tier-ranking more classic books (so you know which ones to read) -- part 2 📚
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
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link to part 1 here with more traditional classics: ruclips.net/video/92QbQOK8VTI/видео.html
Are these typed out somewhere/available to print or something? Would love it to help build my reading list!
Please read Legends of Ilemuria: The Demon's Return
can't believe you haven't read all quiet on the western front!!! my favourite classic.
I have to admit that it seems just so weird to me what is considered "classics" in the anglosphere - that it is just so extremely heavily English-language based. Like, it seems that 90% of the titles are originally in English and that seems completely mad to me. To me, in any list of classics worth its salt, no language should have more than 50% representation - okay, I understand that you are taught in some language so you are allowed for it to have a greater share, but 90% seems just so wildly off the mark. Like, the literatures of different languages were in dialogue with each other, how on earth are you supposed to understand that if you, in essence, are just listening to merely one party in that conversation? How can one have a list of traditional classics, and have it lacking, say, Goethe or Cervantes or Molière? This is not an attack on the author of the video, I understand that this is how these things are defined in the anglosphere but it is just so damn weird.
Really? You're starting with a joke about war and peace - and then there is no Tolstoi at all?
No Alexandre Dumas, no Theodor Storm but 6 times Jane Austen...
Harry Potter is a pop cultural phenomenon, but not a classic. And you didn't mention Astrid Lindgreens books - or Peter Pan (btw. all of them are better than Alice in Wonderland)
Sorry, but someone who rates The Hunger Games higher than Dune or Lord of the Rings loses all credibility in my eyes.
"A classic is a book nobody wants to read but everybody wants to have read."
-Mark Twain
Why is that so true though 😂
😂me buying classics bc of the gorgeous covers while also wishing i could get through them without getting into a slump
He probably just chose bad classics
The quote is wrong, bc nobody wants to read but everyone likes talking about it to pretend they're smart
Why is that trueeee??
you NEED to read "a thousand splendid suns" especially if you found "the kite runner" emotional. That is the most heart wrenching and beautiful book I've ever read😢 still waiting for a book to make me feel everything the way that did😅
Read that book on a holiday years ago, completely unaware that I would be sobbing by the poolside for days! So affecting ❤
I got this from a friend on my 19th birthday (I'm now 29) and I still remember how much it made me feel, a lot of scenes and quotes. This book has my heart. And I don't know many people who have read it.
I am fairly devoid of all emotion, so if a book can make me feel something then it’s a pretty damn good book. A Thousand Splendid Suns made me sad therefore it’s an instant five star!
That book destroyed me, I actually found it very painful to read. But so worthwile
and the mountains echoed is khaled hosseinis other book and it is as good and heartbreaking as the other 2 (if not more), it focusses on lots of different characters and is more like short stories which i think puts some people off but i would highly highly recommend
As someone who has studied classic chinese literature, I am always confused why the Art of War is well known in the west lol. If you would like to read a classic chinese novel, I would suggest Dream of the Red Chamber or Water Margins (also translated to Outlaws of the Marsh). These 2 novels are regarded as 2 of the 4 top classical chinese novels. (The other 2 classics are The War of Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West, which I feel are more well known) I will say that since these are novels, they are probably easier to read compared to something like Art of War.
15:32 "Sons and lovers is... a book about mommy issues and... yea, it's fine" the best book review
The Kite Runner is one of my favorite books of all time. I didn't read it by choice, but I loved it by choice. It has stuck with me a decade later.
As a former French student, I swear I’ve read whole journal articles about how to translate the first line of The Stranger /L’Etranger 😂😅
I love the early translation the best. “Mother died today or maybe it was yesterday.” Later translations tried to improve upon it, but they didn’t have the impact. 😊
How am I supposed to ever finish my classic book when Jack keeps posting bangers during my lunch break
Oh, I read the metamorphasis of Franz Kafka in high school and it was so haunting.
Kafka in general has that vibe where you're super intrigued by the premise and then a little bit scared by it. We actually had the Process from Kafka as one of the books in the final exams and it's even more about people just living for the work and capitalism.
*Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is my favorite author!* I also love reading translated Russian classics like Ivan Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons.” But I always obsess over Sherlock Holmes, the writing is dense yet smooth. My favorite stories are the “Blue Carbuncle” and “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty.”
I'd love for you to make a video about only children's classics like the Roald Dahl's books, Paddington, etc... or even just children's books in general !
Ive been waiting for this ever since the last video was posted. Classics are my love ❤ Great job, Jack!
I read Master and Margarita at school and I'm so glad we did as the discussions and what we learned in class about the book gave so much more meaning to it. It's interesting to look into the relationship of Bulgakov and Stalin, how much the book was censored and obviously the Soviet Union as a whole and how it is represented. Without the discussions, I definitely would not have understood the book in so much depth, and I recommend you give that a try!
Jack, would really love to see you do a video on cookbooks, or rather, food literature? For one, I think it's fascinating to see reactions to genres people don't read often, and two, there is quite a bit of narrative-heavy cookbooks out there, filled with stories and experiences and culture, akin to more of a memoir than just a cookbook.
The little "I'm fragile" at the end, hit me right in the feels.. sending so much love
I really love your content, no matter how wrong your Jane Austen opinions are (Sense and Sensibility really spoke to me the first time I read it, so will always have a special place in my heart).
I was a little nervous when I saw the metamorphosis but thankfully you did it justice, I just love this book a lot
Honestly love this! Maybe do a video on what you think will be future classics?
Completely agree with everything you said about The Kite Runner. I read it in a day and for a solid week after all I wanted to talk about was how emotional it made me.
Edit: Disagree with the ranking for The Prince. Maybe it’s because I had to write an essay on it for one of my Uni modules. Maybe I’ve just convinced myself it’s better than it was because otherwise I couldn’t get through it. Maybe it’s because it was by far the least tedious book in the module so I remember it fondly.
"it's bopping its way to the top" never thought I'd hear Giovanni's Room described with a HSM quote
How stunning to have this painting as a background👌🏼
I am *just about to* read Season of Migration to the North for my comparative literature course (and I mean I am actually just about to sit down and read it). I was already excited to read it, but I'm so glad it made a spot at the top as I'm even more excited for it now!
Have to say, the minute I saw The Art of War on the list made me panic. As a huge fan of this non-fiction classic, it immediately made me feel Jack would not put it up high on the tier, and sadly I was right. I ABSOLUTELY understand and respect why it would leave such an impression on any Non-Chinese native speaker (even Chinese native speakers could agree with this impression), and I would like to further explain why this book is one of the most renowned classics of our culture (from a personal perspective):
First, it was written almost 2500 years ago when the Chinese language was drastically different from modern Chinese. It was even very difficult for me to decipher what Sun Tzu meant at first (even second, third or fourth) glance. The way Sun Tzu's word choice was SO concise that he was literally able to use a single character to convey way more meaning than a handful of sentences. However, once bypassing the hardship of the initial confusion, one can appreciate the text's sheer beauty. The text was not lyrical in any meaning, nor does it have fancy prose, but it was such brilliantly constructed that it showed off Sun Tzu's capability of writing and mastermind thinking immaculately. It made my jaw drop every time rereading it and questioned whether such a mind could ever exist in history. Therefore, I cannot even imagine if any translation would do its justice. So I would say it is probably one of the most difficult projects you can give to a translator.
Second, the book was DEFINITELY not just about the original text by Sun Tzu anymore. Throughout more than 2500 years, it has been annotated by famous (or infamous lol) historical figures from different dynasties. Many of those historical figures are very well-known in Chinese history, and kids learnt about them through textbooks. It was such a unique reading experience that basically cannot be found in any other literary work. It's like a symposium with all of these already dead and well-looked-up figures; everyone could safely and freely share and discuss their ideas regardless of their socio-economic status. Just imagine they were once sat down, with this exact same book at hand, READING and ANNOTATING, like you and me. Their annotations added so much character and personality to the dull historical descriptions of those figures (if you psychoanalyze them like a maniac, e.g. me), and you feel like knowing them personally as a once living and breathing person. Also made me gain a deeper understanding of the political ideals of their respective era. Not sure if I have romanticized about it too much, but the mere thought of becoming a part of the ongoing intellectual symposium that has existed for 2500 years (and I believe will exist forever) sent a shiver through my spine.
