I know it’s 240 pages, but The Remains of the Day is perfection. A perfect novel. Never have I been so moved, touched, or ugly cried during such a short book. I can’t wait for Kazuo Ishiguro’s upcoming novel Klara & the sun! He is a living literary master.
Fun list. I’ve read many but I’ve also just added several to my always-expanding tbr. Also, just watched the Reading Resolutions videos. A few videosI’d love to see: 1. Behind the scenes of book awards. How are the judges selected? Do the judges select the long list then whittle it down to the short list? Or does the committee that selects the judges select the LL and then the judges take it from there? Are judges expected to each read every book on the long list? Also, do publishers get involved, trying to promote their books? 2. More vlogs (autocorrect changed vlogs to clogs. But I think your videos have the perfect amount of clogs. Lol)! Love when you get out or even just move to another room. Shakes things up a bit:) 3. Author spotlights. A focus on your favorite authors and a look into their lives and their catalogue
The Brazil has great writers, it was very nice of you to mention Clarice Lispector. I am Brazilian and I will mention some important titles: DOM CASMURRO BY MACHADO DE ASSIS. CAPTAINS OF SAND BY JORGE AMADO. THE SLUM BY ALUÍSIO AZEVEDO.
Should I start with topics⁉️ ➖Then of course, we have The Great Gatsby (S. Fitzgerald), and The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway). But then, Bashevis Singer has also The Magician of Lublin, a touching romantic story, which is also a great short novel. Then there's In Praise of Lies, a funny, excellent dark humour story. By the Brazilian writress Patricia Melo, who's a very good writress maybe underrated. Then you have Laughter in the Dark, the great masterwork Nabokov wrote. One of the finest dark humour novels ever written. A brilliant, witty, clever and cruel short novel. Don't forget Eva, a thriller masterwork James Hadley Chase wrote. And The Barrier, another very good work Robin Maugham wrote. A passionating love story. Needles to mention Of Mice and Men, another good short novel Steinbeck wrote. And am sure there are more, as Maupassant Bel Ami or Boule de Suif, and then the famous Dostoyevsky, The Gambler, a page turner, as Boule de Suif (Ball of Fat)...and won't finish without mentioning Flannery O'connor and her Wise Blood or the Rulfo's Masterwork Pedro Páramo. Will also mention Olalla by Robert Louis Stevenson, as another one who moved me. Very good readings them all. 💎❤️👍
Much enjoyed this. Thanks for the great content. I read - or attempted to read - many on this list. Still, some are new to me. A few random remarks: ~ It was Tom Ford who, as somewhat of a Renaissance man, made A Single Man into a poignant and exquisite movie . ~ Like you, I (by far) prefer Jean Rhys's bleak, masterfully observed novels set in Paris and actually never succeeded in working my way through Wide Sargasso Sea. (But then, I never got into Jane Eyre either, to which it is a prequel of sorts). ~ I kind of miss Carson McCuller's The Member of the Wedding (1946, 176 pages) and Helen Hanff's delightful 84, Charing Cross Road (1970, 112 pages). I guess that's part of the fun of reading other people's lists: making and matching your own. ~ Notes From the Underground is one of my favorite books, despite (or perhaps because of) its comically insufferable protagonist. This book is many things, among which a study in narcissism, and a novelistic treatise on free will. ~ Muriel Spark is not exactly underrated, but much overlooked. A brilliant, humorous writer. ~ My favorite book (not a novel though) by the eccentric Suiss author Robert Walser is Speaking to the Rose (134 pages). ~ I've always been convinced that Freddy Mercury wrote Bohemian Rhapsody shortly after reading/inspired by Camus' The Stranger :) (And, found out, I'm not the only one)
Erik this was such a a great list of classic novels. I would recommend three books: 1. Philippe Besson - Lie With Me, In the Absence Of Men, and lastly Jaqueline Harpman - I Who Have Never Known Men. Thanks. Let me know what you think of them. All under 200 pages.
“Capitalism is weird” I laughed so hard when you said that...made me spill tea over my Ipad hahaha.. but I preferred The Pearl to Of Mice and Men. I would also add Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante., E.M Forster’s A Room with a View and Maurice ( my copy is slightly over 200 pages though..). I actually preferred Les Justes by Albert Camus to L’Étranger but then again I read it years ago.
Very interesting list. I've read 7 of them. I love Willa Cather and plan to reread O Pioneers this year. Also have Mice & Men and Snow Country which I plan to read. I'm currently reading Steinbeck's Travels with Charley which is non-fiction (and short, 210 pages) and a delight.
Great quick review Eric. Your content is my primary source for hunting books. From this list I currently have 24 but read only 9. Funny the two books you are not fan of are my all time favorites. I thought Gatsby would be tedious but I was so wrong. And Lot 49 was a revelation. Great stuff buddy as always, saying hi from Mumbai.
Thanks for your great summary of the books. Couldn't help making a list of the books I've already read and the ones you recommended. I can't wait to to read the Philip K Dick and J G Ballard. The reading list is growing longer everyday. - at least there is the time to read - a positive side to lockdown.
Philip K. Dick is kinda hit and miss. He wrote Blade Runner, so we think he's a master. But both Ubik and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said were underwhelming. Next I will try The Man In The High Castle but am not holding out too much hope.
