What I find amazing about Don Quixote is that at that point in history, they already had too many books to read without going insane. My problems aren’t so modern after all.
The structure in The Grace of Kings is not strange, it is based on classic Chinese literature, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms for example. I am not surprised that it wasn't popular, as it is difficult to read (cliffhangers are masterfully done though), but personally I was fascinated by how Ken Liu worked with this traditional structure
Not book related but an underrated manga that deserves more love is Witch Hat Atelier. It has gorgeous art and it’s about a regular girl who was whisk away and becomes a witch apprentice, and it certainly feels magical. Wonderful world building, the magic system is creative and fun. The characters are so lovable and interesting! It has strong themes of found family, morality, fighting against a social system, and a lot of wholesome moments.
I think it’s cuz books on good reads are rated high regardless. I almost every book on goodreads is rated at least like 4 stars usually. I’ve read some really god awful books and went to the goodreads review and it has an average of like 4.5 stars.
Speaking just for myself, I seldom read books unless I think I'll like them; and if I don't like one, I usually won't finish it and won't rate it. So the majority of books I do rate get three or more stars.
@Steve_Stowers yeah that makes sense. I think people willingly listen to albums they don't think they'll like because it's typically less than an hour of time commitment and I guess that explains the discrepancy between RYM scores and goodreads scores.
The only one of these six that I've read is A Natural History of Dragons, and I liked it quite a bit. But I can see how some readers might have been disappointed by it, because it doesn't have many of the tropes that one might expect in a "fantasy novel about dragons." By the way, thanks for the heads-up about book 2 being the weakest. I haven't read it yet but plan to.
I've read The Grace of Kings, A Natural History of Dragons, and House of Salt And Sorrows and enjoyed reading them all. I definitely need to check out the rest of these recs now. Thank you!
I think the reason Don Quixote my have bad grade in goodreads is because in a lot of spanish speaking countries, it is obligatory reading at school. Like here in Chile. I loved the book, but I was very young when they asked me to read it for class, and a lot of my classmates just hated it; and that's something it happened a lot arround here.
Loved House of Salt and Sorrows and I can't even say why exactly. There are many things I don't typically read (YA, romance) but it's very atmospheric and just goes places I did not expect. It was a ride and I enjoyed it. Currently reading House of Roots and Ruin and it's living rent free for the same reasons! Great Fall reads too.
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is one of mt favorite recent reads, I ADORED it and think it's terribly underrated. It's a fantastic, cozy, heartwarming fantasy about the patriarchy and the power of women supporting women. It was witty and fun, but also moving. If you liked The House on the Cerulean Sea or The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, I think you'd love it too. I am dying for more people to read it!!
I just finished House of Salt and Sorrows (per your recommendation in this video!) and I loved it so much!! I’m not a horror reader but this was the perfect amount for me (maybe I need to read more YA/middle grade horror?). I immediately checked out the sequel from the library. Thank you for introducing it to me!
Have you read "Kingdoms" by Natasha Pulley? There is a lighthouse as a central plot point and a not to small part of the book takes place on or near the ocean. Can highly recommend it!
I absolutely loved a House of Salt and Sorrows. It lives rent free in my head since you first recommended it. It starts out so depressing, but the MYSTERY is so good. The glimpses of horror, the moments of fanciful fairy tale elements. It's not a perfect book, but I'm going to read it again and again. And you warned me that there's barely any dragons in the first Lady Trent book, and I still DNF'd it for how slow it was. I love the concept SO MUCH, so I will return to it one day. With one toddler and a baby on the way, I don't have time for anything less than gripping fiction.