The final thing, since those annotations were written by people scattered through such a long span of history, the book has become a living record of the Chinese language evolution. Of course, it cannot represent the whole ancient linguistic study area, but nonetheless provided a glimpse into the complex subject. Although by no means an expert, I always find it fascinating the way that social reform is reflected by the use of language and vice versa.
This is a very SUBJECTIVE and non-spoiler review of the book The Art of War. Totally agree with @lunar_python8359 from an earlier comment, but instead, I have other recommendations: The Taiping Guangji (also known as the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era), folklore collected and curated from the Song Dynasty; and The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Also known as Shanhaijing, or Shan-hai Ching), an 'encyclopedia' of Chinese Mythology.
I know this is such a lengthy comment, and thank you so much for reading it through. I suspect those aforementioned factors are most definitely lost in translations, and this is a classic that could be very overwhelming if you do not have a clue about the culture of where it originated. Maybe my statements could be more convincing once I read the English-translated version and provide some examples, but I really want to provide some friendly insights into the book that might be able to change people's perspectives even just the slightest.
If you came across this comment, I wish you have a lovely day. Although I hardly comment anything (my bad😅), but I think Jack is an amazing person and I really enjoyed a lot of his recommendation.
I just don't GET why someone decided to rename "Philosopher's Stone" to "Sorcerer's Stone"? Like??? That isn't even a thing... WHYYY? Was "Philosopher" too cool for the Americans?
This man is so passionate and charismatic, I love the way he talks about books.
Talking about classics I really think you should read “Beware of Pity” by Stefan Zweig. It’s so well written, Stefan Zweig manages to describe emotion such as guilt and pity in a way that just captivates me!
Same with “The Fear” by this author, depending on how the main character deals with fear the pace of the book changes which is so interesting.
His biographies are also considered some of the best out there, I highly recommend Marie-Antoinette and Mary Stuart!
I think you would like his work but even if you don't I’d really love to hear your thoughts about him one day, he’s one of my favorites!
By the way, great video! I love your work and I'm a huge fan of your channel!
jack! i had no clue you finished giovanni’s room, im sure you’re probably never going to see this but it would be awesome if you did a video talking about what you thought of it and what your reading experience was like! would really love to hear your opinion :)
I’d love to see your take on Tolstoy
The Master and Margarita is my favourite book I've ever read, I hope you understand it more when you reread it :)
I'm watching this in my train from Paris to Saint Malo and I now want to read The razor's Edge. I really like this kind of videos, please continue to do them ❤️
i was genuinely nervous when i saw Giovanni´s Room on here because i just read and LOVED it. so glad that it got the spot it deserves
"a little known fact is that a Christmas carol is a book written by Charles Dickens and not something invented by the muppets and honestly did the muppets do it better?... Perhaps" Hilarious!
Literally watched this to see where you would rate East Of Eden. And the fact that it's not on the top tier tells me that I don't need to worry about your recommendations.
I just had got read the Kite Runner for my IB English Lit class and it was so good and so heartbreaking and the comeuppance that the main antagonist gets is SO SATISFYING
as an Italian student who studied Machiavelli in school... yes he was SO boring.
I'm re-reading "The God of Small Things" and gosh I'm so glad to see it was placed where it deserves to be. Still one of my favorites.
YES! Everything you said about The Testaments. I was SHOCKED that this was by the same author who wrote Handmaids Tale and then it had the GALL to win the Booker? NO. NO THANK YOU.
