Maybe when it comes to classics, it could be less scary and more interesting to switch between countries and cultures. When you read only British, American or French classics and from the similar era (even though they are amazing), it´s easy to get frustrated sometimes. India, Egypt, Russia (and many many more) have some amazing classics that are translated into English and you have a bigger chance to find variety to keep things more interesting!
@@jio5680 Hi :) I´m by no means an expert, but e.g. The Open Door by Latifa Zayyat, written in the 60s, I believe, explores things like feminism and breaking from colonialism, then The Call of the Curlew by Taha Hussein is a very short romance story or The Golden Chariot (which is more of a modern classic written in the late 90s) which also discusses feminism.
You could pick one of the SFF-awards (Nebula, Hugo, Locus etc.) and read their nominees and/or finalists - maybe even in time for the actual award ceremonies? That might make for a nice journey to watch and I'd really love to get your opinion on some of the books ;-) Or do that instead of the Goodreads challenge for the previous year?
I was about to comment the same thing! most of the Goodreads choice books haven't been impressing any of us (even though hearing Emily bash the disappointing books is always great entertainment), but there's also many other awards even for specific genres that could be fun to try out.
I did a reading challenge last year that I made up for myself that was super fun. I called it, Reading Across America. It was fifty books, each book set in one of the 50 states of America.
I feel with the goodreads awards it is also a case of which nominee most people have read. Most people have read probably two or three (at most) out of the nominated books in a category. And so they just vote for the (only) one they read
The "one week one shelf"-Challenge inspired me: i now have an Glass and whenever I don't know what to read Next I Pick a paper with a shelf Number and read a book of this shelf. That made me read books that have been unread for a very Long Time.
I used to feel the same about reading non fiction before bed then i decided i will keep 2 books one non fiction to read whenever i get the time throughout the day and another fiction or a calming book before bed. 😅
I used to be so scared of reading Dickens but now that I’ve read 2 of his books, I actually find him very easy to read! And it’s fun and intriguing. It’s not as boring as some other classics I’ve read.
I feel that inept writers frequently use coincidence as a poor substitute for proper plot development. Dickens is an obvious exception to this comment. The author would deliberately make coincidence a primary component of a great story.
I've done a title challenge one year. Each month I went alphabetically, 2 letters a month. It worked out over a year because I didn't have any titles on my tbr for a few letters. I think if I did it again I would stretch to 2 years and do one letter focus a month.
Hearing you talk about your past challenges and which ones you want to do / keep doing is giving me motivation to read more 🥰 I’ve only read 24 books this year so it definitely hasn’t been a great one, but hopefully with reading challenges I will be more motivated. East of Eden has been on my shelf, unread, for AGES 😂 might join on that buddy read
Can totally relate to your feelings about nonfiction! The nonfiction on my physical TBR way outnumber my fiction, but I can only read like 1 nonfiction books to every 3-5 fiction books because they require so much more attention and interaction than fiction 😭 but I’m still interested in them so I can’t get rid of them even though I know it will take me forever to get to them
The try a chapter unhaul edition is a good idea. Especally if you can combine it with your idea of finishing series or someting similar. You could try the next book to some series and do that once every three months so you have plenty of time to get through them before you need to unhaul.
I would definitely join in on the Classics challenge!! Especially for Middlemarch, I've been meaning to read it for years but am intimidated, so I would looove to do this
I love the one week, one shelf a lot. Maybe do like one you think is a 5 star prediction, one the most feared and one best cover or something? To not have it all "difficult" reads Also love the try a chapter tag and combined with unhauling would be awesome. I always love challenges, watching them and doing them. I have done a challenge of bingereading a series. That was really fun and really helped me stay on top of the series. About nonfiction: nonfiction can also be easier books 😬. Ones I loved and were pretty easy to read: This is going to hurt by Adam Kay, Will my cat eat my eyeballs by Catherine Doyle and Me by Elton John. I have way too many challenge ideas haha. - Bingereading an author where you have a lot of books from on your shelf. - Librarian chooses the books I read. - Someone (friend/family member) chooses TBR. - Read the authors who reviews the book on the front with a quote. - Choose one colour and read x amount of books with that colour. - Out of your comfort zone (genres or topics). - Is this genre for me? Sorry for the super long comment 😅🙈
These are great ideas! I wanted to finish series this year, and really didn't dedicate the effort to that goal. I'm in the middle of 19 I believe and only finished 2 this year 😂 I also counted, and have 150 unread books on my physical TBR 🙃. That number needs to decrease significantly. I'm on a book buying ban until I've read 25 of them to start
Love all the challenge you've been doing. The 500+ books was really nice but definitely see that it can get a lot, especially if you have up and downs in busyness through the year I think thr goodreads challenge would be best just focusing on one genre and then read them all and then do the award show.
