10 Big Books I Love
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- Опубликовано: 5 июн 2024
- Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/leafbyleaf
I like big books and I cannot lie.
10 Big Books I Love, Part II:
• 10 BIG BOOKS I LOVE, P...
More on Gravity’s Rainbow:
• GRAVITY'S RAINBOW by T...
More on Infinite Jest:
• INFINITE JEST by David...
More on The Recognitions:
• THE RECOGNITIONS by Wi...
More on J R:
• J R by William Gaddis
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The great Umberto Eco sadly passed away back in 2016. One of my all time favourite authors. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
It was indeed a great loss. Always a treat to meet a fellow Eco fan!
I am a simple man. I see Gravity's Rainbow and I subscribe.
HAHAHA! Then you'll love the video I'm planning for the end of this year. ;-)
End of the year !! Don't force me to time travel
😜🤟
❤❤❤❤
'The Recognitions' is also one of my favorite books, read it at age 16 and it blew me away, have since re-read it 6 times, total masterpiece.
6 times! Very admirable! It is being reissued, along with J R, on October 6.
You've read it six times?! Will you marry me?
@@LeafbyLeaf Cool! Will definitely be buying both.
@@9750939 Lol, not sure my girlfriend would approve.
@@9750939 I feel that my channel is approved now. :)
Great video! You've convinced me to read the Tunnel, the Recognitions, and Gravity's Rainbow next year.
I'm beginning the year with a reread of In Search of Lost Time and Infinite Jest, and I'm really looking forward to getting deeper into more big, beautiful, all-encompassing works of art. Thanks :)
Wow! Your 2022 is going to be incredible! Happy reading!
So happy to have you mention my favorite novel: Gravity's Rainbow!
You have exquisite taste!
The Sierpinski Gasket is a set of points of the plane. It's the set of limit points of a sequence : a line (a one dimensional thing) that bends and curls up more and more, the gist being that the line that is trying to cover a two dimensional space. It succeeds halfway through - that is, it becomes something that has a fractional dimension. If you define the dimension in a way that comes up what you'd expect in the cases you know but also works for new cases for which you didn't know what to say before (this usual in mathematics)
My guess is he was trying to say that the Novel is a linear thing, a line, but that comes back again and again on itself, trying to approach a sort of new dimension. In a way you should be able to move back and forth but also sideways with respect to that, jumping from distant (in the sense of the progrssion of the story) places that are close to each other in other sense.
Also the Sierpinski Gasket is self-similar (parts look like the whole, on and on as you close in), so I guess that's part of the metaphor as well, but that's easier to interpret.
progression*
This makes a whole lot of sense with regards to his usage of footnotes, I always just assumed the footnotes were part of the addiction theme, but this knowledge adds a whole new dimension 🙃
Quite a few of these are on my TBR list, but I often struggle with starting big books because they require such a huge time commitment. Of course, when I do pick them up, I’m rarely disappointed. Some of my favourite big books are 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich.
I totally get the time commitment. My time is stretched quite thin, but I'm positioning myself to re-read Don Quixote soon! Now, OK, yes--you are the third person in a row to name 2666. I think it may be time.
That description of the Mad Patagonian reminds me to Borges's ''An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain
''. Obviously the reference of 9 diferent type of novels inside a big one is the key factor of conection.
Nice connection, there!
I will be rereading this one in the summer, after digging through 2666.
I have to read some of these! The Recognitions sounds great. I would definitely have to put The Brothers Karamazov and 2666 on my list of favorite big books.
Impeccable choices indeed!
Late to this party but this channel is just fantastic. Been going through your videos and I feel freshly inspired to dig further and further down the literary rabbit hole. You've clearly far, far beyond me when it comes to big books and books in general, but one tome I can wholeheartedly recommend which doesn't seem to get too much credit is Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, the John E. Woods translation is just wonderful.
Cheers!
I really want to read that one! John E. Woods is amazing (cf. his Schmidt translations). Thanks for your comment, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the content!
@@LeafbyLeaf He is! He's actually the one who turned me on to Arno Schmidt - or maybe I should say, turned me on to the idea of Arno Schmidt, I've yet to properly delve in, although I picked up some of his short stories.
Same here precisely!
I know I’m late, but I just purchased “A Naked Singularity” based on your advice. I just finished “Ducks, Newburyport” and was looking for another long, enjoyable read with some humor infused. Thanks for the recs!
Oh, dude. You will love it! Did you like Ducks? I quite enjoyed it!
Leaf by Leaf I’m digging ANS so far! I very much enjoyed Ducks. Ellmann’s stream of consciousness style juxtaposed with the lion chapters was masterful to witness.
Middlemarch, by George Eliot; Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy; The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky; Moby Dick, by Herman Melville; Ulysses, by James Joyce; The Makioka Sisters, by Junichiro Tanizaki; The USA trilogy, by John Dos Passos (of which I've read only one but important for the author's focus on US labor, industrial power and innovative modernist techniques like collage and The Camera Eye); Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow; The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing; and One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Garcia Marquez (big in its scope and expansiveness; I think it was Vargas Llosa who said it encompasses a continent's whole history from Macondo's origin story to its destruction).
Very distinguished list.
My favorite ‘big book’ is Joe Gould’s “An Oral History of Our Time”. I’d like to read it again but I can’t seem to remember where I left it. Just as well, I guess, as it was indeed a tall and heavy tale. Love your work here, by the way. Many kudos.
Boy, you've really sent me down a rabbit trail with this Joe Gould and his big project!
@@LeafbyLeaf Supposedly a manuscript does exist. Perhaps you might consider doing a post on books that may or may not actually exist? Not fictional ones, but rather ones that are presumed to have once existed and are now either lost or in some manner 'misplaced'. Books that were once real but are now sadly only 'shadow' tomes. An empty cubicle in your vast bookcase might serve as a symbolic tomb for these lost children of the written art. Just a thought.
You’ve really got my wheels turning! This endeavor brings to mind the Codex Seraphinianus.
The Recognitions and The Tunnel are two of my favorite books of any length with Foucault's Pendulum not trailing far behind. Magic Mountain, Darconville's Cat, Life: A User's Manual.. And here I wish I could pad Fragments of Lichtenberg by Pierre Senges by a 150ish pages, both because I can't get enough of the book and because I feel it fits in here but of course it's a little short. Then the next few spaces I could fill up with DFW, Pynchon, and Delillo and the likes but I don't really think they are on par with the rest of these. So I will fill it in with hopeful tomes from my shelf that I expect and hope to love: Larva by Julian Rios, Cain and Abel by Gregor von Rezzori and A Room by Youval Shimoni, and Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosby.
