My All-Time Favourite Books ?

hello hey everyone I'm making a video about my favorite books of all time today or are they my favorite books of all time I'm doing a sort of twist on this whole question of favorite books of all time because it won't actually be me talking about my favorite books but my 20 year old self because I found this list of my 100 favorite books of all time that I made in 1999 when I was only 20 years old so I'm gonna go through this list and question myself like are these actually still my favorite books or have they changed and I'm all suited up today because I had an important meeting today and I thought why not just stay in my suit including clothes because it's a special occasion today it is my birthday today not actually today it's my birthday on Sunday when I'm gonna be posting this video I'm gonna be 40 years old so this is my 40 year old self looking back at my 20 year old self and questioning whether I really loved these books or was it just me being young and pretentious and thinking these should be my favorite books of all time because something I've think that's really interesting is like how our attitudes towards books change over the years and how our actual opinions of the book are sort of determined by social factors like you know how I've been working with the reader analytics company this year and one of the interesting things we've found in like surveying these groups of classic books and people's responses to these classic books is that normally when they test a reading campaign for a book say it's a romance or a thriller and people will fill out comment cards afterwards describing what they thought about the book and so they'll rate on a scale of one to ten whether they enjoyed the book and on a scale of one to ten whether they would recommend the book and generally with these new books like romances or thrillers they would fill out like maybe like yes seven eight nine I've really enjoyed the book but when it comes to recommending it it'll probably be lower like a three or four because it's a sort of social thing they feel a bit embarrassed that it's sort of a guilty pleasure that they enjoyed these books but with classic books the results are sort of the opposite that people might not have enjoyed this reading this classic book that much they only say it's a three or four but then whether they're recommend it they'll put a seven or an eight and so it's like the social perception is that they think that well this is a classic book it's one that I should be recommending even if the actual experience of it wasn't something I enjoyed all that much so that's really interesting I think so it like shows how you know reading we we have these like pretensions in reading and whether we actually recommend a book versus like how much we actually enjoyed it so this is me quizzing my 20 year old self whether I actually enjoyed these books or whether they were just pretentious so I'm gonna go through this list and show it up on the side so you can see and number one on the list is Virginia wolves the waves and that is still my top all favorite book of all time I'm mulling that up but it's yeah my favorite book of all time and I know that because I've still been reading it after all these years both physically I'll go back and read passages from the physical book and also I often listen to it on audiobook while I'm walking around London and it's a book that I'd go back to you all the time there's so much in it and it's a book that I feel is really aging with me like it's the I'm finding different meanings of it as I get older as I have different life experiences it's all changing over time and so yes definitely this is still one of the greatest books of all time the Hermit by Eugene ionesco this was his only novel I talked a bit about him in my bookshelf tour video that is the last video that I made it's I don't know I haven't read this book in many years it's like a very existential type of book I feel like I'd really need to reread it probably a lot of these selections are me saying like I need to go back and reread this cuz I don't know how I really feel about it but I think probably part of me is a bit pretentious looking at this now looking at the next choice to the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf controversially I'm gonna go back and say this isn't one of my favorite books of all time because I did go back and try to read this several years ago and I just wasn't connecting with it in the same way as I did to the waves it's it's there's a lot of fun riding on it a lot of interesting ideas but do I connect with it in the same way I don't know James Joyce portrait of the artist said young man yeah it's I'm great I'm sure mmm who knows Dostoevsky I love Dostoevsky but I haven't read him in a really long time it's difficult to know crime and punishment you know between crime and punishment and Brothers Karamazov I remember in particular one scene where this woman this very poor impoverished woman living on the street makes her children perform and dance for the public and I remember this scene so vividly because you see this woman she's talking and talking a base in herself talking about how she's fallen in life and how she has to humiliate herself making her children perform on the street and you get this sense of her humiliation and also the children crying and humiliating themselves dancing for the public trying to be given change and also the public's embarrassment going by looking at this scene of like utter humiliation and poverty and sadness and you feel everyone's perspective and that is so powerful I can't remember if it's in crime and punishment or the brothers karamazov who knows tell me if you know but I remember that scene so vividly so I think he is an amazing writer I need to go back and reread his work Hundred Years of Solitude I know a lot of people like to dump on this novel now when I read it as a teenager blew me away this incredible family saga was so amazing but I haven't read it in many years and I want to reread it Moby Dick that was me being pretentious I know it was didn't tell but I mean there's an incredible scene at the beginning of male intimacy when he's hugging Queequeg in bed that just blew my mind the rest of the book I don't know I don't know josé saramago incredible I think if I did go back and reread this book I I would still find it really profound underworlds by Don DeLillo that was me being pretentious Orlando by Virginia Woolf incredible actually I plan to reread this really soon because I'm going to a very special event all