I also select the best 100 books of the century: Friday Reads
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- #booktube #fridayreads #nytimes
I talk about my reading for the week and blather for a bit about the New York Times list of the top 100 books of the century (so far).
Here's the list:
www.nytimes.co...
Books mentioned:
Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Arthur Ashe a Life by Raymond Arsenault
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
Channels mentioned:
@davidnovakreadspoetry
@saintdonoghue
@jack_edwards
Im going to do a read of the whote of Search for list time next year. At the moment I'm watching talks about Proust, reading books about him, criticism and biographies. I may not hold out to next year. I tried to read it in my 20s and no dice, I hated it, but I've dipped into it recently, and I love the allusions, references to art, and the slow pace.
I planned to read all of Proust this year, but It's probably going to stretch into 2025. Eh. It took him his whole life to write, so why rush?
@@JamesRuchala Proust only wrote 10 pages a day, so definitely not a book to rush, and really repays slow, deep reading. Readings not a race or are there any prizes for the most books read. It's the quality of the books and if the reading thst counts IMHO.
I read all the old books on your list, including Lorna Doone, but I do live in Devon, where it is set. I've read War and Peace several times, in fact it's one of my current reads, or reread it its case.
The 1915 list, you mean? Their top 10 is pretty solid, though Ivanhoe and Lorna Doone have fallen-off in popularity. I would like to read both, and Sterne and Fielding before too long. War and Peace is, of course, amazing.
@@JamesRuchala yes, sorry I should have said. R D Blackmore wrote other books, but they are certainly Lees well known. I know the settings in Exmoor, so it makes imagining the plot easier.
Yes, Tolstoy's War and Peace is my all time favourite novel, with Middlemarch second. I am so uncool in my reading, I recently read Sur Walter Scott's The Antiquary. I like him quite a lot. I'm really getting into Proust, I can't see me lasting until January to start.
I've read 2 books from the list, another 12 that I'd like to get to. I'll be honest, there were a lot of books on that list that I hadn't even heard of.
Your reading seems more slanted towards classics, so that's reasonable. I know you also read poetry, which barely gets a mention on this list
It is so lovely to see Ray Arsenault mentioned on booktube. He wrote my very favorite southern history article-about the cultural impact of air conditioning. It is both funny and brilliant! I still haven’t read the bio, though…
I'd love to read that AC article. Arsenault is certainly very thorough
@@JamesRuchala “The Cooling of the South” is available on JSTOR. With a gmail address, you can sign in as an independent researcher and read it online for free. (If it isn’t clear how to access it, I’m happy to talk you through it.)
I’ve read 38. Some interesting choices in the list.
Your curiosity about new writers is a model I could learn from. I'd be interested to know what the Bookish 10 would be.
I have not read any from the list but do own 9 I expect that I will read half of those within the next year
Let us know what you think of them. I've got most of the top ten sitting around here somewhere
It's nice that we can read Proust these days in light of what we know now about Dreyfuss, and the history of anti-Semitism all over Europe (not just Nazism).
Well, yes. Proust was a staunch Dreyfussard, but his narrator is mainly keeping out of the discussions. I wonder what it would be like to live in such a bitterly divided society (sarcasm)
I counted 36 read from that NYT list. I have some grievances. No Louise Erdrich!? Or any other indigeneous authors. No Colm Toibin!? Pride and Prejudice is a special pleasure. I'm rereading Sense and Sensibility for Jane Austen July.
I truly believe if this came out in a different year there'd be Erdrich, Gluck and Tokarczuck in place of Kingsolver, Fosse and Ernaux. If they re-ran it this week Munro would be gone
@@JamesRuchala So true.
Your "channels mentioned" section lists the three sexiest men on BookTube, by sheer coincidence!
I really wonder how many of the other "well-known authors" from the 1915 survey you've heard of--besides Oliver Onions, of course.
The end of The Guermantes Way is very sad. Swann also shows up.
Thanks for watching. The middle of Guermantes Way was pretty sad. I'm approaching the end now.
Catching up a bit, but wanted to say don’t be intimidated by Jon Fosse’s Septology. I’m reading it right now and it’s not challenging although there’s a lot to think about. It just flows. Granted I’m Norwegian, but I think it would translate well although some traditions and such mean more to us possibly.
Wow! thanks for watching Norwegian viewer. I've got a copy of the Fosse's Trilogy here that I'll probably read before giving Septology a try. Either way, it's got to wait for me to finish Proust. Whenever that happens.
Proust seems like a huge undertaking 😅 Not much intimidates me, I think it’s Proust and St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica. I think those are the two that truly intimidates me. Proust mostly because I have a feeling I might not like him. Summa Theologica because it’s an absolutely enourmous work 😅. Either way they are both on seperate reading projects I do.
Septology is my first Fosse strangely, and I love it. Definitely want to read more! I hope you enjoy it when you get to it, but there’s always a ton of things vying for our attention!
Thank you for a great channel! I really enjoy your thoughts on books.
Happy Saturday, James. NBC interviewed the NYT's book editor this morning discussing the list. Did you know that Jenna Bush was one of the voters? I'll link it separately in case it gets flagged as spam.
