My pleasure Deb! Thanks a lot for your continued support of the channel. School is really busy right now and it's hard to find the time to make videos right now. I hope in one or two weeks I can sit down, record edit and upload a few new videos.
Good rant on university professors. I was supposed to read _Madam Bovary_ in college 50 years ago, but I didn't. It's on my TBR; I'm still trying too catch up on my homework. I just finished Graham Greene's _The Ministry of Fear._ Strange story, enjoyed it. I'm enjoying my fourth dive into Thomas Pynchon. This year it's _Against the Day,_ and it's great once you get into it.
Hello Ned, I really needed that rant. I recorded this video several months ago, and when I watched it yesterday I was a little surprised at how annoyed I was. I highly recommend M. Bovary, it is really a great one. I know it can feel pretty slow compared to the modern stuff, especially if you are a fan of Pynchon, but once you get beyond the big initial setting up of the scene, and the story begins to move, man is it ever good. I'm glad to hear that about Ministry of Fear, every time I pick it up I am struck with utter indifference. It seems like I've got more to read these days than ever. Hope you are well!
@@grantlovesbooks Since your message, I've read _M. Bovary._ It's good, but there's a bit too much description of minor details. It reminds me of _Anna Karenina._ I notice the many stories that deal with bored women in the late 19th century, including Ibsen's _Hedda Gabler._ I've tried Pynchon's _Against the Day_ also, but I got about a quarter of the way through before giving up. It's a major investment of time and suffers from diminishing returns. I'm high on the latest book I've finished, E. L. Doctorow's _Billy Bathgate._ It's terrific. I've started on _Stoner_ by John Williams and it is very intriguing.
@@nedmerrill5705 Hello Ned! You are really on a literature marathon! M. Bovary, there is that tendency to have longer and more specific description, but I don't mind that. That's the old style where a novel was a well rounded collection of clearly defined and described characters inhabiting clearly described settings with carefully constructed plots. I know Hemingway threw all that out the window with his iceberg idea of writing, and I will admit I prefer the modern method, but I do like to enjoy the carefully drawn atmosphere of the old books also. I depends who is doing it. Flaubert, Balzac, Zola, all champions. Dickens, you'd have to pay me to read another Dickens. I haven't read Billy Bathgate, although I have it on the shelf. Stoner is one of the really great novels about life. That book is almost magical. Let me know what you think when you get through it.
Slaves of Solitude has just been put on my wishlist. Grant, thank you, my bookish friend. Edit: it was already in there from the stellar review you did. I thought it sounded familiar. 😅 Also, i MUST read Madame B. Ugh, it's so past time. The Magus, as well.
That is a quite a list of books to reread! I usually just keep it to one per year, maybe two. I hope you find Slaves of Solitude some time, it is really quite a great book, that feels like it was fun to read. Hope you are well Nikki, thanks for writing!
Yes, I too have run out of gas with Gatsby--green or great or not. Give them hell Grant. Loved the Magus. I read it both before and after Fowles edited it. The new edition is longer. But maybe you have to read this at a certain time in life, say in your impressionable twenties. Fowles other books after that time seemed somehow less magical. I've read exactly one Houellebecq and I can't even remember the title . . . Thank you for this survey Grant.
Hello Sal! I am also a little worried The Magus might be something that appeals to me at a bygone age. I did really love it the first time, and I would like to reread it, but I am worried about it. I know what you mean about his other books. French Lieutenants Woman seemed just OK. A Maggot seemed good until it got really bizarre. I read The Collector, but wished I hadn't. Who knows if I will ever go back to Fowles, but it's nice to have in case a certain mood strikes me. I've got so much stuff to read on my shelves these days, it's ridiculous. But 2024 is really turning out to be a great year so far!
hey that's the same Madame Bovary edition translation I had. Signet. Hunchback of Notre Dam I read as a pre-teen, my first entre into French Lit. the Grant Rant against Gatsby was quite enjoyable. I have to say Virginia Wolfe never got me like it gets others, but it was interesting to see Miss Dalloway lumped in with Gatsby. I love Gatsby, the writing, the structure, what it says about love and the summer and the west's great summer-land, America. A dear friend HS English teacher hates the book because she had to teach it so often. I feel the negativity has to do with that the actual work. Fitzgerald is a kick-ass writer, Gatsby an uncanny masterpiece. But I did dig the Grant rant. I've never noticed the rampant Canadian smugness because you all are so polite and well-mannered.
