A Bookish QnA // english degrees, book recs + how i read so much

hey guys welcome back to my channel it's Emma and today I'm going to be answering all of your questions as the title of this video suggests this is a Q&A where I will be answering all of the lovely little questions that you guys sent in thank you so much I love every single question that you guys ask me there was some really really great ones that really made me think and there were other ones that were super easy and I hadn't answered right away and I'm just really excited to answer them all so there are a lot of questions I picked obviously unfortunately I couldn't pick them all otherwise it would be here for like three hours which as exciting as that may be I don't think my computer will be able to upload that so I will definitely be doing more of these in the future because this is just fun and like it allows me to talk about a variety of different things some really important things some personal things and yeah so as always if you do have any questions don't hesitate to ever ask them regardless of whether I'm in the midst of doing a Q&A video but I did take a lot of your guys's questions so let's just get into it a lot of these questions are book and book two related so our very first question is what is your all-time favorite book yeah I feel like I talked about this a lot but like I will gladly talk about it again so it is phantom like if I had to pick I know this wasn't a really specific like nonfiction poetry novel why a whatever but like if I had to pick a novel as my favorite book it would be phantom by Susan K these are the same book this one I've had for 10 years now and as you can see I was so afraid that by my next reread it would just fall apart and this is way too dear to me to risk that so I actually ordered a hardcover copy and I'm so thankful that I did like it's so beautiful and if you don't know Phantom is kind of a retelling and a reworking of the Phantom of the Opera the classic French detective novel by Gaston ahooo which is also my favorite book it's like my favorite classic but um like my favorite novel novel is phantom like I adore Phantom and this book actually contains phantom of the opera' within it this is an exploration of Eric the phantom of the opera' of his life from his birth to his death and so it chronicles his beginnings with his mother in France and then he runs away he joins this band of gypsies from there he goes to Rome he learns how to be an architect he goes through all this terrible terrible stuff obviously he's just abused throughout his whole life for being ugly being disfigured but also being a genius a prodigy basically excelling in whatever he chooses to put his mind to and then obviously we get to the Prussian war and he is taking refuge well he is actually helping to build the pedagogy or the Paris Opera House and then from there it picks up where Phantom of the Opera begins and it holds all the events of phantom in the Opera in it so this is my favorite book the mixture of horror and beauty and love and hatred is but the struggle that I really love and I really find compelling and Eric is one of my favorite characters of all time yeah so this is my favorite book and I it's so crazy to me that I happened upon this strictly by chance because I was 10 or 11 years old and I was at a outdoor garage sale in my city and there was like no one there and there was this lonely kind of vendor selling used books and there were boxes and boxes like so many cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other and I was just rifling through them with my grubby little eleven-year-old hands and I like accidentally stumbled upon this like at the bottom of a box and I had previously read phantom of the opera' when I was younger even than that and I adored it and I had no idea what the heck this was or what it was doing there so I just decided to take it home with me like just sprang into my life out of nowhere like this stray kitten in a cardboard box and it became my favorite book okay the next question is what I'm just gonna answer right away because I think like five six or maybe even ten people have asked this to some degree or some love and that is what would you like to do after graduating or do you have any plans or aspirations after finishing your degree what do you want to do when you finish your degree and what are you looking at doing career-wise I love literature and classics and have been thinking of switching my major but I always said people tell me I won't be able to do anything but teach okay so there's like a lot I want to talk about and dive into with that just to kind of look at it from that really basic what do I want to do after graduating scale I think right away like when I finish my last year of university which fingers crossed will be next year my fourth year because that's how kind of Canadian universities work typically a bachelor's degree or an honours specialization what I'm doing is a four-year program you can do it in three but I don't think I've ever met anyone who did it in three so we do four years here I'm doing an honors passion English language and literature and a major in classical studies so technically it's like a double major but my bigger major English is an honours spesh so that really only means that I just take more courses and more modules to complete it so I hope that made sense but basically when I finish my degree I think like I would like to keep going to school and keep doing education so that's like my number one answer I don't know whether that will be kind of after taking a year off of university and maybe just working I currently work at a bookstore maybe I could branch out with my degree my bachelor's and arts and come see what else is out there so that's kind of my first answer just immediately returning to education to do a master's I don't know whether that will be in Canada or who knows where so that's something I'm really looking forward to I am not done with school like