I can think of none more deserving. You are a boon to literature lovers everywhere, and I’ve no doubt that you’ll be making a million-subscriber special before long!
Great advice on coming up with booklists to read with the kids. We have hosted book club in our home throughout the years. One for ages 6-8, and then 9-12, and a “fogey” book club for us mature folk. Your kids are going to be blessed with a dad like you. Congratulations on the 100k. Well deserved!
Congratulations!!!! So well deserved! Thank you for sharing your exquisite intellect with us. I’m a senior citizen lady who has learned much from you. Keep up the good work dear Ben. Respectfully. 🕊️🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🙏
My first language is Chinese, but it wasn't until I explored Western classic literature with the help of BookTubers like you that I felt a deep desire to read "红楼梦" (Dream of the Red Chamber). It's one of the most challenging novels to read, even for native Chinese speakers. Like "Ulysses," it's full of hidden meanings and references to ancient Chinese philosophies and literature. My Chinese copy is now marked from the first to the last page. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm and knowledge about books. You are inspiring people to read truly good literature regardless of culture and language. Congratulations on the success of your channel and Patreon book club! 🎉 I've learned so much from you. ❤
So well deserved. I appreciate your chunnel so much. With all the noise out there your voice is clear and clean and very engaging. My 12 years old aspiring author son is a new fan of yours. He says you are very captivating and he just want to read it all. Thanks again and keep going.
Congratulations, dear Ben, on this magnificent achievement! You, your channel, and your bookclub have touched so many lives, not least mine. You continue to amaze and inspire me, and I wish you all the joy that life can bring. Much love 🧡
If you're interested in delving into Balkan literature, I highly recommend starting with "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andric, the Nobel Prize-winning writer from Former Yugoslavia. This historical novel is a captivating introduction to the literary treasures of the Balkan region.
Personally, I'd like to see you talk about David Foster Wallace because I love him so much. I've read Infinite Jest and many of his shorter essays, and I'd love to have someone delight in them along with me!
I’m an expatriate Brazilian, and Rennan is right (and he’s my friend). Machado de Assis is our Shakespeare. I highly recommend Dom Casmurro. And his short stories as well. He, like George Eliot, had elements of philosophy in his writings. I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Guimarães Rosa ( although his masterpiece is not translated to English, only to German. The title is Grande Sertão Veredas) is a phenomenal, an experimental writer such as Joyce , or maybe in a more linguistic direction such as Burgess and Tolkien. And Erico Veríssimo who wrote a fantastic family saga better than Gabriel Garcia Marquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Alas, I don’t think he’s been translated either. But if you ever learn Portuguese , do read O Tempo e o Vento.
What a great job you do for reading with your videos and patient enthusiasm. Congratulations on your 100k so well deserved. Very generous advice today. I do hope you come to Dublin to walk in Joyce’s footsteps. And Beckett’s of course…. As I live alone I am free to read while eating which means that at least twice each day i can have a long read. But I generally have a lightweight book on the go as well. And I read a poem each morning and a few essays in between major books. At present the essayist is Elizabeth Hardwicke and her essays lead to other wonderful lesser known books. Happy Reading!
"Congratulations Benjamin! on reaching 100k subscribers! Your platform is truly transformative, reshaping how we perceive literature and enriching our lives. Thanks to your influence, I've embraced classic literature, something I once found intimidating. I've embarked on the beautiful journey of reading 'Anna Karenina,' savoring every moment. Thank you for your inspiration!"
This channel fills me with such joy. I've recently developed an increased passion for classic literature and this channel continues to fuel that interest and love so thankyou so much!
Fabulous@. Congratulations. I referenced you to the parents and children at our literacy night, with respect to really getting into books and having the characters becoming your friends and going back to re-read stories. I appreciate your wisdom. Congratulations to 100K!
Among such a cluster of content creators, you oddly dont seem like one. You channel is a safe space, a library in heavy rainfall, all are invited yet only a few choose this option to expensive cafés and their cars. Thank youuuuuu
@@BenjaminMcEvoy It's lovely how literature has such a powerful humbling effect. The very books I read out of arrogance ended up forcing me to learn humility. You can't weep at Father Zosima's death and maintain an aloof disconnectedness.
Congratulations Ben. Well deserved. So great to watch someone talk passionately about the classics. I would love to see videos on any of the following writers/books: Geoffrey Hill, Aldous Huxley (not just Brave New World), Anthony Burgess, Willa Cather, Joseph Campbell, P. G. Wodehouse, Martin Amis, Robert Graves (specifically 'The White Goddess'), Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Joseph Conrad, Ian McEwan, Henry Fielding (especially Tom Jones), William Blake, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Evelyn Waugh, Primo Levi, Kurt Vonnegut.
I’ve Infinite Jest and some other of DFW’s work. Back then I used a guide that I found online from the group reading project “Infinite Summer” (which had happened a year or two prior). It was invaluable help. I would love to re-read IJ, it’s one of my favourite books of all time time and I think I would get so much more out of it now.
My friend Ben, you are simply awesome. :) I learnt and am still learning a lot about literature from your videos. Keep up the great work, I wish you all the very best!
Congratulations, Benjamin. This is a wonderful channel, and I wish it and you had existed when I was in school. You've put a good amount of work into these videos and helping me to re kindle my own love of literature. Literature really hits a visceral part of us (in a good way) and can re-connect us with our own humanity. My question: Where can you go online or off to purchase older books which are no longer in print?
It's been a while since I've been in touch with your channel and UA-cam in general, and I am glad to find out how much growth this beautiful projects made, you helped me enjoy reading more and it was a joy to share my passion for books with you and others in this community
A great Brazilian book that is translated and easily found in British bookstores is The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma by Lima Barreto. An incredible ,powerful, and important book in our current times .