Hello Timothy, I think I am more annoyed with university professors constantly relying on the same old books. However, a lot of these young students have never read these books, and it would really be a crime if an English Literature major got a BA and never had to read Gatsby. I really haven't a clue if they read anything at all in high school. I do give this teacher a pass on Gatsby this time, he's teaching a Literature on Film class, so Gatsby makes sense, although I would have preferred No Country For Old Men, maybe even Dracula. I actually ended up loving Gatsby reading it this time, but I hated having to watch the ridiculous film.
@@grantlovesbooks It was a good rant and any academic worth their salt must sometimes rail against the academy. I was about to ask with Gatsby, but of course the new one, which I enjoyed but I like all three. No Country for Old Men is a great book to film. Dracula -- I suppose the Francis Cord is the closest to the novel, if that's your measure -- but I once took a vampire in film course saw 10 vampire films, fantastic -- the prof's favorite Dracula was Horror of Dracula, which barely follows the story but invokes the atmosphere. My favorite Dracula is son of Dracula. Dracula is a great novel which I've re-read several times. I love structure and the collection of primary sources to make up the story is so artful. I read Gatsby for structure. I might suggest that while many Dracula movies are far better films than any of the three Gatsby's they don't contain Stoker like the others do Fitzgerald.
@@timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 You always share a lot of good information Timothy! In my film classes where we talk a lot about film theory, I keep running into the same problem. The teachers do a little ranting and raving against Hollywood, but I always feel they are overlooking the essential problem. The cinema-system and distribution in North America really is terrible. There are very VERY few small independent cinemas that show art-films as an alternative to the mainstream Hollywood bilge. In Vancouver I only know one, The Rio. In Ottawa there used to be two, The Mayfair and The Bytowne, in Budapest there were at least a dozen when I lived there. It's not that the movies are poor, it's just that we don't have anywhere to watch good alternatives. The teacher said today that she will put a movie on the television, and then 'watch' the movie while scrolling through her phone for other movies. The teacher, a professor.
@@grantlovesbooks I feel your pain, but alas that era of film is gone. I'm glad I'm old enough to have experienced a real cinephile NY, with plenty of revival theaters seeing a cluster of Truffaut and Cassavettes films over the course of a month or finding the video store that carries Bergman. Now it's all streamed and accessible but something seems lost in abundance the idea of watching a movie on a phone screen still appalls, yet I love Instagram, the best filmmaking these days are in the series not individual 90 minute features but our attention spans are shot, who can go that long and not check their phone.
@@timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 I am actually afraid of looking at Instagram, it's too easy for me to get hooked on things. I always have the attitude of, 'Once you turn something on, how impossible does it become to turn it off?' I abstained from Facebook until 2015, when it seemed it was on the downward slope. I wonder how I would feel if I lost it? Several of my teachers have complained about endless scrolling. Not complaining about their students, but themselves. It's funny my small channel is even as popular as it is in today's world.
How did you know? I read Life of Pi when it came out, and thought, What's all the fuss about? And then they made a movie from it, so I read it again to make sure I wasn't wrong. The second time I was sure it was a silly book. I've never read any Coelho, just because I suspect people like to carry his books around and tell people, "I'm reading Coelho!" Because it makes them sound smart. In high school if you wanted people to think you were so clever you carried, 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.' It was also the same in Europe, but all the university girls carried 'Master and the Margarita.'
@@poondawg3244 Hello Poondawg! I just saw your support on Patreon! Thanks a lot, that is really very kind of you! I checked out the blurb for The Alchemist, that looks like some proper 'Celestine Prophesy' bullshit right there. I really shouldn't be prejudiced against any writer based on their name. I think I was a bit hesitant with Milan Kundera because his name just looked too East European cool-guy. Still, to this day, I think people love Kafka just because of those two hard K-syllables. I've never met anyone who can tell me what's happening in 'The Hunger Artist.' If you really want to see me get angry about a book check out the video I made for Kafka on the Shore, I was so pissed off, I went through it point by point and some of the major problems with that one. Thanks again! Hope you are well!
Hello Nikki, that is so very kind of you! I hope you will enjoy the extra stuff. The weekly blog was rather dour last week, I was in a bit of a mood due to school and my birthday. This week I will try to post a happier weekly update, and hopefully a a few photos. Here is the link, I hope it works, it should! www.patreon.com/grantlovesbooks
@@grantlovesbooks I’m not even necessarily interested in extra stuff….just want to support you. I guess what I mean is, even if there were no extras I’d still support.
