you don't have to get it // reasons to read
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2024
- what's a book that you didn't get at the time, or that you still don't get? and why are you glad you read it?
welcome to the channel! this video is part of a series - check it out here! • reasons to read
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if you're interested in any of the books referenced and want to pick up a copy for yourself, here are some links! (I'm not affiliated with thriftbooks, although with how often I buy from them maybe I should be):
-What Are People For? by Wendell Berry: www.thriftbooks.com/w/what-ar...
-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-adv...
-Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: www.thriftbooks.com/w/blood-m...
-The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-cou...
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timestamps:
0:00 bon iver & a question
0:43 my favorite book & a reassurance
3:37 wendell berry & huck finn
5:36 cormac mccarthy
#booktube #thecountofmontecristo #wendellberry #marktwain #cormacmccarthy 
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check out some other reasons to read HERE: m.ruclips.net/video/S0krJtb8vxI/видео.html
thanks for watching! :)
"your thoughts can impact you before you understand them" Well damn
This is the encapsulation of why I read challenging things.
That and each time I reread something, I'm a different person, and I get more from it.
I rewinded the video 3 times to that part where he said that, screenshot it and then wrote it in my journal.
So profound 🤭
I asked myself a question just yesterday: "is it possible for my brain to know things that I don't know it knows? Does it understand something I don't? But I'm me, how wouldn't I understand something my brain created?"
@@caio1820 Yes it is possible. That part of you that doesn’t know what the other part know is called your ‘conscious mind’. While the other part that knows something that is appears hidden to your conscious mind is called the ‘subconscious mind’.
I hope you understand?
In Tamil, we have this popular saying: அனுபவிக்கனும், ஆராய கூடாது. It means "You should experience, not analyse." This basically shaped the way I live life and consume art, and I think it applies to this video perfectly! Of course, analysing and "getting something" enhances the experience, but that shouldn't be the only intention of art.
that’s a terrific saying & super relevant. Thanks for watching & sharing!
cazzy logic
Tamil is between India and Sri Lanka , right ?
@@MarauderinChief Tamil is a ethnic group of southern India and Sri Lanka and also the language spoken by Tamil people
I'm bout to jump into black hole and tell you guys what it felt like if I made it alive.
*stares at her count of Monte Christo copy which has been waiting on the shelf for years* maybe its finally time...
It is. Grab a bookmark - otherwise it’s easy to lose your place. If you finish it come back & let me know. I’ll be thrilled. thanks for watching!!
@@timdemossi guess this is my sign to start the count of monte cristo too… i’ve been intimidated by it for way too long
@@lilacfields as far as long books go...I think you'll find it decently approachable :) take your time with it & just enjoy it. come back & let us know if you get started on it / finish it someday!
Yep. Definitely saw the physical book before reading it... it's intimidating AF.
Count of Monte Cristo is easy to understand. Henry James' The Golden Bowl & The Awkward age are much harder
This actually makes a lot more sense when you think about it.
You can't digest something you never ate.
Thanks. I think I needed this one.
great point. thanks for watching!
So not long after I first began reading seriously, in my mid 20s, I decided I was going to read the ‘smart’ books. So I launched into Virginia Woolf. I began with her debut, The Voyage Out, which I found difficult but ultimately accessible. I understood at least some of what she wanted to say. As I progressed through Orlando and Mrs Dalloway, I understood less and less. Undaunted, I decided to read The Waves. Read every single page, didn’t understand one thing, at all. But magically, when I returned to more conventional books, I found my comprehension and retention much improved. So something is happening when you put your brain through reading the harder books, even if we’re not sure what.
love this. maybe it’s like running with ankle weights. thanks for watching!
love the harrow pfp
The idea that we can choose how to engage with a book is so easy to forget. Also I absolutely think we can understand something in more ways than the verbal. You can read something where you don't really get the style or the subject matter but still have something that clicks that's specific to you and wherever you're at. Academic understanding is good and necessary for the proliferation of knowledge but in the personal experience there is room for abstract comprehension and dream logic.
so true. you can “get” something on so many levels. (maybe we could even try the reverse option if we want - reread a children’s book as an adult and analyze and break it down from a literary and philosophic angle.) Thanks for watching!
yes!! love your comment. one of my interests is philosophy and i will read things and listen to video essays and it’s like i understand in a way but still dont? i won’t be able to explain some of the ideas but it’s so interesting to me. bc of this lack of proper understanding i usually feel like i shouldn’t participate which is sad
“dream logic” :o
Great content ! I didn't get it :|
incredible! luckily you don’t have to :) thanks for watching!
I think anxiety and perfectionism really gets in the way; you feel intense FOMO if you feel you don't get something yet. You're totally right that just experiencing from our own perspective has value in itself.
and how could you ever “get it” if you don’t at least start? the perfectionist mindset has its benefits but it can really get in my way. love it.