I know that I don't think I'll ever be done with school I love it too much to ever let it go fully my second option though because I know people are really curious what the hell you do with an English degree or a Classical Studies degree there have been so many positions obviously you can teach like that is people's main go-to answer is teaching I'm not really interested in teaching at least not at a level of anything that's not university like I would adore being a professor I so that's something I would look into but once again that does usually need a PhD so that was also something I've been considering but that is a long way away so I think mostly what I would be liking to look into career-wise is probably honestly writing in some capacity whether that's being a writer myself I am currently working on a project a book I haven't talked about it in a while but it's still there I'm still loving it and it's like a project that I know is good and it's like so cool to have that like faith and that just like that idea that you know what you're doing is good so that is one option but more than that just writing for anyone else like there's so many places that you can go and write and be like for example there was a job listing in my town for this theater this this theater that puts on plays are they're looking for a writer to curate their blog and their website and put out promotions and do their newsletter and all that stuff so that would be really interesting as well obviously you can go into screenwriting or newspaper writing journaling anything that has to do with composing words which literally is every single job in the world so people that tell you that having an English degree will bar you from anything other than teaching they're so wrong I have talked to all of my teaching assistants all my professors they have told me about jobs they've gotten in the weirdest places jobs in industries or faculties like engineering chemistry science math psychology sociology everything and anything requires language like that's how we operate in the world and if you have a degree that lets you use language and our tools and our system of sound and talking to its highest degree of interpretation investigation communication which is what life is all about then you are already at such a higher level than all the candidates around you so if anyone is looking for like a position for a writer or for an editor even that's also something I wanted to say going into editing for me personally would be such a dream and publishing as well like the publishing industry or yeah just being an editor and publisher that's something I would really love to do so that is an answer to more than that I would love to travel I think I would really love to travel as well like that is a dream just going everywhere and anywhere so that's an answer as well working in a library working for a library working as a freelancer just like so many jobs out there obviously you can move to China and teach English you can move to Korea and she teach English which I've heard it's like one of the most rewarding things and people's lives has been going overseas and teaching in some capacity which obviously does fall into the teaching category but there's just so much you can do and I'm so ready to start exploring those options so yeah this note that like if you study language you are valuable you are an assets what you're doing is not useless nor is it pointless and I've had the same things told to me and said to me but just if you have that conviction and you know that it's not true and what you're doing is so important and like that broadening of your understanding of life and of people and of concepts and of history is so important then you're you're good to go I think what I said about traveling leads nicely into the next question that Ashley from over all of through fiction ask first which is what are places you'd like to visit I hope one of them is to me obviously I would love to go to the UK I promise that when I do Ashley your house will be the first stop on my little journey so prepared to host me but ya know oh my gosh traveling so I live in Canada which basically means that it takes two hours to back out of your own driveway and if I drive 12 hours north I will still be in the middle of a forest and there will be nothing there so being a Canada makes it so hard to travel even from province to province because it literally takes days like yeah so I would like to see way more of Canada I would love to go to the west coast BC Vancouver and everything like that is something I've always wanted to go my number one that travel destination for a while has been Scotland I just I really want to go to Scotland so badly I adore everything I've ever seen and heard about Scotland my family's from there and yeah I just think it would be so cool to go see obviously Europe I've never been to Europe the only places I've ever been are the States and places in Canada and Honduras so that's I've only been to three countries and my whole entire life and that seems really sad to me but I know people living in Europe for them like I feel Chapel it's just so much easier and so much more accessible so I would love to go to Europe being a classical study student I just want to go see everything I've spent so much money and so much time learning and studying and I want to see it and just be there with my own two feet obviously Greece and Rome I would adore oh my gosh I would adore going to Greece so that's number one - I might have an opportunity I think next summer she go on kind of a dig an archeological dig - England actually in the north of England so that is something I might look into and I'm very very excited strangely I've also always wanted to go to New Zealand since I was little that's something I've always wanted to do more recently Russia because I've been getting really into Russian literature I would love to go to Russia I have no concept of what Russia of what 21st century Russia is like at all