Loved this video. You do it so well!. Do you think all book lovers love book lists? I sure do. I am sad to say that I have only read 5 of these books but I am very impressed with the diversity of the list. Willa Cather, Philip k. Dick, and about 20 other books are running my bell. Always on my radar but never read. Thank you so much for this video. I have coincidentally just picked up 1984 and Animal Farm.
50-60 years ago. the following books were on list of must reads: Delta Wedding, Member of the Wedding and the heart is a Lonely Hunter, Good man is hard to find, The Red Badge of Courage, Lost Lady, Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
I noticed this problem when one read too many books: You no longer remember what you just read upon finishing; plots and characters between different books are meshed together; you barely remember what it was that you enjoyed about the book. You only cared about finishing what you are reading so that you can move on to the next one. You would barely remember the ending to the book you just finished.
That's why I am reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, very slowly, for the second time. At the same time I am reading commentaries on it and watching UA-cam videos about it. The book is fascinating, has subplots, and goes deep into human psychology.
@@bethtrautmann6901 I tried, boy did I try to read The Brothers Karamazov, but I just couldn't get into it. I got fifty or a hundred pages into it, then stopped. That was about a year ago, and usually I can remember to within 20 pages how far I got. I tried twice to read Crime and Punishment, never got very far. Ouch! I've finished Master and Man, love Checkov, read to the end two Nab books, so it's not like I have trouble reading Russian authors. There's just something about Dostoevsky. Oh, and Dead Souls! Last time my internet was out, for nine days, I finally read Gogol's masterpiece. You think modern day politicians are slippery, just read Dead Souls! It was published in I think 1820? I'll gogle it now......... hehe........ gogol, get it?............. Yeah, or pubbed in 1842. Anyway, then there's Turgie's Spring Torrents; not as good as Wuthering Heights, but the emotions do fly. TL;DR Russian authors are no problem, but Dostoevsky is for some weird reason.
Some of my favorite short classics that didn’t make the list: Puddinhead Wilson by Twain (brilliant!!!) A Rogue’s Life by Wilkie Collins, A Christmas Carol, Call of the Wild, Fahrenheit 451, Agnes Grey, and The Tenth Man by Graham Greene (quite moving and thought provoking)
Kawabata is such a good author, although I don't think Snow Country is as good as some of his other works. Dandelions is my personal favourite of his and also ~100 pages. Some really interesting titles on this list, might have to check out Fat City and I've heard so much about Angela Carter recently so I'll have to give her a try.
Do read Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”. It was my Year 9 set English text and was a great read. Concerning “The Great Gatsby”, the beginning of this novel felt like a brick wall, I did not like it, but once I got through the first twenty pages or so, I was fine. I really had a very negative reaction to the beginning of this book. But when I settled down, I found the rest of the book fine. I recently bought this book as the last time I read it was 33 years ago in senior year high school. I will be interested to try some Clarice Lispector. I read “The Hour of the Star” in 2010. It was a bewildering read. I read somewhere this might have been more to do with the translation. I do think Lispector is an interesting writer, and I have a collection of her short stories, too.
I’ve read 21 of these. Of the ones I haven’t, I think I would head first to the Baldwin, the Comyns and the Isherwood. It certainly is an eclectic and subjective list. Stunned not to see Cold Comfort Farm here. I would think that comes in at around 200 pages. Thanks for this video!
Thanks a lot for this video. Almost 20 years ago someone recommended Demian By Hermann Hesse to me. I managed to read it last year... It is also brilliant short novel in my opinion. I wish I could see it on your list.
At the moment is all I want to read. I am looking for a great editin of Catch-22. I'm not only into classics lately but also rare, vintage ones. Oh, dear!
“Capitalism is weird.” Yes, it is. That is a gorgeous version of Gatsby. I’m one who loves this book, but I think reading it from the manuscript might be a bit distracting. It is a beautiful thing to have though. I definitely need to reread Animal Farm. I loved it in school. We probably read it about the same age. I may have The Hound of the Baskervilles. Not sure though. That’s it though for this list. I will be reading Their Eyes Were Watching God in the near future. There are others on this list that I definitely want to read, including The Trial. I love Kafka. I have to make a shopping list, particularly to find some beautiful copies of these. I remember being in a Waterstones in London that had a whole wall of Penguin Classics or maybe another brand of classics. Maybe Tottenham Court Road? I so want to get back there in the fall. Who knows if it will be possible.
Of Mice and Men is incredible. I read The Stranger, but I think I was too young for it when I read it. The Awakening was okay. I had to read it for a grad school course. My paper on it only got a B because my professor didn't agree with my position on it. The Great Gatsby and Giovanni's Room are on my tbr. I can't wait to get to them. I think the only others I've read were Ethan Fromme, which I liked, and The Crying of Lot 49, which I don't really remember.
Thanks for presenting the list! From the lesser known novels here: Some scenes from Kenzaburo Oe, A Personal Matter still come to my mind 15 years after reading it. From the well known ones: The Death of Ivan Ilyich is kind of a must read for every human being. I've read 17 of those books but there aren't actually that many that I would like to return to, maybe except for "The Castle" which I failed to fully grasp back then but now I think I might understand it. Also, I'm looking forward to giving The Great Gatsby another go because I've read it about two times and the only thing I liked about it was the first chapter from the narrator.