Per Kristian Hoff - thanks for putting Fragments of Lichtenberg on my radar. Bless the good people at Dalkey Archive!
So glad I happened upon your channel. I love taking on a good big book. As mentioned in another comment, Neal Stephenson is incredible. Anathem was my first by him, but his Baroque Cycle over the 3 big books is sublime. Adventure, science and generation spanning fiction that simply envelopes you. Another I feel is woefully underrated is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It is a very British novel based around two practical magicians who have very different ideas on magic. Set in the 1800’s through England it has a more grounded take on ‘magic’ and magicians but has such imagination and wit weaved into a story that shows both light and dark, cause and consequence. It is an epic I have read 4 times over.
Hello! Glad you found me! Thanks for the recommendations. I actually became quite interested in Clarke's novel when I read an NYRB review of Piranesi, which included a lot attention on the earlier, bigger book. Thanks for nudging me on it!
@@LeafbyLeaf glad to. Still to read Piranesi, but it's on my to read. You inspired me to look deeper into your own picks, some of which I'd never heard of. And you finally convinced me to give Gravity's Rainbow a read after having been on the fence for so long 👍
You have inspired me to read even more. I just ordered a copy of The Mad Patagonian and The Recognitions. Thanks for this.
That's the highest honor you could give me! So thrilled you've caught the enthusiasm!
Do let me know if you have any issue getting The Mad Pat (some people have told me it took a while to get it, but I can contact the publisher). Emjoy!
@@LeafbyLeaf It took 7 days from order to delivery...not bad :) My copy of The Mad Pat was personally signed by Mr. Bellis, the editor, which made me look closer at Mr. Bellis. What I found suggests this will be even more fun than I anticipated.
That’s great turnaround!
Yes, there’s much to the story of this text. 🤐
I feel like i have either read or heard most of these! How did u get the hard cover of the first book of My Struggle. I have the others in pristine conditions but i am looking for the first one in Hardcover. Loved My Struggle but I have yet to read the last book. In Remembrance of Things Past is the most satisfying and fulfilling text I have ever read! Recognitions by Gaddis, well of course. Pynchon though defeated me 150 pages in. A year removed it, may be time to go to battle with it again! Great Video man!
Thanks! I agree completely about Proust. It’s probably about time for another go! Here’s a link to book one of My Struggle in hardcover: www.amazon.com/My-Struggle-Karl-Ove-Knausgaard/dp/0914671006/
have you ever read catcher in the rye? It was one of those books that I grew to appreciate as I got older.
Yes, once in high school and once since. For me, Salinger masterpieces are in Nine Stories and Franny & Zooey.
There's no translation to English yet, but Los Sorias by the Argentinean writter Alberto Laiseca is one of the best an biggest novels I ever read. A incredible tour of two nations in war from a postmodern writter. Also, the most bizarre humor you can get. And it's 1344 pages in my edition! Hope you can get that one someday, you will love it.
That sounds delicious! Too bad I cannot read Portuguese. But maybe Dalkey Archive will put out an English translation sometime. Thanks for putting this on my radar!
@@LeafbyLeaf there's a great review english for the book here if you are interested! theuntranslated.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/the-sorias-los-sorias-by-alberto-laiseca/
@@LeafbyLeaf It's in Spanish
the few bigbooks Ive read were amazing reading experiences, by the end when finishing them it feels like being at top a literary mountain, my favorite would have to 2666, but I've got plenty of big books to read lol, subbed!
Completely agree! I feels like an amazing accomplishment for sure. Amazing you should mention 2666--I'm staring at it right now, contemplating it like I have done for time to time, wondering if I should finally take the plunge. Like Mason & Dixon and Darconville's Cat, I tend to keep 2666 at arm's length because I know it will be an amazing experience, so I don't want it to be over. Best way to make sure something isn't over is to make sure it doesn't begin, right? Ah, who am I kidding? It's time for me to step up!
@@LeafbyLeaf you'll love it, been meaning to get into some Pynchon doorstopper, of his books I've only read Inherent Vice, where should I go next? Kinda scared of gravity's rainbow
@@liquidpebbles7475 How about Lot 49? This is a slim but packed volume that gives a great taste of real Pynchon. Then, I would go to V.
@@LeafbyLeaf I'm told you're better off reading 2666 after you've read the rest of Bolaño (which I don't know whether you have or haven't done, The Savage Detectives is a must at any rate).
Per Kristian Hoff Sadly, I have not read any of his works, but I own both of those novels. I will prioritize savage detectives over 2666. Thanks for the tip!
i was waitin for Proust ha
Of course!
So happy to have found your channel so hard to find people that have good taste in books I have read most of the books you mentioned I would recommend The Instructions by Adam Levin I had so much fun reading it.
I loved The Instructions! I haven’t read Bubblegum yet, plan I plan to. Welcome to the channel!
@@LeafbyLeafI am curious about the mysterydoc. Reading House of leaves was such a unique reading experience and I know it is a polarising book some calling it gimicky but I thought it was incredible it had such compelling stories interwoven within it whatever way you decide to interpret them. Is mysterydoc on the same level? Are there any other postmodern/ergodic/experimental novels you would recommend?
There's quite a few I want to read on this list: GR, Recognitions, The Tunnel. But from what I have read, my favorites include Ulysses, Infinite Jest, Midnight's Children, Underworld, Wizard of the Crow, We the Drowned, and The Mad Patagonian. Disappointing big books: Mystery.doc (sorry, Chris), The Runaway Soul, Prae, Ducks Newburyport.
GR, Recognitions, The Tunnel--all great books with high ROI. I need to read Midnight's Children and Underworld (they've long been on my shelf). Oh, no!--don't tell me that about Ducks, Newburyport. I'm slated to read and review that one for Rain Taxi next week. Oh, well. We shall see.
@@LeafbyLeaf I would say definitely put Midnight's Children high up on the list. Nothing quite like it. I give my reasons for disappointment with Ducks on Goodreads, so check it out if you want to know why, but lots of my other GR friends are really enjoying it so I'm mostly the odd one out, at least among them. And you got more out of Mystery.doc than I did, so maybe it will be the same in this case. I hope so!
Just found your channel today and I'm in love! You inspired me to look up The Mad Patagonian and I tried to order through the publisher's website, but unfortunately it looks like the shipping costs to Portugal are almost double the price of the book... would you by chance be aware of any alternative options for ordering this book?
