My Current 20 Favourite Books

[@QuirkyGirl10]

I just discovered your channel, and wow, we may not share the same taste in books, but I was absolutely glued to what you had to say about your favs! I just love listening to people talk about their favorite books, books that they’re passionate about. I find it utterly fascinating, whether or not I end up reading the books. Keep up the great work!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Welcome to my channel. I’m glad your here.

[@ericsierra-franco7802]

Blood Meridian is probably my favorite work of fiction. No other work of fiction has ever left me stunned the way Blood Meridian has. I've read it multiple times; and I love your video on it. You gave me a different perspective and "food for thought" on this great book.
I love Tolkien! Have since I was a young kid. Love the Hobbit too but the LOTR is my very favorite work of fantasy.
Slaughterhouse Five is fantastic! I've read it three times or so. Vonnegut's best IMHO.
I've read Marcus Aurelius's Meditations a number of times as well. I've read all the Stoics whose writings still exist. Seneca is my favorite. I love his eloquence and the essay format.
Seneca has inspired me to read the Essays by Michel De Montaigne. I'm currently reading a couple books about Montaigne in preparation.
I've read Moby Dick. I will read it again at some point. I like that edition you have! Incidentally, you may already know, it's Cormac's favorite book. It's definitely considered one of the very greatest works of American literature. A masterwork!
I read 1984 probably in 1984....😂. I should read again. Another great 20th century dystopian novel is Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. Definitely better than the film. I highly recommend it!
I read the Handmaid's Tale (have not seen the series or older film) a and I definitely enjoyed it. Although if the US descended into another civil war or fractured somehow I really don't see it splitting along religious denominational lines.....then or now. But, nonetheless, a very interesting read. I would like to read another of Atwood's books. The Blind Assassin looks quite interesting, as does the one on your list.
It was fun to see your favorite books. I have two recommendations that are worthy of your list. One is When Broken Glass Floats....the author's name eludes me right now......but it's her memoir of growing up under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It's harrowing and horrific. The Khmer Rouge created a truly nightmarish dystopian society. Highly recommended! I'll have to read Escape From Camp 14.
The second recommendation is for Christ Stopped At Eboli by Carlo Levi. Levi was Italian-Jewish physician in Turin who was outspoken in his criticism of Mussolini and fascism and was banished to a small village in a remote area of southern Italy in the 1930's. It's a truly fascinating window into a culture that was nearly as alien to the educated and urbane Levi as it is the modern reader. Highly recommended as well!
Keep up the great work! 👍.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Wow. Sounds like some great recommendations here. Thank you. Every year I find new favourites and I’m excited to find more. Thank you for being here for it.

[@michaelzwierzynski728]

Countdown videos are my favourite to watch and your list was amazing, especially that you include non-fiction. I will definitely be adding a bunch of the books you mentioned to my 2023 TBR. I read Slaughterhouse-five for the first time this year and I thought it was terrific, I plan to read it again soon since it's a book I still think about. One of your legendary book reviews for Slaughterhouse-five would be greatly appreciated.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

All I need was one person to enable me. Lol!!! So thank you for that. Slaughterhouse Five review is coming in 2023.

[@fotzenputz7548]

Thanks for sharing, Stella. I like how we have such different tastes. My top 20 in order by author: Kathryn Davis, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf. Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Garcia Marquez again, Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum. Graham Greene, The End of the Affair. I'm glad we share an appreciation of this, it is soo powerful! The 50s movie version is tame, and Van Johnson is wooden. The Fiennes/Moore version is outstanding, I saw it before I read the book, and though it adds a piece to the novel, it is good on its own, and there is one stunning scene that absolutely blows me away. Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native--I still plead with you to read Hardy! Victor Hugo, Les Miserables. John Irving, The World According to Garp. Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Choderlos Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons. D.H. Lawrence, Aaron's Rod. Christopher Morley, Parnassus on Wheels. Marcel Proust, Swann's Way. Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children. Bram Stoker, Dracula. Ivan Turgenev, Forst Love. T.H. White, The Once and Future King.

