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The Intellectuals and the Masses sounds really interesting, but I don't know if I'd be able to make it through something like that. I find classism pretty infuriating, so much so that I have a hard time reading histories or biographies that center around elitists, even when they're shown in a negative light. Have you ever seen the documentary Harlan County, USA? It's about a coal miners' strike in 1973, about a decade after Night Comes to the Cumberlands was published. It's probably my favorite documentary, and it's free here on UA-cam, too

@@MustReadMore I don't believe I have, but I'll definitely be checking it out. Thanks for the recommendation!

Kierkegaard wrote some of the most difficult prose I've ever tried to read. I like reading summaries of his work, but his actual writing takes so much effort to read, it's overwhelming. I don't know if I'll ever read Rose Madder. King's work post 1990 is very hit or miss with me, and I probably should get rid of the moldy book, but I've had it so long it would feel wrong to throw it out

Thanks for watching, and for commenting! One of the reasons I started my channel was because I wanted to make videos about short fiction, but I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do it. I don't want to spoil the stories, but some are so short that I don't know how to talk about them without talking about their endings. I think I'll probably have to make a few test videos and see what works best

@MustReadMore Yeah, that's an interesting challenge. In literary discussions in general, I usually toss out a lazy spoiler warning at the beginning and then proceed to speak in an unfettered manner about anything and everything, including the ending. But I probably favor that approach at least partly because I've never been terribly bothered by spoilers myself. Good point that some stories better lend themselves to discussions that don't reveal endings than others. Perhaps you could vary your approach based on the story, issuing a spoiler warning when revelation of the ending is essential? I don't know. It will be interesting to see what you come up with. My apologies if you've mentioned them in a video I haven't caught yet, but do any particular names spring to mind as favorite writers of short fiction? I'm just speaking of any that occur to you immediately; I know lists are a tricky business.

It probably didn't occur to me to use spoiler warnings because I rarely click away from a video with spoilers, but that will probably be what I'll do. Enter at your own risk, I guess. My interest in fiction really started with horror stories when I was young, and for many years horror was pretty much all that I read, so I like a lot of horror writers - King, Thomas Ligotti, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell - but as I've gotten older, I've branched out into other genres and some literary fiction. A lot of my favorite stories have been in anthologies, and unfortunately, I can remember the stories but not the names of the writers

Thank you, and thanks for commenting. I read The Andromeda Strain when I was much younger, and I think Crichton's writing style was too different from what I was used to for me to appreciate it at the time. I'm much more familiar with older science fiction now, so I might like it more if I were I to read it again

I hope you enjoy it!

MacLean's plots can be pretty unbelievable, particularly in the books he wrote later on in his career, at least of the novels I've read. I'm slowly working my way through all of his novels, and what has frustrated me the most is that MacLean would sometimes take a plot right up to the point of a big climax and then pull his punches so that the endings are weaker than they should have been

Thank you!

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I haven't read Asher Lev yet, but I want to one of these days. Remarque's other books are supposed to be really good, but I never hear anyone talk about them and I've never seen them in person

I know what you mean about feeling like you'd have to reveal too much of yourself if you were to write fiction. When I look back at my writing, I'm so aware of what I was thinking and feeling at the time that I'm embarrassed by how much of myself is right there on the page. I don't know if a reader would think about it that way, though, since they wouldn't know which parts are totally fiction and which parts aren't. Thanks for your comment, and the next shelf tour is going to post next Thursday or Friday if everything goes as planned

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the John Adams biography, too!

Thanks!

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that!

Thank you!

This one's a lot of fun, hope you enjoy it!

Thank you, I'm feeling much better. This tag was a lot of fun, I like the ones that I have to put a lot of thought into. I'd like to do a tag video every week, but some of these tags are much harder to answer than I expected

I watched the John Adams miniseries about two months ago and that's probably the reason John and Abigail came to mind so quickly, and Shirley Jackson's books are great, but I've always come away feeling like I didn't understand what was going on. Thanks for watching, and I look forward to your video!

Thank you, and thanks for making it, I really enjoyed answering the prompts for this one

Thank you, and thanks for watching. I really enjoyed your latest video in which you talked about whether or not Booktube is toxic, I greatly appreciate your perspective. I have to admit that I never expected to see a Buddhist monk on Booktube, and I'm glad you've added your voice to this great big conversation. Also, I tagged you before I knew you were in the middle of a very busy time of year, so please don't feel any pressure to do this tag

@@MustReadMore Thanks, I am happy to be part of the conversation! As far as the tag goes, we will see. It has been added to my list, it is just a matter of seeing what there is time for.

Thank you, and I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job with this tag!

Thanks for tagging me, this one really got my mind working much more than I expected it to

Thank you, I really appreciate that. I've been genuinely impressed by Georgette Heyer's novels, they're usually pretty solid in plot and character. I haven't heard of The Bear before, but I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you have a good week as well!