Benjamin, I would like to request a different type of video since you love to be out in nature and go for long walks. The area you live in is breathtaking and taking us viewers with you through the countryside, reviewing a book, I think would be amazing. Hope you consider this:) By the way, I agree with reading out loud, it gives life to the words. I tend to do it when there is a dialogue or a passage that has a lot of depth and meaning.
The Brothers Karamazov was life changing for me as well. I didn’t read anything for a few weeks after I completed it because I just wanted to reflect on the meaningfulness of the book.
Well done! You put a lot of work into your channel. You’ve been very instrumental in widening my reading. I still read thrillers, science fiction etc. But I’ve read quite a few classics now, on your recommendation. I’m about a third of the way through Anna Karenina. I find myself thinking it could be the best thing I’ve ever read.
I always enjoy listening to you answer questions from your viewers. It always feels like an intimate chat in cozy surroundings. Again, congratulations on hitting this great 100K milestone. Your channel is really about quality over quantity, and I appreciate all the thought and time you put into each video, no matter the length. BTW, would love for you to sit down and chat with some of the influential people in your life who nurtured your love of literature. That would be a lovely addition to your channel. I think it would allow us another peek inside who you are from another perspective😊
Congratulations Ben! The way you articulate yourself with these great pieces of literature is truly a warm thing to see. Much deserved. Also, I am currently reading Bleak House and I absolutely am loving it! Does this title fall among one of your favorite Dickens works?
I loved your answers Benjamin. Thank you for everything and for answering my question. For a book as thrilling as The Count of Monte Cristo, I would recommend The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. Although his writing style is more archaic, Cooper's book is an historical epic/ adventure just as a action packed and emotionally deep as The Count, and is sometimes considered the first Great American Novel.
So, I am about to start In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust along with another book on Thomas Hardy, and a Journal to write my thoughts on In Search of Lost Time. This is my gift to me on my 70th Birthday. Your thoughts on this work was so powerful that it gave me such an inspiration. I purchased all 7 volumes and will let you know how it is going for me.
Hi, I just want to thank you for reminding me how I love reading. And how to read better. I wish I had a teacher like you in high school (a long time ago). Thank you!
A little late to the party, but on the Brazilian literature question-Mário de Andrade is essential-New Directions just released a new translation of his novel Macunaíma. Clarice Lispector is incredible and also just got a bunch of new translations released-read everything she wrote. (Her longtime friend Cardoso, a poet, is also worth reading.) Machado's Dom Casmurro is also quite iconic. Hilda HIlst is worth your timie. Iracema, by José de Alencar, is a problematic for being a colonial novel, but has had enough of a cultural impact in the northeast that I think its worth a read. Graciliano Ramos's São Bernardo just got published by NYRB and it's quite good, too. For broader Portuguese literature, start with Fernando Pessoa. António Botto is one of Portugal's earliest out gay poets who Pessoa initially published.
Thanks for the public praise for my work in education, I appreciate it immensely. It never occurred to me to use Bloom's anthology and I have read through it a bunch of times! There is a small list of Brazilian writers I've read only because they have been translated. My Portuguese is non existent. Machado de Assis - Epitaph for a Small Winner and The Psychiatrist and other stories. Jorge Amado - Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. Lygia Fagundes Tells - Marble Dance Joao Ubaldo Ribero - Sgt. Getuilio Moacyr Scliar - The Centaur in the Garden, The Gods of Raquel, and Max and the Cats. I have heard of Clarice Lispector but have read nothing by her. I plan to fix that soon. For Portugal, only Fernando Pesso's Book of Disquiet, which have only read sections of.
Thank you so much for this video and especially the advice for teachers to have a book open in front of them. I am a teacher. I love literature. Why have I never thought of the obvious?
I love Macbeth, I've seen it live twice! It was brilliant! I would like to play Lady Macbeth. Love psychological novels like Crime and Punishment, Madame Bovary, etc. Have you ever read Birdsong, Ben? It's one of my favourite novels. Heartbreaking and uplifting. Makes me cry. Congratulations on 100K Subscribers. I really enjoy your videos, Ben. 😊📖
Lady Macbeth is such an extraordinary character. A role of a lifetime right there! I've not read Birdsong yet but I've wanted to for a very long time. You've inspired me to get my hands on a copy immediately! And thank you so much for your kind words, Kate. I really appreciate you sharing your love of literature with me :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy You're welcome. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss literature with someone who loves and appreciates it as much as I do. I love Birdsong, a friend recommended it and I loved it. Birdsong surprised me as I don't usually read books about war. I love the characters but not surprisingly the story is heartbreaking and sometimes uplifting. I do advise you have tissues near you as it might make you cry. I have listened to the novel on Audible read by actor Peter Firth who has a wonderful voice. Please let me know what you think of Birdsong if you read it. If I could act Lady Macbeth would be my dream role on stage. Happy reading, Ben. x :)
Your appreciation of the great works is contagious and I loved and applied your advice about having special authors; my first to read in this way is Edgar Allan Poe. Also please speak of Wordsworth sometime instead of teasing me by talking bout all the romantics but him lol.
The Story of the Stone has a great influence on Chinese writers, its their Shakespeare. Another famous one is The Journey to the West, a lot of monsters in it.
English teacher here. New subscriber. Just finished my new all-time favorite book ever - Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Would love to hear your comments about it.