Read the Grace of Kings a week ago, I loved it ! Am not a reader who can read 100 pages a day. I can read 10 pages in 30 min. I thought I would take my sweet time to read it probably like 3 months, wanted to use this book as habit builder for reading regularly. But when I read it I finished it in 12-15 days! Couldn't believe it ! Whenever I started reading it I always end up reading for more than 45 min! It's my first epic fantasy Can't wait to read the second part
I soft DNF'd the Lady Trent Memoirs after book 2, and now you've convinced me to keep going. 😆 I do really love her narration and hindsight perspective, and I did really like Book 1... I'll give it another chance!!
merph! if you’re still thinking about the Fourth Wing, I just read it and it is exactly what you’d expect. very similar to the assassin school thing, but with dragons. Dragons do add to the epic scale, because dragons are awesome, but not enough to make the book above a 3.5… I do have hope for book 2 though… maybe!
I never comment but I must recommend a series because I just finished it, but Lockwood and Co. by Jonathan Stroud is an absolute favorite of mine. Kids in London who hunt ghosts. It is middle grade but the larger plot and character depth in the later books is absolutely worth the commitment! Plus the hauntings completely captivated me when I read them.
Great video! I only read Don Quixote on this list, and only partially, like less than one-fourth of it. It was okay, but I never finished it because it wasn't mine to begin with. One book that I was super surprised by a 3.5something rating was Outlawed by Anna North. I gave it a 4, I unexpectedly liked it.
This made me curious to see which books on my favorites shelf on Goodreads had below a 4.0 rating. Not too surprised that most of the lower rated ones were high school English class classics.
A Grace of Kings / Dandelion Dynasty - The best Fantasy Series (with an ENDING) in the last 10 years. EZ I'm on book 4/5 on the History of Dragons Series. LOVE IT! It's a lot of fun. A nice treat in between the phone-book fantasy novels I'm used to.
Murphy saying the word 'blunt' when I'm in the process of editing my story and literally reading the same word, wondering if I should change it, now means it's the one word that can absolutely *never* be deleted from it
For me the most criminally underrated book/s is The Curse of the Mistwrait by Janny Wurts (The Wars of Light and Shadow). 3.77 rating on Goodreads. I just discovered the series this past June and for me it is without question top tier writing and world building.
I give most books three stars. For me it means 'good book, worth reading'. Four stars go to books that I think are _much_ better than I expected. Five stars go to those that in some noticeable way change my way to look at things. Two stars go to books that I think are 'meh' but might work for some people. One I give to books that make me wonder why are they even in the existence.
@@amorvincittomniaMostly I give five stars to non-fiction books like Naomi Klein's _The Shock Doctrine_ and some of Thich Nhat Hanh's works, but of fiction, I have five-starred, for example, Brandon Sanderson's _The Final Empire,_ Susanna Clarke's _Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell,_ Scott Lynch's _The Lies of Locke Lamora_ and _Red Seas Under Red Skies,_ and Jeff Vandermeer's _Annihilation_ (unfortunately, its sequels got only one star).
Thanks for sharing! I haven't read any of those save a little bit of Don Quixote. I was reading it with someone and she DNF'd it and I just stopped reading. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. We had JUST started.
I love the Lady Trent series thank you for reminding me I should do a reread! The most underrated book I've loved this year is Upon a Burning Throne by Ashok K Banker it's criminal this book has both too few ratings and is only rated 3.48! It's sooo good!
Interesting... I never thought 3.7 to be low rating. A lot of my favorite books are rated less than 4 stars in goodreads. Thanks for the recommendations, I added some to my tbr.
I love ❤️ Don Quixote, however I read it in Spanish and not only that but it’s part of the high school curriculum here so many people I know HATE it because 1.) they felt obligated to read it cuz of a class 2.) teachers said just read X & Y chapter and explain which defeats the purpose of reading the book and the journey you take and 3.) as if Spanish wasn’t hard enough.. it’s written in a very elaborated difficult way for Many to read with tons of metaphors (which not everyone get or like) … After seeing the book in this list I wonder if it’s that dificult in English and I would definitely give it a try 👍😊 (which never occurred to me)
Here are some books I've read that I think are criminally under-hyped: Revolutionary Backlash by Rosemarie Zagarri, The Field of Blood by Joanne Freeman, Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary, An Empire on the Edge by Nick Bunker, Floating Coast by Bathsheba Demuth, Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor, Born in Blackness by Howard French, The Widow Washington by Martha Saxton, They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rodgers, Sons of the Waves by Stephen Taylor, When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney, Red Notice by Bill Browder, The Russian Affair by David Walsh
I don’t know if you have read any if them, but I wanted to recommend the “Super Powereds “series by Drew Hayes. I love the world building and the characters and character development. The audiobooks are excellent to listen to because Kyle McCarley does an excellent job of voicing the story and the characters.