[@Snick3927]

What a collection of delightments-I detect some real kindred spirituality here…!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

There are so many here I haven’t read yet, Jeff! I got half way through the Count of Monte Cristo years ago and gave up, but I’m going to pick it up again. I have all of Proust waiting on my shelf and I’m going to read Swan’s Way and the Once and Future King in 2023. We Read One Hundred Years of Solitude together but I had no idea it made your favourite list. I’ll read some Hardy, don’t you worry. Thank you for this list. I’ll keep it close.

[@ame1861]

All your book editions are absolutely amazing! Some I haven't even seen before. Gorgeous.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you!

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

I'm really hoping that Blood Meridian gets knocked off my own favorites list by The Passenger! 😃 And I plan on reading Madame Bovary in 2023 as well; I hope I end up liking it as much as you did. And Moby Dick...I'm actually planning a revisit for that book, cuz I feel like there's so much that can be said. 😅 This was neat! I really enjoy seeing what people's fave books are. 😊

[@t0dd000]

I just finished The Passenger. I'll be curious what y'all think.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

The Passenger and Stella Maris are going to be my first reads of the new year. It’ll be like literary champagne to start the year off right. I wanted to read all McCarthy’s previous works before getting to these new ones but I don’t have enough self control for that. 🤣😂

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Yeah, they're gonna be the first and second reads of the new year for me too. I swear I won't be tryna step on your toes if I review 'em at the same time you do. 😁

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

@@TH3F4LC0Nx I got no toes that can be stepped on. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts. 👍🏼

[@carlosbranca8080]

I have in my TBR for 2023 Moby Dick and The Little Friend. I read M. Bovary many years ago so maybe a reread is in order. If you like Follet so much you should try James Clavell, Shogun, Tai Pan and Noble House are unputdownable. Great list!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you for the recommendation. I love that word “unputdownable” very Shakespeare. 😂

[@trips347]

Nobody writes like Mccarthy writes in Blood Meridian.
It’s insane how well the sentences are written.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I agree.

[@BookwormAdventureGirl]

Excellent list. Definitely adding Escape From Camp 14 to my list. Love Pillars of the Earth. Definitely continue the story with World Without End. So good! Thanks for all of these recommendations. 😊💙

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you! I have to track down more Follet.

[@hollyc.3885]

Adore adore ADORE Sharp Objects. Never have I felt so upsettingly related to and comforted. About to start the secret history after I reread and annotate Pride and Prejudice!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I can’t wait to hear about your thoughts of The Secret History. 🤓

[@emmaexlibris]

Instant subscribe!! It's so rare to find someone in the online booksphere with such similar taste in literature

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Welcome to my channel.

[@suesmith4040]

I really appreciate your reviews of your 20 favorite books. I definitely subscribed to your channel.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thanks for subbing! I'm glad you liked them.

[@jimlivengood3962]

I found your channel by seeking Donna Tartt reviews; she is my favourite living author. I've been on a Fitzgerald quest lately. Just finished "This Side of Paradise" and am embarking on "The Beautiful and the Damned." High on my list are the memoirs and novels of Robert Ruark. Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Walker Percy are great. For series, I like Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron 1920s East Africa adventures; and Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce mysteries (1950s England.)

[@heleneh.6055]

I actually own more books on your list than I’ve read. Of the three that I have read - The End of the Affair, The Secret History, and Jane Eyre - I loved them all, and ITA with you re: Wuthering Heights. Three I would recommend to you are The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell, and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, sometimes described as the first gothic novel. I avoid dystopian fiction like the plague (literally).

