I propose the antithesis. Tell us the books you think we should know something about going in. Listening to you over the years I think this will be much more of a challenge. You seem to always want to be blind going in. Tell me that's not true. Love your videos. Happy writing!
I accept your bookish proposal! I will 100% do this! Such a great idea, thank you 😄 (there are actually quite a few books that I think you should know something about them before going in 👀)
Ooh that's a great idea, even to have both in one video. Books to to go in blind, and books to go in eyes wide open. Maybe even somewhat similar books? Pairing them?
I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman definitely belongs to this category of books! It is about how to be a human being, that is what I love about this book the most! The setting and plot twists and psychological questions raised in it are so unique!
I'm so glad that I read "Gone with the wind" without knowing the plot and without knowing who the main pair of characters is. So I was literally following Scarlet in her feelings and that was wonderful. Now I have this paper book at home with a cover that spoils the main pair, I'm glad I haven't seen it earlier. And another example is "The Murder of Roger Acroyd". Somewhy people put this book into lists with specific topic but this topic can easily spoil the plot. I recommend reading nothing about this great detective, it's truly great. Thank you for the video btw, a very interesting idea :)
Hi Carolyn! Just wanted to say that because of your recommendation, I picked up Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and I’ve been really loving it so far! I’m 75% through and it’s so so so good. It completely subverted all my expectations. Whatever you think this book is, it isn’t. Which is really rare when it comes to books. Thank you so much for the recommendations! (I also loved the stranger and the secret history!!) I’m currently reading Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, and I’m looking forward to picking up Tess of the D’Urbervilles soon!
I’m reading Lonesome Dove right now and had no idea what to expect going into it. I have never read a western before and it is really surprising me and giving all the cozy small town vibes and that’s…all I’m gonna say about that! Lol.
Couldn't agree more on everything you said about Daphne Du Maurier. My favorite by her is My cousin Rachel and you definitely have to go blind. I would also add that the movie adaptations they did, however good, are not faithful to the books, so even if you watched them, you'll be surprised. Plus she tricks you through her beautiful writing, it's mindblowing. AND all of her books are very different from one another, she was a genius!
I actually saw "The five people you meet in heaven" in my bookstore earlier and I thought it was some sort of religious or self help books because it was at that section earlier but it did somehow grab my attention. Btw, your hair is gorgeous!
Books to go in blind: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman [contemporary], (if you haven't already out of popularity) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo [classic], and I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak [contemporary]. The last one particularly blew my mind when I read it.
Penguin books tend to spoil their readers with well-written, lengthy introductions by notable scholars and translators, but I don't begrudge them for doing that personally. It can be very helpful. Take a book like "Don Quixote" which I am currently reading, a book in translation from the Spanish. Its very reputation precedes it. Readers approaching the book for the first time deserve some helpful cues by an expert, scholarly resources to refer to if pursuing further research. Would you rather read a book like "Ulysses" or "Gravity's Rainbow" without reading an introduction or knowing about the plot before hand? That's going to be one hell of a challenge.Good luck . It depends on the book really. I take your point though. Nice video. Have a good day
My husband “forced” me to read The Silo Saga by Hugh Howey. He refused to tell me what it was about b/c it’s better not knowing. I read it over 10 years ago and still think about it.
Piranesi and I who have never known men have been mentioned and were the ones that I had in mind whilst watching your video. The third one is The Binding. I have not yet read Iq84 but I own it in 3 editions 😂, my favourite Murakami is the Wind-up bird chronicle.
I just read The People In the Trees and I think that one would be great going in blind. Definitely check out trigger warnings!!!! It’s a kinda hard book to get through but it’s so worth it, haven’t gone a day without thinking about it.
I had never heard of The Giver... but after watching your video I gave it a go and finished the first book in one sitting! Now on to the next book. Thank you so much. I'm from the UK and had never heard of it, maybe not such a big series over here. So THANK YOU!
I can’t agree more!!! I don’t even remember how and at what circumstances I picked up Never let me go without knowing anything about the plot and oh my god I loved it so much and it became very special to me. Thanks for the recommendations!