Thank you, and I'm glad you enjoy my reviews. I often wonder how I'm doing with book reviews because I'm still not sure exactly how to do them. I usually find myself feeling like I've either said too much or else not said enough. Hope you have a great Sunday, too!

Thank you, and thanks for watching!

The Roosevelt Omnibus sounds like a pretty cool gift, and I hope you had a great birthday!

I hope someday I'll be able to appreciate poetry. I've liked what I've read, it just hasn't captivated me yet. I've read Fletch since I made this video and I'll be talking about it in my next wrap up. Thanks for watching!

Thanks!

Thank you, and thanks for watching! I think that whoever gave me Grendel when I was a kid must have figured it wasn't a big deal because of the cover, or they thought that I'd like the cover and the illustrations but that I wouldn't actually read the book. I've heard a lot of good things about Seamus Heaney's translation, that's likely the one I'll read next if I come across it

Thank you, and thanks for watching! I wasn't sure I'd like Moby Dick either, but after I read the first couple of chapters I was hooked. The story itself is really good, and the long chapters about whaling are difficult to get through, but they do add a solid foundation to this epic battle between Ahab and the whale. I haven't listened to The Barber of Seville or The Marriage of Figaro, although I think I'd probably like them if I did. I do remember the Bugs Bunny episodes and I always enjoyed them. There was a cartoon I used to watch when I was a kid with an entire episode that was a parody of The Barber of Seville and Bizet's Carmen. I think it was Hey, Arnold but I'm not sure.

Thank you!

Thank you, and thanks for watching!

I've read _The Maltese Falcon_ years ago and I've also read _Red Harvest_ , but I think I was too young to appreciate them at the time. I have _The Thin Man_ , too, but I haven't read it yet. I've always heard good things about Raymond Chandler, but I've never read one of his books. I have _Farewell, My Lovely_ and _The High Window_ . I need to get to them one of these days. Thanks for watching, and thanks for commenting!

I really enjoyed The Burglar in the Library, I didn't expect it to be such a fun read. I watched your video a while back where you showed your Folio Society volumes of Gibbon, they look so much easier to read than the Brittanica set I have. I hope you're enjoying The Decline and Fall. I really liked the beginning on through to Constantine. (that's about as far as I managed to read)

It's a pretty good read, really. I went into it expecting it to be about cults and secret societies, sort of in the vein of what was going on in pre-war Germany, and even though it wasn't about that at all, I wasn't disappointed

Thank you, and I hope you'll enjoy The Apple Tree, too, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of it. I don't know much about Lawrence Block's novels, The Burglar in the Library is the only one I've read so far, but his Bernie Rhodenbarr series seems like a lot of fun. Believe it or not, I read mostly for entertainment, too. I'm lucky in that I usually find nonfiction to be as entertaining as fiction. However, I do have a lot of books which I find intimidating specifically because I don't expect them to be very entertaining, and I really do want to read them, but the time and effort involved usually scares me away

@@MustReadMore I just finished "The Apple Tree". I will be curious to see if it sticks with me this week and I continue to think about it, as is usually the case with a good short story. It was interesting to me that initially my sympathies were with the husband, having experienced people like Midge who are of the martyr mentality. But as the story went along, I did not find him at all likable. And I wonder if he had psychological issues based on guilt, or if there was something more supernatural going on with the tree. At any rate, I enjoyed the read. I wonder if it makes any difference reading the story on its own as opposed to reading it as a part of the entire collection of stories? These are the sorts of rambling thoughts I have when I read! Take care, buddy! 🙂

I'm glad you liked it. I had much the same experience with initially sympathizing with the husband and then gradually completely disliking him. I thought du Maurier really captured that relationship well, and like you, I still don't know if the story was supernatural or only a manifestation of the man's guilt or anger, and I like how du Maurier left me wondering about that. All the stories in the collection I read, other than The Birds and Don't Look Now, had that kind of ambiguous feel to them. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Thank you, and I hope all's well for you, too!

It's been years since I've read Akenfield, but I do remember thinking that Blythe was biased, but I didn't - and really, I still don't - know enough about the political and social issues of mid-century Britain to understand where he stood in relation to everything else. That's one gap in my knowledge I still have to work on filling. I do remember that I kept thinking of Blythe in the vein of the 70s New Age men's movement - the kind with the drum circles and forest retreats - along with Robert Blye and Sam Keen. Admittedly, I'm not sure if that was present in Blythe's writing or if my opinion was being influenced by all the other books I was reading at the time. Thanks for watching and commenting! It's wonderful being able to hear people's thoughts on these books. When I read them, I didn't have anyone to discuss them with

@@MustReadMore The amazing worldwide web. I think that kind of says it all, for me at least.

