What a beautiful special guest! Thabks for this video and looking forward to hearing how being a parent changes your views on books (or not) and be careful they grow up in a blink! 😊
Congratulations on your beautiful baby! I'm glad you also liked Blood Music and A Maze of Death. Those are two great books I enjoyed this year. I don't think Vonnegut lost any poignancy as he got older. Slapstick is my least favourite book of his (although it was still a 7/10) but Deadeye Dick, Bluebeard, and Galapagos were all 5 stars for me. I hope you like them!
Hey I’m reading the Manticore right now. Just finished part 1: Why I Went to Zurich. I also loved Day of the Triffids as well. Congratulations on your growing family!
@ Well it won’t surprise me after watching your video. But I was still excited for part 2 before. Davies somehow writes 60 pages of one character that I barely know monologuing in a way that promises so much that I’m absolutely hooked. Literally about to continue reading right now.
Congrats on the happy event. That’s quite a library you’ve got there. So glad you liked Blood Music. It’s the main book that turned me on to Greg Bear. Many of his books are great but have to warn you some of them are absolute duds. Also he wrote fantasy as a sideline to his hard sci-fi and I didn’t bother with that at all. One more thing: HNY!⚛️❤
Thank you for the video as always!! I was wondering - how do you pick the books that you say you "knew nothing about" going into them? Random book picker? Are they gifts? Love the content as always :)
you might want to try an alien heat for your next moorcock. now i want to read blood music and wyndham again i think bradbury is cheesy too. might have to try dandelion. congrats
I have to confess - I skipped to the end when I saw you brought out Violet. She is only 2 weeks old but I swear she is already looking around more. great baby footage! sorry you should expect to be upstaged when you come out with a baby😉
If you want real, bargain basement, nitty-gritty, very depressive reading....."Crime and Punishment". I read that during a very rough spell in life, out of Active Duty and looking for a good job.
@@bookjack I started reading it again, sometime this last year and was surprised on how depressing the story gets even early on when an old alcoholic Russian is describing his life with his wife. It just throws how utterly devastating life can be in your face.
Nice to see non-cookie-cutter rankings, although I notice your cohost doesn’t disagree with you (yet. 😂) Those days will come. Looks like she has your ears. May she listen to your wise counsel. Enjoy the new year and hopefully get some sleep soon. 😺✌️
We're pretty much in sync with our criticisms. Perhaps with the exception of "Dracula". I by no means think it was a great book, I'm just comparing it to "Frankenstein", which I found very close to unreadable. I totally agree with Ernest Hemmingway. Good stories, but very hard to get yourself started in.
@@bookjack Exactly. I have to tell you that I read "For Whom the Bells Toll". At one time I was insanely interested in all things Spain, particularly their Civil War. I was stationed over there, and I visited about four times to visit the sites where the conflict was the worst. But, I tried to read it again, and I just couldn't get started.
@@phaedrus2633 every and any control system degenerates into kakistocracy. Democracy becomes oligarchy as Aristotle said which becomes either or both authoritarian and a kakistocracy, Despots always top the heap no matter the system. political parties and presidents don't matter. The MIC agenda will go on until it can't no matter which puppets play what part.
Clarke is overrated, as is Kerouac. You might appreciate The Silver Eggheads by Fritz Leiber..and The Cool War by Frederick Pohl. Always take a book with you to hospitals, especially for starting off the newborns.
Clarke has been very hit or miss for me. I did take a book to the hospital, a collection of Ursula K. LeGuin's blog posts. She wrote a lot about her cat which was a welcome light read
I would give childhoods end and rwr a 7/10. I found them really easy to read with big ideas that kept me interested. His writing style is great for getting into scifi
What a beautiful special guest! Thabks for this video and looking forward to hearing how being a parent changes your views on books (or not) and be careful they grow up in a blink! 😊
That is what we are told. Trying our best to savor every moment 🥲
20:42. Violet!!
Congratulations. Health and Happiness to the new Power Trio.
Thanks! To you as well :)
Congratulations on your beautiful baby!
I'm glad you also liked Blood Music and A Maze of Death. Those are two great books I enjoyed this year.
I don't think Vonnegut lost any poignancy as he got older. Slapstick is my least favourite book of his (although it was still a 7/10) but Deadeye Dick, Bluebeard, and Galapagos were all 5 stars for me. I hope you like them!
Relieved to hear that because I haven't read any of those three. Not ready to live in a world where I've heard all of what Vonnegut has to say 😅
congratulations to you, your wife and family!!
Thank you :)
Congratulations!!🎉🎉
Hey I’m reading the Manticore right now. Just finished part 1: Why I Went to Zurich.
I also loved Day of the Triffids as well. Congratulations on your growing family!
How are you liking it? Surprised me how much I enjoyed it
@ Well it won’t surprise me after watching your video. But I was still excited for part 2 before. Davies somehow writes 60 pages of one character that I barely know monologuing in a way that promises so much that I’m absolutely hooked. Literally about to continue reading right now.
Enjoy! Sorry if I spoiled anything 😅
Dandelion Wine! Great book, beautiful prose. Really enjoyed it, one of my favorites.
Agreed! Sticks with you long after you read it
Thank you for your List! Subscribed :) Best Wishes for your Family
Great eclectic list. Love your candid quick takes. Congrats on the special guest.
good work. I hope to see more of you. I enjoy your personality and presentations.