I almost brought deep as the sky red as the sea with me as my backup book in case I finish my current read- BUT then decided to work on one piece instead so I can start it over the weekend after reading her true story!
It's criminal that The Grace of Kings is rated as low as it is. While the future books improved, the first book is still incredible and stands out in the genre. I think it might have been a bit ahead of its time as I think the series is rapidly gaining new appreciation, at least on booktube. IMO the Dandelion Dynasty should be mentioned in top 10 fantasy series of all time without a doubt.
Looking forward to read the Dandelion Dynasty soon. I'm one of those readers that don't read reviews for books and mostly go in blind. Then read the reviews after to see if I agree with them 😂
Quixote is also a satire about the state of the popular narratives at the time. Cervantes was pissed that the popular books were the "romance" novels all about perfect valiant heroes rescuing damsels in distress, and he made the quixote character to make a mockery of those books. Not only did they make Quijote insane but he also "acted" like the protagonists of those novels, and the people around him reacted with discomfort and akwardness because he... well he was jsut really cringe. Imagine the "my lady" incel type but in the 16xx's.
Most of the books I love with low Goodreads ratings (3.50-3.80) are Dutch children's books that don't have an English translation. I wonder if it's because they have less ratings to begin with: then if one or two people didn't like it, that already brings the average down quite a bit.
Do you take recommendations? Because from what you have said here, I think you might enjoy the series written by Ariana Franklin that starts with Mistress of the Art of Death.
Not Don Kihot being here despite it being a required read in high school and the most sold book of all time apart from religious texts😂 Underrated indeed.
I love good books that happen to be underrated and by good book I mean the kind you have to put down go over to the window and voicelessly mouth through the glass to the world “wow”
For me anything with under 1000 ratings is criminally underrated. I love As The Villainess I Reject These Happy-Bad Endings and it has a 4.23 which is great but it also only has 233 ratings and that kills me because I think more people should read it.
For me, it's gotta be the 4th book of the hitchhiker's guide. I think that book is an 11/10, and a truly excellent finale to my favorite series. I don't generally like romance in fiction, for the unhealthy, dramatized way it often plays out, but Hitchhiker's 4 did it right. Isn't that weird? An absurdist romance feeling real, where even stuff like historical romance didn't? I think you wouldn't regret finishing it, even if you don't see its genius.
What I find interesting about ratings, on anything not just books, is that it's an avergage. Which can be helpful when buying an appliance, but maybe not as much with books. Because if you have a book that has 50% ratings of 5 stars and then the rest were not great ratings, you can easily get a rating or 3.5-3.8 stars. That is not a book that 100% of the people gave 3.5 stars to, it's a book that 50% gave 5 stars to. I think that changes the perspective a bit if you think of it like that. ? On Grace of Kings for example, of 18,777 ratings 63% gave it a 4 to 5 star review. Meaning that over half the people who read it weren't just Meh about it, but LOVED it. Sorry, went down a weird rabbit hole here :) If you only read books with high ratings, what you would miss!
These books were basically reviewed 7/10 the bar must be high these days. Most won't average out to 10/10 so scores feel like their really out of 9 so 7/9 ain't bad. Im guessing most books are liked at the 8.5-9 range, but they leave a lot to get that. They become very for everyone sometimes.
Excuuuuse me? Don Quixote has what rating?!? It is one of my favourite books of all time. It is brilliant! The rest I already had on my TBR except for one. That is now on there, too.