@@richarddelanet Alright, well, I thank you for watching and commenting

What I specifically remember about Salt, Sugar, Fat is how the people who produce and profit off these highly processed foods go out of their way to never eat any of it. I haven't read Pure White and Deadly, but I have heard of it. Also, I don't know who Lustig is. Thanks for commenting, it feels good to finally be able to discuss these books with other people

@@MustReadMore Yeah, good stuff. What you say sounds familiar but not something I retained, specifically. I have double checked the salty mouth hit with various quantities of the same... And I tend to scrutinise the Ingredients area on any packaging. The perfect ratio of salt, sugar and fat apparently works with doughnuts; people will leave chocolate or jam-packed or cream-topped and will choose a plain looking thing if the ratio is perfect, and they have an idea what they are buying having tasted it...

Thank you, I really appreciate that, and I hope you're doing great also!

Thank you. More subscribers mean more conversations and I'm excited about having more people to talk to. Thanks for watching!

@@musicroom7185 Thanks for watching and for telling me about Greitens. I had no idea he was a politician or anything about the scandals. I didn't even like his book that much, it seemed like he was trying to glorify his own wisdom and experience while acting humble and I didn't like that. I only kept it because he references a quote by Aeschylus I really liked. Fiction's coming up next, I've already made the videos and I'll be posting them soon

You might try starting with his short stories and seeing if you like them, they have the same tone as his novels. The first L'Amour I ever read was a collection called Beyond the Great Snow Mountains, its mostly adventure stories, and there are quite a few collections of western stories too, if you like westerns

@@MustReadMore Thank you for the advice. I will take heed.

I've been meaning to read Rebecca for a long time, it seems this time of year would be well suited for reading du Maurier's novels. I have several of her novels, but this short story collection is the first one I've read, and I think I'd enjoy them if I'd ever sit down and start them. There are quite a few collections of L'Amour's non-western stories. "Off the Mangrove Coast", "Night Over the Solomons", "Beyond the Great Snow Mountains" and the two in this video are mostly adventure stories of one kind or another set mostly in the 1930s and 40s, and written around that time, too. Thanks for watching!

Thanks, and I hope you're doing great, too!

Thank you, I'm always interested in histories of WW2. I've read several books that deal with atomic weapons, recently I finished Peter Wyden's Day One: Before Hiroshima and After - I talked about it in my last wrap up video. I have a couple of books by Andrew Roberts, I may read his biography of George III sometime soon. I've heard good things about Roberts, but I've yet to read any of his books - I have his biography of Churchill, too.

@@MustReadMore My issue with the atomic bombs of WWII is when they are politicised by whomsoever, amongst other things political, in order to drive a divide between people - and in so doing throwing away the (broad) reality - and therefore meaning - in history.

I think I know what you mean, though I'm not certain, and I'd love to hear more. Do you mean when they're removed from the context of an ongoing world war, which the allies desperately wanted to bring to an end, and instead treated as political acts by the allies, as though they should have been able to foresee the entirety of the Cold War? (Forgive me, it's still early in the morning here and I'm not fully functional yet - I'm really an evening person)

@@MustReadMore I mean a political strategy or campaign created in order to achieve something, that has an objective, a political objective - such as better relations between America or England etc and Japan. And in the process history might be casually revised, out of reality. Why would an American journalist travel to Hiroshima and write about how terrible and bad, and also how unnecessary it was, and keep to this line? What might his motivation be? To make America seem bad, unethical, corrupt, overmighty, to use as a weapon to beat down patriotism even...??! Perhaps. Perhaps?

Ah, I see what you mean. That's always a concern in any book, and, unfortunately, most people don't have a solid foundation of knowledge which would allow them to spot historical revisions or a hidden agenda or bias. I've seen it quite a lot in more recent histories I've read, and I know that while I can generally spot it, most casual readers, particularly younger readers, won't be able to - and the authors know this, which is what makes it so despicable, in my view.

Thank you, and thanks for watching

Thank you. I didn't get into the seedy aspects of Edward's character, his greed, his friendships with dictators, or the alleged plot he had to collaborate with the enemy to regain the throne. I don't think he was a purposefully evil man; I think he was so out of touch that he genuinely didn't grasp the consequences of his behavior - but I don't know enough about him to be certain. It must be awful to be a royal, particularly for someone like George VI - it seems very much like a gilded cage, and one from which there really isn't an escape. One great benefit of reading biographies about people like George VI is that it brings them to life, humanizes them, because it's so easy to overlook their individuality, their emotions and desires. Thanks for watching, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Yes, it's nice to know that he was able to have at least a few years of tranquility, and that he had his wife and daughters with him throughout his years as king. I've realized that I neglected to say much about his married life, and I wish I had said that he went out of his way to be a better father than his own, that in no way did he emulate George V's behavior. That's important and I shouldn't have left it out - that's one of the hazards of doing these videos without any notes

Thank you, and thanks for commenting. That's wonderful that you got to meet him. I've only read one of Block's novels so far, but I hope to read more soon because I really enjoyed The Burglar in the Library