I love these challenges. I challenged myself to finish at least 3 series and I completed that challenge within the first 4 months of this year. I'm gonna put the number up but would love to try a different challenge as well next year.
I'd like a twist on "giving authors a second chance". I'm sure there are quite a few authors you only read one book from and loved, so you could challenge yourself to read more from them.
You can give Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte a chance in the Bronte classics challenge. East of Eden has been on my TBR for too long so you may give me the final push lol Middlemarch tho .. as English is my second language I gave up on the audiobook at about 7h cause the struggle with the archaisms was real. The writing is very beautiful though so one day... one day.
Yes! I loved Agnes Grey when I read it for my British Lit class in college and it makes me so sad that so few people have heard of it because it’s so good!
My goal this year was to read as many genres as possible and explore books out of my comfort zone, which I've done pretty well on, even though this month has been a bit of a slow reading month. Next year I'm going to try to finish as many series as I can since I have a bad habit of starting series and not finishing them, and also trying to read through my physical TBR and library TBR as much as possible
I need to partake in the big book challenge. There are so many great fantasy series out there I'm missing on solely cause the books are freaking huge and it needs to stop.
I loved, especially, the beginning of East of Eden because of the descriptions. It reminded me of my childhood vacations to California in the Bay area where my mom grew up. After like 11 years, in 2019 went to California with my husband (his first time) to visit and see my grandparents and family out there. My mom moved across the country to NC when she married my dad so those California memories are some of my favorites that I cherish.
I have never really done an official challenge before, but two I a, considering for next year are 1) reading the nominees for the Hugo award and picking my fav before they announce the winner and 2) picking one of my owned and unread books to read each month.
For Canadian non-fiction, I recommend Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto. It won Canada Reads a few years ago. And also From the Ashes, by Jesse Thistle. I'm also reading The Wake now, which is about the 1929 tsunami in Newfoundland. So far, so sad, but really interesting. I just moved from Ontario to Charlottetown and so I'm trying to learn more about the Maritimes.
I have a hard time reading classics too. I'll recommend listening to audiobooks of classics instead of reading physical or ebook version. Also try watching the movie/show adaptation before or after reading, that makes you understand and appreciate the book more. Some easy classics I recommend: The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, Dracula (this one's a bit difficult but as an audiobook it was fun), The Centerville Ghost by Oscar Wilde.
If you want to combine the non-fiction challenge & your motivation to join more readathons, you could participate in things like Nonfiction-November (by booksandolive) or Climathon (there will be a round in 2022 for sure, I just have not decided when). They are both laid back and a month long so you are not stressed out about not being able to go through the books super quickly. Anyway, whatever you choose, I am excited for your content next year :)
The only challenge I have planned so far for 2022 is to read my favourite booktuber's favourite books. I have realized that my reading taste doesn't align with a lot of the booktubers I watch and when I take recs from them it's always disappointing so with that challenge I wanna figure out who's recs I'm most likely to enjoy and what not (results of the challenge are to take loosely of course) :)
Would love to see a Charles Dickens pick make it on the list. I think A Tale of Two Cities is a pretty easy read, I liked it quite a bit, and it's a lot shorter than his others like Bleak House or Great Expectations 🤪
Little Women (and Good Wives too) is a good wholesome one, though a little bit preachy. It's worth it tho! Also, for modern classics, I really recommend 1984 (my fave of all time) and Slaughterhouse 5!
I would like to hear what you think about some of the Brontës’ lesser known works like The Professor by Charlotte or Agnes Grey by Anne (which is one of my faves and super underrated!) or maybe Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell 😁
Be cautious of Abandoned... I think I have watched you long enough to know it will be DNF'd. I almost did it. Can't wait to join you in some of your reading challenges!
Lovely war by Julie Berry remains my favorite historical fiction, i don’t read a lot from that genre but I recommend it, its about two love stories during the war told mostly by Aphrodite but also by many other greek gods!
My challenge this year was to read 12 big books. I read 2. Dnfd another one. I have plans to start the count of monte c in December. Next year I will definitely read more
I think a „one book whichs original language is not english per month“ challenge would be cool, too. I just have the perfect recommendation for a turkish book 🙈
@@mejustine2424 “Honor” (original title: Iskender) by Elif Shafak. It‘s a character driven family drama, a little bit slow in the middle part, but the ending is worth reading it😲
Funny thing, before you even mentioned Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I was going to recommend that to you. It's exactly up your alley. I think Ivanhoe would be something you'd like too. My favorite challenges are the PopSugar challenge and the Reading Women challenge.