I bought that book just the other day and so looking forward to getting into it. Oe's discussions on mental disability in his other works has been interesting so seeing him go in depth into it will be an experience.
The Hound of the Baskerville is the only Sherlock Holmes book that I enjoyed. I've read a handful on the list as I had saw the list the other day on my email from lithub. May go back again to see if count more that I have read. Recently finished a novel; The Glass Bees, by Ernest Junger. Came out in 1957. Science fiction. Narrative prose style. The narrator is a unemployed ex calvery officer who has become lost and disoriented with the new advances in technology. He is interviewed for a job by a eccentric owner of a robotics company.
Thanks for sharing the list, I've read a few of those and added some more to my TBR. I didn't like The Crying of Lot 49 the first time I read it but enjoyed it the second and third time as it made more sense. A multilayered book for sure. Don't know if I'll get around to finishing Gravity's Rainbow (which has been on my bookshelf forever 😁)
If you never read anymore of Pinchon don't worry. The Crying of Lot 49 is great; his other stuff is lacking. Others may disagree with me, but they all like Infinite Jest, which is the second biggest literary joke in the last 30 years (The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt).
'The Slave' by Issac Bashivis Singer is a great short Novel & love story. Singer won the Nobel for his short stories that I love. His novel tend not to be so successful but "The Slave' is. Also 'Enemies, A Love Story' is pretty good.
after I read Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo I couldn't read another book for 3 years..... I'm still in awe, I still don't understand it all and that's what baffles me, those stories that weave inside making you feel things and yet I'm not able to explain to others what this book is about! like those movies that stay with you forever and all you can say is...... it's strange very very good but you have to see it to understand
The movie Picnic At Hanging Rock was very moving but I haven't read the book as yet and I'm very interested in reading it. I found The Great Gatsby to be a good but somewhat confusing read at times but would like to read it again to see if my thoughts have changed.i read Notes From The Underground for university last year and I love Doestoevsky's writing. Thank you so much for the great list of books as I'm looking to read more classics this year. I'm currently reading These Violent Delights and to be honest I'm finding it a bit slow going. Happy Reading. 📖📚
A great book which is under 200 pages is Flowers for Algernon. I read it last year and it quickly became a new favourite. I still find myself thinking about it. I'm actually about to read Breakfast at Tiffany's tomorrow, I felt like I needed a shorter read after just finishing Anna Karenina.
Anna Karenina takes forever to read and is quite intense and emotionally draining. Can understand why you would want some shorter books, for awhile at least.
At about 130 pages, I would recommend 'The Search Warrant' by the Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano, a searing short novel about the Holocaust and the Occupation of France in WW2.
Erik, enjoy your "show." :-) I read around thirty or more of the books on the list. I always enjoy novellas. I really love your lists and I appreciate that you rated Lorna Sage's "Bad Blood" in your other list. I knew her at UEA (EAS) and spent every Thursday in an EUR postgrad seminar (I was the only postgrad there) attended by Max Sebald. After so many years dilly-dallying I have managed to read an incredible number of books, but there are some books, the chunky ones, I needed time and motivation to read. Recently, I came up with an idea. I was rereading Dostoevsky's "Idiot" that George Whitman recommended me years back - and found a good method was to read so far in the book, and watch the 1958 film and the Russian tv series after - just up to the page of the novel, read more, film & tv, until I finished the novel, film and the tv series. I doubt I would try that with Thomas Pynchon. :-).
I love this list- thank you! I think I've read 9, maybe 10? But so many books here I've never heard of that I am excited to check out! And yes, capitalism is indeed very weird! (I giggled at that!)
A few glaring omissions in my book (pun intended), even though some of them are just over 200 pages. I would have expected The Catcher In The Rye to make the list (230 pages). I would also have The Old Man And The Sea (Hemingway), Ask The Dust (John Fante), Disgrace (JM Coetze), Portrait Of Th Artist As A Young Man (James Joyce), The Leopard (Lampedusa), Housekeeping (Marilyn Robinson). Also a special mention for one of my top 5 favourite book ever, Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog (Dylan Thomas), not to be confused with the James Joyce book mentioned further up. Though not technically a novel, but 10 short stories about author`s life, from being a young boy through to becoming a writer. It is wonderful, and at 117 pages, I could not resist mentioning it.
Hello, I just finished a re-read of Giovanni’s room last night and the writing was gorgeous the story amazing. And I connected with it as a 13 year old girl going out with my first boyfriend a 17-year-old gay man. Of course I didn’t know anything about his secret life, but I felt for both him, Giovanni and the woman he was going to marry. I also read a couple of books By the author Willa Cather. My Antonia comes to mind. Of the books you mentioned I most want to read underwood, And a woman of slender means.I also love lists. Thank you for the suggestions. Aloha
Thanks for your list. You have certainly dodged some heavy hitters; Beckett and Bellow come to mind. But well done on A. C. Doyle, Kafka and Dostoievsky. Can I offer my own wildcard entry: Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library (1942), a genre book about genres.
I thought that was a great list. I've read 22 of them, I think, but many others on the list are on my TBR. I was surprised that I haven't heard about some of these books, though!
