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Rarely has TMI been shared in such an erudite fashion. Thank you,Joe!

whatever you say oscar piastri

Interesting story, Joe. It’s happened to us all one way or another.

Took two for the team there, sir! Reading Truss and Boris Pfeffel so we don't have to. Hope you didn't pay for those turds-in-dust jackets. As to who the ghost writer was for Truss, I'm sure it was the lettuce. I don't know who Rooney is. I've read Crime and Punishment twice. I created a great "edition" of my own by collecting endnotes from several editions, plus two Norton Critical Editions (one old, one recent), and added also several prefaces. Put it all together in one folder and carried it with me to read along my Norton Critical 2nd edition (a disappointment), and the Pevear-Volokhonsky Penguin edition of the novel. I chose the second one over my other copies because their notes were the most comprehensive. I did this because my first reading was unsatisfactory. Yet, the book stayed with me, so I gave it another shot months later, and now it's one of my favorite works of literature, but I had to actually work to get the best combination of alternatives so my 2nd reading would be better. The edition you showed (Wordsworth) is translated by Constance Garnett: its notes are not comprehensive and Garnett is far from my favorite translator. So, as you eloquently told people who read that Rooney author, I'll tell you, Go and read Austen, or Dickens, or Thackeray, and stay away from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy: they're not for you. And if you try again with the Russians, chose a better edition and translator. I did not care for Daniel Deronda, either.

Great story. I Can completely relate.

Let's read a future classic; Other People, by Martin Amis.

Tremendous review. Do you like The Claverings? That's the only one I've read by him. I think I'm going for The Way We Live Now when I grab him again.

So this year (after I wrap up the last book in The Warlord Chronicles trilogy by Cornwell) I am reading strictly translated works. First up is The Iliad by Emily Wilson looking forward to reading her rendition, as for Russian books on the chopping block is Ward No. 6 and Other Stories 1892-1895 by Chekhov comes highly recommended and will be my first time reading a Russian work, I will also be reading White Nights by FD! Cheers!

A librettist may, in fact, be one who writes the libretto for an opera.

Great vid, thanks Joe. Do you ever give up on books? And if so, is there a criteria that has to be met by which point you decide to chuck the book at the wall?

Lovely video!!!🎉 I have to agree with your enthusiasm about Middlemarch!!!❤ I just bought the pink clothbound edition in preparation for a re-read at some point, so I now officially own 2 different editions of it!! ❤❤❤

I love the idea of an annual Middlemarch pilgrimage! It is probably my favourite book, but I certainly don't read it that often. I read it again in 2024, after more than a decade, and it was a magical experience. A few thoughts on your list: 1. Dickens. Given what you have said, I'm not totally sure that you will like Bleak House, as it is still very much Dickensian, especially in characterisation. The least Dickensian in that respect is perhaps Great Expectations. However, if you don't like it, I'd suggest coming back to him in a few years. It took me 10 years to go from heartily disliking him for precisely your reasons to falling in love with his books. By the way, the book that finally did that for me was David Copperfield. 2. Jane Austen. I'm surprised that her charms have eluded you thus far, but I would say that I consider her a genius for her lightness of touch - something that, for all her virtues, could not be said of George Eliot. I do think that reading her books in order (Northanger Abbey to Persuasion) is the best way. I like Emma best, followed by Mansfield Park (which I predict will be your favourite, as it is definitely the most nuanced of her books). 3. Madame Bovary. Another one that I grew to love with time. My professor, who translated the Penguin edition, gave me the fantastic tip to read it as a comedy. After that, it all seemed to slot into place! 4. Howards End. I think that you will love this one, without question. It has a lot that will appeal to a Middlemarch fan. 5. Homer. I also have never quite managed this for similar reasons, but now I have bought Emily Wilson's translations of both works, so I think that it's time. Thanks for inspiring me!

I must say that list is quite impressive :) I've got Sleepwalkers on my list as well for 2025. As for Russian authors - I haven't read anything other than obligatory school literature (and then, just excerpts), but I'm getting into Bulgakov (well, the shorter works, Master & Margarita is far too long for now) - perhaps one of his works will also suit your tastes? (I've read only Zoykina's Apartment and Morphine/A Country Doctor's Notebook but got White Guard lined up for this year)

Thank you, as always, for your clear opinions elegantly expressed. You are slowly persuading me to embark on Middlemarch again, perhaps in 2026?