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I have The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on my shelf waiting to be read. And thank you for the other recommendations. 😊

[@garydaly]

I avoided (not sure why) reading any Ken Follet, until 2021 when I picked up a bargain copy of Pillar's of the Earth and have since read three other great books by Ken Follet. Great storyteller. I have moved my reading from analysing books for central meaning to simply embracing the joy of story.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Embrace that joy!! 😊👍🏼

[@GloriaZThompson]

Thanks for putting Escape from Camp 14 on my radar. It sounds so interesting and like my kind of read!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

It’s quite impacting.

[@nandinikhanna4624]

I'm so so glad to see The Little Friend on this list! It was my favourite book of 2022 and I feel like it's so underrated!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I agree. I rarely hear anyone talking about The Little Friend.

[@stews9]

Stella, we chime. Our tastes match, it seems. I resonated with your choices book-for-book, excepting the two or three I've yet to read. Amazing, and savvy, choices. Brava.
My favorites right now of all time? Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. The Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey. Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, Dune by Frank Herbert, Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and so on. This feels so inadequate, like I've missed hundreds.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I love many on your list here also but also have almost all the others I haven’t read on my TBR. You have bumped those books up on my shelf. 2023 is going to be a great reading year.

[@dogcreekproject6872]

Just found you, really liked your video! There are only a few “booktubers” that aren’t overly dramatic, pretentious, annoying, or boring. I’m happy to have found your channel. Subscribing and looking forward to more content! Happy New Years! 20:45

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Welcome to my channel. No pretensions here. I’m just some schmuck on the internet that likes to talk about books is all. I’m glad to have you here.

[@nasiranwar9776]

Some interesting recommendations to add to my reading list. Thanks for posting.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

You’re welcome.

[@peterock4210]

Excellent list and an interesting mix of classics and others. I have a very small number of books I have read multiple times and Moby Dick is one of them. Just subbed, looking forward to following along..

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Welcome to my channel. 👋 A small well read book collection can do no wrong with Moby Dick among it’s ranks. I really respect the idea of reading it many times because it’s so dense it begs to be read again. You should watch my review of Moby Dick and tell me what I missed, because I’m sure I missed a lot. And with your insight I can be more prepared to go into a second reading. Only if you want to, of course.

[@manda_d]

Hey! You seem to have pretty similar book taste to me, yay, subscribed! I tend to love literary fiction, memoir, scifi and dystopian. It's somewhat difficult for me to find much overlap with anyone in favorite books! I'll have to look into Red Rising series asap - have you read Martha Wells Murderbot series? I just fell in love with that series in 2021/22. It's scifi that has some plot and action and explores various political and anti-capitalist themes but still has strong sort of existentialist/stoic character development. Cheers!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you for the recommendation. I hadn't heard of that series.

[@yenneferalvarez7122]

Literally just checked out 1984 from the library!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I hope you like it!

[@yenneferalvarez7122]

Loved blood Meredian! I recently read The Passenger and Stella Maris! Passenger and Stella were my favorite novels of the year!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Oooooooo!!! I’m cracking open the passenger right now!! I’m so excited!

[@Snick3927]

Couldn’t agree more about those two Brontë books-Wuthering Heights: way too breathless. Jane Eyre: perfectly respirated. Respectively, YA vs. just A.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Lol! That’s is an interesting way to word it. Glad we agree but a part of me wonders every so often if I need to give Weathering Heights another try as I read it when I was quite young, but then I’ll listen to some one talk about it and it’s like a PTSD tripwire and I’m back in that book trying to get out of it. 🤣😂🤣 I maybe don’t need to do that to myself again.

[@devineleven5368]

Great list. We have similar taste. I need to read artist of the floating world and the red rising series. Hopefully Donna T’s new book is only a few years away. Thanks for the list.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you! I feel the same about Tartt! Fingers crossed it’s coming soon.

