Been taking a youtube break for a bit but this is a great video which I really love hearing about people's love for reading. However I came to catch up with you to say I LOVED your book. I would love to get to a video review soon but wanted to tell you right away it really made that part of the war come to life in a touching and real way that I truly appreciated. Thank you for sharing it with us.
I loved this reading journey video! You had some powerful pivots from fantasy to American fiction and then to works written by female authors. It shows how rich our reading lives can be when we open our minds to a broad range of books!
I enjoyed hearing about your reading journey ❤ - especially starting with picture books since that was how I got introduced to reading too (as far as I can remember).
Loved this video, Brian. We have a lot of books in common. I read The Bobbsey Twins and then Nancy Drew, and then I moved on to my brothers’ Hardy Boys. I can still see those covers. When I was 13, my brother gave me that Tolkien box set for Christmas. We’ve talked about our mutual love for The Sun Also Rises and for Toni Morrison in general. Thank you so much for Faulkner in August! I loved being a part of it this summer. Great discussion! I’m working on my own list now. Loved hearing your choices and Olly’s as well. 😊
I look forward to your list. I read a few Nancy Drew's too and I think I read a Bobbsey Twins book as well. I wish I still had that gold box my Tolkien set came in. My paperbacks are falling apart. We had a really good Faulkner in August this year.
This was enjoyable hearing about your reading journey. I was introduced to Faulkner in a class, and wound up not liking him, except _As I Lay Dying._ Maybe if I had seen that first, and on my own, I would have felt differently.
Thanks for the inspiration. I realize now that I forgot the links to your channel and video. I will correct that now. You probably didn't miss much by not reading the Hardy Boys btw.
Great video, thanks. My grandmother had a full set of The Wonder Books from The University of Knowledge, copyright 1938. Instilled my belief that anything you needed to know could be found in a book.
What a great list! You weren't the only one inspired, I finished my list yesterday and will be making a video shortly. We have two overlapping books, The Hardy Boys series and Lord of the Rings, though I think I might have gotten to The Hardy Boys a little earlier than you and to LotR a little later. It was definitely fun to think about, because there are books that shaped my reading life and then books that shaped me as a person... Tthough it could be argued that to do one is to do the other.... Anyway, with that in mind, I I was reticient to put anything too recent, my most recent books being ones I read at least two decades ago. It was nice to see you have an inclusion on the list that is a direct result of your relationship to BookTube... I am pretty happy with my list so I doubt I will change it, but it will definitely get a little more contemplation before I film my video.
I am looking forward to your video. In the first version of this video, which I abandoned because I couldn't make my thoughts clear, I discussed the difference between books that made me as a reader and things that made me as a person. There is of course some overlap between those two things, but I usually think as a person I am more a product of the people who influenced me than the books I have read.
That brought back memories for me. I wouldn't call myself a reader when I was younger because I didn't read a lot of books but instead just reread the same books I liked over and over again. Great topic,
Delightful video. Here’s my list that inspired my love of reading from a child to the present at pivotal ages and had the greatest impact: The Dick and Jane series Anne of Green Gables The Borrowers( I got an A++ on my book report from a wonderful teacher who instilled my love of books). Little Men A Tale of Two Cities A Separate Peace The Bluest Eye Sophie’s Choice American Pastoral All The King’s Men ( I am completely gobsmacked by this novel. From the first page it has been akin to being strapped into a roller coaster. I am thoroughly enjoying the experience and dreading when it ends).
I really am going to have to try All the Kings Men aren’t I. So many books on your list that I haven’t read. I am curious about why Little Men and not Little Women.
As I remember as a child I thought “Little Men” was more “grown up” and as I recall challenged me more. As far as “All The King’s Men” so far this is my favorite passage. I won’t be surprised if he surpasses it: “That was a picnic I never forgot. I suppose that day I first saw Anne and Adam as separate,individual people,whose ways of acting were special,mysterious and important.And perhaps,too,that day I first saw myself as a person.But that is not what I am talking about.What happened was this:I got an image in my head that never got out.We see a great many things,and can remember a great many things,but that is different.We get very few of the true images in our heads of the kind I am talking about,the kind which become more and more vivid for us as if the passage of the years did not obscure their reality but,year by year,drew off another veil to expose a meaning which we had only dimly surmised at first. Very probably the last veil will not be removed,for there are not enough years,but the brightness of the image increases and our conviction increases that the brightness is meaning,or the legend of meaning,and without the image our lives would be nothing except an old piece of film rolled on a spool and thrown into a desk drawer among the unanswered letters.”