Who is this, and how can you see the video? You must be one of my friends from Patreon, but I don't recognize your RUclips name. Thanks for the comment, I'm just shocked because I didn't know how much access people have to an 'unreleased' video.
I think about that often. But I had my European experience. I think I made a mistake by staying in the same city/country for the entire time, it would have been better had I moved to try a different life in another region. Now I am planning the Asian time of my life. We are making plans to move to Japan. I am looking forward to it, and really can't wait to escape from this Canadian world.
@@grantlovesbooks Sounds like 👍 a plan. I hear accommodation is affordable there. If it doesn’t work out then come to Germany. Easiest place in the world to get a citizenship these days. Personally my favourite country in Europe is the Netherlands. I dream of moving to the border region so I can pop over whenever I like.
@@scarba I would absolutely love to live in Germany. Thanks for the tip on the citizenship. At the moment it is difficult to make any long term plans. We are mostly focused on taking care of Matthew, who is very energetic. My wife wants to go back to Japan, and go back to work. I am really quite content to just sit on the sofa reading books for the rest of my life, but I suppose I will eventually have to start teaching ESL again, which won't be bad. It's good to get out and socialize and see the world. (Unless it's Canada, then you might as well stay home and read.)
@@grantlovesbooks Kindergarten is free in Germany except a nominal fee for lunches if they stay all day, a huge advantage over other countries, something to consider. Once he’s in Kindergarten and gets tired out it will get easier. The most fun part is getting to buy all the lovely kids‘ books and read them in your language and then your wife read to him in hers. My husband can still recite some by heart and our youngest is 16 now. We are also a mixed couple German/Scottish. Till the time comes you can enjoy planning/fantasizing about your move to wherever it may be.
Thanks for the tour, Grant. All the best.
My pleasure Deb! Thanks a lot for your continued support of the channel. School is really busy right now and it's hard to find the time to make videos right now. I hope in one or two weeks I can sit down, record edit and upload a few new videos.
Good rant on university professors.
I was supposed to read _Madam Bovary_ in college 50 years ago, but I didn't. It's on my TBR; I'm still trying too catch up on my homework.
I just finished Graham Greene's _The Ministry of Fear._ Strange story, enjoyed it.
I'm enjoying my fourth dive into Thomas Pynchon. This year it's _Against the Day,_ and it's great once you get into it.
Hello Ned, I really needed that rant. I recorded this video several months ago, and when I watched it yesterday I was a little surprised at how annoyed I was.
I highly recommend M. Bovary, it is really a great one. I know it can feel pretty slow compared to the modern stuff, especially if you are a fan of Pynchon, but once you get beyond the big initial setting up of the scene, and the story begins to move, man is it ever good.
I'm glad to hear that about Ministry of Fear, every time I pick it up I am struck with utter indifference. It seems like I've got more to read these days than ever. Hope you are well!
@@grantlovesbooks Since your message, I've read _M. Bovary._ It's good, but there's a bit too much description of minor details. It reminds me of _Anna Karenina._ I notice the many stories that deal with bored women in the late 19th century, including Ibsen's _Hedda Gabler._
I've tried Pynchon's _Against the Day_ also, but I got about a quarter of the way through before giving up. It's a major investment of time and suffers from diminishing returns.
I'm high on the latest book I've finished, E. L. Doctorow's _Billy Bathgate._ It's terrific.
I've started on _Stoner_ by John Williams and it is very intriguing.
@@nedmerrill5705 Hello Ned! You are really on a literature marathon! M. Bovary, there is that tendency to have longer and more specific description, but I don't mind that. That's the old style where a novel was a well rounded collection of clearly defined and described characters inhabiting clearly described settings with carefully constructed plots. I know Hemingway threw all that out the window with his iceberg idea of writing, and I will admit I prefer the modern method, but I do like to enjoy the carefully drawn atmosphere of the old books also. I depends who is doing it. Flaubert, Balzac, Zola, all champions. Dickens, you'd have to pay me to read another Dickens.
I haven't read Billy Bathgate, although I have it on the shelf.
Stoner is one of the really great novels about life. That book is almost magical. Let me know what you think when you get through it.
Slaves of Solitude has just been put on my wishlist. Grant, thank you, my bookish friend. Edit: it was already in there from the stellar review you did. I thought it sounded familiar. 😅 Also, i MUST read Madame B. Ugh, it's so past time. The Magus, as well.
That is a quite a list of books to reread! I usually just keep it to one per year, maybe two. I hope you find Slaves of Solitude some time, it is really quite a great book, that feels like it was fun to read.
