The Best Books I Read in 2023 

Nice list Brock, glad you found some awesome books! Thanks for sharing!

Good stuff. You've convinced me to pick up a copy of Notes from Underground and The Book of Disquiet whenever I can.

Great selection! Thank you 😁

Such a thought-provoking mind-bending reading year.

Your videos actually motivate me to read and finally I started with Nietzsche

As a portuguese, love to see foreign people talk about Pessoa. He was probably my favorite subject to study in our Portuguese class back in High School. I suggest you to explore his heteronyms, every single one has his own personality and they're pretty unique. Pessoa is such a fascinating author.

I've read some of the books you talked about and agree with you on them. As soon as I finish this note I'm ordering a copy of "The Book of Disquiet". Thanks so much.

cool selection and a smart analysis

You have a great taste in literature. The last two books I read were Infinite Jest and Brothers Karamozov. Both have made significant impressions on how I think about the world.

Your channel is gonna blow up. Keep up the good work 👍

Notes from Underground and The Book of Disquiet are two of my favourite books! What makes them so beloved to me is that they both have characters I emphatise and relate to, but whom I recognize sometimes let their hyperrationality and lack of action get the better of them. The Underground Man reviles "men of action" and prefers to be a man of intelligence, but secretly bemoans how he lives in a dirty hole, stewing in his own bitterness and feeling unable to properly participate in society. Bernando Soares (Pessoa's heteronym in the Book of Disquiet) freely praises the value of dreaming, imagination, and solitude in one section, but then wishes he wasn't so isolated in another section. I've seen these qualities in myself before, and it's only through reading books like these that you're able to get out of your head and see a proper third-person perspective from intelligent people on how seemingly good things like rationality, dreaming, and solitude can become damaging when taken to the extreme. It's like Zosima's quote that you took from Brothers Karamazov: "Above all, do not lie to yourself." To me, both characters are in a tough position where they have many thoughtful insights, but they take their reasoning and stretch it beyond positive use, and when they realize they're not creating good conditions for themselves, they lie to themselves. What makes it worse is that they each have moments of clarity about their situation, but they don't really do anything to improve. In other words, they're partly liable for creating the conditions responsible for their own misery. For people (like myself) whose minds are good at self-sabotage, being exposed to those characters gave me lots of food for thought. You got some big reads done this year, congratulations! I've had two attempts with both Infinite Jest and Karamazov but never made it to the end. Maybe 2024 will be the year. Keep up the great work, Brock!

The Brothers Karamazov was also one of my favourites this year along with War & Peace and The Count of Monte Cristo:) Loved the way you described the books, definatly got me interested in reading them!

Thank you great videos! 😊

My favourite reads of the year were East of Eden and Crime and Punishment. I also really enjoyed Grapes of Wrath, Eugene Onegin, and Brave New World.

Dostoevsky is definitely on my list for 2024 reads. I have attempted “ Brothers Karamozov” twice and it breaks me every time right in the middle. “Infinite Jest” has been on the radar for some time, I just need to amp up the courage to read it.

My favorites of this year are "In Memoriam" by Alice Winn and "Prophet Song" by Paul Lynch. I want to thank you for introducing me to Fernando Pessoa. I have never read any of his books, but the description you gave for "The book of disquiet" makes me think it's a work I would enjoy reading.

I plan on reading some Dostoevsky next year. You've also got me interested in Nietzsche and very interested in Pessoa. As an introvert who can't fake it or wear that mask around people that definitely appeals. Plus I like books that are more challenging for one reason or another. Thanks for suggestions.

Anna Karenina was my favorite book this year. Third time I have read it and it was more glorious than ever. Also loved Wuthering Heights. Found the darkness of the story shocking.

I've seen so many people online hating on Infinite Jest and your take is so different and positive. It just goes to show you how everyone's taste buds for literature is different. I think I'll give it a try now that you made it make sense to me :) I just need to read more to improve my English comprehension before taking it on. You're awesome! Subscribed! ✨

I think you definitely need to be in a specific mindset for Pessoa. I’m from Portugal and I’ve studied some of his poetry. I have the book of disquiet sitting in my bookshelf to pick up in the latter half of 2024. Really looking forward to it.

i’m glad you & i have this hobby together 🤍 to even better reads in 2024 🥂

Would love to see you read some Virginia Woolf. She writes the most psychologically complicated characters. Mrs Dalloway is a short novel that has some of the best characters I’ve read. Plus she was a big Dostoyevski fan :)

I am new to the channel and was somewhat distracted by the cuteness of the presenter, does that fit any of the books...? ☺ Great vid well presented !! ✨

Ugh time to add more to my tbr!! Jk great video, super excited for these reads!

Nice! I literally have all these books 🔥

Great vid, 2024 im gonna read some great books

If you complete Infinite Jest, you are in a very small unique club. Like many others, I started it, didn't finish. I also read the Myth of Sisyphus. Even though the universe is pointless, I haven't committed suicide, so I guess it made an impression on me. I'm still slogging through The K bros. Tough going-- net surfing is destroying my ability to concentrate.