East of Eden is soooo fantastic!!! I’m not a “classics” reader, but I read this years ago and loved it. Do you like memoirs? I’ve been loving memoirs on audible. That could count as your nonfiction.
I’m going to be reading my height in books for 2022, so I guess that also means I’m doing a big books challenge and reading all the series on my shelves challenge so I can stack up my numbers pretty easily. We’ll see how that goes though because I’m 5’4”, so a book an inch would add up to roughly 65 books, and I’ve only just now finished my 20th book this month. Hopefully all the big books I have will pad out the height 🤞🏽
I love one week one shelf, but i also think that because you have a lot of fantasy/scifi you always end up reading those books instead of challenging you ti read the ones you read less of. Like once you choose non fiction, you read that shelf for one week and if the book its a difficult reading or too long end up reading one book and a half from that shelf. I would rethink the challenge and left out some shelves so the probability of reading a book you wouldnt choose increases
I pretty much did that earlier this year. The only fantasy I read was for the book club but I'll definitely make sure to focus on books I wouldn't read next time!
I can't recommend Persuasion highly enough. It's my favorite Jane Austen novel and Captain Wentworth my favorite Austen hero. I understand that there is another movie adaptation coming out next year, but I'd also suggest you check out the 1995 movie with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds if you can. Such a great movie!
With classics, try an annotated version! I tried reading Emma by Jane Austen and couldn’t get into it, but the annotated version explained the context, defined certain words etc and I loved the book!
Hey Emily , I love how many ideas you have, it’s fun to see and I can’t help but feel impressed with how much you consider and plan your You-tube videos for us! I always enjoy your vlogs, one week one shelf, unhauls, and am very pleased you’d like to focus on finishing more series! E x
Also don’t blame you for starting to ditch some of the genres of the goodreads challenge, it’s a big commitment when you aren’t getting a high enjoyment rate.
Highly recommend Tess of the D'Ubervilles. Great classic with a very hard topic
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For classics. If you Haven’t read crime and punishment, do it. It’s great! Dracula is good as well. Have your read Lars Kepler’s Joona Linna-series, that one is soooo good. No classic but great Swedish thrillers. To read after Stieg Larsson!
@@BookswithEmilyFox :D I was worried when you said only 6 novels b/c that one isn't technically a "novel" as we both know :) So glad you liked it like I did :D Currently reading through her works as well (so far I've read Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and LS and I am on Persuasion :D) Happy reading!
Yes, please read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, it's one of my all time favourite books, I've read it 3 times already 😍 another classic I loved is Crime and Punishment, so good! I hit pause just to get this off my chest, now I'll continue watching the video 😅
I did not like Sense and Sensibility very much, tbh. I'd love to see your thoughts on more classics next year, though! And I love your big book challenge - I think I want to try that. I've avoided too many big books and series!
East of Eden is fantastic and the writing is wonderful - but it took me about 6+ months to read the first 250 pages and then 2-3 weeks to finish the second half :D it can definitely take some time to sink into it! (or maybe it's just me) I've maybe overcommitted myself for November/December reading goals so I'm hoping to avoid thinking about my next year's goals until the holiday season lol But the remainder of the year includes Nonfiction November, Indigathon, some personal book bingo goals, and the last two of my top 12 books to read in 2021... definitely planning to double up on some!
What about reading the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) finalists and determining a winner? I like following this contest every year. It wouldn't be a huge commitment, and it would spotlight self-published books. I like this in place of the Goodreads challenge. My own personal challenge for 2022 will center around continuing/finishing series and trying genres outside of my normal fantasy reads.
I was wondering, Emily, have you read the Arsene Lupin books? I watched the Netflix show a few months back and loved it, so I read the 1st Lupin book and it was great!!
Great books to get into classics according to me : Antigone or Médée by Jean Anouilh Metamorphosis by Kafka Zweig's books La princesse de Cleve (not sure about the English title) Le misanthrope by Moliere (here again idk what's the English title)
A great non-fiction book to read, easy because of the humor and laymans terms, is "The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?" At one point Leon Lederman creates a curving road that starts with Democretes in Ancient Greece and goes up to present time. On the road as he mentions Newton and Einstein he has billboards that say "Your Sign Here" and "Burger King." Maybe the only physics book that will make you laugh. 😃It's a story rather than a lesson.
