i read books i saw strangers reading on the train *weird fanfiction and a new favourite book* ad

can you tell me something was it all for nothing can't keep myself from wondering was it all for nothing so one thing to know about me is that i am nosy i'm about as nosy as pinocchio when he's telling a lie and the other thing to know about me is that i live in london and that means when i'm not on youtube i'm on the tube the london underground london subway metro system it's the most efficient way of getting around the city and so i spend quite a lot of my time on there and so when you combine these two things you get this video apparently and basically i always see other people strangers to me reading books on the london underground on the train and i want to know if those books are any good i want to know if these random strangers have good taste in literature and so this is so dumb this week i am going to be getting the tube seeing what people are reading and then reading those books and i'll let you know i think that this isn't weird you're weird anyway let's go see what some strangers are reading i don't know what you think about me with him and it's hard to believe i stayed here when they told me to leave was sincere about everything but you took me for granted sat down with a girl i couldn't stand it hopped off the train i was calling your name and you looked at me crazy like you never had anything so let's stop don't wanna see you so pissed off try to be happy but guess what girl is impossible please can you let up houston i think we have a problem and that problem is my terrible vision because i'm trying to see what people are reading and i'm like squinting at them and in the process i think it looks like i'm plotting to kill them okay update i've made it home and i have had a bit more of a success on my return journey because the person sitting opposite me was reading a book called rodden thankfully the text on the cover is quite big and rodham is basically a book which imagines what hillary clinton's life would have been like if she hadn't married bill clinton so quite intrigued by that and that's gonna be the first book that i read for this video also i am absolutely buzzing to let you know that today's video is very kindly sponsored by bbc sounds you guys know by now how much i love bbc sounds it is the home of bbc live radio great podcasts and music mixes all curated by the best of the bbc's talent so many great options on here i love listening to the focus beats music mix when i'm just trying to get work done and be productive but today my podcast of choice is going to be have you heard george's podcast which is a podcast by george the poet where he basically talks about city life through music and storytelling and it's very cool so this is what's going to be in my ears whenever i'm traveling anywhere if i'm not reading a book i'm listening to a podcast always and so for all of this content all in one place make sure you check out bbc sounds online and on the app and for now i have got a book to get around to reading and i'm hoping that it's going to be quite good yeah guys this was not good this was not good at all i wanted to enjoy it so much but i just found it uncomfy firstly i'm unsure about my opinions on the ethics of writing a fictional book about someone who is very much still alive because this is essentially hillary clinton fan fiction which is not something i thought i'd ever be reviewing on my youtube channel but here we are and i have to say if this book was written about me i would be insulted like honestly how are you going to write 400 pages about someone and their main defining characteristic is that they're just dull tell me why i was reading this and fantasizing about the prospect of paint drying it's also weird because the whole point of this book is what if hillary hadn't married bill and yet bill clinton is still a highly prominent character throughout this book both as a politician and as a love interest so for me it didn't really deviate enough from the real world that we all kind of know about especially given that it's essentially speculative fiction i think the point here is that people have often said in the media or in public discourse that hillary clinton was holding bill back whereas the point of this book is basically to turn those tables and say actually bill was holding hillary back this whole time but rodham does go on to suggest that donald trump would have been a collaborator of hillary clinton it's all just quite strange and i thought a bit distasteful but the main thing that i wanted to say about this book is that i never ever ever ever ever ever ever for as long as i live never again do i want to read another bill and hillary clinton sex scene i am scarred it's not even about who they are it's how they're written like if a book has got me missing wattpad fan fiction something has gone terribly wrong these sex scenes are written in the most wooden icky way they genuinely made my dick go inside itself i swear never before have i read a consensual sex scene that made me consider celibacy i was like get me to the nearest church i need cleansing like tell me why i'm sitting here reading bill clinton playing the saxophone naked as foreplay i give up i give up i feel like my virginity grew back just reading that curtis sittenfeld i want a written apology from you and i feel like this is punishment for taking my recommendations from random strangers raiden on the tube okay maybe i'm being a bit harsh i gave this two out of five stars because there are some some redeeming elements to this book because there are moments in here which are quite impactful and have a really strong feminist message especially regarding how society as a whole perceives professional women unmarried women and also women who exhibit assertiveness and i did enjoy reading the author's imaginations of the private thoughts of a person who is so publicly scrutinized constantly throughout their career but overall i kind of just hated this because it's so slow paced it's so repetitive there are so many political campaign cycles with such vivid details and unnecessary tangents we get introduced to so many characters who are just completely inconsequential to the narrative and it honestly just felt like a bit of a waste of time was this made with a spirit level because it's falling flat for me and i would love to know what the