trying to end my fear of big books!!!

hello everybody I love short books I love the way they feel I love the way they look I love the way that they fit anywhere I love that they're not heavy to read like physically on my wrists and hands but the biggest reason that I love short books is because I can feel how difficult they were to craft that the artist had this crazy idea and decided to say it succinctly in a way short books feel humble to me they feel like the author is saying listen this is the extent of my idea this is it here it is I know it's little I know it's small but I think it's important and I love that it's no coincidence that so many of my favorite books are under 300 pages and quite a few of them are under 200 pages my favorite book is under a hundred pages but the result of this favoritism that I have towards short books has been that I have avoided big books and not only avoided but actually started a fear of big books I am scared of them when I see them I feel intimidated I don't buy big books very often because I don't want them near me when I see them in a store or on my shelves I get nervous and I have absolutely no battle plan as to how to tackle these giant books and so this is the year that ends hopefully because for all of the reasons that I love short books there are people that love long books they love getting to spend so much time in a world they love that the author has the ability to fully fully examine every aspect of the setting or the character or the themes that they are exploring and I know that I am missing out on some gems there are some books out there that I really want to read but they're so long and so you don't read them so this year I am challenging myself to read six big books so what counts as a big book this is a point of contention I'm sure everyone's gonna have a different marker point I've decided 500 pages or more I don't know why I just that feels like we're in big book territory and I actually did a pen on Instagram and most of you agree I have one exception on my to read pile list because I thought it was over 500 and it doesn't quite reach 500 pages but it is a very big book and I really want to read it and this is all just something I made up anyways so I'm gonna read my book thank you very much so today I am going to be showing you the six actually seven you'll see in a minute books that I am hoping to read this year and if you want you can join me let's make a hashtag okay I just want on my computer onto Instagram to see if the hashtag I wanted to use is taken it was but then I thought of an even better one so we're gonna be using the hashtag hashtag ending big book fear because that is what I'm doing here today I am trying to end my fear of big books and for you you might not have a chronic fear like I do an ongoing fear but maybe you have a big fear of one of your big books like you just haven't tackled it for some reason pick it up you can either join me in reading the books I'm reading or you can read your own I will definitely do some sort of I was gonna say big wrap-up at the end of the year recapping what I actually finished what happened what was my experience reading big books how do they differ from little books I don't know because I haven't read a big book in a very long time if you want to follow along definitely follow me on Instagram every time I start a big book I am going to share which one is I originally thought of like scheduling it out like this books gonna be for January February this book will be for March and April but that's gonna stress me out and to end the big book fear no stress can be attached so I'm gonna walk you through my list and let's go the first boy is a big one he's a mighty tome and it is Moby Dick or the whale by Herman Melville just honestly just holding this book is stressing me out but we can do this we can end the big book fear okay so it's giant it's it's a classic it's old it is 625 pages long in my Edition this is the penguin classics deluxe edition I adore it I think it's so beautiful and when I wanted to get this book because this is okay basically this is a book that I want to read someday someday I want to have read Moby Dick I don't care one I just want to have read it but it is so giant that I thought well if I am a specifically trying to do a challenge or I tackle big books that scare me this is the year to do it and I looked through many various editions of Moby Dick and this was my favorite one I just think it's beautiful so the font size is pretty good I am going to break the spine on all of these books so do not expect good spines at the end that is one of the hazards of the big book life I've heard that even though it's giant and it has a lot to do with whale anatomy it is actually worth reading so what will I think I don't since we're in classics mode I will show you the other classic that I want to tackle and it is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky okay another beautiful addition very excited about this this again is one of those books that I thought you know one day I'll definitely be picking up that book the other reason is that this is my boyfriend's favorite book and I want to be the kind of girlfriend that reads her boyfriends favorite books that seems I like that all I know is that this is about a character who commits a crime he's chased for that crime and he is ridden by guilt so I'm into it this boy is 522 pages and it has a good sized font I'm I'm I'm happy about that there's gonna be another book in here where I'm not happy with the point it's also very floppy if you all remember the flop test from our last video this boy no flop oh that's okay I respect his structural integrity this boy lots of flop especially for a big book big books can really hold themselves together often times and this guy's he's allowing himself to be free there's a lot of give there which actually will probably mean that I don't have to break the spine on this guy because look how flat he lays these are the things I care about I care about the flop test next up let's move towards some more contemporary classics not new but new work this next boy I I went back and forth do I want to tackle this do I and I did even though I was scared of it I wanted to and it is IQ 84 by haruki murakami so there are a few editions of this book available and the one I decided to go with was the one that has been split into three volumes for a couple of reasons number one it's how it was originally published in Japan so I like trying to keep to the original thing number two I am obsessed with this presentation it is so cool-looking but number three I have very weak wrists and if something can help me not be as heavy I'm always game for that actually number four I feel like maybe having it in three books will make it feel more doable but there is also the option that it will feel less doable because it will feel like I'm reading three books and in the end I've only finished one book we'll find out but if you take them out of they're really awesome leave beautiful design whoever designed this gets a gold star each book has the volume number on it and of course the page count but what I really appreciate that makes it feel like it is one book is that this book finishes on page 387 and then when you move to book two the first page is 388 so it does move through continually and then on the last book is Wow it is one thousand one hundred and fifty seven pages so this is the longest one so far you know it's bad when they gotta split it up the font size is pretty good though to be honest I don't think that the font size is bad it's solid it's normal very normal they're a bit more dense they're still pretty floppy but I've been more dense the pages feel just a bit more compact hmm I need to be honest with you right now I just realized that I don't know what this book is about and here's why I don't care the reasons I'm excited about this book are multiple and but not very related to the Wow to the synopsis the first is that it's IQ 84 it's a reinterpretation and adaptation inspired from an homage to 1984 we all know I love tour drawer well and I'm very interested to hear how such a new like a modern contemporary classic can be a new version of 1984 when was this originally published it was originally published in 2009 so over a decade old my god my gosh my strategy for putting stuff back into boxes