I ordered Francoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse, but when it arrived, I discovered it was in French! I can only say, Miracles happen, the impossible takes a little longer!
so many ones sound intriguing. Ive read four - Wide Sargasso Sea, Of Mice & Men (love Steinbeck), Animal Farm - though not since high school & The Great Gatsby - oh wait - I recently read Things Fall Apart. I think I want to read almost all of the others!
No The Old Man and the Sea?? What? Also, The Trial and The Castle, both by Kafka, are really the same book. After thoroughly enjoying The Trial I started The Castle a few months later. Put it down after getting halfway through. Unnecessary to continue is what I figured. No one to this day has convinced me otherwise. Pretty good video.
“Summer” by Edith Wharton would be a nice addition, I think it’s less than 200pp. Had to read Brautigan’s “In Watermelon Sugar” for a lit class. It taught me that modernist fiction is not a literary genre I wish to explore.
15 of the 50 is my score. Not to bad. Some of the others are on my radar. And there were a few that I now want to add to my tbr (the Richard Brautigan and Willa Cather whom I both like a lot) I love book lists.
What happened to Paulo Coehlo ? Ah, you missed Marcus Aurelius: Meditations. "The Plague" by Camus. Btw: Why do I detest "The Great Gatsby" ? Read it several times trying to find what I missed....sorry,still as vague as the first time I read it ! Yes, so subjective 😊
The Shadow Line by Conrad, 197 pp according to wikipedia. I am italian and in in my view the The Nonexistent Knight by Calvino is much better than The Cloven Viscount and it is still under 200 pp. Of the three novels of the ancestor trilogy (The Nonexistent Knight, The Baron in the Trees,The Cloven Viscount) the Cloven Viscount is the shortest but also the weakest.
I am ashamed to have read so few of these, though I have read more of the authors just not these titles. Even having studied literature at university!! Well, more for the lengthy TBR.
It's from the 1950 film 'Born Yesterday' that stars Judy Holliday as a mob man's fiancé who discovers the love of books and learning. It's a brilliant comedy.
Oh, gosh....The Crying of Lot 49. It will seem like 300 pages. My grandmother knew Pynchon in college. I accused her of doing something terrible to him as a reason he writes the way he does. She would confess to nothing. Also, it’s pronounced Vla-deemer Na-boak-off.
Dostoevsky is one of my favorite writers even though I’ve read like one and a half books by him. His stuff is so intense. One reason I love him is his characters have no chill lol. Edit: unsurprisingly there are some other favorites here lol including Elliot. 😭 I liked Silas marner more than most people it seems, but Middlemarch is what made her one of my very favorites.
Fyodor Dostoevsky is the grain alcohol of the literary world. It is poison, makes you dizzy and vomit, but you can tell your friends how great it was. Don't bother.
I know it’s 240 pages, but The Remains of the Day is perfection. A perfect novel. Never have I been so moved, touched, or ugly cried during such a short book. I can’t wait for Kazuo Ishiguro’s upcoming novel Klara & the sun! He is a living literary master.
Probably my favorite book.
It really is perfect. I finished the very last page and said as much to my friend who was with me. I believe I declared it was a flawless masterpiece.
@@davidmolinaro4993 name of the book?
Klara was great
Your comment got me intrigued, definitely picking it up soon
The only thing I love more than a book list is Eric talking about a book list.
😊📚
Fun list. I’ve read many but I’ve also just added several to my always-expanding tbr.
Also, just watched the Reading Resolutions videos. A few videosI’d love to see:
1. Behind the scenes of book awards. How are the judges selected? Do the judges select the long list then whittle it down to the short list? Or does the committee that selects the judges select the LL and then the judges take it from there? Are judges expected to each read every book on the long list? Also, do publishers get involved, trying to promote their books?
2. More vlogs (autocorrect changed vlogs to clogs. But I think your videos have the perfect amount of clogs. Lol)! Love when you get out or even just move to another room. Shakes things up a bit:)
3. Author spotlights. A focus on your favorite authors and a look into their lives and their catalogue
i can say with confidence that the postman always rings twice is one of the rare examples of a film adaptation being better than the original text
The Brazil has great writers, it was very nice of you to mention Clarice Lispector. I am Brazilian and I will mention some important titles:
DOM CASMURRO BY MACHADO DE ASSIS.
CAPTAINS OF SAND BY JORGE AMADO.
THE SLUM BY ALUÍSIO AZEVEDO.
Should I start with topics⁉️ ➖Then of course, we have The Great Gatsby (S. Fitzgerald), and The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway). But then, Bashevis Singer has also The Magician of Lublin, a touching romantic story, which is also a great short novel. Then there's In Praise of Lies, a funny, excellent dark humour story. By the Brazilian writress Patricia Melo, who's a very good writress maybe underrated. Then you have Laughter in the Dark, the great masterwork Nabokov wrote. One of the finest dark humour novels ever written. A brilliant, witty, clever and cruel short novel. Don't forget Eva, a thriller masterwork James Hadley Chase wrote. And The Barrier, another very good work Robin Maugham wrote. A passionating love story. Needles to mention Of Mice and Men, another good short novel Steinbeck wrote. And am sure there are more, as Maupassant Bel Ami or Boule de Suif, and then the famous Dostoyevsky, The Gambler, a page turner, as Boule de Suif (Ball of Fat)...and won't finish without mentioning Flannery O'connor and her Wise Blood or the Rulfo's Masterwork Pedro Páramo. Will also mention Olalla by Robert Louis Stevenson, as another one who moved me. Very good readings them all. 💎❤️👍
Much enjoyed this. Thanks for the great content. I read - or attempted to read - many on this list. Still, some are new to me. A few random remarks:
~ It was Tom Ford who, as somewhat of a Renaissance man, made A Single Man into a poignant and exquisite movie .