Thanks so much! Have you emailed the publisher? It's a very small press in Minnesota, so I'm not surprised by the high shipping costs. In any case, email the publisher and tell him I sent you and see if there's a way he could cut you a deal on the S&H. Let me know what happens!
@@LeafbyLeaf Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try!
@@LeafbyLeaf So, good news, it turns out a more affordable edition of TMP will be coming out soon as a three book set (which will also have cheaper shipping options available). Thanks again!
Nice!
Infinite Jest is my favorite big book, I've read it twice. I also love Neal Stephenson, and love his big technothrillers Cryptonomicon and Reamde. The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite capital L Literature book. I just read XX by Rian Hughes, a metafictional sci-fi novel, and dug that. Antkind by Charlie Kaufman. Pat Rothfuss's two Kingkiller Chronicles books, some of the only modern fantasy worth reading IMHO. If you count comics, The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and The Invisibles by Grant Morrison are both bangers.
I just recently reread IJ-incredible book! Stephenson I have not read yet (which is the best?). The Brothers K I love! Haven’t read any of those others.
@@LeafbyLeaf I discovered your channel through your Great Concavity appearance and am listening through your IJ review, and also share your deep love of IJ. That book rocks, as does Brothers K. Stephenson is one of the few scifi authors on the same level as the other Big Book authors. On a Bookworm, Michael Silverblatt compared his Big Books to Pynchon and the other usual suspects. His best is definitely Cryptonomicon, a WWII-slash-present day technothriller, which reminded me so much of Wallace in its exploration of big ideas and blending of high and low language, and in how funny it is, but storytelling-wise has its roots more in cyberpunk and military thrillers and Dickens-like yarn-telling. Of his scifi books, Snow Crash is more "important" and is great but Diamond Age is even better. His Baroque Cycle trilogy I haven't read but I hear is him doing Laurence Sterne. His other stuff I wouldn't vouch for quite as much unless you like straight genre scifi. He's definitely one of my favorite authors.
Oh, cool deal! Thanks for the breakdown on Stephenson. You’ve upped my interest. I’ve been trying to connect more with sci-fi. I’ve only read a handful, but not the big classics like Dune. I like the short fiction of Ted Chiang. And I liked Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. I’m picking through R. A. Lafferty. I’ve read a few PKDs. And I read and enjoyed Ender’s Game way back. I own Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon. And I’m actually giving Three-Body Problem a go right now on vacation but so far it’s like Michael Crichton.
@@LeafbyLeaf Yeah Stephenson is great, I always recommend him to people who like Wallace. I am probably not as well-read in scifi as I should be either, but I do have my go-to authors--PKD, Vonnegut, and Robert Anton Wilson, who are pretty close to other counterculture guys like Pynchon. Oh, and I should add--Gene Wolfe, specifically The Book of the New Sun, is worth checking out. Yeah Ender's Game is great, I like (most of) that series. Haven't read Dune either, to my shame. I did read the first two Three-Body Problem books and loved them--it depends on whether you like Michael Crichton or not, I guess. (I was a big Crichton fan in high school but haven't read him since.) The Three-Body series is hard sci fi at its best, glad you're giving it a go. Big brainy ideas are explored, as to how they'd actually play out in the world. What I love most is the scope and scale of it--it truly feels massive. The story just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Saving book 3 for a rainy day.
Cool story: I lived in Greensboro, NC at the time I read Ender’s Game. Come to find out, so did Orson Scott Card. I emailed him and he asked for my address. Sent me a signed copy of Enchantment. I never read the book he sent, but it was a fine gesture. I have read plenty of Bradbury and Vonnegut now that I think of it. Gene Wolfe gets recommended to me a lot. I’ll have to check him out. I’ve got about 60pp left of Three-Body. It is definitely a sort of Chinese Crichton. Brings back good memories from my reading life. I feel mildly interested to read the next book.
One of my favorite tomes is Shogun. Thanks for the video.
That one holds a special place in my heart. When I was a child I would often spend the night with my grandparents. They lived in MD just outside of DC and I stayed in what we called “the blue room” modeled after the titular White House room. My eyes were always drawn to a thick volume on a small shelf bearing a samurai sword on its spine. It was this book. And was among my grandmother’s favorites. Perhaps the seeds of my love of tomes.
Wow! Thats plenty of books! 📚💕
The paradox of a reader: plenty of books and not enough books at the same time! 😜
Leaf by Leaf yes, thats true! 😊
Great video, one of my favorite subjects - big books. My list? Women and Men, McElroy; The Tunnel, Gass; Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon; A Naked Singularity; 2666, Bolano; Anniversaries, Uwe Johnson; Infinite Jest, Wallace; The Instructions, Adam Levin; My Struggle; In Search of Lost Time, Proust. I need to add The Man Without Qualities, Musil; and while I'm expanding this list, Darconville's Cat, Theroux.
You are speaking my language exactly! I have read every one of these books except for Women and Men and Darconville’s Cat. But I own both of them. Actually I have not read The Man without Qualities either, but I plan to kick off the new year with it. Thanks for stopping by!
Just finished Musil's masterpiece earlier this year. Been hearing about it since grad school in the Reagan years.
You were part of #Musil2020, eh? I’ve got videos covering my read of it.
LOVED My Struggle! Happy to find someone that has read it as well! How good do you have to write to have us read thousands of pages about your everyday life. The Hilter history at the end was educational to say the least. New subscriber, thank you for the great recommendations.
Awesome! I really want to reread the volumes and do a proper video on them. I’m reading Mircea Cartarescu’s BLINDING right now and there are autofiction affinities with Karl Ove. Thanks for subscribing!
@@LeafbyLeaf So, just had to look up definition of autofiction real quick lol. Now I wonder what parts are fiction. Looking forward to your video, and I will also check out Blinding.
Fantastic and impressive list! I agree all the way with you on DFW, Pynchon, Gaddis, Proust and I am very proud that my compatriot Umberto Eco got on your list (and with its most difficult and entertaining book, nevertheless!) - I took notice of the other books you mentioned and will try to find them!
May I recommend you a book that was truly astonishing for me and that it plays in the same league of Gaddis, Pynchon, DFW and Proust? "Blinding" by Mircea Cartarescu, a Romanian author that is really a genius and creates something unbelievable with his words: he is able to make poetic description of brain cells and physiology of nerves. He really can get great literature from science, history, memory...
All the best and keep up the great work!