it's just this place of mystery for me for some reason which is strange but I don't know just anywhere honestly everywhere Africa Mongolia China everywhere is my answer but yes okay moving on Merl asked why did I choose English literature as my major so when I was in high school I actually thought I wanted to go into science and I applied for a couple marine biology programs and I all applied for a neuroscience program I got accepted into both and basically my first year at university I was only taking science I was taking like biology I took a course in bio archeology I really was not doing English or literature at all I had English as my elective I also had a Classical Studies Alecto first year and basically my life plan was not to do English my plan was to be like a marine biologist to go into biology save the world that kind of thing but then I took English as an elective and English I had applied for an English program and I was accepted into that as well but like it was never really my plan to fully go through is it because as all the comments have been saying I was just getting so many bad things said to me about pursuing an English degree that I let people talk me into not doing it but I'd always loved books I always like I won the English award in high school in an elementary school it was always like the thing I loved most but the thing I kept myself most from and then when I got to the University and I took English as my elective I just I couldn't do it anymore my first year English course was such an amazing course today it still remains one of the best courses I've ever taken the professor was amazing I grew so much in that course learned so much in that course I can't thank the people who made that possible enough and by the end of first year I had given up so gratefully this kind of pressure and idea of going into science because I was miserable doing my science courses honestly I was not having fun I was not getting good grades I was just like obsessed with English and literature and books and when I finally let myself into that world fully it was amazing it was the most satisfying most gratifying happiest moment of my if one of them I want to say and I don't regret it at all I can't tell you how happy going to school makes me how happy my major makes me and I don't think that's something that a lot of people would actually say so but that is why I chose it because you can't keep yourself away from something you love that much it's just not it wasn't possible for me so here I am I love this next question and it's from Lucy over crescent pages I love you too she asked what is the favorite essay of mine that I've ever written this is really hard cuz like when you judge your own work I don't necessarily judge it as like I don't know the highest mark I've ever gotten but just like an essay that I thought was so important to me or that I really enjoyed I have a lot of essays that I really enjoyed and that's an important thing to when you're picking an essay to write about you better make sure you enjoy what you're talking about or you find it as interesting otherwise you're gonna have a really bad time reading it which is what I found um it's actually an essay that I wrote in my first year at university when I didn't even know what I was doing it with my life but I actually wrote it on Paradise Lost and the rape the lock by Alexander Pope and obviously Paradise Lost is by John Milton but um it's also the highest mark I've ever gotten on an essay in university I actually got a 96 on it which is so strange the girl who wrote this paper thought that I wasn't gonna continue writing things like this I was gonna be in science so it's so strange that like I don't know it just like shows how like what you hide from yourself seeps out in other ways and other people see that and the TA who like marked this and talked to me about it really was like influential and me deciding to just really embrace literature so yes but to just talk about it for a second I called it sad virgins hungry hearts and crotchety car salesmen in John Milton's Paradise Lost and Alexander Pope's the rape of the lock I wanted to talk about sin who was actually a character in Paradise Lost she is a female from obviously I wanted to talk about Eve and I want to talk about Belinda who is kind of our main girl in the rape of the lock which is also an epic poem I guess this does really talk about eco feminism as well which is the idea that the subjugation of women and the sub J of land are fundamentally linked where's my thesis so Satan as coquettish conquer and Adam is clinging cosmopolitan equally implicate their ideals of empire on the landscapes of Eve's body and mind who is an all aspect symbolic of a virgin territory and its indigenous people but if the progress of Empire is ever westward these three so-called Empress's are nothing but generational HoMedics of each other's fallenness because poison mines and rifle bodies reflect and represent the violence futility and circularity of imperialism so like it was a weighty one it talked a lot about like land female bodies Empire just everything like that because the rape of Locke deals a lot with that too and kind of commodity fetishism and stuff like that I did also pick essay that I wrote from my other major though because it's quite different this one mate also got a really good mark on and I was surprised because I thought it was hot trashed but when I read it now I'm like no I was just being stupid it's actually pretty good this one is called sexualized signs mythological scenes as transactions of power in the house of the Vettii so the house and vetti is a house in Pompeii that is obviously covered in ash now but it contains these really really beautiful wall paintings of mythological scenes but the mythological scenes are all scenes of kind of abuse of woman in some way or another so the painting that I chose to examine was Ariadne being discovered by Dionysus which is in a triclinium which is a dining room that's