I read Medea by Euripides recently. I am not sure if you like reading plays, but it is quite good, not too complicated. You might like to give it a try. Good luck with your channel!
Thanks for the recommendation! I did read Electra by him years ago and enjoyed it, so maybe I need to try more Greek plays and other stories that were meant to be widely appealing :)
hahahaahhaa I responded to your top 5 before seeing your bottom 5 (Dr Zhivago). One of my top 10 makes your bottom 5. I went into it thinking I would not like it (and did not feel obligated to like Zhivago), so am wondering if expectations paved the way to your bottom 5. I enjoyed the social commentaries and implications more than the plot and 'romance'. Pasternak is no Tolstoy, nor Dostoevsky, or Turgenev. I thought the LOTR (both the books and the movie) was a long booooorrrrrinnnnggggg slog, so I won't even bother picking up The Silmarillion; so I can see your reason for that one. My Bottom 5 from 2022: three o DNF: Visit from the Goon Squad (Pulitzer) - reads like a poorly written rejected article from Rolling Stone magazine. Did it win by throwing a dart at the wall? o DNF Luminaries (Booker) o DNF Possession by Byatt (Booker) - I am seriously questioning the Booker winners o Portnoy’s Complaint (Roth) - a humorous attempt (but failing miserably) to slander all things Jewish from a Jewish writer - I didn't find it even remotely funny (not a single laugh, chuckle, grin, or even mild smirk), nor even well-written. Maybe it is a generational thing that is now dated? Subculture thing? o MaddAddam - last book in the dystopian trilogy from Atwood, which really didn't need any book after the first (Oryx and Crake) - the last book seemed so, so redundant
Maybe my expectations had a little to do with it, but I think I'm mostly okay at pivoting my hopes once I realize a book is different than I thought it'd be. But with DZ I thought some of the issues were super fundamental to the book, even on a thematic level. I may come back to it later and feel different though, who knows! We do agree on Tolkein, though! While I adore the movies, his books have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot. LOTR has some amazing moments and great set pieces but Tolkien takes the wind out of his own sails again and again... maybe I should do a full review of it some time! It'd probably be a 30 minute video though lol Haven't heard of any of your worst reads! But about prizes, I find they seem better at indicating good nonfic as opposed to fiction. I mean, not always (Franchise by Martia Chatelain is decent but nothing special), but all of my favourite nonfics are prizewinners, it seems!
I read Medea by Euripides recently. I am not sure if you like reading plays, but it is quite good, not too complicated. You might like to give it a try. Good luck with your channel!
Thanks for the recommendation! I did read Electra by him years ago and enjoyed it, so maybe I need to try more Greek plays and other stories that were meant to be widely appealing :)
I’ve DNF’d three on your list lol.
At least I'm persistent when it comes to hating things, hehe :P
hahahaahhaa I responded to your top 5 before seeing your bottom 5 (Dr Zhivago). One of my top 10 makes your bottom 5. I went into it thinking I would not like it (and did not feel obligated to like Zhivago), so am wondering if expectations paved the way to your bottom 5. I enjoyed the social commentaries and implications more than the plot and 'romance'. Pasternak is no Tolstoy, nor Dostoevsky, or Turgenev.
I thought the LOTR (both the books and the movie) was a long booooorrrrrinnnnggggg slog, so I won't even bother picking up The Silmarillion; so I can see your reason for that one.
My Bottom 5 from 2022: three
o DNF: Visit from the Goon Squad (Pulitzer) - reads like a poorly written rejected article from Rolling Stone magazine. Did it win by throwing a dart at the wall?
o DNF Luminaries (Booker)
o DNF Possession by Byatt (Booker) - I am seriously questioning the Booker winners
o Portnoy’s Complaint (Roth) - a humorous attempt (but failing miserably) to slander all things Jewish from a Jewish writer - I didn't find it even remotely funny (not a single laugh, chuckle, grin, or even mild smirk), nor even well-written. Maybe it is a generational thing that is now dated? Subculture thing?
o MaddAddam - last book in the dystopian trilogy from Atwood, which really didn't need any book after the first (Oryx and Crake) - the last book seemed so, so redundant
Maybe my expectations had a little to do with it, but I think I'm mostly okay at pivoting my hopes once I realize a book is different than I thought it'd be. But with DZ I thought some of the issues were super fundamental to the book, even on a thematic level. I may come back to it later and feel different though, who knows!
We do agree on Tolkein, though! While I adore the movies, his books have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot. LOTR has some amazing moments and great set pieces but Tolkien takes the wind out of his own sails again and again... maybe I should do a full review of it some time! It'd probably be a 30 minute video though lol
Haven't heard of any of your worst reads! But about prizes, I find they seem better at indicating good nonfic as opposed to fiction. I mean, not always (Franchise by Martia Chatelain is decent but nothing special), but all of my favourite nonfics are prizewinners, it seems!