like that is to first approach it from a diagonal the other reason is because I like Haruki Murakami I've read other stuff by him enjoyed it and the slight echoes of what the plot is about and I've heard sound really cool the main character starts to notice very strange things happening in her world and apparently there's like dual timelines parallel universe kind of thing going on and it goes on a crazy adventure so I'm there for it Wow is she big that's the heaviest one so far okay the next newer one is a little disappointing looking but hear me out it is the secret history by Donna Tartt now I don't mean disappointing in the cover I feel I feel okay about this cover I really like the spine but the reason it's disappointing is because it looks really small it does not look like it's over 500 pages long but it is it is 560 pages long so it's like oh it's on its way to 600 pages this is longer than it wasn't it longer than Moby Dick um it's pretty long book and the font is small this is the one where I was telling you I'm not impressed with the font I actually wish that they had just made it a bigger boy and given me a bigger font because this font is pretty small it's a nice font it's a serif which is fancy but it's it's too small but anyway even though it looks small it does feel like a big task to undertake I have read the first 42 pages of it previously like a year ago and I really enjoyed it but it took me a while to get through those 42 pages because it's tiny font I talked about this book a lot in my last video so I won't go too far into it but this is about a murder and an elite University a group of pretentious classics students it sounds like it's gonna be a fun weird time I've heard so many good things about it from friends and the first section that I read I really liked and my last video was um my last video I lost all track of time I guess but the video in which I talked about this book was my 5 star book predictions so I really think I'm going to love this book so it's one that I absolutely want to tackle this year and so even though it doesn't look big do not be deceived he is long next up is the book I am most scared of it's not I don't even think how long is it it's not as long and no it's not it's not as long as her can we're commies book but it is long and it is a genre I don't read but I will be disappointed if I don't give it a shot and it is dude oh my God look at it it is it's a truckie boy he's big he's thick he is also beautiful I love the sprayed edges I love this cover I think this was a special edition they put out the hardcover has like an embossed quotation on it says fear is the mind killer it's a very beautiful book this is like a poster on the inside it's beautiful it's absolutely gorgeous oh and the end papers are beautiful too like they did it they want the full mile and I appreciate that the reasons I'm trying this one number one there are a lot of really cool giant sci-fi books this is one of the most acclaimed - there's a movie coming out for it at the end of this year starring Timothy sha'lame and another like a giant amazing cast so I want to see that and I think it would be cool to have read the book first three it's my another one of my boyfriend's favorite books why couldn't he love short books I don't know 84 it's just something I've been curious about for a very long time I've heard so many people talk about it but I have no idea what it's about I mean I'm reading the synopsis right now and I still have no idea what it's but about a boy named Paul tasked with ruling an inhospitable world he's set on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could have ever imagined it sounds like a riot so my the reason that I'm the most scared of this one is twofold number one I don't read fantasy I don't hate fantasy I just don't tend to pick it up I've enjoyed lots of to see in my day but it's just not my main genre so it's just intimidating to me because I don't really read it um and secondly I'm intimidated because I read the first two or three pages when I received this book and it was doing the thing that fantasy does that scares me in that like there's a million names that I don't understand there's a whole monarch achill system that I don't understand and we're on planets with names I don't understand and I'm just like what's going on so it intimidated me so this is the one I'm most scared but I'll give it a shot and it'll be cool if I finish it to get the payoff of seeing the movie now the last book that I have here is my cheater book because it actually doesn't reach 500 pages which I'm so annoyed about but it's big and it is this biography of Frida Kahlo by hayden Herrera so it's big book in and and the reason that I haven't read it is because it's so big and scary it scares me um I think that there are pages in here yeah there's a lot of pages in here that have photographs and those pages aren't numbered so I wonder if those are the pages that like make this book feel so big also it does have quite like that cushy type of page do you know what I mean it's kind of a fluffier paper once you remove all the acknowledgments the appendices the index the notes etc it is 440 pages so that is 60 pages short from the 500 page that makes me feel like something as a big book but I think physical size also has a big part to play in what a big book is for me and even though I've been so excited about this book for a very very very long time ever since I started reading Frida related books I've wanted to read this one the reason I haven't read it is because I'm intimidated by it and this project is all about squashing my fear of big books so ending book fear it's happening I love freedom I love freedom so much I think she's fascinating and this is kind of the authoritative biography on her this is the one if you want to know about Frieda you read this book and so I will look at how giant the stack is usually I will talk about like five or six books in a video and the stacks like this I now the final book I want to mention I mentioned there was kind of a suspicious secret book and that is because it's not out yet and it is the Ballad of song birds and snakes I think hi Suzanne Collins so this is the upcoming big release prequel to The Hunger Games and I do hope on reading this book and it comes out in May it's rumored to be over 600 pages so if that is the case which I believe it to be it would count in this big books challenge I also want to say that if I really am NOT enjoying a book I am not gonna finish it for the sake of this project I don't believe in torturing yourself with literature I think that books should be fun and exciting especially if you're not in school that doesn't mean that books can't be challenging and difficult and a bit harder to read I'm sure some of these will be for me but I'm still going to if I'm hating something I'm gonna DNF it and if you want to follow that journey definitely follow me on Instagram like I said if you want to join in on this project I would love for you to join in use the hashtag ending big book fear anywhere and I will try and find stuff tag me in photos on Instagram if you want to read one of these with me let me know down in the comments cuz I think that's really fun oh I don't know which one I'm going to start with yet I'll post on Instagram when I do I hope to start one in the next few weeks because these books aren't gonna read themselves times are running short already and if you want to read a big book that isn't one of these also let me know because I I just want us all to just retry try tackling some giant books thank you so so much to everyone for watching this video and if you're gonna take part in the project for taking part in this bizarre idea I also want to give a huge shout out to my patrons I've been trying to upload more videos and to make them really fun and nice and if you enjoy my videos and want some extra fun bonus perks but mainly want to support what I do please check out my patreon and join the family it's a good time over there I love everyone over there that is my video and that is my challenge I have my quest set upon me to work through all of these pages ooh I don't under how many pages it is all together boom I'm trying to work through that many pages I believe in you I believe in dammit I believe in me I hope you guys enjoyed this video and I will see you in my next one bye

