📚 The most INTIMIDATING BOOKS on my TBR 😱
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- Опубликовано: 11 фев 2023
- Previously on my channel: The Perfect Novel:
• 237 pages of PURE JOY ✨
Marc Nash The Intimidating TBR tag: • Intimidating TBR Tag
Armen and Fyodor: • Джойс, Улисс. Эпизод 0...
📚 The most INTIMIDATING BOOKS on my TBR 😱
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I’m loving this Tanya fest of uploads ❤
I recommend Frank Delaney's Re: Joyce podcast. (The podcast can be found on Delaney's own website, or the episodes have been compiled on YT by socraticidiot). In it, Delaney goes through Ulysses line by line, with dramatic readings and explanations. I find his enthusiasm very engaging. He didn't finish the series before he died, but there are 368 five minute episodes. As for my intimidating reads, the Complete Poe and Montaigne's Essays are probably the longest. And recently I picked up The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth which written in faux Old English. I started Rushdie's Midnight's Children last year and almost immediately felt lost, but am hoping to give it another more sustained effort this year. I could go on. I'm very good at buying hard books, not as good at reading them.
Thank you for the podcast recommendation! I'll use it when I read Ulysses! I have the same problem as you with buying hard books and reading them at a much slower pace than I buy them :)
Dqan thank you so much for sharing this! I just bought Ulysses yesterday and the podcast you’ve recommended will help a lot! There’s also a great book club (Hardcore Literature Book Club), Ben McEvoy makes amazing videos on classics and he’s done Ulysses which I’d also recommend!
@@larastone9881 I really like Ben's RUclips videos. Great stuff.
Omg I barely finished hurricane season! It shocked me so much, I picked it up by only reading the blurb but I ended up feeling like I was reading a wattpad smut fan fiction. 😭😭😭
Hi Tanya! A few intimidating books I have on my tbr are "A School for Fools" and "Between Dog and Wolf" by Sasha Sokolov, because I think their both very complex (but short!) novels. The other is Milton's Paradise Lost.
Happy to see the videos coming back ☺️
Ohh I want to read A School for Fools myself one day. I don't own a copy yet but hopefully I'll get my hands on it eventually :) Good luck with your reading!
@@bookishtopics Thank you Tanya!
This was a really interesting video. Well done.
After making a quick survey of my bookshelves, I believe the most intimidating unread book for me is _The Metamorphoses_ by Ovid, translated by Horace Gregory. Those who have read it say that it’s great, but it has been ages since I read any Greek mythology.
A book I got forty percent through a few years ago and never got back to, is _Warped Passages - Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions_ by Professor Lisa Randall. I was getting lost in the concepts related to subatomic physics.
Wow, speak about diverse books! I would never even attempt to read a book on physics I understand nothing in that sphere. The title though does sound interesting! Metamorphoses are on my tbr too :) Good luck with your reading!
Love a big book! I'm reading Les Misérables this year
Good luck! I hope you love it! I need to get to it myself :)
I don't like graphic and gratuitous violence myself, but I really enjoyed Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Marlon James is a master of prose, and I think his work is worth reading through some heavy stuff
Thank you for letting me know! I'll brace myself at some point and read them then. Maybe once the third part comes out :)
I know what you mean about violence in books - I've also debated reading something because it's popular and/or has won awards, but is violent or full of scenes that I know will probably disgust me. Now I'm more at peace with not reading those - life is not even long enough to read all the books I will probably enjoy, so I'm not going to waste time on books that I actively dislike.
As for intimidating big books, there are many! One is The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili, and another is The Brothers Karamazov. Also, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
I am also like you in that I started A Suitable Boy and was enjoying it, but life got in the way and I put it down and never picked it up again. I should re-start that again soon too!
I read Ulysses with Armen & Fyodor in 2020 and in my humble opinion you don't HAVE to read any of the books you've mentioned before reading Ulysses. You MAY want to read them but you don't HAVE to. I'll try to explain why:
You MAY want to read Dubliners if you want to get a taste of Joyce's Dublin (or to be more specific, DublinERS, as the name suggests) or if James Joyce intimidates you as a writer - this book shows that he's not that intimidating after all.