It's interesting point that there is a double standard between what we consider "getting" an album of music and "getting" a fiction book. If you say you like an album, very rarely will someone ask you for a detailed analysis of what happened lol. It is just a vyb. I agree that reading should be treated the same way if the goal is to enjoy literature as much as possible.
totally depends on what the goal is, yeah! and it gets more complex when you move into non fiction as well. I do think there’s probably some threshold of understanding that’s helpful…not much good if you don’t know anything that happened in the book at all - but you can get something out of a work of art without unlocking 100% of its secrets. Thanks for your thoughts!
I remember as a child thinking, “I have to remember this for when I grow up and can finally understand it,” and I hadn’t thought of that as an odd thing to think, but I guess it has shaped me to this day.
I have to remember this for when I grow up and can finally understand it. That’s a great phrase. Thanks for sharing!!
So thankful that I chose to read Animal Farm and wasn’t forced to. I really think I could have enjoyed 1984 more had I not read it with the stress of knowing I’d have to write an essay for marks on it. IMO the worst part of learning to read through English classes is that, beyond being taught that we have to ‘get’ it, we’re taught that we have to have something to say about it. Sometimes I read and enjoy novels where, despite understanding and enjoying them, I have absolutely nothing to add, and certainly not enough to stretch into an essay with several arguments. Analyzing and responding to media is good but sometimes I think it should be ok to just consume.
this is such a thoughtful comment. yeah I don’t always have something to say about a book. that said I guess the point of school was to teach us to think and push past discomfort, so I “forgive” them for making us come up with opinions. But it can definitely create a false narrative, that we NEED to have something to say. Maybe the art just had something to say to us. Thanks for watching & for your insightful comment!
This! I love reading and always have been a bit of a bookworm but I hated studying English literature. Sure its good to analyse things and this will highlight themes and different perspectives that you may not have picked up on however its all art which is subjective! In 'Of mice of men' I got marked down for not picking up 'she's wearing a red dress and this definitely foreshadows violence.' Seriously how do you know unless the author specifically states this was their intention. I just found the whole thing bizarre
there's also the point of enjoying something while not 'getting it', continuing to enjoy it without 'getting it, and then it suddenly hitting you.
for example, i remember getting into Radiohead for the very first time, i started with "OK Computer", listening to the album in full. i came out of the experience thinking that it was a wonderful and beautiful piece of art, and that it was unlike anything i've heard before, but i didn't really..get it. don't get me wrong, i loved the album, i listened to it many times over, and i did comprehend some of the themes of the tracks, but it didn't exactly 'click' with me quite yet.
and then, on some random evening, i was re-listening to the album, and the song 'Let Down' played [which is track 5 of the album]. *it hit me like a truck*. suddenly, for no apparent reason, it 'clicked'! i can't exactly tell you why or how it managed to click for me, but it did. it was an amazing experience, i must say.
and i wouldn't of been able to experience that if i decided that i wasn't going to listen to it for fear of not comprehending it. we don't have to be top-grade scholars of every single piece of media we enjoy, which is the point of your video here. great work!
thanks so much for sharing & the encouragement! yeah what a fun point. you’re setting yourself up to maybe get it someday later, even if you don’t know it.
let down is so good
Yes! For me it was The Secret History by Donna Tartt there are a lot of ancient Greek themes and I think I would've had a much better understanding of it if I knew more about ancient Greece. I read a lot about the symbolism in there and now I get it more. I simply liked the dark vibes when reading it the first time.
sounds fun! always great to be able to peel back those layers and see deeper but glad you liked it for the vibe. thanks for watching!
@yatshie8717 Yes! I'm re-reading the Secret History right now. Funny enough, I think I read it more "analytically" the first time around. Now I'm just enjoying the ride. One of my favorite books of all time :)
I read that, thought it was okay, but I didn't get what all the hype was about. Oh well!
i’ve been listening to music outside my language since i was 10. it’s never about understanding, i understand the singer through the song and the song through its production and instrumentation. while it’s a song with words, it’s also just music. all i need to do is hear it.
Even for songs in my own language I don’t always know the lyrics. I do enjoy reading them sometimes but some of my favorite songs I’m still not sure what’s being said. :)
Randomly stumbled over this video, despite not being a reader at all, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! I think the overall message applies to all things in life. Like when starting new hobbies, most people attempt to be as acknowledgeable as possible even before starting, instead of just doing it and figuring it out as you go. Maybe it wasn't you, but in the end, you tried it and learnt from it.
You're a great storyteller Tim, keep it up!
thanks so much! and yes so true - you just kind of gotta get in there and someday maybe it’ll make sense! thanks for the encouragement :)
The number of movies I watched as a kid that impacted me SO much and then rewatched as an adult and found SOOO much that I hadn’t understood.
there's always so much more to understand! but those great kids movies can work both for kids and for grown ups. for me The Incredibles is one of those - it's just so profound even as an adult. I love it. thanks for watching!
@@timdemoss Mr Incredible’s line: “I can’t lose you again! I’m not strong enough.” Hits me so hard now that’s I’m a husband and father. Damn scene almost gets me teary eyed now. XD
The way classics makes me feel even if I didn’t get it is still a breakthrough and that’s a reason to read such classics. The intimidation is in the expectation and not the book itself.