The Old Man and the Sea snarky blurb is everything :D :D :D
I did read metamorphosis by franz kafka after a couple of years pause of reading (tired after taking a bachelor degree), and it was quite amazing start to read again :)
omg thank you so much for this video, I felt less lonely when you reviewed The Testaments and The Underground Railroad. I had the exact same (unpopular) thoughts. You also motivated me to read a few classics that have been staying too long in my TBR. Enjoy your weekend, xx
This was such a cool video! I'd love it if you made a part three with even more international classics. I'd love to know your opinion in some of the classics I read for my own degree (Hispanic Philology), such as "Don Quixote", "A Hundred Years of Solitude", "Lazarillo de Tormes", "Los Pazos de Ulloa", "Pedro Páramo", "Rayuela", "The beehive"... (these are just the ones I remember form the top of my head!). It would be cool if you could make one with classics from the languages, countries or cultures of your viewers!
Welp, not going to read The Testaments then. I was hesitating because I can't really imagine what would be the "good" ending for me. You prove it to me just then. Love these tier ranking type videos!
That was the single most British reaction I’ve ever heard to Mark Twain
i had some kids in my year who got to read the hobbit for school and i was so jealous cause i really love the hobbit. its so charming. they all hated it lmao
I just read Persuasion, and I am a Pride and Prejudice lover-so I loved Persuasion because Anne Elliot felt like Elizabeth Bennet 6 years later (at least when it comes to judging human nature; Anne is much more subdued and doesn’t have half of Elizabeth’s impertinence).
*spoilers if you can spoil books published about 200 years earlier*
Anne’s understanding of Mr. Elliot is literally exactly what you wish Elizabeth had of Mr. Wickham. Elizabeth is so ready to form rapid opinions and believe what suits her, despite truly having an observing and understanding mind. She’s so confident in her observation skills she doesn’t revisit and revise her understanding of people as she learns more about them. It’s a different form of vanity. Meanwhile, it is Anne’s flexible mind that allows her to think there’s nothing wrong with Mr. Elliot, she treats him as any other acquaintance, but feels like there’s something off about him so she’ll wait and see what happens. It was pretty cool.
the kite runner is my english class assigned novel for next semester and im so excited to read it but also preparing some tissues
"A classic is a book nobody wants to read but everybody wants to have read."
-Mark Twain
makes me sad the lack of spanish or latin american literature when it’s so fascinating, sooo well done, so authentic.
drop your recs pls!!
@@fayeallego One Hundred Years of Solitude! Or really anything by Gabriel García Márquez
These videos make me want to read more Finnish classics, since I still haven't read any... I was planning on reading Sinuhe Egyptian, but it wasn't available in my library at the time :')
never have i heard something as relatable as the taste of orange juice after brushing your teeth relating to john thorpe from northanger abbey. that guy tastes like literal death
Yes! John Thorpe is definitely orange juice after brushing your teeth. Couldn't have said it better.
So many additions to my never ending TBR. ✨
I agree with the Underground Railroad! I thought I was picking up something that was going to hit profound and shocking but instead I did not finish 😫
Yay I just bought the kite runner in the second hand store for 1 euro
The way you talked about Dickens in the last video is the way I feel about Jane Austen.
Would love to know where Candide falls on the list! another cool tier list would be childrens/young adult classics and/or series. My first favorite book was when I read Tuck Everlasting in 3rd grade and I’ve had few and far inbetween. I remember refusing to read Huckleberry Finn in High School 😂 I trust your rankings and look forward to reading some of the ones higher on the list :)
Refusing to read, ha ha, what a loser.
5:15 i wasn't ready for that wink, Jack wth
Your description of John Thorpe is spot on 👌
The disparity between your LotR and Hobbit rankings reminds me of how I just wasn't in the right headspace for LotR when I read the trilogy, despite being a huge Hobbit fan.
i love that The Hunger Games are here) the audacity))) but of course that's like the best (CLASSIC NOW) YA, love this series
I liked The Prince so much I highlighted passages.
I loved Persuasion is my second favorite from her.
Totally agree with you on The Underground Railroad. I couldn’t understand why it was so well regarded when it came out; I found it poorly written and underwhelming.