Thanks! I’ve foisted The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum on several friends and they’ve yet to read them. Sigh. That’s why I’m here on the Internet!
As for your recommendation, this is at least the fifth time someone out here has recommended this. It’s a sign. Ordering it now. [UPDATE: Archipelago Books has an English translation of book one of Blinding! I ordered it. Unfortunately the other two books aren’t yet translated.]
Thanks for dropping by!
Well done! I am sure you will love Cartarescu....It is terrible that they still have not translated the other two volumes of this masterpiece! Hope you and other readers can push the editors to finish the job! It is like having a translation of only the first two books of La Recherche of Proust!
You’re analogy with Proust really helps me feel just how unfortunate it is! In any case I should have my copy soon. I’ll definitely do a video on this one. Grazie!
I tried Infinite Jest in 2016 and put it down after 40 pages. Then last year I read it. Now months later I'm thinking I want to read it again.
Funny how that works. Nearly the same thing happened with me and Look Homeward, Angel. Sometimes we’re just not ready for a certain book. Or it’s like we need to have a taste some we can calibrate to match it or something. In any case, I’ll be recording my IJ video next Monday (after recording with the Great Concavity guys the previous evening).
Same tied first best look.
Cool pick. Great books. Read most of them
Noice!
Yeah! I was wondering if you had read My Struggle. I couldn’t put them down either. I love those novels.
They’re on my list of books I want to reread and make videos for too.
@@LeafbyLeaf can’t wait
@LeafbyLeaf I have read Infinite Jest and enjoyed it. I own The Tunnel and The Recognitions but have yet to read them. I also own JR. Currently I am reading The Wolf Hall trilogy. I will definitely check out these books.
I just finished rereading J R and I started The Recognitions again last night (because of the upcoming reissues from NYRB this fall). They are incredible books. I will have more in-depth reviews and videos coming out Oct and Nov for them. How's Mantel treating you?
Leaf by Leaf Some books have a rhythm that you have to acclimate yourself to like Ducks, Newburyport. Once I did that, I was fine. I like that you get to follow Thomas Cromwell through his life and see how he interacts with the king and all of the ups and downs that he experiences. I still have Bring up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light. 😳
I will be ordering the Recognitions re-issue. So many books so little time.😞
This channel is a gem
🙏👊
Currently reading Infinite Jest... loving it... will use your recommendation of annotating and highlighting the important things
Excellent choice! I plan to read IJ again later this year. It’s been ten years since I last read it! Please come back and let me know of your experience.
Yes do revisit it and please make a review video(if possible). Loving it so far, will come back after finishing it.
I plan on it!
How is it possible that these thick books don't have a creased binding? Do you hold them in a special position while reading?
As I’ve talked about elsewhere: I’m neurotic about the external condition of my books. I never open a book all the way, never crack the spines. It can be rough on the wrists but it’s worth it to me.
I have ordered a copy of Frog because of you. Will it sit in my insane to-read pile forever? Will it be yet another victim of my loss of faith in the written word after my MA? Will I read it, and it will change my life? What will happen!?!!?
The funny thing is that I understand the sentiment of what you're expressing so well. Here's my prediction: you'll love the texture and heft of the book when it arrives, but you won't want to read it yet because you're in the middle of another book. It'll go to your shelves. One day, probably next year, you'll slide it out, dust it off, start reading it and find a shock at it not being at all what you expected. You'll reluctantly, and with shame, re-shelve it. Then, some other year, you'll have another go at it and it will grip you, hit you just the right way, and you'll be so excited that you'll stop back by this video/comment and you and I will be happy together!
Hi, recently found your channel and I am really enjoying the content. I find myself constantly adding to an already too long tbr list. I realise this is an old video and you may not answer but I have a question for you. I am curious about reading speed, wondering how people manage to get through so many books. In this video you sayyou read 4 volumes of mr struggle in 2 evenings, yet in your conversation with cliff sargent you stated you only read around 20 pages an hour…could you shed some light on how it is possible. I think I will never get through everything I would like to Thanks
Hey there--and thanks! In hindsight I wish I had never said that about reading the My Struggle volumes. Even though it's true, it's a complete outlier, a special case, an exception. Those volumes gripped me and spoke to me in a way little else has. I also didn't make clear that I only got 3 hours of sleep each of those nights because I read from around dinner to deep into the early hours. In any case, yes, my reading speed is indeed ~20pp/hour for fiction and about ~10pp/hour for science, philosophy, theology, etc. The reason I'm able to get through as many books as I do is more because I've established a lifestyle where I get in about 3-4 hours of reading each day. As for your last statement--go ahead and accept that you will indeed die before getting around to everything you want to read. We all will. Thus, selective reading becomes more and more imperative as we grow. Cheers!
@@LeafbyLeaf Hey thanks for your answer. That makes sense, I read harold bloom read 1000 pages an hour which just seems ridiculous, but it would sure help getting through books.Indeed,I have accepted that I won’t read all, but even so, my list keeps getting longer. Happy reading
I’ve read the figure as 500pp/hour, so there’s certainly some mythologizing going on with Bloom. Nonetheless, one of his colleagues at Yale said it was scary to watch Bloom read. And hey-my TBR grows at a rate of about 3x what I managed to read in a year. It’s the life of a bookworm! But it can teach you to enjoy the journey instead of always focusing on a finish line.
This is probably me over-thinking due to my current exposure to Infinite Jest, but at the end of your comments about IJ, did you by any chance say “and but...” as a reference to DFW’s personal expression “and but so...” in the book?
If I did it was subconscious! I’m actually finishing up a reread of IJ right now. :-)
My favorite big book is Samuel Richardson's Clarissa. Harold Bloom called it the greatest novel he had ever read. Have you read it?
Never mind, just saw it in your "Books that Keep Defeating Me" video :). Love your channel
Alas, alas, alas. But--one day! :)
Did you read de la cava's second novel "the lost empress" ?thanks
Sure did! In fact, I reviewed it here: www.raintaxi.com/lost-empress/
what do you do for work, might i ask? you have a beautiful and expensive collection
Thanks so much! I have worked in IT all my life, always in the scope of software development.
I'm reading John Cowper Powys' A Glastonbury Romance. There's something enchanting, hypnotic about it.
I want to read that series! Did you start with Wolf Solent?
I haven't read that and didn't realize it was a series! I am not sure where I even heard of Powys! I think it may have been in Colin Wilson's (pretty big) book on the occult! Prior to that I had no knowledge of him...