100000% agree. I'll add you don't even have to finish a book.
I started reading an Socio/economics book by Thomas Piketty called Capital and Ideology. Didn't finish it. Read the intro, the first two chapters and the conclusion. It's 800+ pages of history and stats. It's a tad dry. I still gained a LOT of background knowledge on medieval society and how the social order of those days was structured.
Don't let anyone beat you up because you didn't "read it correctly". All that matters is that you got SOME value from it, no matter what form that takes.
Also rename the darn video. Too excellent to be named a simple number
love it. I have so many books like that - just a few pages here or there, didn’t finish - but they sit on the shelf & remind me of what I did learn. and maybe someday I’ll revisit & maybe not.
thank you & can you explain? do you mean the 006?
Yeah I imagine the single number doesn't help in the algorithm
I’m new to the algorithm/thumbnail/title game so that’s totally something I’ll look into. much appreciated
Come and Punishment was the book in college I was forced to read that made me want to be a reader. I was obsessed with it and was constantly amazed by the psychological intimacy and I called it my favorite book for years after … but i definitely didn’t “get” it at all. I re-read it recently 7 years later and I was amazed by how much I didn’t remember or put together before but also I was once again wowed by the writing reaffirming it as my favorite.
Dostoyevsky has been recommended to me by friends I respect, but I have yet to tackle any of his work. Will try soon I hope. Your experience sounds similar to my experience with the Count of Monte Cristo…loved it the first time through, then on the reread later in life, it was a split between remembering things and going “I definitely didn’t catch that the first time”. But some of these classics just have so much meat on the bone that even you can be impacted by it even while “missing” a lot of it. Thanks for watching and sharing!
I read The Brothers Karamazov this year for first time.
I just came across your channel and i have got to say that it really broadened my perspective and made me feel okay about not having to understand something to live it.
I’m very very glad :) welcome to the channel!
Yes! I really like this way of reading. YOU DONT HAVE TO GET IT!!!! Forget your english teacher’s themes, allegories, symbolism, and research papers! Literature is made to be interpreted by YOU. There is no one way to interpret a book. A good piece of literature is meant to be interpreted differently by everyone.
Im not a fan of classics, in fact im one of those kids who grew up on detective novels and fantasy books and never really read anything else. I stopped reading around 10 years ago (no reason why, i just sorta did) and only last year did i properly start reading again. Theres these huge moments of motivation that I get where i want to read every classic ever written but then i actually try and either get too confused or just dont gel with the writing style. This video reminded me that even though thats the case i still read and tried to read the books that are out of my comfort zone and honestly thanks for that, it means a lot for a guy who stopped caring in middle school and is trying to catch up with everyone else now.
I’m so glad to hear. and good luck with these classics! but also - I love mysteries and fantasy. don’t stop reading those either. Agatha Christie, Brandon Sanderson, Arthur Clarke - it can worth your time and fun and therapeutic even if its not originally in Latin or Greek. I just read Misery by Stephen King (stayed up late to finish it last night) and man I was enthralled. It’s just a different type of reading :) thanks for watching & sharing!
My favorite book is Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” I like it, in part because it’s so dense with symbolism and deeper meaning, but it’s still so gripping and harrowing even on the surface.
It’s a story about a man traveling in a place that he knows he should not be, searching for another guy who’s basically given himself over to this place. Then you can read into the history surrounding the Dutch colonization in the Congo, and Conrad’s own history with Africa as a sailor for a good part or his life, and then you can start looking at the psychology of the characters and the order of events, and I once saw someone make a really compelling argument comparing the story to Dante’s “Inferno”
And I just love that that’s all there. It’s like the Easter Island heads. You can choose to dig into it as much as you want to marvel at the giant buried bodies, or you can appreciate the heads that are there, and neither choice is wrong.
I do love when there’s layers and you can choose to engage how you want. thanks so much for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I’m held off from understanding by magic. -virginia woolf writing to ts eliot in 1936
I don’t know where the source is but an old professor of mine told me that TS Eliot once said he didn’t understand some of his own poetry. Fun right?
Great video! I can definitely relate to this.
I have read many Haruki Murakami books over the years and frankly, I don't really "get them."
My favorite is After Dark. After reading it multiple times over the past few years, I finally was able to understand it. I even wrote an analysis of it just for fun because I like the book so much and hope it helps other people appreciate it.
However, that analysis merely enhanced my enjoyment; it wasn't a condition for my enjoyment.
I think that the internet and Google have conditioned us to always want answers for everything, when sometimes, the ambiguity is what makes something interesting.
Love that you say it enhanced your enjoyment but wasn’t a condition of it. I don’t want to give the impression that “getting it” or analyzing is a waste of time - it’s truly wonderful. I’m just glad it’s not a prerequisite to starting to enjoy and appreciate art. :) thanks for sharing!
@@timdemoss Absolutely! Thanks for the ❤️
I know you were definitely not giving anyone the impression that "getting it" or understanding art is bad and gets in the way of enjoyment.