Also posting this at CriminOlly after also watching his video on this topic. I also read The Hardy Boys, but I got started reading books written for adults before "The Hardy Boys" by reading Sherlock Holmes. I have the excuse that I was too young and gullible to consider how wrong some of his conclusions were. There is an interesting book called, "Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong" by Pierre Bayard that does a good job of examining the mistakes Doyle made. After all, Doyle was very frustrated with Houdini for not admitting that Houdini had real magical powers. Bayard does state that fictional characters are real, so he may have more in common with Doyle than he intended. "Heart of Darkness" continues to be memorable. "The Stranger" (and the geographically related "The Day of the Jackal" - and the movie) is also memorable. Colonialism is a big part of all of these books. "Papillon", but only the first part, which ends with him leaving the island. Ray Bradbury stories, especially The Veldt from "The Illustrated Man" and "Fahrenheit 451". At the time, the age of Clarisse (17) did not seem young to me - I was younger than that. There is an audiobook version of "Fahrenheit 451" that is read by Bradbury that I recommend listening to. The first grown up audiobook I listened to was "The Hundred Secret Senses" read by Amy Tan. I figured having the author read it would result in the inflections being more informative and Amy tan did a great job. For great audiobook readers, Jefferson Mays narrates all 176+ hours of "The Expanse" books and novellas. I just finished binge listening and the books are good, but Jefferson Mays definitely makes the books more than what is on the page. Some people complain that he mispronounces "gimbal", but he pronounces it both ways - and both are correct. And thank you to my library for having this, because that would have been expensive. I didn't start reading much other science fiction (H.G. Welles, Edmund Rostand [there is sci-fi in "Cyrano de Bergerac], but not much else) until I was older. However, there was one other sci-fi book - "The Andromeda Strain". Usually I read the book before seeing the movie, but this was a movie that encouraged me to read the book. I am not a fan of horror, but I do like the way Edgar Allan Poe writes. "The Cask of Amontillado" was the most memorable to me, but he wrote so much in so many different genres, that there is something for almost everyone. Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is another that has stayed with me, but this and Bradbury were both reading assignments for school. I usually did not like assigned reading - it kept me from reading what I wanted to read. I can't imagine reading "Naked Lunch" at 12. I didn't finish it as an adult, but I got about a third of the way through before I got distracted from it. .
@@roguemedic I had not heard of Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong. That sounds interesting. Heart of Darkness is one of my son’s favorites and it is interesting as is The Stranger. I love the movie Papillon
There was a huge divide in 6th grade about Shaun Cassidy vs Parker Stevenson. I preferred Parker. But here's the nerdy part: I would watch the Hardy Boys, having not read the books, but I wouldn't watch Nancy Drew because they diverged from the book plots. This is a great video idea!
@@BookishTexan My stance on adaptations began with Little House on the Prairie; boycotted it after the first couple of seasons. P.S. my name is spelled Angelia but your guess was also phonetically correct!🙂
Seeing this video after the fact of watching it earlier, I now want a video of Books they made me…come undone, as that’s how I read it the second time around.
Yay for Milkman! Anna Burns told her story with such creative prose. (In reality, it’s nearly impossible to walk while reading a book.) In 8th grade, I was intrigued by “The Diary of Anne Frank” thanks to friend’s recommendation. Ironically, same friend recommended “Lord of the Rings” unsuccessfully. She had broader reading taste than me. I had zero interest in fantasy or sci-fi. We’re still friends in the same reading group and she has more tolerance for magical realism than I do. 😄
Milkman is pretty perfect. It is cool that you are still in a reading group with you 8th Grade friend. I moved away from fantasy, but I do still like magical realism if its done well.
I listed some books on Ollie's channel as well but teenager books. I hadn't thought of picture books. my two favorite picture books as a child were the Poky Little puppy and The Story of ping. This may explain why I'm never late. 😊
I thought I had done this before as well, but it didn't come up when I searched my content. After filming I remembered that I did a video called 10 Books I am Thankful For that has some similarities to this one.