An unpopular opinion based on your videos about the series and the comments on them, but I think the second book in the Lady Trent series is absolutely the best one. The jungle setting, the character arcs and the plot just clicked for me in a way they didn't in any of the others ❤ A 5 star read in a 4ish star series. The third book made me so angry though. It had a sea voyage and storms and islands, so it should have been amazing! Sadly, it was so riddled with plot holes/conveniences that I was tempted to give up on the rest of the series
You just forgot to mention that Don Quixote is the biggest book in Spanish literature and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is the equivalent of Shakespeare (not only for the fact the died on the same year and most likely on the same day according to some sources) for Spanish speakers.
The Last Templar. Criminally unknown and underrated book. Realisticish historical fiction with some very grounded magical/religious elements dealing with The Holy Grail during the crusades, and it doesn't show Christians or Muslims as right or correct The Christians get more page time, but that's because of where they are, but in the whole Trilogy, the evilest people are Christians, and one of the main 3 characters is Muslim. Children's book in the same vein and style of Robin Hood. Great Trilogy with a great villain, and criminally underrated.
One issue I have with goodreads is the inflated rating system. A 3.8 out of 5 is a 7.6 out of 10. That's a C! It's a perfectly good book. But anything less than a 4 seems like it's not worth reading, and that may be my perspective. But it also seems that the median book is above a 4, when really a 3.5 or 3 is an average book. This could be the result of a 5 star system, but also the desire to be nice as well, you don't want to rate a book low, it's a 4.3, and you enjoyed it, so you give it a 5.
0:57 This is how I feel about the Tokusatsu genre, is not the is underrated but it is not well know, because is gatekeep by the pesky "Oh is just Japanese Power Rangers" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!
Wait, people acually say that?!! Good thing these gatekeepers understand Power Rangers.😂😂🙃🙃 (Im also glad Ive avoided internet forums on that genre all this time)
@@ropecrewman36 I don't know if people say that, is just I think people compare it immediately to that trash adaptation (Power Rangers stopped been good after Super Samurai) and don't give it a chance.
I love how you recognize how much reading tastes evolve over time. It allows me to look at my bookshelves and think “hmm one day I’ll grow up!” 😅
What I find amazing about Don Quixote is that at that point in history, they already had too many books to read without going insane. My problems aren’t so modern after all.
The structure in The Grace of Kings is not strange, it is based on classic Chinese literature, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms for example. I am not surprised that it wasn't popular, as it is difficult to read (cliffhangers are masterfully done though), but personally I was fascinated by how Ken Liu worked with this traditional structure
Not book related but an underrated manga that deserves more love is Witch Hat Atelier. It has gorgeous art and it’s about a regular girl who was whisk away and becomes a witch apprentice, and it certainly feels magical. Wonderful world building, the magic system is creative and fun. The characters are so lovable and interesting! It has strong themes of found family, morality, fighting against a social system, and a lot of wholesome moments.
I had no idea that a 3.57 was considered a low score. on RYM for example 3.57 is pretty decent, wonder why its different with goodreads.
it is
I think it’s cuz books on good reads are rated high regardless. I almost every book on goodreads is rated at least like 4 stars usually. I’ve read some really god awful books and went to the goodreads review and it has an average of like 4.5 stars.
Speaking just for myself, I seldom read books unless I think I'll like them; and if I don't like one, I usually won't finish it and won't rate it. So the majority of books I do rate get three or more stars.
@Steve_Stowers yeah that makes sense. I think people willingly listen to albums they don't think they'll like because it's typically less than an hour of time commitment and I guess that explains the discrepancy between RYM scores and goodreads scores.
Lighthouse keepers, spooky with a curse and hauntings and an ocean of course. It is set in Long Beach WA.
The book:
They Drown Our Daughters
The only one of these six that I've read is A Natural History of Dragons, and I liked it quite a bit. But I can see how some readers might have been disappointed by it, because it doesn't have many of the tropes that one might expect in a "fantasy novel about dragons."
By the way, thanks for the heads-up about book 2 being the weakest. I haven't read it yet but plan to.
I've read The Grace of Kings, A Natural History of Dragons, and House of Salt And Sorrows and enjoyed reading them all. I definitely need to check out the rest of these recs now. Thank you!
