I miss your monthly wrap ups!! I always look forward to your videos 😊 I’m definitely going to buy a copy of A Suitable Boy after this. You made it sound so intriguing!
I might try making some belated wrap ups to cover some other months, so that's good to know! A Suitable Boy is such a delight. I hope you enjoy it (and can find an edition that is easier to hold than the one I have!).
Thanks to you i have finally begun A Suitable Boy which has been languishing on my shelves for a couple of years and I'm really enjoying it. Picked up a copy of The Count of MC and hope to dive in soon! I always enjoy your videos!
Anna is my favorite classic of all time. I have read it several times and listened to it. The audio narrated by Davina Porter is excellent. Each time I read it I find new things in it, scenes I remember and many I've forgotten. Whenever I read it I want to read War and Peace, which I've never managed to get very far into. I spent my month immersed in Middlemarch and found a new favorite to add to my many favorite reads. Thanks for a great wrap up.
Thanks for the audiobook recommendation! I remember War and Peace taking a lot longer to get going since it has that wide cast of characters. The drama in Anna K seems to start off right at the beginning! I'm glad to hear you loved Middlemarch. That is another one on my mammoths-to-be-reread list! :)
I just discovered your channel and absolutely love it, though I notice you’ve stopped posting videos. Hope all is well and look forward to any future videos you put out.
It occurred to me a couple weeks that we hadn’t seen your wrap-up, and I was beginning to worry something might’ve happened to you! Incredibly glad to see your face this morning.
Thanks for checking in! 2021 is shaping out to be a chaotic year, but I'm still glad I made the time to read some mammoths! Thanks for keeping this great readathon around each year :}
Finally - I was really looking forward to this video! :) I am finishing the Sylvia Plath’s biography and absolutely loving it. My boyfriend is reading Philip Roth’s biography at the moment (it’s even longer btw but he lived 50 years longer than Plath…) and it’s interesting to just be so deep in the world of a single person for 1000 pages. It was sad to think that Philip Roth was Sylvia’s peer but was not facing the same obstacles and struggles she was as a woman (and a woman artist) in Eisenhower’s America
That's a great point-- I mentally wouldn't connect the two together since Roth seems so much more modern since he lived longer. That's cool you get to have biography comparison chats! :)
I loved A Suitable Boy, glad you enjoyed it too! I read The Count of Monte Cristo in March and couldn't put it down. It's incredible that a book that length can keep the tension up for pretty much the whole time!
I've just learned of March of the Mammoths today, and since I'd decided I want to finish 10 long books in 2022 that have been on my list for forever, this will likely be a good challenge for me to join in on. A Suitable Boy is on my list; hopefully I'll enjoy it as much as you did! 🙂
Love this channel! Keep getting turned onto new books all the time. Have you ever read Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon? That's my all time favorite mammoth book that is over the top and downright hilarious in parts. One of the only books I've found that turns you into the character as you read. You should give it a shot!
All the positive reviews of Red Comet make me keen to pick it up once I’ve read some Plath! One day I’d love to do a reread of Anna Karenina since it was such a positive reading experience the first time around! I completed Vanity Fair, although I only got 150-200 pages in for March. I really hit my stride with 2 chapters a day in April and finished it at the end of that month! It was super fun and very funny with some great insights on polite Regency/early Victorian society (albeit with all the -isms and -phobias found in classics).
That is a perfect way of summing up Vanity Fair! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the reading experience. Becky Sharp is still one of my favourite female characters from a classic novel :)
I am glad you enjoyed Red Comet. I loved that book. I agree it read so well...I also loved that it was unbiased and concentrated on her work..a fabulous book. I think it is time for me to reread Anna Karenina. I remember long sections about farming but I think my memory of that may be misremembered or at least that aspect amplified. I loved March of the Mammoths this year I read the Bronte biography...which I enjoyed and it made me pick up Anne Brontes Tenant of Wildfell hall that I hadn’t read before. It was fantastic and I feel it is not talked about enough.
YES I had the same haunting memory as you did about the boring farming sections! I was surprised that they weren't nearly as long as I had remembered haha. I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed your Bronte deep-dive! Anne is so underrated and Tenant is such a radical depiction of dysfunctional family life for that time period.