Thanks Brian, that was really interesting. I'm going to think about how I ended up where I am - my work and my attitudes - and what books made their contribution. It all starts with "Mostly Mary" a story about a family of bears told with pictograms.
I was thinking about the books that influenced who I am and the books that influenced/changed what I read and they are not at all the same. In the first category are the National Geographic book Men, Ships, and the Sea, Robert Lewis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Richard McKenna’s The Sand Pebbles, Darryl Ponicsan’s The Last Detail, Michael Harr’s Dispatches, Willi Heinrich’s The Willing Flesh (AKA Cross of Iron), Stanley Booth’s The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones, Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, and Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie’s The C Programming Language. Books that changed me as a reader include Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (but Max does travel in a sailboat), The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander: introduced me to fantasy and particularly works based on Celtic mythology. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny: the first time I encountered poetry-like prose. I learned I liked beautiful language. You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe: The whole book is both a masterful satire of 1929 life in the US as well as a depiction of Germany’s slide into Nazism. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner: more beautiful writing. It is also the perfect illustration of the cliche phrase, “Let’s peel the onion on that.” Ulysses by James Joyce: one the funniest and compelling books I’ve read. History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides: whiled away many long hours at sea reading and re-reading it.
So many books that I have not read! I don’t think I felt grounded in your list until you got to Faulkner. Glad to see Wolfe on here as a reminder that I have to try his books.
@@BookishTexan The paperback exchange rack in my local public library was my friend when I was a kid. I will say that Lord of Light does not hold up as great writing now, but it was my gateway when I was 13.
We are in the same age group ( I’m 3 yrs older) our reading lists have similarities . 1. The Brothers Grimm . Read to me by my dad. He’d put on voices for different characters. One story gave me nightmares; The Tinderbox 2. The Secret Seven 3. Heidi 4. Pride & Prejudice 5. Seamus Heaney 6. Ordinary People ( my son is named after main character) 7. Dubliners by James Joyce 8. Ohio by Stephen Markley ( the first book I read recommended by booktube) 9. Philadelphia Here I Come…play by Brian Friel 10. Best book of 2023 Deluge by Stephen Markley
Your list is really interesting! I am trying to remember if I read or had the Brothers Grimm stories read to me and while I am familiar with many of the tales, I don't remember exactly how. The same is true of Aesop's Fables. I need to get over my new found hesitation about reading long books and pick up Markley's Deluge. It feels like a good December book to me. That's the month I like to take on longer books.
in no particular order: the illuminatus trilogy by robert anton wilson 100 years of solitude by gabrial garcia marquez robert ludlum books before use of other authors none dare call it conspiracy by gary allen any and all philip k dick book(s) the parker novels by richard stark ain't nobody's business if you do by peter mcwilliams abracadabra by nathanial schiffman the destroyer novels by murphy and sapir (all but with more appreciation for the ones before the ghost writers) 1984 and a brave new world by george orwell and aldous huxley (these books go together)
One Hundred Years of Solitude could have/should have been on my list as the first translated book that I loved. GGM was an author I tried to read completely. I read The Bourne Identity but then no other Ludlum books. Thanks for sharing your list.
as a kid I was a huge fan of the tom swift jr series about a young inventor but I was also a fan of the hardy boys. I think these books were not only published by the same company but also written by many of the same writers. Later I became a big admirer of dostoyevsky and salinger although these two writers couldn't be more different. Albert Camus has always been my favorite philosopher and his novels are a good introduction to his ideas.⚛
I read a Tom Swift novel too. It was mixed in with the Hardy Boys novels I got from my uncles. I struggle with Dostoyevsky, but enjoy Salinger's short stories and Franny and Zooey.
The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, The Bobbsey Twins were all created by Edward Stratemeyer in the early 20th century. He hired writers to flesh out the provided outlines under an assigned pen name. His daughters took over when he died shortly after launching Nancy Drew in 1930, and beginning in 1959 rewrote the Hardys, Drew, and Bobbseys to update them and remove social and racial stereotypes. Tom Swift was published between 1910 and 1935, before being discontinued. Tom Swift Jr. series was begun in 1954.