just the Latin word for dining room basically through this lens paper analyzed in detail how the location and placement of this painting it's use of the Pompeian fourth style and its content of weakened and eroticized female sexuality combined to heighten the dominance power and authority of the Dominus of the house and others like him within the Roman social sphere so it was all about how like these paintings of mythological scenes were not we're like stripped of their mythological value and just used as erotic signposts basically yeah so that was really cool and I wrote to I'm sorry I could like talk about things all day but those are some answers next question I just love so much um what made you fall in love with Bantam so much and when did you know you loved it I'm assuming we're talking about Phantom of the Opera but regardless whether it's phantom or Phantom of the Opera it just started snowing I think the first reason I have a lot is that like when I was eight and grade three like I said I went to my Public Library and I went to pick this up and then the librarian at checkout was like you can't you can't check that out you're too little you're too young you won't understand that you can't read that go put it back and for the first time in my life I said no I said no to a grown-up I said no to someone who was like in very much more authority over me I was basically like I don't care I'm going to take this book out whether you bring it through or not and that was like the first moment in my life that I realized like I can have my own brain and I can say no to things and if I want I can know how smart I am I can know my level of literacy and I can read this book which was definitely quite a big realization for my small eight-year-old brain to have but I remembered just like reading it despite her despite this old librarian to like shove it in her face that I can read a classic novel of literature in grade 3 and I did do it and I think that memory too was something that really stuck with it but then when I went years later to reread it I was like wow this is a fantastic book there's so many elements to it that I love the comedy I just find absurdly funny especially with the directors in here of the Opera House I just think they're hilarious obviously we have what I must attach to the story of Erik and just that kind of persona of that loner that creature has not given love who's not shown the philosophy that I hold so dear of real cos which is really what I think connects me to this book as well and the Rilke and the Phantom their works came out together so close this was first published in 1909 as a serial a lot of real cos works came out before then and during that time period as well but that philosophy that you should love monsters because everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless wants help from us just like seeing the effects of when someone doesn't follow that advice and doesn't follow that philosophy and hate someone so much because of what because of what they look like and hate something because they don't understand it that was like my first experience with this book and like me really realizing that it's not okay to be mean to people for any reason regardless if they've done horrible things evil things awful things if they've murdered someone everyone deserves the same level of compassion which is such a controversial topic but like I that's just something I believe and I seen that play out on page and seeing the effects of bullying really it's just so awful I was also a big fan of the writing obviously I went to go see the musical of this I loved it there's just this whole world that welcomes you in in phantom and Phantom of the Opera and I loved obviously the Gothic elements the detective elements the spooky parts the scary parts the kind of madness that descends I'm not like that flip between beauty and terror which like Rilke talks about all the time I think it's in his first elegy he says every angel is terrifying and the Angel of Music is no different like I don't know there's just such a blend of everything I ever want in a book in here yeah it's just so much more to me than the words on the page as well like it's just been a childhood lifelong friend there's so many things I relate to and here's well especially one like Eric has a dog when he is a child it's a cocker spaniel and my first dog was a Congress manual as well and I remember like my dog's name was Murphy his dog's name is Sasha and when my dog died and that like it's that first time in your life if you've been kind of raised in that Western judeo-christian tradition that your parents tell you that your dog doesn't go to heaven because he's just an animal he doesn't have a soul and then like that same thing happens to Eric in here where he's told that when Sasha dies she won't go to heaven because she's just a dog she doesn't have a I had like just the exact same reaction and it was just so like it's always so clarifying and so god it's fine to see yourself through someone else's eyes and see your same problems represented in someone else's life and that was just such a huge mind-blowing thing for me to be told and to see that play out in such a similar fashion and to thankfully see him reject it as kind of hugely as I rejected that in my own life was so nice and just to be like no all dogs go to heaven I think that's a movie yeah it's just stuff like that over and over again I don't want to get really too much into it I could do a whole video on it but yeah I just realized I loved it as soon as I picked it up as soon as I held it in my hands and read the first sentence the Phantom of the Opera did exist and I just love books that try to trick you into believing it actually happened but there's so much in here that like did actually happen in history and obviously the legend of the opera ghost extends past this book just everything about it that's my short answer everything about this damn book there's so much more going on than like