Don't fret about reading East of Eden. It probably reads easier than any other big classic I've read. For nonfiction you should consider reading Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. It's about Scientology and at times I laughed my ass off. L. Ron Hubbard was a hilariously ridiculous man.
I definitely agree with your idea to pick and choose genres to read for your Goodreads Choice challenge. I was inspired by you to challenge myself to read some of the winners, and I picked 8 categories that I would already have liked, or to expand my reading a little. I ended up choosing Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Poetry, and Debut Novel. I haven't finished yet but so far it's been pretty successful. Only 1 book below three-stars (SJM's winner for Fantasy... I gave it 1.5 lol 😬). I'd love to keep seeing your reactions to the ""best"" books of each year, but definitely don't force yourself to read things you're not interested in... that's just asking for a slump, lol. One of my goals for next year is to read 1 classic and 1 non-fiction per month, so I'd definitely love to join the patreon classics club if you're putting a list together 😀 Love your videos, Emily! 💙
@@BookswithEmilyFox It's probably only going so well because I wasn't *too* adventurous. It probably would not be as successful if I had to force myself to read like Romance or something, because that's just... not for me 😅
I'm trying to decide if I want to commit to "The Hobbit" and "The Lord Of The Rings". Been listening to an audiobook of "Fellowship Of The Rings" to help me decide if I want to purchase them
I've noticed that most books you read are written by white man, so a challange could be to read more diversly. I think thats always a great goal to have for all of us :)
You should check out the reading stats videos she does for the end of each year, some stats are diversity related and you'd see it's very much not just books by white men.
Maybe when it comes to classics, it could be less scary and more interesting to switch between countries and cultures. When you read only British, American or French classics and from the similar era (even though they are amazing), it´s easy to get frustrated sometimes. India, Egypt, Russia (and many many more) have some amazing classics that are translated into English and you have a bigger chance to find variety to keep things more interesting!
Please, oh please, direct me towards Egyptian ones!
@@jio5680 Nagib Mahfouz is great
@@jio5680 Hi :) I´m by no means an expert, but e.g. The Open Door by Latifa Zayyat, written in the 60s, I believe, explores things like feminism and breaking from colonialism, then The Call of the Curlew by Taha Hussein is a very short romance story or The Golden Chariot (which is more of a modern classic written in the late 90s) which also discusses feminism.
Some French classics are so good.
"Try a Chapter"
There. I finally have a name for what I've been doing the entire year. 🤣🤣🤣
You could pick one of the SFF-awards (Nebula, Hugo, Locus etc.) and read their nominees and/or finalists - maybe even in time for the actual award ceremonies? That might make for a nice journey to watch and I'd really love to get your opinion on some of the books ;-)
Or do that instead of the Goodreads challenge for the previous year?
Second this. Instead of Goodreads or additionally to it, I'd love an SFF-awards challenge!
I was about to comment the same thing! most of the Goodreads choice books haven't been impressing any of us (even though hearing Emily bash the disappointing books is always great entertainment), but there's also many other awards even for specific genres that could be fun to try out.
Yes! Goodreads choice award has become so sh*tty these days.
I did a reading challenge last year that I made up for myself that was super fun. I called it, Reading Across America. It was fifty books, each book set in one of the 50 states of America.
Did you use a certain reference to get suggestions for these books? It's a wonderful idea and I would love to try it!
I feel with the goodreads awards it is also a case of which nominee most people have read.
Most people have read probably two or three (at most) out of the nominated books in a category. And so they just vote for the (only) one they read
It may be interesting to use the mug to choose one book a month, where the books included are a mix of classics, pile of shame, and big books.
The "one week one shelf"-Challenge inspired me: i now have an Glass and whenever I don't know what to read Next I Pick a paper with a shelf Number and read a book of this shelf. That made me read books that have been unread for a very Long Time.
It was the same for me, and it's easier what to read next
Around the World Challenge is a good one, reading one book each month set in different countries
If you haven't already for classics you could try some Jules Verne, short and a lot are sci-fi.
I was actually hoping to see you choose something and drop the goodreads challenge cause I’ve noticed it puts you into slumps 😂
Seriously! It sounds so fun in theory but it's been so hit and miss haha
I used to feel the same about reading non fiction before bed then i decided i will keep 2 books one non fiction to read whenever i get the time throughout the day and another fiction or a calming book before bed. 😅
I used to be so scared of reading Dickens but now that I’ve read 2 of his books, I actually find him very easy to read! And it’s fun and intriguing. It’s not as boring as some other classics I’ve read.