@BookishTexan I was a reader even before I started kindergarten, reading Little Golden books and anything I could get my hands on. My first years in school I was sent to the next grade level for reading. Library discarded books were my first "library", but my Dad grew up reading the Hardy Boys and had most of the series, including many that were the original 1927-1940s versions and I spent one summer reading through the entire series. Of course I graduated to adult literature but I still have the set of Hardys as well as my own collections of original Tom Swift and Nancy Drew stories. At 56, I'm now reading a lot of history, biography and Shakespeare but every once in a while I take out my favorite 1927 Hardy, The Secret of the Old Mill and reread it, or one of the others
@@scottandrews9453 The Secret of the Old Mill is a good one if my memory serves. When I was teaching I always searched the school library discards which, sadly, increased in numbers as our library became more focused on information access than books.
I was obsessed with the Hardy Boys as a young boy, then an aunt bought me a complete Sherlock Holmes collection and that settled it: I was going to become a private investigator! 🕵
I find it hilarious that your former book snobbishness is the exact opposite of mine. I’ve deliberately avoided reading American male authors of a certain time period and only would read female (mainly British) authors. Like how Toni Morrison helped you, my recent reading of The Great Gatsby has shown me the error of my ways and maybe I’ll also be a recovering book snob. Maybe 😂.
@@ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged I find it interesting that so many of our bookish paths are so different and yet we end up in kind is similar places here on BookTube.
Interesting, childhood reading is formative, I'm sure I read more then, no internet, no mobile and no expectations that I should be doing something else.
Wasn't it nice growing up in a world where everything wasn't constantly at your fingertips demanding your attention. I probably would have read more as a kid, but my mom kicked us out of the house every morning and afternoon so much of my childhood was spent getting into mischief away from home.😁
You’re right, I wasn’t reading the Hardy Boys , just pinning over them, specifically Shaun with his Da Doo Ron Ronning and poster. I only read a Hardy Boys in my late 30s for library school and found it atrocious, the racist depiction of the bad people and how the person who committed the crime was only introduced the sentence before he was identified. It was like a Scooby-Doo episode, no rhyme or reason. And you had to put up with Nancy Drew on alternative weeks.
I never read a Hardy Boy's mystery as an adult and I am sure the racism and weakness of the books would be flabbergasting if I did now. There is so much that has thankfully changed that looking back at anything that is more than twenty years old can be a cringey and uncomfortable experience. My sister preferred the non singing Hardy Boy. I can't think of his name but it wasnt Shawn Cassidy.
@@BookishTexan Parker Stevenson, he starred in a movie adaptation of A Separate Peace that I’ve always wanted to see. I just had to look up to see which one he plays, he plays Gene, the more introverted one. I’ve always wondered how, if at all, the movie is homoerotic, which I found the novel to be. No matter what, I think it would all pale in comparison to Dead Poet’s Society, which becomes the archetype of all American boys boarding school movies. “Captain! My Captain!” Come to think of it, A Separate Peace is probably novel that made me come undone, much more subtler than Lord of the Flies, but it’s an unnerving premise.
Been taking a youtube break for a bit but this is a great video which I really love hearing about people's love for reading. However I came to catch up with you to say I LOVED your book. I would love to get to a video review soon but wanted to tell you right away it really made that part of the war come to life in a touching and real way that I truly appreciated. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thank you Kristen. Your comment has made my day.
Well done on picking 10 that refelct your reading life and not just early or later reading choices.
@@1book1review Thank you.
I really enjoyed this. I always love reflection videos like this, and it inspires me to reflect on my own reading life.
Thank you. BookTube has made a huge difference in my reading life.
I loved this reading journey video! You had some powerful pivots from fantasy to American fiction and then to works written by female authors. It shows how rich our reading lives can be when we open our minds to a broad range of books!
@@Johanna_reads Thank you Johanna.
I enjoyed hearing about your reading journey ❤ - especially starting with picture books since that was how I got introduced to reading too (as far as I can remember).
Thanks Freddy.
Loved this video, Brian. We have a lot of books in common. I read The Bobbsey Twins and then Nancy Drew, and then I moved on to my brothers’ Hardy Boys. I can still see those covers. When I was 13, my brother gave me that Tolkien box set for Christmas. We’ve talked about our mutual love for The Sun Also Rises and for Toni Morrison in general. Thank you so much for Faulkner in August! I loved being a part of it this summer. Great discussion! I’m working on my own list now. Loved hearing your choices and Olly’s as well. 😊
I look forward to your list. I read a few Nancy Drew's too and I think I read a Bobbsey Twins book as well. I wish I still had that gold box my Tolkien set came in. My paperbacks are falling apart. We had a really good Faulkner in August this year.