the cheap serial detective novel that it might get kind of advertised as and I'd really really recommend it the next question I was asked is do I speak any other language than English I assume so yes I speak English I also speak French since I was in kindergarten I've gone through a French immersion public school French immersion high school which is really great I'm so blessed that Canada offers these options and so I am fluent in French ice took I think I took one University course in French but like I just haven't studied it in university because I've studied other languages which leads me to my next language which is Italian I've taken Italian for two years now and I do consider myself pretty fluent in that as well like I can hold a steady conversation so that's great I can also read ancient Greek but once again I don't really speak it so yeah and then we have a question from the beautiful Carolyn um Carolyn no just no you are ridiculous I'm not answering this you're gonna make people a stop it then I is what books do I recommend for someone that wants to know about ancient Rome and some mythology also have you ever read any Portuguese literature and then I got some really really great recommendations thank you so much Alex I thank you I love getting recommendations and I don't think I have actually but it's about time that I do so I will definitely be looking these ones up and thank you I guess we'll start with ancient Rome recommendations I kind of slipped them into two categories and there might be a lot so bear with me so if you're kind of just looking for a broad overview of ancient Roman civilization and everything like that I do recommend a brief history of the Romans this is a textbook as well so like just be aware that it's probably a little bit pricey I don't remember how much I paid for this I think I found it at a thrift store actually so if you do go to your local thrift store usually they will have like a history section or a classical summary section you could maybe find it in there I'm not sure but basically this goes over everything from Roman religion mythology to society art culture law war military literally everything you could want is explained in here so this was really great this was actually the textbook for my first year Classical Studies course which was just an introduction to the ancient world so if you are also similarly looking for an introduction the brief history is really great in terms of kind of really digging in deeper and going with some like actual Roman authors and primary sources to kind of complement your interest in history obviously we have the Aeneid by Virgil this is a classic I don't think I really have to mention this but it's not so much for the history but it is kind of the main Roman epic that obviously everyone talks about and we are following in Gnaeus as he is actually escaping from the Trojan War so it's kind of like a nice segue from Greek culture and civilization to the beginning and the start of Roman culture and civilization what are they doing out there in terms of kind of the founding of Rome and then Rome's like quasi mythological beginnings I really recommend Livy he is a historian he wrote the rise of Rome I have books 1 to 5 here which is really awesome but it basically starts from Rome's beginning and the cycling of Romulus and Remus from the she-wolf and basically everything that started off Rome as a city or what Livy proposes as like the mythological beginnings Romulus obviously kills Remus hence why it is called Rome and not Rheem but this one honestly is just really entertaining I've had to read a lot of Livy throughout my degree so far so really recommends if you're looking at knowing more about Roman emperors and stuff like that I'd really recommend lives of the Caesars by Suetonius Suetonius is writing is just I think it's so funny so entertaining I adore it so much he actually starts off with Caesar who is obviously not the first emperor but it's really important to know about once you get to Augustus and stuff like that so then he goes all the way from Augustus until Domitian yes Augustus until the mission so that is really great it's so funny and deal details the lives of the Roman emperors kind of through scandals and just everything you could ever want from kind of a glorified history and then we have lives of the later Caesars no one knows yet who wrote this I we never will honestly but this one goes from I believe Hadrian to a Leo caballes yeah yes this one's also really funny I'd really recommend this to know more about like Roman emperors and such and then in terms of mythology I have some more things to say do you want to go with kind of the og myth guy Robert Graves really famously wrote told and published a lot of Greek myths so this is like the Greek myths Volume one and two so this is a good place to start if you just want kind of the basic myths and legends and whatnot obviously then we have a Roman Ovid who writes a metamorphosis and goes on about Greek myths of transformation change or some kind of shifting into one state from another so there's a lot of Greek myths in here if you want kind of like a modern cool beautiful coffee table book that also offers some really great information and really just kind of accessible easy mythology information I'd recommend the Greek myths by Robin water fields this one is so stunning like it comes with such beautiful pictures like this one is pacify and Daedalus and there's little Icarus in the bottom and but it basically goes from the beginning and the inception of the gods and the genealogy of the gods which is so helpful if you've like never been really introduced to Greek myth it also details the creation of humans and everything like that and then it talks about the Olympian gods the Greek heroes the Trojan War is in here and just like everything you would ever need to know for like a really good groundwork of mythology and Greek mythology is in here so that is that one and then in terms of like modern