I feel that inept writers frequently use coincidence as a poor substitute for proper plot development.
Dickens is an obvious exception to this comment. The author would deliberately make coincidence a primary component of a great story.
The boy who was raised as a dog is such a fantastic one to read!!
I've done a title challenge one year. Each month I went alphabetically, 2 letters a month. It worked out over a year because I didn't have any titles on my tbr for a few letters. I think if I did it again I would stretch to 2 years and do one letter focus a month.
Hearing you talk about your past challenges and which ones you want to do / keep doing is giving me motivation to read more 🥰 I’ve only read 24 books this year so it definitely hasn’t been a great one, but hopefully with reading challenges I will be more motivated.
East of Eden has been on my shelf, unread, for AGES 😂 might join on that buddy read
Can totally relate to your feelings about nonfiction! The nonfiction on my physical TBR way outnumber my fiction, but I can only read like 1 nonfiction books to every 3-5 fiction books because they require so much more attention and interaction than fiction 😭 but I’m still interested in them so I can’t get rid of them even though I know it will take me forever to get to them
The try a chapter unhaul edition is a good idea. Especally if you can combine it with your idea of finishing series or someting similar. You could try the next book to some series and do that once every three months so you have plenty of time to get through them before you need to unhaul.
I would definitely join in on the Classics challenge!! Especially for Middlemarch, I've been meaning to read it for years but am intimidated, so I would looove to do this
I love the one week, one shelf a lot. Maybe do like one you think is a 5 star prediction, one the most feared and one best cover or something?
To not have it all "difficult" reads
Also love the try a chapter tag and combined with unhauling would be awesome.
I always love challenges, watching them and doing them. I have done a challenge of bingereading a series. That was really fun and really helped me stay on top of the series.
About nonfiction: nonfiction can also be easier books 😬. Ones I loved and were pretty easy to read: This is going to hurt by Adam Kay, Will my cat eat my eyeballs by Catherine Doyle and Me by Elton John.
I have way too many challenge ideas haha.
- Bingereading an author where you have a lot of books from on your shelf.
- Librarian chooses the books I read.
- Someone (friend/family member) chooses TBR.
- Read the authors who reviews the book on the front with a quote.
- Choose one colour and read x amount of books with that colour.
- Out of your comfort zone (genres or topics).
- Is this genre for me?
Sorry for the super long comment 😅🙈
These are great ideas! I wanted to finish series this year, and really didn't dedicate the effort to that goal. I'm in the middle of 19 I believe and only finished 2 this year 😂 I also counted, and have 150 unread books on my physical TBR 🙃. That number needs to decrease significantly. I'm on a book buying ban until I've read 25 of them to start
The struggle is real haha
Love all the challenge you've been doing.
The 500+ books was really nice but definitely see that it can get a lot, especially if you have up and downs in busyness through the year
I think thr goodreads challenge would be best just focusing on one genre and then read them all and then do the award show.
The problem is that a lot of the books in the fantasy/sci fi categories are series… I can’t commit to reading 5 books from 4 series haha
I love these challenges. I challenged myself to finish at least 3 series and I completed that challenge within the first 4 months of this year. I'm gonna put the number up but would love to try a different challenge as well next year.
Some of my favorite classics are Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, To Kill a Mockingbird and the Picture of Dorian Gray ♡♡
I'd like a twist on "giving authors a second chance". I'm sure there are quite a few authors you only read one book from and loved, so you could challenge yourself to read more from them.
Sense and Sensibility is so good ✨ also, I love classics, so many recommendations
You can give Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte a chance in the Bronte classics challenge. East of Eden has been on my TBR for too long so you may give me the final push lol Middlemarch tho .. as English is my second language I gave up on the audiobook at about 7h cause the struggle with the archaisms was real. The writing is very beautiful though so one day... one day.
Yes! I loved Agnes Grey when I read it for my British Lit class in college and it makes me so sad that so few people have heard of it because it’s so good!
My goal this year was to read as many genres as possible and explore books out of my comfort zone, which I've done pretty well on, even though this month has been a bit of a slow reading month. Next year I'm going to try to finish as many series as I can since I have a bad habit of starting series and not finishing them, and also trying to read through my physical TBR and library TBR as much as possible
Persuiasion and Sense and Sensibility are my two favorite Austen novels! hope you get around to them 🥰🥰
I need to partake in the big book challenge. There are so many great fantasy series out there I'm missing on solely cause the books are freaking huge and it needs to stop.
Quick suggestion: I tend to read a lot on my ereader, so October every year I do OWNtober and read only books I own.
