Here's my reading pile of shame... which books are on yours?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
- If you're following along with the Read Good Challenge, you'll know June is Reading Shame Forgiveness Month. It's a chance to read those books that you've been ruminating about and agonising over -- maybe for years -- no questions asked.
To give you some inspiration, I thought I'd share my reading pile of shame, based on some different 'flavours' of shame that you might recognised in your own reading life.
If you'd like to do this as a tag, there are questions in the pinned comment. Fancy doing it? Consider yourself tagged!
(Shame about reading is, of course, very silly. This is just a bit of fun!)
See more about the Read Good Challenge here:
• Read Good Challenge 20...
And join the Storygraph challenge here:
app.thestorygraph.com/reading...
-
Books mentioned:
📖 The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
📖 The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
📖 A Quiet Belief in Angels, by R J Ellory
📖 Impossible Creatures, by Katharine Rundell
📖 Wool, by Hugh Howey
📖 Shift, by Hugh Howey
📖 Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer
📖 Authority, by Jeff Vandermeer
📖 Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin
📖 Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë
📖 Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi
📖 The Death of Vivek Oji, by Akwaeke Emezi
📖 You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, by Akwaeke Emezi
-
Thank you so much for watching.
📚 Join the Read Good Challenge 2024: • Read Good Challenge 20...
✉️ Email: benreadsgood[at]gmail.com
📸 Instagram: / benreadsgood
📊 Storygraph: app.thestorygraph.com/profile...
🎁 Amazon wishlist (books that are tricky to get in a physical bookshop in the UK): www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/...
-
#books #booktube #reading
Someone asked if this was a tag, and while I didn't think of it as one it absolutely can be! If you'd like to do your own 'Reading Shame Tag', here are the questions:
1. What book has been on your shelf the longest?
2. Are there any books outside of your comfort zone that you're desperate to read?
3. Are there any series you'd like to finish, but haven't?
4. Are there any books related to your background / heritage / history that you feel like you should have read?
5. Which book does it feel like everyone has read, but you haven't?
6. Is there an author you're ashamed not to have read anything by yet?
If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!
Hi Ben, your shame pile contained a book that should also be on mine, and I feel inspired to take up your tag offer because all the questions got me walking around and pulling out dusty books. I bet you a couple of them will finally get the attention they deserve because I watched your video
1. Auntie Mame
2. The Tale of Genji
3. Trollope's Palliser Novels
4. The American People (vols 1 and 2) by Larry Kramer
5. Normal People
6. Kafka
It goes without saying that this is a bit of fun and you should NOT be ashamed of any of your reading. But also... what's your reading shame?!
I often turn to JD Robb for a predictable mindless read. 🫢
My "reading shame" is a little the opposite. I'm ashamed of all the hours wasted pressing on and finishing a book that I am not vibing with. I need to put them down and walk away. It's time I could be spending on a book I am enjoying 😊
Ooh that's so interesting think about the opposite side of things! I am a devoted starter-finisher as well, though I only rarely regret finishing. It mostly works for me!
From this point on embrace the DNF! It doesn’t matter why you aren’t getting along well with the book. Just let it go.
I quit a book recently because of homemade strawberry preserves. The author clearly didn’t know when strawberries were in season on his character’s farm. He had no sense of the ratio of berries and sugar needed to make a batch. As a homecanner, it annoyed the crap out of me. Petty, I know, but he had already raised my hackles with an unconventional way of denoting dialogue on page 1.
Just wanna say that I love your channel. Thanks for being awesome!
Thank you so much - what a kind comment! 🥰
Not a romance, but my I suggest Mr. Fix It and Miss Sue? It has reserved five star reviews from everyone so far. ❤❤❤❤
My reading shame is never getting round to reading books I own because I always have library books on the go that obviously have a shelf (haha) life. I keep saying I'll stop requesting books from the library and get around to my own but I just can't help myself, especially when prize longlists come out. God of small things is also in my shame pile and has been for a number of years!
To be fair, supporting your local library is maybe the most acceptable reason not to read from your shelves 😅
The book that sat on my shelf for the longest time (I even started it 3 or 4 times but never made it past 10 pages) is The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa. When I eventually read it maybe 10 years later, I was stunned at how fantastic it was.