That Haruki Murakami novel I mentioned was one that I first enjoyed immensely, then gradually made sense of it, and finally wrote about it. I normally don't write analyses about fiction, but I enjoyed that book so much that I had to.
I found this video so helpful and it serves as a much-needed reminder that reading for enjoyment is not a crime 🙏.
if it was I’d be in jail for life at this point. thanks for watching!
great video! :) i really really like this sentiment, i’ve been applying it to most of the media i consume as of late and here it’s explained very well. i think most of the time even when you don’t _get_ the whole thing u can find little bits and pieces in the writing that reasonate with you or your experiences and it kind of motivates you to read more ^^
even a sentence or two clicking with you can be more than worth it :) thanks for watching!
Strongly agreed
The burn every 80 pages to absolute life changing paragraphs hidden makes gravitys rainbow one of those "keep reading, you don't have to get it all bit totally worth it" kinda reads
this book keeps coming up. maybe I’ll give it a shot. thanks for watching!!
I think that an introduction and a conclusion would make your videos so much better, man!
As a performer, I think an audience's interpretation of a text is as valid as my own. While my own study of a script might have had some scholarship in it, it is the emotional reality of what I'm doing that's going to speak to the audience. I feel like, because I've been doing Shakespeare for 20 years, what I've learned is that "people who don't "get' Shakespeare" can just come out to a show, connect on an emotional level and feel textures that are valid. I think that English class often leads us toward a kind of analytical scholarship and that's awesome---but I think there's a ride you can get on that you don't understand with your mind but with your heart, etc. And I think that the variety of interpretations is part of all art, all stories. "Breaking it down" can sometimes be like wanting to know how a roller coaster works while being on a ride that you might just wanna give yourself over to. I think if one part of a story sticks to your heart or makes you think ---you've had an experience and that's successful storytelling.
this was so validating to hear :’)) i’m applying this logic to myself as a “mixed child who forgot how to read their native language properly” troupe, haha. the fear of not being able to understand chinese novels always stopped me from reading them or made it extremely difficult to get through, despite the fact that i would really like to read them and get better at chinese. but you’re right! the books and the content will always be here for me to revisit. i can just take the parts i understand, enjoy it for what it offers, and let the process be a process. thank you 🤍
One of the most inspiring idea I have come across
and it applies to everything
we always stop where we don't understand and don't cross the limit
but if we never pursue higher, we will never get there
thank you
thank you so much! If we never pursue higher we’ll never get there. Love it
I’m working my way through Shakespeare’s ouevre and have embraced this philosophy on the journey. I’ll look up a definition here and there, but if I really don’t understand what they’re talking about in an exchange between characters, I keep going. Eventually it will make sense, a character will become clearer to me, or the musicality of a monologue will sooth me. At any rate, the scene will move on to something I better comprehend.
This is how we learned language in the first place, listening to voices until the patterns coalesced and we understood the meaning. And I agree we get the most out of reading difficult works when we trust their value even while not processing every nuance.
that’s brilliant - that is how we learned language in the first place. You have to digest words that don’t quite make sense and eventually they become clear and you can use them yourself
King Lear was the first thing that came to my mind watching this video. I've also read a lot of Shakespeare recently, and while I think I at least began to grasp a lot of his plays (Hamlet, MacBeth, Othello, Richard II), King Lear was utterly opaque for me. I didn't feel like I had the knowledge or empathetic framework to fully invest in it, but I think I came to love it more for that. It's nice to sometimes encounter an understanding of the world that is simply beyond you or your current experience. It broadens your appreciation of the world and of yourself.
Awesome video, and great thumbnail! I really like the style of this video. I went and watched a few of the other videos in this series, and I think there has been a ton of improvement in each one!
hey thank you! really been slowly finding the style I like as I make these. If you have any areas you think improvement could be made I’m always happy to hear. thanks for the feedback and encouragement!
thanks for this vid! Makes me want to begin reading again
that makes me so glad! it’s why I’m making this series :) happy reading & welcome to the channel!
I’ve been reading through Thomas Pynchon’s books this year and this video really resonates with me. It’s like, sometimes I get it and I understand the references and the jokes, and other times I’m looking up what even happened in the plot. But I’m enjoying it so much. He’s such a greater writer, and everything I don’t understand I just move on and it gets me excited to reread these books someday with a broader perspective.
Great video! I love that, u don’t have to get it. It may still have a very subconscious impact on you. Now that’s valuable content. I appreciate the handwritten text and the natural way you are speaking to really feel like it’s just a convo between friends. Lookin forward to the next one brother!
hey thanks so much! and I appreciate what you said about the handwriting…glad it’s worth it :) this one took way longer than I’d expected. thanks for watching!
I think I needed this video. The tension that overtakes me when I open a book and the expectation that I must Get It has made me set down too many books. Thank you for this. It was like a flash of change in my mind.
thanks so much for letting me know! hope you’re having a great day!