@@BookishTexan coming soon! I still have by box set in the box, but mine is sort of Orange-red. I’ll try to send you a picture!
This was enjoyable hearing about your reading journey. I was introduced to Faulkner in a class, and wound up not liking him, except _As I Lay Dying._ Maybe if I had seen that first, and on my own, I would have felt differently.
@@davidnovakreadspoetry Thanks David. I think a class on Faulkner might have ruined him for me as well.
Loved seeing you do this. I was definitely aware of the Hardy Boys books as a kid but I don’t think I ever read one.
Thanks for the inspiration. I realize now that I forgot the links to your channel and video. I will correct that now. You probably didn't miss much by not reading the Hardy Boys btw.
Enjoy your videos a lot. Hope all is well. I like the civil war era as well.
@@TheJudgeandtheJury Thank you.
The Knobby Boys didn't come out until r was 10 years old, so I missed it. I just now read it on Internet Archive, and loved it. Very cute!
I loved it as a kid! Glad you were able to find it.
Hearing what made someone the reader they are after decades of experience is so interesting. Thank you.
Thank you for the kind comment.
I remember Call it Courage but id forgotten the title. Loved it as a boy.
It was one of my favorites for a long time.
Great video, thanks. My grandmother had a full set of The Wonder Books from The University of Knowledge, copyright 1938. Instilled my belief that anything you needed to know could be found in a book.
That sounds like a cool set of books. My grandmother had a set called The Children’s Library from the 30s.
What a great list! You weren't the only one inspired, I finished my list yesterday and will be making a video shortly. We have two overlapping books, The Hardy Boys series and Lord of the Rings, though I think I might have gotten to The Hardy Boys a little earlier than you and to LotR a little later.
It was definitely fun to think about, because there are books that shaped my reading life and then books that shaped me as a person... Tthough it could be argued that to do one is to do the other.... Anyway, with that in mind, I I was reticient to put anything too recent, my most recent books being ones I read at least two decades ago. It was nice to see you have an inclusion on the list that is a direct result of your relationship to BookTube... I am pretty happy with my list so I doubt I will change it, but it will definitely get a little more contemplation before I film my video.
I am looking forward to your video. In the first version of this video, which I abandoned because I couldn't make my thoughts clear, I discussed the difference between books that made me as a reader and things that made me as a person. There is of course some overlap between those two things, but I usually think as a person I am more a product of the people who influenced me than the books I have read.
That brought back memories for me. I wouldn't call myself a reader when I was younger because I didn't read a lot of books but instead just reread the same books I liked over and over again. Great topic,
@@tealorturquoise Glad I’m not the only one. Thanks for your comment!
Delightful video. Here’s my list that inspired my love of reading from a child to the present at pivotal ages and had the greatest impact:
The Dick and Jane series
Anne of Green Gables
The Borrowers( I got an A++ on my book report from a wonderful teacher who instilled my love of books).
Little Men
A Tale of Two Cities
A Separate Peace
The Bluest Eye
Sophie’s Choice
American Pastoral
All The King’s Men ( I am completely gobsmacked by this novel. From the first page it has been akin to being strapped into a roller coaster. I am thoroughly enjoying the experience and dreading when it ends).
I really am going to have to try All the Kings Men aren’t I. So many books on your list that I haven’t read. I am curious about why Little Men and not Little Women.
As I remember as a child I thought “Little Men” was more “grown up” and as I recall challenged me more. As far as “All The King’s Men” so far this is my favorite passage. I won’t be surprised if he surpasses it:
“That was a picnic I never forgot.
I suppose that day I first saw Anne and Adam as separate,individual people,whose ways of acting were special,mysterious and important.And perhaps,too,that day I first saw myself as a person.But that is not what I am talking about.What happened was this:I got an image in my head that never got out.We see a great many things,and can remember a great many things,but that is different.We get very few of the true images in our heads of the kind I am talking about,the kind which become more and more vivid for us as if the passage of the years did not obscure their reality but,year by year,drew off another veil to expose a meaning which we had only dimly surmised at first. Very probably the last veil will not be removed,for there are not enough years,but the brightness of the image increases and our conviction increases that the brightness is meaning,or the legend of meaning,and without the image our lives would be nothing except an old piece of film rolled on a spool and thrown into a desk drawer among the unanswered letters.”
