20 classic books that are short but powerful (fiction and nonfiction)

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  • Опубликовано: 25 янв 2025

Комментарии • 87

  • @TheLinguistsLibrary
    @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад +4

    Links to help the channel:
    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury amzn.to/4ht1UnV
    The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood amzn.to/4gsCvdn
    A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley amzn.to/4hpmdCL
    1984 by George Orwell amzn.to/42r3QZK
    Animal Farm amzn.to/4jqHDBh
    The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald amzn.to/40tkEwL
    The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton amzn.to/4hqJeVW
    Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges amzn.to/40K18gF
    Night by Elie Wiesel amzn.to/3EaDSjm
    A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf amzn.to/42pXZE8
    The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli amzn.to/4gdn9Ji
    Discourses on Livy by Niccolo Machiavelli amzn.to/3E8GqON
    Candide by Voltaire amzn.to/42ne1Pd
    The Alienist and other Stories by Machado de Assis amzn.to/3C974Xq
    The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka amzn.to/3PQkavC
    Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector amzn.to/4jxom1g
    The Stranger by Albert Camus amzn.to/4htODvy
    Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson amzn.to/4gYVAop
    Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu amzn.to/4hb7KL8
    Dracula by Bram Stoker amzn.to/3WyOI9b
    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley amzn.to/4az19rq
    All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy amzn.to/40y33nt
    And then there were none by Agatha Christie amzn.to/4jvCqYT

  • @TheActiveMind1
    @TheActiveMind1 День назад +6

    Many many great recommendations here!

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад +1

      Hey Brock, tell Madi I'm waiting for her verdict on Murakami's spicy scenes!

    • @TheActiveMind1
      @TheActiveMind1 День назад

      @@TheLinguistsLibrary Haha good luck! It's going to take you pressuring her into reading Murakami - I'm suggestions get deflected!

  • @bobkeane7966
    @bobkeane7966 День назад +3

    I enjoy your videos keep up the good work.

  • @bregowego
    @bregowego День назад +2

    ooo! subscribed!
    part of my new years reading goals incorporating classics! adding all of these to this years list ❤

  • @bobkeane7966
    @bobkeane7966 День назад +5

    I really enjoyed the dystopians on your list A couple of short books that I would recommend are Of Mice and Men, and The Old Man and the Sea

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад

      Thank you so much for your kind words! I hope to make a video on Steinbeck soon, and I love Hemingway but I forgot to include him because my copy of The Old Man and the Sea isn't with me right now.

    • @bobkeane7966
      @bobkeane7966 День назад

      @@TheLinguistsLibrary Steinbeck is an awesome writer, have you read his travelogue Travels with Charley?

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  9 часов назад

      @@bobkeane7966 Not yet! But hopefully this year

  • @Johanna_reads
    @Johanna_reads День назад +4

    I love your recommendations so much! I’m a slow reader, so I’m sure some of these would take me longer than a day, but I’m also certain I’d enjoy many of the ones I haven’t read. 😊

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад

      Hello Johanna, thank you for stopping by. I think I better change the title because you're right some of these are not one day reads. xoxo

    • @no_art_history_required
      @no_art_history_required День назад +1

      slow reader here, as well

  • @oblomovtheunknown
    @oblomovtheunknown День назад +2

    I love short fiction and prose - certainly your list is brilliant. I would add Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice", Carson McCullers' "A Member of the Wedding", D.H. Lawrence's novellas, Osama Dazai, "No Longer Human." Oh regarding the short form that Albert Camus became known for - the original of that style was the hard-boiled fiction of James M Cain "The Postman Always Rings Twice."

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад

      Thank you so much for that tidbit, I love to learn things like that! And I like your additions xoxo

  • @Leo_Jhonys
    @Leo_Jhonys День назад +1

    Great books, great video. It's a pleasure to watch you. Machado de Assis, Clarice, George Orwell, i love so much.