~ Like you, I (by far) prefer Jean Rhys's bleak, masterfully observed novels set in Paris and actually never succeeded in working my way through Wide Sargasso Sea. (But then, I never got into Jane Eyre either, to which it is a prequel of sorts).
~ I kind of miss Carson McCuller's The Member of the Wedding (1946, 176 pages) and Helen Hanff's delightful 84, Charing Cross Road (1970, 112 pages). I guess that's part of the fun of reading other people's lists: making and matching your own.
~ Notes From the Underground is one of my favorite books, despite (or perhaps because of) its comically insufferable protagonist. This book is many things, among which a study in narcissism, and a novelistic treatise on free will.
~ Muriel Spark is not exactly underrated, but much overlooked. A brilliant, humorous writer.
~ My favorite book (not a novel though) by the eccentric Suiss author Robert Walser is Speaking to the Rose (134 pages).
~ I've always been convinced that Freddy Mercury wrote Bohemian Rhapsody shortly after reading/inspired by Camus' The Stranger :) (And, found out, I'm not the only one)
Erik this was such a a great list of classic novels. I would recommend three books: 1. Philippe Besson - Lie With Me, In the Absence Of Men, and lastly Jaqueline Harpman - I Who Have Never Known Men. Thanks. Let me know what you think of them. All under 200 pages.
“Capitalism is weird” I laughed so hard when you said that...made me spill tea over my Ipad hahaha.. but I preferred The Pearl to Of Mice and Men. I would also add Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante., E.M Forster’s A Room with a View and Maurice ( my copy is slightly over 200 pages though..). I actually preferred Les Justes by Albert Camus to L’Étranger but then again I read it years ago.
Very interesting list. I've read 7 of them. I love Willa Cather and plan to reread O Pioneers this year. Also have Mice & Men and Snow Country which I plan to read. I'm currently reading Steinbeck's Travels with Charley which is non-fiction (and short, 210 pages) and a delight.
Great quick review Eric. Your content is my primary source for hunting books. From this list I currently have 24 but read only 9. Funny the two books you are not fan of are my all time favorites. I thought Gatsby would be tedious but I was so wrong. And Lot 49 was a revelation. Great stuff buddy as always, saying hi from Mumbai.
What a lovely, refreshing review. Encourages me to take on those classics.
Fab! Thank you. 📚
Thanks for your great summary of the books. Couldn't help making a list of the books I've already read and the ones you recommended. I can't wait to to read the Philip K Dick and J G Ballard. The reading list is growing longer everyday. - at least there is the time to read - a positive side to lockdown.
Philip K. Dick is kinda hit and miss. He wrote Blade Runner, so we think he's a master. But both Ubik and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said were underwhelming. Next I will try The Man In The High Castle but am not holding out too much hope.
Loved this video. You do it so well!. Do you think all book lovers love book lists? I sure do. I am sad to say that I have only read 5 of these books but I am very impressed with the diversity of the list. Willa Cather, Philip k. Dick, and about 20 other books are running my bell. Always on my radar but never read. Thank you so much for this video. I have coincidentally just picked up 1984 and Animal Farm.
I've only read 12! This was full of great suggestions. Thank you!
50-60 years ago. the following books were on list of must reads: Delta Wedding, Member of the Wedding and the heart is a Lonely Hunter, Good man is hard to find, The Red Badge of Courage, Lost Lady, Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
I noticed this problem when one read too many books: You no longer remember what you just read upon finishing; plots and characters between different books are meshed together; you barely remember what it was that you enjoyed about the book. You only cared about finishing what you are reading so that you can move on to the next one. You would barely remember the ending to the book you just finished.
That's why I am reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, very slowly, for the second time. At the same time I am reading commentaries on it and watching UA-cam videos about it. The book is fascinating, has subplots, and goes deep into human psychology.
@@bethtrautmann6901 I tried, boy did I try to read The Brothers Karamazov, but I just couldn't get into it. I got fifty or a hundred pages into it, then stopped. That was about a year ago, and usually I can remember to within 20 pages how far I got. I tried twice to read Crime and Punishment, never got very far. Ouch! I've finished Master and Man, love Checkov, read to the end two Nab books, so it's not like I have trouble reading Russian authors. There's just something about Dostoevsky. Oh, and Dead Souls! Last time my internet was out, for nine days, I finally read Gogol's masterpiece. You think modern day politicians are slippery, just read Dead Souls! It was published in I think 1820? I'll gogle it now......... hehe........ gogol, get it?............. Yeah, or pubbed in 1842. Anyway, then there's Turgie's Spring Torrents; not as good as Wuthering Heights, but the emotions do fly.
TL;DR Russian authors are no problem, but Dostoevsky is for some weird reason.
