24 Classic Books to Read in 2024

Howdy Folks it's the literate Texon I'm back with a video about 12 no not 12 24 Classics that I'm planning to read in 2024 I'm putting together my my TBR for the year I've noticed that a lot of people have reading plans for the year and uh I don't know maybe my reading will improve if I do some planning too and so you know I've got actual books to hold up and show you what I'm planning to read this year these are 24 Classics I plan to read in 2024 and the what inspired this video uh there were some great videos recently which I'll link to down below from Gina staner and Britt bowler where they talked about the classic books that they're planning to read in 24 and uh I don't know 24 might be a really aggressive goal for me but I don't really have a lot to do right now except readed I uh oh that's why I've been gone a little bit and haven't posted any new videos is because I've been going through chemo so that kind of affects my energy level and all this stuff up here which was shaky to begin with but at any rate you know I think I can do it that's just two a month my aunt who's one of the most wonderful readers that I know um always alternates between a contemporary book and a classic book and and she's done that for well hell as long as I've known her and I've known her for 53 years but I'm going to start with two recommendations that I got from a man named David Litman if you're in the travel industry you might have heard of David Litman he was one of the two founders of a company called hotels.com where I had the privilege to work for 10 years David's one of the smartest men I've ever met when I asked him for some book recommendations this is what he gave me the first was a book called where did it go I had it here just a second ago I'm just kidding I know exactly where it is All Quiet on the Western Front okay so I never read this he recommended this to me 20 25 years ago believe it was just made into a movie recently so uh anyway if David thinks it's good it's probably really good David told me one time that reading a book this is number one on the list by the way All Quiet on the Western Front is number one on my list of the 12 Classics that I'm read but David explained to me one time that reading a book was like building an extra room onto the house of your mind which you know if that's the case I've built 68 new rooms on the house of my mind this year the other book that he recommended was called babit by Sinclair Lewis and I don't know that this gets read or talked about very much I'm not entirely sure what it's about but I know I want to read it um believe Sinclair Lewis Sinclair Lewis so I've got another book by Sinclair Lewis here that I'm G to try to read this year this is the signic classics edition of it can't happen here which sounds really creepy uh if you think about it of course there's so much dystopian fiction now that uh you know post-apocalyptic stuff that it can't happen here makes it sound like it's going to be a uh post-apocalyptic novel I don't think that's the case though but we'll find out when I read it this was number three by the way it can't happen here by Sinclair Lewis David only recommended number one and two All Quiet on the Western Front and babbit this is number three um and I may skip it if I don't like babbit because if I hate stclair Lewis I might just go right past it all right so number four one of the greatest titles I've ever heard of a book ever and this is a penguin Classics edition of the man who was Thursday by GK chesterson which is relatively slim volume but that's okay because some of the books on my list of Classics are definitely not slim so you know this is kind of a dollar cost averaging thing here because well you'll see so that was number five number six Mark Twain the Innocence abroad okay so I love Mark Twain I don't know that he's I'm going to enjoy anything he's written as well as I enjoyed the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but I'm going give this a shot see what I think anyway okay so that is number five number six is a book that I have actually read before and I've read it multiple times and I try to go back every now and then with these books that I didn't particularly like and give them another chance because they're Classics for reason my eighth grade English teacher loves this book it's Lord of the Flies by William Golding and uh it's about a bunch of boys on an island um for some reason that book never worked for me but I'm going to give it yet another shot I think this will be the third or fourth goor round with it excuse me um if I don't like it this time this will probably the last shot it gets so that was number one two three four five six I don't want to lose count number seven is the Nick Adams stories by Ernest Hino I know I'm going to love this cuz I love Hemingway not everybody does but I do so number seven the Nick Adams Story by Ernest Hemingway that'll be a breeze and I'll get through it quick also since I love Hing way I've got this beautiful old edition of For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hing which I've never read also will probably be a fairly quick read he's he's easy to read okay so that's number seven and number eight I also have some Jane Austin on deck and you know I have some friends who are like do you really call yourself a reader since you've never read any Jane Austin at all and yes I do but I'm going to correct that this year I've got Emma in the plastic uh not plastic penguin in the penguin classic edition I don't know how I put those two together in my head I don't know anything about it but I'm going to read it and I also have a really cool addition of Pride and Prejudice over here so this Pride and Prejudice comes with a cookbook so I don't know what that's all about but I guess I'll find out so there's some recipes in the back here beautiful pictures and stuff it's a really nice addition I think my daughter's found this for me but I think maybe they have some tea parties and cook some shortbread cookies or something and there's recipes for those in the back of this but anyway so those are the two Jane Austin Books that I'm going to read and I think I don't think Jane Austin wrote a lot of novels I think there were only six I'm not 100% sure but you know if I love them as much as everyone says that I'm going to love them I will probably also read the friendly Jane Austin which will give me even more insight into the author I say even more as if I have some insight but I really just don't know very much about Jane Austin it's just been a blind spot in my reading so far so anyway that's one two three 4 five 6 7 8 9 10 11 Nicholas nickelby by Charles Dickens which somebody mentioned the other day in one of the group videos that I was watching participating in that Nicholas nickelby was a really good read I think it might have been Mark over there at book time with Elvis but at any rate I'm going to give that a shot too what number was that was that number 11 I think it was but I may have gotten the count wrong but you know what who's keeping score anyway right so also I've got the Norton