  • @wheelz1325
    @wheelz1325 День назад +3

    The cemetery of forgotten books is my favorite series of all time 😊 the shadow of the wind is the first book that made me fall in love with books 🥰

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад +1

      Thank you sharing that, you should listen to Zafon play the song he composed for it on the piano!

  • @MonicaMedici-uq1nj
    @MonicaMedici-uq1nj День назад +2

    I'm excited to hear your thoughts on Shogun

  • @brenboothjones
    @brenboothjones День назад +3

    Excellent selection, Em 👌

  • @mattkean1128
    @mattkean1128 День назад +2

    Maupassant's Like Death is relatively short and really impacted me. Beautifully written, and less sardonic than a lot of his short stories. In the vein of Madame Bovary.

  • @TheNerdyCowgirlReads
    @TheNerdyCowgirlReads День назад +2

    I loved animal farm, 1984, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and i would also include Picture of Dorian Gray (that’s fairly short) All 5 star reads! I recently just bought The Great Gatsby and Night, so glad to see them on this list! Great video! 💙 I would definitely love a children’s classics video!

  • @Anthony-gq7dk
    @Anthony-gq7dk День назад

    To think Emily that English isn't even your first language and you speak so many others is simply amazing ! Such a grasp of it as well as being so literate in so many others. Remarkable.

  • @ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk
    @ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk День назад +2

    Just finished 3rd book of Musashi and was wondering what to start next. Thanks for the reminder of the Great Gatsby, Emily, about time I read it. Best wishes and happy reading. Oh, and The Old Man and the Sea and The Heart of Darkness bye the way!

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад

      Hey Nigel, thanks for stopping by and for the recommendations! xoxo

  • @miety111
    @miety111 19 часов назад +1

    thank you for the recs I'm going to read literally all of these

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  10 часов назад

      That's wonderful to hear, let me know how it goes! Good luck xo

  • @barbaracarlisle8930
    @barbaracarlisle8930 14 часов назад +1

    Very thoughtful commentary!

  • @arcajour-i2r
    @arcajour-i2r День назад +2

    Great choices! To this list of short classics, I would add Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. (By the way, did you know that Mann was half Brazilian?) And the pair of novellas by J.D. Salinger, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters! And a relatively unknown treasure, The Pilgrim Hawk, by Glenway Westcott. Oh, and The Aspern Papers, by Henry James...Forgive me, I get carried away. 😊

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  11 часов назад +1

      We love it when readers get carried away! Hi Alfredo, thank you for your generous support. I looked it up and his mother, Júlia da Silva Bruhns, was born in Paraty, a historic coastal town in Rio de Janeiro. It’s located about halfway between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, thank you for that!!
      I added all three novellas to wishlist, I'll reading be a lot of Henry James this year for sure. Em xo

  • @1984isnow
    @1984isnow День назад +1

    New sub, great recs, a few ive read, several others im embarrassed to say i own but are still on my tbr. Im currently 100+ pages into shadow of the wind as my first read of 2025 and enjoying it.

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  15 часов назад

      Hi, thanks for sharing! So is Fermin is your favorite character too?

    • @1984isnow
      @1984isnow 8 часов назад

      @@TheLinguistsLibrary so far in fact, yes :)

  • @sebrishwakeed2293
    @sebrishwakeed2293 22 часа назад +2

    Have you read anything by Indian authors?. If not i'd recommend books by R. K Narayan. Such as "Swami and Friends", " The English Teacher ". His books are usually short and sweet about life in India. So you can finish it in a Day or two.
    I hope you enjoy it if you decide to give it a try!

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  10 часов назад

      Thank you for the recommendations, I love Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni because I'm into mythology, but I do need to read more! xo

  • @michaelnicholson297
    @michaelnicholson297 День назад +3

    I love the book selection, but there is almost no chance of me getting through Frankenstein, The Age of Innocence, or many of these in 1 day. But in a week its pretty manageable. But i read much slower

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад

      Thank you so much for stopping by, whether it's a day or week the important thing is you're reading xoxo

  • @РоманПаляниця-к5э
    @РоманПаляниця-к5э 19 часов назад +1

    Very cool list of books, thank you very much!
    The books A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell are especially relevant now.
    Greetings from Ukraine, which is bleeding, but does not give up!