Love all the challenges ❤️ I would love to join with them next year.😄 I also have lots of series I need to finish and a big pile of shame.🙈
I loved, especially, the beginning of East of Eden because of the descriptions. It reminded me of my childhood vacations to California in the Bay area where my mom grew up. After like 11 years, in 2019 went to California with my husband (his first time) to visit and see my grandparents and family out there. My mom moved across the country to NC when she married my dad so those California memories are some of my favorites that I cherish.
I have never really done an official challenge before, but two I a, considering for next year are 1) reading the nominees for the Hugo award and picking my fav before they announce the winner and 2) picking one of my owned and unread books to read each month.
For Canadian non-fiction, I recommend Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto. It won Canada Reads a few years ago. And also From the Ashes, by Jesse Thistle. I'm also reading The Wake now, which is about the 1929 tsunami in Newfoundland. So far, so sad, but really interesting. I just moved from Ontario to Charlottetown and so I'm trying to learn more about the Maritimes.
I have a hard time reading classics too. I'll recommend listening to audiobooks of classics instead of reading physical or ebook version. Also try watching the movie/show adaptation before or after reading, that makes you understand and appreciate the book more.
Some easy classics I recommend: The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, Dracula (this one's a bit difficult but as an audiobook it was fun), The Centerville Ghost by Oscar Wilde.
Persuasion is my fave by her and the new adaptation is long overdue even though I absolutely adore the 2007 adaptation.
I re-read Persuasion every Christmas and I have done for the last 10 years. I love it!
Love Persuasion and I love that adaptation.
If you want to combine the non-fiction challenge & your motivation to join more readathons, you could participate in things like Nonfiction-November (by booksandolive) or Climathon (there will be a round in 2022 for sure, I just have not decided when). They are both laid back and a month long so you are not stressed out about not being able to go through the books super quickly. Anyway, whatever you choose, I am excited for your content next year :)
Love classics and try to read them often around my scifi/fantasy/nonfictions :D
I really loved East of Eden when I read it last year. Listened to it on audio and it took forever, but I thought it was so interesting.
The only challenge I have planned so far for 2022 is to read my favourite booktuber's favourite books. I have realized that my reading taste doesn't align with a lot of the booktubers I watch and when I take recs from them it's always disappointing so with that challenge I wanna figure out who's recs I'm most likely to enjoy and what not (results of the challenge are to take loosely of course) :)
Oh I’ve been thinking about doing bingo cards with my favorite books for anyone interested!
@@BookswithEmilyFox yep! Definitly interested!
Which classics would you like to read with me next year?
Would love to see a Charles Dickens pick make it on the list. I think A Tale of Two Cities is a pretty easy read, I liked it quite a bit, and it's a lot shorter than his others like Bleak House or Great Expectations 🤪
I've heard that North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is good for fans of Jane Austen so I've been meaning to read it. That can be added to the list!
Little Women (and Good Wives too) is a good wholesome one, though a little bit preachy. It's worth it tho! Also, for modern classics, I really recommend 1984 (my fave of all time) and Slaughterhouse 5!
CS Lewis. Books
I would like to hear what you think about some of the Brontës’ lesser known works like The Professor by Charlotte or Agnes Grey by Anne (which is one of my faves and super underrated!) or maybe Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell 😁
Be cautious of Abandoned... I think I have watched you long enough to know it will be DNF'd. I almost did it. Can't wait to join you in some of your reading challenges!
Lovely war by Julie Berry remains my favorite historical fiction, i don’t read a lot from that genre but I recommend it, its about two love stories during the war told mostly by Aphrodite but also by many other greek gods!
My challenge this year was to read 12 big books. I read 2. Dnfd another one. I have plans to start the count of monte c in December. Next year I will definitely read more
East of Eden is lovely. I’m scared of Grapes of Wrath though. 😂
I think a „one book whichs original language is not english per month“ challenge would be cool, too. I just have the perfect recommendation for a turkish book 🙈
Do tell
@@mejustine2424 “Honor” (original title: Iskender) by Elif Shafak. It‘s a character driven family drama, a little bit slow in the middle part, but the ending is worth reading it😲
@@arya0553 Thanks you, it goes on my list. I have read another book by Elif👏🏻, Forty rules of love,it was nice.
Funny thing, before you even mentioned Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I was going to recommend that to you. It's exactly up your alley. I think Ivanhoe would be something you'd like too.
My favorite challenges are the PopSugar challenge and the Reading Women challenge.
Jane Eyre- my favorite!
Really enjoyed the East of Eden audiobook!