around Orlando white noise by Don DeLillo actually I think this really was a great novel wasn't just me being pretentious next American pastoral Philip Roth who died this year I think this was a really great novel who knows I haven't read it in a really long time Georgia will keep the aspidistra fine I love this now though it's it's not a novel of in the Canon typically for George Orwell's books but it's a novel like showing his real struggle as a man in a capitalist society trying to discover what was really meaningful in life and that sounds really pretentious but I think it's it was a really great novel love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez I think there's probably more me being pretentious but I do remember it is a great read mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf I'm on the fence who knows could be pretentious could be not heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad probably was me being pretentious I don't really remember the novel that well I have a good friend of mine has read it countless times one of his favorite books of all time do I think so it's short I should go back and reread it Walden by Henry David Thoreau now this is me more connecting with my teenage self where I was struggling with how I wanted to fridge fit into society throws a classic example of going back really considering where we fit in and the the next novel is Walden to really speaks to that which was written by a behavioral scientist who thought of taking the Rose idea of being self-sufficient within the larger society to a community level so he it's a utopian novel about that at this community formed together living within the larger society but they try to be as self-sufficient as possible I went and visited some intentional communities when I was a teenager and really considered going to live on one of them and who would have thought in 20 years time I would be here in a suit talking to a camera posting videos on YouTube Sidharth a-- by hermann hesse i think this is an almost probably best left in my teenage years araound by samuel butler i barely remember anything from it so brave new world it's brilliant but best left in my teenage years Henderson the brain King I went through a big like Saul Bellow stint in my teenage years and I think this novel is really great I took a line from it as an inspiration for a novel I wrote called enough but I want to reread it lakehouse me being pretentious Leviathan me being pretentious the thief's journal meeping soda pretentious I really want to revisit John Jame I mean he was my hero as a teenager this like outlaw homosexual what's not to love ragtime still one of my favorite books the color purple still one of my favorite books the hour is still one of my favorite books breathing lessons this novel I want to revisit but I think is still one of my favorite books Song of Solomon favorite book The Poisonwood Bible still a favorite book nausea probably still a favorite book I don't know I think a lot of pimples by men are gonna be me being pretentious Invisible Man that is still a favorite book Joseph Andrews I barely remember anything from it but I do remember it being really great so I think still one of my favorite books Picture of Dorian Gray I think that was me more being pretentious the elephant vanish is hugely enjoyable not one of my favorite books of all time anymore and there are Connor me being pretentious Don DeLillo me being pretentious I've loved and other demons house me being pretentious point/counterpoint probably I need to reread it Lolita yeah I need to reread it but I think more me benches age of innocence still one of my favorite books brilliant amazing and as I've got older this book has taken on more meaning for me the edible woman mmm probably me being pretentious the half you don't know by Peter Cameron not an incredibly well-known author I need to reread it to see if it's still one of my favorite books but I don't think that was me being pretentious port noise complaint or pretentious pilgrim at tinker Creek really an amazing favorite book and Dora yeah this is probably still a favorite book also by Peter camera and teaching a stone to talk yeah still a favorite book handful of dust yes this is still a favorite book amazing novel I really want to reread this a clergyman's daughter another great obscure overall novel but probably not one of my favorites Handmaid's Tale I sort of feel like I have to say it's still one of my favorite novels but actually no I don't have to say that anymore I'll leave that aside it's a great novel but probably not one of my favorites invitation to a beheading need to reread it 1984 there it is yeah probably I don't know the blue flower I want to revisit this novel actually I want to revisit all of Penelope Fitzgerald's novels she is great the New York trilogy really fun but they're probably not my favorite novels tell of an unknown island this is a really short saramakan novel no not one of my favorites anymore the stranger no meeping pretentious hard-boiled Wonderland and the end of the world another really fun novel I've loved to reread it probably not one of my favorites the blindfolds by hosts vet I would say now adays her novel the blazing world much greater novel this was in early sort of experimental novel for her off shore by Fitzgerald yeah I want to revisit again great expectations yeah that is great would it be one of my favorites again Herzog by Saul Bellow bellows novels sort of blur together for me so I don't know for the time being I probably say this isn't one of dillard's greatest books but it's Annie Dillard she's great son of Percival peacock this is an absurdist novel probably not many people will have read it it's wild and crazy I I really want to reread this beloved Oh beloved oh yeah probably still one of my favorite novels latter of years definitely one of my favorite novels still my favorite end Tyler novel I can't wait to read the new Anne Tyler novel oranges the only fruit probably not my favorite but a great important novel bartleby the scrivener this is one of my favorite novels of all time unlike Moby Dick which you know I put near the top of the list Bartleby the Scrivener is amazing salika dobson so fun probably not one of my favorite novels of all time but so fun Moon Palace that's more of like now obviously I was reading a lot of Paul Auster who knows homo Faber actually I don't remember this novel at all I really ought to reread it because I can't remember one single thing about it the earth loved this solo novel has a very vivid scene in it very vivid sexual