Man I would be broke from buying so many books if I lived in the UK! I'm from Argentina and overall we have a good reading culture, but we don't have bookstores that big and diverse. I admire how much love is put in collections from the UK and the USA such as Everyman's Library, Library of America or the Loebs (I do believe that in general the best resources to learn classical languages are in english!)
Greetings all the way over in Argentina, Jonathan! I love that you mentioned Library of America - I have a handful of those turning up today: Loren Eisley, Ursula le Guin, and James Baldwin. Wonderful publishing house :)
And there's CHARITY SHOPS with cheap books of around 1 pound!! It's absolutely heaven for book lovers. Just went on holiday there and filled up a camper van with all the books 😅
I found your channel recently and have been enjoying these immensely. I cannot put into words the joy it is to listen to your immense knowledge and passion for reading literature and your discussions. This bookstore is a treasure palace. You're very fortunate to live in London. Those bookstores put the basic ones here, in the states, to shame. I'd be there for hours wandering around. That classics section! I loved reading various ancient authors and I took classical studies as a history major. I love all types of literature and from various countries. I started reading A Tale of Genji but have to go back to it. I was reading Bleak House, Lord of the Rings, Frankenstein again because they go along with the Autumn weather. Reading has always been a way to be part of another world; to escape into another time, place, character. Your videos are amazing as it is a shame not to be able to have discussions as there are so few people who are into literature and books. I am hoping to go to London in December 2022 to see the Cure and after seeing this bookstore, I will have to make my way there when I'm in London.
I agree with you. But there are other advantages of this constant reading: it creates memories, which become more important with age; it crowds out TV-watching, which is such a terrible waste of a good mind; it wards off loneliness, if that needs warding off, because it shows that we are not alone in our experience; and it provides us with good models in terms of lives lived, and bad models to avoid. Tremendously useful, there is no question about it.
Just discovered this channel this morning. Very informative. Benjamin is not only attractive but intelligent and informative. Now, to start reading books again.... thanks.
Loved your bookshop journey and could feel your delight and enjoyment of new editions and discovery of old favourites. Totally experience the same joy in a good bookshop. Please do more discussions as well as lectures. Appreciated.
I am currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and am so immersed in the story!! Thank you for this vlog, it’s a nice change of pace.
Please do more of these, wiil you? Even though I won't be able to go for such an extensive collection right now (hopefully in the future!), I would love to see you explore the bookstores going through them. I deeply relate to the joy of buying books after walking around a bookstore browsing tonnes of books!
I’m visiting London and York for the first time this fall with my sister from the US. We’re are big readers and plan to hunt down some great books! I really love these vlogs.
Hi Ben, Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and all the lectures available online. I live in Sweden and visited London recently, of course this bookstore (and Daunt too). The poetry section is amazing. I found a hardback Harold Bloom invention of humans. So happy! Thank you! Keep on making contents. Happy reading 😊
Hi Ben. I just wanted to thank you for sharing your incredible passion for, and knowledge of, literature. Your enthusiasm is endearing and infectious. Please keep making the videos. I'm 59, and books are my best friends!
Thank you, Benjamin. This video made may mouth water! Here in the states you can't find books stores like that (not in California, anyhow). But, it's almost a good as going, to go vicariously, through this video. Its always a treat to watch your videos!👌😄
Bought Genji years ago and still haven't started reading it - perhaps I might try your reading plan of one chapter a month. Love these types of videos by the way - always fun to see inside new bookstores.
Amazing! It's definitely one of those books (like Musashi) that can lay around for a while. One chapter a month is quite low pressure and will be a fulfilling way to live with the book. I'd love to hear how you get on :)
Thank you for giving a shout out to the designers of the book cover I'm an artist and I've always loved good book covers.. usually they get overlooked overlooked
Really enjoyed this video because I love looking at bookshelves and reading the titles of the books. Also, the idea of visiting a bookstore virtually in London, a place I have never been, was really cool, I have that exact copy of Tales of Genji. I would not read that way, spread out over a year. There are a lot of characters and it can be difficult to keep track of them and how they are connected. It is a wonderful book that describes the life and culture of a very sophisticated Japanese society.Worthy of a re-read.
You're lucky to have access Ben. Haven't been to U.K. in years. I came across your channel 6 months and you've inspired me to dive back into the classics as I'm in retirement now. I hear the ticking of the clock at 74 and there is much I want to get to. Just finished Tess of the Durbervilles. The ending caught me by surprise! I recently picked up my first Everyman in a Saigon bookshop. Appropriately it was Collected Stories by Somerset Maugham! Keep up your good work.
I love a bookstore organized by publisher. Much fun to browse and discover unfamiliar titles from favorite authors. Years ago there was a bookstore like this one in Berkeley, near the University of California. A great bookstore.
tysm for existing and yes we need more of these. Personally wouldn't even mind a day in your life type vlog or if you go on a trip to a museum or art gallery and take us along because in all honesty I just love learning from you.