YES Mapping the Interior was solid. As a fellow Pet Sem fan it’s a solid rec
I think the reason Don Quixote my have bad grade in goodreads is because in a lot of spanish speaking countries, it is obligatory reading at school. Like here in Chile. I loved the book, but I was very young when they asked me to read it for class, and a lot of my classmates just hated it; and that's something it happened a lot arround here.
Halfway through this video and I already added all these books, so far, to my TBR.
A fun concept! I shall have to check the GoodReads reviews for my favs, too :)
Loved House of Salt and Sorrows and I can't even say why exactly. There are many things I don't typically read (YA, romance) but it's very atmospheric and just goes places I did not expect. It was a ride and I enjoyed it. Currently reading House of Roots and Ruin and it's living rent free for the same reasons! Great Fall reads too.
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is one of mt favorite recent reads, I ADORED it and think it's terribly underrated. It's a fantastic, cozy, heartwarming fantasy about the patriarchy and the power of women supporting women. It was witty and fun, but also moving. If you liked The House on the Cerulean Sea or The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, I think you'd love it too. I am dying for more people to read it!!
So intelligent and well spoken. Great recommendations on reads as well.
Thanks for the video Merphy and I hope you are okay now...
I just finished House of Salt and Sorrows (per your recommendation in this video!) and I loved it so much!! I’m not a horror reader but this was the perfect amount for me (maybe I need to read more YA/middle grade horror?). I immediately checked out the sequel from the library. Thank you for introducing it to me!
Have you read "Kingdoms" by Natasha Pulley? There is a lighthouse as a central plot point and a not to small part of the book takes place on or near the ocean. Can highly recommend it!
For spooky, you should try Mushishi
I absolutely loved a House of Salt and Sorrows. It lives rent free in my head since you first recommended it. It starts out so depressing, but the MYSTERY is so good. The glimpses of horror, the moments of fanciful fairy tale elements. It's not a perfect book, but I'm going to read it again and again. And you warned me that there's barely any dragons in the first Lady Trent book, and I still DNF'd it for how slow it was. I love the concept SO MUCH, so I will return to it one day. With one toddler and a baby on the way, I don't have time for anything less than gripping fiction.
Read the Grace of Kings a week ago, I loved it ! Am not a reader who can read 100 pages a day. I can read 10 pages in 30 min. I thought I would take my sweet time to read it probably like 3 months, wanted to use this book as habit builder for reading regularly. But when I read it I finished it in 12-15 days! Couldn't believe it ! Whenever I started reading it I always end up reading for more than 45 min! It's my first epic fantasy
Can't wait to read the second part
Yes 👏👏 Mapping the Interior was incredible ❤
I soft DNF'd the Lady Trent Memoirs after book 2, and now you've convinced me to keep going. 😆 I do really love her narration and hindsight perspective, and I did really like Book 1... I'll give it another chance!!
Another great vid. Man everytime I watch one of your videos my amazon wishlist gets bigger lol.
merph! if you’re still thinking about the Fourth Wing, I just read it and it is exactly what you’d expect. very similar to the assassin school thing, but with dragons. Dragons do add to the epic scale, because dragons are awesome, but not enough to make the book above a 3.5… I do have hope for book 2 though… maybe!
I just stare at the bookshelf the whole time and wonder what books those are. So beautiful😄
I never comment but I must recommend a series because I just finished it, but Lockwood and Co. by Jonathan Stroud is an absolute favorite of mine. Kids in London who hunt ghosts. It is middle grade but the larger plot and character depth in the later books is absolutely worth the commitment! Plus the hauntings completely captivated me when I read them.
The John Dies at the End and Zoey Ashe books are so underrated. Or maybe just that feeling of a book series that no one else seems to have read?
Great video! I only read Don Quixote on this list, and only partially, like less than one-fourth of it. It was okay, but I never finished it because it wasn't mine to begin with.
One book that I was super surprised by a 3.5something rating was Outlawed by Anna North. I gave it a 4, I unexpectedly liked it.