I can't believe I found this video at the perfect time! I really needed to hear this. Thanks for making this video and sharing your valuable insights!
comments like this really truly validate my attempts here. I’m so glad I posted it. Thanks for watching & for the encouragement!
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for this video series
from the bottom of my heart, thank you for watching :) I sincerely appreciate it
I still remember a whole literature class in college, I didn’t understand half of the teacher said about the philosophy behind fiction. It took me years to finally understand what he meant. So, that inaccessible knowledge stayed with me until I could reach it.
so glad you could unlock it later, what a great angle. thanks for watching!
Thank you. ❤
The fear of not understanding a book has always deterred me from reading.
someday you may understand it - but the understanding comes after the reading, at least for me :)
I’ve been doing this with music in other languages. Sure I can look at translations later if I desire to, but it’s a beautiful experience to hear the passion in the artist’s craft.
I have a couple bossa nova songs like that for me. Love it. Thanks for watching!
So true. This is how I feel about The Master and Margarita. Loved it and it was a very fun and weird read. The imagery has stuck with me for years, but I know I'm missing a lot of key themes and messages even though I've read so many articles and listened to lectures about the book. Even if I don't fully understand the book, I still enjoyed it!
Imagery can stick for a long long time. it’s so fun how books can do that in a different way than movies - the image is conjured in your own head. you’re part of it. thanks for watching!
i can read a book and say “oh this was a great book!” afterwards and not be able to name a single character. happens too often, more often than i’d like. “Love Beauty for its own sake…it is not in what you succeed in doing that you get your joy, but in the doing of it.”
happens to me too! I’m trying to remember more if I can (that’s part of why I started making these) but even if I can’t remember, the book still shaped me in the reading. thanks for sharing!
I really needed to hear this. I've been wanting to get into some heavier books, like Dostoevsky's novels, but I keep telling myself that I'll wait until I've matured and become more intelligent before I read these types of books (I'm turning 20 in two months, and I've been telling myself this since I was 17 lol). Thank you for this video, Mr. DeMoss.
the best part is, if you read it now, there’s no reason you can’t reread it again when you’re older. it’s not one and done. thanks for watching!
omg, this is exactly what i experienced, bought the book when i was 16 and haven't read it till today (turning 20 this year) and maybe i will give it a try :)
I`m so glad that I stumbled on your video, pal!
Thank you so much for your work, appreciate it!
Subscribed on minute 5✨
Thank you so much! Welcome to the channel!
Thank you for this really helpful video! I believe we should in general as a society be more low-key about doing things, I feel like there's so much pressure on everything we do nowadays...
thank you for the encouragement! welcome to the channel :)
this has become my favorite video. i know i will come back to this maybe once a month to remind myself that it’s okay if i just don’t get it.
wow thank you! :) come back & say hey. have a good month of reading!
Very nice video-essay style. This is really inspiring!
thank you!
This was a great video and needed reminder and inspiration for me.... Your subconscious mind is much more powerful than your conscious mind. When you read or experience art you don't consciously understand, your background brain, your subconscious processing will still have it available as information. So when you're ready to understand it, you will. You'll begin to consciously understand it and it will feel like insight that came out of nowhere or a "eureka" moment, but if you keep exposing yourself to information and trying to understand it, new info will act as a "skeleton key" for old information and unlock newfound insights.
Think of how much more you might "get" a book or a movie when you revisit it later in life. New information and experience gives you new understanding of what totally didn't make sense or made sense in a different way
love it. and thank you so much for watching!
@@timdemoss thank you for taking the time and energy to create it 🙏🏾
Great content Tim, keep it up!! Loved the script, theme and narrative. Maybe throw a gif or two and see how more connected the audience feels
my gif game is notoriously weak so we'll what I can do :) thanks for watching!
Great video, it really inspired me to read more. Also the part you talked about reading the Blood Meridion reminds me of a couple months ago when I decided to read the Illiad lol, its exactly the same, several names for each character, outdated words, indirect dialogue, maybe there's easier translations but I got one that was translated straight from greek because I didn't want to miss anything that was in the original and good God I couldn't understand shit, I did the exact same thing you did, reading reviews for every chapter, looking up 10 words each page lmao, but weirdly enough by the end of it I could understand almost instinctively what was happening without any help
Oh good luck with the Iliad! And glad you’re inspired! :)
i love this vid. thank you!
Thank you!
What a great video!! I’m so surprised this doesn’t have more views and that you don’t have more subscribers!:)
thanks for the encouragement! we’ll see where it goes from here - I’m enjoying making this series a lot :)
Just found your channel! I think this is the main reason i cant exactly say what i thought of books when someone asks me in bw reading or when I'm done. cause usually when i read, even if its a mystery, or investigation i never try hard to 'get it' or make guesses. Like not that i avoid it but it really doesn't occur to me. I just go 'i'm reading, the story will tell me' and thats fine! Like u said, sometimes the feelings and thoughts it leaves behind IS the impact. besides from the authors intentions and the *true* explanations and such. its why they say, once art is out, it becomes as much a part of the one to consume it as it is of the artist :) Awesome vid
thanks for sharing! it's hard to remember what you read...but it still shapes you. I've started recording what I read (and this channel is a part of that) but I have to remind myself it's for my own benefit, not for keeping score or proving myself. :)
Super helpful video. I always want to read, but it feels like duty and not like fun time. And with this a lot of pressure is taken off.
glad to hear it thanks for watching!