Loved this! I love your lecture style videos but would really appreciate it if you could do more of these bookstore vlogs. They are really enjoyable and fun and it's always nice to see all these beautiful places and books all the way from India! 😁 Thank you for all the effort you put in your channel and content. I'd love it to see your channel grow more. ❤️❤️
Aw, thank you so much :) I actually have a bookstore vlog for Oxford's Blackwells coming out quite soon. Thank you for watching over in beautiful India :)
I paused the video when you mentioned meeting Pratchett just to write how envy I am. Also, if you could film a video about the best translations to English of classics that would be great. I know there are quite a few and it will take forever but I think because bed translations some canon gets bed rep. It happened to me with so many classics. And, thank you for this channel. It's fantastic.
The problem is that when you remove the cover from a book, you ruin its value in terms of collectibility. 90% of a book’s value to collectors is in its dust jacket.
Wow, I'd love to visit this bookshop! In Germany, even the bigger chain bookshops rarely have more than one edition of a book. They do have a classic section, but you can't compare it at all. Often they have only got one work per author which looks as if it had gone through 1000 hands already. I was surprised to see the Leuchtturm notebooks. I used to have them as my book journals but recently they bleed through a lot more, so I won't buy them anymore.
How great that UK bookstores have such a large selection of classic literature in so many editions. Unfortunately, there is no such choice in Poland, especially when it comes to English literature. That's why I love watching vlogs from bookstores in UK. You can feel the spirit of true and living literature there!
I like to buy books from the antique store as well (of course they are less expensive) and I got so excited to find Proust I bought the whole series of In search of lost time and I can't whait to start reading them.
I LOVE antique and second-hand stores. You always find such cool books. I'm thrilled to hear you picked up the whole series :) Would love to hear your thoughts once you start!
Loved the blog tour. Do a series of favorite bookstores. The owners should give you discounts for the fantastic tours. Since I retired to a town on the pacific coast of Mexico I don’t have access to English bookstores and libraries. I have a great quiet place to read with a partial ocean view though. It takes a week or two to get books from Amazon. My Spanish only gradually gets better - oddly I can recognize Mexican accents - if I’m watching a documentary from Spain I can usually tell if they’re from Spain because Castilian Spanish is so different. Oddly I’ve spent more time with the Russian writers because I already studied it and I love the sounds of the language. Dostoevsky is hard - even for Russian speakers. Just a small tiny request - Dostoevsky’s first name is pronounced “fyo” “dor” - two syllables. There’s a minor cringe effect when you say “fee-oh-dor.” In Cyrillic the name is spelled "фëдор." The umlauted e ( ë ) is pronounced "yo." If you really want to impress a Russian place the tips of your upper teeth on your lower lip. Slide your teeth inward, over your lip while making the "fff" sound - it's a more strongly aspirated "fffhhh." Almost like forced air is making the lower lip pop out. "ffffhhyo - durrr." Roll that "r" a bit. Russians sometimes complement me on my Russian. I thinks it’s because I walk down the street repeating Russian expressions in my head. What I think they really mean is that “for an English speaker” my pronunciation is good. I’ve gotten quite a bit out of your videos about Dostoevsky. A writer who all too well understood where the 20th century was headed - partly because a talented, promising was almost killed by firing squad and spent several years in the labor prison system exposed him to so many kinds of Russian and human behavior it affected him the rest of his life. Some of the best insights I got were from reading how a lot of Jewish readers try to figure out what to make of Dostoevsky’s faith in Jewish terms. It led me to quite a bit of reading about early Jewish, Greek and Christian thought which was often quite different from how we think about Christianity and faith today. I never knew that many desert peoples are monotheistic - I always thought Judaism was the first monotheistic faith.
Thank you so much. I'll definitely do a series :) Very interesting insights on Dostoyevsky. I would agree that, by writing of his time, he very much showed where we were heading. Funny that it often takes a gun pointed at one's head in order to drum up some prophecy! Regarding Dostoyevsky's relationship with Judaism, I've always read his main flaw as being anti-semitism. I would love to be wrong, but there are certainly some passages that seem to cement that impression of him for me.
This was fun! The matching covers in the classics section look tremendously satisfying. And, man, that is a huge wall of everyman's library editions. I didn't know about everyman's before joining the book club, so I never looked for these in the bookstore. Now I wonder what that looks like at my local Barnes & Noble. Regarding ancient classics, I would be delighted to read some along with the club! I know my 5-year-old copy of Homer's Iliad is itching to come out of the bookshelf and get some air 😂
Thank you, Fiona! :) Ah, I'm doing Everyman's marketing job for them I think. When they realise, I would like it to be known that I'd be happy to receive some first editions of their books as remuneration. I have Homer on the secret schedule for the beginning of next year. There's somewhat of a hidden theme in this year's choices, and next year is going to be a tension between ancients and modernism. Homer, Aristotle, Virgil, Plato, sitting side-by-side with Joyce, Woolf, Morrison, McCarthy. Should be fun!