Michael Dirda brought Powys to my attention. And subscribers have often recommended this tetralogy. Happy reading!
just found your channel, love the content brother
Thanks so much! Glad to have you. Coincidentally I will be posting 10 Big Books I Love, Part II tomorrow.
@@LeafbyLeaf exciting! I look forward to it. Hoping to get to all of these one day.
Slow and steady.
@@LeafbyLeaf Yessir! Golden advice.
Big books force one to enjoy the journey, conditioning I constantly need in my approach to life.
You read the first 4 of My Struggle in 2 evenings???? Stop, haha, amazing.
They were very lengthy reading sessions, but, yes, I was so firmly in the grip! Definitely a very unique outlier of a reading experience.
I just finished book 3 the other night, and I can confirm they are extremely gripping. And they've gotten better with each installment so far, so I can see how the grip would build for the first four books, but still... Your wpm must be insane, haha, congratulations, I award you this medal for your achievements @@LeafbyLeaf Well done. You're an inspiration :)
@theschmidy haha! Many thanks for this medal, which I humbly and gratefully accept. I cannot stress enough, though, how much of an outlier this reading feat was. My reading speed is relatively slow. About 20pp/hour.
I feel like this is a personal list of shame you just named, I have almost all of these books on my shelf burning a hole through my soul, I have completed infinite jest several times and love it more every time, I find myself highly obsessed with the labyrinthian nature of Gravity's Rainbow(although I have yet to get a single friend to ever read it), and completed the recognitions 2 days ago. Have you ever heard of woman and man by Joseph McElroy? That my be next for me and I have no one to inform me if it is worth the challenge. I would add 2666 Roberto Bolano, and Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon. Just fantastic stories that wrap in on themselves.
Welcome! Does your username have anything to do with the character from House of Leaves? You’re in good company here. I have a copy of Women and Men but I haven’t been ready for it. But I can tell you on great authority, many great authorities in fact, that it is not to be missed. I will probably read it next year. I have read everything Pynchon. In two weeks I’m doing a group read of 2666 with The Recognitions Book Club on Instagram. Welcome!
@@LeafbyLeaf That is 100% accurate, I felt obligated to forever be Navidson on youtube due to my signed copy of house of leaves. If you ever tackle Woman and Men you should do a read along and I will join you and we shall struggle together.
Awesome, man! House of Leaves has a special place in my heart. More on that in an upcoming video. Love Danielewski! I’ll let you know when it’s McElroy time!
Awesome, man! House of Leaves has a special place in my heart. More on that in an upcoming video. Love Danielewski! I’ll let you know when it’s McElroy time!
Could you please do a video about speed reading and maybe you already have...any tips on reading quicker and retaining?
I actually advocate slowreading. Certainly if you're just trying to glean a sense of what a book is about, speedreading can come in handy. In that case, the trick is to read the beginning and ending paragraph of every chapter, and, to me, is only useful when trying to survey a bunch of non-fiction. But, I only engage in and advocate slow, attentive reading. :)
@@LeafbyLeaf I also enjoy slowly reading and comprehending surveying is useful in test taking.
Definitely useful where gleaning by rote is needed. Unfortunately, aside from the “read the beginning and end bits,” I don’t have any other speed reading strategies. Now that I think about it, I guess this really isn’t technically a speed reading strategy. It’s just a short cut. 😁
against the day is a big book you may enjoy, it is certainly one i have.
Oh, yes! I love all of Pynchon's work (which I own and have read). Great pick! Any others?
@@LeafbyLeaf not any other big books, but a random old chap i met once gave me a copy of Gass' Omensetter's luck to read and it has been sitting on my shelf to read for a few months. Are you familiar with this Gass work?
@@Forino99 Yes, David Foster Wallace cited it as an important American work. I have almost all of Gass's work, and have read most of the essays (include the philosophical treatise on Blue, which is excellent) and short stories, and (of course) The Tunnel. But for all that I have never read his first novel, Omensetter's Luck. Your comment, however, has bumped it in my TBR priority!
@@LeafbyLeaf do videos of pynchons work please. There are not a lot in RUclips
Mason & Dixon will be up in the next month or so!
I love your advice sir ;)
Many thanks! I’ll be posting part 2 to this video in November.
I downloaded every videos 😊
🙏🏼
This video is awesome.
Thanks! You're awesome.
I've been trying to get my paws on the mad patagonian, and can't find a single copy of it. Could you give me an isbn number? anything to help thanks!
Here you go! riverboatbooks.com/?page_id=211
How long did it take you get that many books in the background?
21 years! Bookshelf tour videos coming soon.
There're hardly 1000 books on these shelves, that's not much.
How heavily did you annotate In Search of Lost Time when you read it? I’m currently reading volume 1 and am loving it.
Oh, I went berserk with it-what I masterpiece! I ended up synthesizing a lot of my notes and thoughts into a long essay: www.amazon.com/GESAMTKUNSTWERK-PANPHILIA-MNEMOPHOBIA-Proust-Bergman/dp/1793130051/
@@LeafbyLeaf Wow. Thanks for sharing!
De rien, monsieur!
Been reading all four volumes over the last seven or eight years. I really can't get to grips with it even now. That is what led me to our friend here. I am a retired English teacher with degrees in English literature and so realise that the fault lies with me and not Proust. I wish I could like it but I don't.☹️
Oh, wow! Umberto Eco 👏🏽
Love him!
Do you think I need to read Faust before I read The Recognitions
Nah, not a requirement at all. (But it is a wonderful piece of world literature!)
Just discovered this channel. Love it. And are you filming this from heaven by the way? Hahs
Glad you found me all the way up here...in heaven! 😂😂😂
Hiiiiii......can you make a video of how you annotate your books please
Hello! I do talk about that a bit in one of my Q & A videos. I also do some "live annotating" in a video analyzing Amy Hempel's "In a Tub."
@@LeafbyLeaf thank you so much
My pleasure!
I still struggle to read Foucaults pendulum, it a very tough book
It is a very tough book that requires a lot of secondary material (I spent many hours down the rabbit holes of Wikipedia while reading FC!). I gifted a copy to a friend a few years back and he still hasn't forgiven me!
Love a lot of Carolyn Chute's books, but her 2600 page magnum opus about that commune/school is way too much for me. On the other hand, Raintree County is really sweet.
I hadn't heard of this author before. Looks like another Maine-iac writer! Thanks for this!
how do you read so fast?
I actually read fairly slowly: ~25pp/hour. It’s just that I read about 4 hours per day (not much else for leisure). To be sure, I am a big advocate of slow, close reading, and especially re-reading.
