Six of the Most ADDICTIVE Books I have Ever Read — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00I think once and for all, this is the
2. 0:01death knell for anyone that says that,
3. 0:03you know, big classic books are a slog
4. 0:06to get through cuz you will have
5. 0:08whiplash from this thing, seriously. It
6. 0:10is
7. 0:10magnificently
8. 0:12addictive. Should put, you know, a
9. 0:14warning label.
10. 0:15Will [music] miss meetings. Will not
11. 0:18show up to social events. Will
12. 0:20cancel birthday parties.
13. 0:22That's how addictive these books are. I
14. 0:24think there's a pervading myth in our
15. 0:25culture that
16. 0:27big books are, you know, dry and
17. 0:29academic and hard to get through, that
18. 0:31they're a slog, that they are a trudge,
19. 0:34and that's just a complete myth. So, in
20. 0:36today's video, we are going to talk
21. 0:37about six of the most addictive books
22. 0:39that I have in my library, and a couple
23. 0:41of them are pretty mammoth in their
24. 0:43proportions, but these are some of the
25. 0:45most gripping,
26. 0:46addictive, uh unputdownable books in my
27. 0:50collection.
28. 0:54Some of them are more entertainment,
29. 0:57while others can really teach us
30. 0:58something how to deal with the psychic
31. 1:01reverberations of misfortune and
32. 1:05calamity, and yet they're also, while
33. 1:07being dark in places, they're also
34. 1:08hopeful and, like I said, addictive,
35. 1:10enthralling, exhilarating. Let me know
36. 1:13some of the most addictive books in your
37. 1:15um
38. 1:16or in your personal canon, in your, you
39. 1:20know, journey through your reading life
40. 1:21that you've encountered. I would love to
41. 1:23hear from you. Let's get a conversation
42. 1:24going about highly addictive works of
43. 1:26literature. I think it's the healthiest
44. 1:28kind of addiction you can have to be
45. 1:29addicted to a book. Thank you to our
46. 1:31channel members for your support of the
47. 1:32channel. There's loads of bonus content
48. 1:35on the channel membership page. Okay.
49. 1:37Without further ado, let's get into the
50. 1:39list. First up, I've got Jane Eyre by
51. 1:42Charlotte Brontë. I've got this
52. 1:44Wordsworth edition. Ah, it's a little
53. 1:47bit twee and quaint, this this cover,
54. 1:50but this is a phenomenal work of
55. 1:52literature, and I first read this book
56. 1:54when I was 13 years old, and I was
57. 1:56utterly spellbound by it, bewitched.
58. 1:59And
59. 2:01I reread it for the first time
60. 2:04earlier this year or maybe at the tail
61. 2:05end of last year. No, I think it was
62. 2:07this year. I reread Jane Eyre this year,
63. 2:09but around January, February, something
64. 2:11like that.
65. 2:12Uh and it was just magnificent. We
66. 2:14follow the eponymous heroine of the
67. 2:15story, Jane Eyre.
68. 2:17She is a pretty abject figure. She is an
69. 2:20orphan. She is considered superfluous,
70. 2:23the dregs of society. It's a horrible
71. 2:25predicament for her. Uh and then of
72. 2:27course she winds up meeting Rochester
73. 2:31and we have this famous, immortalized
74. 2:33really, love
75. 2:35entanglement and all of the
76. 2:37ramifications, the implications of that.
77. 2:39But it's so deftly wrought by Charlotte
78. 2:42Bronte, in my opinion hands down the
79. 2:44most gifted of the Bronte sisters,
80. 2:46although we can have a discussion about
81. 2:47that. Do let me know if you disagree. I
82. 2:49think what makes this book so enlivening
83. 2:52and so moorish is its
84. 2:56beautiful meld of
85. 2:59sort of high romantic elements, but also
86. 3:02with a strange
87. 3:05a strange realism. It's a kind of
88. 3:07psychological realism, I is I think how
89. 3:09I would describe it.
