Відео

Useful overview, thank you. It is not possible to overstate how monumental this work is, as a masterpiece of verse AND as an expansion of Russian literary language. Reading this work is a long term project for me as a student of Russian language. For those English speakers reading it in Russian, the literal word-meaning translation by Nabokov is an excellent companion work in lieu of a dictionary. There’s nothing like the electricity of this work in its native language but I do note there’s at least four translations that capture the sense and rhyming convincingly.

Wonderful!

I'd actually be interested in your take on John Updike. He's been canonised for several years now on multiple booklists and his novels are still available in bookstores. But almost nobody I know has read anything by him---the one exception is a play I gave to a friend because it was Civil War-themed. Did a poll on my instagram throwing a wider net---only one other person had read anything by him. I'm interested in this seeming but fleeting phenomenon.

Interestingly, you didn't seem to have very positive views of Libra in your video review of the book.

My 10th grade English teacher suggested I read Dracula by Bram Stoker. I'd never heard of it and I loved it.

Hi Jack, is there any chance of you doing a Library tour/showcase of (the rest of) your Library of America volumes? Afaict you've only shown those by African American writers

Thank you, Jack, I have read Trollope, Dickens, Austen, and I would like to find 19th century works. I have read the architect, I can't think of his name and all of the Brontes. I need something new. I look forward to when you could do English literature. Today was fascinating as usual. I have read all of the Lawrence books. You are grounded in the ancients and I admire that. I have never approached the Russians. I look forward to what you will do and if you could think of a good 19th century work, I would enjoy that. Enjoy your work, Sincerely, Melinda Aimee Roth

Asimov's Chronology of the World opened up new vista for me, as it moved so clearly across era and region, discussing major historical and cultural developments. I still regularly revisit and find insightful passages. Wish I had it as a teenager (or even younger), and have gifted it to several friends.

Great video Jack!

Classics (here thinking especially of ancient classics) turn out to be so much more varied and unexpected than a person might conceive without having read any - not to mention pretty fun.

This was totally interesting. Loved the description of the old library - some definite dark academia vibes. I cannot think of a book that affected me that way until I was older. Austerlitz by Sebald kind of started me on the path of weird books with unusual meanings/endings/themes.

Hello. I totally agree It’s a really good book. The only thing about translation is that it translate word by word and most of the times not the real meaning. For instance “he taught with the pen” God didn’t mean the physical pen. In the Classical Arabic it can be also translated to trim things. Meaning to trim things and identify it. I used to believe it’s the real pen which didn’t make sense to me unless I read for Dr Mohamad Shahrour.

10:12 - Yes! I had the same reaction reading Catcher in the Rye as an adult, having not read it in high school. I couldn’t understand the hype. To your point, I think it mirrors/validates the perspective of the readers it resonates with at that stage of their lives. That’s why they form such a positive bond with it and have a fond nostalgia for it. I imagine it’s the same for this book. Reading it in your 20s, especially before the modern internet, it might be your first time being exposed to some of these ideas and having your own thoughts and sense of the world mirrored to you. It’s probably a perspective that young precocious writers or lit enthusiasts can resonate with at that stage of their development. I wouldn’t want those books to disappear. It’s good they exist and that their perspective is represented. But once you grow out of that stage, you kind of cringe at how you were/thought 😂 I think the critiques you mentioned are absolutely valid. DFW was clearly a very precocious, insightful, sensitive person. He grew up in a college town and his parents were both college professors. He played tennis and was in glee club. He likely led a very sheltered and interacted a lot with older academic types as a child. In his early-20s, you can imagine him trying to prove himself and trying to impress the adults in the room with his writing. It’s unsurprising then that the jokes are sophomoric, that his critiques of religion are pretty shallow (reflective of both his age and the time he was writing), and that his writing style is pretentious at times. It’s an experience I’m sure every writer has to go through. You can’t be sure what people’s honest opinion of your work will be until you put it out into the world for the first time. Then you learn real quick if you’re actually on to something.

Currently reading through it now in the same way you did before you made this video. I'm on book 8. There are so many parts that are stunning yet also parts that seem to come from nowhere. I'm reading the same translation as you did. I think if I ever re-read it, I'll do a different translation. So far I'm really enjoying it though.

Great video as always! If it's possible, could you tell me the title of a certain NYRB classic on the lower of your 2 NYRB shelves? It's probably the longest NYRB on that lower shelf -- it's a light-purple/gray and the title looks to be 2 words. Directly below the word "White" on the spine of Robert Graves' The White Goddess. I believe it's immediately to the left of Letters from Russia by Astolphe de Custine. I'd really appreciate it!

great books. thanks for sharing.