You deleted my comment? :(

Regicide what

What you looking at?

Hi Joe, first of all I really appreciate your videos and thoroughly enjoy your humour. Thank you for taking the time to upload your videos. I want to respond in favour of belief in God (Christianity). If I understood your position you view the Bible in the same way as any other work of fiction and you are sceptical of the woman saying that the bible was something which enlightened her and to use a very Christian term “saved” her. Two things I want to say to that is first of all our religion centres on the person of Jesus of Nazareth who is a historical figure and the reality of the bible hinges on him. He says he is the resurrection and the dead and if he stayed in Joseph’s tomb a dead man then it would be demonstrably false and fall down at the first hurdle but as it is he was in fact resurrected. If Jesus is raised then all he has said about himself, about God and indeed the Old Testament is true. If he stayed dead he is a conman and we can’t believe anything he had to say. The second thing I want to say is regarding her saying the moral values in the country have gone astray because we’ve gone away from a Christian heritage I in part have sympathy and in part I really struggle with the sentiment that is shared by her, Jordan Peterson etc. Yes the UK’s values and beliefs were centred around Christianity for so long that the laws and moral standards in society reflected that and the more we are disengaging from Christianity (as your poll bears out) the more Christian values disappear and are replaced by secular values (whatever they are). So I’m sympathetic with her because it’s true but where I’m not sympathetic is where I come from an evangelical standpoint which says that actually there was no golden age in Britain spiritually speaking where everyone, or at least the vast majority were Christian. The vast majority went to church but that doesn’t equate to belief and adherence to the Christian faith. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, as far as the bible is concerned what makes you a Christian is trusting in Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for your sins to bring you back into right relationship with God. As for the futility of life without the teachings of the bible, again I have great sympathy. I see you’re reading the bible in 2025, when you get to Mark’s Gospel chapter 8 and verse 36 Jesus says “what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul? Whoever wants to save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will find it.” It is futile without faith in Jesus, why? Because where’s it all heading? Your life and mine? The grave. One day everything we’re living for will be no more cause we will be no more. But for all whose faith is in Jesus, you’re building your life on what lasts for eternity. That when you die with your faith in Jesus you gain eternal pleasures at God’s right hand (Psalm 16), but when you die without faith in Jesus it all goes and that’s a decision we all need to make. I take your moral argument against God and the question of God and suffering has had a lot of ink spilled over it. I want to point you in the direction of CS Lewis’ book ‘Mere Christianity’ and in the beginning he was posing exactly the same questions. However, Lewis arrives at the conclusion of a question and that question being “when I say God is evil, where do I get my sense of good and evil?” Ultimately his point is morality without God isn’t morality at all, people have just arbitrarily decided what is right and wrong. If atheists are being consistent like Nietzsche then there is no right and wrong. I don’t agree either that people would go about stabbing each other and raping each other without a bible. The Bible’s picture of sin isn’t that we are necessarily all as bad as we can possibly be but that we’ve rejected God and that can show itself in a number of ways including pride, anger, lust, resentment etc. Lastly on Trump and the social conservatives. I don’t think they represent Jesus Christ at all. They see value in his morality, that’s great but so would most people. If they were honest followers of Jesus they would be troubled by Trump (as by Kamala) but they want social conservatism, they don’t want Christ. They invoke Christ for the sake of their social conservatism but their vision of heaven is social conservatism not the Kingdom of God. I’d love to chat this through with you more. Also seeing as this is a book channel, some recommendations. Mere Christianity by CS Lewis Confronting Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin Making Sense of God by Tim Keller. God bless you sir, have a great 2025

Wonderful list, Joe. I share your admiration and appreciation for Middlemarch, and while I don't re-read it every year, it is a novel I have revisited many, many times since I first read it about 45 years ago. Bleak House is also the Dickens novel that I most often revisit. I reread it and Middlemarch last winter-early spring. I hope that you do get on with Bleak House. I'm a bit anxious for you because you say you really haven't liked Dickens so far, but perhaps the time is right for you now. It is, indeed, a masterpiece. I'm slowly working my way through all of Dickens, but I don't make the progress I want to because I find that I keep re-reading the ones that I really love, Bleak House being at the top of the list. I do love the Romantic poets. You would appreciate, I think, Dorothy Wordsworth's journals. I was quite fascinated by her when I was in graduate school. It seems her brother, William, borrowed liberally from her musings and turned them into poetry. I recently heard another booktuber I'm sure you know (if I write his name, I fear that RUclips will delete my comment!) talking about his plan to read the Wordsworth biography, Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World, which was written for the 250th anniversary of WW's birth, and I thought that that sounded like something I would like to read as well. I've gone on too long here. Wonderful list, Joe. I'm wishing you all that is good in the coming year.