I agree with you re Levin. I think he’s the true protagonist, and Anna is more of a device, though she does have some moments of brilliance. I really want to read the other two books but I must wait for now… though you always make me want to run and pick them up 😅
I'm glad you enjoyed your books 😉 I haven't read Anna Karenina yet, but I've been thinking I'll have to do it sometime. I loved War and Peace and would like to read another tome by him.
i read the most recent malcolm x biography, which was stunning! i also read a prophet of freedom, frederick douglass's biography which i liked but found super dense with politics that i didn't care about. (it was 912 pages!!) and now i'm reading the good house by tananarive due, which is a family saga about a black woman and her cursed house. its super cool! i've been trying to read chunky books all year and so far i've read 7!
That's good to hear you're enjoying the experience of picking up longer reads this year! Also I am obsessed with cursed family sagas so I need to go look up that book immediately! 🙃
I was waiting for this wrap up! Btw Do you annotate your books? It seems everyone does and I was wondering how you feel about it and whether you annotate what you read:)
Good question! I'm pretty inconsistent with annotating. I only started writing in my books within the last two years... I used to keep track of quotations/ideas in a separate notebook (which I still sometimes do, especially with nonfiction). Mostly I only write in books when I really love the author's style. If I have a pencil in hand, I am much more likely to appreciate beautiful sentences and will take the extra time to read them again as I mark them up. Out of the books in this video, the only one I annotated was Anna Karenina :)
@@bigalbooksforever thanks for replying and explaining your method. I've felt kinda bad about writing on books all my life so I've been trying to see if annotating is really all that important. Your insights helped a lot!
I finished Don Quixote, a little disappointed unfortunately 🤷🏻♀️ I know you liked the second part best, but I was so upset with the mocking done to our beloved characters, who never knew they were being cruelly treated and left the duke paying homage to the bastards 😜😡 I liked their journey best in the first part, but I'm overall glad to have read it and known Don Quixote and Sancho. They are great. The plot, not so much for me.
Fair point! A lot of the iconic scenes that stick in the memory are mostly from Book One, but maybe it was my love of postmodern lit that made Book Two more appealing. I'm glad you made it through all the way! :)
Good question! It's been awhile since I've read War and Peace, but I think it still remains my favourite of the two. The setting, atmosphere and characterization of Anna Karenina really stand out to me, but War and Peace is more memorable in terms of historical context and themes. War and Peace presents a more panoramic view of Russian society, which is engrossing in its variety and detail. Both are incredible reads (although at the end of the day my favourite Russian writer is still Dostoevky!)
We are in real trouble in my beloved country, America. The new election has brought misery upon misery. I am reading more than over and I can’t get enough. We have inflation not seen since 1982, we have gas lines, and several states are running out of gas ...it’s is a hot mess. Thank God for books.
I'm sorry to hear that. We are still stuck in lockdown in my province, so I can definitely relate to needing books now more than ever! Maintaining a rich inner life can really help with these tough times. I hope the gas shortage resolves itself soon!
![SahBabii - Viking [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/D37cL92JX0I/mqdefault.jpg)
It's a bummer for us that you're not uploading. Hope you're just good busy!
I miss your monthly wrap ups!! I always look forward to your videos 😊 I’m definitely going to buy a copy of A Suitable Boy after this. You made it sound so intriguing!
I might try making some belated wrap ups to cover some other months, so that's good to know! A Suitable Boy is such a delight. I hope you enjoy it (and can find an edition that is easier to hold than the one I have!).
Thanks to you i have finally begun A Suitable Boy which has been languishing on my shelves for a couple of years and I'm really enjoying it. Picked up a copy of The Count of MC and hope to dive in soon! I always enjoy your videos!
Anna is my favorite classic of all time. I have read it several times and listened to it. The audio narrated by Davina Porter is excellent. Each time I read it I find new things in it, scenes I remember and many I've forgotten. Whenever I read it I want to read War and Peace, which I've never managed to get very far into. I spent my month immersed in Middlemarch and found a new favorite to add to my many favorite reads. Thanks for a great wrap up.