East of Eden is soooo fantastic!!! I’m not a “classics” reader, but I read this years ago and loved it. Do you like memoirs? I’ve been loving memoirs on audible. That could count as your nonfiction.
All of these sound really interesting to me except the classics challenge. 👍
I’m going to be reading my height in books for 2022, so I guess that also means I’m doing a big books challenge and reading all the series on my shelves challenge so I can stack up my numbers pretty easily. We’ll see how that goes though because I’m 5’4”, so a book an inch would add up to roughly 65 books, and I’ve only just now finished my 20th book this month. Hopefully all the big books I have will pad out the height 🤞🏽
What a fun idea!
I love one week one shelf, but i also think that because you have a lot of fantasy/scifi you always end up reading those books instead of challenging you ti read the ones you read less of. Like once you choose non fiction, you read that shelf for one week and if the book its a difficult reading or too long end up reading one book and a half from that shelf. I would rethink the challenge and left out some shelves so the probability of reading a book you wouldnt choose increases
I pretty much did that earlier this year. The only fantasy I read was for the book club but I'll definitely make sure to focus on books I wouldn't read next time!
I can't recommend Persuasion highly enough. It's my favorite Jane Austen novel and Captain Wentworth my favorite Austen hero. I understand that there is another movie adaptation coming out next year, but I'd also suggest you check out the 1995 movie with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds if you can. Such a great movie!
These are great ideas!! I’m scared to reread “East of Eden.” That book changed me and I’m worried it won’t hold up.
With classics, try an annotated version! I tried reading Emma by Jane Austen and couldn’t get into it, but the annotated version explained the context, defined certain words etc and I loved the book!
These are awesome ideas! I can't wait to try out some of these challenges for 2022. Thank you Emily!😁
Hey Emily , I love how many ideas you have, it’s fun to see and I can’t help but feel impressed with how much you consider and plan your You-tube videos for us! I always enjoy your vlogs, one week one shelf, unhauls, and am very pleased you’d like to focus on finishing more series! E x
Also don’t blame you for starting to ditch some of the genres of the goodreads challenge, it’s a big commitment when you aren’t getting a high enjoyment rate.
Highly recommend Tess of the D'Ubervilles. Great classic with a very hard topic
For classics. If you Haven’t read crime and punishment, do it. It’s great! Dracula is good as well. Have your read Lars Kepler’s Joona Linna-series, that one is soooo good. No classic but great Swedish thrillers. To read after Stieg Larsson!
Would love to see more horror books, especially ones that cross genres like Sci Fi Horror or Gothic Horror for classics!
I also started a bunch of new series this year... eeep. I want to try and complete some series next year. Crossing my fingers for us hahaha!
Jane Austen - would also recommend Lady Susan too since it's so short and awesome imo!
I’ve read that one! The intro of the movie is hilarious lol
@@BookswithEmilyFox :D I was worried when you said only 6 novels b/c that one isn't technically a "novel" as we both know :) So glad you liked it like I did :D Currently reading through her works as well (so far I've read Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and LS and I am on Persuasion :D) Happy reading!
Yes, please read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, it's one of my all time favourite books, I've read it 3 times already 😍 another classic I loved is Crime and Punishment, so good! I hit pause just to get this off my chest, now I'll continue watching the video 😅
I did not like Sense and Sensibility very much, tbh. I'd love to see your thoughts on more classics next year, though! And I love your big book challenge - I think I want to try that. I've avoided too many big books and series!
east of eden is incredible, i got about half way done, put it down for finals, and still need to finish it!! would love to read along
I love Persuasion and enjoyed Middlemarch, so I would love to see your take on those two. And the rest sound like fun too!
I am guilty of starting more series than i finish as well. I want to do that challenge to catch up next year.
East of Eden is fantastic and the writing is wonderful - but it took me about 6+ months to read the first 250 pages and then 2-3 weeks to finish the second half :D it can definitely take some time to sink into it! (or maybe it's just me)
I've maybe overcommitted myself for November/December reading goals so I'm hoping to avoid thinking about my next year's goals until the holiday season lol
But the remainder of the year includes Nonfiction November, Indigathon, some personal book bingo goals, and the last two of my top 12 books to read in 2021... definitely planning to double up on some!
What about reading the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) finalists and determining a winner? I like following this contest every year. It wouldn't be a huge commitment, and it would spotlight self-published books. I like this in place of the Goodreads challenge.
My own personal challenge for 2022 will center around continuing/finishing series and trying genres outside of my normal fantasy reads.