90. 3:10Um but always with these kind of pagan,
91. 3:14witchy dimensions, kind of
92. 3:17shadowy and foreboding at the edges and
93. 3:21sometimes even through the heart of the
94. 3:22the narrative and the focalization of
95. 3:25the story.
96. 3:26I don't want to give away plot details,
97. 3:27although I'm sure most of you have read
98. 3:28it. Just um
99. 3:30an an immensely engrossing book that at
100. 3:34the same time will
101. 3:36kind of leave you forever altered. You
102. 3:39you you'll never see the world quite the
103. 3:42same having read Jane Eyre. Have you
104. 3:44read it?
105. 3:46And do you agree with my appraisal of it
106. 3:48or not? Let me know. Now, the next book
107. 3:50we have is something really unexpected
108. 3:53in terms of the kind of standard fare of
109. 3:55this channel. Um
110. 3:57>> [snorts]
111. 3:57>> this is a a novel called Black. Um it's
112. 4:01book one in the Circle series by Ted
113. 4:04Dekker.
114. 4:06American writer. This is Christian
115. 4:09fiction. It's not the kind of thing that
116. 4:10I normally go for, but my mom gave this
117. 4:13book to me when I was about Not this
118. 4:16exact copy, as you can see, this is a
119. 4:17really fresh copy, but she gave me Black
120. 4:20by Ted Dekker when I was about 14. And I
121. 4:24absolutely inhaled it. You cannot stop
122. 4:27reading this thing once you start. It is
123. 4:30just so absorbing. This novel is about a
124. 4:33protagonist named Thomas Hunter, and
125. 4:35we're kind of thrown into the story in
126. 4:37medias res.
127. 4:39Thomas Hunter is this kind of slick
128. 4:41advertising executive with a um
129. 4:45with a cushy job.
130. 4:47Haven't reread it since I was 14, so I
131. 4:49don't know all of the finer details
132. 4:50anymore, but he is fleeing, you know,
133. 4:54some kind of assailant and ends up on a
134. 4:58building
135. 4:59on a rooftop, and the only way to get
136. 5:01away from there is to jump down into a
137. 5:03dumpster full of
138. 5:04garbage bags.
139. 5:05And [snorts] he jumps down into the
140. 5:07trash and sort of blacks out, and then
141. 5:08he opens his eyes and he's in a
142. 5:10completely different alternate reality
143. 5:13or different dimension. And then he
144. 5:16discovers that every time he goes to
145. 5:17sleep or goes unconscious in one world,
146. 5:20he then wakes up in the other. So, he
147. 5:21goes back to his normal life
148. 5:24when he goes to sleep in the alternate
149. 5:26reality
150. 5:27and vice versa. And it's it's a it's a
151. 5:29really fun uh set up. It's got a Yeah,
152. 5:33just a real zing and whip to it. And I I
153. 5:37think I just like didn't do anything
154. 5:39else for like the whole weekend when my
155. 5:41mom gave me this book. I just read it
156. 5:43absolute in absolute frenzy cover to
157. 5:46cover. And then, like I said it's a
158. 5:48series of three. So if you're looking
159. 5:50for something, you know, not in the
160. 5:51classics line, but just an absolute
161. 5:53rollick, an absolute um
162. 5:56roller coaster ride, then
163. 5:58see if you can get your hands on the
164. 6:00circle series by Ted Dekker, black,
165. 6:03um red, white, and green. So there's
166. 6:05actually four in the series. And then
167. 6:07back to our regular programming
168. 6:10um with the classics again. I've got
169. 6:12Alexandre Dumas, Count of Monte Cristo,
170. 6:15this absolute
171. 6:17gargantuan book.
172. 6:19Um this one translated by David Coward.
173. 6:23He's certainly no coward in
174. 6:26in taking on this behemoth. It's
175. 6:28um
176. 6:291,100 pages long in this edition.