Got another one I just came across for ya:
_A Bended Circuity_ (2022) by Robert S. Stickley
I secured a copy last year! :):):)
Mad patagonian was written by Bellis?
Yep.
www.riverboatbooks.com/who-really-wrote-the-mad-patagonian
A Sierpinski Gasket is a fractal. I wonder if it's true? Perhaps he means that one can zoom in on any part/chapter/scene and see the exact "qualities" of the whole. Does a chapter begin and end in the same place in time, kinda like the book itself did? I've never read it. I hate pop culture eeek 😆
It would be a hə|L of a feat if it's truly a fractal work.
I love your channel. Cheers!
I'd love for you to review the expanded edition of American gods
It's on my radar!
@@LeafbyLeaf I could always mail you a copy I actually have an extra one
@@LeafbyLeaf do you have a PO box? I work at a postal shop and I could ship it bookrate relatively inexpensively
Whats the name of the first one?im gonna buy it lol
It’s theMystery.doc by Matthew McIntosh.
Have you read Life: A User’s Manual by Georges Perec?
Sure have-love PEREC!
@@LeafbyLeaf The Void is excellent, as well…a text that never uses the letter “e” !
Made all the more impressive in a translation that also omits e! The Oulipo produced some wonderful texts. Douglas R. Hofstadter expounds on > along with other lipogrammatic books in his book Le ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language. One of my favorite books!
@@LeafbyLeaf The Gilbert Adair translation of A Void from French to English is amazing, as well, since it was done without using any word containing “e.”
@@LeafbyLeaf You might like Eunoia by Christian Bok. A slim book, to be sure, containing only 6 chapters, but the text of each chapter utilizes only words containing a single vowel.
Hey!
Thanks a lot for making great videos. They’re really inspiring 👌🏻
Speaking of big books, have you ever thought about reading The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell? It didn’t show up on your Goodreads so I thought I’d recommend it to you. It is a horrifying brick of a book where you spend about 1000 pages inside the head of this former SS officer. I won’t be able to pitch it any better than this quote from the book, though:
«If you were born in a country or at a time not only when nobody comes to kill your wife and your children, but also nobody comes to ask you to kill the wives and children of others, then render thanks to God and go in peace. But always keep this thought in mind: you might be luckier than I, but you’re not a better person.»
Also, seeing that you like My Struggle, you should really keep an eye out for Johan Harstad’s Max, Mischa & Tetoffensiven, and hope it gets translated from Norwegian to English 🤞🏻 It is such a good big book. You might remember Harstad being mentioned in My Struggle.
That was a really long comment, but I guess it suits the video.
God bless from Norway!
David
Hej there! Thanks so much for these recommendations. I've seen/heard of Littell's book for years and years now, but I've just never gone beyond a passing glance. No real reason. I'd say you've pitched the book marvelously!
I presume you've seen my Vesaas video.
As far as Norwegian literature, next up for me is Jon Fosse!
All my best to you!
Chris
@@LeafbyLeaf Actually, I’m saving that episode 😄 I’m going to read The Birds as a part of a podcast I’m doing with a friend of mine where he introduces me to Norwegian classics (Norwegian podcast, sorry) and thought I’d watch it after that. I’ve been too busy reading up on English and American classics, so I’ve got a long way to go on reading up on the Norwegian literary canon.
But needless to say, I’m looking forward to hearing your take on Vesaas 😊
What book by Fosse? I’m planning on reading the trilogy some time soon.
Heey i read your review of "the mad patagonian" and have been looking for it, somehow though it is quite hard to find (maybe its just hard to find in Europe idk) . Could you (or someone in the comments) pls give me an ISBN number or point me in the right direction?
I know it was on back order. Here’s the main order page with details: www.riverboatbooks.com/the-mad-patagonian. I suggest emailing the publisher to see if there are copies available: publisher@riverboatbooks.com. Let me know what happens!
@@LeafbyLeaf thanks so much for the quick and helpful response! 💪
Of course! I will additionally let the publisher know to expect you.
Slothrop's Bananas!
This man reads 4 volumes of My Struggle in 2 days and it is taking me over 2 weeks to finish The Hobbit. Levels…
Hahah! Please note that this was a serious outlier in my reading life. It is a feat that still astounds me to this day and is ultra rare. Not my normal. Read on!
@@LeafbyLeaf I completely respect and applaud you, both for the video and for your reading. At 38 years of age I made the decision to read more and have (somewhat painfully) began doing so. But whereas I dreaded picking up a fiction book, now I read about 1 or 1.5 books a month. 1984 is the next one. 😊
Anyone have any leads on The Mad Patagonian?
What are you looking for specifically?
@@LeafbyLeaf The Mad Patagonian but I spoke to the publisher. They have another run arriving in a week - so YAY :)
Oh, OK, so you are just trying to get your hands on a copy. Sounds good. Hope you enjoy!
Two "My Struggle" volumes in one evening? Didn't you say that you read like 20 pages per hour? 😂 One really gets addicted to Knausgårds style of writing. However, I wonder how many people got through his reflections on Paul Celan's poem in part 6...
I know! I know! Nobody believes me about that-I hardly believe it myself. It was a very rare experience. Something about Knausgård really enthralled me. My average is 20pp/hour, with exceptions +/-. For example, I’m reading my current book at the rate of about 10pp/hour. I loved the sixth volume, including the 400pp meditation on Hitler in the middle.
@@LeafbyLeaf Nice to know lol. I just finished book 3 and was wondering if I should buy book 6 after listening to an interview on him discussing it- 400 pgs on Hitler sounds like a lot!
Loving your list brother, I'm gonna have to check some of these out myself, others are already on my list. A recommendation I would make if it's one you haven't already consumed is The Instructions by Adam Levin. Keep on keeping on 👍
Thanks so much! I have a video on Levin's work here: ruclips.net/video/kvAgGV2ryiE/видео.html
And, it just so happens that there will be a very special video related to his debut novel coming soon. :)
@@LeafbyLeaf that's awesome, I'll be looking forward to that. Levin is one of my favorite contemporary authors
Something that I find baffling is that of the dozen or so, people I know that have read the longest and most difficult of novelist, poets, philosophers and critics, in my opinion, they're not the most intelligent or interesting of people! Part of the oroblem is that they read way too much within a short period of time ( Friends read every volume of Proust's R.T.P. within a 2 months ) every demanding novel, whether long or short and they're off to the next big book, most without taking a break, that they have no time to experience anything else that would help to put what they have read in perspective!