Well deserved, bud. In the spirit of HIGH FIDELITY and ever since I read it in 1997, I have manically kept my top 10 lists of everything: from cars, beers, ice-creams to poems, movies and books. My top 3 English poems are In My Craft Or Sullen Art - Dylan Thomas The World Is Too Much With Us - William Wordsworth Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room- William Wordsworth English is not my first language, but my top 10 fiction include Diary of a bad year a, Atlas Shrugged, The Outsider, High Fidelity, and The Dying Animal. * Love to know yours... .😊
I’ve been a silent follower for a while now and your videos are the ones I always look forward to whenever I open UA-cam. Congratulations on this feat! 🥳🫶🏽
If it wasn’t for your Hardcore Literature bookclub I would have never attempted to read War and Peace. After finishing it along the lecture series earlier this year I can honestly say it’s the greatest book I’ve read. Congrats on reaching 100K 🙌
That makes me so happy to hear :) Thank you so much for taking that incredible journey with us! War and Peace truly is an absolute masterpiece, isn't it? I'm already longing to return to Tolstoy's world all over again!
I have wanted to experience War and Peace for years, always just avoided digging in because I had so many books on my shelf that I felt guilty about not reading yet, and I could finish 3 or 4 in the time it would take to finish W&P. I have read Anna Karenina years ago, I've read every single piece of published Dostoevsky and Gogol and a handful of other Russian authors, I absolutely love them. Late 1800, early 1900 Russian Lit and Victorian fiction are my favorite genres. I have a deep hunger for W&P, so I will devour it at some point, sooner than later. I actually read 150 pages of it, 2 weeks ago, just decided to dig in one night and read into the wee hours of dawn. But I stopped because a girl from work brought me a copy of a book she had high praise for, so I couldn't help but start it. It's actually fuckin g great. A Shadow in the Wind, it's called. A nice mystery novel. Couldn't believe how good it was lol
WOW! You are the best literature teacher I've ever had! Thank you, Benjamin! Love your joy!! I am so looking to the readings of 2024! Happy Fatherhood!
Thank YOU, Benjamin and congratulations. This video is a gem. I learnt so much: As a reader, as a teacher, as a mother and grandmother, who began reading to her children and grandchildren at bedtime. Sorry to say that my "success" with my children was more rewarding than my success with my students, whom I haven't been able to exert any influence on the benefits of reading. Cannot compete with social media, consequently I heard your suggestions very attentively. Thank you for everything. Happy to hear that we will continue to enjoy your presence in 2024. One of my grandchildren often share your videos and comment on them and we call you "our friend Benjamin".
Woohoo! Congratulations! You have earned it! I love your channel and I love this community! I belong to a book club, but I consider your channel my true book club! I have learned sooooo much from your channel. My mother who died of COVID in 2020 was a HUGE Shakespeare reader. I’d like to think she would be proud of me today! Thank you!!!
Speaking of Clarice Lispector I actually begin with her short stories, even her earliest short stories are incredibly underrated even by the standards of Brazilian literature. They're a wonderful example of the ecriture feminine
Congratulations! You are an inspiration to me to become a better reader. I am a high school teacher in the Dominican Republic and some of the highest joys of my life have been seeing students become readers and enjoy great literature. I have much to learn still and your channel is an instrument to that. Where did people submit the questions for this Q & A?
@@gommine I haven't read that one. The first one I read is Red Field, then I've read Cacau and Sweat. I might have read another, but it was over 30 years ago and in the French translations. I should go back to reading Amado.
Amazing as always ....you are a gift to all the readers.... I just finished reading The Woman in the Dunes ....brilliant book and great translation .... thank you for that.... about this video ...I was waiting for it and it is finally here ....congratulations!!! You deserve more and more audience.... brilliant content but I disagree with you on Blake ....I think he is one of the greatest writers in English ...one of the great geniuses....in both style and content...especially in his longers works/ prophetic books ....thank you again, Benjamin ... love and respect
This is an incredible achievement. In the modern day, most people are often distracted by the pursuit of quick satisfaction. However, a channel dedicated to literature managing to attract such a large number of followers is truly remarkable. It represents a significant glimpse of hope for humanity.
Congratulations!!!🎈🍾🎊 Well deserved. All of your videos are worth the wait. I’m going to go make a nice cup of tea and settle in for a pleasurable hour!
How wonderful ... A reader of the "Classics", without pretension ... A cool breeze instead of a dry wind ... Please continue with your easy, natural style ... An American, here; loving all this great literature ... Perhaps it's time for even me, to re-attack "the bard", myself ... Congratulations on your 10,000 ... Loved Swiss Family Robinson & several others, then went to Harper Lee, Mitchner, Capote, Eudora Welty & Willa Cather ... & even the forever sarcastic Salinger ... I will continue to follow you ... Did like "Mill on the Floss", so there's that ...
Hello Benjamin, many thanks for your intense and in-depth discussions of so many books I use to read and re-read since early youth. Just love to listen to your thoughts. As you mentioned in this video that you‘d welcome any advice on good books from the Balkan countries: May I draw your attention on Ivo Andrić? His 1945 novels „Bridge on the Drina“ and „Travnik chronicles“ make such wonderful reading. The only author who would come to my mind who wrote about the condition of man in similar profoundness and sympathy would be John Steinbeck. Indeed the Nobel Prize Committee had chosen Andrić over Steinbeck, Tolkien and others like E.M. Forster for the 1961 Nobel prize. Cheers!
Benjamin what a joy to have discovered your channel in this time of attack on the humanities! Congratulations on your well-deserved subscriber milestone. I just stumbled across your post from four years ago on the seven poems that haunt you and had to add “Lullaby” by W.H. Auden and Hart Crane’s “The Bridge”. Thank you for all you do and for being an inspiration to serious readers everywhere!
Congratulations! No one does classics like you :) You are so incredibly knowledgeable and eloquent - your love for the classics is palpable and highly contagious!