I want to warn anybody from reading "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie“. It is so bad that I feared several times that I had accidentally picked up the wrong book. It actually angers me that it‘s considered a classic. Also his comments about it are mostly false. Predetermination plays essentially no part in the book except from Calvinism being mentioned sometimes in passing. Brodie is much more into Mussolini and Hitler than into Calvin. But even her fascism is entirely flat and uninteresting. She has no charm nor charisma at all. Instead she is just extremely unlikeable and not even in an intriguing way. There is NOTHING to learn from this book. During the first 20 pages I repeatedly questioned myself whether I had the right text, from then on it was a hate read that left me astounded that anybody could pretend there was any value in this text. This reminded me of the emperor‘s new clothes and how much damage the „classic“ label can do to peoples judgement
Immediately clicked… these videos are my favourite !!!
I completely agree with you on Huckleberry Finn. Should’ve remembered that he runs off with a slave so the language is just a bit much for me. I’d much prefer reading Tom Sawyer as well
We want a part 3 alreadyyyyyy
HEYY, would you ever be interested in making a video about what books students have to read for school in other countries. I am from Croata and just finished gymasium, I would LOVEE to hear some of your opinions on the books we had to read. LOVE YOUR VIDEOSS❤️❤️❤️
goddamnit jack i blinked and there's more books on my tbr
A little correction... there is a section where you said that you are gonna move on to books from other countries, while mentioning Franz Kafka beforehand. As a proud Czech i need to spread the information that Kafka was from Prague, aka. from another country.
U should read lovecraft and rank all his stories
i was waiting for this omg!!!
The way he pronounced Siddhartha gave me a minor heart attack. 😂
Jack is on very thin ice uploading this vid, scared for him
His ability to read books without tabbing is so admirable yet baffling😳also trying to retain all these info at the same time😳🫡i wanna be you when i grow up
been waiting for this one 🤞
YES, BEST CONTENT, KING❤️
Look jack, first of all, love you, second of all THE TESTAMENTS IN THE LAST TIER. MARGARET ATWOOD SHOULD BE IN THE TOP F-ING TEIR.
The 42 books on my physical tbr
~ Finding cindrella
~ All your perfects
~ Finding perfect
~ The Alchemist
~ The witch of Portobello
~ The zahir
~ The fifth mountain
~ After the prophet
~ Muhammad
~ The Forty rules of love
~ The bastard of Istanbul
~ Honour
~ Three daughters of eve
~ Dear life
~ The effective executive
~ The power of your subconscious mind
~ Beach read
~ This is going to hurt
~ digital fortress
~ Angles and demons
~ The da vinci code
~ The lost symbol
~ Shadow and bone
~ ruin and rising
~ Seige and storm
~ Six of crows
~ Crooked kingdom
~ Kuch or nahi
~ Hawa ke naam
~ Doosra qadam
~ Mere chahre ghar
~ Muhammad a prophet of our time
~ Tales of Shakespeare
~ World order
~ The cat stole my pants
~ The new atkins made easy
~ phir achanak yun huwa
~ Religion and families
~ Islamic way of life in the light of sirah
~ Al-islam book-5, a selection from the holy Quran
~ History of kaaba
~ The mystery of the missing man
I'm here for war. how dare you, mr man, put mrs dalloway in the second tier and harry badder in the first one? I've tried to read harry potter three times at three completely different life stages and it was genuinely the most bored I've ever been. istg I could never get past the first third of the book. I honestly think fanfic writers can make better books than ms. terf
M&M is class. A definite re-read if it was confusing.
The art of war can be used for more than just war- it’s a great book that also helps in business endeavors and general competition of all forms. One of the best books because the teachings can be used across multiple aspects of life
Need 100 years of solitude, some EA Poe, and a third video for sure.
Jack, you totally should read and review Percy Jackson! It's the book that got me into reading and the experience of reading that as a kid shaped me to this day. Disney is doing a series, I think it will be released in 2024, but until then you could read the books and share your thoughts! Love from Brazil!
i was surprised he included harry potter and the hunger games but not percy! those books are truly wonderfully written.
Love that you included modern classics too, would be interested in a video breaking down exactly what makes a 'classic' and their importance
omg literally i did an hpq on this topic and it was so so interesting
I would also would love this break down!