Also posting this at CriminOlly after also watching his video on this topic.
I also read The Hardy Boys, but I got started reading books written for adults before "The Hardy Boys" by reading Sherlock Holmes. I have the excuse that I was too young and gullible to consider how wrong some of his conclusions were. There is an interesting book called, "Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong" by Pierre Bayard that does a good job of examining the mistakes Doyle made. After all, Doyle was very frustrated with Houdini for not admitting that Houdini had real magical powers. Bayard does state that fictional characters are real, so he may have more in common with Doyle than he intended.
"Heart of Darkness" continues to be memorable.
"The Stranger" (and the geographically related "The Day of the Jackal" - and the movie) is also memorable. Colonialism is a big part of all of these books.
"Papillon", but only the first part, which ends with him leaving the island.
Ray Bradbury stories, especially The Veldt from "The Illustrated Man" and "Fahrenheit 451". At the time, the age of Clarisse (17) did not seem young to me - I was younger than that. There is an audiobook version of "Fahrenheit 451" that is read by Bradbury that I recommend listening to. The first grown up audiobook I listened to was "The Hundred Secret Senses" read by Amy Tan. I figured having the author read it would result in the inflections being more informative and Amy tan did a great job. For great audiobook readers, Jefferson Mays narrates all 176+ hours of "The Expanse" books and novellas. I just finished binge listening and the books are good, but Jefferson Mays definitely makes the books more than what is on the page. Some people complain that he mispronounces "gimbal", but he pronounces it both ways - and both are correct. And thank you to my library for having this, because that would have been expensive. I didn't start reading much other science fiction (H.G. Welles, Edmund Rostand [there is sci-fi in "Cyrano de Bergerac], but not much else) until I was older.
However, there was one other sci-fi book - "The Andromeda Strain". Usually I read the book before seeing the movie, but this was a movie that encouraged me to read the book.
I am not a fan of horror, but I do like the way Edgar Allan Poe writes. "The Cask of Amontillado" was the most memorable to me, but he wrote so much in so many different genres, that there is something for almost everyone.
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is another that has stayed with me, but this and Bradbury were both reading assignments for school. I usually did not like assigned reading - it kept me from reading what I wanted to read.
I can't imagine reading "Naked Lunch" at 12. I didn't finish it as an adult, but I got about a third of the way through before I got distracted from it.
.
@@roguemedic I had not heard of Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong. That sounds interesting. Heart of Darkness is one of my son’s favorites and it is interesting as is The Stranger. I love the movie Papillon
There was a huge divide in 6th grade about Shaun Cassidy vs Parker Stevenson. I preferred Parker. But here's the nerdy part: I would watch the Hardy Boys, having not read the books, but I wouldn't watch Nancy Drew because they diverged from the book plots. This is a great video idea!
Thank you Angelea. I loved Olly's. That thing about the Nancy Drew books is pretty nerdy!😁
@@BookishTexan My stance on adaptations began with Little House on the Prairie; boycotted it after the first couple of seasons. P.S. my name is spelled Angelia but your guess was also phonetically correct!🙂
@@readandre-read Sorry about the spelling mistake. I will correct moving forward.
Seeing this video after the fact of watching it earlier, I now want a video of Books they made me…come undone, as that’s how I read it the second time around.
Hmmm.... so a list of books that messed me up? Or a list of books some one made me read?
@@BookishTexan Messed. You. Up!
Yay for Milkman! Anna Burns told her story with such creative prose. (In reality, it’s nearly impossible to walk while reading a book.)
In 8th grade, I was intrigued by “The Diary of Anne Frank” thanks to friend’s recommendation. Ironically, same friend recommended “Lord of the Rings” unsuccessfully. She had broader reading taste than me. I had zero interest in fantasy or sci-fi. We’re still friends in the same reading group and she has more tolerance for magical realism than I do. 😄
Milkman is pretty perfect.
It is cool that you are still in a reading group with you 8th Grade friend. I moved away from fantasy, but I do still like magical realism if its done well.
I listed some books on Ollie's channel as well but teenager books. I hadn't thought of picture books. my two favorite picture books as a child were the Poky Little puppy and The Story of ping. This may explain why I'm never late. 😊
I have vague memories of The Pokey Little Puppy, but not the Story of Ping. Maybe I read it though because abuse I am always on time.