This made me curious to see which books on my favorites shelf on Goodreads had below a 4.0 rating. Not too surprised that most of the lower rated ones were high school English class classics.
A Grace of Kings / Dandelion Dynasty - The best Fantasy Series (with an ENDING) in the last 10 years. EZ
I'm on book 4/5 on the History of Dragons Series. LOVE IT! It's a lot of fun. A nice treat in between the phone-book fantasy novels I'm used to.
Murphy saying the word 'blunt' when I'm in the process of editing my story and literally reading the same word, wondering if I should change it, now means it's the one word that can absolutely *never* be deleted from it
For me the most criminally underrated book/s is The Curse of the Mistwrait by Janny Wurts (The Wars of Light and Shadow). 3.77 rating on Goodreads. I just discovered the series this past June and for me it is without question top tier writing and world building.
I give most books three stars. For me it means 'good book, worth reading'. Four stars go to books that I think are _much_ better than I expected. Five stars go to those that in some noticeable way change my way to look at things. Two stars go to books that I think are 'meh' but might work for some people. One I give to books that make me wonder why are they even in the existence.
I do think 5 stars are given out too easily! What are some of your 5-star reads?
@@amorvincittomniaMostly I give five stars to non-fiction books like Naomi Klein's _The Shock Doctrine_ and some of Thich Nhat Hanh's works, but of fiction, I have five-starred, for example, Brandon Sanderson's _The Final Empire,_ Susanna Clarke's _Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell,_ Scott Lynch's _The Lies of Locke Lamora_ and _Red Seas Under Red Skies,_ and Jeff Vandermeer's _Annihilation_ (unfortunately, its sequels got only one star).
Thanks for sharing! I haven't read any of those save a little bit of Don Quixote. I was reading it with someone and she DNF'd it and I just stopped reading. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. We had JUST started.
100 page novella! I know what I'm reading next 😊 and I added Don Quixote to my TBR because of your ravings of it!❤
I ussually have problems with finishing series but I flew by the lady trent books i really loved them too.
I love the Lady Trent series thank you for reminding me I should do a reread! The most underrated book I've loved this year is Upon a Burning Throne by Ashok K Banker it's criminal this book has both too few ratings and is only rated 3.48! It's sooo good!
I have at least read A Natural History of Dragons thanks to your video! Fun when the library randomly has things you heard about.
I just finished House of Salt and Sorrow and really enjoyed this book.
The middle four are on my TBR.
Interesting... I never thought 3.7 to be low rating. A lot of my favorite books are rated less than 4 stars in goodreads.
Thanks for the recommendations, I added some to my tbr.
I really need to start Grace of Kings
I love ❤️ Don Quixote, however I read it in Spanish and not only that but it’s part of the high school curriculum here so many people I know HATE it because
1.) they felt obligated to read it cuz of a class
2.) teachers said just read X & Y chapter and explain which defeats the purpose of reading the book and the journey you take and
3.) as if Spanish wasn’t hard enough.. it’s written in a very elaborated difficult way for Many to read with tons of metaphors (which not everyone get or like) …
After seeing the book in this list I wonder if it’s that dificult in English and I would definitely give it a try 👍😊 (which never occurred to me)
Does anyone know the name of the series behind her with the white and beige cover and the girl on the spine? Please and thank you!
Here are some books I've read that I think are criminally under-hyped: Revolutionary Backlash by Rosemarie Zagarri, The Field of Blood by Joanne Freeman, Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary, An Empire on the Edge by Nick Bunker, Floating Coast by Bathsheba Demuth, Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor, Born in Blackness by Howard French, The Widow Washington by Martha Saxton, They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rodgers, Sons of the Waves by Stephen Taylor, When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney, Red Notice by Bill Browder, The Russian Affair by David Walsh
I don’t know if you have read any if them, but I wanted to recommend the “Super Powereds “series by Drew Hayes. I love the world building and the characters and character development. The audiobooks are excellent to listen to because Kyle McCarley does an excellent job of voicing the story and the characters.