Thanks. I think you provided a little too much about Infinite Jest. Will read some of these books.

You are great!!

Tips on how to not go insane? In 2023 I had a balance of classics and contemporary (romance- my guilty pleasure). This year, I want to focus on classics. I just finished Notes from Underground and am now on 1984. I feel this weird anxiety and sense of doom, but I'm motivated to keep reading great works and push away from 21st century novels...

you re doing the job good

31:06 For some reason, I can't get into Notes from Underground. It's very frustrating and confounding. I loved Solenoid by Cartarescu.

I wrote three books last year. Do try them. 1. “Meditation and Spirituality a Philosophy” Sub-titled- “A path to attain a Steady Meditative State” 2. “Spiritual Encounters” Sub- titled - “Meeting the Himalayan Yogis” 3. “Social Pandemic” Sub-titled - “A Terminally ill Modern Society”

Great discussion of IJ. I know I will re read at some point. One of my takeaways was incredible sadness with regard to DFW deciding to end his own life. An enormous waste of a great mind.

My top 5 for this year in no particular order -The brothers Karamazov -Lolita -Death and the penguin -1984 -A little life

Brothers Karamazov is one of the best books I have read, Infinite Jest is one of the worst :)

Great book list. Based on your list here, I believe you might really enjoy László Krasznahorkai - if you don’t know him. Only living writer I read, and he’s incomparable. He might be possessed.

My favorite book of the year is Storm of steel

Interesting selection of books - tho all depressing - and an excellent, intellectually-stimulating presentation!

I read 2 books 😊

The Tyranny of Words (1938) by Stuart Chase Daemon & Freedom by Daniel Suarez

How are you doing mr Brock . Iam Arabic lady subscriber to several British and American RU-vid channels. We are as foreigners subscribers as overseas students want to increase our cultural level, improve our English as well and literature lovers too. I hope I can learn a lot from your knowledge. May I have question you have degree in philosophy. Merry Christmas happy new year. I hope i can learn a lot from your knowledge. Best wishes for you your dearest ones .

Which do you prefer hardcover or paperback?

Must read Brothers of Karmazov.

I tried reading Notes from the Underground but just couldn't finish the book. It was just very depressing for me since i myself am engulfed by ennui at the moment. I hate leaving books unfinished but i had to drop the book for my mental health. I guess it is an acquired taste.

The book of disquiet is a very hard read in my opinion..it makes me very depressed that's why I couldn't finish it. I will give it another go but I don't want to disrupt my mood just because I want to read a book

How are you doing mr Brock . Iam Arabic lady subscriber to several British and American RU-vid channels. We are as foreigners subscribers as overseas students want to increase our cultural level , improve our English as well and literature lovers too. If you please are have degree in philosophy from university. I noticed most of book tubes channels content about international literature or horror , thriller. Thank you for your wonderful cultural channel. If you please in past only travel aboard or looking for books to learn new information and nowadays RU-vid channels as open universities for every one google is our library. I hope I can learn a lot from your knowledge. I surprised we in Arabic countries avid coffee drinkers with dates but in England have special time for tea and USA too as iced tea . Coffee serving for guest is symbol of hospitality. Merry Christmas happy new year. Best wishes for you your dearest ones .

Concerning Pessoa. At the end of the long article on Wikipedia there are other source materials. One is called ' Oscar Wilde, Fernando Pessoa, and the art of lying, ' It is in my opinion well worth reading.

I somehow managed to read Infinite Jest while addicted to meth while I was close to Hal's age, don't remember much of it. Every time I think I might reread it I remember how exhausting it was going to and from the footnotes and put it off for another time. Maybe I'll finally get around to that later, maybe like 2026. Maybe.

Pessoa was fighting his homosexuality, and that is why he divided himself up into various states of being. Jung is for me the essential, and he too sees us as human beings who have to unite the mind, feeling, sensation and intuition. This can make us whole, because we then journey through these four essential states of being.

The truth is ultimately intolerable, such that no book that I can read can save me from it. Even so, I've read a pretty good book or two.

I wonder what draws someone to classic literature

If you please I gathered main theme about philosophy in simple definition philosophy is study of basic idea about knowledge, truth , right , wrong , religion, nature and meanings of life. Word derived from Greek philo ( love) and Sophia ( wisdom ) . Basic branches of philosophy are epistemology is study of knowledge, metaphysic is study of reality, value theory is study of ethnics and values , logic is study of correct reasoning. Most popular philosopher Socrates ( 399-470bc ). Plato, Aristotle and Socrates is father of philosophy in Greek ancient time . Kent is German philosopher, descartes is French , nietzsche is German , John lock is English, Karl Marx is philosopher and German economist, founder of capitalism as we taught at school. David Hume is Scottish philosopher too . Thank you for giving us chance to read learn new information and improve our English as well. Iam so sorry to be little long but reading and writing both are great ways to improve our English as none native speakers. Good luck to you your dearest ones .

people antagonise tattoo with intelegence and books.ha ha ha