Thanks for the audiobook recommendation! I remember War and Peace taking a lot longer to get going since it has that wide cast of characters. The drama in Anna K seems to start off right at the beginning! I'm glad to hear you loved Middlemarch. That is another one on my mammoths-to-be-reread list! :)
I just discovered your channel and absolutely love it, though I notice you’ve stopped posting videos. Hope all is well and look forward to any future videos you put out.
Thanks for checking out my channel! I am hoping 2022 will be a better year for posting, but we will for sure be reading Mammoths again in March :)
It occurred to me a couple weeks that we hadn’t seen your wrap-up, and I was beginning to worry something might’ve happened to you! Incredibly glad to see your face this morning.
Thanks for checking in! 2021 is shaping out to be a chaotic year, but I'm still glad I made the time to read some mammoths! Thanks for keeping this great readathon around each year :}
Finally - I was really looking forward to this video! :) I am finishing the Sylvia Plath’s biography and absolutely loving it. My boyfriend is reading Philip Roth’s biography at the moment (it’s even longer btw but he lived 50 years longer than Plath…) and it’s interesting to just be so deep in the world of a single person for 1000 pages. It was sad to think that Philip Roth was Sylvia’s peer but was not facing the same obstacles and struggles she was as a woman (and a woman artist) in Eisenhower’s America
That's a great point-- I mentally wouldn't connect the two together since Roth seems so much more modern since he lived longer. That's cool you get to have biography comparison chats! :)
I loved A Suitable Boy, glad you enjoyed it too! I read The Count of Monte Cristo in March and couldn't put it down. It's incredible that a book that length can keep the tension up for pretty much the whole time!
That's good to hear! I had the same experience reading it last year. Dumas is a master when it comes to plot! :)
It’s so good to see you back! I keep checking to see if you have a new upload.
Yes it has been a hectic year for me but I'm hoping to get back into a more consistent routine! 🙃
“If I can’t enjoy a graveyard brawl ... “ 😆 Maybe the pandemic has molded me the wrong way but I’m sold on this book.
HAHA yes, it's like a messy reality tv brawl hidden in an 18th century novel!
I've just learned of March of the Mammoths today, and since I'd decided I want to finish 10 long books in 2022 that have been on my list for forever, this will likely be a good challenge for me to join in on. A Suitable Boy is on my list; hopefully I'll enjoy it as much as you did! 🙂
That's great to hear! We'll hopefully be announcing the next round for this year soon :)
Love this channel! Keep getting turned onto new books all the time. Have you ever read Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon? That's my all time favorite mammoth book that is over the top and downright hilarious in parts. One of the only books I've found that turns you into the character as you read. You should give it a shot!
All the positive reviews of Red Comet make me keen to pick it up once I’ve read some Plath!
One day I’d love to do a reread of Anna Karenina since it was such a positive reading experience the first time around!
I completed Vanity Fair, although I only got 150-200 pages in for March. I really hit my stride with 2 chapters a day in April and finished it at the end of that month! It was super fun and very funny with some great insights on polite Regency/early Victorian society (albeit with all the -isms and -phobias found in classics).
That is a perfect way of summing up Vanity Fair! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the reading experience. Becky Sharp is still one of my favourite female characters from a classic novel :)
I am glad you enjoyed Red Comet. I loved that book. I agree it read so well...I also loved that it was unbiased and concentrated on her work..a fabulous book. I think it is time for me to reread Anna Karenina. I remember long sections about farming but I think my memory of that may be misremembered or at least that aspect amplified. I loved March of the Mammoths this year I read the Bronte biography...which I enjoyed and it made me pick up Anne Brontes Tenant of Wildfell hall that I hadn’t read before. It was fantastic and I feel it is not talked about enough.
YES I had the same haunting memory as you did about the boring farming sections! I was surprised that they weren't nearly as long as I had remembered haha. I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed your Bronte deep-dive! Anne is so underrated and Tenant is such a radical depiction of dysfunctional family life for that time period.