Also my fast-food books that are yummy but not at all demanding are Alexander McCall Smith's books about Precious Ramotswe!
Sounds like it was worth the wait! When you finally finished, did you find yourself glad you'd come to it at the right time to appreciate it, or did you wish you'd read it sooner?
It's set in a military academy and I thought it was going to be a heavy read and a testosterone-charged one at that! But not at all. It was so good. I'm glad I got past my biases. 😊
At 61, I have so many long unread books on my shelves. For Pride month, I decided to go back to some LGBTQ lit I purchased back in the early 1980s and found a winner. The Movie Lover by Richard Friedel. 40 years it sat there undiscovered, surviving countless purges. So, you never know.
Wow that's such a long stint on the shelves! Amazing that you finally came to it and loved it. Former you made a good decision when buying it!
I did that a couple of years ago with a lesbian novel I'd purchased in the 80s. It was Alma Rose by Edith Forbes. My tastes have definitely changed since then, but it survived a move from Minnesota in 1985. I figured it had some redeeming quality to survive that long. And guess what! It did. Which was surprising as those books were not known for their quality, just book candy.
Those Charmander and Charizard/Dragonite plushies are cute. They are shiny things too! 😂
Spoils from the Japan trip! Charmander was always my favourite 🔥
Love this and your prompts for all year. My reading shame was PRIDE AND PREJUDICE but I finally read it and LOVED! Thanks!
Glad you are enjoying the prompts! I'm very pleased with myself that I've managed to keep up with them 😂
I am not ashamed of my TBR shelf. Books should be read at the right time and my moods are not constant.
I am creating choice, finding the right fit for the right time.
That’s a great perspective to have!
My shames are my own 😅
Angela’s Ashes has been on my shelf for about 15 years and I finally finished it 4 days ago.
Congratulations for crossing that one off the list! 🎉
I recommend Authority, the second book in the Southern Reach series. It's very different than Anhillation, but since so much time has passed you may be able to better separate the two. It's written like a murder mystery and is fun to put the clues together.
Thanks for the recommendation! 🙏
I'm really impressed by/concerned for the person who has added the complete Wheel of Time series of 15 books to the prompt page on Storygraph 😅 Kudos!
I've not been looking forward to this month's prompt, because there is one book that "everyone" in my age group in Norway has read, and I really, really don't want to read it. It's Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen (1984), and I've read some other books by him where I didn't really like his writing and narration style. But I've bit the bullet and read 40 pages today, and ... I like it? Excited to see how it goes 🤞🏻🤞🏻
You've got to respect the ambition of that 😅 Maybe doable on audio at like... 5x?
How cool that you've ended up liking a book that you've put off for so long! That's the magic of Reading Shame Forgiveness Month right there 😂
I recently purchased a beautiful set of all of the Bronte Sister's novels. I also have reading copies. Must read!
I’m always a sucker for a beautiful book! 😍
FELT about giovanni's room. we're in the same boat, my friend
We can overcome!!! I think it might the 'the one' I turn to from this list for the prompt!
1. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I bought it in the 70s and I visited his home, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, MS in the 90s. It's time.
2. Thomas Pynchon, Lazslo Krazhnahorkai, Clarice Lispector, The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman and Thomas Mann.
3. I haven't even started the Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose series and John Buchan's RIchard Hannay spy thriller series. Yikes.
4. Another Country by James Baldwin, Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Plains by Gerald Murnane, and My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin. I grew up in the States and live in Australia now.
5. A Little Life.
6. George Eliot, Vladimir Nabakov, Franz Kafka, Svetlana Alexievich, Alexis Wright and Thomas Hardy.
Thank you for sharing your answers! Lots in there I can relate to.
Splendid video! It didn't take me long to come up with 100 Years of Solitude. I try and try, since it makes a tingle go up the leg of so many readers. But after a page or two, my eyes glaze over. (I even have multiple copies, thinking that will help.) I suspect finally it's that magical realism thing that almost never lures or enchants. And then there's Proust . . .
"A tingle up the leg" 😂 As with many of the books mentioned in the comments, 100 Years of Solitude is another one I also need to read... one day.
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it!
If I'm reading a series and hit a clunker, it's the death knell of finishing the series. I definitely recommend Jane Eyre and Giovanni's Room! For this challenge, I am finally reading Lincoln in the Bardo and loving it after my looooong delay.
