wth 59 boeken is craaaazzzy!! you go girl

Hi FEMKE, old luddite here, got a chuckle out of all those GoodReads stats and graphs! If my old worn out reading note book could do stats and make graphs I expect it would tell me that I'm CRAZY! 😂 Merry Christmas 🎄.

You've read some great books and done well with a busy uni schedule. ❤📚👍

I think you did great!! All of my reading stopped during uni unless it was school related.

Congratulations. Bearing in mind Uni, etc you have done remarkably well. Happy holidays.

"Foster" is a master piece

Reading Joseph Conrad "Under Western Eyes." Joyce had not yet become incomprehensible at that point of "Portrait of the Artist-" so it's readable. Just wait till you get to "Finnegan's Wake." 😁😸 Speaking of incomprehensible good luck with Becket as well! I have Woolf's I think second novel "Night and Day" here that I have to get to. I had never realized that the character Anne was an employee at the farm, I thought she was a brat who lived there with her (wealthy) family LOL 😸😁 thanks for enlightening me Merry Christmas 👍

Hi FEMKE, WOW! Great bookshelf review. Beautifully organized, especially your Wordsworths. Love your copy of Anna K.! I was just looking through mine a few days ago for a Levin quote about teaching serfs to read. Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is basically just a whole lot more of the same, for better or worse. Another great Gulag story is Just Send Me Word by Orlando Figes, Epistolary January is just around the corner, this is a great true love story and letters. I just heard that right after Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote The Little Prince he died in a plane crash just like the one in the book! The Doctor's Wife is a very enjoyable little story and Isabel Gilbert is a wonderful bookish heroine. I'm not a Dostoyevsky completest…I doubt if even Fyodor read everything Dostoyevsky wrote 🤣 but I've read a bunch and Demons is my least favorite and his most difficult. If you're not already a big fan girl, I wouldn't start with that one. A long long time ago and in a galaxy far far away I was a minister and one of the favorite topics for sermons used to be ‘worship’. Chapter 7, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in that copy of The Wind in the Willows on your children's shelf is the best treatise I've ever read on the subject. Last week you said you’d never read Harry Potter and I recommended The Prisoner of Azkaban as the only one that seemed to have much real wisdom for the adult reader. Well I've never read L.M. Montgomery. So in the spirit of Septimus Warren Smith consulting famous authors (BookTubers) by letter (God bless Virginia Woolf!) which Anne book should an old black dude read after guarding convicts for 3 decades in maximum security prisons…or should I just skip Anne? BTW want to watch the most entertaining 1 minute and 22 seconds ever on YT, go check out the 2025 TBR from Col Mustard in the Library, so clever!

Hi FEMKE, Harry Potter 🤣 LOL! I read the first 3 at the urging of a reading buddy many years ago and they were OK running to fair for what they were, would have been better if they were shorter and had a LOT less ‘Quidditch’ in them. I'm not a YA expert by any means but as the genre goes I preferred Narnia (C.S. Lewis) and His Dark Materials (Phillip Pullman). What I did love about Harry Potter was J.K. Rowling’s idea of the demonic guards in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Their job was to suck out the souls of the inmates in their charge. I'm a retired prison guard myself and I gotta say…yeah…that was pretty much my job alright! Reminds me of Jezebel’s Daughter. I doubt that either Rowling or Collins were ever guards in a maximum security prison for 28 years, but the nuance they worked into their books was almost a little too good.

Hi FEMKE, thanks for the top 10 list. I've been a long time lover of Jude the Obscure, I agree it's a little over the top, the whole Father Time thing is kinda weird, but the underlying idea of “we are too many” is profound…I’ve been an antinatalist my whole life. Have you ever tackled any Flannery O'Conner? The Lame Shall Enter First is a great, super creepy adjunct to Jude. I definitely will be reading The Woodlanders. BTW getting out of an unhappy marriage is still not easy, your best is to just not marry the wrong person, twice, ask me why I know! 😭 I was a DJ🕺🎶 in 1986, can't wait to read Mayflies. Many Thanks.

En EINDELIJK HARRY POTTER!! En haha bullied!! Overdrijver!! 😙

loveeee de vibe!!

Mooie mok voor je thee!

Mayflies was indeed a touching trip down memory lane for me with the second half relating to ageing and dealing with life’s challenges and visions on one’s life and moral insights! Thank you for recommending this book ❤

Foster's definitely my favourite by Claire Keegan!

There is a film of Foster called The Quiet Girl.

❤📚📚❤️ I read The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy this year and loved it! Jezebel's Daughter and Foster are on my list.😊 Persuasion is the only one I haven't read and I'll be reading it for Jane Austen January.