Hope you are well Nikki, thanks for writing!
Yes, I too have run out of gas with Gatsby--green or great or not. Give them hell Grant.
Loved the Magus. I read it both before and after Fowles edited it. The new edition is longer. But maybe you have to read this at a certain time in life, say in your impressionable twenties. Fowles other books after that time seemed somehow less magical.
I've read exactly one Houellebecq and I can't even remember the title . . . Thank you for this survey Grant.
Hello Sal! I am also a little worried The Magus might be something that appeals to me at a bygone age. I did really love it the first time, and I would like to reread it, but I am worried about it.
I know what you mean about his other books. French Lieutenants Woman seemed just OK. A Maggot seemed good until it got really bizarre. I read The Collector, but wished I hadn't.
Who knows if I will ever go back to Fowles, but it's nice to have in case a certain mood strikes me.
I've got so much stuff to read on my shelves these days, it's ridiculous. But 2024 is really turning out to be a great year so far!
Might be an idea to put a permanent link to your Patreon in your channel details section and in each video description 👍🏼
Yeah, I'm still having trouble figuring everything out.
Any Booth Tarkington? I just read _Alice Adams_ and the dialog was great.
Unfortunately not, but I will add it to my list of books I need to find... one day.
hey that's the same Madame Bovary edition translation I had. Signet. Hunchback of Notre Dam I read as a pre-teen, my first entre into French Lit. the Grant Rant against Gatsby was quite enjoyable. I have to say Virginia Wolfe never got me like it gets others, but it was interesting to see Miss Dalloway lumped in with Gatsby. I love Gatsby, the writing, the structure, what it says about love and the summer and the west's great summer-land, America. A dear friend HS English teacher hates the book because she had to teach it so often. I feel the negativity has to do with that the actual work. Fitzgerald is a kick-ass writer, Gatsby an uncanny masterpiece. But I did dig the Grant rant. I've never noticed the rampant Canadian smugness because you all are so polite and well-mannered.
Hello Timothy, I think I am more annoyed with university professors constantly relying on the same old books.
However, a lot of these young students have never read these books, and it would really be a crime if an English Literature major got a BA and never had to read Gatsby. I really haven't a clue if they read anything at all in high school.
I do give this teacher a pass on Gatsby this time, he's teaching a Literature on Film class, so Gatsby makes sense, although I would have preferred No Country For Old Men, maybe even Dracula.
I actually ended up loving Gatsby reading it this time, but I hated having to watch the ridiculous film.
@@grantlovesbooks It was a good rant and any academic worth their salt must sometimes rail against the academy. I was about to ask with Gatsby, but of course the new one, which I enjoyed but I like all three. No Country for Old Men is a great book to film. Dracula -- I suppose the Francis Cord is the closest to the novel, if that's your measure -- but I once took a vampire in film course saw 10 vampire films, fantastic -- the prof's favorite Dracula was Horror of Dracula, which barely follows the story but invokes the atmosphere. My favorite Dracula is son of Dracula. Dracula is a great novel which I've re-read several times. I love structure and the collection of primary sources to make up the story is so artful. I read Gatsby for structure. I might suggest that while many Dracula movies are far better films than any of the three Gatsby's they don't contain Stoker like the others do Fitzgerald.
@@timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 You always share a lot of good information Timothy!
In my film classes where we talk a lot about film theory, I keep running into the same problem. The teachers do a little ranting and raving against Hollywood, but I always feel they are overlooking the essential problem. The cinema-system and distribution in North America really is terrible. There are very VERY few small independent cinemas that show art-films as an alternative to the mainstream Hollywood bilge. In Vancouver I only know one, The Rio. In Ottawa there used to be two, The Mayfair and The Bytowne, in Budapest there were at least a dozen when I lived there.
It's not that the movies are poor, it's just that we don't have anywhere to watch good alternatives.
The teacher said today that she will put a movie on the television, and then 'watch' the movie while scrolling through her phone for other movies. The teacher, a professor.
@@grantlovesbooks I feel your pain, but alas that era of film is gone. I'm glad I'm old enough to have experienced a real cinephile NY, with plenty of revival theaters seeing a cluster of Truffaut and Cassavettes films over the course of a month or finding the video store that carries Bergman. Now it's all streamed and accessible but something seems lost in abundance the idea of watching a movie on a phone screen still appalls, yet I love Instagram, the best filmmaking these days are in the series not individual 90 minute features but our attention spans are shot, who can go that long and not check their phone.