I was wondering, Emily, have you read the Arsene Lupin books? I watched the Netflix show a few months back and loved it, so I read the 1st Lupin book and it was great!!
Edward Rutherford's book are around 1000 pages. They are historical fiction novels.
Absolutely loved this video. Gave me lots of ideas!
My suggestion for classic reads is Watership Down by Richard Adams
I really think you would like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall!
East of Eden, Middle March, The Three Musketeers
Please do yourself a favor and read Jane Eyre on the Classic challenge!!!! It’s my favorite book of all time 😅
I’ve read it! I liked Jane but hated the romance
@@BookswithEmilyFox I can understand why hahahaha the movie is great too
Btw, sending you lots os love from Portugal 🇵🇹 💕
Look Homeward, Angel - Wolfe
Heart of Darkness - Conrad
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wilde
Goodbye, Mr. Chips - Hilton
Great books to get into classics according to me :
Antigone or Médée by Jean Anouilh
Metamorphosis by Kafka
Zweig's books
La princesse de Cleve (not sure about the English title)
Le misanthrope by Moliere (here again idk what's the English title)
Could you do a video for the favorite classics you read in your French Literature course?
To be honest I didn’t enjoy most of them. It would almost be a “least bad ones I’ve read“ lol It would mostly consist of books written by Balzac 😂
A great non-fiction book to read, easy because of the humor and laymans terms, is "The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?"
At one point Leon Lederman creates a curving road that starts with Democretes in Ancient Greece and goes up to present time. On the road as he mentions Newton and Einstein he has billboards that say "Your Sign Here" and "Burger King." Maybe the only physics book that will make you laugh. 😃It's a story rather than a lesson.
Hi, will you please try my memoir titled, "Wildflower, a Tale of Transcendence?" I would love that!
Don't fret about reading East of Eden. It probably reads easier than any other big classic I've read. For nonfiction you should consider reading Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. It's about Scientology and at times I laughed my ass off. L. Ron Hubbard was a hilariously ridiculous man.
Hey Emily... Give us some middle grade recs..
Regarding classics, have you already read "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" already either because of your French literature minor in school or for leisure?
I definitely agree with your idea to pick and choose genres to read for your Goodreads Choice challenge. I was inspired by you to challenge myself to read some of the winners, and I picked 8 categories that I would already have liked, or to expand my reading a little. I ended up choosing Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Poetry, and Debut Novel. I haven't finished yet but so far it's been pretty successful. Only 1 book below three-stars (SJM's winner for Fantasy... I gave it 1.5 lol 😬). I'd love to keep seeing your reactions to the ""best"" books of each year, but definitely don't force yourself to read things you're not interested in... that's just asking for a slump, lol.
One of my goals for next year is to read 1 classic and 1 non-fiction per month, so I'd definitely love to join the patreon classics club if you're putting a list together 😀 Love your videos, Emily! 💙
Oh I’m glad the challenge has been working for you! I feel like I’ve been struggling hard with it haha
@@BookswithEmilyFox It's probably only going so well because I wasn't *too* adventurous. It probably would not be as successful if I had to force myself to read like Romance or something, because that's just... not for me 😅
Not sure if you're interested or not, but I host an annual nonfiction reading challenge in a Goodreads group, and there's even a prize. 🙂
I’ve been putting off Middlemarch for about seven years 😅
I'm trying to decide if I want to commit to "The Hobbit" and "The Lord Of The Rings". Been listening to an audiobook of "Fellowship Of The Rings" to help me decide if I want to purchase them
Loved the Hobbit.
My goal this year was to read more books that intimidated me and yet… I did not 😂
High five!
6 a month AHAHAHHAHA. I am still laughing 😂😂😂
Got crazy there for a second 🤪
Can u tell us about the books with the yellow spines behind you?Which would you recommend?
I've noticed that most books you read are written by white man, so a challange could be to read more diversly. I think thats always a great goal to have for all of us :)
You should check out the reading stats videos she does for the end of each year, some stats are diversity related and you'd see it's very much not just books by white men.
Which Jane Austen books have you read And which did you enjoy The most so far..?😘😘😘
Great video!
6 a month is no problem. Just get the audiobook and set it to 4x you’ll be done in no time 😵💫
Do I even need to hear the words? Like just the sound should be enough right??
@@BookswithEmilyFox You hear at least 2 words. Usually just “The End” lol
I rarely agree with the winning books in ANY genre.
Can we please get a reading your hate comments/reviews on my favourite book videos
Will you read any French books?
I wouldn't recommend The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the main character is so self righteous
💜❤️💜❤️