I'm like you....i much rather have a whole reading session vs a few pages here and there. I've been trying to train myself to read a few pages here and there, but I've found I'll catch up on email or current events while waiting and save my reading time for a long session. I think bookmarks are pretty but i don't use them too often.

Hi FEMKE, loving your Bookmas! Nice thing about audiobooks is that you can listen when you're doing other things like driving or splitting firewood. But they are difficult to annotate. I just snap screenshots when I come to something I want to highlight so I know the time stamp.

🥰❤️

Anne is the best!!!

Hi FEMKE, your little furry buddy is so cute, my dachshunds want to know how many languages he speaks. I think that's what they asked?

I loved the Anne series! Your Mom sure made Christmas special! ❤️🎄 I love Yogi teas. I use the quotes on the string for the junk journals I make.😊

Hi FEMKE, if you 'liked' Portrait of the Artist and you want to spend your next few years in college impressing English professors of my generation (Xers and youngish Boomers), you should tackle Ulysses. Prof. Heffernan of The Teaching Company has a brilliant lecture series that walks you through this turd chapter by excruciating chapter...my God bless his soul! J.J. recycles his altar ego S.D. to help you and Leopold through this 768 page slog. Bertrand Russell once said "There are two motives for reading a book: one that you enjoy it; the other that you can boast about it." If you get started right now you'll have a fighting chance of being done by June 16th... Good Luck!

Hi FEMKE, Donna Tartt never wrote anything bad! The Goldfinch and the Little Friend are both just as good as Secret History, very different, but just as inspired. She's been publishing on a leisurely 10 year schedule so I'm waiting with bated breath for her next gem. BTW another great dark academia novel is C.S.Lewis' That Hideous Strength.

Hi FEMKE, glad to hear you enjoyed Mrs. Dalloway. Septimus Warren Smith has long been one of my go-to fictional heroes…”he was, on the whole, a border case, neither one thing nor the other, might end with a house at Purely and a motor car or continue renting apartments in back streets all his life; one of those half-educated, self-educated men whose education is all learned from books borrowed from public libraries, read in the evening after the days work, on the advice of well-known authors consulted by letter.’ R.I.P. Virginia Septimus ranks right up there with Isabel Gilbert (The Doctor’s Wife), Jude Fawley (the Obscure), Frankenstein’s Monster, Boxer (Animal Farm) and Mr. Bennet, who “had his garden and his books”.

I have a great appreciation for economical writing styles- that was so well put. Some of my favorite books are 250 pgs or less. Thanks for such great recs!

❤📚🎄❤️ Such great recommendations! I loved The Secret History, Small Things Like These and Little Women is an all-time favorite book. I own Mrs. England, but hadn't thought about reading it. I may pick it up this month. Thank you.

i just bought the book set of Anne of green gables 😊

❤📚🎄❤️ I love Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. I'm reading Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy right now. So far, enjoying it. Good luck, and enjoy your December reading.

Wait WHAT WHY ELIO LOVED SOMEONE ELSE THEN OLIVER

I can’t get it why they don’t make cmbyn2 I mean everyone loved it 💔

Hey. Cover for your edition of the Princess and the Goblin were made by incredible artists, who specialise on cut out type of art. Hari and Deepti 💛 It's gorgeous! I remember seeing this project on their page many years ago. Haven't read The Princess and the Goblin yet, but really want to.

HELD and Creation Lake were the 2 on shortlist I didn’t read, but loved all the ones I did , especially Orbital and Stone Yard Devotional. I think James is excellent, but feels perfect for the Pulitzer ( American ) over Booker . Blahdiggityblah. HELD is on my TBR 📖🪱💚

"Held" sounds really interesting, will check it out. Also love non-linear narrative, in books and movies too. 🤩 Lovely video, thank you.

I recommend Kate Atkinson’s “Life After Life “

The movie of Angela's Ashes is also great.

James Joyce...Awwwwww! My crystal ball tells me that you have Ulysses in your future...God help you! When you get to the Sandymount Strand and throw the damn thing across the room try out Prof. Heffernan's Teaching Company coarse. It's a series of chapter by chapter lectures that will get you through to Molly Bloom's period. Good luck! In another 20 years try re-reading The Dead and watching 'The Big Chill.' 39 is the proper age for enjoying both.