Grace of Kings was so good though!! The drama and politics and intrigue! The plotting!
I almost brought deep as the sky red as the sea with me as my backup book in case I finish my current read- BUT then decided to work on one piece instead so I can start it over the weekend after reading her true story!
I really enjoy your videos. I love the recs and the deep dives and the perspectives discussed. You are easily top shelf among Booktubers 😁 👍 👏👏👏
Lighthouse scene, annihilation has great lighthouse scenes!
It's criminal that The Grace of Kings is rated as low as it is. While the future books improved, the first book is still incredible and stands out in the genre. I think it might have been a bit ahead of its time as I think the series is rapidly gaining new appreciation, at least on booktube. IMO the Dandelion Dynasty should be mentioned in top 10 fantasy series of all time without a doubt.
Armageddon's Children is my all time favourite book
Christmas sweater vibes in September? I can dig it
Gee I hope this video has a nice, satisfying number of books in it
Looking forward to read the Dandelion Dynasty soon. I'm one of those readers that don't read reviews for books and mostly go in blind. Then read the reviews after to see if I agree with them 😂
Quixote is also a satire about the state of the popular narratives at the time. Cervantes was pissed that the popular books were the "romance" novels all about perfect valiant heroes rescuing damsels in distress, and he made the quixote character to make a mockery of those books. Not only did they make Quijote insane but he also "acted" like the protagonists of those novels, and the people around him reacted with discomfort and akwardness because he... well he was jsut really cringe. Imagine the "my lady" incel type but in the 16xx's.
Most of the books I love with low Goodreads ratings (3.50-3.80) are Dutch children's books that don't have an English translation. I wonder if it's because they have less ratings to begin with: then if one or two people didn't like it, that already brings the average down quite a bit.
Yes house of salt and sorrow is so stinking good!
Do you take recommendations? Because from what you have said here, I think you might enjoy the series written by Ariana Franklin that starts with Mistress of the Art of Death.
Not Don Kihot being here despite it being a required read in high school and the most sold book of all time apart from religious texts😂
Underrated indeed.
I love underrated books. They are the best. 📚📚📚📚📚
I love good books that happen to be underrated and by good book I mean the kind you have to put down go over to the window and voicelessly mouth through the glass to the world “wow”
I feel like 3.6, 3.7 is high on Goodreads but I can imagine there are people who refuse to read anything below a 4.
Engines of Empire by R.S. Ford is criminally underrated! Best book I've read this year and it isn't getting nearly enough hype
The fact that there's 6 books messes with my OCD, so in revenge, "undulating"
For me anything with under 1000 ratings is criminally underrated. I love As The Villainess I Reject These Happy-Bad Endings and it has a 4.23 which is great but it also only has 233 ratings and that kills me because I think more people should read it.
My problem with A Natural History of Dragons is that I wasn’t expecting a slow moving memoir. I wanted a dragon adventure.
For me, it's gotta be the 4th book of the hitchhiker's guide. I think that book is an 11/10, and a truly excellent finale to my favorite series. I don't generally like romance in fiction, for the unhealthy, dramatized way it often plays out, but Hitchhiker's 4 did it right.
Isn't that weird? An absurdist romance feeling real, where even stuff like historical romance didn't? I think you wouldn't regret finishing it, even if you don't see its genius.
Don Quixote: if someone resists tackling the big book(s), at least get them to watch The Man of La Mancha musical. It’s such a great story.
Have you picked up House of Roy and Ruin yet? Sequel to Salt and Sorrow
I expected LoLL and was left hanging.
But Deep As The Sky, Red As The Sea was fantastic, so that's right.
Every time I hear someone describe a natural history of dragons, I think of Jane Goodall...