177. 6:32Do not be deterred by
178. 6:34the absolute voluminousness of this
179. 6:37beast of a novel.
180. 6:39It is spectacular. There is something
181. 6:41almost narcotic about the excitement of
182. 6:42this book. It's this famous story of
183. 6:44comeuppance, vengeance. We've got a
184. 6:47young sailor Edmond Dantès,
185. 6:49uh who is falsely accused of treason.
186. 6:53He gets severely punished, unjustly
187. 6:55punished, and broods a long time in a
188. 6:59dank dark cellar on his revenge. There
189. 7:02are just an
190. 7:04endless stream of implausible plot
191. 7:07twists, but don't,
192. 7:09you know, just just let go of the of the
193. 7:11sense of veracity or verisimilitude to
194. 7:14real life. This is a uh a book of it's
195. 7:16highly colored. It's it's high romance.
196. 7:19Um it's melodramatic. It's, you know,
197. 7:22Byronic. He's a really Byronic figure,
198. 7:24very apt cover there. It's got a lavish,
199. 7:26fantastical force field to it, a
200. 7:29magnetism that is
201. 7:31like I said, that is just really
202. 7:32unputdownable and proves, I think, once
203. 7:35and for all, this is the death knell for
204. 7:36anyone that says that, you know, big
205. 7:39classic books are a slog to get through
206. 7:41cuz you will have whiplash from this
207. 7:43thing, seriously. It is
208. 7:45magnificently
209. 7:47addictive. Next, I've got Philip Roth,
210. 7:49American Pastoral. This is the massively
211. 7:52divisive figure of Philip Roth.
212. 7:55Do you like him or do you loathe him? I
213. 7:57don't think anyone can make a very
214. 7:59strong claim that he's not an
215. 8:00astonishingly masterful writer.
216. 8:04But, do let me know if you if you feel
217. 8:06like making that claim in the comments,
218. 8:07do let me know. But, um this is I think
219. 8:10Roth's longest novel. I've read quite a
220. 8:12quite a bit of his
221. 8:14oeuvre and uh haven't come across a
222. 8:16longer novel than American Pastoral.
223. 8:18But, it's his most ambitious novel. It's
224. 8:21one of the Zuckerman novels. For those
225. 8:23of you that don't know, he has this
226. 8:24alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, who is a
227. 8:26writer, Jewish-American writer. I think
228. 8:28in the neighborhood of nine Zuckerman
229. 8:30books. This is one of the Zuckerman
230. 8:31books. This narrative is not about
231. 8:33Zuckerman himself. It's about an old
232. 8:35schoolmate of his nicknamed the Swede,
233. 8:38who was this um a kind of epitome of the
234. 8:41American dream, but through the the
235. 8:43Jewish lineage. Um he represented to
236. 8:48second and third-generation American
237. 8:50Jews this star of the football team. He
238. 8:53was blond and chiseled. He was uh he
239. 8:56married Miss New Jersey, took over his
240. 8:59father's um prosperous glove-making
241. 9:02business. He bought a a large tract of
242. 9:05land and moved out into the countryside
243. 9:08outside of Newark. He seems to have it
244. 9:10all made. He's like the manifest destiny
245. 9:13of of the American dream. Um but of
246. 9:15[snorts] course, the premise is that
247. 9:17beneath all of this immaculate polish,
248. 9:20there is a human being
249. 9:24uh struggling to to make sense of his
250. 9:25life and struggling with the the massive
251. 9:29expectations that other people put on
252. 9:30him thinking, "Oh, you've got a perfect
253. 9:32life. Therefore, why should I be
254. 9:33sympathetic
255. 9:34or generous towards you?" So, he
256. 9:36actually is in this kind of golden cage
257. 9:38of or or high up on a pedestal. Philip
258. 9:41Roth through the eyes and through the
259. 9:42pen of Zuckerman then imagines
260. 9:45uh this terrible catastrophe that
261. 9:47befalls
262. 9:48the Swede. Uh Roth is so good in poise
263. 9:51and in balance. He can draw in, you
264. 9:54know, various elements. Edith Wharton
265. 9:57delineated kinds of novels, novels of
266. 9:59situation, novels of character,
267. 10:02and novels of manners. American Pastoral
268. 10:05is a book that encompasses all of those.