Thanks so much! I'm hoping to keep this up
Congrats on the happy event. That’s quite a library you’ve got there. So glad you liked Blood Music. It’s the main book that turned me on to Greg Bear. Many of his books are great but have to warn you some of them are absolute duds. Also he wrote fantasy as a sideline to his hard sci-fi and I didn’t bother with that at all. One more thing: HNY!⚛️❤
Happy New Year to you too! I've had Eon by Greg Bear on my TBR for awhile now. Hear that's a decent one
What a pretty little girl, I wish you and violet a great New Year
Thanks so much! Wishing you one as well
Excellent countdown, we read a few of the same books this year. Congrats on your adorable special guest.
Thanks! What was your favorite book of the year?
"I wouldn't say it's brilliant...but it's something." = Hemmingway in a nutshell.
😆 Glad you agree
Props for the segue: "Some Of Your Blood" then introduces Violet. Congratulations.
Intentional of course 😅
Thank you for the video as always!! I was wondering - how do you pick the books that you say you "knew nothing about" going into them? Random book picker? Are they gifts? Love the content as always :)
i look forward to violet's scathing rebuttal of all your choices in her response video
I took forward to that too :)
I've never read "In Cold Blood", but I've seen the movie. My Dad read the book and said that the movie was amazingly very close to the book.
I've got a backlog of books to movies to watch: In Cold Blood, A Perfect Storm, Day of the Triffids... Looking forward to them all
Robertson Davies. Read him in the 1990s when our boys were born. I'll have to revisit.
Thumbs up for Violet
Violet is adorable. 🥰
you might want to try an alien heat for your next moorcock. now i want to read blood music and wyndham again
i think bradbury is cheesy too. might have to try dandelion. congrats
It's cheesy for sure, but Dandelion Wine had a hard edge that contrasted well. I'll keep an eye out for that one.
Congrats on the birth of your daughter!
Thank you!!
I have to confess - I skipped to the end when I saw you brought out Violet. She is only 2 weeks old but I swear she is already looking around more. great baby footage!
sorry you should expect to be upstaged when you come out with a baby😉
That's fair. Her just sitting there is more entertaining than me talking about books 😅
Violet is so precious! We can see her following your every word, as if she is trying to understand all that you were saying!!
It does seem like she's reacting, doesn't it? Wasn't sure if I had selective parent vision or something
If you want real, bargain basement, nitty-gritty, very depressive reading....."Crime and Punishment". I read that during a very rough spell in life, out of Active Duty and looking for a good job.
I've had it on my TBR for awhile now. Saving it for a time in my life when I really need a downer I guess 😅
@@bookjack I started reading it again, sometime this last year and was surprised on how depressing the story gets even early on when an old alcoholic Russian is describing his life with his wife. It just throws how utterly devastating life can be in your face.
I used to hate eating liver until somebody cooked it for me correctly. It's good when done right, perhaps your wife would like it then.
I tried it a number of different ways but certainly possible none of those were the right way 😅
Nice to see non-cookie-cutter rankings, although I notice your cohost doesn’t disagree with you (yet. 😂) Those days will come. Looks like she has your ears. May she listen to your wise counsel.
Enjoy the new year and hopefully get some sleep soon.
😺✌️
Oh I'm sure she will never disagree with me 😅
Thanks so much. Happy New Year to you as well!
Interesting you don't often see Dune that far down the lists
Seems like a lot of people got into scifi with Dune which would give it a special place on their lists. I enjoyed it 😅
We're pretty much in sync with our criticisms. Perhaps with the exception of "Dracula". I by no means think it was a great book, I'm just comparing it to "Frankenstein", which I found very close to unreadable. I totally agree with Ernest Hemmingway. Good stories, but very hard to get yourself started in.
Yes, but once you get in the flow of Hemingway it reads surprisingly smoothly
@@bookjack Exactly. I have to tell you that I read "For Whom the Bells Toll". At one time I was insanely interested in all things Spain, particularly their Civil War. I was stationed over there, and I visited about four times to visit the sites where the conflict was the worst. But, I tried to read it again, and I just couldn't get started.
BTW, the oligarchy is here and has been since Reagan and Clinton pushed them forward
I would much rather have the oligarchy running our country, than the kakistocracy who is running this current administration.
@@phaedrus2633 every and any control system degenerates into kakistocracy. Democracy becomes oligarchy as Aristotle said which becomes either or both authoritarian and a kakistocracy, Despots always top the heap no matter the system. political parties and presidents don't matter. The MIC agenda will go on until it can't no matter which puppets play what part.
I feel like I can’t read some of the classics due to them being so damn dry.
Clarke is overrated, as is Kerouac. You might appreciate The Silver Eggheads by Fritz Leiber..and The Cool War by Frederick Pohl. Always take a book with you to hospitals, especially for starting off the newborns.
Clarke has been very hit or miss for me. I did take a book to the hospital, a collection of Ursula K. LeGuin's blog posts. She wrote a lot about her cat which was a welcome light read
@@bookjack in the reading world you have totally leveled up to "EXPERT" in my estimation. Double congrats daddy!
Frederik Pohl is under the radar excellent sci fi
@@davyhill23 so sayeth connoisseurs!
I would give childhoods end and rwr a 7/10. I found them really easy to read with big ideas that kept me interested. His writing style is great for getting into scifi