I would listen to Librivox while I worked from home and I developed an affection for Wilkie Collins. I just found your videos yesterday and appreciate your suggestions. I pulled out Emil fran Lonneberga and "read" a page in Swedish. Just a page at a time and using a Google search bar photo to get a translator. Thank you, Jeff
The Tale of Genji was one of Marguerite Yourcenar’s favourite books. I believe she rearead it regularly throughout her whole life. I’m a huge Yourcenar’s fan and, inspired by her, I bought the book years ago. Now I only have to find the courage to read it 😉 By the way, a Japanese friend of mine was also rather dismissive abou it…
Very nice : ) Ah, yes, all of my Japanese friends told me not to bother with it lol - I understand where they are coming from. They also warned me away from Yukio Mishima, imploring me to focus on Natsume Soseki instead!
The Everyman's collection is stunning! There's nothing like that here in the US bookstores, at least not that I know of. We must buy them online. British book covers are the best!
You could make a great contribution by structuring a series of lectures showing how history and literature evolved hand in glove from Beowulf through the Anglo Saxon Chronicles and on to the Canterbury Tales. Those of us with sketchy grounding in these topics would be much in your debt if you brought these times to light.
I am glad to see that you started experimenting with youtube, i really enjoyed this video. Sadly there are no libraries this big in my country xd Personally, i enjoy your "lecture style" videos, so i guess i would enjoy a mixture of both, but just do whatever you enjoy of course
Wow this is just amazing I can't believe these are just laying around i have been dying to get my hands on latin Greek literature ah tragedy poetry and complete works in everyman's.. this is heaven.
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French book covers are indeed very different from English ones. Not many illustrations but they can be very elegant too! Do you know La Pléiade collection? It's absolutely fantastic! There are also La collection blanche by Gallimard and Les éditions de minuit. Beautiful books ;-)
I also like to take the dust jacket off of my Everymans books, but I have a question for you. What do you do with the jackets themselves? I really like the look of them I just prefer to read a hard cover when its bare, but I dont want to get rid of the covers either!! What a first world problem
I recently discovered Pushkin Press, they publish a lot of obscure but fantastic authors from around the world and yes, a lot of Russians too. Recently read Gaito Gazdanov's The Buddha Returns and it was marvelous! Highly recommend! Love this vlog Benjamin, it's really different from ppl just walking around and holding up books..the narration and your thoughts really elevate the experience.
Yes, I noticed they had some names I hadn't seen before. I think that's tremendous and they're doing a really lovely job :) I shall have to check out The Buddha Returns - thank you for the recommendation! And thank you :) I'm glad the video went down well. I shall have to do another - Daunt Books in Marylebone next!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Exciting! Can't wait! Yes, I found Gazdanov rivetting.his best work is supposed to be The Spectre of Alexander Wolf..he was a fellow emigre and friend of Nabokov's and his style has been described as "if Nabokov wrote thrillers" 😊
Enjoying your videos from across the pond! Have you ever considered narrating? You've got a great voice and accent. I'm currently reading the Hobbit for the first time...I have a few books going right now. I also picked up a copy of Beowulf a little while ago, I'll have to see what version it is. Anyway, happy reading!
Translations of Tale of the Genji? With translations you're probably looking at fidelity and style so partly personal taste, partly technical ability of the translator. There was a fellow who translated The Mathnawi of Rumi "from the original Persian" - and the guy did not actually know Persian. Another famous Orientalist, whose name escapes me, "translated" the Quran from Syriac - it's in Arabic, not Syriac, which is rather like translating Shakespeare "from the original Dutch". When choosing translations, it pays to do a little research first, and for major authors and works - Proust, Tolstoy, Cervantes, consider learning French, Russian.... whatever, particularly if you contemplate reading these works multiple times. Most English speakers can develop reasonable reading competency in most Western languages in around 1000 hours of study, or about 12 to 18 months. Non Indo-European languages will typically take longer to master. Pete Buttigieg, Biden's Secretary of Transportation, speaks multiple languages and learned Norwegien because there was something he wanted to read.
I recently came across your UA-cam channel and I really enjoy your insights. I may have missed it, but have you done a program on George Meredith? He's probably my favorite British novelist right now, but it seems that no one reads him anymore. (Certainly not in the US.) Is that true in the UK as well? I love the Egoist, and even The Shaving of Shagpat. I'd be very interested in opinion of him. Best, Rob in NYC.
Have you ever read any Maria Edgeworth? I would be interested to see a video on her sometime. Thank you for all of your amazing content. You are a true inspiration, thank you for your work.
I just discovered your channel today and found your content quite helpful. It is quite surreal to see that you like to go to one of my local Waterstones lol
Ah, Murakami! I'm perhaps more of a Yukio Mishima or Yasunari Kawabata kind of guy, but I've read and enjoyed quite a few of Murakami's stuff. I actually have a lot of thoughts about him and intend to do a Murakami Podcast episode soon - perhaps focusing on Kafka? He creates quite a magical world, but I've been disappointed in how he ends his novels. Great introduction to Japanese literature and a supreme craftsman though :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Im glad you enjoyed. it looks beautiful. I think I follow water stones on IG. For now, it's all I can do and Perfect! No rush! I know you are quite busy. But whenever you are inclined... I'd love to hear a podcast on the subject.
A humble request. As you mentioned, you will at some point start reading Indian Literature. Just in the case of "Indian ancient works", kindly try to stick with Indian translators. This is because, in most of the Western translations I came across, I encountered 'some' mistakes in interpretation (of course unintentional). By the way, amazing videos. Respects, from Kolkata.
