Not really a big commenter, but thought I would poke my head in to say that I’ve been watching you for many years and always really appreciate your videos! You always come to us with such enthusiasm, your thoughts and commentary always feel well thought out and honest, and as such I feel like I walk away from your discussions with a lot! Looking forward to whenever the next update will be! :)
Aww thank you for the kind comment and for sticking with my channel for the past few years! Words like this motivates me to keep having these conversations here :)
Thank you! Reading brings me so much joy and excitement and it's nice to use these videos as a chance to connect with other like-minded readers out there! :)
Hi! I ended up starting Wives and Daughters for the readathon, since my copy is almoooost 800 (794), and I'm of course in the middle of other things, making it all a mess! lol I love all I have read from Gaskell before, and this one is being at times adorable and at times so aggravating, I still don't know where the story is going, and I want to finish it before the end of the month. I'm glad you are enjoying most of your reads :)
I enjoyed watching your March of the Mammoths 🦣 update. I am soooooo behind on my mammoth 🦣 read right now. I’m listening to the audio version of Anna Karenina for this Readathon. This audiobook is slightly over 35 hours in length and my goal was to listen to the audiobook 1-2 hours per day through the end of this month in order to finish it during the month of March….. Between having a reading slump since March 17th and not reading books at all, then getting side tracked with finishing two shorter reads and finding that Anna Karenina is a much deeper read than anticipated I’m only about 12 hours in to this book.
Loved this video, Alex. I am especially intrigued with your description of Ulysses and the true nature of life as we balance between the seriousness of major events and the strange, nonsensical moments, and to have all this going on while wandering around Dublin makes it all the more charming! I have wanted to read it for awhile but seeing this video has pushed me to doing it, so thank you for that! I also wanted to give a big shout out to you and your subscribers on this channel. To me, the 4 important pillars of life are: (i) inclusion, (ii) non-violence, (iii) unconditional loving kindness, and (iv) compassionate acceptance. I feel that you and everyone here demonstrate all of these so beautifully, so just wanted to thank you again for this channel. It’s great to see such positive and supportive content out here these days.
I admire the mammoths project so much! I'm very much pivoting the opposite way this year and focusing on reading shorter books, since I tend to naturally gravitate to books that are 400+ pages. It's definitely helped me get to things I've been putting off forever!
That sounds like fun! Now that the month is halfway through, I am starting to find myself getting excited for April when I can return to a wider variety of shorter books!
I WAS WAITING FOR THIS UPDATE! Thanks for letting us know how your MOTM is going. I'm reading James McPherson''s 'Battle Cry of Freedom' - which is excellent so far (I'm about 500 pages in). This was all I was planning to read but, due to university commitments, I've had to pick up a second mammoth: 'Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar', which is also really intriguing. Happy reading :)
So good to see you're having fun with Ulysses. I want to read it someday but am still highkey intimidated by it. Not sure if an audiobook/podcast version would help me since I'm more of a visual reader but your excitement is definitely contagious!
I would LOVE to get your take on Ulysses! I recommend waiting until the time feels right, but the good news is that it isn't really all that bonkers at the start which makes it feel much more approachable :)
I started (and never finished) a read through of The Weird last year, got to around the 1970s I think before I put it down (I actually enjoyed the earlier stories a lot more than the later ones, but I don't even remember the Screaming Skull one so...), but, yeah, The Willows was one of my favorites of the bunch, one of the ones that has really stuck with me. Also really liked Sredni Vashtar, the Lord Dunsaney story, The Hell Screen, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, the Aickman story. Some good stuff in there! Totally agree the ebook is the way to go with it.
Thank you for sharing some titles of stories to look forward to! That's unfortunate to hear this story reaches its peak earlier on though. I am thinking it might be one that's better suited to dipping in and out of from time to time as opposed to trying to read it cover to cover in a short amount of time. Weirdness needs some time to breathe!
I think I am going to read Middlemarch by George Eliot this month to participate! Also, are you planning to upload a top books of the year video? I always wait for yours haha
I didn’t plan on participating but it just so happened that I finally started Matthew Sturgis’s biography on Oscar Wilde. I’m only 25% in, I read an ebook version and I usually only read on my kindle right before I go to sleep. I enjoy it immensely and I’m looking forward to my twenty minutes of Oscar every night.
You know it is a great read when you treasure the time you spend with it everyday! I imagine an Oscar Wilde biography would contain no dull moments! :)
@@bigalbooksforever I didn’t know a lot about him, so it’s very intriguing to learn so many nitty gritty tiny details about his life now. I also realised he and I probably wouldn’t have been friends. That’s a question I always ask myself when encountering a historical figure.
I’m trying to read war and peace for March of the mammoth’s. I ordered the book got it 3-4 days ago. So I’ll see if I can read it and see if I can go into the first half of next month. It was delayed by a bit in the post. And I’m slow at reading books but I fly through comic book’s.