@@helvetesmakt1 I wish there was a way to copy comments, because yours is a great summary of the ""defence"" (I hate this term but I can't come up with anything better) of the literary canon. It's just a matter of statistics. Obviously if until the 19th century only white guys could write and publish their novels and treatises that's where we will find the majority of our cultural background. Thankfully nowadays that has changed, but you can't retroactively add works to the canon, even if it means broadening the representation, unless they genuinely are rediscovered as meaningful works of literature and referenced by a majority of people
@@tuqaridha4821 Exactly!
Yes!!!
Gregor Samsa waking up as a bug and his first worry being how he's going to get to work is the most German thing I've heard, relatable
That‘s so true 😭 The Metamorphosis was definitely my favourite German classic I‘ve read in my entirety of my school career (I‘m German), it‘s so weird? But very memorable
@@barrybabygirlbenson That's so cool! I don't think I appreciated any of the books we were forced to read in school but I've been trying to read more German classics, picked up Steppenwolf by Hesse recently and loved it. Highly recommend
@@shilo2100Hermann Hesse is great! I looooved Siddhartha
So wrong. Germans call in sick for the tiniest issue. I am German and as soon as I or any of my colleagues have the slightest headache or cough we’ll stay home for 2 days and chill.
@@ag4444 in my current workplace it's the opposite. But at my old workplace it was that way as well. I had to step in so many times and cover my colleagues hours :/ Once I fell off my bike the day before and i had to come in and sit there all day with both hands in the air haha. I'm German btw and I'm tryna say it probably just depends on your workplace 'cause where I work at now people would come in with a crushed finger 🙃
You should review Agatha Christie! She's the most published author ever, only beat by the Bible and Shakespeare. She's written half a dozen classics. I'd love to see you do something similar to your Cain's Jawbone video and try to solve one of her mysteries.
Oh I love this idea! She's one of my fave authors ever I feel like I am constantly recommending her books!
Can we make it a collection of crime novels? Coz I really want reviews on the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I think this would work as a tier video on the best detective stories with Agatha Christie and Dr Jekyll
you might watch her already, but * emmie * has a few videos where she tries to solve agatha christie mysteries and they're really fun to watch
Yes! I’d love to hear his opinion on “Then there were none”
Omg same and then there were none is a masterpiece
1:46 - The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
2:10 - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
2:42 - Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
3:25 - Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3:46 - Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
4:27 - Persuasion by Jane Austen
5:23 - Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
5:38 - Lady Susan by Jane Austen
6:02 - Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
6:37 - North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
7:04 - East of Eden by John Steinbeck
8:38 - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
9:00 - Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
9:45 - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
10:08 - The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
10:59 - Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
11:16 - The Art of War by Sun Tzu
12:06 - Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
12:14 - The Color Purple by Alice Walker
12:37 - Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
12:56 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
13:21 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
14:09 - Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown
14:44 - The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
15:17 - The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
15:32 - Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
15:40 - The Stranger by Albert Camus
16:07 - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
16:16 - The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
16:46 - Silas Marner by George Elliot
17:07 - The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
17:19 - The Secret History by Donna Tart
18:12 - Harry Potter by JK Rowling
18:38 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
19:10 - The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
19:35 - The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
20:27 - The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
20:45 - Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
21:10 - The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
21:47 - Roxana by Daniel Defoe
22:19 - A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
22:26 - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
22:59 - Nadja by Andre Breton
23:15 - Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
23:36 - The Razor's Edge by William Somerset Maugham
24:00 - Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
24:24 - Howards End by EM Forster
Actual lifesaver
💞thanks
I was about to type this :(
some heroes wear capes
you are God sent. thank you💜
I’d love to see Jack make a video on current books that he thinks will become classics in the future (if he hasn’t already)
I am pretty sure he already has 😊
@@amayac4655 oh cool! do you know the link of the video?
@@amayac4655 link?😅
((((girl, woman, other)))))
@@qnnnnn3557 the link, also know as the URL of the video so they can watch it.
I would love a video where you re-read books, that you read "at the wrong time" like "The Master and Margarita". It would be so interesting to see if / in what way it changes your opinion about the books!