Thank you for the guidance, my friend :) I've heard this is a difficulty for Westerners coming to Indian texts, so I will be vigilant. Ultimately, I hope to learn Sanskrit one day too!
I have just discovered the lovely world of Everyman’s. Picked up Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol and stripped it naked to reveal it’s BEAUTIFUL burgundy red hardback. Will definitely collect more Everyman’s!!
I have! I enjoyed Brighton Rock many years ago and would like to revisit it. I also have a stack of almost everything Greene has ever written, but have yet to really foray into him. From the little I've read, I've been impressed. Which of his books would you recommend for me after Brighton Rock?
@@BenjaminMcEvoy The Power and the Glory is a beautiful book! You have to check it out - it’s a little slow at the start but once you get into it you won’t be able to put it down.
@@tomkennedy9835 Thank you so much. You've totally sold it. And I luckily have a very old but beautiful version of that very book. I'll let you know my thoughts :)
I'm French and I HATE covers of French books, Most of them are just plain ugly, it'sa shame. French editors are lazy on this point. Really, covers are so important to catch the eye and spark interest!
Ah, I've heard this a few times from French readers. Funnily enough, Japanese say the same thing but I always found their editions to be rather quaint. Perhaps the French editors think the quality speaks for itself? After all - Hugo, Proust, Flaubert, Balzac, and Guy de Maupassant!
I am glad to see that you started experimenting with youtube, i really enjoyed this video. Sadly there are no libraries this big in my country xd Personally, i enjoy your "lecture style" videos, so i guess i would enjoy a mixture of both, but just do whatever you enjoy of course
Thank you so much :) Ah, the library certainly is dying - which is a shame. I think I'll do an 80/20 split going forth. Mainly lectures, with some lighter stuff thrown in here and there.
@@BenjaminMcEvoy it is sad that such a beautiful library is dying... The same thing is happening in my country actually.. And whatever content you make i will be always looking forward to it!
Man I would be broke from buying so many books if I lived in the UK! I'm from Argentina and overall we have a good reading culture, but we don't have bookstores that big and diverse. I admire how much love is put in collections from the UK and the USA such as Everyman's Library, Library of America or the Loebs (I do believe that in general the best resources to learn classical languages are in english!)
Greetings all the way over in Argentina, Jonathan! I love that you mentioned Library of America - I have a handful of those turning up today: Loren Eisley, Ursula le Guin, and James Baldwin. Wonderful publishing house :)
And there's CHARITY SHOPS with cheap books of around 1 pound!! It's absolutely heaven for book lovers. Just went on holiday there and filled up a camper van with all the books 😅
My favs are the penguin classics black stine I don't have any yellow but there tempting
The way you talk about books makes me endlessly inspired to read more and stay excited to read the great works, thank you for doing what you do!!
Thank you so much 🙏 You've absolutely made my day!!
I found your channel recently and have been enjoying these immensely. I cannot put into words the joy it is to listen to your immense knowledge and passion for reading literature and your discussions. This bookstore is a treasure palace. You're very fortunate to live in London. Those bookstores put the basic ones here, in the states, to shame. I'd be there for hours wandering around. That classics section! I loved reading various ancient authors and I took classical studies as a history major. I love all types of literature and from various countries. I started reading A Tale of Genji but have to go back to it. I was reading Bleak House, Lord of the Rings, Frankenstein again because they go along with the Autumn weather. Reading has always been a way to be part of another world; to escape into another time, place, character. Your videos are amazing as it is a shame not to be able to have discussions as there are so few people who are into literature and books. I am hoping to go to London in December 2022 to see the Cure and after seeing this bookstore, I will have to make my way there when I'm in London.
I agree with you. But there are other advantages of this constant reading: it creates memories, which become more important with age; it crowds out TV-watching, which is such a terrible waste of a good mind; it wards off loneliness, if that needs warding off, because it shows that we are not alone in our experience; and it provides us with good models in terms of lives lived, and bad models to avoid. Tremendously useful, there is no question about it.
It’s a good resolution never to leave a bookshop without a purchase.
Absolutely! :)
Just discovered this channel this morning. Very informative. Benjamin is not only attractive but intelligent and informative. Now, to start reading books again.... thanks.
Thank you, Robert :) That is very kind of you to say, and I'm so happy to have you here, my friend.
Please do more of these! I love tossing them on as I work.
Thank you, Alan! I'll happily do some more :)
Loved your bookshop journey and could feel your delight and enjoyment of new editions and discovery of old favourites. Totally experience the same joy in a good bookshop. Please do more discussions as well as lectures. Appreciated.
I am currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and am so immersed in the story!!
Thank you for this vlog, it’s a nice change of pace.
That’s awesome that you met Pratchett, Ben! What a man he was.
Really lovely man :)
Please do more of these, wiil you? Even though I won't be able to go for such an extensive collection right now (hopefully in the future!), I would love to see you explore the bookstores going through them. I deeply relate to the joy of buying books after walking around a bookstore browsing tonnes of books!