novels that are good retellings that might just make you a little bit more interested or whatever i'd recommend the song of Achilles by Madeline Miller this one is so great it details the Trojan War and the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus Madeline Miller also did Cersei which is another really great Greek mythology retelling so I'd really recommend her we're expect yes I think I am planning on actually doing a whole video on Classical Studies recommendations both on the Greek side and the Roman side and maybe a little bit of Egyptian stuff so if you'd like to see that let me know because I have literally books upon books and recommendations upon recommendations that I would spend forever talking about so I hope that answered it a little bit and if the workload in English ever gets too much um I personally overload my semesters by taking six courses last semester I actually was taking eight because I was auditing two that was a little bit crazy but like it was honestly still okay there are obviously days where I regret my whole life regret taking so many courses but like like honestly like it just doesn't get too much like that's not something I would really worry about but once again I think it just helps so much that I love it so much because that means I want to put the extra time in I want to do the extra work I want the workload to be crushing because I like being crushed if that makes sense so um to answer your question no well Coria asked if I could study anything else what would it be this is a really hard question obviously I was in science but honestly anything like I would appreciate learning anything I have really been like drawn to math recently which is so weird because my whole life I've hated math I've been awful at math I literally remember re doing this grade three math test that I failed twice and ever since that point in my life I've been god-awful at math but like it's something that like I just want to know more about it's something I would like to be good at and I would add or studying weird math like weird math math is honestly so insane and so incredible and I think it just seeks to do exactly what literature seeks to do and that's just explain the human condition in our human situation and what the hell's going on in the world so that is something I would like to study as well but literally anything I almost went to school for music for performance on for instrument performance so that's something too but yeah anything I also got a question on if I had any celebrity crushes yes I will briefly mention Cillian Murphy peaky blinders is one of my favorite TV shows and he's part of the main reason why I born lady asked how do I spare time for books apart for my uni readings that's a good question because like I feel like studying books doesn't leave you a lot of time to actually read books so for me audiobooks are like a really big lifesaver if there's something I really want to listen to or something I really want to read but I don't have a lot of time because of my syllabus schedule I will just listen to an audiobook whenever I'm not doing something super important um also I feel like I'm just a fast reader honestly so that's something too but like if you just really prioritize your time and like they schedule out everything all the time you can like fit in time to read books you want to read even if that maybe takes a little bit more time this might be a weird answer too but like really familiarizing yourself with time and like the 24 hours of the day like really knowing how each hour feels and how each hour goes and whether like relatively if that goes fast or slow for you it's really interesting to see how like really knowing the day as a concept lets you like mold it so much more to yourself like if I know that between the hour of 5:00 and 6:00 like that is a sluggish hour where like the Sun sets and everything gets dark and I don't want to do anything then I'll just read for that time because I'm not going to be productive and it is important to take breaks like other than just knowing the time of the day it sounds so silly and abstract when I say it but like really like knowing how long a minute is like it is really important the Sun so strange is probably not helpful at all but like I found that that's really important to know exactly how long a minute is not just like looking at it on a clock but like having your own internal clock and knowing what it feels like to you that's really helped me which is a weird answer yeah if you're in public transit if you're on a break taking breaks is really important and it can make you more productive and it might like taking a 20-minute break to read a book might make you then speed up 20 minutes later and actually like get on and do your work because you've had that rest so that's another answer to Molly Rose reads asked what was the first classic I ever read The Phantom of the Opera was the first classic I ever read I was 8 years old I was in grade 3 and I found this in my school library at elementary school in public school and I read it so that's very strange but like this was the first classic I ever read in terms of like children's classics I guess that like my parents read to me I got this really really beautiful collection stories by via tricks Potter the tales of Peter Rabbit so I guess that's kind of the first children's classic I ever read or what's ever read to me or was in my life but in terms of like a classical novel it is another question I got asked is what fictional character would I invite for dinner I think it'd be really interesting to sit down with either Victor Frankenstein or the monster that Victor Frankenstein created maybe having them both at the table for dinner would be quite the meal because I could just sort them both out and make them both stop being so stupid and silly I probably pick the monster though from Frankenstein just because I just want to talk to him no one ever stands up for him or gives him any thought the