Thank you so much for sharing. Our tastes are similar although I think you like the Russian translations a little bit more than I. Love reading all the ancient classics (in translation of course). Keep up the good readings.
'The Scarlet Letter' gets better every time you read it. Hawthorne was a master of this pictorialism style, freezeframing unforgettable moments in very precise language. It's like watching a movie.
The name of the translator to Herodotus caught my ear, Tom Holland. Tom is a Roman History historian with many books under his belt. If you like Roman history, just plug his name into UA-cam and you will find he's a popular guest to speak on this topic and others because he makes the history relatable to non-historians.
Merry Christmas! you had a great reading year! I really need to get to that new translation of the Brothers K ! My year was so so . I went through very lengthy reading slumps. My favorite read was a re read of Anna Karenina .
Your reading and mine recently converged. Last week, I too re-read the gospel of "Luke" (RSV in my case). I am receiving much enrichment by reading the New Testament books in tandem with Raymond E. Brown's "An Introduction to the New Testament" - an invaluable (maybe indispensable) resource.
Merry Christmas all. The comment about re-reading books struck a cord with me. I read a lot of Russian classics in my 20s; Turgenev, Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. I wonder how I would experience them now, many years and much experience later.
What a fascinating collection of books; I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on them very much. The Scarlet Letter is my favorite book. I've read it many times, and it never fails to reward. I don't think it's a book for young people. It is a book for someone who has lived as an adult for a while. Thank you for sharing this. Merry Christmas!
I’m 600 pages deep into Don Quixote because of your channel . It’s amazing ! I read Capote’s “One Christmas “ on Christmas morning which unexpectedly became my favorite I think of his short stories . After Don Quixote (30th novel of 2023) I’m going to read Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Capote . I’ll let you know how it is . 2 books I read this year that have become my favorites are The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy ..highly suggest both !
I'm reading Notes from a Dead House at the moment. I too have read Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov. Dead House is grim as it's set in a Siberian prison, but Dostoyevsky has lighter moments, and is totally absorbing. I hhqbe q douple of Tom Holland's books. I like his histories. This year i read all of Shakespeare including the poetry. It is the firstvtime Ibhave done it in chronilogucak order of writing. It was a relevation of how he developed. I too have been dipping into the Bible. I have in the last week been reading the Gispel if Jark along with Steve. I loved this video, Matthew.
Just reading Hunstman's Sketches by Turgenev (short stories) which is excellent. Never read Nathaniel Hawthorne, will give him a go. Best wishes with your reading in 2024 and to your channel.
Memories of James Joyce J.G. Ballard on James Joyce’s novel Ulysses James Joyce’s Ulysses has an immense influence on me - almost entirely for the bad. I read Joyce’s masterpiece as an eighteen-year-old medical student dissecting cadavers at Cambridge, then a bastion of academic provincialism and self-congratulation. Ulysses opened my eyes to an infinitely richer and more challenging world. Here, I knew, was the authentic voice of heroic modernism that rang through the European and American writers I had devoured at school while trying to recover from the shock of arriving in England - Dostoevsky, Rimbaud, Kafka, Camus and Hemingway. Reading them at too early an age, long before I had the experience to understand them, was probably another mistake. But Ulysses overwhelmed me. It might be set in a single day in a provincial European city, but in Joyce’s eye Dublin was the whole world, and that single day lasted longer than a century. Joyce’s text seemed to exhaust every conceivable possibility of narrative technique - in fact, technique became the real subject of the novel (a dead end, as the post-modernist writers demonstrate). Ulysses convinced me to give up medicine and become a writer, but it was the wrong example for me, an old-fashioned story-teller at heart, and it wasn’t until I discovered the surrealists that I found the right model. I read Ulysses again last year and was even more impressed than I was forty years ago, though clearly it’s excessively interiorized, is curiously lacking in imagination and fails to engage the reader's emotions, defects that of course recommend it to academia. But if not the greatest novel of the twentieth century it is certainly the greatest work of fiction.