The feeling you described about that album!! That you feel like a hack because you can't quote the lyrics, don't know the symbolism, yet you enjoy it so much... I'm so relieved someone else feels it, too.
Amongst other things, this feeling stops me from reading books because I've been awful at remembering, even if I know I enjoyed reading them. So, like, what's the point if I can't talk about it, I can't think about it afterwards? But this video inspired me to read the books I want to read, even if I don't get them or don't remember the specifics.
It's a relief. I was actually just at my home library sighing at books I wanted to read, but knew I couldn't "retain the knowledge" of them, so it'd be a waste of time. On my way to pick one up now. Thank you!! I'm excited 😊
it’s such a hard discussion to have with myself…. Because yes, I prefer to understand and remember and recall books and music and movies. and I’m trying to retain the information (part of the reason I’m making these videos). but I can get paralyzed by fear worrying that I won’t be able to do it perfectly, so I stop - and that’s sad. have fun grabbing a book!! Let us know how it goes!
I LOVE THIS VIDEO, simple graphics and effective information
thank you for watching!
This mindset how I’ve approached reading the Malazan series, which I started about a month ago. I’m a hundred pages into book 2 now and so far it’s been an excellent read. I by no means understand it all, but I’m just enjoying being thrown into an ever-expanding worlds of places and characters and plots. It has made me “work” a bit for sure, just as far as the narrative goes, but it’s been more than enjoyable and glad I finally started.
working for it is so rewarding isn’t it? enjoy your journey!!
This is so great. Thank you!!
thanks so much! Welcome to the channel!
Love this video but also your comments on For Emma , Forever Ago is so real. Beach House's Depression Cherry is one of my favorite albums, Space Song has been in my top 5 songs on spotify wrapped since they started doing spotify wrapped....literally the only lyrics I know from that song are "it was late at night, you held on tight" and the rest is gibberish. But boy can I sing the synth solo bar for bar lol
glad that it was a helpful illustration! I’ll look at that album - thanks for watching & sharing.
When I was 15, I listened to Lorde for the first time in my entire life. I believe I saw her name in a newspaper of some sort, and I don't know what pushed me to listen to her music, but I did. And it completely changed my life, I mean that her artistry changed profoundly the way I see the world. And I didn't know it, I realised that recently, to me it was just cool music I was happy to discover. I listened to her music again and again because I liked the sound, then I paid attention to the lyrics but what kept me going all this time was the feeling of curiosity I felt when I saw her name in a newspaper. Now, at 18, I realise that I owe her a serious part of how I see the world (especially as a teen from the suburbs, Pure Heroine made me love the suburbs). Just as you said, I didn't understand everything that went behind it - and i still don't! I know some information, pretty much more than someone who doesn't listen to her but that's not the point. Her music poured into my being even though I didn't know it or did'nt fullty "got it". Because comprehension was not a factor of that experience. Art is about experiencing a new landscape. Go for it, and you'll see that, in fact, a piece of art will stay in you longer than you've stayed with it.
so interesting that you can remember such a specific way of being introduced to something. sometimes things like that stick with you. thanks for sharing!!
I just had a conversation with a friend about this. So glad to see a well thought out video on the same topic !
glad to hear it! Thanks for watching!
The fact that I got recommended this vidoe and its speaks directly to my heart..I often read books and consume classics that are so densely pact with themes and facts which I can hardly decipher.
Nevertheless, I still enjoy the book very much and be able to name it- my favourite book I've read and not because of the words written on it but ultimately because of the emotions I experienced from the book and years worth of insight I inadvertently feel like I gained.
I say this from a personal perspective based of my tendencies to perfect everything i do and make sure i get anything out of what I'm doing whether that be ne knowledge, skills etcetera. So yes amazing content thank you!
thank you for watching & for sharing! welcome to the channel! :)
For me, I’m still currently reading it. It’s called Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Vampire. It’s a book about war and death. It’s very beautiful and sad. I don’t fully understand it yet, but I love Annotating my books. I annotate books for fun. Helps me understand and really break down everything. It’s a beautiful book and I hope that I’ll be able to further understand the book better as I continue to read it and reread it
when it’s got that second “or” title you know it might be a challenge! and I think with books of that theme it’s good for them to be complex - war and death aren’t simple and easily understandable topics. thanks for watching!
Loved the idea ❤ this video goes in my favorites
hey thanks! :)
This reassures me to continue more on my reading journey, which I just started recently, which I halted for years because of this kind of thinking. Not just about reading actually, but in my general interest/hobbies I had in my mind for years that I'm skeptic to do it.
the idea that you have to understand something before you can approach it is backwards. books, or a hobby, or a craft. good for you for seeing past that. welcome to the channel!