love any of the love that he needs or wants much like Eric from Phantom they're very similar in a lot of ways so um probably the monster the creature another answer though that I have his Lord Henry from the Picture of Dorian Gray he is a fabulous dinner guest his lines and his philosophy so entertaining so corrupting so interesting and just having him for dinner I would like just pale in comparison and be the most bland person but like just people talk to him would be really cool too even though he's obviously kind of an but yeah what character I would swap lives with for a day and this is a really good question I'm gonna be really basic and just say Hermione Granger from Harry Potter because I've been obsessed with Harry Potter for so long it's not only something I talk about on my channel because everyone loves Harry Potter I've never met someone who didn't but when I was younger I just so wanted to go to Hogwarts like you have no idea you probably do because everyone wanted to go to Hogwarts but still I still have that desire so I would swap lives with her to take all her courses yeah and she's just so cool oh my gosh she's still one of my favorite female characters a burger I just I love her so her Lucy also asked me who my favorite Lord of the Rings character was I also love this question I also love Lord of the Rings this is so hard as well because everyone in Lord of the Rings is so cool and so unique I love the trio obviously America when Legolas and Gimli but I think there is someone I love a little bit more obviously I love Aragorn so much but when I was younger I had the biggest crush on Faramir I still really love Faramir I wish the movies just focus more on his story like obviously he's in them a lot but just I don't know what it is about him he's such like a good person and I just felt so bad for him I don't know what it is about Faramir but I just really really like him he just seems like so kind and so caring and so conscious and so yeah so Faramir if you don't know Faramir is boromir's brother he's kind of the hated second son and yeah his character is just so interesting him I really really like him and so Faramir marry over at Mary among stories I love you asked me what inspires you the most this is really hard because there's a lot that I could say I think if I just had to say something it would be nature and animals like I just find animals so beautiful so inspirational so strong so just like the ideal it's so strange and it's something a topic that I would like to explore more with a lot of theory behind it I think rather than just babbling on about nature and animals in this little video but like just the strength and the perseverance and just like the beauty of nature and animals and the respect I have for that that's what inspires me most so yeah okay and then I got another question that was really interesting and when I went to answer it I realized that I had a lot more trouble than I thought I would but the question is could you recommend classics that aren't sad it seems to be a theme among classics and when I went to my bookshelf I was like yeah I'll recommend some classics that aren't sad I had such a struggle because I do realize that class more often than not and tragically and a lot of the time I think that's the reason they are classics because it's tragedy is just a common thing throughout time and history and humans and anyway I did find some happy ones so here they are so the first one pretty much all of her books are pretty good and pretty happily so you're safe there but it is Jane Austen the one I would recommend this is my favorite Pride and Prejudice you've probably heard of it I know you have it's really really good there's quite a lot of funny parts I would really recommend and like I said pretty much all of Jane Austen's novels aren't very tragic at all um so I had really recommend this one this one is a romance kind of romantic comedy but you are safe in Austen's hands from tragedy the next one that does not end tragically either is far from the madding crowd by Thomas Hardy this one is just really great it's also a romance we are following Bathsheba who lives on a farm she's a farmer and then she meets these three men who are all very different from each other and there are some sad elements to it but ultimately it does and all well and good show that's another one I would also recommend The Odyssey by Homer go read this if you haven't it's fabulous it's fantastic don't be scared of it and it won't leave you crying inside either it'll leave you quite happy so and then children's classics always end quite wonderfully as well the one I'll recommend is Matilda by Roald Dahl because this is just phenomenal this is one of my favorite children's books ever and I adore this who my favorite booktubers were so I have so many to mention and I'm so sorry if I like didn't write you down and forgot you because I watched so many amazing amazing book tubers just first person I want to talk about was actually the first book tuber to ever like reach out to me she was like probably the first person on YouTube who talked to me and the first person who became my friend on YouTube which was so incredible so amazing I appreciate her and respect her so much I just she's also one of the main reasons that I started booktube because when I started my youtube channel I was just like I was really only doing university vlogs and really just putting them up because I didn't want taking up space on my computer so it wasn't even like a booktube channel yet but I had been watching her for a while and then she reached out and messaged me and I like flipped out I have her to thank too for just like inspiring me and welcoming me into the booktube world but that's Ashley over at a frolic through fiction thank you so much you've really inspired me and really just like made me feel comfortable doing what I was doing and I love talking to you we're still really good friends and yeah she's amazing her channel is stunning you guys