Great video! As a reader, I bump into this problem too. The solution? I will paraphrase Borges here: "If you don't like Shakespeare, don't worry, toss him aside, Shakespeare has not yet written for you. A day will come when you and Shakespeare will be worthy of each other...meanwhile, don't rush it". He would completely agree with all your points.
i love this topic and i've not seen anyone talk about this. although the way you approached this is a way i've not thought of fully , i've thought of how everyone (majority not all) wants to follow an aesthetic which leads them to go for certain books because they're trendy. i would tie this into book ratings i personally dont like GoodReads and stuff like that because i've seen youtubers be excited about getting a book and then decide to not read it anymore solely based off ratings from other people and it's crazy to me how it's so normalized to be persuaded like that. truly many are missing out on so many good experiences with a variety of books because they want to skip the bad & follow along with what everyone loves (but the bad are bound to come ur not going to love every book u read but u can appreciate the effort of trying). as far for aesthetic with classics i do think it's good they're being read because they do enhance a person reading ability when their mind adapts to it , however it takes out the fun when you're picking ones because the majority said to. i felt it when you talked about catching yourself say an author is good although you haven't read much of their work to decide that but its because of what you hear everyone say , i've caught myself saying that with many authors recently for the same reason 😅
You should be willing to go out of your comfort zone, but never be ashamed or self conscious if you don't like something that is considered great or important. We only have so much time to do anything, enjoy it!
I’m a new book tuber and all I see are TBRs, book hauls and reading challenges. I feel like there is so much social media pressure when it comes to reading nowadays. We as readers should feel free and be happy to choose what we want to read and when we want to read it. And be okay with reading at your own pace! Loved this
I totally get you, I see a lot of those types of videos as well and they can be pressuring at times. It's nice to take a step back and read what you want to. Edit: I just subscribed to your channel!
I almost didn't get into reading at all because of this. I had some older "classics" like Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde and a few other popular books by people like Charles Dickens. And I struggled to even get through the books not because they weren't good but because they genuinely didn't resonate with me at all. It wasn't about 2 years ago 3 I guess now that I bought a random book from the store cause the plot sounded good to me and I read it and I loved it. Since then I have easily read anywhere from 30-100 pages a day since then with books I enjoy.
That's awesome! I'm glad you were able to get into reading with books you enjoy. I want to read like that again, that's why I want to only read the books I enjoy and to really get into them. I used to read 50 pages to 100 a day but because of trying to force myself to read books I don't want to read I've stopped reading as much but I want to start getting back into it like before! Thank you so much for watching!
Totally agree with what you're saying. As someone who has read both Star Wars The Paradise Snare and Welcome to the Monkey House (the first "important" book you held up), personally I found Monkey House to be waaaaay more fun. I still reread stories out of there. And I haven't thought much about Paradise Snare since I read it back in high school. But that's just my experience. Read whatever makes your heart happy.
I think you really summed up your point nicely by saying “maybe a lot of people have been impacted by paradise lost, but that doesn’t mean everybody needs to be”. This is very important and really speaks to the side of me that believes all art is subjective- no matter what
While reading "popcorn" books is better than not reading at all, that doesn't mean the people who tell you that Paradise Lost has more value than Star Warz are wrong. The classics are generally harder to read and require more effort to even enjoy than genre fiction, but overcoming the intellectual and cultural obstacles is part of the process. It's kind of like how running gets you out of breath and tired while walking doesn't break a sweat. By all means, you are allowed to walk. I enjoy walking and I think walking is a good thing to do, but let's not pretend that walking is just as beneficial to you as running.
Thank you for your comment! I agree with what you are saying about these works being harder and could have benefits to reading them. I failed to mention this but I am a fan of James Joyce who is notoriously confusing and rewarding to read. I do disagree that books like Star Wars aren't as meaningful as books like James Joyce. In my own experience with reading classics, let's take Blood Meridian, a difficult book, and compare that to Bunnicula, an easy to read children's book, Blood Meridian had the deeper themes in the story and could be deemed "greater. However in my personal experience Bunnicula has had more of a impact than Blood Meridian has had on my life. In that way I wanted to address the pressure that literary communities put on readers to read certain books and disregard others because I believe that the reader can take away what he will from a book no matter what it is. Thank you for watching my video and your feedback means a lot!
You're just putting one fiction book on a pedestal over another because it's older. It's absolutely ridiculous to say Paradise Lost has more value than Star Wars or some other more modern fantasy. Age isn't equal to value.