@timdemoss Thanks, it's good that I bumped into your video. It gave me clarity lol
I've never watched a video of yours, I just had a feeling I was going to love this one, as soon as it started, and I was right, thank you :)
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! thank you for watching!
I love ur video style sm😭
well thank you :) welcome to the channel!
Didnt know i needed this
Amazing video, criminally underated!
Thank you! six videos in we’ll see how it goes!
@timdemoss1060 I've watched all of them so far and am really looking forward to the next ones! It was very insightful and relaxing. I sent the playlist to my friends who don't read for fun. (Maybe they will finally understand why I always say it's beneficial.) Wishing you grand success, you're well-spoken and doing wonderful, important work!
This makes me so happy to hear! Maybe they’ll convert :) thanks for the encouragement!
this is so true ! i recently i was reading the book Complexity which is really very technical and very detailed about nature & computers and i kind got it and i can't stop visual Ing everything i did read in my mind but i can't explain any.
when the book is called "complexity" you know you're in for it.
The Count of Monte Cristo was fun. I read it as part of my two person book club with a bestie over the summer (and in my case, and fall and winter). I was reading other things at the same time, but it was one of those books that turned on more lights in my mind. Finding the joy in reading classics changes me. Classics-modern or ancient, also reveal themselves more and more as we live.
a two person book club sounds so fun! :) thanks for watching!
Thanks for this - it’s good to have this point stated. I think it applies to non-fiction too. At times I’ve felt fraudulent reading books and not fully getting it. However, I now give myself a break and liken the process to sediment in a lake: there’s bits everywhere and everything is cloudy. Over time though, the sediment sinks to the bottom, the lake regains clarity and the bed grows. I think the unconscious can do a decent job of pulling things together even when the conscious mind thinks it’s not picked up much.
brilliant. love this. thanks for sharing!
I started reading all of Shakespeares plays this year. I'm only about 7 in so far and started in supposed order of when he produced them. (So haven't got to his best ones yet) What's incredible is I probably only understood about 40-50% of what was going on in the first play I read. Now as I have kept processing and interpreting that 1500-1600 English I am understanding more like 80-90%. Incredible.
I’ve yet to seriously tackle any Shakespeare other than what I did in school. This is encouraging. (I do own a nice huge copy of the First Folio that a friend was getting rid of…maybe I’ll go crack that open). Thanks for sharing!
Great job with this video, dude! This is a topic I'm, admittedly, very insecure about, so you saying something I needed to hear was very nice! It's so cool that you read Blood Meridian, recently, too, btw. It's such a great novel simply because of its "vibe" alone! Very disturbing, yet also scarily profound, and all the while beautifully written. One of my favorites that i'm definitely rereading very soon! Cormac McCarthy is awesome! :)
Thanks for sharing! and it was my first McCarthy. Maybe I’ll try another soon :)
Bro you got a new subscriber
Love it ♥
Be consistent
welcome! so glad to have you. and will do 🫡
Thankyou for this video I think I needed this sooooo much I'm not a native English speaker and I have bought several books but couldn't make it to the end because of the idea "to get everything that is mentioned in the book" which is the reason I've been procrastinating but not anymore tqsm❤ Great content gotta go through your other videos as well😊
Hey thank you! :)))) enjoy your reading!
Love this channel. This needs to have more views.
it feels like it’s got a lot to me! but if they come I’ll take ‘em :) thanks for the encouragement!
@@timdemoss what's important is that you're proud of what you created, anything else is just a bonus. Keep it up!
Man this is so helpful as I'm lost in my journey of Gravitys rainbow
just looked it up. Sounds difficult - good luck & good for you for starting it!
I started reading classics when I was 15 and I barely understood what I was reading. I had to work really hard and reread sections to even follow the plot, any deeper analysis was completely lost on me. But after a couple years, it felt like classics slowly started to “click”. Maybe I was getting familiar with the more antiquated writing style, but I could actually follow along with the plots and even understand the humor in the books I was reading. And in general, I feel like my reading comprehension and writing vastly improved. So even if you don’t quite “get it”, you’re still training your brain! Nowadays I LOVE classics and somewhat dense non-fiction, and that probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t struggled through Wuthering Heights at 15 (I really wanna go back and reread it though bc I genuinely don’t remember a thing that happened)
Ah love this! Started reading fiction for the first time ever ish recently (only business/psych and non fiction usually) and I’m at my fourth whodunnit and no regrets. Feels nice to not have pressure to jot down takeaways or take learnings away from a book.
whodunnits :) I had a summer Agatha Christie binge in college where I’d read one a day, end up finishing at like 1am when my house was all quiet and dark & then I’d have to run like crazy for my room before I got murdered - or at least that’s how it felt :)
Thank you for this.
I'm currently reading "Tinkers" by Paul Harding and although it's a very short book, I feel like I am trekking through deep snow and mud to understand what Harding is trying to do here.