Thanks for a brilliant video. I have read 7 from the list, fantastic. Thanks to you, I now have another 6 books to add to my lengthy reading list!
Some of my favorite short classics that didn’t make the list:
Puddinhead Wilson by Twain (brilliant!!!)
A Rogue’s Life by Wilkie Collins,
A Christmas Carol,
Call of the Wild,
Fahrenheit 451,
Agnes Grey, and
The Tenth Man by Graham Greene (quite moving and thought provoking)
Nice wow 😊👍🤍
Anything by Graham Greene. Or Nat West.
Kawabata is such a good author, although I don't think Snow Country is as good as some of his other works. Dandelions is my personal favourite of his and also ~100 pages. Some really interesting titles on this list, might have to check out Fat City and I've heard so much about Angela Carter recently so I'll have to give her a try.
Do read Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”. It was my Year 9 set English text and was a great read. Concerning “The Great Gatsby”, the beginning of this novel felt like a brick wall, I did not like it, but once I got through the first twenty pages or so, I was fine. I really had a very negative reaction to the beginning of this book. But when I settled down, I found the rest of the book fine. I recently bought this book as the last time I read it was 33 years ago in senior year high school.
I will be interested to try some Clarice Lispector. I read “The Hour of the Star” in 2010. It was a bewildering read. I read somewhere this might have been more to do with the translation. I do think Lispector is an interesting writer, and I have a collection of her short stories, too.
I’ve read 21 of these. Of the ones I haven’t, I think I would head first to the Baldwin, the Comyns and the Isherwood. It certainly is an eclectic and subjective list. Stunned not to see Cold Comfort Farm here. I would think that comes in at around 200 pages. Thanks for this video!
Allow me, Madam, to respectfully disagree about this being a subjective list.
Thanks a lot for this video.
Almost 20 years ago someone recommended Demian By Hermann Hesse to me. I managed to read it last year... It is also brilliant short novel in my opinion. I wish I could see it on your list.
At the moment is all I want to read. I am looking for a great editin of Catch-22. I'm not only into classics lately but also rare, vintage ones. Oh, dear!
I have been re-reading classics I had to read in school/university to see if I'd like them more if I don't have to write a paper on them.
“Capitalism is weird.” Yes, it is. That is a gorgeous version of Gatsby. I’m one who loves this book, but I think reading it from the manuscript might be a bit distracting. It is a beautiful thing to have though.
I definitely need to reread Animal Farm. I loved it in school. We probably read it about the same age.
I may have The Hound of the Baskervilles. Not sure though. That’s it though for this list.
I will be reading Their Eyes Were Watching God in the near future. There are others on this list that I definitely want to read, including The Trial. I love Kafka. I have to make a shopping list, particularly to find some beautiful copies of these. I remember being in a Waterstones in London that had a whole wall of Penguin Classics or maybe another brand of classics. Maybe Tottenham Court Road? I so want to get back there in the fall. Who knows if it will be possible.
Hello from CA! Your comment about having an expensive version of Gatsby and capitalism being weird was hilarious. Thank you for the laugh :)
Of Mice and Men is incredible. I read The Stranger, but I think I was too young for it when I read it. The Awakening was okay. I had to read it for a grad school course. My paper on it only got a B because my professor didn't agree with my position on it. The Great Gatsby and Giovanni's Room are on my tbr. I can't wait to get to them. I think the only others I've read were Ethan Fromme, which I liked, and The Crying of Lot 49, which I don't really remember.
Thanks for presenting the list!
From the lesser known novels here: Some scenes from Kenzaburo Oe, A Personal Matter still come to my mind 15 years after reading it.
From the well known ones: The Death of Ivan Ilyich is kind of a must read for every human being.
I've read 17 of those books but there aren't actually that many that I would like to return to, maybe except for "The Castle" which I failed to fully grasp back then but now I think I might understand it.
Also, I'm looking forward to giving The Great Gatsby another go because I've read it about two times and the only thing I liked about it was the first chapter from the narrator.
I bought that book just the other day and so looking forward to getting into it. Oe's discussions on mental disability in his other works has been interesting so seeing him go in depth into it will be an experience.
A Personal Matter is, I find, truly Oe's masterpiece. It's terrifying.
Have read 10 of these. Paused this to (finally) pick up "Cane". TBRed a couple Comyns books.
Awesome list. Nice to see that the first author is from Argentina.
The Hound of the Baskerville is the only Sherlock Holmes book that I enjoyed.
I've read a handful on the list as I had saw the list the other day on my email from lithub. May go back again to see if count more that I have read.
Recently finished a novel; The Glass Bees, by Ernest Junger. Came out in 1957. Science fiction.
Narrative prose style. The narrator is a unemployed ex calvery officer who has become lost and disoriented with the new advances in technology. He is interviewed for a job by a eccentric owner of a robotics company.
Thanks for sharing the list, I've read a few of those and added some more to my TBR.
I didn't like The Crying of Lot 49 the first time I read it but enjoyed it the second and third time as it made more sense. A multilayered book for sure. Don't know if I'll get around to finishing Gravity's Rainbow (which has been on my bookshelf forever 😁)
If you never read anymore of Pinchon don't worry. The Crying of Lot 49 is great; his other stuff is lacking. Others may disagree with me, but they all like Infinite Jest, which is the second biggest literary joke in the last 30 years (The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt).