[@pamelatarajcak5634]

I love Pillars of the Earth. If you like that sort of book, may I recommend Edward Rutherford.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you for the recommendation. 😊

[@rustyshackelford934]

The Quiet American is another excellent Graham Greene book to check out, if ya haven’t yet.
And if ya haven’t gotten around to Suttree by Cormac McCarthy, it might have taken Blood Meridians place as my favorite of his novels. Highly recommend. Although, I too have yet to read The Passenger/Stella Maris...so we will see.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

We shall see! Suttree is coming later in the year.

[@rustyshackelford934]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize looking forward to your thoughts 👍

[@rachelcognome7910]

Love this list and would love to see a Vonnegut read through! Galapagos is my favorite 💜

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

A Vonnegut read thought will happen. I'm currently working through his collection of short stories. Just finished The Cruise of the Jolly Rodger.

[@croix93]

Great review! You might enjoy In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park since you liked Escape from Camp 14.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I’m sure I would. Thank you.

[@abitmuch7682]

you should try Flannery o'Connor's short stories if you haven't already. I think you'd love her.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you for the recommendation.

[@lavenderlady7441]

loved sharp objects actually all her books i really enjoyed.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Me too!

[@MyArnette]

What books do you wish you could read again for the first time?

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Hmmmm...great question. I'll have to thank about that.

[@Highlyguided40]

The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

[@BrandonsBookshelf]

what a list! I feel such a kindred spirit!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Oh really? We're in good company then.

[@Sayantika_Sarkar]

Loved the list Stella. Most of which I have read. Could you recommend some novellas/short beginner friendly books I really want to get my brother into reading. Thanks ✨💗

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

How old is your brother and do you know what kind of movies he likes?

[@Sayantika_Sarkar]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize he's 13 he is into Sci-fi, thrillers and comedy movies

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

@@Sayantika_Sarkar I would recommend Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (one of my favourites), The Martian by Andy Weir (there is a Classroom edition suitable for younger audiences, it reduces the science a bit to not bore the kids) and Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli (might be a wildcard suggestion compared to the other two)
I love all 3 books. Milkweed and journey to the centre of the earth are shorter than The Martian, but the Martian may work because it is so hard to put down. Please let me know if he reads any of these. I’m dying to know his thought. 😊🤓

[@Sayantika_Sarkar]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Thank you so much 💗 I'll let you know 🤗

[@artofawr]

We have a lot of favorites in common. Which makes me want to read some from this list. I haven't read any McCarthy yet and I've been wondering where to start. Blood Meridian might be the one. Thank you for this list.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I started with The Road with McCarthy and I’d say it a decent place to start. Outer dark is another good place to start. Blood Meridian is saying a lot and I feel I really need to read it again after I’m done reading all of McCarthy’s works. Have you read Moby Dick? If you have and you liked it then Blood Meridian will be right up your alley. Thank you for watching.

[@artofawr]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I actually just finished Moby Dick this last December. It felt like an epic poem. The parts I found super tedious still managed to be lovely because the writing was magnificent. Ahab's monologue to the head of the dead sperm whale is etched in my brain. And the bromance in the first hundred pages was delightful. Great book.
Have you read No Country for Old Men? That's the McCarthy book I've almost bought several times.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

@@artofawr I have not read No Country for Old Men. It is waiting patiently on my TBR but I hear so many good things about it and the movie was so good.

[@artofawr]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize That movie was magnifico! It's why I've almost bought it several time. Thanks for the recommendations. Looking forward to reading some McCarthy.

[@lifewithpatti9531]

It was interesting listening to your count down. I have only read Gone Girl from this list and I didn’t like it. But that’s ok. Some of my favorite books are What she left behind by Ellen Marie wiseman, Born a crime by Trevor Noah

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Hi Patti and welcome to my channel and thank you for sharing your favourites.

[@maartjedegroot9598]

Just found you and think you can give me a lot of great recommendations

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Welcome to my channel!

[@rashiqahs3136]

I remember randomly picking up ken follet’s pillars of the earth in high school and while the premise seemed so drab I could not put the book down 😅

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I know, right? It defies reason. So good!