I'm so happy you're enjoying them :) I actually have another one coming out soon for an Oxford bookstore! I'll definitely keep doing more :)
Me too !!!
I’m visiting London and York for the first time this fall with my sister from the US. We’re are big readers and plan to hunt down some great books! I really love these vlogs.
Hi Ben, Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and all the lectures available online. I live in Sweden and visited London recently, of course this bookstore (and Daunt too). The poetry section is amazing. I found a hardback Harold Bloom invention of humans. So happy! Thank you! Keep on making contents. Happy reading 😊
Fun. Thanks for the tour. FYI: Barnes and Noble is nothing like this store. Sadly they are being bled to death by Amazon.
Ah, it's a shame :(
So happy find you here
Hi Ben. I just wanted to thank you for sharing your incredible passion for, and knowledge of, literature. Your enthusiasm is endearing and infectious. Please keep making the videos. I'm 59, and books are my best friends!
Thank you, Benjamin. This video made may mouth water! Here in the states you can't find books stores like that (not in California, anyhow). But, it's almost a good as going, to go vicariously, through this video. Its always a treat to watch your videos!👌😄
I’ve only just discovered your page and as a fellow book lover, I really love your channel. 📚👌🏽
Thank you so much :) I really appreciate that!
Nothing I love more than bookstore explorations!even if vicariously 🐾🙏🏼🐾
Bought Genji years ago and still haven't started reading it - perhaps I might try your reading plan of one chapter a month.
Love these types of videos by the way - always fun to see inside new bookstores.
Amazing! It's definitely one of those books (like Musashi) that can lay around for a while. One chapter a month is quite low pressure and will be a fulfilling way to live with the book. I'd love to hear how you get on :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I've got the Musashi unread too - Ha Ha.
Thank you for giving a shout out to the designers of the book cover I'm an artist and I've always loved good book covers.. usually they get overlooked overlooked
A thousand percent better stocked than Barnes and Noble. What a treat!
This was great! Would love more of these
Thank you! I'll do more :)
I throughly enjoyed this video... hello from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺 I can’t get enough of my books. Love to read.
Really enjoyed this video because I love looking at bookshelves and reading the titles of the books. Also, the idea of visiting a bookstore virtually in London, a place I have never been, was really cool, I have that exact copy of Tales of Genji. I would not read that way, spread out over a year. There are a lot of characters and it can be difficult to keep track of them and how they are connected. It is a wonderful book that describes the life and culture of a very sophisticated Japanese society.Worthy of a re-read.
You're lucky to have access Ben. Haven't been to U.K. in years.
I came across your channel 6 months and you've inspired me to dive back into the classics as I'm in retirement now. I hear the ticking of the clock at 74 and there is much I want to get to. Just finished Tess of the Durbervilles. The ending caught me by surprise!
I recently picked up my first Everyman in a Saigon bookshop. Appropriately it was Collected Stories by Somerset Maugham! Keep up your good work.
I love a bookstore organized by publisher. Much fun to browse and discover unfamiliar titles from favorite authors. Years ago there was a bookstore like this one in Berkeley, near the University of California. A great bookstore.
tysm for existing and yes we need more of these. Personally wouldn't even mind a day in your life type vlog or if you go on a trip to a museum or art gallery and take us along because in all honesty I just love learning from you.
Loved this! I love your lecture style videos but would really appreciate it if you could do more of these bookstore vlogs. They are really enjoyable and fun and it's always nice to see all these beautiful places and books all the way from India! 😁 Thank you for all the effort you put in your channel and content. I'd love it to see your channel grow more. ❤️❤️
Aw, thank you so much :) I actually have a bookstore vlog for Oxford's Blackwells coming out quite soon. Thank you for watching over in beautiful India :)
What a glamorous book shop 🎩
I paused the video when you mentioned meeting Pratchett just to write how envy I am. Also, if you could film a video about the best translations to English of classics that would be great. I know there are quite a few and it will take forever but I think because bed translations some canon gets bed rep. It happened to me with so many classics. And, thank you for this channel. It's fantastic.
honestly really like the vlog style and would like to see more! i also really enjoy your usual stuff too
The problem is that when you remove the cover from a book, you ruin its value in terms of collectibility. 90% of a book’s value to collectors is in its dust jacket.
This is true - I'm a book collector's nightmare!
There are many Waterstones in the US. They were purchased by Barens & Nobles in 2018.
I thoroughly enjoyed this vlog 😎 Thank you for being such a big inspiration to me :D
Thank you 🙏😊
Love your vlogs as well as your lectures. Takes me to bookstores I would otherwise never see. Hete in Cape Town we have nothing to compare. Sob.
Wow, I'd love to visit this bookshop! In Germany, even the bigger chain bookshops rarely have more than one edition of a book. They do have a classic section, but you can't compare it at all. Often they have only got one work per author which looks as if it had gone through 1000 hands already. I was surprised to see the Leuchtturm notebooks. I used to have them as my book journals but recently they bleed through a lot more, so I won't buy them anymore.
How great that UK bookstores have such a large selection of classic literature in so many editions. Unfortunately, there is no such choice in Poland, especially when it comes to English literature. That's why I love watching vlogs from bookstores in UK. You can feel the spirit of true and living literature there!