269. 10:07Of course, it's a character study of the
270. 10:09psychology of the Swede and his life and
271. 10:12his family and the calamities that
272. 10:13befall him, but
273. 10:15it's also very much
274. 10:17based around a particular utterly
275. 10:20abominable event that occurs, and
276. 10:23it is also about American society. It's
277. 10:26a it's a novel of manners. So, it's the
278. 10:27all of those things wrapped into one,
279. 10:29but it's it's very very gripping, and
280. 10:32you just find yourself flying through it
281. 10:33wanting to find out what happens to him.
282. 10:35Um I Yeah, I don't want to kind of spoil
283. 10:38it or or give too much away at this
284. 10:40stage. I have a lot more thoughts about
285. 10:41this novel, and I actually
286. 10:45it it's not my favorite Philip Roth
287. 10:47novel. He
288. 10:49it's a very very ambitious project, the
289. 10:51premise and the way that he unfolds the
290. 10:53novel, and I think he almost sets
291. 10:56his goals too too audaciously. For me,
292. 11:00he doesn't quite pull it off. For me,
293. 11:02it's got a little tinge of the
294. 11:03implausible to it, a tinge of melodrama.
295. 11:06For that reason, it just falls short of
296. 11:07Roth's finest work, although I think
297. 11:09probably a lot of uh Rothians would
298. 11:12would disagree with me about that. But,
299. 11:14it fits in this category because it
300. 11:15makes you think. It makes you
301. 11:18it floors you. It awes you. But,
302. 11:20and it might even irritate you at at
303. 11:22certain points
304. 11:23in his critique of of American culture.
305. 11:26Um he makes some good points, but I
306. 11:27think he's a little irascible. He leans
307. 11:29a little too heavily into the vitriol at
308. 11:31times. but nonetheless, it is an
309. 11:33absolutely addictive read. So, yeah.
310. 11:36What do you think of this one? Have you
311. 11:38read it? Woo, it's an absolute heat wave
312. 11:40here. I'm sweating. I don't know if you
313. 11:42can see the literal perspiration running
314. 11:44down my face. It's It's very hot here. I
315. 11:46hope that you guys are keeping cool
316. 11:47wherever you are. All right, then I've
317. 11:49got three novels of New York by Edith
318. 11:51Wharton. We just mentioned her in
319. 11:52connection with her definition of
320. 11:54various kinds of novels. Um we've talked
321. 11:57about
322. 11:59we've talked about this volume a few
323. 12:01times on the channel, so I'm just going
324. 12:02to mention it quite briefly here. Three
325. 12:04novels of New York in this Penguin
326. 12:05Classics
327. 12:06deluxe edition, but I want to talk in
328. 12:08particular about uh the best of these,
329. 12:11in my opinion, which is The House of
330. 12:12Mirth. This is the story of a heroine
331. 12:15named Lily Bart. She is the belle of the
332. 12:17ball.
333. 12:19She's very popular. She is adored by
334. 12:22everyone. But, she doesn't have
335. 12:25uh
336. 12:26an independent income. She doesn't have
337. 12:27a fortune. She And she's kind of
338. 12:29overwhelmed by
339. 12:31choice of romantic partners. She's also
340. 12:33got a dazzling wit and intelligence
341. 12:35about her that is so alluring, but also
342. 12:37contributes to her downfall.
343. 12:40Um it's You can't stop reading The House
344. 12:43of Mirth, and you just see this
345. 12:46inexorable
346. 12:48downward spiral unfolding. The
347. 12:50the formal architecture of the book and
348. 12:53of the plot is so
349. 12:55elegant and symmetrical.