Hi, I have read almost all of George Saunders short story collections and am a fan, but couldn't get into Lincoln in the Bardo. Maybe I should try again. Coincidentally, when I picked up my copy of The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I bought 23 years ago, I discovered that George Saunders wrote the introduction! I didn't know him at the time, but this confirmed my choice of book for this month😊
I also still need to read Lincoln in the Bardo. I love Saunders' stuff so it feels like a must-read! But I know it's going to take me a lot more mental work to get into the rhythm of.
@@benreadsgood I have about a 50/50 track record on Saunders (love The Semplica-Girls Diary) but this very strange novel is working for me.
Oh, Giovanni’s Room is SO good!
All the positive comments have me so excited for it!
I also have an unread copy of A quiet belief in Angels priced £7.99! One day I'll get round to it . . . at the moment it's on a "not up there to read but not down there to unhaul" shelf 😂
Snap! Maybe one day we'll get to them 😂
I used to be one who'd never read Jane Eyre because I'd seen so many Jane Eyre movies and TV-adaptations, but then I discovered Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (written from Bertha's perspective) that really called to me, and so suddenly there was then an urgency for me to read Jane Eyre first, so I did. I must admit I will never be re-reading Jane Eyre, it never caused me to feel the level of turbulent emotions that, for example, Emily B.'s Wuthering Heights did, but I will be re-reading the magical, exotic and haunting Wide Sargasso Sea, and it could never have been written without Jane Eyre, so for that I am grateful.
Wanting to read Wide Sargasso Sea is one of the many reasons I want to read Jane Eyre too! My friend is an English teacher and teaches Wide Sargasso Sea, and always tells me how good it is.
I have never felt shame for books I have not read. There are many days ahead. BUT the only shame I've felt is in the completion of The Discomfort of Evening . It was shocking and I could not put it down. Wishing you many happy years of reading Ben.
I envy you for avoiding any TBR shame 👏
Was your feeling about The Discomfort of Evening that you wish you hadn't finished it? I must admit that I really didn't enjoy that one!
My longest on the TBR shame book is "The Library at Mount Char". And my canon shames are "Frankenstein" and "Wuthering Heights". But I also ticked one off recently and that was "1984", so I know that it can be done!
Slow and steady and you'll be through them before you know it! Frankenstein is another I really need to cross off my own list. I wanted to read it around October last year and didn't manage to squeeze it in.
Great video! We share some shame! I haven't read Jane Eyre either, and it haunts me all the time! I have watched adaptations so I know the gist, but I am hoping to get to it this month as my pick for the prompt. Also, I have yet to read a Zadie Smith. I don't know why. I am sure I will love her writing, but like you, I get distracted by shiny new books.
Thanks Gretchen! It's so easy to get distracted, isn't it! I do like Zadie Smith, but I actually think she's a surprisingly hit-and-miss author for a lot of people (not per book, but some people LOVE her and some really don't).
Also not read Jane Eyre yet... But is it on my shelves, obviously 😜
My initial choice was the book that had been waiting the longest for me to finally pick it up, but since it’s not pride-related, I pushed it to July (where I’ll parallel read it with my mum, so I know it will still be read, lol!) I defo have authors I want to get to that I just haven’t. Absolutely I get distracted by the new, shiny ones too - and I was so deluded and naïve about focusing mostly on reading from my shelves this year..! 😅🤷♀️
Good luck with your prompts, Ben! Really enjoying taking part
Aww a parallel read with your mum is so cute!!! Glad not to be alone on Eyre.
Haha I loved this!! Another flavour of shame for me is reading a book eeeeveryone loves and it's canon and must-read and a classic and..
But I hated it 😂
Oh yeah, I can see that one being a shame often kept under wraps. Although unpopular opinions always make things more interesting!
I’ve had The Glastonbury Romance on my shelf for over 30 years. Maybe time to unshelve it? Nope. I’ll get to it.
I believe in you - you'll get to it!!!
Ben, my shame read, which I've already read now, was Giovanni's Room! It was for your reading challenge! I'm sure you know that it's going to be amazing, and it is, but even more than you imagine. -- I hope you read it, too!!!