Every time a watch book tubers who can plow through so many large tomes makes me feel like dumbest person in the room.
Well, allow me to clarify the situation a bit. Though this video can give the impression that I plowed through these juggernauts, this actually represents years and years of reading. With the exception of Karl Ove's first few My Struggle books, but those are not written anything like the density of Gravity's Rainbow or The Recognitions. Also omitted from this video is all the books I've read that helped me in reading and rereading and absorbing these books. I guess what I'm saying is: don't mistake years of hard work for immediate "intelligence" and don't ever feel dumb.
Is that Questioning Minds I spy on your shelf?
Sure is! Good eye!
@@LeafbyLeaf I picked that one up myself this past Christmas, but haven't had the chance to start it yet. Not sure if that one will be first for me or if I'll dive into Rising Up and Rising Down. Seems like we have similar taste, so I gave you a follow on GR.
@@wesleyallen2593 For me Questioning Minds has come first, though I'm picking through it slowly. My copy of Vollmann's treasure trove is--alas--the abridgment he worked on with Ecco. I cannot currently justify the expense of the McSweeney's full set (sigh). I followed you back on GR immediately after seeing your profile picture!
@@LeafbyLeaf Much obliged--I think you may be my first follower! Yes, I was extremely pleased when Everyman's Library started printing the Proust box set again.
Regarding Vollmann, I'd been keeping my eye out for an affordable unabridged copy of RURD for a few months and finally stumbled upon one (thank you, eBay). I found an ex-lib copy that had been adorning the shelves at Harvard's library and had not once been checked out. It was $125.00, so certainly better than the typical $400-plus price tag that I more often see.
@@wesleyallen2593 As the French would say: Quelle chance! I read through Proust in the Modern Library boxed paperback set and synthesized my notes into a humble study of the masterwork. It is on my "overdue-for-rereading" shelf on GR.
I have gotten into literature only to a certain extent thus far(?), via my main focus of history, out of interest. I am wildly short on content, again thus far, but having read 'To Have & Have Not' - which I did not particularly like, and didn't even look forward to reading, but nonetheless persevered with - at the end i was dissatisfied; but tried hard to think it through, and how literature (in this instance) is anything to really care about!? How did Hemingway win a Nobel Prize for Literature - The Sun Also Rises, Farwell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and then To Have & Have Not and the Old Man and the Sea - but after much rangling and reckoning I am very glad I did persevere, and personally, i like it and appreciate having read it, to a not insignificant extent. Can't say that about F Scott Fitzgerald, although The Great Gatsby is a good book, or V S Naipaul as a novelist: Mystic Masseur, Miguel St, House For Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River, In a Free State (so far).
Sounds like you and I may just be inversely proportionate: I have read a glut of literary material in my lifetime (thus far), but find that my knowledge of history is, frankly, deplorable. Each year I tell myself that it's going to be the year of laying a firm history foundation, but I always fizzle out. I've read smatterings of ancients (Thucydides, Herodotus, Livy, Plutarch) all the way through current stuff, not to mention surveys like Zinn's American History, Davies's European history, and Harari's interesting surveys. Throw in some specific pieces like true crime (Helter Skelter, The Stranger Beside Me, Columbine) and a few James Michener historical novels, and you've got the extent of my history. Luckily there's been a lot of literary fiction that imparts segments of history to me. But I really want to ameliorate this disproportion of mine!
@@LeafbyLeaf Interesting. Smatterings across history doesn't sound overly untidy however. The advice from a sort of wiseman - on Twitter if you can believe it - that I encountered last year was, 'collect books, read widely', which despite its evident insight, does also tend to lean things out towards being a jack of all trades, bar your true calling. Not too shabby? or at least better than sketchy ! lol
Sage advice for sure. Read widely and deeply, I’ve heard. Also: know a little bit about everything, and a lot about something.
@@LeafbyLeaf Right. Not just panning for gold?! Your own complete original research is the summit of a (lesser known) mountain.
Bingo. William T. Vollmann’s seven-volume Rising Up and Rising Down has been a revaluation. The books encompass so much history and his bibliography yields an enormous amount of history books consumed. But he had a focus through which to guide all that reading. For him it was the history of violence and whether or not given violent events were justified. I think if I could bring a leading question or two to my history reading, more would stick to my mind.
Hey you're doing a disservice to that telescope, if you wanna get rid of it lemme know ;-)
:) For now, I still take it outside on cold, clear nights. But I'll let you know if that changes!
But did you actually finish Gravity’s Rainbow?
Oh, yes--one of my favorites! I had to check my Goodreads for reference: I read it in 2013 (about 6 years before I made this video). I am, however, planning to re-read it this winter and make a video dedicated to it.
Im interested to read those books u reviewed if u can send them to me
I certainly wish I could do that, but these copies are part of my soul (they have all my marginalia, fingerprints, coffee stains, etc.), and I am already in danger of bankruptcy from book-buying! I do, however, believe that making the financial investment in each one of them will prove very fruitful.
There’s no way you read 4 huge books in 2 evenings. Also a Serpinski Gasket is a big triangle with 4 smaller triangles inside it. You got the search for the videotape as the bug one and I’d say the three smaller ones are ETA then Ennit House and Remy/Steepley and the Incandenza family history is smack in the center of it. That’s just my opinion.
I have no reason to lie-and I still can’t really believe it. But those Karl Ove books read like butter (nothing like, say, Pynchon) and I was totally rapt. The only time in my life I stayed up all night two nights in a row reading. The other two are much longer. I reviewed the final volume (1200 pages) for Rain Taxi. I plan to reread the whole set soon and review them book by book. Eric Carlisle had a great book that broke down the lop-sided Sierpinski gasket structure (after many edits, IJ didn’t retain the original triangle).
@@LeafbyLeaf that is super impressive. You seem very dedicated to reading. I haven’t read Carlisle’s take (hungry caterpillar guy?), but I do know IJ was supposed to be about 5-600 pages longer and that his editor was most eager to cut the political stuff, so I would guess that’s the lopsided element? Not sure though just my opinion.
LOL! I just realized I did indeed type the children’s writer name! I meant GREG Carlisle. Check out my IJ video on it.
Have Mahabharata, it’s an Indian epic
This has been on my shelf for a loooooong time. I’ve read Bagahvat Gita, but I’ve yet to take this one on.
You might find the parallel French/English edition of Swanns Way a pleasant way into the original text.