Everyone has their own reasons to read but most of us read for fun, so in that sense we should read what we enjoy. Maybe if we read a lot of fantasy for example and we want to get into the classics then that's fine and those books will be a little bit tougher etc. but we should do it only if we want to do it. Some people read because they want to "know more" about literature or whatever and that's fine too, but those people definitely should try to read harder books even if they don't enjoy or understand them completely because their objective is to learn. So the main point I think is to be honest with ourselves and to know why we read in the first place. Some people like me do both, I read for fun but I also kinda want to read some of the classics and some philosophy, and that sometimes might be "boring" but it's also rewarding. So I mix things up. But ultimately every one of us can decide to read whatever we want to. So in that sense eveyrone can decide for themselves what's important for them.
I really appreciate and like your comment. I also like to read because I enjoy reading. I also like challenging myself with the classics but when I bog myself down with only hard books it makes reading unenjoyable. I do like to read some classics, Dostoevsky mostly, from time to time but I like it as a challenge from time to time like you talk about. Thank you for watching my video!
I agree that the shouldn’t be pressure on what you ‘should’ read but personally I want to read the classics cause they stood the test of time and I only have time to read a few books in this lifetime before I die so I might as well read what’s considered the best. But reading something you don’t enjoy is also a waste of time so it’s all about balance. P.s. I am currently reading Paradise Lost. It was very intimidating at first but once I got used to the writing, it opened my mind to answers to many questions I wrestled with. By page 35, I was blown away. So while I’m all for enjoyment in reading, sometimes delayed gratification while reading leads you to surprising revelations, for lack of a better word.
I appreciate your comment and I understand where you are coming from. I've had that mentality for myself and it didn't work out too well with trying to only read the books that are considered the best and in some ways has taken joy out of reading. I do want to read paradise lost as well sometime and it's encouraging to hear your experience with it! Thank you for watching!
I always told my friend growing up that what she got out of a classic piece of art, i could also get out of a really good picture of an anime boy. I think this video has the same sentiment haha. i find that i wanna read things that are fun, so i read a lot of those and it makes me want to read something challenging. i read something challenging, so all i wanna do is read something fun. So i just don't fight the mood im in, and I usually wanna continue reading.
Usually important books are important for a reason. If the messages and modes of their communication were easy and accessible then they would be non-unique and therefore not a classic. Of course you’re allowed to dislike certain classics (I don’t like Vonnegut) just like you’re allowed to read for entertainment, and if you want to be entertained of course reading manga is going to be better than reading an epic poem from four hundred years ago. You should look into what makes a book like Paradise Lost so important beyond whether or not it has an “affect” on you.
Thank you for commenting and responding to my video! I was not arguing in my video that classics, or paradise lost for example, are not important or worth reading. However the point that I was trying to make is that there is an importance to other books that are not considered "great literature" as well as those that are. The reason I made this video was because I have seen and experienced a pressure to read only a certain kind of book and disregard everything else as trash. I wanted to make an encouragement towards those who enjoy reading "Trash books" that there is nothing wrong with them and in fact can be just important as those other books. A point that I missed speaking about was Harold Bloom's comments on Harry Potter and Blood Meridian. In this video Harold Bloom bashes on Harry Potter as trash and uplifts Blood Meridian as a masterpiece and a "Important" book. I have read both and I like both of them for there own reasons. However when comparing Blood Meridian and Harry Potter the difference is not that one is trash and one is important, rather it is the way that the themes are handled. Harry Potter tells it's themes through it's story while Blood Meridian's story is secondary to the themes. Blood Meridian is almost worshipped as a meaningful book but if someone doesn't like it than either they didn't understand it or are stupid. Anyways all in all, I wanted to go against what I often see in literary communities where some books are worshipped and others ridiculed but that people should read one they enjoy, whether classic or contemporary and not worry about what people think. Thanks again for watching!
Mr Whale no one is forcing you to read anything. Read what your heart desires and find meaning in it. The only question one might have is why you have Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and Confucius and so on plastered on your wall if you find reading the "classics" too intimidating. What I'm trying to say is that you should do the things that feel right to you and make the most out of it, and you shouldn't have to conform to expectations of others you know
Thank you for watching and commenting! I do like classics, and I enjoy the likes of Joyce, Dostoevsky, and other classic writers that are "difficult" to read. My point in this video was not to disregard those works, rather to encourage those who have been told that only certain works matter and the lesser works should be treated as nothing. I wanted to make the case in a way for these "lesser" works although I probably did a poor job of that. Thank you again for watching.
Don't listen to other people. Read what you want to read. Just read.
Great video! As a reader, I bump into this problem too. The solution? I will paraphrase Borges here: "If you don't like Shakespeare, don't worry, toss him aside, Shakespeare has not yet written for you. A day will come when you and Shakespeare will be worthy of each other...meanwhile, don't rush it".
He would completely agree with all your points.