When it comes to Brazilian literature, some of my favorite authors are: - Erico Verissimo: "O Tempo e o Vento" is a beautiful family saga. - Joaquim Manuel de Macedo: "A Moreninha" reminds me of Jane Austen, "A Luneta Mágica" is more of a fantasy story. - José de Alencar: great novels, covering many genres, "Senhora" and "O Guarani" are my personal favorites. - Monteiro Lobato: all his books for children are amazing. - Orígenes Lessa: "O Feijão e o Sonho" is a great one about being a writer, "Memórias de um Cabo de Vassoura" is an incredibly creative "autobiography". - Lima Barreto: the guy was hilarious, I love "Os Bruzundangas" and many of his short stories, like "O Homem que Sabia Javanês". Unfortunately, there aren't many translation of any of those into English...
Thank you so much! This is such an incredibly exciting list. It sounds like I should start learning Portuguese so I can appreciate this wealth of great literature :)
I'm definitely guilty of mass reading instead of deep reading but I have for quite a while really wanted to read and re-read certain books deeply and thoroughly and your talk here has inspired me to do so. among those books are Hamlet by Shakespeare - Immortality by Milan Kundera - Flaubert Parrot by Julian Barnes - Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.
Great video Ben. I can only imagine we'll be here when it's 200K in no time :) I've been a viewer since around 4.5K subs. My daughter has special needs and she is also a subscriber. She has used your videos to learn about the great works - she doesn't let me go on and on about them lol. I've decided to let go of that dreaded FOMO. Sure, it can seem silly to read and re-read the same novels year after year, but I enjoy extracting every ounce of wisdome to be found. This year alone I've read Jane Eyre twice. Every year I read (in full) Anna Karenina and always always always an Austen. Hardy appears every few months, and Proust is a constant companion on long winter nights. Also, I HIGHLY recommend The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. If you enjoy Proust (and I know you do), you'll love this work. Happy reading. 📕
I recently completed the Constance Garnett translation of the Brothers Karamazov. Whilst it was incredibly engaging and thought provoking, I still feel I achieved only a superficial understanding of the themes and deeper meaning embedded within the work. Any tips for trying to unravel these deeper truths?
Keep us updated on Dream of the Red Chamber! The great seven novels of China (Dream of the Red Chamber/Story of the Stone, Investiture of the Gods, Water Margin/Outlaws of the Swamp, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, The Scholars, and The Plum in the Golden Vase) are all books I'd love to read. When I do a focus on China, maybe.
Congratulations Ben! We are very lucky to have your channel and the Hardcore Literature Book Club! Sometimes I worry that you’ll decide you’ve had enough and need a break. But for the time being, I am thankful for you guiding us through great literature, being a continuous presence here and on Patreon, and for the kindness that comes through everything you do. 100K ain’t no joke 😉
Thank you so much, Hazel! Your kind words have made my heart heavy with gratitude! I really hope to keep discussing these great books with you all for as long as possible! 😊
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I can think of none more deserving. You are a boon to literature lovers everywhere, and I’ve no doubt that you’ll be making a million-subscriber special before long!
Thank you so much, my friend! That is so incredibly kind of you ☺🙏
Me too I second that. You deserve it Benjamin 🎉🎉I love your channel keep up the fab work 🎉📚📖📙
Great advice on coming up with booklists to read with the kids. We have hosted book club in our home throughout the years. One for ages 6-8, and then 9-12, and a “fogey” book club for us mature folk. Your kids are going to be blessed with a dad like you. Congratulations on the 100k. Well deserved!
Congratulations!!!! So well deserved! Thank you for sharing your exquisite intellect with us. I’m a senior citizen lady who has learned much from you. Keep up the good work dear Ben. Respectfully. 🕊️🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🙏
Thank you so much, Delcia!! I'm so grateful to have you here! ☺️🙏
I love your channel so much. It gives me hope that this many people can see how great it truly is. Congratulations, Ben!
My first language is Chinese, but it wasn't until I explored Western classic literature with the help of BookTubers like you that I felt a deep desire to read "红楼梦" (Dream of the Red Chamber). It's one of the most challenging novels to read, even for native Chinese speakers. Like "Ulysses," it's full of hidden meanings and references to ancient Chinese philosophies and literature. My Chinese copy is now marked from the first to the last page. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm and knowledge about books. You are inspiring people to read truly good literature regardless of culture and language. Congratulations on the success of your channel and Patreon book club! 🎉 I've learned so much from you. ❤
So well deserved. I appreciate your chunnel so much. With all the noise out there your voice is clear and clean and very engaging. My 12 years old aspiring author son is a new fan of yours. He says you are very captivating and he just want to read it all. Thanks again and keep going.
Congratulations, dear Ben, on this magnificent achievement! You, your channel, and your bookclub have touched so many lives, not least mine. You continue to amaze and inspire me, and I wish you all the joy that life can bring. Much love 🧡
If you're interested in delving into Balkan literature, I highly recommend starting with "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andric, the Nobel Prize-winning writer from Former Yugoslavia. This historical novel is a captivating introduction to the literary treasures of the Balkan region.
Personally, I'd like to see you talk about David Foster Wallace because I love him so much. I've read Infinite Jest and many of his shorter essays, and I'd love to have someone delight in them along with me!
The essay on the cruise ship is the best.
Agreed... very funny. @@gommine
I’m an expatriate Brazilian, and Rennan is right (and he’s my friend). Machado de Assis is our Shakespeare. I highly recommend Dom Casmurro. And his short stories as well. He, like George Eliot, had elements of philosophy in his writings. I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Guimarães Rosa ( although his masterpiece is not translated to English, only to German. The title is Grande Sertão Veredas) is a phenomenal, an experimental writer such as Joyce , or maybe in a more linguistic direction such as Burgess and Tolkien. And Erico Veríssimo who wrote a fantastic family saga better than Gabriel Garcia Marquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Alas, I don’t think he’s been translated either. But if you ever learn Portuguese , do read O Tempo e o Vento.