critical edition of Dracula at number 12 so there's absolutely no reason not to read this if you're going to read classic novels why not dig into something really cool and Dracula is the greatest super villain of all time Bar None I don't know some people might say Satan um also Moby Dick which I've started before um and never finished uh about a whale I think it's number 13 or 14 okay so so far I I feel comfortable with all of these being Classics and I feel comfortable that I'm going to be able to read all of them I picked 24 because that's two a month I think that's a reasonable number of Classics to read per month and as you saw earlier some of these were pretty slim volumes so I believe four six I don't know why I didn't number these before sorry about that guys 2 4 6 8 9 10 11 1213 number 14 Rebecca by dney dearia which I read as a high school student but I've been meaning to go back and read it again wonderful Alfred Hitchcock movie and uh you know what I'm going to stop calling out numbers because I forget the numbers as soon as I barely know what day of the week it is but I'm I'm doing all right I promise you know and the funny thing is even though I'm medicated and being treated for cancer and all the rest I have no trouble comprehending what I'm reading it's no problem at all sometimes I have a little trouble concentrating on what I'm reading but uh you know I go back and ReRe it till I but but yeah I don't get lost or anything like that so anyway the next book on my list is the French Lieutenant's Woman which I've been meaning to read for a long time by John FS uh this one's a biggie it's got about 500 pages in it I don't really know what it's about but I believe it's a b of postmodernist fiction not 100% sure about that either but I'll probably have a lot to say about it when I read it in 2024 uh next on my list you know I don't know if I've mentioned it on this channel before but I probably have I love the Great gadsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and I read it every year but I have not read his other novels until recently and I just finished Tender Is the Night which was Fitzgerald's first novel and I didn't like it my friend Tom who is a a brilliant man and an insightful reader plays guitar with me every Wednesday suggested that my next F Scott Fitzgerald novel should be the beautiful and the damped which he said is actually a very very funny book so I like funny also I'm going to read the face in the frost by John belir this is listed in appendix n of the old advanced Dungeons and Dragons rule book as one of the works of fiction that inspired the setting and gameplay for Dungeons and Dragons I've read it once before I don't remember it that well but I do remember I really liked it I thought it was a really Charming fantasy also one of my other projects which I haven't talked about yet but I will talk about it is I'm hoping to read through all the novels and short stories of John Steinbeck over the next couple of years I've always really enjoyed John Steinbeck and I have a stack of four John steinbecks here in front of me also mercifully short of M and Men you know most people have probably read that already it doesn't take any time at all it's really good though and then there's some John Steinbeck novels early ones that I don't really know much about like to a god unknown that's a penguin Classics Edition sorry I should probably hold it more like that should I um but I'm going to read that I'm trying to read these or I'm planning to read these in roughly chronological order so obviously of M and men will come later just happen to be in a different spot in the stack the pastures of Heaven I understand is a short story collection but the short stories are all connected so I'm looking forward to digging into that I love short stories and cup of gold a life of Sir Henry Morgan Buccaneer with occasional reference to history and if I'm not mistaken this might have been Steinbeck's first published novel but it's a pirate novel and you know what who doesn't like Pirates right sorry I get a little bit of dry mouth these days I hate to interrupt by drinking but I'm going to interrupt by drinking I've also got okay so it's a good thing that I've got all these slim additions of Steinbeck to to pump my numbers up because I'm also planning to read the brick Le Rob which I've started but not finished it's by Victor Hugo uh this is also a penguin Edition although it doesn't really look like a penguin Edition God I love the cover artwork on this what a huge book though that's going to be a big that's going to be a lot of fun to read if it's as good as everybody says it is and I'm confident why would I disbelieve them you know everybody always talked about how great Lonesome Dove was and uh I put it off put it off put it off and finally read it in 2023 and sure enough it's one of the best books I've ever read the next two books were actually recommendation from better than food and I don't know if you've ever watched Clifford Lee Sergeant's Channel but if you haven't you ought to check him out he has some interesting reviews of books but he suggested that I read these as sort of a double feature The Stranger by Albert Kimu which is also really short and the movie goer by Walker Percy uh he said that those go well together and so I'm going to give those a shot together and uh you can watch reviews of both of those individually over on Clifford's Channel better than food really cool guy worth checking out I also have the Norton critical edition of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad which was the inspiration for a little movie called a pocalypse now people my age probably remember it I don't have a lot of 20 year olds watching this channel anyway um but I've always meant to read it hadn't got a around to it now I have a round to it and I'm going to get to it and finally another big big novel so I think this is number 24 it might be number 25 because I could have miscounted the entire stack but we stopped counting didn't we the can of money Cristal by Alexander or Alexandri Duma am I pronouncing that correctly I'm just an old Texas boy but I understand this is fantastic um you know one of the movies that I return to at least once a year is the Sha Shank Redemption and uh there's a really great scene in there where the main character is recommending the count ofman Christo to one of the other inmates at the prison so that's part of my TBR for the year 2024 um it's 24 or 25 books I'm hoping to get in about a 100 books next year maybe even a little more 2023 has been a fantastic year of reading for me but I didn't touch as many Classics as I would have liked to um but you know there's no time like tomorrow anyway that's all I've got for you at this hour I will be back with more videos soon but my video production might slow down just a little bit for the next three months or so until I see you next time uh stay sexy read something good

Channel: Randy Ray

Views: 1,830

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Id: 3yUZi5Nlhu0

Length: 14min 43sec (883 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 23 2023