Hey, I also read The Consolation of Philosophy this past year! :D I really enjoyed it myself. :)

Great to hear about this. I read Boethius while young, not the Penguin, and it made a good impression on me. I suppose now as an old man I should really consider rereading it; then I scarcely understood any of the context. I await your video on the new translation.

Great books and reviews, thank you. I definitely want to check out the works by Sidney Alexander and Anthony Kaldellis.

Great review!

Wonderful review. You’re are really good at this! I haven’t thought of picking up Salinger even though I was one of the people who actually liked Catcher in the Rye in high school. Might have to change that. Thanks!

Great list of books! I’ll have to keep an eye out for Beyond the Horizon especially. Any opinions on a good choice for a second Pynchon? I just finished The Crying Lot. Interested in reading more but not quite ready to jump in wholeheartedly. Thanks.

Yes, to a separate video on the Consolation of Philosophy, please. :)

Beautiful selections! Made me put everything aside to re-read the octavo notebooks. Some of Kafka's shortest fragments are among his greatest treasures. And they force you to read at the slow pace that Kafka's writing always demands and always rewards well. I learned some of them by heart like poetry. Others like jokes. For some reason, I didn't read much literary non-fiction this year, but Helen Czerski's Blue Machine was a fantastic popular science book that opened a whole world to me. It's rare to find a popular science author who has a comprehensive understanding but still humility towards their subject - and who also writes well. And there are just so many astonishing stories in this book, I've been thinking about it for months.

Keep up the wonderful commentary!

A very “Jack” list in its breadth

Reading Kaldellis presently. It is unique. This video makes no mention of Warrern Treadgold. (?)

Great video! So many good recommendations to explore. Random question: where do you get your shirts? I love your style and don’t have any myself 😂

Adding Rios and Laszlo to my TBR. [Typo in Amma Darko's name.]

I am spurred to think on how entertaining it is to read a great book. I still remember things about certain books decades later. I remember scenes and characters that really resonated with what I know to be true, or that really challenged me to expand the scope of what I know.

This gentleman -- Dr. Robert L. Moore -- introduced me to Tillich: ua-cam.com/video/1wrQCuMUITs/v-deo.htmlsi=DRDhg074PPxdt3Rs

great video! I always wave back at my screen during your intros lol. you're the epitome of the kind of reader i strive to be. not only insightful and empathetic to different views, but a breathtaking button-down shirt game as well.

Rambling Raconteur, Could you do "Ulysses"? I have enjoyed this very much. //I read the daughter's book, and she explained during a posh private school stay, that a teacher while the daughter was stuck on the mountain helped her. The daughter stayed, the quote about angels entering in a life when a good person helps.

We are still waiting for the third part of "The Sleepwalkers" by Herman Broch !! I loved the first two videos about the trilogy

I might be wrong but i think you said you were going to do a longer video on Paradise Lost after your shorts were done. Was that true or were the shorts that longer content

I've been eagerly anticipating this video. Thank you!

Nice list. Happy New Year!

This video just renews my appreciation for how widely you read - and read critically too - which as an example sets a high bar to aspire to (though that may be a rôle you don’t care to assume 🤔). Thanks, Jack.

Hi! Great video. I always wanted to ask you: how big is your TBR pile usually? If you had to measure that as a percentage of all the books you own at a given time? Mine would be 30 unreads per 100 books usually

Having just begun Renard's Journal (edited and introduced by Julian Barnes), well, here I am. Nature Stories is now on my list. Your children are fortunate to have these, and I assume many other books presented to them. Also, I always strain my eyes when a shelf of books appears in the background and love all the Everyman editions. Subscribed.

Another JLC I guess you’ve read is A Perfect Spy? And, more vintage, but Eric Ambler wrote some great stories.

Definitely my favourite Salinger. Some years since I last read it. I can’t remember a lot of the details but it leaves an impressions, including a sense of what New York was - I imagine - like physically at the time.

Great overview and thank you for taking the time to put this out. I’m anxiously awaiting the remainder of the Octavia Butler volumes 🤞But this put some other LOA volumes on my radar that I wasn’t previously aware of.

This was great! I will definitely get to this book soon.

I loved hearing your appreciation for this book come through so strong! Beautiful writing. Glad you shared.

One take but so well articulated. You got to the meat of the themes and symbols much quicker than other reviews I’ve tried to engage with.

Looking forward to this trilogy.

I have read and enjoyed the first two volumes, hope to get to this last volume this year. Thanks as always for your thoughful reviews. Happy New Year

This trilogy is one of my favorite writings. I've read it through several times. I recommend it all the time as a book every North American needs in their head. I assigned it to my kids when I home-schooled them during the pandemic. It's just stunning. You don't need to share Galeano's politics to find great rewards in it. Indeed, I think exploring the deep history behind the politics of people like Galeano, as told in Memory of Fire, has given me so much more nuance in my own politics. It's also just a cracking good read!