I reaaaaally want to read it. i think it might be my pick for the month!
Omg I have JUST finished Giovanni's Room and can I just add my voice to your compulsion to pick it up? So so good.
I used to be a terror for buying books from charity shops just because I'd heard of them - I think A Suitable Boy has been on the shelf the longest and I'm so scared to start because he's such a big boy!
I know I must have shame authors on my shelves, but I can't think of any right now 😅 I need to pick up Bring up the Bodies by Mantel asap because I read Wolf Hall about 2 years ago and loved it but just...haven't continued? It's on my shelf staring at me, so maybe that will be my pick!
Giovanni's Room is happening this month!!!
A Suitable Boy is HUGE so I really don't blame you for being intimidated 😅
You're not alone! I haven't read "Jane Eyre"...Although I have no desire to. But I've been the same with Dracula and Phantom of the Opera. They both always end up being what I plan to read in the autumn and winter months and yet never do.
Happy reading, Ben!
There are more of us than I thought! 😮 Strength in numbers I guess 😂
Happy reading to you too!
Super relatable 😂 I have every book by Fiona Davis and I haven’t read any of them. And I keep buying them as they are published! 🤪
Oh no... I don't know Fiona Davis and now I'm going to have to research her... more for my shame pile 😂
Book series.... let's not talk about how many I'm in the middle of 😂😂
I am gonna take a wild guess that you're not alone in this 😂
Ive got the same southern reach books as you have. I got them from the charity shop (lucky find) because I loved the covers. I actually enjoyed authority more than annihilation, which is generally an unpopular opinion, but the bureaucratic office setting just irked me/unnerved me more than the first book.
God of small things and jane eyre is also on my shame pile 😂.
I really need to track down the third one in the same style! Maybe then I'll decide to dive into the second one 😅
The Ellory looked familiar. I found it nestled, unread, in my Kindle. I bought it in 2011. Yikes. A psychiatrist colleague recommended it enthusiastically. Since I’m looking for a mystery, I’ll read it now. Thank you!
Haha well it sounds like you may get around to it before I do, so you'll have to let me know how it is!
I have finally read my first Steinbeck. I picked Of Mice and Men and liked it more than I thought I would. Still have East of Eden on my shelf, so let's see if I can tackle this one too before the end of the year.
Of Mice and Men is one of the rare instances where studying a book at school made me really enjoy it! Definitely want to read East of Eden too, but it’s chunky.
Great video, as usual, thank you for all your content.
Thanks so much for watching, and for the kind comment! 🙏
Jane Eyre was my first "adult" book. My first read was at twelve years old. I screamed when you said Jane Eyre, so unexpected! There is a new audiobook version read by Alison Larkin. I have been meaning to read Jane Eyre again because I don't remember the details and I call it my favorite book. That is my book shame 😂
I know right I definitely should have read it by now!!! 😭
I tried reading Jane Eyre when I was 13 and haven't tried over 10 years later. But it looks like it might get picked for my bookclub this month so the time might have come!
Ooh that's great timing!
Please don't feel shame - I hope you get to Jane Eyre soon and enjoy it. I have definitely bought MULTIPLE books from authors and haven't even read ONE of their books. New shiny things are SO distracting! My "shame" is that so much of my reading history is full of white, straight men from mostly the UK the USA. A lot of that, of course, was due to school but now that I'm much older I'm branching out and reading a lot more women and authors of the global ethnic majority. Which means my TBR BLEW UP! I have so, so many books to read now but I'm so glad I branched out.
Haha yes I am exactly the same - all those Emezi books but none of them read. But I’m getting to my first one this month!
I haven't yet read May's prompt, but I've kept up so far, it's been fun!! I liked how you divided this into categories.
I haven't chosen mine yet, but am I currently catching up on a series. I think a tbr vet would probably be my biggest shame!
Glad you've been enjoying it Sarah! It's been really fun to do (although now and again when I've had a massive TBR I've been like... BEN WHY DID YOU SET THIS PROMPT 😂)
this is an excellent list of "shames" and a good, positive reminder of some correctives :)
Thanks Sophie! The first step to being shameless is to recognise shame 😂
I have been reading a book by Baldwin ("Another Country") since last year, in small dosis, not because it's bad, on the contary, it's too good and freaking intense. I get tired and need breaks.