It's nice to have some reassurance that it's ok. I just discovered your channel and it's been great! Keep going!
thank you so much & welcome to the channel! and good luck with Tinkers! totally relate to that feeling of trekking through deep snow. :)
Lo! - Charles Fort ... whew (got there through blue Balliet's chasing Vermeer)
I read a book when I was a child and I couldn't get out of its influence for years.
When I reread the same book years later, even though I could see what it was about that book that affected the child me, it was impossible for me to relive the emotional experience of the first time I read it. 😅 Nice video!
"Gravity's Rainbow" was one of those for me. I'm a sucker for a good opening line and that book has one of the best.
this book keeps coming up. might have to try it :)
I am non-native English speaker and I feel the same about the red rising saga it's hard for me to imagine all the High technology and space battle scenes but I just love the story and the characters I used to get frustrated at first for not understanding a full chapter of intense things happening but I just kept on going
two of my closest friends heavily recommend the red rising saga to me - maybe this is my moment to start. thanks for watching & sharing! & good luck continuing reading!
Alright, you've convinced me. I'll try getting through the first chapter of the Litany of the Long Sun again.
good luck!!
I feel like thats the same with music. When I grew up I had various songs where I felt quite a special connection to, without understanding the lyrics since they were in a foreign language. Nowadays I often stumble across these songs on RUclips, the feeling from past days coming back to me, but damn suddenly the lyrics are not just understandable but actually make sense and hit you in the right place. Like if you already knew it back then what the song is about
it takes time :) so glad we can enjoy things and then save them to be understood later. thanks for watching & sharing!
the way you started the video with bon iver's album I AM SEATEDDD
the first summer I listened to it, I was dogsitting 3 of my friend’s dogs. To get them to calm down I would turn the lights out, sit on a comfy chair, and just play the album through in silence. They seemed to vibe to it. It’s got that kind of quality. Anyway thanks for watching!
This video showed up just as I'm reading Deadhouse Gates from Malazan Book of the Fallen Series - a series known for being the Dark Souls of fantasy books.
The Three Musketeers was my first book by Dumas and I really loved his writing style, so when I bought The Count of Monte Christo I got totally immersed in it. It's definitely one of my favourite books of all time now.
“Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.”
What a great quote! (And not to spoil things...but the video I'm editing right now will touch on this topic.) Thanks for sharing!
I’m also reading deadhouse gates! Feels more like a study than the leisure fantasy reading I’m used to. Loving malazan so far and don’t understand half of it 😂
yep. college taught me more of what I see in literature. it expanded my critical thinking. I picked up reading for fun after that class. reading my first fiction book recreationally now!
hey enjoy it! have fun reading!
What a coincidence. I currently reading Monte Cristo, I also don't remember all the names, hence I wrote them in my note for easy reference. I am a non-native of English speaker, and the more difficult the book is, the better the challenge for me to get the gist or at least try to make sense of it. It teaches me to understand a whole sentence and paragraph and not only focusing on a single difficult word. I'd say that the most difficult book I read till today is Robinson Crusoe (in original writing, not abridged version). But yeah I enjoy to experience classic reading, and hopefully to understand it along the way.
Monte Cristo's so good! I hope you enjoy! (And I totally get it about loving the challenge - me too.) Thanks for watching :)
It’s helps me when reading to skips the boring parts or parts I really don’t understand like a long list of ancestry or technical sections like dates or anything with numbers and anything that doesn’t keep me invested in the plot. So I might skip a couple of lines or a paragraph just to make sure I’m only looking at what interests me. Sometimes I don’t have the willpower to read every single aspect of the story. If I feel like I missed something I can always go back a page, but that’s not usually the case.
love this - in Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, he says “it is a very silly idea that in reading a book you must never ‘skip’. All sensible people skip freely when they come to a chapter which they find is going to be no use to them.” and then he encourages people to skip the chapter he’s writing if they don’t think it’ll be useful to them. :) thanks for sharing!
Just finished “Blood Meridian” and loved it but so much was over my head. Part of me wants to make this (and every other classic novel) my new personality, but I think I need to grow into it, even as a middle aged man.
The urge to make every classic novel (or really just any piece of newly consumed media) into your personality is a very relatable trait. I read Moby Dick and had to remind myself pretty frequently that I don’t actually like boats…just reading about them. I did make clam chowder though. I suppose we should find the balance :) thanks for sharing!
I loved this thanks
I noticed this a couple times when I read for fun. I'd wanna go back and reread to make sure I got it, but I compared it to how you can't rewind when you're in a movie theater. You don't have to get it all, just enjoy it.
you can’t rewind movies in a theater - or life, for that matter. great point. thanks for watching!
One of my coworkers criticizes others for not having good "media literacy" or not having high enough comprehension skills to appreciate art/media. Its always bothered me when people try to belittle others for harmlessly enjoying something. Solid video, keep up the good work : )
that’s kind of sad - don’t get me wrong I’m a huge fan of media literacy and think it’s way fun to be able to analyze and break down movies and music. but gatekeeping doesn’t really do anything to get people into it. Plus belittling in general is usually just kind of…you know. unproductive at best. Thanks so much for the encouragement!