What a great job you do for reading with your videos and patient enthusiasm. Congratulations on your 100k so well deserved. Very generous advice today. I do hope you come to Dublin to walk in Joyce’s footsteps. And Beckett’s of course…. As I live alone I am free to read while eating which means that at least twice each day i can have a long read. But I generally have a lightweight book on the go as well. And I read a poem each morning and a few essays in between major books. At present the essayist is Elizabeth Hardwicke and her essays lead to other wonderful lesser known books. Happy Reading!
"Congratulations Benjamin! on reaching 100k subscribers! Your platform is truly transformative, reshaping how we perceive literature and enriching our lives. Thanks to your influence, I've embraced classic literature, something I once found intimidating. I've embarked on the beautiful journey of reading 'Anna Karenina,' savoring every moment. Thank you for your inspiration!"
This channel fills me with such joy. I've recently developed an increased passion for classic literature and this channel continues to fuel that interest and love so thankyou so much!
Thank you so much, Alexandra!! I appreciate you being here and sharing your love of these great books with me ☺️
Congratulations! Well done and well earned.
Thank you, Marna! I really appreciate that :)
bless you my dude, i found alot great classic book by your recommendation
Thank you, my friend, and bless you too! :)
You deserve it! And much more, i hope much people find your channel because is a gem of literature! Congratulations 🎉❤
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate that 🙏❤️
Fabulous@. Congratulations. I referenced you to the parents and children at our literacy night, with respect to really getting into books and having the characters becoming your friends and going back to re-read stories. I appreciate your wisdom. Congratulations to 100K!
Congratulations Benjamin. Hello from Tennessee. I love your channel.
Thank you so much, Rodney. I really appreciate that! Happy reading over in beautiful Tennessee :)
You actually anwered my question! I can't believe it. Awesome video, as always. You've changed my life and many others for the better. Thank you ❤
Among such a cluster of content creators, you oddly dont seem like one. You channel is a safe space, a library in heavy rainfall, all are invited yet only a few choose this option to expensive cafés and their cars. Thank youuuuuu
That is such a beautiful compliment. Thank you so much, my friend. I appreciate you ☺️
Estou te acompanhando de Minas Gerais, no Brasil 🇧🇷📚
Obrigado por assistir no lindo Brasil! 🇧🇷🙏
"Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children" Now THAT is a title that would have been irresistible to me as an arrogant 12-year-old!
Ha, it would have been irresistible for me too :) I like to think Bloom was thinking of readers like us when he chose it!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy It's lovely how literature has such a powerful humbling effect. The very books I read out of arrogance ended up forcing me to learn humility. You can't weep at Father Zosima's death and maintain an aloof disconnectedness.
Congratulations Ben. Well deserved. So great to watch someone talk passionately about the classics. I would love to see videos on any of the following writers/books: Geoffrey Hill, Aldous Huxley (not just Brave New World), Anthony Burgess, Willa Cather, Joseph Campbell, P. G. Wodehouse, Martin Amis, Robert Graves (specifically 'The White Goddess'), Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Joseph Conrad, Ian McEwan, Henry Fielding (especially Tom Jones), William Blake, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Evelyn Waugh, Primo Levi, Kurt Vonnegut.
Congratulations & well done, very well deserved !
Thank you so much!! ❤️☺️
I’ve Infinite Jest and some other of DFW’s work. Back then I used a guide that I found online from the group reading project “Infinite Summer” (which had happened a year or two prior). It was invaluable help.
I would love to re-read IJ, it’s one of my favourite books of all time time and I think I would get so much more out of it now.
My friend Ben, you are simply awesome. :) I learnt and am still learning a lot about literature from your videos. Keep up the great work, I wish you all the very best!
Thank you so much, Arijit! I appreciate you, my friend 🙏😊
Congratulations, Benjamin. This is a wonderful channel, and I wish it and you had existed when I was in school. You've put a good amount of work into these videos and helping me to re kindle my own love of literature. Literature really hits a visceral part of us (in a good way) and can re-connect us with our own humanity. My question: Where can you go online or off to purchase older books which are no longer in print?
Congratulations Ben 🎉!!
Thank you so much, Emma! :)
congratulations benjamin!! you deserve it 🎉
Thank you so much, Jocey!! ☺️
It's been a while since I've been in touch with your channel and UA-cam in general, and I am glad to find out how much growth this beautiful projects made, you helped me enjoy reading more and it was a joy to share my passion for books with you and others in this community
A great Brazilian book that is translated and easily found in British bookstores is The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma by Lima Barreto. An incredible ,powerful, and important book in our current times .
I actually like how you focus on quality over quantity - and many of your tips and advice have been very rewarding. You should teach!
Thank you so much, Dean! :)
Benjamin, I would like to request a different type of video since you love to be out in nature and go for long walks. The area you live in is breathtaking and taking us viewers with you through the countryside, reviewing a book, I think would be amazing. Hope you consider this:)
By the way, I agree with reading out loud, it gives life to the words. I tend to do it when there is a dialogue or a passage that has a lot of depth and meaning.
Congratulations Ben. Your channel makes me really happy. Thank you for all the hard work you do to bring us these videos. ❤
The Brothers Karamazov was life changing for me as well. I didn’t read anything for a few weeks after I completed it because I just wanted to reflect on the meaningfulness of the book.
Well done! You put a lot of work into your channel. You’ve been very instrumental in widening my reading. I still read thrillers, science fiction etc. But I’ve read quite a few classics now, on your recommendation. I’m about a third of the way through Anna Karenina. I find myself thinking it could be the best thing I’ve ever read.