Oh, I have not read Jane Eyre either. And I'm probably 10 years older than you. Oh well, I apologize, I got distracted playing videogames.
I think once I tackle Giovanni's Room I will queue up my next Baldwin... I've only read If Beale Street Could Talk!
I love this concept!
Thanks so much! It was fun to think about.
Your next book must be Giovanni's Room!
I think it might be! (Well, not *next* book, but my prompt pick for this month!)
Jane Eyre is my favorite book of all time! I recommend it to everyone!
Whenever I mention it people say it’s a must read. I really must!
I've been struggling with this prompt so much. I like how you expanded on it, but currently so much enjoying a rereading spree of pure escapism fiction.
Glad you found it helpful! But 'books you would love to re-read and haven't gotten around to' is probably another completely legitimate category on this list!
@@benreadsgood OMG, that is opening the door to a completely different hell :D
Ooh you need to read Jane Eyre😂
I have yet to read Catcher in the Rye and Frankenstein 🫣🫣
Frankenstein is another one I really need to read! I loved Catcher though (but I know it's quite divisive).
I’m participating in the read good challenge but I had no idea I was supposed to list the books I read on storygraph. My reading shame is a book called “Adam” by Ted Dekker. I bought it about five years ago because it was my best friend’s favorite book, but all I got around to was reading the summary on the back. It’s on my side table covered in dust. I’m too ashamed to even dust it.
No obligation to join on The Storygraph, just a fun addition for anyone who is on there!
Too ashamed to dust - that made me genuinely laugh out loud 😂
The God of Small Things is a book that you regularly find in charity shops - a friend of mine calls it a favourite of hers and I held onto it for years before unhauling it. Indeed, that seems to be what I do with all "books of shame". Donate them to the charity shop and forget they were ever on my shelves.
Always best to deny any knowledge 😂 You're right though - I do see it very often in charity shops!
I think you'll like Jane Eyre. And I know you'll love Vivek Oji - it was one of my favorite books of 2020. Having read Jane Eyre (I was also late to the party), I now want to read Wide Sargasso Sea. As someone who identifies as a feminist first and foremost, it seems a crime that I haven't read it yet.
If there's one thing that brings me shame, it's that I own so many books that I haven't read. I fully buy into the belief that buying books and reading them are separate equally valid hobbies, but I truly want to read all the books I own. It sometimes causes me anxiety to look at them and hear them crying out for attention.
I know I've said it before, but I think the best thing that could ever happen to me is some kind of house arrest situation.
I think I'll be reading Vivek Oji next month actually, as some friends and I are trialling a bit of a book group (not full book club... it's a bit more informal than that). Excited to get to it.
And totally agree - I want to get to the books on my shelves. When I buy each one I intend to read it, I'm just very limited by the hours in the day and my attention span 😂
I have been really enjoying the Read Good Challenge even though I am not on The Story Graph like the cool kids. I narrowed down my shame-not shame choice to Kazuo Ishiguro or Alice Munro and went with Munro. I am a recent(ish) convert to the short story (and short, generally) form and she was a marvel. Glad to have finally read her, and thank you for helping me to get there.
So pleased to hear you've been enjoying it! Munro is definitely an author I've had the urge to read in recent months - I think I'll pick up a collection at some point, perhaps for the September prompt (although that said, I have so many collections I need to get to that I already own).
I've not read Jane Eyre but I don't feel a need to read to it. I haven't read The Bone People by Keri Hume but think I should read it as it I'm a New Zealander and not read the one Booker winner from Aotearoa NZ.
Welcome to the Eyre-less gang.
The Bone People sounds like it would be an excellent choice for this month's prompt!
Being an absolute mood reader, I have a pile of 18 books which I have started at some point and then put down.....and I have no idea when I will get back to any of them.
Ooh that sounds like a big stack! Do you get very far through before pausing? I have a lot where I read the first few pages to get an idea, but usually when I start properly, I finish before moving on.
I went the "ashamed I haven't read it yet" route with this one and will be reading The Handmaid's Tale. I know... how is that possible? I have read Jane Eyre and had quite mixed and uncomfortable feelings about it. I won't say more, in case it's possible to spoil a book that's 175 years old. I hope it's a hit for you!