I like that qoute a lot haha, I feel like that some up what I was trying to say, thanks
i love this topic and i've not seen anyone talk about this. although the way you approached this is a way i've not thought of fully , i've thought of how everyone (majority not all) wants to follow an aesthetic which leads them to go for certain books because they're trendy. i would tie this into book ratings i personally dont like GoodReads and stuff like that because i've seen youtubers be excited about getting a book and then decide to not read it anymore solely based off ratings from other people and it's crazy to me how it's so normalized to be persuaded like that. truly many are missing out on so many good experiences with a variety of books because they want to skip the bad & follow along with what everyone loves (but the bad are bound to come ur not going to love every book u read but u can appreciate the effort of trying). as far for aesthetic with classics i do think it's good they're being read because they do enhance a person reading ability when their mind adapts to it , however it takes out the fun when you're picking ones because the majority said to. i felt it when you talked about catching yourself say an author is good although you haven't read much of their work to decide that but its because of what you hear everyone say , i've caught myself saying that with many authors recently for the same reason 😅
You should be willing to go out of your comfort zone, but never be ashamed or self conscious if you don't like something that is considered great or important. We only have so much time to do anything, enjoy it!
Great Video, Totally agree with you.
“To thine own self be true.” Best wishes.
I’m a new book tuber and all I see are TBRs, book hauls and reading challenges. I feel like there is so much social media pressure when it comes to reading nowadays. We as readers should feel free and be happy to choose what we want to read and when we want to read it. And be okay with reading at your own pace!
Loved this
I totally get you, I see a lot of those types of videos as well and they can be pressuring at times. It's nice to take a step back and read what you want to. Edit: I just subscribed to your channel!
Love that perspective! Dude me too! Let’s goooo
We will discuss wheel of time when we both finish the series!
I almost didn't get into reading at all because of this. I had some older "classics" like Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde and a few other popular books by people like Charles Dickens. And I struggled to even get through the books not because they weren't good but because they genuinely didn't resonate with me at all. It wasn't about 2 years ago 3 I guess now that I bought a random book from the store cause the plot sounded good to me and I read it and I loved it. Since then I have easily read anywhere from 30-100 pages a day since then with books I enjoy.
That's awesome! I'm glad you were able to get into reading with books you enjoy. I want to read like that again, that's why I want to only read the books I enjoy and to really get into them. I used to read 50 pages to 100 a day but because of trying to force myself to read books I don't want to read I've stopped reading as much but I want to start getting back into it like before! Thank you so much for watching!
Totally agree with what you're saying. As someone who has read both Star Wars The Paradise Snare and Welcome to the Monkey House (the first "important" book you held up), personally I found Monkey House to be waaaaay more fun. I still reread stories out of there. And I haven't thought much about Paradise Snare since I read it back in high school. But that's just my experience. Read whatever makes your heart happy.
Thanks for your comment, I loved slaughter house five and will probably read Welcome to the monkey house some day, glad that you liked it!
Firefly also has a great moral message.
P.S. I like your pictures of the philosophers.
I think you really summed up your point nicely by saying “maybe a lot of people have been impacted by paradise lost, but that doesn’t mean everybody needs to be”. This is very important and really speaks to the side of me that believes all art is subjective- no matter what
I agree with you, thanks for watching and leaving a comment! Means a lot to me,
While reading "popcorn" books is better than not reading at all, that doesn't mean the people who tell you that Paradise Lost has more value than Star Warz are wrong. The classics are generally harder to read and require more effort to even enjoy than genre fiction, but overcoming the intellectual and cultural obstacles is part of the process. It's kind of like how running gets you out of breath and tired while walking doesn't break a sweat. By all means, you are allowed to walk. I enjoy walking and I think walking is a good thing to do, but let's not pretend that walking is just as beneficial to you as running.
Thank you for your comment! I agree with what you are saying about these works being harder and could have benefits to reading them. I failed to mention this but I am a fan of James Joyce who is notoriously confusing and rewarding to read. I do disagree that books like Star Wars aren't as meaningful as books like James Joyce. In my own experience with reading classics, let's take Blood Meridian, a difficult book, and compare that to Bunnicula, an easy to read children's book, Blood Meridian had the deeper themes in the story and could be deemed "greater. However in my personal experience Bunnicula has had more of a impact than Blood Meridian has had on my life. In that way I wanted to address the pressure that literary communities put on readers to read certain books and disregard others because I believe that the reader can take away what he will from a book no matter what it is. Thank you for watching my video and your feedback means a lot!
You're just putting one fiction book on a pedestal over another because it's older. It's absolutely ridiculous to say Paradise Lost has more value than Star Wars or some other more modern fantasy. Age isn't equal to value.
@@ryanmorrissette27 Are some books better than others?