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  10 часов назад

      Thank you for stopping by, stay safe. Hope to read you some of your recommendations soon!

  • @Fullbatteri
    @Fullbatteri День назад

    I've only read a few of this fantastic books (Fahrenheit 451, 1984, The Handmaid's Tale, A Brave New World, The Great Gatsby, Ficciones, Dracula, Frankenstein, and Agua Viva) but I'm really looking forward to read all the books you listed here, simply because they all seem to fit in the same category of "greatest books of all time". I'm so glad you mentioned Clarice Lispector here, she's so overlooked (even if she is very know, I still think is not enough!).

  • @bobkeane7966
    @bobkeane7966 День назад +1

    It has been a long time since I read the Stranger, I think either title would work but it seem like the important part is more about the different and less about nationality.

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад

      I was referring to the words itself: a stranger is unknown, and an outsider can be known or unknown because it can be a choice as well as a fixed state.

  • @tarquinmidwinter2056
    @tarquinmidwinter2056 День назад

    I read L'Étranger for my high school French class. Also read it in translation as The Outsider, which I think is the best translation of the title. Another short French book I had to read (but which I ended up loving) was Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier. The title of this book is not translated for the English version because the word 'grand' encompasses so much that can't be expressed in a single English word.

  • @apoetreadstowrite
    @apoetreadstowrite День назад

    What an amazing collection of reading treats, loved your introduction to this 'genre', interesting thoughts. I love Camus & Sartre, & I like to read Camus alongside Beckett - Absurdism is an important counterpoint/conversation with Existentialism.

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  15 часов назад +1

      OOoooh I would love to watch your video on Camus, I mean it! Thank you for watching Philip

    • @apoetreadstowrite
      @apoetreadstowrite 9 часов назад

      @@TheLinguistsLibrary: Camus really is an iconoclast, isn't he? A pity he fell out with Sartre, too similar to one another, I suspect.

  • @AlbertTheConjugator
    @AlbertTheConjugator День назад

    Ciao, Emily!
    The Stranger intrigues me. Am I correct in saying one's translation of the title affects one's perception of the novel? 🤔
    ✌️🙂

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  11 часов назад

      Ciao Albert,
      Absolutely, the title affects your perception of the novel! Thank you so much for stopping by

  • @Horrorbabe4
    @Horrorbabe4 День назад +1

    Crypt of the moon spider by nathan ballingrud is a high concept horror fantasy that reads like a classic imo. Its a recently released one though.❤

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  День назад +1

      Sounds good, thank you for the recommendation! xoxo

    • @Horrorbabe4
      @Horrorbabe4 День назад

      ​@TheLinguistsLibrary you're so welcome❤

  • @motorbikeray
    @motorbikeray 15 часов назад

    Great book choices. For future books videos please hold each book steady and clearly for at least two seconds in front of the camera when you introduce the title. Displaying a picture of the book like you did with a couple of the books is a good idea too. I had to pause your video multiple times to stop your constant moving of the books in your hands to get a clear view of the book covers.

  • @dadmatty177
    @dadmatty177 День назад

    The audio is out of sync. It’s very subtle, but it’s there. Thanks

  • @stuartgriffin1001
    @stuartgriffin1001 День назад

    Of the books you talked about, I read:
    Fahrenheit 451 (a school read, too long ago to remember what I thought)
    1984 (a school read, and I recently read the graphic novel, liked the graphic novel)
    The Stranger (didn't really like it as I didn't like the protagonist)
    Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde (read it recently, liked it a lot)
    Carmilla (read it recently, was somewhat disappointed in it)
    Dracula (read it 3 times, loved it)
    Frankenstein (read it recently, loved it)
    I think I prefer The Outsider as the title instead of The Stranger

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  15 часов назад +1

      Hi Stuart, thanks for stopping by, not surprised you disliked the protagonist of the Stranger, but I am surprised you didn't like Carmilla. xo

    • @stuartgriffin1001
      @stuartgriffin1001 11 часов назад

      @@TheLinguistsLibrary I am going to give Carmilla another chance at some point

  • @Alisha-vz6kl
    @Alisha-vz6kl День назад +2

    please do romantic classic recs please!!!