We all have our blind spots 😅 Interesting to hear about your Jane Eyre issues... will be interested to see if I can spot what it is about it that might have caused that (when I finally get around to it).
I have no shame. Reading wise or not. Hahaha. Shameless Savidge. Jane Eyre is a banger, I only read it a few years ago, I think.
I know your reading shame Simon: saving books for a rainy day!!! I only realised how much I do that too after you mentioned it in your videos 😂
But Shameless Savidge has a great ring to it.
I picked Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurer - it’s one of my Mum’s favourite books, I’ve had it on my shelf for ages and never read any other Du Maurier. I loved it so thank you for giving me the nudge to pick it up!
Oh I love using one of your Mum's favourites for this prompt! Glad you enjoyed it 👏
Okay, Ben, you got company. Haven’t read Jane Eyre either. Also, of course, no obligation, BUT YOU NEED TO PICK UP DEATH OF VIVEK OJI SOON!
Please raise your hand if you have ever felt personally victimised by Charlotte Brontë 🙋♂️
Good news on the Vivek Oji front: a few friends and I are starting an informal book group and we've chosen it as our first read!
Really enjoying the various prompts- still need to finish Crooked Plow for May’s magical realism. I’ve chosen Alice Munro this month, because I’m sad not to have read her before, and because I rarely read short stories. Wish I could read Jane Eyre for the first time 😃
Very pleased to hear you're enjoying the prompts! It's been a fun thing to do. Munro is on my list too, perhaps for September!
❤this is a fun post!
Glad you enjoyed it! It was fun to make 😊
I have not yet read Jane Ayre. Not high on my tbr either tbh 😊
Ahhh I am not the only one 😅 I do want to read it though. Thanks for watching!
I keep buying classics and coffee table books but never opening them. 😮
Haha I can relate to that. Although tbh I never feel bad about not opening coffee table books - I like to imagine them being mainly for guests 😅
You've not read any Emezi?! 🤯 The Death of Vivek Oji is an all time fave of mine.
Jennifer this is a safe space!!! 😂 I will get to their books one day I promise!
Impossible Creatures still hasn’t been released in the US, and will only come out until early September. I almost purchased it from the UK because it was quite exalted, but I remain frustrated that I can’t buy ebooks from Amazon UK, so frustrating!
I have so many similar frustrations with books available in the US but not the UK! I have an old Kindle and wondering if I should investigate how to link it to the US store.
I only read Jane Eyre two years ago and at one point had eight Dickens books and had only read A Christmas Carol.
Well I'm pleased to know I'm not the only person who hasn't had Jane Eyre as a formative reading experience!!!
Reading Giovanni’s Room right now but ,for as much as I have loved the movie versions, I also have not read Jane Eyre🤦🏻♀️
I am also reading Giovanni's Room right now... twinning!
@@benreadsgood just finished GR…so well written and so heart wrenching 😢
Can’t wait to read more Baldwin!
I don't really feel reading shame, but for the purposes of your Storygraph challenge I finally read The Vaster Wilds after having renewed it from the library repeatedly as I kept putting off reading it.
Good to see some no-shamers out there! And glad you managed to tick that library title off your list 😊
I can’t remember if I’ve read Jane Eyre! 😂 I know the story, but I know I’ve also seen adaptations of it several times. I’ve got it on my shelf and should probably reread/read it. My book shame is classics - I can’t decide if I still enjoy them or if I just think I “should” read them. In that effort, currently reading Villette by Charlotte Brontë.
I’d say not remembering means you’re in the club! 😅
I am probably a step even more removed from classics… I tend just to not read them. I find the language really hard to jive with, but it is another source of shame as they are classics for a reason and I should give more of them a go.
I think “Protect your bliss” is my new life motto. Not that I’m not familiar with shame 😅 Also, is this a tag? ^^
Also also, I scrolled through the description and the Brown is missing from the Dan. Very unimportant, I mainly thought it was funny. Like he’s Madonna. Which kind of fits!
Ooh I hadn't thought of this as a tag, but it definitely can be one! I'll put the categories / questions in a comment!
And hahaha at Dan's missing surname 😂 Good spot - I must have been typing in a rush and somehow hit enter too soon. I'll fix it now!