350. 12:58You see impending disaster. You see it
351. 13:00coming.
352. 13:01And it that makes it all the more
353. 13:03white-knuckling to read.
354. 13:05It's like seeing a crash unfolding. You
355. 13:08You know, you want to
356. 13:09um
357. 13:10you you you want to shut your eyes to
358. 13:12it, but you but you can't. Edith
359. 13:14Wharton's books are salty and sweet at
360. 13:16the same time. There are moments of
361. 13:18hilarity and some of the darkest
362. 13:21human depths are plumbed,
363. 13:23you know, all in the same book. And I
364. 13:25don't want to give away what direction
365. 13:27or what sort of finality this book
366. 13:30lands on in terms of Lily Bart, but it
367. 13:32is
368. 13:34so engrossing. It is so electric in its
369. 13:36pace and crackling atmosphere and
370. 13:40sensuous, sumptuous extravagance of
371. 13:44language and of setting and of
372. 13:48human emotions. Really, really recommend
373. 13:51that if you want to start with
374. 13:53Edith Wharton that you start with The
375. 13:54House of Mirth. There's a lot more we
376. 13:56can say about Edith Wharton. There's a
377. 13:57lot more we have said about Edith
378. 13:58Wharton and other books of hers, but
379. 14:00let's leave it there for now. Absolutely
380. 14:02addictive novel, really.
381. 14:04Um The House of Mirth. And then to end
382. 14:05off, um there is one here that's a bit
383. 14:07of an outlier. It's It's not a big
384. 14:09weighty tome at by any stretch of the
385. 14:10imagination and it's really quirky,
386. 14:13otherworldly, and this is um Haruki
387. 14:16Murakami's Super Frog Saves Tokyo,
388. 14:19translated by Jay Rubin, the perennial
389. 14:21Murakami translator. So, this is just a
390. 14:23slim thing and it's actually a short
391. 14:25story from uh a book of short stories of
392. 14:28Murakamis.
393. 14:30I think it's either After Dark or After
394. 14:31the Quake, one of those two.
395. 14:33Um and but they've they've turned this
396. 14:35into this really lavish
397. 14:38full color affair. I mean, it's it's
398. 14:41they've given it the full treatment. Um
399. 14:43and it's addictive because it's just
400. 14:45such a
401. 14:47sort of explosion of color
402. 14:49and quirkiness and it's surreal, it's
403. 14:52it's wry, it's and hallucinogenic
404. 14:56all in one. And if you're just looking
405. 14:58for something that will probably take
406. 14:59you half an hour to an hour to read, but
407. 15:01will kind of
408. 15:03ping in your subconscious long
409. 15:05afterwards, then I recommend this
410. 15:08addictive little snack of a book, Super
411. 15:10Frog Saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami.
412. 15:13So, those were my six
413. 15:16extremely addictive should put, you
414. 15:18know, a warning label
415. 15:19will miss meetings, will
416. 15:22um you know, not show up to social
417. 15:24events, will
418. 15:26cancel birthday parties.
419. 15:28That's how addictive these books are and
420. 15:30that those were the six that I've chosen
421. 15:32from my library. It was a hard It was
422. 15:33hard to narrow it down. There There was
423. 15:35a lot more
424. 15:36Uh there were a lot of contenders for
425. 15:38this list and I would love to hear what
426. 15:40suggestions you guys throw out for
427. 15:42addictive books. The most healthy kind
428. 15:44of addiction you can have or up there
429. 15:46with the most health healthy addictions.
430. 15:48If you would like to follow more of my
431. 15:49content, check out my Instagram Bren
432. 15:52Booth Jones. Yeah, let's leave it there.
433. 15:54Thanks for watching.
434. 15:56Hope you're all keeping cool or having a
435. 15:58good weekend.
436. 15:59Um speak to you soon.