Grant, my friend! I've been MIA recently but wanted to pop on to say hello! I hope school isn't making you too miserable! 😢 I just really hope you're doing well.

Lovely. Thank you. I'm from Pakistan. Have a Masters in English Literature. I did the right thing. You just showed me.

I read The Four Wise Men some years ago, found it confused or confusing, forgot it, found my note on it after watching your post, and now I just bought The Ogre and will give him a new get go. Thanks for "granting" me the opportunity!

Hey Grant. Nice book. I've read The Ogre around 1990. Liked it a lot at that time. By the way: Did you get my email?

I‘m 55 and have MS so my balance abilities are shot. My husband is the same age and does Tai Chi and his balancing skills are great. Am on the hunt through your channel for another book club idea. We’re reading Flowers for Algernon, surprised you haven’t reviewed such a wonderful classic yet.

I certainly won't forget this review anytime soon. Thank you.

Grant wants a man cave. 😂

Thank you Grant…… going to seek a copy…. Unaware of this writer till listening to your extraordinary interptrtation twice over tonight. So little time left in my life to read so much wonderful literature … thought I had most of the Prix Goncourt luminaries is my library. Just returned from Baltimore to visit my three year old granddaughter Genevieve… my unexpectedl one and only. When do you graduate? Respect to your wife and warm hugs for the little one …… Miss Jenny

This not only sounds interesting, but a sort of a reverse plot of Jerzy Kosiński’s Painted Bird. Thank you for this. I’ll look for a copy of The Ogre.

10:37 ah!!! I'm reading now and I've finished Justine, and...I thought: but this is what they say is "excellent"!!! Hmmm, but I found it so uninteresting and with very far-fetched descriptions, which didn't hit the mark (for those who have only read Justine! 😉) rarely able to convey the emotion that someone is supposed to want, when writing like that, cold, as you also said. Something's missing, probably the rest of the quartet...Well, your video Grant has given me the impetus to continue with Balthazar, let's see! 🙂

The general rule with French is only to pronounce the final consonant of a word if it is followed by an 'e'. ( C,R,F and L are the exceptions and can be remembered as the CaReFuL consonants). Hence Grandet=Granday, Bizet=Bizay etc.

hello from a fellow romantic lit lover! im wondering if you had a chance to see saltburn yet and what your thoughts are?

Well, I am loving your content and have just signed up to Patreon. I'm also O negative - perhaps that swung it. Anyway, thank you for all of your efforts here - you are greatly appreciated so please keep going!

I thought that The Vivisector was a very worthwhile read.

The playing of beautiful music on an old violin is only possible if the player's bow is still up to the task...🎉🎉🎉

Happy Reading! 😎📚👍

Ty for the video Going to my local indie bookstore and getting Silas Can’t wait to dive into it

The first book I bought in a charity shop a few years ago was… Silas Marner. I knew nothing about books but liked the penguin edition. I should probably try reading it…

I picked up a copy of Silas Marner when my son and his wife named their son Silas. Had to find out what the only other instance of the name I'd ever heard of was all about! They pronounce it s(eye)lus. Sounds like a great set of books to work your way through!

I'm not a massive Brett Ellis fan but I assumed his intention was indeed to write like a self indulgent, teenage, edge lord as that is basically what Patrick Bateman is. I think it's an ok book, I think whenever a lit-fic author comes out with something graphic and controversial people are falling over themselves to describe it as important, if American Psycho had been written as a genre novel with that level of violence the same people would write it off as trash. He is a poser mind. I'm enjoying your videos, thanks.

Brightly colored lit screams YA or chick lit to me...I'm with you. Not a fan. Also not a fan of movie tie in covers.

What do those charity shop scum bags want, blood? Oh, wait.....!

highly enjoyable video, the thrift store stuff was really interesting, a lot of people in this area who have good taste in books who just died -- charmingly observed -- the good news is somebody in town also loves literature, the bad news is they're dead! I also love the teal Penguins, finally somebody said there's different penguin imprints. Babylon Revisited is my favorite F. Scott short story one hopes it is in that collection, although I believe The beautiful and damned to be better than Tender is the Night. Brett Easton Ellis is a funny case for me, Less Than Zero I liked but did not love but it was fresh and new, the next book Rules of Attraction was insipid nonsense I actually threw it across the room but American Psycho was getting so much chatter when it was published I had to decide for myself and I liked it, it reminded me of Chants De Maldoror by Lautréamont and liked it enough to read The Informers, which was fun enough but as a writer, he's a bit of a poser. He seems to be commenting on our materialistic culture but he seems as vapid as the culture and lacks a self awareness to know it. Ironically, the American psycho film is more significant than the novel culturally, while the films of LTZ, ROA, The Informers are awful, barely watchable. He's a fizzy writer whose era has passed but his books do tell us something about the era.

Thanks for donating blood! 🅾🩸 I think you're going to enjoy "White Teeth."