@@benreadsgood Fabulous! I'll consider myself tagged and add this to my ever growing list ^^
I also loved The Da Vinci Code btw, I don't care about "good literature", it was everything I wanted in a book! 😊 I'm a Dan Fan.
It's strangely relieving to see other people's "books I meant to read" stacks 😂When it comes to trilogies I have discovered that I have to wait until all three books are published so I can binge, otherwise I'm unlikely to ever get past the first book. (And I am definitely guilty of back list hoarding 😅 And on my Kindle I have 19/23 books in Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series, but I haven't read a single one.) I'm not sure I want to show off my whole hall of shame, but I have my biggest shame in my summer reading video. I also have my book for no paragraph November there, because I need a head start. I'll probably still be reading it come November tbh.
Oh my gosh... 23 books?! That's such a long series! And yeah I'm with you that if I read a trilogy before it's all been published I will never remember it and never finish 😅
I have a feeling No-paragraph-vember may defeat a few people (me included)...
Southern Reach Trilogy: Loved to 2nd and 3rd books. "Is your house in order?"
John (Control) Rodriguez and Ghost Bird. Loved it.
I have not read Jane Eyre , but what's worse? I have not read The Old Man and the Sea.
I added The Stranger (Albert Camus) for June.
I have also not read The Old Man and the Sea... or any Hemingway 😳
@@benreadsgood What?! Before I unsubscribe, read "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber".
We’re trying NOT to shame this month 😂 I will get around to him one day!
Since I am an english major, my shame books are some classics I haven't read like Catcher in the Rye, Sense and Sensibility, anything by Kazuro Ishiguro... But I did read Jane Eyre 😅Also The Book Thief which I DNFed like...ten years back? And have been wanting to try again now that I'm older. But other than the classics, I usually feel not shame but like nervousness that I won't have enough time to get to all the books I want to read (which technically is very probable but I try not to think about that🙈)
Reading Shame Forgiveness Month is all about not feeling bad about it, but if you did choose to read some Ishiguro I would be in full support. He's so brilliant!
I haven’t read Jane Eyre either but there are loads more books I would rather read! I also have The God of Small things on my shelf as well my mum gave it to me years ago and would love to read but always pick up something else instead.
I definitely relate to both of these things!!! My hand always gets drawn to some other book on my shelf 😅
I only read Jane Eyre last year, if that makes you feel better. I think my "shame" is that I don't read much non-fiction. So I've set a goal to try to read 8 non-fiction books a year (not counting memoir/biography because I read those w/o prompting). My other "shame" is not finishing series. I have about 9 series I want to finish, but my most of them I started 4 or 5 years ago so I'm going to have to start all over. 😭
Oh yeah, I empathise so much. I wish I read more non-fiction too! And yeah once I fall off the series train, I forget everything and would need to either recap or start again 😱
My reading shame? I still don’t enjoy reading Shakespeare. Makes me feel like such a Philistine.
I think there's a fair argument to be made that Shakespeare is better seen performed than read!
I can identify with each of your flavors of genres. I read Jane Eyre in high school and hated it. I watched the adaptation and hated it. So no skin off my nose if you never read it. 😂 (I am 74 and haven’t read Wuthering Heights. I don’t think I will now. I’d much rather reread The Importance of Being Ernest or 84 Charing Cross Rd. ❤)
Definitely good to prioritise what you enjoy over what you feel obliged to read. Reading Shame Forgiveness Month is all about doing what's right for you, without feeling bad about it!
Mine was Wuthering Heights. So I read that. Been sat on my shelf for years. Not a bad book but prefer Jane Eyre.
Great that you tackled it! 👏
We share The God of Small Things as oldest unread 😂
We'll get to it one day! 😅
I highly recommend The God of Small Things, I could have re-read it for Maygical realism month but I chose to re-read One Hundred Years of Solitude instead (because it is being adapted into a series). My shameful read this month is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has been on my shelves for 23 years. The other good reason for choosing it is so I can then read James, by Percival Everett, which of course you recommend.
I enjoyed Annihilation and managed to get through the whole trilogy, but agree with Matt, it is a little boring (especially book 2).
I haven't read Jane Eyre either! Or Wuthering Heights! Or David Copperfield! But I do own a very nice Everyman Library copy, which I plan to read before reading Demon Copperhead...