Thanks for the link GV. That guy looks pretty satisfied with himself. Of course, he's a Timesman. Yeah I think I mentioned Bush and Sara Jessica Parker in my blathering video.
@@JamesRuchala I stopped reading the Times book review over 20 years ago. Even then, when I did read it I rarely was inspired by their recommendations. Something about how they reviewed books even by authors I liked left me uninspired. In contrast, the unaffiliated New York Review of Books was a much better and richer resource to me for decades.
@@LibroParadiso-ep4zt I haven't read it for a while either, mostly having been a Post reader for several years. But you can't deny the influence of the Times on the everyday middlebrow reading public. This list, carp about it though we will, is going to influence the shopping carts and wish lists of those folks for some time to come. Me, I'll take advice from my booktube cronies, thanks.
@@JamesRuchala It's true about its influence with the reading public. At one time it was impossible not to discuss a book without it coming up in conversation In addition to the NYRB's, the British Times Literary Supplement, which I also had a subscription to and came out weekly, was a rich source for new books from around the world. NYRB, TLS, The Financial Times, London Review of Books, and the New Yorker subscriptions introduced me to so many interesting books. I decided to cancel those subscriptions several years ago because I spent more time reading them (and buying books) with little time to read the new books! I still reference them online though.
You beat me to a reaction video.
There's room for all! I look forward to your reaction.
Hmm. I am just about to start with Proust, having hesitated a lifetime. This is of interest to me, because I suspect I will have forgotten it by the time I read as far as this into the work. It prods me on. Other hesitational monuments include Joyce and Beckett. Pray for me, to Mnemosyne.
I would be delighted if I could lick my own nose as well as your dog is able to do.
Haha. Thanks for watching. I started reading vol 1 in January. This morning I was reading the middle of vol 3 and there's a reference to a character who hasn't been mentioned in probably 500 pages and I'm trying to remember "is Cottard a good physician or not?"
NYT's book editor
ua-cam.com/video/16P0NEAzeQI/v-deo.html
I'm not looking at the entire list... but I noticed I've read the #1 book on that NYT list, and guess what? It is okay, but I'm not a fan, and declined to read the sequels. To each his own, right? Strange, but I just heard about Lorna Doone on another Booktube channel yesterday - in a very old video, and put that on my TBR list.
Let's start a mini-renaissance of Lorna Doone reading! Maybe next summer we'll have "Doone in June" as an event.
@@JamesRuchala ... I would do that! The rhyme ..
I’m doing Proust in 2025. Quick eyeball count is 35 read off that list. Disagree with a few choices.
Hope you'll give us a reaction video!
Jack E recently got a dog
Well he's on the right track then.
The best books of the 21st century? Don't care. I've been working all my life to catch up with the 19th and 20th centuries. I'm only going to live into the first third of the 21st. Not going to learn to care about Taylor Swift, either.
If you watch my channel for a while, you'll see we're kind of on the same track, as I mostly read 19C and 20C classics with some newer releases if they interest me. Like whatever music you like, but there's something odd about an old guy ardently insisting on the greatness of TS.
Good day, James. Another top 100 list?
Death by lists.
I recognized the historical and biographical books and a handful of the novelists. I think I've seen youtubers talk about many of these books, but none of the videos register. Of all the graphic novels published, those two are picked? Apparently the voters don't read many comics, which is typical about literary people I know who look down on comics. I doubt many of the voters are well read in the medium.
Prefer your Q and C lists. I feel about NYT as you seem to feel about Alice Munro.
Thanks, Patricia. I was a Times subscriber for a long time, then not for a long time. Trying them again until I get enraged. It's election season so that may be soon.
The Times readers definitely do not read many comics. Of all the graphic novels, those two are the most like the "normal" books that Times readers like. So no, not too representative. Maus and Watchmen and Sandman are too old. You, as an actual enthusiast of the form, would have better picks.
@@JamesRuchala I am curious why they'd even bother to include comics and graphic novels here. Is it just a polite nod to the medium? It's likely to produce more of an insult (no offense to the winners; good for them) among cartoonists. Speaking of masterpieces in the medium and the fact that you like Dune, I recommend looking into Alejandro Jodrowsky and Juan Gimenez's "The Metabarons," one of the Dune inspired books he wrote after his aborted film project. Along with "The Incal" drawn by Moebius and "The Technopriests," they are the Dune landscape he imagined. Brilliant graphic novels.
I think youtube will flag it as spam, but I"ll attempt to link fellow youtuber Earl Grey channel. Earl Grey has one of the best graphic novel collections I've seen. Known him here for many years. In Europe graphic novels are held in high esteem and their production and quality of their hardbacks and paperbacks exceed ours most of the time. In case I can't link it, his channel is Earl Grey and type The Metabarons.
Oh no S.K. has been watching me? I’d better up my reading of horror fiction so as to impress him. 😮
(I’ve heard he has another secret list in which more than one of his own titles made the cut btw… just saying.)
That's hilarious.
I was disappointed with the list. I had only read 16 books and 17 that I would like to read. I didn’t like that we had more than one book by an author especially when it’s a series.
I was surprised that I'd read as many as I have. I want to read all of them but won't, that's a guarantee.