Caroline please read Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthoney Doerr! I really think you will love it and would love to hear you - and Emma - talk about it. Thanks for keeping me company for a small part of me being in hospital all this week. 💚
I love going in blind. I do it with movies, video games and especially my books. Give me a single sentence. An elevator pitch. And that is more than enough. More often than not, the synopsis of a plot gives a way more than we would like. Experiencing a book or film or game fully blind allows us to go in fresh without any preconceived thoughts. Love your videos! The best
I loved this idea of a video! I stopped viewing film trailers because they disclose too much! Same thing with the book blurbs-as you say. Great video.🎉 Thank you!
The best surprise book I've read is Piranesi by Suzanne Clarke. Also, I'm Currently in your book club trying to decide if 1Q84 is something I want to devote that much time to finishing...
Definitely resist the temptation if you try Rememberance of Earth's Past (3 Body Problem) I really regretted spoiling it. It's so complex it can be frustrating but it's worth every moment
I would recommend people to read The Outsiders by S.E Hinton. It’s for middle schoolers, but it’s incredible, and she wrote it as a teen. I have read the Giver, but not the others in the series. It was the only book I read in school that made a huge impact on me, it was something I thought about often. I so agree about Rebecca. It’s soo good!
Just started 1Q84 on my Kindle, like you I have no idea what is going on, however, I find it difficult to stop reading. It does lurch from thought provoking to why?? I am glad there is a community of like minded folk on this one!
I remember reading “The Giver” in middle school and I remember being the only student that didn’t like it. I might just have to reread it again to see if my opinion holds the same or changed since then.
Yes! I love The Giver! I recall listening to the audiobook within 24hrs because I was compelled. I definitely agree not knowing anything about it as that was my experience too. I also didn't know it was part of a series a while back, so I have to finish it one day.
My teenage daughter and I listened to the Giver quartet last school year on our drives to and from school. I had previously read The Giver, but had not read any of the other books. I pretty much went into each one blind. It gave us a lot to talk about. I suggest Address Unknown as a book to go into blind. It's very short and if you can't find a copy, there are free copies online. I heard of it but didn't know anything about it - listened to it, then read it, then researched it, then convinced my husband to listen to it (he listened to it twice as well), so that I could talk with someone about it.
Book I recommend going into without knowing much and / or anything is the works of Stanislaw Lem , I highly recommend The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem also I kept 1Q84 on my must read list for years and I recently picked it up , I have not started it yet and I have no idea what it is about . And The Stranger is so good ! I second this one and all I knew about it before I got started on it was that it exists and that I like the author
Idk but I feel proud after knowing that I already read "The Secret History" before this video, was looking for a book in the book store once wanting something fantasy related, I was actually looking for a book written that was modern because classics always make my head hurt and yeah it was written in the 1990's, and it's described as a modern classic, but it's so hard to think of it as one, I thought it was the victorian age with how the theme is set.
I hate spoilers. I usually pick up a book if I like the look of the cover. I don’t like to know much more than the genre and a vague vibe but not the plot. I own The Giver. I’m a little too old to have read it in school but my daughter did. Eventually I will get to it myself. I own two Daphne Du Mauriers, Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, that I found used. I own five Thomas Hardys(!) so you would think I love his work but actually I have only ever read The Return of the Native. That was 30 years ago in high school and I don’t remember anything about it. I am working on rereading the books I read in school and I found the others in my library’s used book sale for pennies.
Will definitely vouch for The Secret History. No spoilers. I love the idea of people going in blind too, because what Donna Tartt created is a cinematic experience and those characters march off the page with alarming confidence. The fact that The Giver has sequels baffles me. As a self-contained story when you look at it craft-wise, the first one is perfect. The Stranger will never not be a Pandora's Box. The plot was spoiled for me long before reading it, and calling it a "classic" fills me with a discomfort that's tough to properly explain. A couple additional blind reads I'll recommend, which are more on the humorous side: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller .... you'll be in stitches, and maybe by the end you'll be bleeding The Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams ... it's British, it's in space, that's all you need to know
I skip over plot descriptions in videos, because I like to let a book unfold as a surprise. Of course, it's hard to avoid all information about some books, but it's been fun to to discover my own mistaken perceptions about different books - and it reminds me I surely have gaps about understanding other things, too!