I've got a parallel text of Colette's Chéri and it is quite nice, although it shows me how much better the French is and how wonky some of the translator's choices can be (Appelbaum, in this case). I have all the Recherche volumes in the handsome little Folio paperbacks, but I've only managed through the first in French (I have to consult my lexicon quite often). Thanks for the nudge!
How the frick did you read two novels in one evening
It was a rare moment of reading hypnosis. One evening is mislead--it was from just after dinner until the wee hours. Karl Ove really engaged me with these!
Waited for Bottom's Dream, but than read the title of the video once again. Some etym-pools just can't get any love by readers (even by the author). Sad.
Check out this video: ruclips.net/video/pqU4xrPdHsw/видео.html
@@LeafbyLeaf Just checked, thanks! Fun fact: I also tell friends about the size of BD by comparing it to IJ)
Haha! Awesome! I decided to start with some of Schmidt’s shorter work. Videos dedicated to him are sorely lacking from the channel.
why you don't read eastern philosophy ?
To be clear, it isn't a deliberate choice *not* to read eastern philosophy--it's just something I haven't gotten around to yet. I have read the Bhagavad Gita and some excerpts of other, related texts. I've read the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, too, if that counts. But I definitely want to eventually start to read through and explore eastern phil.
Why are you slapping the books?
I’m giving them high fives.
How to read big books
Indeed. I’ve got another video on just that topic.
Sorry without Dostoevsky you stay innocent and without Joyce you stay guilty.
LOL! Love that! Take note, though, that this video represents only a selection of 10 big books I love--not THE 10 big books I love.
You look like Liam Neeson...
I get that a lot!
No woman at all? Try Elfriede Jelinek, Die Kinder der Toten (The Children of the Dead, trans. Gitta Honegger (Yale, 2024))
Not in this round of books, unfortunately, but, of course, gender wasn't a factor in the selection. Thanks so much for the recommendation! (Perhaps I could time-travel back to the making of this video after reading it. ;P ) Cheers!
Not a SINGLE book by a female author. Are you a sexist? I have not read any of these, and probably won't. My son read Gravity's Rainbow and said it was the strangest, most difficult book he's ever made it through. I tried reading Proust once or twice....the most precious, boring twaddle I've ever laid my eyes on. I must be a low-brow lout. But I did enjoy your mention of them and your enthusiasm. And NICE bookshelves.
Haha, yes, the guys seem to dominate the big books category (likely because the ladies are so much better at concise eloquence in literature; note that there are several female authors in my "10 Short Books I Love" video). I can probably count on one hand "big books" (which I define as 700pp+ and non-genre) by female authors: (1) Lucy Ellmann, (2) Dorothy Richardson, (3) Gertrude Stein, (4) Doris Lessing, (5) Vanessa Place--I've run out of fingers on my one hand, but there are a couple more. In my "Big Books I Love, Part II" Ellmann is in there, and I've got a standalone video on Vanessa Place's La Medusa (excellent book!). Ohhhhh--how could I forget! Please allow me to use one finger of the other hand for Olga Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob! Outstanding book, that one. In fact, given that you don't care for these maximalist/postmodern-shenanigan books, you may actually dig Olga's Nobel-clinching Books of Jacob. It is told in a very straight-forward manner. Thanks for the compliment (re enthusiasm and bookshelves). All my best to you!
@@LeafbyLeaf Thanks for the very thoughtful reply. You're not that old, so how can you possibly find the time to read all this? Are you one of Ev. Woods' reading prodigies?
Please don't take this wrong (after all, I'm part black), but are you Jewish and is the Books of Jacob about pre-postmodern Jewish shenanigans?
I have a very smart brother -in-law (a communist) who has read Proust (twice!) in the original language, but he grew up in Canada. Is there some trick to getting through Proust? And thanks for the recommends.
My pleasure! Sorry for my delay here. I don't think I'm a prodigy, no no. For me, I decided to give my life over to literature as far as possible a little over 20 years ago. I've always been a reader--started with Calvin & Hobbes in second grade; weekly library trips with my bookworm-teacher mother; etc.--but my reading took a strong uptick a couple decades ago. Instead of sports, movies, TV shows, etc., I fill my time with reading. Over time I cultivated a lifestyle that allows for 3-4 hours of reading per day. My weekday schedule looks thus: (1) wake early and read for an hour; (2) work morning; (3) read for an hour on lunch break; (4) work afternoon; (5) dinner and family time; (6) read for an hour or two before bed. Sure, I occasionally watch a movie or show, but it's rare. I've got to the point where I enjoy reading much more.
Re: Jewish: No offense taken. I'm not Jewish, no, but their rich culture and literature intrigues me enormously. The Books of Jacob indeed chronicles an era in Jewish mysticism--in this case a very demented and pernicious "Messiah" figure Jacob Frank.
Re: Proust: In short, the first key to "getting through" Proust is to defenestrate the perspective of merely "getting through" a book. It's the type of work one "lives in" until it's done with one. Of course, there are plenty of people who do not care to use their leisure time to "live in" a book like Proust's magnum opus, and that's perfectly OK. I do not subscribe to the mindset of assigning value to an individual based on what they read. You either care for it or you don't. But, if one is truly serious about reading Proust, it starts with changing one's views of reading such books. Otherwise, you'll be miserable--and life's too short to be miserable.
Cheers!
@@LeafbyLeaf Thanks for the very detailed reply. Never thought about living in a book. Perhaps that better explains why my relative so loves it....he learned French from his beginning years, and it (Proust) is now part of what he is.
You're correct. Life is not a goal but a journey. You're pretty sharp for a kid. And thanks for humoring me and getting back to me. I'll be sure to tune in to your other videos.
Regards
My pleasure! Thanks for your kind words. Feel free to ask/tell any thing, any time.
Quit bragging, man! No one has that much time to read all that.
I am truly sorry it came across as bragging. It wasn't my intention, I assure you. I will say that the time I have cultivated to read it something I had to work hard for, and it required a lot of sacrifices: no Facebook, no sports, hardly any TV or movies, etc. Admittedly, there are other factors, too. I've only got one kid; my job is 8-5 M-F, etc. But, overall, it's just about what one is willing to sacrifice within the framework of one's life. I will say that, for the past 6 months or so, I've only managed about 2 hours per day.
@@LeafbyLeaf even if you sacrifice other activities to devote all your time to reading, you won’t get the meaning of most of the content. I mean., come on! It’s heavy duty stuff you claim to be reading , not some beach read novels😉😁