I remember the (Dickensian) character named Antreyev from The Adolescent. He was, if my recollection is correct, a paid ruffian who intentionally was bad at his job. He is described as tall, with a small head, and long hands that created mischief. Dandyshly, he addressed himself to others only in French. He had a sister he could not marry off honorably. Am I correct in this description? And did this character stand out in your imagination as well? (which would make him special in some way). Otherwise, I really like your channel (maybe you remember previous comments of mine), not too formal but yet honest and straightforwardly full of thoughts. And I too am interested in Christianity and simultaneously have no problem by being intrigued by the Marquise De Sade literary phenomenon. In this spirit, so there are no suspicions of irony (which I hate as a literary mode), I have to emphasize that I wish you Merry Christmas sincerely.
Nice reading this year! Your posts always remind me to read more fiction. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Cheers to 2024👍🏽
Thank you so much for sharing. Our tastes are similar although I think you like the Russian translations a little bit more than I. Love reading all the ancient classics (in translation of course). Keep up the good readings.
'The Scarlet Letter' gets better every time you read it. Hawthorne was a master of this pictorialism style, freezeframing unforgettable moments in very precise language. It's like watching a movie.
Fully agree. I plan to reread scarlet letter this year!
That sounds like a lovely reading year! I'm hoping to read the Katz translation of Brothers Karamazov as soon as I can!
I agree, the notes on the David Bentley hart Yale New Testament are incredible, especially the one on John 1
Peace and love to u Matthew and everyone who sees this! I’m hoping to get to The Man Without Qualities and some Deleuze next year
The name of the translator to Herodotus caught my ear, Tom Holland. Tom is a Roman History historian with many books under his belt. If you like Roman history, just plug his name into UA-cam and you will find he's a popular guest to speak on this topic and others because he makes the history relatable to non-historians.
Merry Christmas! you had a great reading year! I really need to get to that new translation of the Brothers K ! My year was so so . I went through very lengthy reading slumps. My favorite read was a re read of Anna Karenina .
Merry Christmas! Anna Karenina is fantastic, I hope to read it again very soon.
Absolutely love your videos.. thank you! Happy New Year!
Thank you, happy new year to you!
Merry Christmas, Matthew!
Merry Christmas! Thank you for introducing books and sharing your thoughts about them.
Merry Christmas to you!
Merry Christmas, Matthew! I’m hoping to read “The Adolescent” next year. I have that same edition waiting for me on the shelf.
Merry Christmas, Micah!
Your reading and mine recently converged. Last week, I too re-read the gospel of "Luke" (RSV in my case). I am receiving much enrichment by reading the New Testament books in tandem with Raymond E. Brown's "An Introduction to the New Testament" - an invaluable (maybe indispensable) resource.
I read Middlemarch last year again. Each time I read any of Eliot' work I get more from her, especially Middlemarch.
Merry Christmas Mathew and a Happy New Year! I wish you health, happiness and prosperity!
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you!
Merry Christmas to you and yours Matthew! 🎄
Merry Christmas, Summer!
Wow! That’s some list of books! Merry Christmas, my friend!
Also, Steve is extraordinarily generous indeed.
Merry Christmas, Michael!
Merry Christmas all. The comment about re-reading books struck a cord with me. I read a lot of Russian classics in my 20s; Turgenev, Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. I wonder how I would experience them now, many years and much experience later.
Thanks for an entertaining Christmas Eve discussion - * Happy Holidays! *
Happy holidays!
Merry Christmas 🎄🎄🎄
I’ve never read any Flaubert but his letters sound intriguing.
Merry Christmas, David!
Just discovered your channel. I love the kind of books you read. Happy holidays from a new subscriber! I love Zola.
Happy holidays!
Merry Christmas, Matthew!!!
Merry Christmas, Joseph!
What a fascinating collection of books; I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on them very much. The Scarlet Letter is my favorite book. I've read it many times, and it never fails to reward. I don't think it's a book for young people. It is a book for someone who has lived as an adult for a while. Thank you for sharing this. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
I’m 600 pages deep into Don Quixote because of your channel . It’s amazing ! I read Capote’s “One Christmas “ on Christmas morning which unexpectedly became my favorite I think of his short stories . After Don Quixote (30th novel of 2023) I’m going to read Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Capote . I’ll let you know how it is .