Ahhh great choice for this month. I hope you love James as much as I did! And amazing to cross a book off that's been hanging about for nearly a quarter of a century 👏
It is so eye-opening how many people haven't read Jane Eyre after all. I thought I was flying solo!
Yes it's great, and I have you to thank for it 😊
We do seem to be quite a few lucky enough to be able to read Jane Eyre for the first time!
That’s a great perspective on it!
Me, I'm another person calling myself a reader yet have still not read Jane Eyre. We're in this together
So relieved there are so many of us!!
As an English major my 'shame' lies partly with the classics. But looking at a ranked compilation of greatest lists, I'm not too worried. Haven't read "In Search of Lost Time", but it's really long. Same with the Russian classics. I was hoping to read Anna Karenina by the time I turned 50, then by the end of my 50th year, then...I got stalled at the 75% mark. (Haven't read Jane Eyre but enjoyed the Mia Wasikowska film.) Have read little Jane Austen: occasionally I'll trudge a few pages through "Pride and Prejudice". Same with "Beloved". People list those books as their all time favorites. They ARE well-written; they're easy enough to read, but I feel like my editions must be missing something. But all that shame is self-imposed. Few of the people around me care what I read. My only REAL SHAME is the poor allocation of time and monetary resources, e.g., the hundreds of books I bought and then didn't read, some of which I will have to give away unread because of an eventual move in my future.
75% through Anna Karenina is still *so* many pages... it's like 3 other whole books! It's another one I have and really want to read, but I too struggle to prioritise the classics.
Interestingly, one thing I frequently struggle with when trying pick up classics are the fonts and print quality. I really struggle to concentrate with some of the older-looking stuff. Which probably means I should read more of them digitally, but I also don't love eBook reading as much as print books. A minefield!
I have attempted to read Middlemarch FOUR times and each time I have quit it about 1/3 - 1/2 of the way in. There are so many characters to keep track of. My failure to read this book haunts me. I want to try it again. I must climb this mountain!
I did it on audio, found it easier!
This may be a sin to say, but I feel like Middlemarch is a novel I will never read 😬
I read Middlemarch earlier this spring, and I struggled for the first half, but the second half was great!
Mine is, I admire Arundhati Roy so much for her activism , but I haven't read God of Small Things.
I've just today seen the news that she's about to be prosecuted for stuff she said in 2010 😞
@@benreadsgood yes, I know, they are at it again, very scary..
I've never read 1984. (How did I miss this during school?!) After just finishing Julia maybe it is time for 1984.
It wasn’t one on my school syllabus either! I read it a few years ago and I think its language and concepts have become so ingrained in our culture, that when it read it, it felt weirdly derivative (despite know it’s the original!)
I’ve never read To Kill a Mockingbird - please don’t tell anyone 🤫
Your secret is safe with me!
(Holding back my secret inner troll from pinning this comment 😂)
I've never understood the hype of it, to be honest...🤷
My shame was I had never read anything by E.M. Forster so this month I read A ROOM WITH A VIEW.
Good choice! It's great to be able to tick a long-running want-to-read off the list!
Never read Jane Eyre (and I can’t say I have trouble sleeping at night because of that)
Take that, Brontë 😂 Glad to have you part of the Eyre-less gang.
I have not read Jane Eyre!
We stand together! ✊
I have never read Jane Eyre.
There are more of us than I had thought!!!
Me neither but I did pick up a used copy so some day I can get around to it
Amazing that you can fit so much into just 10:49.
Jane Eyre? Nope. Nor Middlemarch. Nor Infinite Jest. And don't care. You can't read everything. My reading shame is from when I was much younger and I would read true crime which I now consider one of the lowest brow genres there is.
It was fun to try and think about all those flavours of shame!
My reading shame is any queer books. As a gay man, every time I see queer books I imagine the pain. So I stay away. I’ve bought 3 queer books for June…haven’t read any of them.
Ahhh yeah there's a lot of queer suffering on the page. But there are some books about queer joy too! That's maybe a good video idea actually... 🤔
....... I have about 50 pages left of Jane Eyre..... I've been there for a few months and.... It's a problem.
Cheering you on from afar… so close to clawing your way out of the shame pit 😂