If you want something far out from the 1960s then try William Burroughs' Naked Lunch. It is at once both a bizarre technicolor explosion of language as well as a traditional story with a beginning, middle and an end. I'm torn whether or not to explain the plot to you because for me it took several readings to figure out what the narrator was actually telling us. About twenty-five years ago I realized that if you consider Neo, without Morpheus and Trinity you can get close to the plot, conflict and resolution of NL. Anyway, it's well worth your time and effort.
I recently read Rebecca for the first time and I definitely agree! I knew very little going in and I *devoured* it. Such a rollercoaster! I’d add Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno Garcia
I read Never Let Me Go fully knowing the plot and what I was getting into because I watched the movie in 10th grade in my English class. I definitely agree with you that it is best to read this book without any knowledge of the plot! Two books I recommend also not knowing too much about before reading them are Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda and The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu :)
Thanks for the video. Though it did feel like you simply wished to vicariously break my heart, even if we never meet, how ever I have ordered the Murakami, but in three volumes which I hope will make it more manageable.
Okay you should read cursed bunny by bora Chung, short stories that are just bizarre, I don’t think you should know too much about the sailor who fell from grace with the sea, or any of Clare Keenan’s work
I did that with _1Q84._ Years ago, I randomly picked _1Q84_ off a shelf in the Georgetown Public Library while enjoying a sunny day off in Washington DC. The first chapter had me hooked, and since I was not a member of that library, I walked over to Dupont Circle and bought a copy at my favorite used book store. First time readers may want to listen to Sinfonietta by Janáček as they read the first chapter, if not before. I can think of other books to try this way. _Ficciones,_ the short story collection by Jorge Luis Borges. Also a more obscure book, _Job: A Comedy of Justice_ by Robert A. Heinlein. And, in the unlikely event one has not heard anything about the setting, _Piranesi_ by Susanna Clarke.
The Giver series wasn't around when I was in middle school so I read it 7 or 8 years ago and I didn't love The Giver but continued and was glad I did. Gathering Blue was actually my only 5 star of the series.
Have you seen the Japanese movie on Sweet Bean Paste? It's heartbreaking yet beautiful, some aspects of it are very calming despite the unfortunate events that were unfolding, the scenes would really capture your emotions. Haven't read the book, seen it multiple times at the bookstore, perhaps will pick it ine of these days.
I had no clue The Giver was a series! Read The Gove Rand loves it- now I’ll search out the others and read I went into East of Eden blind and was shocked. Had no clue a classic would discuss all the topics it did! I have about 50 pages to go and love the book!
I read The Giver in 5th grade for English class and Gathering Blue for- idk if this is a niche thing but- battle of the books in... omg maybe it was 4th grade... either 4th or 6th grade.... did I read them out of order because of the assigning circumstances? lol. anyway, I still have my copy of Gathering Blue and I've thought about rereading it a number of times. I feel like I've kept it all these years because I knew I'd like and appreciate it more when I was older.
Hey, please don't take this the wrong way; it may be the lighting or camera angle, but you seem to have lost a lot a weight recently. I am concerned for you and I hope you're doing well. Please look after yourself and if you have anything you need to address, please do. I don't want to cause upset, it's just that I'd rather speak up and be thought of as impolite, than not say anything if it turns out me speaking up could help. Take care Carolyn, and otherwise, great video.
I hate short books. Except nonfiction. But a fiction novel should be at the very least 500 pages. A story isnt a story enless it takes you on a long journey😊
Oh wow, I rarely read a book without the blurb, but it seems interesting. Heard of IQ84, but I have never heard what it is about... good time to start it!
I'm also reading 1Q84. I just started the book 3 section so I'm in the home stretch. I agree people should just jump into it not knowing the plot. My recommendation is Appointment in Samara by John O'Hara
as somebody who doesn't even trust their own family members I'm definitely not going to trust a friendly sounding white girl on social media I still appreciate your content though😂😂😂