I have not read The Portrait but from what I've heard about it, its style is closer to Ulysses, so it MAY be a good warm-up before the big boy. The Portrait's main character is also the main character of Ulysses but they are two completely different novels so it doesn't really matter that much.
As for the Odyssey, I feel like Joyce used parallels with it as a writing game for himself more than something intended for readers of Ulysses, so once again, one doesn't HAVE to read it. But of course having read it MAY make it a little bit more fun for you - trying to spot those parallels can be a nice game to play while reading Ulysses - just don't expect too much from it.
If there is anything I would really recommend you to read or learn before starting Ulysses, is a short guide to Ireland's history, specifically its fight with England for independence and Catholic vs. Protestant conflic. Тамара Эйдельман has a wonderful video about it in Russian - "Англия и Ирландия: история противостояния". Reading Hamlet can also be quite beneficial before one specific chapter but you can always pause reading Ulysses to have a quick side-read.
So I would say - while reading these books MAY benefit you, don't feel like you HAVE to read them before starting your journey with Ulysses - just go for it :)) Don't be too intimidated. It is indeed complicated and difficult but in my opinion it's not "super super" complicated or difficult. Armen's videos can also be wonderful guides - he's phenominal. I would also recommend you to get a Russian copy from Азбука Большие Книги if you can - the translation itself is wonderful so you could consult it from time to time, and there are also a lot of helpful notes at the back of the book (I would warn you against reading all of them though - they are way too detailed, so be selective with them).
Thank you very much for all the recommendations! It didn't cross my mind that some elementary knowledge of Irish history could be beneficial. I'll watch the video you recommend! And I'll for sure be reading it along with Armen's videos :)
If People are pressuring you to re read a book you hated then they are disrespecting your boundaries.NUFF SAID😤
I do agree to you when it is about graphic violence in books. Don't stand it in movies either. Not for me.
Hello! Which translation do you prefer for Dostoevsky? I would really love a translation that is as close to the Russian.
I loved The Starless Sea but totally dislike The Night Circus (I don't understand why this book is so popular. It's soo boring).
I'm not sure that you will like Gravity Rainbow. Based on your tastes which are similar to mine, I don't think it is your style. Not so Mich that you wouldn't understand, just won't like it.
Same for the Marlon James book
@@radiantchristina Yeah I have that feeling too but I still want to give them a try one day. Not now though. For now, I'll just have them in my collection. I bought them because I was afraid they'd go out of stock :)
I found this discussion to be puzzling and disjointed. You mentioned that you “don’t do sequels” that they are a “modern thing” in the genres, in particular, of fantasy and romance, neither of which you are especially partial to. In that case, why did you buy any of these books if you “read mostly classics?” Aren’t they all contemporary literature? If, in the main, you are averse to fantasy, why did you bother buying Black Leopard, Red Wolf / Moon Witch, Spider King? Moreover, is not one a sequel to the other? In effect, in this instance at least, you did do a sequel. You seem to have purchased, hastily and prematurely, these Marlon James’ books without first having adequately researched them to determine whether to buy them or not. Only if you determine that a book is worth buying should you consider the aesthetics of book-cover appeal (to aid in determination in part of which edition to buy for instance); to do otherwise would be to turn the old adage on its head judging a book by its cover.
On the question of the place of violence in books, that depends on the centrality of violence to the events in which the plot is set and, subsidiary to that, the degree of graphicness necessary to tell a story realistically. If you consider, as I infer you do, that (at least as far as historical fiction is concerned), a good book should (using your words in part) “draw on actual historical events that took place” at that time, then, if the actual historical events involve violence, depiction of violence is necessary to the extent that the characters have been affected by that violence. Were someone to write a sage about a Ukrainian family in Bucha in 2022, for instance, would it be legitimate to sanitize acts of violence committed by Russian occupation forces in the course of the “Special Military Operation”? The degree of graphicness is a thornier issue, the resolution of which depends on the subjective assessment of the author in terms of his/her artistic expression (rather than being driven by expected shock value to the prospective readership).