should go check her out she is wonderful so that's the first person I wanted to talk about and then I have four other beautiful women who like we are so close and I want to say that I'm not biased because their channels are honestly stunning amazing I wouldn't watch them if they weren't but more than that they are such beautiful wonderful women I've never met such a beautiful group of people so I'll really quickly save them because I talk about them all the time but obviously I watched so much of Mary from Mary amongst stories she is so sweet so sensitive so aware and I love her videos her vlogs are so cozy and awesome and everything about her channel I love I love you obviously then we have Carolyn over at Carolyn Marie reeds I can't explain how happy you make me you're gonna make me like have laugh lines prematurely and I'm so grateful for that like thank you I love for a channel as well she talks a lot about classics and I love how into Russian literature she's got with me recently so thank you just for being my friend as well um Lucy over at Crescent pages I know I mentioned her earlier but honestly her channel is so great and she deserves so many more subscribers I adore her she was also one of the first people that I started watching and what she does with the eyeshadow is quite extraordinary I wish I had that power but she is just so kind you were so kind and the world needs more people like you so and Keira you to the girl who asked this question Cara's corner go check her out her her video quality her style the way you speak is so eloquent and you say words like just in such a pleasing combination that's such a strange compliment but you do and I love you some of the people I will mention just so you know I'm not completely biased I recently got into the book Cleo I love her channel so that's one I also love Heather over at Aphrodite reads she knows this I love Yasmin over I am the reader Isabela over at throne of pages Caitlyn over at Kate literature Brit from basically Brits Becca over at Becca and the books there's just way too many people to talk about but um yeah I also got asked a book that I would advise everyone to read I think one that's really important is called the world peace diet by will Tuttle I don't really talk about veganism a lot on my channel I think I'd like to but kind of do it in more of a just kind of plant-based way because when people talk about veganism people get really defensive people get really aggressive other vegans as well like it's it's just kind of a I don't know it's just kind of a thing that everyone knows about but I would really really recommend just reading the world peace diet it's all about basically what your eating habits do and how that affects climate change even if you are okay with animal abuse or you are okay with voting with your dollar to kill animals it just really kind of details the effects that you have literally that you will have on yourself as well and your fellow human beings if you value their lives so that is a book I advise everyone to read I don't see how you can read it and continue eating not a plant-based diet pretty much cuz like I don't know but that is a book I would advise okay so I've been filming for such a long time now and I'm just gonna zoom my way through these last questions I'm really sorry I literally have like so much footage for this video now but what made me choose Classical Studies a really short answer basically Classical Studies was not offered in high school and I took an elective of it in my first year and I fell in love with it it was something I'd never heard of before never been introduced to before but Greek and Roman history very quickly so drawn to it so drawn to the archeology so to the language the culture the arts and just everything like that so there you go how is my writing going there's another question I got it's not going like I haven't been able to write since getting my concussion but it is still in the works I have I think 80,000 words in my first draft so far and it comes summer like that as a project I will be reviving I'll be doing writing blogs like look forward to that but um like the way it's sitting right now it's it's looking pretty good and do I like sci-fi novels yes I adore them I would die for William Gibson I love Neuromancer it's probably my favorite sci-fi book I also really love do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by philip k dick i recently read illuminate if you're looking for why a sci-fi that was awesome but yes I love sci-fi Frankenstein Frankenstein sci-fi my favorite modern author is probably David Mitchell he did Cloud Atlas he did ghost written he did the bone clocks he did Black Swan Greene heed him David Mitchell favorite classicist or like poetry probably am Carson alright so those are all the questions I'm going to be answering in this video thank you so much for watching thank you for asking all these questions thank you for being here I appreciate you guys so much this channel this channel is such a good thing in my life and you guys are the reason why so I hope I gave all right answers but those are some really really good questions and yeah if you'd like another one in the future let me know and I'm gonna go because my camera is dying and so I and yeah I hope you guys are doing well wherever you are but until then I will see you in my next video ciao

Channel: * e m m i e *

Views: 50,612

Rating: 4.9646349 out of 5

Keywords: bookish qna, english degree, english major q+a, Q+A, english lit, english degree q+A, qna, english literature qna, university qna, lit degree, classical studies qna, book qna, classic book recs, classical literature, uni life qna, booktube, booktuber, ancient rome recommendations, classic recommendations, how to read so much, english major, what to do with an english degree, how to study for english degree, jobs for english degree, aesthetic booktube

Id: bUSvfxHQc8o

Length: 48min 43sec (2923 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 04 2020