Since you liked the Plath Biography, I recommend
Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton
Ooh I will look into this for sure! Thanks for the rec :)
I agree with you re Levin. I think he’s the true protagonist, and Anna is more of a device, though she does have some moments of brilliance. I really want to read the other two books but I must wait for now… though you always make me want to run and pick them up 😅
I wonder how many fewer copies the book would have sold if it was called "Konstantin Levin" as opposed to Anna Karenina... not quite as iconic!
I'm glad you enjoyed your books 😉 I haven't read Anna Karenina yet, but I've been thinking I'll have to do it sometime. I loved War and Peace and would like to read another tome by him.
Yes and the good news is Anna feels tiny in comparison to W&P! :)
i read the most recent malcolm x biography, which was stunning! i also read a prophet of freedom, frederick douglass's biography which i liked but found super dense with politics that i didn't care about. (it was 912 pages!!) and now i'm reading the good house by tananarive due, which is a family saga about a black woman and her cursed house. its super cool! i've been trying to read chunky books all year and so far i've read 7!
That's good to hear you're enjoying the experience of picking up longer reads this year! Also I am obsessed with cursed family sagas so I need to go look up that book immediately! 🙃
I was waiting to hear how you fared! Thankful for this readathon, it pushed me to read Tombland the most current Shardlake novel. Thank you!
That's great to hear you got to some good books! :)
i've missed your wrap-ups so much!
Thank you for your comment! I might try making some other belated ones! :)
Glad to see you back!
Thanks :)
I enjoyed all three books that you read as well.
Yes I lucked out this year! Such great reads (:
So glad you liked the Plath biography!
Yes! I need to start reading more about poets-- they clearly live fascinating lives! :)
This was great, thanks!
Thank you for watching! :)
I was waiting for this wrap up! Btw Do you annotate your books? It seems everyone does and I was wondering how you feel about it and whether you annotate what you read:)
Good question! I'm pretty inconsistent with annotating. I only started writing in my books within the last two years... I used to keep track of quotations/ideas in a separate notebook (which I still sometimes do, especially with nonfiction). Mostly I only write in books when I really love the author's style. If I have a pencil in hand, I am much more likely to appreciate beautiful sentences and will take the extra time to read them again as I mark them up. Out of the books in this video, the only one I annotated was Anna Karenina :)
@@bigalbooksforever thanks for replying and explaining your method. I've felt kinda bad about writing on books all my life so I've been trying to see if annotating is really all that important. Your insights helped a lot!
Tip to avoid the pain in your wrists: get a book seat! They are a lifesaver when you read mammoths
I need to look into that!
I finished Don Quixote, a little disappointed unfortunately 🤷🏻♀️ I know you liked the second part best, but I was so upset with the mocking done to our beloved characters, who never knew they were being cruelly treated and left the duke paying homage to the bastards 😜😡 I liked their journey best in the first part, but I'm overall glad to have read it and known Don Quixote and Sancho. They are great. The plot, not so much for me.
Fair point! A lot of the iconic scenes that stick in the memory are mostly from Book One, but maybe it was my love of postmodern lit that made Book Two more appealing. I'm glad you made it through all the way! :)
How does AK compare to W&P?
I want to know this, too.
Good question! It's been awhile since I've read War and Peace, but I think it still remains my favourite of the two. The setting, atmosphere and characterization of Anna Karenina really stand out to me, but War and Peace is more memorable in terms of historical context and themes. War and Peace presents a more panoramic view of Russian society, which is engrossing in its variety and detail. Both are incredible reads (although at the end of the day my favourite Russian writer is still Dostoevky!)
I want to read Anna.K so badly but my mom said it is not appropriate for a high schooler 😫
Really? That’s very lame. I’d be so impressed if my high school kid wanted to read that!
We are in real trouble in my beloved country, America. The new election has brought misery upon misery. I am reading more than over and I can’t get enough. We have inflation not seen since 1982, we have gas lines, and several states are running out of gas ...it’s is a hot mess. Thank God for books.
I'm sorry to hear that. We are still stuck in lockdown in my province, so I can definitely relate to needing books now more than ever! Maintaining a rich inner life can really help with these tough times. I hope the gas shortage resolves itself soon!
@@bigalbooksforever I cannot imagine still being in lockdown. I just can't.