'The Slave' by Issac Bashivis Singer is a great short Novel & love story. Singer won the Nobel for his short stories that I love. His novel tend not to be so successful but "The Slave' is. Also 'Enemies, A Love Story' is pretty good.
after I read Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo I couldn't read another book for 3 years..... I'm still in awe, I still don't understand it all and that's what baffles me, those stories that weave inside making you feel things and yet I'm not able to explain to others what this book is about! like those movies that stay with you forever and all you can say is...... it's strange very very good but you have to see it to understand
The movie Picnic At Hanging Rock was very moving but I haven't read the book as yet and I'm very interested in reading it. I found The Great Gatsby to be a good but somewhat confusing read at times but would like to read it again to see if my thoughts have changed.i read Notes From The Underground for university last year and I love Doestoevsky's writing. Thank you so much for the great list of books as I'm looking to read more classics this year. I'm currently reading These Violent Delights and to be honest I'm finding it a bit slow going. Happy Reading. 📖📚
"The Scarlet Letter" by Hawthorne(I don't remember if it is under 200 pages) ,"The old man and the sea" by Hemingway,
178 pages in the Norton edition. But the print is really small.
A great book which is under 200 pages is Flowers for Algernon. I read it last year and it quickly became a new favourite. I still find myself thinking about it.
I'm actually about to read Breakfast at Tiffany's tomorrow, I felt like I needed a shorter read after just finishing Anna Karenina.
Anna Karenina takes forever to read and is quite intense and emotionally draining. Can understand why you would want some shorter books, for awhile at least.
At about 130 pages, I would recommend 'The Search Warrant' by the Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano, a searing short novel about the Holocaust and the Occupation of France in WW2.
"Why do have this very expensive manuscript verison.....capitalism is weird" 😂😂😂 Very weird indeed
What a strage list, I barely read 10 of those. Feeling very unaccomplished now.
Erik, enjoy your "show." :-) I read around thirty or more of the books on the list. I always enjoy novellas. I really love your lists and I appreciate that you rated Lorna Sage's "Bad Blood" in your other list. I knew her at UEA (EAS) and spent every Thursday in an EUR postgrad seminar (I was the only postgrad there) attended by Max Sebald. After so many years dilly-dallying I have managed to read an incredible number of books, but there are some books, the chunky ones, I needed time and motivation to read. Recently, I came up with an idea. I was rereading Dostoevsky's "Idiot" that George Whitman recommended me years back - and found a good method was to read so far in the book, and watch the 1958 film and the Russian tv series after - just up to the page of the novel, read more, film & tv, until I finished the novel, film and the tv series. I doubt I would try that with Thomas Pynchon. :-).
So glad you got to study with Lorna. She was a great teacher. And that’s a really interesting method! 📚
I love this list- thank you! I think I've read 9, maybe 10? But so many books here I've never heard of that I am excited to check out!
And yes, capitalism is indeed very weird! (I giggled at that!)
I really need to pick up more short classics. The only one I've read was Animal Farm that you've listed
MEMBER OF THE WEDDING and THE SOUND OF WAVES 2 of my personal favorited
A few glaring omissions in my book (pun intended), even though some of them are just over 200 pages.
I would have expected The Catcher In The Rye to make the list (230 pages). I would also have The Old Man And The Sea (Hemingway), Ask The Dust (John Fante), Disgrace (JM Coetze), Portrait Of Th Artist As A Young Man (James Joyce), The Leopard (Lampedusa), Housekeeping (Marilyn Robinson).
Also a special mention for one of my top 5 favourite book ever, Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog (Dylan Thomas), not to be confused with the James Joyce book mentioned further up. Though not technically a novel, but 10 short stories about author`s life, from being a young boy through to becoming a writer. It is wonderful, and at 117 pages, I could not resist mentioning it.
Well done. Unfortunately not read any of these.
Hello, I just finished a re-read of Giovanni’s room last night and the writing was gorgeous the story amazing. And I connected with it as a 13 year old girl going out with my first boyfriend a 17-year-old gay man. Of course I didn’t know anything about his secret life, but I felt for both him, Giovanni and the woman he was going to marry. I also read a couple of books By the author Willa Cather. My Antonia comes to mind. Of the books you mentioned I most want to read underwood, And a woman of slender means.I also love lists. Thank you for the suggestions. Aloha
Thanks for your list. You have certainly dodged some heavy hitters; Beckett and Bellow come to mind. But well done on A. C. Doyle, Kafka and Dostoievsky. Can I offer my own wildcard entry: Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library (1942), a genre book about genres.
I was surpirsed that Miss LonelyHearts by Nathaniel West which I beleive is under 200 pages was not one of the choices. That is a great little Novel.
I've read ten of these ^_^ Re-read A Clockwork Orange recently for a video I'm doing with my other half!
Another great list. Of Mice and Men is one of my all time faves. 💙💙
I thought that was a great list. I've read 22 of them, I think, but many others on the list are on my TBR. I was surprised that I haven't heard about some of these books, though!
I ordered Francoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse, but when it arrived, I discovered it was in French! I can only say, Miracles happen, the impossible takes a little longer!
That bit in the beginning...of the person saying hello! So cute!