Channel: Ariel Bissett

Views: 206,916

Keywords: arielbissett, ariel, bissett, books, book, book review, booktube, ariel bissett

Id: olWPIpUTM1U

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 23 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/KrkrkrkrHere]

How do you find all those awful videos ? Are you actually watching those YouTuber ?

Also watching her Goodreads, she actually has read none of them and we are already halfway through the year. However she read this and i don't know how to feel about that

[u/DHLawrence_sGhost]

Me trying to read a 400 page book: 😀🔫

[u/criminal09]

Is that why stephen king writes 1000 page novels, for double the fright?

Also your youtube recommendations must have gone to shit by now

[u/ThirtyYearsWar]

Read the first and last page. Through the squeeze theorem, you’ve read the entire book

[u/StAugustine94]

I also love the fact that short books fit anywhere.

[u/ScalawagInTheShadows]

just read every 5th page, problem solved

[u/brilliantretard]

I fully expected her to contradict the seemingly humble title of this video with a casuistic, self-justifying argument about how shorter books are actually fundamentally and inherently better than long ones. I just didn't expect her to do so in the first minute.

[u/sekhmet0108]

She has an interview with Bill Gates! Wtf!!!

[u/EpicPizzaMaster]

This poor woman is suffering from intelliphobia please be considerate and delete this post 😡