About 1 ½ years ago, you atypically devoted one video to contemporary Russian literature in which you recommended Prilepin’s books Обитель аnd Санкья. I read both and both involved a degree of violence. However, Обитель has been criticized for not depicting enough violence giving the readership a sanitized version of Solevki (yet, hypocritically, Prilepin has the temerity to castigate Solzhentsyn, who of course cannot defend himself from the grave, for taking liberties with Gulag history). Санкья is more graphic depicting is some gory detail, how, in an interrogation cell, police officers “worked over” the main eponymous character. In that context, the violence was appropriate. We do not expect the FSB to hand out lollipops to detainees))
In the 17th Century, Hobbes noted that life is “short, nasty and brutish.” That seems all the more true in the 20th and 21st Centuries and, since art reflects life, violence, perforce, must be reflected in genres of literature where a premium is placed on realistic depiction. (That obviously excludes some genres like children’s books.)
I'll split my answer into sections if you don't mind :)
1. Why I bought the books I showed if they are not classics.
Am I not allowed to? I do read MOSTLY classics. Look at the bookshelves behind me and look at the
videos I did before and you'll see that I do indeed read MOSTLY classics. However, mostly doesn't
mean ONLY. If I am interested in a book by a modern writer why on earth shouldn't I buy it?
2. Why I bought Black Leopard Red Wolf if I'm averse to fantasy and if it's a trilogy.
The same thing. By saying "I don't do sequels" I don't mean it as a rule and a MUSTN'T, rather "I haven't
done it". I think the only series that I read was Anne of Green Gables and I haven't even finished it. So it's
not a rule by which I live my life but rather a practice I haven't done because the books I read are mostly
stand-alones.
The same goes for fantasy. Am I not allowed to buy a fantasy book if it sounds interesting to me?
I have nothing against the genre. Just the books that I tried reading from it I didn't enjoy before. It doesn't mean that I think that I won't enjoy absolutely any book in the genre. To me, it rather means that I just need to keep on looking. So I look. In the case of Black Leopard Red Wolf, the info that it's based on African mythology (something I know nothing about and would be interested to learn) + beautiful cover + respected author sold me this book.
3. Did I buy Black Leopard Red Wolf without having done proper research first? Yes, I have. It's exactly
what I said in the video. So you haven't discovered America there.
4. Your thoughts on violence in books make sense.
@@bookishtopics Maybe I have to listen to your audio again paying closer attention to what you said but, as for "I don't do," as far as American colloquial expression is concerned, it does mean "I never do" as in "I don't do cocaine" (it means never with no exceptions). Yes, Ms. Tanya, I know from your many previous recordings, often excellent if you permit me to add, that you mostly read classics; it is just that the current video appears to be an outlier (not a representative sample) in that regard given that none of the books are classics. However, yes, by all means, do buy whichever books you would like. Perhaps, moreover, your library is so vast you have nearly exhausted the classics. Mine, regrettably, is considerably more modest.
@@richardcgs2001 What do you mean none of the books in the video are classics? I do mention some classics in the video. Isn't Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann a classic? Isn't Ulysses by James Joyce a classic? Isn't The Mysteries of London by George W.M. Reynolds a classic? Gravity Rainbow I guess a controversial one as to whether it's a classic or not but my copy is published in the Penguin Classics series so at least some people consider it a classic already. To be honest I don't really understand why you got so upset. Because I partially misused the word "I don't do sequels"?
@@bookishtopics Yes, an overstatement, at least marginally, on my part. That Thomas Mann “one,” i.e. Jacob and His Brothers, did go by me but I found out that it really is a series (dreaded sequels!!) of four books published between 1933-1943: Stories of Jacob (1933), Young Jacob (1934), Joseph in Egypt (1936) and Joseph the Provider (1943) - all poorly received by Nazi Germany at the time, no surprise as the Nazis had little use for religion, but also Western critics, surprisingly, received it poorly. Just wonder whether you confused that with Tokarczuk’s Book of Jacob in the sense that you said you refrained from reading the latter because you were not in the mood to read about a “controversial religious figure.” As best I can understand, however, Book of Jacob deals with a controversial Jewish sect in 17th Century Poland that ran afoul of both Jewish orthodoxy as well as Roman Catholicism (whereas Jacob and His Brothers deals with the “controversial religious figure”). In the 38 seconds (minutes 8:50-9:28) that you mentioned Jacob and His Brothers, you praised the work without really saying anything meaningful about it: “really good,” “really interesting” and “truly extraordinary” и так далее (too much fluff - not enough substance). I have to confess that I have never read Mann. I remember my father (who only stopped reading due to a sudden onset of blindness in the last year of his life) said that in his lifetime there were only two books he started that were so dense that he could not finish: Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and Marcel Proust’s Memory of Things Past.
