But on both i spent about two weeks in the beach with no wifi. I took the books everywhere and found myself reading practically whenever i had some free time and i kept reading after reaching the goals. But, if you are not on holiday I think your tips work really well
I love Thomas Pynchon. Read everything he’s done except for Inherent Vice which I’m planning on soon. Against the Day is brilliant but the best book I think he’s written is The Crying of Lot 49, even though it’s the shortest, it’s so damn fun and accessible. My suggestion for a tough book and one of my favourite books is The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner. Also JR by William Gaddis. Definitely JR. that’s a real tough one.
I had the intellectual adventure of reading GR one winter 15 years ago -- alongside a copy of Steven Weisenburger's "A Gravity's Rainbow Companion". The Companion offers great help in understanding esoteric and/or difficult subjects in the novel. I highly recommend it. I enjoyed your video and reading suggestions. Enjoy "Naked Lunch" -- I read it the first time in high school and its prose changed my life.
It seems like your third novel is quite like one of thomas bernhard. If you don‘t know him you should check him out. He was from austria - like me. I recommend ‚Yes‘.
If you like the Beat writers I'd highly recommend Henry Miller, particularly the Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy. The first two- Sexus and Plexus- are two of my all-time favorite novels.
I think Dan Simmons Hyperion would have fit perfectly within the criteria of NoFearToughRead -- I re-read over summer, and was able to get more out of it than my first try at it. I enjoyed it the second time around, so much so, that I decided to read book 2 and it was better than I was fearing
I'm currently reading this one. And yea, its gonna take multiple reads and one of those commentaries to FULLY comprehend and appreciate all the subtleness of this massive and complex novel. I would change the 15 -30 pages to start to 15- 30 min. per day.
I'm reading crime and punishment right now and my edition has 1088 pages. It's so draining that I started to read shorter books along with it and it definitely helps when I switch back to crime and punishment when the other book gets boring and vice versa.
I prefer reading for a set amount of time and not worrying about number of pages I get through. I just read a minimum of 30 minutes a day. If I do miss a day I don't sweat it and just pick the habit back up the next day. Usually I just pick up a music album I want to listen to which most albums average maybe 40 minutes, I listen to the entirety of the album while I just read a book through the whole duration of the album, and then I stop reading when the album ends. Then if I want to read more I can read longer, if not then I can just pick the book up the next day. Often times I get hooked or just can't think of anything else to do and I just put another album on and read some more. This can even lead to all day reading sessions occasionally, but usually not.
I'm doing Swann's Way by Marcel Proust for my 8th grade book report, it's been really fun and I'm halfway. Should i buy the next books, what you guys think?
I read Ezra Pound’s Cantos cover to cover, probably the most difficult book ever written. How? (I read while I eat.) So I committed to reading the Cantos (with the Companion) during meals, instead of Mysteries. It took a long time. But was the most rewarding book I ever read.
Curious about GR but going to apply this to The Rose of Paracelsus which beautiful but DENSE with references. Halfway, gotta make it across the finish line.
The daunting books I have read are Gravity’s Rainbow, The Count of Monte Cristo, Huckleberry Finn ( when I was 11), The Coming Plague, Northwest Passage, The Black Rose, and biographies of George Marshall.
Gravity's Rainbow is my answer to the "If you were stuck on a deserted island with one book, what would it be?" question. It's a big book and it has so much: romance, humor, science, mystery, excellent writing. It's the perfect stranded-on-an-island read. 🏝️ Now you need to pick up Mason & Dixon or Against the Day! ;)
@@vasari9198 Desert, in the sense of an island, isn't necessarily arid. If there's potable water and food, I think you'd figure it out. Besides, I'm a terrible nonfiction reader.
I found gravity's rainbow a tricky read (number of characters and the plot jumping around) but the thing that helped me were the historical aspects and a small degree of prior knowledge. If you knew about Peenemunde and was interested in vengeance weapons you are probably on your way. Regarding reading habits i am lucky as my commute to work by train is relaxed and I can slip in 20 minute blocks to and fro. Any additional reading is a bonus. Regularity is the main driver but if my fellow commuters are too noisy I can just look out the window. You don't need to read 'hard' books. I have just completed Cape Fear (The Executioners, John Mcdonald) which was an excellent read and has not dated at all and have moved into The Cotton Pickers ( B Traven). Neither are hard and both could be considered classics. I found that many films I liked were more often than not based on great books.