2 books I read this year that have become my favorites are The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy ..highly suggest both !
I'm 320 pages in Don Quixote. It's pretty dang good!
Just found your channel. Great stuff!
Thank you, happy holidays!
I'm reading Notes from a Dead House at the moment. I too have read Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov. Dead House is grim as it's set in a Siberian prison, but Dostoyevsky has lighter moments, and is totally absorbing. I hhqbe q douple of Tom Holland's books. I like his histories. This year i read all of Shakespeare including the poetry. It is the firstvtime Ibhave done it in chronilogucak order of writing. It was a relevation of how he developed. I too have been dipping into the Bible. I have in the last week been reading the Gispel if Jark along with Steve. I loved this video, Matthew.
Just reading Hunstman's Sketches by Turgenev (short stories) which is excellent. Never read Nathaniel Hawthorne, will give him a go. Best wishes with your reading in 2024 and to your channel.
Merry Chrismas and God bless!
Merry Christmas to you!
Merry Christmas from a long time subscriber!
A very merry Christmas to you!
I'd be very interested to hear what you have to say about The Adolescent. Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas!
👍
Merry Christmas Matthew 😊
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you all!
Merry Christmas to you!
See J. G. Ballard's assessment of 'Ulysses' and all will be revealed as to why exactly you don't like it.
Memories of James Joyce
J.G. Ballard on James Joyce’s novel Ulysses
James Joyce’s Ulysses has an immense influence on me - almost entirely for the bad. I read Joyce’s masterpiece as an eighteen-year-old medical student dissecting cadavers at Cambridge, then a bastion of academic provincialism and self-congratulation. Ulysses opened my eyes to an infinitely richer and more challenging world. Here, I knew, was the authentic voice of heroic modernism that rang through the European and American writers I had devoured at school while trying to recover from the shock of arriving in England - Dostoevsky, Rimbaud, Kafka, Camus and Hemingway. Reading them at too early an age, long before I had the experience to understand them, was probably another mistake.
But Ulysses overwhelmed me. It might be set in a single day in a provincial European city, but in Joyce’s eye Dublin was the whole world, and that single day lasted longer than a century. Joyce’s text seemed to exhaust every conceivable possibility of narrative technique - in fact, technique became the real subject of the novel (a dead end, as the post-modernist writers demonstrate). Ulysses convinced me to give up medicine and become a writer, but it was the wrong example for me, an old-fashioned story-teller at heart, and it wasn’t until I discovered the surrealists that I found the right model.
I read Ulysses again last year and was even more impressed than I was forty years ago, though clearly it’s excessively interiorized, is curiously lacking in imagination and fails to engage the reader's emotions, defects that of course recommend it to academia. But if not the greatest novel of the twentieth century it is certainly the greatest work of fiction.
I remember the (Dickensian) character named Antreyev from The Adolescent. He was, if my recollection is correct, a paid ruffian who intentionally was bad at his job. He is described as tall, with a small head, and long hands that created mischief. Dandyshly, he addressed himself to others only in French. He had a sister he could not marry off honorably. Am I correct in this description? And did this character stand out in your imagination as well? (which would make him special in some way). Otherwise, I really like your channel (maybe you remember previous comments of mine), not too formal but yet honest and straightforwardly full of thoughts. And I too am interested in Christianity and simultaneously have no problem by being intrigued by the Marquise De Sade literary phenomenon. In this spirit, so there are no suspicions of irony (which I hate as a literary mode), I have to emphasize that I wish you Merry Christmas sincerely.
Merry Christmas!
Hi, a bit off topic but what's your zodiac sign?
I'm a cusp, Gemini/ Cancer. Why do you ask?!
@@MayberryBookclub i was between aquarius and gemini lol
High school ruins Hawthorne for too many kids. Hawthorne requires a more experienced reader to appreciate his writing, I think.