Yes, Ulysses, discussed meaningfully for nearly 3 minutes (excising background on the Russian booktuber/philologist) is indubitably a classic; and you did accord 1 minute 17 seconds worth of information of Mysteries of London / Mysteries of Paris and that was my favorite part of the video. With respect to Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity Rainbow, given that it was published in 1973 (not 1991 as I first mistakenly thought), it can be on the verge of being considered a “classic” but not solely on the basis of the views of “some” (unnamed) people; some people, after all, also think that the world is flat and that Elvis is still alive. Among other factors, for a work to be hailed as classic, substantial time has to elapse to determine whether a book attains enduring influence. It may have given the elapsing of a half-century since its first publication. Glad that you mentioned that work, morever, because, your diction, usually quite crisp and audible, was somewhat garbled in the audio such that I could parse neither the title of the book not the name of the author. (Nor could I clearly see either the title or the name of the author in the video.) By the way, Amazon reviewers seem to either have loved or hated Gravity Rainbow.
Upset, with you, no chance. Just exchanging viewpoints and honest impressions. Your work is well-received and your efforts highly regarded. One side comment: It would be useful if you can have chapters, to which your viewers can navigate, to repeat review, with ease, particular books of interest that you discuss.
@@richardcgs2001 All of your messages read like you're upset, angry, and frustrated. I make these videos for fun and for free. So I'd recommend stopping the unsatisfied buyer attitude. Critique can be expressed in a friendly manner. None of your messages are friendly. If you don't like the video nobody forces you to watch it against your will.
I don't understand what is your problem with this list not having many classics? This video doesn't
give any false promises neither in the title nor in the thumbnail that there will be classics.
I do name the title Joseph and His Brothers in the video so there's no need for the sassy "one" quote.
I think that the title of the video and the thumbnail clearly state that these books are on MY tbr. And because I buy my books without consulting you it's only logical to conclude that there will be books like Joseph and his Brothers that you aren't interested in. For the reason that they were not well received in Nazi Germany or for whatever other reason. So Again I don't see a reason to be angry here.
If you don't want to read it. Don't. When I was looking into it, it got me interested. We're two different people. And you don't get to police my book choices. Just like I don't police yours.
Where in the video do I say that I dread series? Give me the time stamp. Don't put words in my mouth.
I can be afraid to start a series if it's big like in the case of Wolf Hall. But I don't base my decision on whether I'm interested in the book or not based on it being a part of a series or not. So there's no inconsistency in my being interested in Joseph and his Brothers. And we have already established that I misunderstood the phrase "I don't do smth". So what did you get on a high horse there for, saying that
this book is a series? It's of no consequence to me.
I don't think the status of a book whether it's a classic or not is defined by time. I think it's rather the influence that the book had in literature and in the book community. Wouldn't you say that a publisher like Penguin can have a say on how influential the book has been? After all, it's they who published the book in a series dedicated to classics so direct your dissatisfaction to them.
And because we're talking about this book now, clearly you've managed to understand what book I was referring to even if my audio wasn't very crisp at that moment. Don't you ever mispronounce or make mistakes in the foreign languages you speak? I don't see it as a reason to be frustrated. People make mistakes. So do I. If these mistakes bother you so much. Nobody is forcing you to go through all this suffering. There are many other great book tube channels made by native speakers or even non-natives with a much better pronunciation than mine. So feel free to watch them. It would be way more productive than sitting and expressing your frustration here.
Books aren't meant to be enjoyed, sorry but you have a completely wrong perspective on literature.
She talks about books are not meant to be enjoyed pay attention