scene in it I won't recount that it's a great novel I really want to read some more emile zola patrick planet I don't remember it so well Howards End I think that was me being pretentious I saw a great stage adaptation recently which was an updated version of Howards End set in gay New York City that was amazing it did make me want to go back and read the book but that was me probably being pretentious on the road me being pretentious Winesburg Ohio I think that was me being pretentious down and out in Paris in London great book I think sort of piece of like journalist nonfiction so good the princess casamassina I love the princess casamassina I find Henry James's writings so pretentious but Princess kazuma-sama so much fun Arden lies me definitely being pretentious Catcher in the Rye leave that in my teenage years time must have a stop I really don't remember much from it at all despair by Nabokov need to revisit that Great Gatsby actually no I I don't think this is that great a novel I know it's in lots of greatest novels of all time lists but no it it doesn't affect me that much maybe I need to go back and reread it yes maybe I do all the king's men yes this was a great novel a great read I love to revisit it I think it probably is still one of my all-time favorite novels the woman in the dunes really brutal bleak novel yeah yeah I think I think that belongs there As I Lay Dying as I lay snoring no I'd probably say it is a great novel but I need to go back and reread some Faulkner Burmese days yeah yeah it was great life before man I don't remember this outward at all the longest journey mmm no don't really remember it the passion yeah really fun but not one of my favorites invisible cities yeah yeah great oh what a paradise it seems yeah I think if I went back in reread this novel I would still think it was great Old Man and the sea I feel like I really need to reread this but my gut says like yeah it was a beautiful brilliant book Madame Bovary I did reread this about 10 years ago and it was still brilliant still one of my favorite books house made of dawn I think it was great I don't remember a huge amount about it Carol back to John Jen a need to reread it hunger yeah yeah this was great but I think with some teenage pretension Passage to India yes this was amazing actually I'm surprised this Forester wasn't higher up in my list missus Caliban yes brilliant amazing still one of my favorite books and finally Martin Eden by Jack London yeah it's great would it be one of my favorites I don't know I need to go back and reread it so I don't know how interesting all of this summary was of my list but yeah it's sort of interesting to go back and I think I would definitely change the order for some if they were still my favorites but you know I'm sort of an adult now who has to go to meetings and wear suits so I don't have the time to sit down and reorder books endlessly like I did in my college years when I would just sit in the library and reorder my list of favorite books yep I wasn't going to a lot of parties so I just thought quickly I would go through some of my favorite books from more recent years so that my 60 year old self can look back and judge my 40 year old self saying whether I was being pretentious or whether I really loved these books I didn't spend a huge amount of time going through this I just went through my shelves picking out books left and right and saying I love these books so I'm just gonna list them all really quickly the unconsolable euro knightwood by Djuna Barnes connected with this so strongly bad blood by Lorna sage this brilliant memoir housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson amazing the parcel by an Asha irani the bleakest novel I've ever read but also one of the most brilliant skin lane by Neil Bartlett this another novel that is so dark so moving tinman by Sarah women Oh Tin Man mrs. angles by Gavin McRae I can't explain how strongly I connected with this novel even though it's about woman from centuries ago who was the mistress of the philosopher of Frederick angles it I just this novel spoke to me Balzac by Stephen swag if this is a biography a brilliantly funny biography I am gonna talk about this book a little bit because it is so brilliantly funny and why it's so brilliantly funny is Stefan Zweig was a really serious serious writer and Balzac a brilliant writer but not serious he loved gambling he wanted to get rich quick he saw writing as a means to an end rather than an art form which Steven's wag obviously considered it a great art form and that tension of him writing a biography about Balzac is so luscious I just love this book how to be both by Allie Smith in America by Susan Sontag breath by Tim Winton Maps for lost lovers by Nadine Aslam and finally Joyce Carol Oates book who has become my favorite author ever since this 1999 list which was the year that I first started reading Joyce Carol Oates so hadn't read her hundreds of books yet but the first novel actually this isn't the first doors Carol Oates novel I read the first novel I read by her was man crazy I think but this is the first novel that really spoke to me really showed what a genius she was like in my library tour video this is a Franklin Library Edition which has a special introduction by her talking about her self-conscious experiment working writing the sequence of novels reworking America's most popular genres and that sounds pretentious but this book isn't pretentious I know it is brilliant because so is entertaining and funny and dark and twisted and weird but also really thoughtful has so many brilliant ideas in it I can't praise it enough yet this is the novel that set me off on my great love for Joyce Carol Oates is writing so there we have it those are some of my favorite books I wonder what my 60 year old self is gonna think going back and looking at this list who knows we'll see in 20 years time so thank you for watching let me know if you have any thoughts about this you have your own like lists of your favorite books of all time do you ever revisit it wonder is that just me being pretentious or did I really love that book let's get talking in the comments below and let me know what you think thank you for watching and I will speak to you again soon bye everyone

Channel: Eric Karl Anderson

Views: 28,457

Keywords: Booktube, Book Tube, Favorite books, favorite novels, best books, top 10 books, The Waves Virginia Woolf, Eugene Ionesco, James Joyce, Joyce Carol Oates, Mrs Engels

Id: ZbJam947aBk

Length: 24min 11sec (1451 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 01 2018