I like to buy books from the antique store as well (of course they are less expensive) and I got so excited to find Proust I bought the whole series of In search of lost time and I can't whait to start reading them.
I LOVE antique and second-hand stores. You always find such cool books. I'm thrilled to hear you picked up the whole series :) Would love to hear your thoughts once you start!
Loved the blog tour. Do a series of favorite bookstores. The owners should give you discounts for the fantastic tours. Since I retired to a town on the pacific coast of Mexico I don’t have access to English bookstores and libraries.
I have a great quiet place to read with a partial ocean view though. It takes a week or two to get books from Amazon.
My Spanish only gradually gets better - oddly I can recognize Mexican accents - if I’m watching a documentary from Spain I can usually tell if they’re from Spain because Castilian Spanish is so different.
Oddly I’ve spent more time with the Russian writers because I already studied it and I love the sounds of the language.
Dostoevsky is hard - even for Russian speakers.
Just a small tiny request - Dostoevsky’s first name is pronounced “fyo” “dor” - two syllables. There’s a minor cringe effect when you say “fee-oh-dor.” In Cyrillic the name is spelled "фëдор." The umlauted e ( ë ) is pronounced "yo."
If you really want to impress a Russian place the tips of your upper teeth on your lower lip. Slide your teeth inward, over your lip while making the "fff" sound - it's a more strongly aspirated "fffhhh." Almost like forced air is making the lower lip pop out. "ffffhhyo - durrr." Roll that "r" a bit.
Russians sometimes complement me on my Russian. I thinks it’s because I walk down the street repeating Russian expressions in my head.
What I think they really mean is that “for an English speaker” my pronunciation is good.
I’ve gotten quite a bit out of your videos about Dostoevsky. A writer who all too well understood where the 20th century was headed - partly because a talented, promising was almost killed by firing squad and spent several years in the labor prison system exposed him to so many kinds of Russian and human behavior it affected him the rest of his life.
Some of the best insights I got were from reading how a lot of Jewish readers try to figure out what to make of Dostoevsky’s faith in Jewish terms. It led me to quite a bit of reading about early Jewish, Greek and Christian thought which was often quite different from how we think about Christianity and faith today. I never knew that many desert peoples are monotheistic - I always thought Judaism was the first monotheistic faith.
Thank you so much. I'll definitely do a series :) Very interesting insights on Dostoyevsky. I would agree that, by writing of his time, he very much showed where we were heading. Funny that it often takes a gun pointed at one's head in order to drum up some prophecy! Regarding Dostoyevsky's relationship with Judaism, I've always read his main flaw as being anti-semitism. I would love to be wrong, but there are certainly some passages that seem to cement that impression of him for me.
This was fun! The matching covers in the classics section look tremendously satisfying. And, man, that is a huge wall of everyman's library editions. I didn't know about everyman's before joining the book club, so I never looked for these in the bookstore. Now I wonder what that looks like at my local Barnes & Noble.
Regarding ancient classics, I would be delighted to read some along with the club! I know my 5-year-old copy of Homer's Iliad is itching to come out of the bookshelf and get some air 😂
Thank you, Fiona! :) Ah, I'm doing Everyman's marketing job for them I think. When they realise, I would like it to be known that I'd be happy to receive some first editions of their books as remuneration. I have Homer on the secret schedule for the beginning of next year. There's somewhat of a hidden theme in this year's choices, and next year is going to be a tension between ancients and modernism. Homer, Aristotle, Virgil, Plato, sitting side-by-side with Joyce, Woolf, Morrison, McCarthy. Should be fun!
I would listen to Librivox while I worked from home and I developed an affection for Wilkie Collins. I just found your videos yesterday and appreciate your suggestions. I pulled out Emil fran Lonneberga and "read" a page in Swedish. Just a page at a time and using a Google search bar photo to get a translator. Thank you, Jeff
I can’t believe the selection of books at Waterstones. Here in the States, my local Barnes & Noble has a single bookcase of classics.
i finally found a youtube channel that reviews ACTUAL classic books . // from a dostoevsky fan
Thank you so much :) Happy to have you here!
The Tale of Genji was one of Marguerite Yourcenar’s favourite books. I believe she rearead it regularly throughout her whole life. I’m a huge Yourcenar’s fan and, inspired by her, I bought the book years ago. Now I only have to find the courage to read it 😉 By the way, a Japanese friend of mine was also rather dismissive abou it…
Very nice : ) Ah, yes, all of my Japanese friends told me not to bother with it lol - I understand where they are coming from. They also warned me away from Yukio Mishima, imploring me to focus on Natsume Soseki instead!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy 😊
The Everyman's collection is stunning! There's nothing like that here in the US bookstores, at least not that I know of. We must buy them online. British book covers are the best!
You could make a great contribution by structuring a series of lectures showing how history and literature evolved hand in glove from Beowulf through the Anglo Saxon Chronicles and on to the Canterbury Tales. Those of us with sketchy grounding in these topics would be much in your debt if you brought these times to light.
currently reading The Red and the Black by Stendhal. Really pleased to have found your channel.