I adore the 'Master and Margarita' after a friend's sister recommended it to me around 20 years ago. The only book that compares is Yukio Mishima's 'Spring Snow', which is hand's down my favourite book.
I too, have many books (of shame) that I tried reading and couldn't get in the right headspace for whatever reason. 'To the Lighthouse' and 'Tender is the Night' are two glaring examples.
I feel less shame regarding 'Ulysses'. I have but a single life and I'm damn well not going to waste more time forcing myself to read it!
Putting Harry Potter over Metamorphosis is insane actually
I would love to see a tier ranking of just children's literature. The comments would be bloodshed
omg need
Already I want to cuss him out for putting HARRY POTTER of all books in the top tier!???
@@destituteanddecadent9106its put there because of its impact not its qualitt
@@MKG_ then everyone would end up with the same tier list and there's no point in watching Jack's video on it is there?
Is it too early to ask for a part 3? 😂 I’d love to know your opinion on more classics!
🤣 I was about to ask that too.
I'm pretty sure he talked about them in part 1 🤔
I literally watched Part 1… my brain doesn’t work properly 😆 y’all r right
The Master and Margarita is complicated to read since there are a lot of historical references/inside 'jokes' that are difficult to understand if you are not familiar with that era and its people. It's best to read one with a LOT of footnotes. The version shown here is pretty decent.
I’ve been meaning to read that.
I would recommend the Burkin/O'Conner translation. The pevear/voronsky translation felt like a different, book that over explained jokes, or missed them entirely.
@@carole5648 Thanks for the advice.
I just have to say that, in my ignorance (intentional, as I keep away from info on books - even classics - so that I could go in with a clear slate / mind :)) ) I wasn't even completely sure when Bulgakov was writing that precisely.
So I took it as it is and it's one of my favourite books ever, I found it SO much fun and SO free... like, the way it was written felt very free and liberating. It made sense to learn later that he wrote it in secret basically.
I loved the unhinged imagination, the dark humour... the satire/irony of the absurd situations and characters that transpire even without knowing many details of the background
- not contradicting you, I wholeheartedly agree with what you said, especially as an explanation to why someone might find it difficult
Just thought I'd provide an extra view, so that people would give it a go anyway; maybe it finds you in the right moment :)
I just read the 50th Anniversary edition (the one pictured) and it is THE edition to get. The footnotes genuinely saved me from hours of google searching although I did still spend a lot of time in my reading researching due to it being so soviet-society focused. I found it to be an all-time favorite! A literary acid trip.
"It (Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone) made so many of us readers for life."
Well said, Jack!👏
Yeah…
BUT ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!!!
Harry Potter has better ranking than the Hobbit?!
Please…
@@esfahanius I was commenting on and quoting what Jack says in the video about a particular book. I wasn't saying anything about ranking. Jack is the one ranking and he's entitled to his taste, preference and opinion anyway. But if you for some odd reason have a problem with that, take it up with him don't go disagreeing on my irrelevant comment using caps. Please...
Fr harry potter was the book that got me into reading
I'm just gonna be honest and mention the blatant transphobia of J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter was also a favourite of mine growing up but realizing Rowling's views on everything really puts it into perspective - personally, it's not my vibe anymore. clothbound classic at its best for me
@@sagieaesir13why does the author's views affect the book?
I think Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece, but I also think it’s very specifically situated in American (US) culture and history. I agree the dialect is hard to read and aged super poorly, but even so I’d be curious to know if you’d view it differently rereading it after living in the US
Huckleberry is greatest first person novel ever written. Every word in the prose Is from Huckleberry. Unlike modern first person, which is really just 3rd person with the pronouns changed
Omg the orange-juice-after-toothpaste description hit me HARD. 🤣🤣🤣
‘I’m moby dick without mody part’, - actually killed me 😭
i would also recommend reading master and margarita in two sessions because I don’t know a single person, who liked it from the get go and didn’t get bored out of the mind by everything that didn’t include Woland!
It’s me, I liked it from the get go.
Jack it looks like you read the P+V translation? I would recommend going with the Ginsburg or Burgin O’Connor translations your next go around. P+V translations is kind of stiff and the manic humor doesn’t come across well.