@@BookishTexan a small 🦆 on a Yangtze River.
Same with LOTR. So influential. My problematic childhood influence was the Little House books.
I am amazed at how many problematic things there are from my childhood and even from my 20s!
@@BookishTexan We are all just learning as we go!
Delighted to see "Milkman" on there. I seem to remember doing this as a tag many moons ago?
I thought I had done this before as well, but it didn't come up when I searched my content. After filming I remembered that I did a video called 10 Books I am Thankful For that has some similarities to this one.
Thanks Brian, that was really interesting. I'm going to think about how I ended up where I am - my work and my attitudes - and what books made their contribution. It all starts with "Mostly Mary" a story about a family of bears told with pictograms.
Thank you. I have not heard of Mostly Mary but I love stories with bears.
Milkman is one of my top Booker winners of all time.
It is a great book!
I was thinking about the books that influenced who I am and the books that influenced/changed what I read and they are not at all the same. In the first category are the National Geographic book Men, Ships, and the Sea, Robert Lewis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Richard McKenna’s The Sand Pebbles, Darryl Ponicsan’s The Last Detail, Michael Harr’s Dispatches, Willi Heinrich’s The Willing Flesh (AKA Cross of Iron), Stanley Booth’s The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones, Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, and Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie’s The C Programming Language.
Books that changed me as a reader include Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (but Max does travel in a sailboat), The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander: introduced me to fantasy and particularly works based on Celtic mythology. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny: the first time I encountered poetry-like prose. I learned I liked beautiful language. You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe: The whole book is both a masterful satire of 1929 life in the US as well as a depiction of Germany’s slide into Nazism. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner: more beautiful writing. It is also the perfect illustration of the cliche phrase, “Let’s peel the onion on that.” Ulysses by James Joyce: one the funniest and compelling books I’ve read. History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides: whiled away many long hours at sea reading and re-reading it.
So many books that I have not read! I don’t think I felt grounded in your list until you got to Faulkner. Glad to see Wolfe on here as a reminder that I have to try his books.
@@BookishTexan The paperback exchange rack in my local public library was my friend when I was a kid. I will say that Lord of Light does not hold up as great writing now, but it was my gateway when I was 13.
@@johnsilver8059 I stopped going to the library in my teens unfortunately. I decided to spend those years being a jackass and getting in trouble.
We are in the same age group ( I’m 3 yrs older) our reading lists have similarities .
1. The Brothers Grimm . Read to me by my dad. He’d put on voices for different characters. One story gave me nightmares; The Tinderbox
2. The Secret Seven
3. Heidi
4. Pride & Prejudice
5. Seamus Heaney
6. Ordinary People ( my son is named after main character)
7. Dubliners by James Joyce
8. Ohio by Stephen Markley ( the first book I read recommended by booktube)
9. Philadelphia Here I Come…play by Brian Friel
10. Best book of 2023
Deluge by Stephen Markley
Your list is really interesting! I am trying to remember if I read or had the Brothers Grimm stories read to me and while I am familiar with many of the tales, I don't remember exactly how. The same is true of Aesop's Fables. I need to get over my new found hesitation about reading long books and pick up Markley's Deluge. It feels like a good December book to me. That's the month I like to take on longer books.
in no particular order:
the illuminatus trilogy by robert anton wilson
100 years of solitude by gabrial garcia marquez
robert ludlum books before use of other authors
none dare call it conspiracy by gary allen
any and all philip k dick book(s)
the parker novels by richard stark
ain't nobody's business if you do by peter mcwilliams
abracadabra by nathanial schiffman
the destroyer novels by murphy and sapir (all but with more appreciation for the ones before the ghost writers)
1984 and a brave new world by george orwell and aldous huxley (these books go together)
One Hundred Years of Solitude could have/should have been on my list as the first translated book that I loved. GGM was an author I tried to read completely. I read The Bourne Identity but then no other Ludlum books. Thanks for sharing your list.
as a kid I was a huge fan of the tom swift jr series about a young inventor but I was also a fan of the hardy boys. I think these books were not only published by the same company but also written by many of the same writers. Later I became a big admirer of dostoyevsky and salinger although these two writers couldn't be more different. Albert Camus has always been my favorite philosopher and his novels are a good introduction to his ideas.⚛
I read a Tom Swift novel too. It was mixed in with the Hardy Boys novels I got from my uncles. I struggle with Dostoyevsky, but enjoy Salinger's short stories and Franny and Zooey.