Nice one :) Let me know your thoughts on it!
Oh the joy of bookstores, and how I want to visit Waterstone's! What a great vlog episode! Please do an episode on Gilgamesh, if you do Beowulf!
I am glad to see that you started experimenting with youtube, i really enjoyed this video. Sadly there are no libraries this big in my country xd Personally, i enjoy your "lecture style" videos, so i guess i would enjoy a mixture of both, but just do whatever you enjoy of course
Wow this is just amazing I can't believe these are just laying around i have been dying to get my hands on latin Greek literature ah tragedy poetry and complete works in everyman's.. this is heaven.
French book covers are indeed very different from English ones. Not many illustrations but they can be very elegant too! Do you know La Pléiade collection? It's absolutely fantastic! There are also La collection blanche by Gallimard and Les éditions de minuit. Beautiful books ;-)
I can't leave a bookstore without a penguin classics black and white
Have you been to Hay-on-Wye? A guided tour through that town would be such good content.
I haven't, but I actually have a trip planned specifically to make content. Looks amazing, and I can't wait!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy looking forward to hearing about it
Bookstore vlogs...... Second best to bookstore hopping myself.....
Unfortunately we are in lockdown...
Ah, my heart goes out to you 🙏
Hoping you'll take us to more bookshops.
I also like to take the dust jacket off of my Everymans books, but I have a question for you. What do you do with the jackets themselves? I really like the look of them I just prefer to read a hard cover when its bare, but I dont want to get rid of the covers either!! What a first world problem
Commendable camera work, felt I was there myself.
I recently discovered Pushkin Press, they publish a lot of obscure but fantastic authors from around the world and yes, a lot of Russians too. Recently read Gaito Gazdanov's The Buddha Returns and it was marvelous! Highly recommend! Love this vlog Benjamin, it's really different from ppl just walking around and holding up books..the narration and your thoughts really elevate the experience.
Yes, I noticed they had some names I hadn't seen before. I think that's tremendous and they're doing a really lovely job :) I shall have to check out The Buddha Returns - thank you for the recommendation! And thank you :) I'm glad the video went down well. I shall have to do another - Daunt Books in Marylebone next!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Exciting! Can't wait! Yes, I found Gazdanov rivetting.his best work is supposed to be The Spectre of Alexander Wolf..he was a fellow emigre and friend of Nabokov's and his style has been described as "if Nabokov wrote thrillers" 😊
Very sad to say we have handful of bookstores in Kathmandu .There are few second hand used book shops ....😥
aesthetic.
I will empty my pocket in a minute once I arrive there.
Lol - I know what you mean!
I would like to sleep here or rent an apartment near this bookstore or request to work here. Life is good.
Ha!
New subscriber :) Im off to London tomorrow so Im binge watching bookshop vlogs haha
I hope you get a nice haul :) I would recommend the beautiful Daunt Books in Marylebone!
I always enjoy your posts. What do you do with the covers when you take them off and how do you put them away so they won't become damaged?
Plz more of these video❤
I really need to go there. I'm in Canada, so it's pretty difficult. But who knows!
I used to love Indigo when I lived in Canada :) It's basically the Canadian Waterstones to me.
@@BenjaminMcEvoy In what part of Canada did you live?
@@peskylisa Queen Street West in Toronto, then a little time in Montreal, and the rest of it a stroll away from the centre of Quebec :)
You should totally do the doctorate :)
I found a collection of Frank Norris. I think, Everyman books.
Love old and Middle English please more
I also toss the dust jackets for both my Everyman’s and Library of America.
Had to read Beowulf in high school, go Grendel, eat him please. Read Grendel by John Gardner. I love ellipses.
You might like to pick up a copy of Tillyard's *The English Epic and Its Background* if you haven't already!
I've got to go to that store, one day! Wow!
Enjoying your videos from across the pond! Have you ever considered narrating? You've got a great voice and accent. I'm currently reading the Hobbit for the first time...I have a few books going right now. I also picked up a copy of Beowulf a little while ago, I'll have to see what version it is. Anyway, happy reading!
Translations of Tale of the Genji? With translations you're probably looking at fidelity and style so partly personal taste, partly technical ability of the translator. There was a fellow who translated The Mathnawi of Rumi "from the original Persian" - and the guy did not actually know Persian. Another famous Orientalist, whose name escapes me, "translated" the Quran from Syriac - it's in Arabic, not Syriac, which is rather like translating Shakespeare "from the original Dutch". When choosing translations, it pays to do a little research first, and for major authors and works - Proust, Tolstoy, Cervantes, consider learning French, Russian.... whatever, particularly if you contemplate reading these works multiple times. Most English speakers can develop reasonable reading competency in most Western languages in around 1000 hours of study, or about 12 to 18 months. Non Indo-European languages will typically take longer to master. Pete Buttigieg, Biden's Secretary of Transportation, speaks multiple languages and learned Norwegien because there was something he wanted to read.
The best books are always those that take forever to explain seemingly nothing!