Your discussion of Mirror & the Light is making me want to pick up Bring up the Bodies sooner rather than later! I read Wolf Hall in 2019 I think and really enjoyed it but haven't continued... My mammoth is technically 739 pages but I'm a little over halfway through Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree. I'm read 25 pages a day (need to catch up from yesterday still) and I'm enjoying it but not loving it as much as I thought I would so far though. The writing is quite nice and meandering (and humourous) however
Bring up the Bodies is a downright pageturner in comparison to Books 1 and 3. Each book in the trilogy really seems to have its own feel which I am appreciating! I'm glad Tomb of Sand is going well so far! :)
I'm reading 2666 by Roberto Bolaño and I'm about halfway through. I don't quite know how to feel about it yet and maybe I was not properly prepared for it to be such a dark read, but I am intrigued and I am glad that March of the Mammots finally gave me the push to pick it up!
That sounds like great progress so far. Part 3 is not easy to get through, but one section of Part 5 still haunts me as one of the bleakest things I've ever read! My thoughts are with you as you work through the second half! :)
thank you for the helpful Ulysses Shakespeare & Co recommendation! i've always wanted to try to read that book but have been intimidated - the podcast might be just what i need to give it a shot. this is my first year participating in march of the mammoths! i nixed my initial plan to read a biography of Ida B. Wells in favor of finally getting to my copy of Roots by Alex Haley. i'm about 1/3 of the way through and i've been enjoying learning about the book's unusual publication history (and the plagiarism allegations - yikes!!) alongside the interesting story.
Yes, I can't imagine having as much fun without the podcast. Plus there are a few discussion episodes as well to help explore the content! And that's great when the creation/publication of a novel is almost as dramatic as the fictional contents. As someone interested in multigenerational family sagas, I know I will need to pick up Roots one day! :)
Not really a big commenter, but thought I would poke my head in to say that I’ve been watching you for many years and always really appreciate your videos! You always come to us with such enthusiasm, your thoughts and commentary always feel well thought out and honest, and as such I feel like I walk away from your discussions with a lot! Looking forward to whenever the next update will be! :)
Aww thank you for the kind comment and for sticking with my channel for the past few years! Words like this motivates me to keep having these conversations here :)
Please do come back girl ❤
I am going to start The Brothers Karamazov this week. Still getting over War and Peace! Love your videos. Please stay with us if you can. 😊
I hope you have the best time reading it! Once I got into The Brothers Karamazov I could not put it down :)
Alex, I wanted to thank you for your videos. I love your enthusiasm for literature, and that means so much.
Thank you! Reading brings me so much joy and excitement and it's nice to use these videos as a chance to connect with other like-minded readers out there! :)
Hi! I ended up starting Wives and Daughters for the readathon, since my copy is almoooost 800 (794), and I'm of course in the middle of other things, making it all a mess! lol I love all I have read from Gaskell before, and this one is being at times adorable and at times so aggravating, I still don't know where the story is going, and I want to finish it before the end of the month. I'm glad you are enjoying most of your reads :)
I enjoyed watching your March of the Mammoths 🦣 update. I am soooooo behind on my mammoth 🦣 read right now. I’m listening to the audio version of Anna Karenina for this Readathon. This audiobook is slightly over 35 hours in length and my goal was to listen to the audiobook 1-2 hours per day through the end of this month in order to finish it during the month of March….. Between having a reading slump since March 17th and not reading books at all, then getting side tracked with finishing two shorter reads and finding that Anna Karenina is a much deeper read than anticipated I’m only about 12 hours in to this book.
Loved this video, Alex. I am especially intrigued with your description of Ulysses and the true nature of life as we balance between the seriousness of major events and the strange, nonsensical moments, and to have all this going on while wandering around Dublin makes it all the more charming! I have wanted to read it for awhile but seeing this video has pushed me to doing it, so thank you for that!
I also wanted to give a big shout out to you and your subscribers on this channel. To me, the 4 important pillars of life are: (i) inclusion, (ii) non-violence, (iii) unconditional loving kindness, and (iv) compassionate acceptance. I feel that you and everyone here demonstrate all of these so beautifully, so just wanted to thank you again for this channel. It’s great to see such positive and supportive content out here these days.
I admire the mammoths project so much! I'm very much pivoting the opposite way this year and focusing on reading shorter books, since I tend to naturally gravitate to books that are 400+ pages. It's definitely helped me get to things I've been putting off forever!
That sounds like fun! Now that the month is halfway through, I am starting to find myself getting excited for April when I can return to a wider variety of shorter books!
So great to hear your updates! Thanks for sharing with us! 🦣
Mammoth Month is flying by! I hope Jason is doing a bit better 🤞
I WAS WAITING FOR THIS UPDATE! Thanks for letting us know how your MOTM is going. I'm reading James McPherson''s 'Battle Cry of Freedom' - which is excellent so far (I'm about 500 pages in). This was all I was planning to read but, due to university commitments, I've had to pick up a second mammoth: 'Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar', which is also really intriguing. Happy reading :)
You are making me wish I had some nonfiction/history in the mix! That must be intense but fascinating to read those two books at the same time!