That’s the actress Judy Holliday from the film Born Yesterday where she plays a gangster’s mistress that learns a love of reading. It’s a great movie!
so many ones sound intriguing. Ive read four - Wide Sargasso Sea, Of Mice & Men (love Steinbeck), Animal Farm - though not since high school & The Great Gatsby - oh wait - I recently read Things Fall Apart. I think I want to read almost all of the others!
I would add Dogsong by Gary Paulsen and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Great video!!! Just what I needed :)
im so early LOL but this is the perfect video for me!!! thank you for this 😊
"Ice" and "We have always lived in the castle" are totally worth the read!
Make a list of Asian books too. For instance the novels of Jose Rizal- Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo they are already translated in English.
I've read many classics in twenty years. Many thrillers. I love Edith Wharton and Charles Dickens. Faulkner, too.
No The Old Man and the Sea?? What? Also, The Trial and The Castle, both by Kafka, are really the same book. After thoroughly enjoying The Trial I started The Castle a few months later. Put it down after getting halfway through. Unnecessary to continue is what I figured. No one to this day has convinced me otherwise. Pretty good video.
“Summer” by Edith Wharton would be a nice addition, I think it’s less than 200pp.
Had to read Brautigan’s “In Watermelon Sugar” for a lit class. It taught me that modernist fiction is not a literary genre I wish to explore.
I just thought of Summer: a great novel 😊
I would add perhaps Jack Kerouac (I think Dharma Bums comes in under 200 pages) and Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.
Wonderful thank you!!
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, my all-time favourite!
Really like these list videos!
Yay, thank you!
Wow. I've only read 3 of them. I really want to read Passing, Wide Sargasso Sea, and Picnic at Hanging Rock.
15 of the 50 is my score. Not to bad. Some of the others are on my radar. And there were a few that I now want to add to my tbr (the Richard Brautigan and Willa Cather whom I both like a lot) I love book lists.
👍📚
What happened to Paulo Coehlo ?
Ah, you missed Marcus Aurelius: Meditations.
"The Plague" by Camus.
Btw: Why do I detest "The Great Gatsby" ? Read it several times trying to find what I missed....sorry,still as vague as the first time I read it !
Yes, so subjective 😊
hope you like Pedro Páramo! it's one of my best reading experiences. allegedly Marquez could recite it by heart ~
I want to re read Pnin so bad after watching this video! In fact, I want to re read all of Nabokov’s books.
I’ve never read any Angela Carter because I’m never sure where to start. Maybe I should begin with The Magic Toyshop
I bet you'll love her work. Yes, maybe The Magic Toyshop or the first book by her that I read was Nights at the Circus.
You forgot to add any one of MAX STRAVAGAR'S books, he's the William Shakespeare of our times!
I've only read less than ten and TBR-ed the rest.
I ♥ Gatsby
missing "Heart of darkness"
You should definitely try when we met by Rahul kabeer.
The Shadow Line by Conrad, 197 pp according to wikipedia.
I am italian and in in my view the The Nonexistent Knight by Calvino is much better than The Cloven Viscount and it is still under 200 pp.
Of the three novels of the ancestor trilogy (The Nonexistent Knight, The Baron in the Trees,The Cloven Viscount) the Cloven Viscount is the shortest but also the weakest.
I've read 21- but many of them them were read long, long ago.
Thank you. 👌💕
I just read Passing and it is excellent.
also i’ve only read 4 on the list but verging on 5 since im halfway through a single man rn!
I love all books by Robert Walser.
I read four from your list.
Drop everything and read some Sherlock Holmes! Seriously, right now. You'll thank me.
I am ashamed to have read so few of these, though I have read more of the authors just not these titles. Even having studied literature at university!! Well, more for the lengthy TBR.
What movie scene is in the beginnig? I might have seen somewhere but I am not sure
It's from the 1950 film 'Born Yesterday' that stars Judy Holliday as a mob man's fiancé who discovers the love of books and learning. It's a brilliant comedy.
Oh, gosh....The Crying of Lot 49. It will seem like 300 pages. My grandmother knew Pynchon in college. I accused her of doing something terrible to him as a reason he writes the way he does. She would confess to nothing. Also, it’s pronounced Vla-deemer Na-boak-off.
Haha!
Surprised that Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage isn't on here.
Yes! I love that novel and his writing.
Are we getting a women’s prize 2021 longlist predictions? Plssss
You’ve just reminded me to message Anna and schedule this! Thanks! 😄📚
Eric Karl Anderson Amazing thanks!
Dostoevsky is one of my favorite writers even though I’ve read like one and a half books by him. His stuff is so intense. One reason I love him is his characters have no chill lol.
Edit: unsurprisingly there are some other favorites here lol including Elliot. 😭 I liked Silas marner more than most people it seems, but Middlemarch is what made her one of my very favorites.
I've read ten, did not finish six and the other 34? Future fodder.
Fyodor Dostoevsky is the grain alcohol of the literary world. It is poison, makes you dizzy and vomit, but you can tell your friends how great it was. Don't bother.
The Old Man and the Sea is missing, in my view
Yes, that's a brilliant short novel!
anna kavan ... ice ... penguin classics
shirly jackson
kate chopin the awakening
james weldon johson
albert camus the stranger