The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, The Bobbsey Twins were all created by Edward Stratemeyer in the early 20th century. He hired writers to flesh out the provided outlines under an assigned pen name. His daughters took over when he died shortly after launching Nancy Drew in 1930, and beginning in 1959 rewrote the Hardys, Drew, and Bobbseys to update them and remove social and racial stereotypes. Tom Swift was published between 1910 and 1935, before being discontinued. Tom Swift Jr. series was begun in 1954.
@BookishTexan I was a reader even before I started kindergarten, reading Little Golden books and anything I could get my hands on. My first years in school I was sent to the next grade level for reading. Library discarded books were my first "library", but my Dad grew up reading the Hardy Boys and had most of the series, including many that were the original 1927-1940s versions and I spent one summer reading through the entire series. Of course I graduated to adult literature but I still have the set of Hardys as well as my own collections of original Tom Swift and Nancy Drew stories. At 56, I'm now reading a lot of history, biography and Shakespeare but every once in a while I take out my favorite 1927 Hardy, The Secret of the Old Mill and reread it, or one of the others
@@scottandrews9453TU⚛
@@scottandrews9453 The Secret of the Old Mill is a good one if my memory serves. When I was teaching I always searched the school library discards which, sadly, increased in numbers as our library became more focused on information access than books.
Hee hee. A thief from a criminal. Great video. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. 👏🏻👏🏻 I’ve always wanted to read Milkman.
"You've been hit by a Smooth Criminal"🤣 (I prefer the Alien Ant Farm version)
@@BookishTexan lmaooooooooo
I was obsessed with the Hardy Boys as a young boy, then an aunt bought me a complete Sherlock Holmes collection and that settled it: I was going to become a private investigator! 🕵
Those books and Encyclopedia Brown made me think I was going to be a PI too!
I find it hilarious that your former book snobbishness is the exact opposite of mine. I’ve deliberately avoided reading American male authors of a certain time period and only would read female (mainly British) authors. Like how Toni Morrison helped you, my recent reading of The Great Gatsby has shown me the error of my ways and maybe I’ll also be a recovering book snob. Maybe 😂.
@@ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged I find it interesting that so many of our bookish paths are so different and yet we end up in kind is similar places here on BookTube.
Interesting, childhood reading is formative, I'm sure I read more then, no internet, no mobile and no expectations that I should be doing something else.
Wasn't it nice growing up in a world where everything wasn't constantly at your fingertips demanding your attention. I probably would have read more as a kid, but my mom kicked us out of the house every morning and afternoon so much of my childhood was spent getting into mischief away from home.😁
@@BookishTexan Maybe it's nostalgia but I think we got a lot more free range time outside, fewer cars, the concept that it was safer to roam.
You’re right, I wasn’t reading the Hardy Boys , just pinning over them, specifically Shaun with his Da Doo Ron Ronning and poster. I only read a Hardy Boys in my late 30s for library school and found it atrocious, the racist depiction of the bad people and how the person who committed the crime was only introduced the sentence before he was identified. It was like a Scooby-Doo episode, no rhyme or reason. And you had to put up with Nancy Drew on alternative weeks.
I never read a Hardy Boy's mystery as an adult and I am sure the racism and weakness of the books would be flabbergasting if I did now. There is so much that has thankfully changed that looking back at anything that is more than twenty years old can be a cringey and uncomfortable experience. My sister preferred the non singing Hardy Boy. I can't think of his name but it wasnt Shawn Cassidy.
@@BookishTexan Parker Stevenson, he starred in a movie adaptation of A Separate Peace that I’ve always wanted to see. I just had to look up to see which one he plays, he plays Gene, the more introverted one. I’ve always wondered how, if at all, the movie is homoerotic, which I found the novel to be.
No matter what, I think it would all pale in comparison to Dead Poet’s Society, which becomes the archetype of all American boys boarding school movies. “Captain! My Captain!” Come to think of it, A Separate Peace is probably novel that made me come undone, much more subtler than Lord of the Flies, but it’s an unnerving premise.