What an ambitious list! I loved Bleak House so hopefully you will like it too; Howard's End is on my 2025 tbr too! I have read Maurice and Where Angels fear to tread, and I am also planning to read A Passage to India at some point! Happy New Year and Happy reading!!🎉

FYI there's quite a lot of historical evidence to support that Trojan War indeed did take place, and a couple of the characters being real.

I recommend Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts to go along with any founding fathers book you choose. I've also heard good things about Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis but I haven't read it myself

Am from U.S. so I have on my 2025 TBR “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. (I believe as recommended by Steve Donoghue) It may not be the history you are looking for but it is a good one. As described on back cover “…chronicles American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools-with its emphasis on great men in high places-to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace.” There is a good description on Amazon.

For Russians I’ve enjoyed Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich and Resurrection! Also liked Petersburg by Andrei Bely and Anna Akhmatova’s poetry. I’ve heard good things about Sholokov’s And Quiet Flows the Don, Gogol’s Tara’s Bulba and Chernyshevsky’s What is to Be Done?. Lots of yours are on my tbr too! Have an annotated NRSV bible I’ve been trying to read and my Dickens has been collecting dust.. You’ve convinced me to pick up Trollope and Eliot in 2025! I also want to read more of Christina Rossetti’s poetry, Steinbecks East of Eden and German/Austrian writers like Thomas Mann, Robert Musil, Günter Grass and Stefan Zweig 😊

"The Torrents of Spring " by Turgenev is fun to read. It's not heavy and at the end the book you know something more about what they call " the Russian soul".

I think you will enjoy Fathers and Sons. It's more immediate than other Russian novels and quite short. Other suggestions for Russian books would be My Childhood by Maxim Gorky one of my all time favourites, also And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokov.

I haven't read Wordsworth in years and years. I think that's because I prefer the 20th century voice when it comes to poetry. From W.H. Auden to Anne Sexton, I like it all. I will say, however, that the late literary critic, Harold Bloom, placed Wordsworth at the top of his list of the greatest English/American poets of the last 200 years. He said it pained him to place Wordsworth above Walt Whitman, but he did so grudgingly.

I just started 1914 The War That Ended Peace which is excellent and eminently readable. I'd like to read Bleak House this year too.

I understand your point about Homer, but I suppose it’s no more ridiculous than the Christian mythology. Only, it is the dogma of an ancient and extinct society. And I find that Homer manages to evoke that lost world so vividly. Really great video, Joe. I hope your holidays have gone well. I’m hoping to read more Jane Austen as well, having thus far read Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Northhanger Abbey (by far the weakest, in my opinion). Happy new years! 🎉

The Iliad and the Odyssey are on my personal list for 2025 as well. Anyone have a translation they particularly liked? hated? I couldn't read Jane Austen with enjoyment until my late 20s, so maybe she will grow on you as well. For Russians maybe try Chekov? Or Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Fantastic book.

Quite a good list! I’ve read some of these recently, and others have been looming for a while: perhaps I’ll join you for Dickens, Austen, Forster.

Favorite movie based on book? Some review? (In the background, crowd are going wild, sound of the drums echoes and shakes the earth....). Thoughts on Christmas movies/books?

For a moment I thought you were addressing us from the entrance to a Matalan changing room.

Ready your pitchforks & torches, Laddies and Lassies; somebody may be looking for a Jane-Austen-July surprise. 😈

A Russian you may enjoy is Ivan Goncharov’s ‘Oblomov’!

One look at a Dickens novel, and all I see is a Black Dog.

The way “Good Luck Babe” by Chappell Roan fits this book so well is hilarious. Great review!

I learned a lot of new words in this video

“So juvenile, so DEBASED” dang lol

The review of Eastenders.😂😂😂😂

I will reread some Christie's story about poisonous puddings and strange death's, hopefully all will be around Christmas time. And I will definitely enjoy...

When I saw the cover of the Trollope book I thought, "She's giving head." (seriously, I did) LOL