@@maduross i read the oconnor one and tbh i feel like i'll never fully understand & appreciate the humor and nuance bc im not a russian / native russian-speaker
Honestly I'm at chapter 15 and so long I loved every single part of it
@@brothercheems2818 Something of the original context is always lost but I’d say a good translation (along with an informative introduction most editions of classic lit will include) can give most if not all of the original feeling and intent of the work.
for this book in particular I’d say the context of life in the Soviet Union is key to getting the satire but I think even without background knowledge of that stuff the novel does a good job portraying the way the bureaucracy and secret police etc affects people’s daily lives in the text itself from the ridiculous situations that happen (and thus that make fun of their real life counterparts).
@@yatinhu1153 I have completed it and it's actually great. Idk why people hate it so much. Some chapters can be slow and boring but after completing them it's really rewarding.
📚TIMESTAMPS 📚
1:47 - The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
2:09 - A Christmas Carol (C. Dickens)
2:41 - Vile Bodies (E. Waugh)
3:25 - Americanah (C. Ngozi Adichie)
3:45 - A Metamorphosis (F. Kafka)
4:27 - Persuasion (J. Austen)
5:23 - Sense & Sensibility (J. Austen)
5:38 - Lady Susan (J. Austen)
6:03 - Northanger Abbey (J. Austen)
6:37 - North & South (B. Percival)
7:04 - East of Eden (J. Steinbeck)
8:40 - The God of Small Things (A. Roy)
9:00 - Season of Migrations to the North (T. Salih)
9:45 - The Kite Runner (K. Hosseini)
10:09 - The Master and Margarita (M. Boulgakov)
11:00 - Siddhartha (H. Hesse)
11:16 - The Art of War (S. Tzu)
12:06 - Giovanni's Room (J. Baldwin)
12:14 - The Color Purple (A. Walker)
12:57 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (M. Twain)
13:22 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (M. Twain)
14:10 - Wieland (C. Browkden Brown)
14:45 - The Bluest Eye (T. Morrison)
15:17 - The Good Soldier (F. Madox Fox)
15:33 - Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence)
15:40 - L'Étranger (A. Camus)
16:07 - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (R. L. Stevenson)
16:17 - The Prince (N. Machiavel)
16:47 - Silas Marner (G. Eliot)
17:08 - The Old Man and the Sea (E. Hemingway)
17:21 - The Secret History (D. Tartt)
18:12 - Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling)
18:39 - The Hunger Games (S. Collins)
19:10 - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
19:35 - The Testaments (M. Atwood)
20:29 - The Talented Mr. Ripley (P. Highsmith)
20:46 - Slaughterhouse Five (K. Vonnegut)
21:48 - Lady Roxana (D. Defoe)
22:19 - A Study In Scarlet (A.C. Doyle)
22:27 - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (M. Spark)
22:58 - Nadja (A. Breton)
23:15 - Brighton Rock (G. Greene)
23:37 - The Razor's Edge (W. S. Maugham)
24:25 - Howards End (E.M. Forster)
Siddharta
19:35 isn’t The Handmaid’s Tale
Thanks! All corrected :)
I believe in humanity because of people like you
You forgot Mrs. Dalloway
The Art of War is a textbook, so its not really that relevant to your English Romance preference. Because you can't stomach the racist reality of the time period many of your favorite romantic novels are from seems like a lame reason to give Huck Fun a low rating. People were racist back then, and the book is not supportive of that fact. It is funny you didn't rank Heart of Darkness lower for the same reason since the author is actively racist in that book and complicit in the colonization of Africa, he was opposed to the mismanagement of the Congo, not the racism or colonial idea.
Metamorphosis is my favourite classic by a significant margin. I studied it with my students and the deeper you dig into it the more it rewards and astounds you. I absolutely love it.
Hell yes
I really need to re-read it... One of the first books I bought, very memorable
I would also love to know what Jack thinks of 'The Trial' by Kafka too ❤
Video idea: what books you THINK will become classics/modern classics and why