I always enjoy listening to you answer questions from your viewers. It always feels like an intimate chat in cozy surroundings. Again, congratulations on hitting this great 100K milestone. Your channel is really about quality over quantity, and I appreciate all the thought and time you put into each video, no matter the length. BTW, would love for you to sit down and chat with some of the influential people in your life who nurtured your love of literature. That would be a lovely addition to your channel. I think it would allow us another peek inside who you are from another perspective😊
Congratulations, you deserve it🎉
Thank you so much!! :)
thank you!! Congratulations you do deserve it🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you so much!! :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoyof course it's very good that we have a UA-cam creator who talks about literature
Congratulations Ben! The way you articulate yourself with these great pieces of literature is truly a warm thing to see. Much deserved. Also, I am currently reading Bleak House and I absolutely am loving it! Does this title fall among one of your favorite Dickens works?
I loved your answers Benjamin. Thank you for everything and for answering my question. For a book as thrilling as The Count of Monte Cristo, I would recommend The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. Although his writing style is more archaic, Cooper's book is an historical epic/ adventure just as a action packed and emotionally deep as The Count, and is sometimes considered the first Great American Novel.
you are one of the best literature content creators anywhere. congrats on the milestone👏🥂
So, I am about to start In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust along with another book on Thomas Hardy, and a Journal to write my thoughts on In Search of Lost Time. This is my gift to me on my 70th Birthday. Your thoughts on this work was so powerful that it gave me such an inspiration. I purchased all 7 volumes and will let you know how it is going for me.
Congratulations!🎉
Thank you, Oliver! :)
Hi, I just want to thank you for reminding me how I love reading. And how to read better. I wish I had a teacher like you in high school (a long time ago). Thank you!
A little late to the party, but on the Brazilian literature question-Mário de Andrade is essential-New Directions just released a new translation of his novel Macunaíma. Clarice Lispector is incredible and also just got a bunch of new translations released-read everything she wrote. (Her longtime friend Cardoso, a poet, is also worth reading.) Machado's Dom Casmurro is also quite iconic. Hilda HIlst is worth your timie. Iracema, by José de Alencar, is a problematic for being a colonial novel, but has had enough of a cultural impact in the northeast that I think its worth a read. Graciliano Ramos's São Bernardo just got published by NYRB and it's quite good, too.
For broader Portuguese literature, start with Fernando Pessoa. António Botto is one of Portugal's earliest out gay poets who Pessoa initially published.
Thanks for the public praise for my work in education, I appreciate it immensely.
It never occurred to me to use Bloom's anthology and I have read through it a bunch of times!
There is a small list of Brazilian writers I've read only because they have been translated. My Portuguese is non existent.
Machado de Assis - Epitaph for a Small Winner and The Psychiatrist and other stories.
Jorge Amado - Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.
Lygia Fagundes Tells - Marble Dance
Joao Ubaldo Ribero - Sgt. Getuilio
Moacyr Scliar - The Centaur in the Garden, The Gods of Raquel, and Max and the Cats.
I have heard of Clarice Lispector but have read nothing by her. I plan to fix that soon.
For Portugal, only Fernando Pesso's Book of Disquiet, which have only read sections of.
Thank you so much for this video and especially the advice for teachers to have a book open in front of them. I am a teacher. I love literature. Why have I never thought of the obvious?
I love Macbeth, I've seen it live twice! It was brilliant! I would like to play Lady Macbeth. Love psychological novels like Crime and Punishment, Madame Bovary, etc. Have you ever read Birdsong, Ben? It's one of my favourite novels. Heartbreaking and uplifting. Makes me cry. Congratulations on 100K Subscribers. I really enjoy your videos, Ben. 😊📖
Lady Macbeth is such an extraordinary character. A role of a lifetime right there! I've not read Birdsong yet but I've wanted to for a very long time. You've inspired me to get my hands on a copy immediately! And thank you so much for your kind words, Kate. I really appreciate you sharing your love of literature with me :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy You're welcome. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss literature with someone who loves and appreciates it as much as I do. I love Birdsong, a friend recommended it and I loved it. Birdsong surprised me as I don't usually read books about war. I love the characters but not surprisingly the story is heartbreaking and sometimes uplifting. I do advise you have tissues near you as it might make you cry. I have listened to the novel on Audible read by actor Peter Firth who has a wonderful voice. Please let me know what you think of Birdsong if you read it. If I could act Lady Macbeth would be my dream role on stage. Happy reading, Ben. x :)
This was lovely, thank you.
Congratulations
Thank you, Sunitha! :)
Your appreciation of the great works is contagious and I loved and applied your advice about having special authors; my first to read in this way is Edgar Allan Poe. Also please speak of Wordsworth sometime instead of teasing me by talking bout all the romantics but him lol.
I started to read due to my dad...my dad told me I used to read a book upside down when I was 3/4 years old 😂
That's beautiful!!
Hi Ben let me know when you decide to visit Dublin!
The Story of the Stone has a great influence on Chinese writers, its their Shakespeare. Another famous one is The Journey to the West, a lot of monsters in it.
Omg are we reading the dream of the red chamber?? What's your recommendation on translation? Congratulations on 1k🎉
Yo pensaba que era la única que ponía modo avión cuando lee! Gracias por hacerme sentir menos anormal!
I do this also, to stop myself from using my phone and getting distracted.
Hello Benjamin, love your content and greetings from Greece. Could you please make a video about "Demons" by Dostoevsky ?
I'm a sheep dog handler, would love to see the full print if sheep behind you?
Who's the best essayist that you've ever read?
Michel de Montaigne and Ralph Waldo Emerson :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy thank you for answering my question
Greetings from Venezuela
@@BenjaminMcEvoy another question, have you ever read doña barbara by romulo gallegos?
Q. Ebooks versus Paper would be interesting question.
I love having a paper copy for marginalia, but my Kindle was a close friend when I was travelling extensively :)
Ben, have you published any books of your own?
Not yet, but I'm aiming to have something published in the next couple of years :)
🎉💛
English teacher here. New subscriber. Just finished my new all-time favorite book ever - Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Would love to hear your comments about it.