[@ingogotico1398]

Very nice mix of non-fiction, `high brow` fiction and entertainment novels. I also like to read different genres

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Variety is the spice of life!

[@wibre8753]

Graham Greene--a writer whose work I love--seems to be out of fashion at the moment. Glad to see one of his novels on your list.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Is he out of fashion? We gotta bring him back then. I have 2 more of his books waiting to be read. I can’t wait.

[@maryfeeney5240]

If you loved Pillars of the Earth, you will love The Spire by Golding. Might be hard to get hold of - but we’ll worth it.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you for the recommendation.

[@MrX-wd8cm]

Kazuo Ishiguru, Nobel Prize winner & Alumnus of UEA, UK, a most underrated university, where I went as well of course !

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

How awesome you went to the same university! Do you have any favourite Ishiguro novels?

[@MrX-wd8cm]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I think " never let me go " was interesting but needed more development.

[@Paromita_M]

Donna Tartt yess! Great list.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thank you!

[@joanlally9757]

Limited mostly to American writers and its disappointing that there's not one American writer of colour like Toni Morrision or James Baldwin cited.

[@DejanOfRadic]

Tolkien's masterpiece is the short story "Leaf by Nigel".

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I hadn't heard of that short story. Thank you for mentioning it.

[@kurtfox4944]

My first watch of your videos. I loved your list. I enjoyed many of them as well! Have you read Song of Solomon?
"Escape From Camp 14" is now on my radar. Thank you for that.
I read Year of the Flood before George Floyd and Covid, That can't happen.... and yet.. people want to defund the police and the only ones to get police protection are the rich and those in gated communities (perhaps funded by wealthy corporations). Why do politicians read the dystopian novels as 'playbooks' instead of 'things to avoid'? (1984, Brave New World, MaddAddam trilogy, We, Darkness at Noon...)
Vonnegut - 'snarky' is the word I use for him. "Sarcastically cruel" as you say. All his books that I have read (4-5) have that tonal quality about them.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I have not read Song of Soloman yet, but I would like to make my way though his work. I am working my way through a colossal collection of Vonnegut's short stories right now. Welcome to my channel.

[@zainabfatima6186]

In intro when the text appeared you made a mistake. Too no To 😅 idk why I'm like this but I notice things alright?

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn’t noticed the typo. 👍🏼

[@t0dd000]

My TBR high-rise just added a few more floors. *sigh*

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

😁😁😁😁😁 Sorry? 🙃

[@garrycooper8967]

Fyodor Dostoevsky?

[@smalltown4855]

love how the Americans pronounce the name Graham as "Gram" whereas us Brits pronounce it Grayum.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Language is always intriguing.

[@brianbuch1]

Citizens of Puerto Rico are American citizens.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

They are indeed.

[@Noneoyobiznaz]

All Puerto Ricans are American, but not all Americans are Puerto Ricans. So I’d say it just as she did.

[@Meme-go9ts]

There is common sense in Stella's clarification, Brian

[@justjuanreader]

So glad to see someone else love The Little Friend! I feel like I am that book’s champion and advocate, I am a,ways defending it.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

@@justjuanreader it’s so good in so many ways and I didn’t realize how good it was until I sat down to write my review of it and put my thoughts into words. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for awhile.

[@kcbooks1354]

18:33 😂 Same!!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

;)

[@pseudonamed]

Just be aware that there was a lot of lies and embellishments in Escape from Camp 14. (He has admitted as much himself).

[@lavenderlady7441]

hellooooo....🇨🇦😊

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Well, hello there!!

[@yeti2352]

I found blood Meridian as pretentious as hell. I think it’s terribly written. Just because something is difficult to read does not make it good.

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

Nothing is for everyone. It’s always good to try different things.

[@kevgh3869]

I'm still waiting for you to be the bigger person and say you're sorry!

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I’m sorry for the size of my TBR. 😂

[@kevgh3869]

@@ItsTooLatetoApologize 😝