It's very high on my tbr regardless 🐉
What I find interesting about ratings, on anything not just books, is that it's an avergage. Which can be helpful when buying an appliance, but maybe not as much with books. Because if you have a book that has 50% ratings of 5 stars and then the rest were not great ratings, you can easily get a rating or 3.5-3.8 stars. That is not a book that 100% of the people gave 3.5 stars to, it's a book that 50% gave 5 stars to. I think that changes the perspective a bit if you think of it like that. ? On Grace of Kings for example, of 18,777 ratings 63% gave it a 4 to 5 star review. Meaning that over half the people who read it weren't just Meh about it, but LOVED it. Sorry, went down a weird rabbit hole here :) If you only read books with high ratings, what you would miss!
These books were basically reviewed 7/10 the bar must be high these days. Most won't average out to 10/10 so scores feel like their really out of 9 so 7/9 ain't bad. Im guessing most books are liked at the 8.5-9 range, but they leave a lot to get that. They become very for everyone sometimes.
Excuuuuse me? Don Quixote has what rating?!? It is one of my favourite books of all time. It is brilliant! The rest I already had on my TBR except for one. That is now on there, too.
Ooof. I really didn’t like the first book on this list. I got all the way through, but I’m not sure why I finished it. Glad you loved it though!
An unpopular opinion based on your videos about the series and the comments on them, but I think the second book in the Lady Trent series is absolutely the best one. The jungle setting, the character arcs and the plot just clicked for me in a way they didn't in any of the others ❤ A 5 star read in a 4ish star series.
The third book made me so angry though. It had a sea voyage and storms and islands, so it should have been amazing! Sadly, it was so riddled with plot holes/conveniences that I was tempted to give up on the rest of the series
Wow, I'm never this early.
Alright! Bring on the recs!!! 📚📚📚
You just forgot to mention that Don Quixote is the biggest book in Spanish literature and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is the equivalent of Shakespeare (not only for the fact the died on the same year and most likely on the same day according to some sources) for Spanish speakers.
The Last Templar.
Criminally unknown and underrated book.
Realisticish historical fiction with some very grounded magical/religious elements dealing with The Holy Grail during the crusades, and it doesn't show Christians or Muslims as right or correct The Christians get more page time, but that's because of where they are, but in the whole Trilogy, the evilest people are Christians, and one of the main 3 characters is Muslim.
Children's book in the same vein and style of Robin Hood.
Great Trilogy with a great villain, and criminally underrated.
Literally, every one of these books is on my TBR 🤣
One issue I have with goodreads is the inflated rating system. A 3.8 out of 5 is a 7.6 out of 10. That's a C! It's a perfectly good book. But anything less than a 4 seems like it's not worth reading, and that may be my perspective. But it also seems that the median book is above a 4, when really a 3.5 or 3 is an average book. This could be the result of a 5 star system, but also the desire to be nice as well, you don't want to rate a book low, it's a 4.3, and you enjoyed it, so you give it a 5.
I love a good underrated book!
House of Roots and Ruin slaps even more than House of Salt and Sorrows
Cannot recommend it enough
0:57 This is how I feel about the Tokusatsu genre, is not the is underrated but it is not well know, because is gatekeep by the pesky "Oh is just Japanese Power Rangers" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!
Wait, people acually say that?!! Good thing these gatekeepers understand Power Rangers.😂😂🙃🙃
(Im also glad Ive avoided internet forums on that genre all this time)
@@ropecrewman36 I don't know if people say that, is just I think people compare it immediately to that trash adaptation (Power Rangers stopped been good after Super Samurai) and don't give it a chance.
“I understand it but I don’t accept it “ 😂
"Don Quixote" is one of the most acclaimed novels ever and is frequently cited as one of the best novels ever written. How is that underrated?
Lord of the mysteries
Stop making me want to read Grace of Kings again lol
Then again, its been long enough I'd have to if i wanted to continue
Don Quixote is a classic, i can't believe someone would not like it
I’d been debating adding that to my personal book club (classic books), but unsure because of its length. Thoughts?
The Grace of Kings is my favorite fantasy novel written within the last 10 years!
Who, where one piece last two eps review!
You kind of look like Leanna Lovings
🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
Tehanu
pp
Calling a true classic criminally underrated is funny.
Finally someone defending my babies 🥲 I love all of these books that I've read, and I'm so excited to read the rest!