  • @cunningba
    @cunningba День назад

    I’d like to suggest a short memoir that I think doesn’t get enough love: The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings. Descriptions of this book usually make it sound bleak. It is not.

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  13 часов назад +1

      Hi Barry, thank you for the recommendation just added it to my tbr!

  • @jimmyjohns-ro3sp
    @jimmyjohns-ro3sp 4 часа назад

    We have very similar tastes, Orwell, Voltaite and Huxley oh my, of course I really love a poet named Em-i-ly

  • @bibliosophie
    @bibliosophie 17 часов назад

    ooh this makes for an excellent and approachable "starter" list for someone afraid of older books. and i think for plenty of people who already like classics and want to branch out a bit :) (i will not, however, read fahrenheit 451)

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  11 часов назад

      Hey Sophie, I am not going ask why, I don't know why, but I am not here to force anything on people. Thank you for stopping by I enjoy our bookish friendship. xo

    • @bibliosophie
      @bibliosophie 9 часов назад

      @ pure laziness and disinterest on my part! i don’t have an immensely good reason!

  • @brio9814
    @brio9814 9 часов назад

    Great Gatsby is during the "rouring 20s" The guilded age was from 1870 to 1900 abouts. Another short dystopian short book that I thought was beautiful is "The Bear" by Andrew Krivak.

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  8 часов назад

      Of course it is, I must've been thinking of the next one which was The Age Innocence, but thank you for pointing it out. I'm going to edit it out.

  • @joshuacreboreads
    @joshuacreboreads День назад +1

    In my French class this semester, we are reading “Acide Sulfurique” by Amélie Nothomb. Have you heard of it? I just began it, and it looks like a fascinating dystopian novel. Hope you are doing well, Emily! Thanks for another great video.

  • @mariavittori2415
    @mariavittori2415 День назад

    Ohhh! Farenheit is one of my favourites books ❤❤❤

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  13 часов назад +1

      Oh hi, lovely to see you back this week xoxo

    • @mariavittori2415
      @mariavittori2415 10 часов назад

      @TheLinguistsLibrary I love your videos!! Hugs from Argentina 👏❤️

  • @luish1096
    @luish1096 День назад

    I will recommend some short books to you: "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Tolstoy; "El Desbarrancadero" by Fernando Vallejo; "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" by Eric Hoffer; "The Pole" by J.M. Coetzee; "Paradais" by Fernanda Melchor (read this one in Spanish because a lot is loss in the English translation); "The Maniac" by Benjamin Labatut. Just to name a few 😊😉🙂

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  11 часов назад +1

      I like most of his Tolstoy's short stories, my favorite is 'How much land does a man need?' but I have talked about him in so many videos last year. I haven't read the rest so thank you for the recommendations xoxo

    • @luish1096
      @luish1096 8 часов назад

      @@TheLinguistsLibrary Thank you! I will definitely read Fahrenheit 451, the one from your list I haven't read.

  • @Booktube2025
    @Booktube2025 День назад

    I love literature ❤

  • @paperkay
    @paperkay День назад

    Not sure how I feel about the word "quickly". These books alter your brain chemistry and you are never the same after reading them - of course, you actually have to READ them - dive in, contemplate, really think about what's written, ruminate on it for days. Not just "Oh, yeah, I read Animal Farm in half an hour, go me! It's about pigs. Next!"....

    • @TheLinguistsLibrary
      @TheLinguistsLibrary  16 часов назад

      I think you'll like the new title better, I certainly don't want anyone missing a coma of these fantastic books! Thanks for stopping by

  • @Caealoceano
    @Caealoceano День назад

    I heard Borges and I unsubbed so I can sub again. Great list.