Everyone has their own reasons to read but most of us read for fun, so in that sense we should read what we enjoy. Maybe if we read a lot of fantasy for example and we want to get into the classics then that's fine and those books will be a little bit tougher etc. but we should do it only if we want to do it.
Some people read because they want to "know more" about literature or whatever and that's fine too, but those people definitely should try to read harder books even if they don't enjoy or understand them completely because their objective is to learn.
So the main point I think is to be honest with ourselves and to know why we read in the first place. Some people like me do both, I read for fun but I also kinda want to read some of the classics and some philosophy, and that sometimes might be "boring" but it's also rewarding. So I mix things up. But ultimately every one of us can decide to read whatever we want to.
So in that sense eveyrone can decide for themselves what's important for them.
I really appreciate and like your comment. I also like to read because I enjoy reading. I also like challenging myself with the classics but when I bog myself down with only hard books it makes reading unenjoyable. I do like to read some classics, Dostoevsky mostly, from time to time but I like it as a challenge from time to time like you talk about. Thank you for watching my video!
I agree that the shouldn’t be pressure on what you ‘should’ read but personally I want to read the classics cause they stood the test of time and I only have time to read a few books in this lifetime before I die so I might as well read what’s considered the best. But reading something you don’t enjoy is also a waste of time so it’s all about balance.
P.s. I am currently reading Paradise Lost. It was very intimidating at first but once I got used to the writing, it opened my mind to answers to many questions I wrestled with. By page 35, I was blown away. So while I’m all for enjoyment in reading, sometimes delayed gratification while reading leads you to surprising revelations, for lack of a better word.
I appreciate your comment and I understand where you are coming from. I've had that mentality for myself and it didn't work out too well with trying to only read the books that are considered the best and in some ways has taken joy out of reading. I do want to read paradise lost as well sometime and it's encouraging to hear your experience with it! Thank you for watching!
@@mrwhale7351 understandable
Camus rhymes with you.....and I agree with you....
I always told my friend growing up that what she got out of a classic piece of art, i could also get out of a really good picture of an anime boy. I think this video has the same sentiment
haha. i find that i wanna read things that are fun, so i read a lot of those and it makes me want to read something challenging. i read something challenging, so all i wanna do is read something fun. So i just don't fight the mood im in, and I usually wanna continue reading.
Thats a good way at looking at things, sometimes I switch in my moods too in what I want to read
Usually important books are important for a reason. If the messages and modes of their communication were easy and accessible then they would be non-unique and therefore not a classic. Of course you’re allowed to dislike certain classics (I don’t like Vonnegut) just like you’re allowed to read for entertainment, and if you want to be entertained of course reading manga is going to be better than reading an epic poem from four hundred years ago.
You should look into what makes a book like Paradise Lost so important beyond whether or not it has an “affect” on you.
Thank you for commenting and responding to my video! I was not arguing in my video that classics, or paradise lost for example, are not important or worth reading. However the point that I was trying to make is that there is an importance to other books that are not considered "great literature" as well as those that are. The reason I made this video was because I have seen and experienced a pressure to read only a certain kind of book and disregard everything else as trash. I wanted to make an encouragement towards those who enjoy reading "Trash books" that there is nothing wrong with them and in fact can be just important as those other books. A point that I missed speaking about was Harold Bloom's comments on Harry Potter and Blood Meridian. In this video Harold Bloom bashes on Harry Potter as trash and uplifts Blood Meridian as a masterpiece and a "Important" book. I have read both and I like both of them for there own reasons. However when comparing Blood Meridian and Harry Potter the difference is not that one is trash and one is important, rather it is the way that the themes are handled. Harry Potter tells it's themes through it's story while Blood Meridian's story is secondary to the themes. Blood Meridian is almost worshipped as a meaningful book but if someone doesn't like it than either they didn't understand it or are stupid. Anyways all in all, I wanted to go against what I often see in literary communities where some books are worshipped and others ridiculed but that people should read one they enjoy, whether classic or contemporary and not worry about what people think. Thanks again for watching!
Mr Whale no one is forcing you to read anything. Read what your heart desires and find meaning in it. The only question one might have is why you have Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and Confucius and so on plastered on your wall if you find reading the "classics" too intimidating. What I'm trying to say is that you should do the things that feel right to you and make the most out of it, and you shouldn't have to conform to expectations of others you know
Thank you for watching and commenting! I do like classics, and I enjoy the likes of Joyce, Dostoevsky, and other classic writers that are "difficult" to read. My point in this video was not to disregard those works, rather to encourage those who have been told that only certain works matter and the lesser works should be treated as nothing. I wanted to make the case in a way for these "lesser" works although I probably did a poor job of that. Thank you again for watching.
what if i like reading books i don't enjoy reading
thank you mr wale