So good to see you're having fun with Ulysses. I want to read it someday but am still highkey intimidated by it. Not sure if an audiobook/podcast version would help me since I'm more of a visual reader but your excitement is definitely contagious!
I would LOVE to get your take on Ulysses! I recommend waiting until the time feels right, but the good news is that it isn't really all that bonkers at the start which makes it feel much more approachable :)
I started (and never finished) a read through of The Weird last year, got to around the 1970s I think before I put it down (I actually enjoyed the earlier stories a lot more than the later ones, but I don't even remember the Screaming Skull one so...), but, yeah, The Willows was one of my favorites of the bunch, one of the ones that has really stuck with me. Also really liked Sredni Vashtar, the Lord Dunsaney story, The Hell Screen, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, the Aickman story. Some good stuff in there! Totally agree the ebook is the way to go with it.
Thank you for sharing some titles of stories to look forward to! That's unfortunate to hear this story reaches its peak earlier on though. I am thinking it might be one that's better suited to dipping in and out of from time to time as opposed to trying to read it cover to cover in a short amount of time. Weirdness needs some time to breathe!
I think I am going to read Middlemarch by George Eliot this month to participate! Also, are you planning to upload a top books of the year video? I always wait for yours haha
Nice! And yes I will try to get a best of 2022 video up once mammoth season winds down! :)
I didn’t plan on participating but it just so happened that I finally started Matthew Sturgis’s biography on Oscar Wilde. I’m only 25% in, I read an ebook version and I usually only read on my kindle right before I go to sleep. I enjoy it immensely and I’m looking forward to my twenty minutes of Oscar every night.
You know it is a great read when you treasure the time you spend with it everyday! I imagine an Oscar Wilde biography would contain no dull moments! :)
@@bigalbooksforever I didn’t know a lot about him, so it’s very intriguing to learn so many nitty gritty tiny details about his life now. I also realised he and I probably wouldn’t have been friends. That’s a question I always ask myself when encountering a historical figure.
I’m trying to read war and peace for March of the mammoth’s. I ordered the book got it 3-4 days ago. So I’ll see if I can read it and see if I can go into the first half of next month. It was delayed by a bit in the post. And I’m slow at reading books but I fly through comic book’s.
I'm glad your copy arrived in time for the second half of the month!
Your discussion of Mirror & the Light is making me want to pick up Bring up the Bodies sooner rather than later! I read Wolf Hall in 2019 I think and really enjoyed it but haven't continued...
My mammoth is technically 739 pages but I'm a little over halfway through Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree. I'm read 25 pages a day (need to catch up from yesterday still) and I'm enjoying it but not loving it as much as I thought I would so far though. The writing is quite nice and meandering (and humourous) however
Bring up the Bodies is a downright pageturner in comparison to Books 1 and 3. Each book in the trilogy really seems to have its own feel which I am appreciating! I'm glad Tomb of Sand is going well so far! :)
I’m on page 180 of Middlemarch. If I don’t finish in March I will just keep going and try to finish in April. This is my first March of the Mammouths.
I'm glad to hear it is going well so far! It makes sense to take some more time with Middlemarch since it is so detailed and character-driven :)
I'm reading 2666 by Roberto Bolaño and I'm about halfway through. I don't quite know how to feel about it yet and maybe I was not properly prepared for it to be such a dark read, but I am intrigued and I am glad that March of the Mammots finally gave me the push to pick it up!
That sounds like great progress so far. Part 3 is not easy to get through, but one section of Part 5 still haunts me as one of the bleakest things I've ever read! My thoughts are with you as you work through the second half! :)
Hi Matilda, I have been reading 2666 as well. I agree, I am not sure how I feel about it, but I am enjoying the writing.
I am not sure if I said this in an earlier post, but the last portion is so atmospheric.
I love it when books only get better! :)
thank you for the helpful Ulysses Shakespeare & Co recommendation! i've always wanted to try to read that book but have been intimidated - the podcast might be just what i need to give it a shot.
this is my first year participating in march of the mammoths! i nixed my initial plan to read a biography of Ida B. Wells in favor of finally getting to my copy of Roots by Alex Haley. i'm about 1/3 of the way through and i've been enjoying learning about the book's unusual publication history (and the plagiarism allegations - yikes!!) alongside the interesting story.
Yes, I can't imagine having as much fun without the podcast. Plus there are a few discussion episodes as well to help explore the content! And that's great when the creation/publication of a novel is almost as dramatic as the fictional contents. As someone interested in multigenerational family sagas, I know I will need to pick up Roots one day! :)
Half way through and sitting at page 34 of 1443 of The Fiery Cross…well shit. 😅
Haha! I find I usually have better luck in the second half... but where did the time go?
Yea for _Ulysses!_ 😎☘️🤓