Good haul. Again I've read most, but not quite all of those. Really enjoyed The Vivisector. I didn't like the Solid Mandala so much and I haven't been able to finish another Patrick White. I've The Eye of the Storm on my self for many years, but haven't got around to it yet. Perhaps I never will. Even though I've read The Great Gatsby 3 times I think, I still don't know what all the fuss about Fitzgerald is all about. And yes, I've read his short stories too and felt much the same way. Read Less Than Zero when it was new and all "abuzz". Didn't like it. Thought it was childish inanity, and haven't read any Ellis since. Silas Marner was required reading in college. While good enough, I can't say as I'm taken with much 19th Century literature outside of Melville--but that's just me, and I had to take many starts at Melville. Maybe someday I'll come to love the Victorian--and maybe not. Thank you as always with this survey of Thrift Store Treasures--there's a title for as yet untaught college course. All the best as always. BTW, I've B negative blood, which I believe is more rare, I can't donate any longer as I once had hepatitis. So it goes.

Read as a 20 year old and never forgot it 😂

Me too universal donor. Fairly common blood in Scotland

No reply necessary. I comment for the algorithm.😂

Feel like I need Cold Comfort Farm. Laughter is a great passtime. Thanks.

O negative here. 😮

Capital!

Lucky you! The Cabinent of Dr Caligari and The Scarlet Empress (not von Sternberg's best, but a very good one)!

Nothing to do with alcohol at all. That’s like saying war movies are about bullets. Goodness. Ranting about sexuality and alcohol is beyond absurd.

Every now and then depression tries really hard to kick my butt and convince me I'm useless. Sometimes I'll argue that by remembering that I quit smoking 20 years ago. Like you, I have no idea where that determination comes from, but it's in there somewhere. Congrats to you 😊

The Welsh poet R.S.Thomas was also a priest. His privileged and intimate knowledge of his local community was what informed his poetry. I think poetry helped him get to the crux of what he observed and did so in an intensely effective way He renders bleakness very well. His poems go very well with the bleaker than bleak paintings of Kyffin Williams. I gather from what I've watched of your content that you aren't especially keen on poetry. I would nonetheless recommend his poem, 'A Peasant'. I choose my poems very carefully. Can't stand Wordsworth (Byron called him Turdsworth and I agree!). There's heaps of prentious crap out there but every now and then, I strike gold and R.S.Thomas is one such enduring seam in the poetry landscape. I am enjoying your channel so much. Thank you for all if your efforts - I don't know how you find the time.

The existential dread, as you so aptly put it…… faces us all of some intellectual mindset…… what else is is there.

Your words Grant: “led me into this world of vice…”. The depravity of capitalism in our age. A good read.. Take care, MissJenny (music teacher, Manhattan).

I give you credit. I'm in my 50s and I don't think I'd be able to sit in classes geared toward young peoples minds. We need an old folks university 😂

Not certain this one is for me.nice review though. I'm currently reading The Twilight Years by Ariyoshi and really enjoying it.

Is the swimmer film from 1968 based on this book?

Thanks Grant. Just discovered and subscribed, excellent. Please persevere, you will gain a loyal readership but gradually.

Your future students will be blessed to have you.

I forgot about the cat. What a great Mishima. You know, your theory, interesting how samurai philosophy is akin to the emperor as godhead politics of Yukio. He is making that point, that inner stoic courage which at the time I read it, really punk. There's a not half-bad film with Kris Kristofferson set in England. Yukio does have a morbid side though, he's got lots of death imagery. Not gratuitous, it's how he rolled!

Thank you Grant…… interesting take, & good hair cut……… the little one is simply adorable ……. I’m re-reading my little original Vintage paperback “The Sibyl” by Nobel Laureate Pär Lagerkvist….154 pages. Small masterpiece. Regards, Miss Jenny

Nagasaki and Hiroshima were subjected to atomic bombing by the US.

I've just realised how little of the book I remember. Totally share your tastes. Exactly the same trajectory of dissapointment with his later books. I've got Enduring Love lined up for a reread and hope I enjoy it as much as I did the first time. I haven't read him since Saturday, which was horrible. Private Eye did a hilarious review of it at the time.

Have you reviewed Under the Volcan by Malcolm Lowry? Talking of dissipation. Probably Lowry is the more accomplished writer.

Thanks so much for the review ... I'm off to grab a copy of the book ;) thanks again, from Canada!

I read 'Alone in Berlin' a few years ago - a lucky find in a charity shop.I hadn't heard of him and the book was very touching and disturbing. I am fascinated to hear more of this writer and look forward to reading this novella.Thank you for the recommendation . 'Fallada' comes from a fairy story about a horse which speaks, I think.

Could you be enrolled in a less than average University? Actually it just sounds as though the University you portray is not a great fit for you, while another one just might be. Doesn't sound like a very inspired faculty either, so how could they possibly inspire their students? And by the way, all the Literature students I've known over the years were on fire and reading even more outside of their assigned texts. Slaughterhouse-Five is Vonnegut's best in my view. The only one I've read more than once. So it goes. Citizen Kane might be the best film ever made--if there is such a thing. Surprised you haven't already seen it. I only watched Apocalypse Now once when it was new and in the theater. I though it was a pretentious mish mash of Conrad and TS Eliot to appear literary. Maybe I should give the Redux a glance or two. All the best as always.