opinion was of the person i saw reading this on the tube did they love it did they hate it i don't know either way this is all their fault and so i really need to redeem myself here with a cracking recommendation so i am heading out tonight i'm going to the pub and i'll see what londoners are reading so let's go [Music] telling you how deeply i'm obsessed [Music] okay so the bookworms were out in full force tonight and i saw not one not two but three people three whole people reading hamnet by maggie o'farrell i feel like this is kind of like the book of the season by the way am i about to be arrested like what's going on here and i actually have a copy in my flat so i think it was meant to be it's about time i got around to reading it and i'm glad this video has encouraged me to do so so i will let you know what my thoughts are when i'm done oh my lord this book was heartbreaking and devastating and an easy five stars so thank you random lady on the train this is of course hamnets by maggie o'farrell and this was the worthy winner of the 2020 women's prize for fiction and this is a book all about the family of a little-known indie writer called william shakespeare these are the people that he left behind when he moved from stratford to london to be a playwright so we follow his three children judith susanna and hamnitz and also his wife agnes who is more commonly known to us as anne hathaway but her father in his will i think referred to her as agnes and so that is why the author refers to her as agnes here shakespeare himself is never actually referred to by name he's always the husband the father the playwright and i think that a mission is done very very intentionally because normally the focus is on him and people's relationships to him instead of shakespeare's son we have hamnet instead of shakespeare's wife we have agnes and i think that empowers and validates them as characters and human beings in their own right with stories that are worth hearing a huge theme in this book is grief and loss and it's explored in such a dazzling and outstanding way and yeah i'm gonna say it i think this is going to become a modern classic because it is so bold and ambitious but executed remarkably the title of this book obviously alludes to shakespeare's son who is often forgotten by history but literally lends his name to one of the most well-known players of all time i mean shakespeare did change hamlet to hamlet he really said it's the remix but the main character of this book is really hamlet's mother agnes who is this really free-spirited enigmatic woman who is famous in the town that they live in for her herbal remedies they see her as almost like mystical honestly she's just a badass and at points the writing is just jaw-dropping so it's a yes from me so let's go see what more people are reading [Music] [Music] today in london is boiling susan boiling but i just got home and the person who was sitting next to me on the tube was reading small pleasures by claire chambers which i actually have somewhere somewhere maybe over there obviously i didn't actually ask what the person sitting next to me thought of the book because speaking to someone on the london underground is actually illegal that would have been reckless behavior that is social suicide it would be like standing on the left side of the escalator you don't do it anyway i got some reading to do and we are done first and foremost before anything else can i get a chef kiss up in here for that cover small pleasures is a light tender beautiful novel and it's all about a journalist working at a small local paper who is covering an article about a woman who claims she had a virgin birth she girlbossed a bit too close to the sun and while investigating that story and that sort of bubbling away in the background we get these really intricate descriptions of domestic life all set in the 1950s we also get an insight into like personal relationships and as the title suggests the small pleasures of life i have a little soft spot in my heart for novels like this where we witness ordinary people finding joy and finding pleasure in ordinary things because it makes you appreciate that you can find satisfaction in your own little life like you don't have to be a world famous superstar or a pioneer to be extraordinary and equally you don't have to be extraordinary to be loved or to enjoy the life that you have that being said the ending of this book is so rogue it was as if the final chapter of small pleasures belongs to a different book entirely i'm still honestly confused about it and i can't understand why that was a choice was made and it was not a good one for me if the significance of the ending has to be explained in an afterward by the author maybe it wasn't that well thought out i'm really trying to explain this without spoilers but like the final little bit has nothing to do with the other like 300 pages of the story that we've just read it just i think it did a disservice to the general tone and the general vibe this book gave me there's also a few problematic elements like at one point a woman leaves her husband for another woman and she's kind of villainized as of that moment she becomes really miserable and sad basically just for being true to herself and her desires and although it does advance the story i felt like it could have been done in different ways or at least more delicately so this week we have had a real mixed bag this was a fun way to pick books to read though so i would actually recommend normalize being nosy normalize reading books purely because strangers on the train were reading them of course a massive shout out to bbc sounds for working with me on this video and making it happen i appreciate you so much and the link will be down below give this video a like if you liked it if you like and if you're new around here press the subscribe button because we just hit 700 000 subscribers which is mental my feet are chilly because that knocks my socks off have a wonderful day all the best stay in touch and i'll see you next time bye bye

Channel: Jack Edwards

Views: 780,105

Keywords: reading books people read on the train, train, london underground, london, jack edwards, strangers, reading books, reading books strangers recommend, hamnet, small pleasures, book review, rodham, british, booktuber, booktube

Id: MNeOaIY9b38

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021