Well deserved, bud.
In the spirit of HIGH FIDELITY and ever since I read it in 1997, I have manically kept my top 10 lists of everything: from cars, beers, ice-creams to poems, movies and books. My top 3 English poems are
In My Craft Or Sullen Art - Dylan Thomas
The World Is Too Much With Us - William Wordsworth
Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room- William Wordsworth
English is not my first language, but my top 10 fiction include
Diary of a bad year a, Atlas Shrugged, The Outsider, High Fidelity, and The Dying Animal.
*
Love to know yours...
.😊
Any thoughts on the works of Norman Mailer?
I’ve been a silent follower for a while now and your videos are the ones I always look forward to whenever I open UA-cam. Congratulations on this feat! 🥳🫶🏽
Aw, thank you so much! I'm so grateful that you're here and enjoying the discussions! 😊🙏
Ben…you’re going to be an amazing dad. Much joy to you and your future kids.
Aw, thank you so much, Ellen. You have warmed my heart with this!! ☺️🙏
Right? I'm a little envious of Ben's future kids. Ben has a voice made for storytelling.
If it wasn’t for your Hardcore Literature bookclub I would have never attempted to read War and Peace. After finishing it along the lecture series earlier this year I can honestly say it’s the greatest book I’ve read.
Congrats on reaching 100K 🙌
That makes me so happy to hear :) Thank you so much for taking that incredible journey with us! War and Peace truly is an absolute masterpiece, isn't it? I'm already longing to return to Tolstoy's world all over again!
I have wanted to experience War and Peace for years, always just avoided digging in because I had so many books on my shelf that I felt guilty about not reading yet, and I could finish 3 or 4 in the time it would take to finish W&P. I have read Anna Karenina years ago, I've read every single piece of published Dostoevsky and Gogol and a handful of other Russian authors, I absolutely love them. Late 1800, early 1900 Russian Lit and Victorian fiction are my favorite genres. I have a deep hunger for W&P, so I will devour it at some point, sooner than later. I actually read 150 pages of it, 2 weeks ago, just decided to dig in one night and read into the wee hours of dawn. But I stopped because a girl from work brought me a copy of a book she had high praise for, so I couldn't help but start it. It's actually fuckin g great. A Shadow in the Wind, it's called. A nice mystery novel. Couldn't believe how good it was lol
WOW! You are the best literature teacher I've ever had! Thank you, Benjamin! Love your joy!! I am so looking to the readings of 2024! Happy Fatherhood!
Thank YOU, Benjamin and congratulations. This video is a gem. I learnt so much: As a reader, as a teacher, as a mother and grandmother, who began reading to her children and grandchildren at bedtime. Sorry to say that my "success" with my children was more rewarding than my success with my students, whom I haven't been able to exert any influence on the benefits of reading. Cannot compete with social media, consequently I heard your suggestions very attentively. Thank you for everything.
Happy to hear that we will continue to enjoy your presence in 2024. One of my grandchildren often share your videos and comment on them and we call you "our friend Benjamin".
Woohoo! Congratulations! You have earned it! I love your channel and I love this community! I belong to a book club, but I consider your channel my true book club! I have learned sooooo much from your channel. My mother who died of COVID in 2020 was a HUGE Shakespeare reader. I’d like to think she would be proud of me today! Thank you!!!
Speaking of Clarice Lispector I actually begin with her short stories, even her earliest short stories are incredibly underrated even by the standards of Brazilian literature. They're a wonderful example of the ecriture feminine
I’ve been watching your channel since the beginning 💗 congratulations! 🎉
Thank you so much! I'm so grateful for you being here all this time 🙏❤️
been waiting my whole life for this video!! 😂 congrats bro, you deserve this more than anyone else i know on UA-cam!
Thank you so much, Paige! I really appreciate that, my friend 😃🙏
Congratulations! You are an inspiration to me to become a better reader. I am a high school teacher in the Dominican Republic and some of the highest joys of my life have been seeing students become readers and enjoy great literature. I have much to learn still and your channel is an instrument to that. Where did people submit the questions for this Q & A?
Jorge Amado comes to mind when it comes to Brazilian literature. Truly a stellar writer. And Pessoa for Portuguese poetry of course.
Dona Flor and her two Husbands is a really brilliantly book!
@@gommine I haven't read that one. The first one I read is Red Field, then I've read Cacau and Sweat. I might have read another, but it was over 30 years ago and in the French translations. I should go back to reading Amado.
Amazing as always ....you are a gift to all the readers.... I just finished reading The Woman in the Dunes ....brilliant book and great translation .... thank you for that.... about this video ...I was waiting for it and it is finally here ....congratulations!!! You deserve more and more audience.... brilliant content but I disagree with you on Blake ....I think he is one of the greatest writers in English ...one of the great geniuses....in both style and content...especially in his longers works/ prophetic books ....thank you again, Benjamin ... love and respect
This is an incredible achievement. In the modern day, most people are often distracted by the pursuit of quick satisfaction. However, a channel dedicated to literature managing to attract such a large number of followers is truly remarkable. It represents a significant glimpse of hope for humanity.
Congratulations!!!🎈🍾🎊
Well deserved. All of your videos are worth the wait. I’m going to go make a nice cup of tea and settle in for a pleasurable hour!
Aw, thank you so much! That is so lovely of you to say. I'm going to join you there and make myself a nice cup of tea too ☕☺️
Loved hearing about the teacher who did all the voices in Great Expectations! What a gift.
He was so amazing :) I'm actually thinking of reaching out to record a conversation with him at some point!
I think you deserve a million subscribers.