@@timhrklittimothyherrickvid169 I am actually afraid of looking at Instagram, it's too easy for me to get hooked on things. I always have the attitude of, 'Once you turn something on, how impossible does it become to turn it off?' I abstained from Facebook until 2015, when it seemed it was on the downward slope. I wonder how I would feel if I lost it?
Several of my teachers have complained about endless scrolling. Not complaining about their students, but themselves.
It's funny my small channel is even as popular as it is in today's world.
Life of Pie and The Alchemist are two books I absolutely do not like. I'm sure you feel the same! 😅
How did you know? I read Life of Pi when it came out, and thought, What's all the fuss about? And then they made a movie from it, so I read it again to make sure I wasn't wrong. The second time I was sure it was a silly book.
I've never read any Coelho, just because I suspect people like to carry his books around and tell people, "I'm reading Coelho!" Because it makes them sound smart.
In high school if you wanted people to think you were so clever you carried, 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.'
It was also the same in Europe, but all the university girls carried 'Master and the Margarita.'
@@grantlovesbooksNow you need to read Coelho so that we, you and I, can bond over our dislike of his books hehe 😆
@@poondawg3244 Hello Poondawg! I just saw your support on Patreon! Thanks a lot, that is really very kind of you!
I checked out the blurb for The Alchemist, that looks like some proper 'Celestine Prophesy' bullshit right there.
I really shouldn't be prejudiced against any writer based on their name. I think I was a bit hesitant with Milan Kundera because his name just looked too East European cool-guy.
Still, to this day, I think people love Kafka just because of those two hard K-syllables. I've never met anyone who can tell me what's happening in 'The Hunger Artist.'
If you really want to see me get angry about a book check out the video I made for Kafka on the Shore, I was so pissed off, I went through it point by point and some of the major problems with that one.
Thanks again! Hope you are well!
Grant, do you have a link for Patreon? I'll see what I can do. I've never been a patron for anyone but you may as well be my first.
Hello Nikki, that is so very kind of you! I hope you will enjoy the extra stuff. The weekly blog was rather dour last week, I was in a bit of a mood due to school and my birthday. This week I will try to post a happier weekly update, and hopefully a a few photos.
Here is the link, I hope it works, it should!
www.patreon.com/grantlovesbooks
@@grantlovesbooks I’m not even necessarily interested in extra stuff….just want to support you. I guess what I mean is, even if there were no extras I’d still support.
@@nikkivenable73 Thanks Nikki! After a few years, there might be quite a lot to look at. I'm posting the new video very soon!
15:08 That's 100% bare-ass Trump on the cover! D:
Who is this, and how can you see the video? You must be one of my friends from Patreon, but I don't recognize your RUclips name.
Thanks for the comment, I'm just shocked because I didn't know how much access people have to an 'unreleased' video.
@@grantlovesbooks 'tis a patr(e)on :)
Why don’t you come back to Europe?
I think about that often. But I had my European experience. I think I made a mistake by staying in the same city/country for the entire time, it would have been better had I moved to try a different life in another region.
Now I am planning the Asian time of my life. We are making plans to move to Japan. I am looking forward to it, and really can't wait to escape from this Canadian world.
@@grantlovesbooks Sounds like 👍 a plan. I hear accommodation is affordable there. If it doesn’t work out then come to Germany. Easiest place in the world to get a citizenship these days. Personally my favourite country in Europe is the Netherlands. I dream of moving to the border region so I can pop over whenever I like.
@@scarba I would absolutely love to live in Germany. Thanks for the tip on the citizenship.
At the moment it is difficult to make any long term plans. We are mostly focused on taking care of Matthew, who is very energetic. My wife wants to go back to Japan, and go back to work. I am really quite content to just sit on the sofa reading books for the rest of my life, but I suppose I will eventually have to start teaching ESL again, which won't be bad. It's good to get out and socialize and see the world. (Unless it's Canada, then you might as well stay home and read.)
@@grantlovesbooks Kindergarten is free in Germany except a nominal fee for lunches if they stay all day, a huge advantage over other countries, something to consider. Once he’s in Kindergarten and gets tired out it will get easier. The most fun part is getting to buy all the lovely kids‘ books and read them in your language and then your wife read to him in hers. My husband can still recite some by heart and our youngest is 16 now. We are also a mixed couple German/Scottish. Till the time comes you can enjoy planning/fantasizing about your move to wherever it may be.