Would Proust and Joyce make it into that category? 😂
I recently came across your UA-cam channel and I really enjoy your insights. I may have missed it, but have you done a program on George Meredith? He's probably my favorite British novelist right now, but it seems that no one reads him anymore. (Certainly not in the US.) Is that true in the UK as well? I love the Egoist, and even The Shaving of Shagpat. I'd be very interested in opinion of him. Best, Rob in NYC.
What a tragedy that Tolkien abandoned his "common reader" project! Academics be damned, for this loss!
Have you ever read any Maria Edgeworth? I would be interested to see a video on her sometime. Thank you for all of your amazing content. You are a true inspiration, thank you for your work.
I just discovered your channel today and found your content quite helpful. It is quite surreal to see that you like to go to one of my local Waterstones lol
most helpful and interesting
I'm hooked on your channel, and I think I shall take a course with you on Paradise Lost.
Ben, I enjoyed this. So lush.Thank you! The only Japanese author I read is Murakami. Perhaps one day you can share your thoughts on him.
Thank you so much :) I must say I had some fun with this one too!
Ah, Murakami! I'm perhaps more of a Yukio Mishima or Yasunari Kawabata kind of guy, but I've read and enjoyed quite a few of Murakami's stuff. I actually have a lot of thoughts about him and intend to do a Murakami Podcast episode soon - perhaps focusing on Kafka? He creates quite a magical world, but I've been disappointed in how he ends his novels. Great introduction to Japanese literature and a supreme craftsman though :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Im glad you enjoyed. it looks beautiful. I think I follow water stones on IG. For now, it's all I can do and Perfect! No rush! I know you are quite busy. But whenever you are inclined... I'd love to hear a podcast on the subject.
Can anyone elaborate about the woman who wrote (or I imagine compiled) Genesis? I'm unfamiliar with that.
Wow, what a great book store! Very jealous
I should also add that it never occurred to me that there are book stores besides Indigo. Ill have to go to the independents more often
@@ShnallBen I love Idigio - I went there every week when I lived in Toronto - but, yes, independents have a nice vibe :)
enjoyed your vlog
I wish the towns in my country weren't filled with mosques.
The vibe that aesthetics of a more secular, learned society gives is celestial.
A humble request. As you mentioned, you will at some point start reading Indian Literature.
Just in the case of "Indian ancient works", kindly try to stick with Indian translators. This is because, in most of the Western translations I came across, I encountered 'some' mistakes in interpretation (of course unintentional).
By the way, amazing videos.
Respects, from Kolkata.
Thank you for the guidance, my friend :) I've heard this is a difficulty for Westerners coming to Indian texts, so I will be vigilant. Ultimately, I hope to learn Sanskrit one day too!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Mahabharata, the largest of the four epics will blow you away......
Bhagavad Gita is a small part of the epic.......
@@rajib17cmc Exciting! I'll pick that up :)
I would welcome a vlog on Indian literature written in English, a genre that I’m trying to learn more about.
Please do more book related vlogs.
I have another one for Oxford on the way :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Excellent, can’t wait
I have just discovered the lovely world of Everyman’s. Picked up Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol and stripped it naked to reveal it’s BEAUTIFUL burgundy red hardback. Will definitely collect more Everyman’s!!
Very nice!! :)
Great video - have you read any Graham Greene?
I have! I enjoyed Brighton Rock many years ago and would like to revisit it. I also have a stack of almost everything Greene has ever written, but have yet to really foray into him. From the little I've read, I've been impressed. Which of his books would you recommend for me after Brighton Rock?
@@BenjaminMcEvoy The Power and the Glory is a beautiful book! You have to check it out - it’s a little slow at the start but once you get into it you won’t be able to put it down.
@@tomkennedy9835 Thank you so much. You've totally sold it. And I luckily have a very old but beautiful version of that very book. I'll let you know my thoughts :)
❤
❤Beowulf
The bardolater in me is massively triggered by the sign behind his head in the intro... I hope it's a joke! 😅
😂😂😂
What if I am from Turkey? I haven't heard of that bookstore mate 🤣 jk
I'm French and I HATE covers of French books, Most of them are just plain ugly, it'sa shame. French editors are lazy on this point. Really, covers are so important to catch the eye and spark interest!
Ah, I've heard this a few times from French readers. Funnily enough, Japanese say the same thing but I always found their editions to be rather quaint. Perhaps the French editors think the quality speaks for itself? After all - Hugo, Proust, Flaubert, Balzac, and Guy de Maupassant!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Not sure if the quality speaks for itself but surely the covers do not show it! So sad (drab?)
I know what you mean - those uniform Gallimard covers are so dreary - but Folio paperbacks are usually well done. Let's live in hope.
I am glad to see that you started experimenting with youtube, i really enjoyed this video. Sadly there are no libraries this big in my country xd Personally, i enjoy your "lecture style" videos, so i guess i would enjoy a mixture of both, but just do whatever you enjoy of course
Thank you so much :) Ah, the library certainly is dying - which is a shame. I think I'll do an 80/20 split going forth. Mainly lectures, with some lighter stuff thrown in here and there.
@@BenjaminMcEvoy it is sad that such a beautiful library is dying... The same thing is happening in my country actually..
And whatever content you make i will be always looking forward to it!