Aw, that is so kind of you! Thank you so much :)
Big congrats! English is not my first language, but you inspired me into English literature since I first watched your videos. Thank you ❤❤
How wonderful ... A reader of the "Classics", without pretension ... A cool breeze instead of a dry wind ... Please continue with your easy, natural style ... An American, here; loving all this great literature ... Perhaps it's time for even me, to re-attack "the bard", myself ... Congratulations on your 10,000 ... Loved Swiss Family Robinson & several others, then went to Harper Lee, Mitchner, Capote, Eudora Welty & Willa Cather ... & even the forever sarcastic Salinger ... I will continue to follow you ... Did like "Mill on the Floss", so there's that ...
Hello Benjamin, many thanks for your intense and in-depth discussions of so many books I use to read and re-read since early youth. Just love to listen to your thoughts. As you mentioned in this video that you‘d welcome any advice on good books from the Balkan countries: May I draw your attention on Ivo Andrić? His 1945 novels „Bridge on the Drina“ and „Travnik chronicles“ make such wonderful reading. The only author who would come to my mind who wrote about the condition of man in similar profoundness and sympathy would be John Steinbeck. Indeed the Nobel Prize Committee had chosen Andrić over Steinbeck, Tolkien and others like E.M. Forster for the 1961 Nobel prize. Cheers!
Benjamin what a joy to have discovered your channel in this time of attack on the humanities! Congratulations on your well-deserved subscriber milestone. I just stumbled across your post from four years ago on the seven poems that haunt you and had to add “Lullaby” by W.H. Auden and Hart Crane’s “The Bridge”. Thank you for all you do and for being an inspiration to serious readers everywhere!
Congratulations! No one does classics like you :) You are so incredibly knowledgeable and eloquent - your love for the classics is palpable and highly contagious!
Have you read any Patrick Leigh Fermor? Wonderful intelligent travel writer, and war hero.
Congratulations! And greetings from Los Angeles! Your channel has been such a joy and an inspiration. Keep it up!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate that :) Happy reading over in sunny LA!!
Congratulations on 100k followers! I’ve been following for almost two years and loving it.
Thank you so much! I'm so grateful that you've been here all this time ☺️🙏
When it comes to Brazilian literature, some of my favorite authors are:
- Erico Verissimo: "O Tempo e o Vento" is a beautiful family saga.
- Joaquim Manuel de Macedo: "A Moreninha" reminds me of Jane Austen, "A Luneta Mágica" is more of a fantasy story.
- José de Alencar: great novels, covering many genres, "Senhora" and "O Guarani" are my personal favorites.
- Monteiro Lobato: all his books for children are amazing.
- Orígenes Lessa: "O Feijão e o Sonho" is a great one about being a writer, "Memórias de um Cabo de Vassoura" is an incredibly creative "autobiography".
- Lima Barreto: the guy was hilarious, I love "Os Bruzundangas" and many of his short stories, like "O Homem que Sabia Javanês".
Unfortunately, there aren't many translation of any of those into English...
Thank you so much! This is such an incredibly exciting list. It sounds like I should start learning Portuguese so I can appreciate this wealth of great literature :)
I have a question (in somewhat related news)! How do you feel about the series Upstart Crow with David Mitchell?
From what I've seen of it, I think it's brilliant. I need to watch more of it. David Mitchell's great. A shame to hear it's been cancelled!
I'm definitely guilty of mass reading instead of deep reading but I have for quite a while really wanted to read and re-read certain books deeply and thoroughly and your talk here has inspired me to do so. among those books are Hamlet by Shakespeare - Immortality by Milan Kundera - Flaubert Parrot by Julian Barnes - Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.
Great video Ben. I can only imagine we'll be here when it's 200K in no time :) I've been a viewer since around 4.5K subs. My daughter has special needs and she is also a subscriber. She has used your videos to learn about the great works - she doesn't let me go on and on about them lol.
I've decided to let go of that dreaded FOMO. Sure, it can seem silly to read and re-read the same novels year after year, but I enjoy extracting every ounce of wisdome to be found. This year alone I've read Jane Eyre twice. Every year I read (in full) Anna Karenina and always always always an Austen. Hardy appears every few months, and Proust is a constant companion on long winter nights.
Also, I HIGHLY recommend The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. If you enjoy Proust (and I know you do), you'll love this work.
Happy reading. 📕
Ben, check out the author Jose Saramago, he was from Portugal. Check out Blindness, Seeing, The Stone Raft, etc......
Thank you so much for the recommendation! I absolutely will :)
I recently completed the Constance Garnett translation of the Brothers Karamazov. Whilst it was incredibly engaging and thought provoking, I still feel I achieved only a superficial understanding of the themes and deeper meaning embedded within the work. Any tips for trying to unravel these deeper truths?
Congratulations, Benjamin!! This year I’m most thankful for you and the Hardcore Lit Book Club. The experience has enriched my life in many ways. 💛
Thank you so much, Kathleen! That makes me so happy to hear. I'm incredibly grateful for you reading these great books with so much love with us! 🙏 ☺️
Keep us updated on Dream of the Red Chamber! The great seven novels of China (Dream of the Red Chamber/Story of the Stone, Investiture of the Gods, Water Margin/Outlaws of the Swamp, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, The Scholars, and The Plum in the Golden Vase) are all books I'd love to read. When I do a focus on China, maybe.
Congratulations Ben! We are very lucky to have your channel and the Hardcore Literature Book Club! Sometimes I worry that you’ll decide you’ve had enough and need a break. But for the time being, I am thankful for you guiding us through great literature, being a continuous presence here and on Patreon, and for the kindness that comes through everything you do.
100K ain’t no joke 😉
Thank you so much, Hazel! Your kind words have made my heart heavy with gratitude! I really hope to keep discussing these great books with you all for as long as possible! 😊
I could tell it takes a lot of work to do these videos, they are so good! Well done and thank you.
Thank you so much, Saul! I really appreciate that, my friend! :)