Hi FEMKE, alright I got through Jezebelle PTL! I made a bunch of notes (I usually don’t do that!) so if you’re interested in a more nuanced discussion I’d be happy to meet you on a live stream or comments after your own review video, if you want to make one. I said before Jezebel would be “triggering” and O boy was I right. I’m a retired prison guard and spent fully 7yrs of my career working in maximum security psyk including with the SMPU (Self-Mutilator Prevention Unit)...yeah I’ve seen some s**t! So I was fascinated by the early introduction of the Jack Straw character in this novel, elements of which did not disappoint! I totally know Jack Straw, quite a few as a matter of fact. I always love it when an author is able to capture some small, fine point of an esoteric topic that I happen to know something about. I’m an old guy (obviously!) and not a Harry Potter fan, but one of my reading buddies some years back was and she ‘made’ me read the first few books in the series, and I was struck by her depiction of the guards in her Prisoner of Azkaban. J.K.R. imagined their primary job was to suck the souls out of the incarcerated wizards…I thought ‘damn, that’s my job!’ She wasn’t far from the truth! Similarly Wilkie really nails some little known aspects of RTP (Residential Treatment Programs) aka prison psky wards. Like the custom made restraints (absolutely true!), and the Warden of the institution calling for the two day-shift regular guards by name (we were called RUO’s, Regular Unit Officers and made a few dollars more than the CO’s, Corrections Officers…but we were assigned to the cell blocks every day, usually the same block, so you got to know the prisoners in your block pretty well.) I totally knew Jack Straw! did I mention that already?!? LOL! His real name was Spanky McDonald, a bit of a legend in the Michigan Dept. of Corrections! He became the most expensive self-mutilator the State ever housed, he was famous for his belly cutting (did I say I’ve seen some s**t?!?). Spanky couldn’t read or write so when he’d get letters from his mother he’d ask me or one of the other RUOs to read them aloud to him. By way of his own letters back to his mom he’d (wait for it, this may make you cry!) carefully trace out his own hand on a blank sheet of paper and mail it home…I’m not making this stuff up…triggering! Spanky is dead now, but just like with Mrs. Wagner…he’ll be back! As for the rest of this little Victorian jewel…well I happen to have a soft spot for the genre so maybe my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt. You see my mother read aloud to my sister and I when we were kids and over the course of a year or so she read us all the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, to this day The Hound of the Baskervilles is my go-to. So Doyle was kind of my gate-way drug into serious literature, they don’t get anymore Victorian than Sir Arthur! That said, my only critiques of Jezebel are superficial and maybe due to my own rush to get through the title so I could discuss it with you. On the whole I found Collins to be a solid good read (I concur with it’s 3.8 out of 5 score). Incidentally other readers do not cite this as his best work, like I said I’ve never met him until now, have you read other Wilkie’s, which one is your favorite? I thought Collins was going to do more in the direction of his early feminism than he did with this novel. He starts out with the whole “hire more female clerks at the firm” thing but then kind of only makes it an afterthought. Seems like he might have contrived a female narrator instead of David, the story could have lent itself to that, especially since he didn’t pursue the plot line of a 3rd wheel relationship between David and Minna when anybody could see they should totally have fallen in love after their first meeting in the post office scene. Come on Wilkie, where’s your imagination guy?!? Of course he did bring us basically strong female protagonists, a real innovation for the Victorian mind I’d say! My beloved Sir A.C.D. only has one woman who jumps out of 1321 pages of Holmes, in his Irene Adler of A Scandal in Bohemia. Mostly female characters of this era are expected to just go to parties, gossip, drink tea, chase boys, and faint. I know I’m being too judgemental on this one point but I always hate it when an author with a readership shys away from a full throated commitment to some progressive idea in which they clearly believe, I’m still mad a William Faulkner for not coming right out and saying “hey Southern bigots are stupid” when he had a platform to do it, instead he dances around with hundreds of circuitous pages of Henry Sutpen and Quentin Compson ‘representing’ the antebellum South and acting like a**holes. Come on man! just say it!! GOD help me, surely this has done me more good in the writing then it will you in the reading. Like I said, if you want to discuss Jezebel’s Daughter or any other classic work please “Just Send Me Word”-Orlando Figes. (WOW! there’s another one for you, but I’ll shut up now!) Take care FEMKE and “Keep up the good work, we’re all counting on you!”---Airplane, circa 1980AD

Hi FEMKE, I’m so glad you twisted my arm to get me to read more Oscar Wilde! In general his brand of quick repartee just isn’t really my thing, give me Twain or Jerome or Cervantes any day. Still A Woman of No Importance is very well done and that gender bender in the last line was a master stroke! I see he wrote that 20 years before Joyce’s The Dead, those Dubliners!

Hi FEMKE, so sorry to hear you didn't love Conrad. I've got nothing but RESPECT for your taking a second shot at Heart of Darkness. I liked basically everything he ever wrote, but I will say that if you didn't care for Darkness your only other hope with him may be one of his spy novels like The Secret Agent or the Secret Sharer. I rather doubt that you'd think much of his various nautical novels like Typhoon or Lord Jim. And for god sakes don't pick up Nostromo!

Hi FEMKE, An Ideal Husband was a great choice! Super enjoyable read! I listened to a rendition narrated by Geoffrey Giuliano and acted by a terrific cast. “Behind every great fortune there is a great crime” a quote usually attributed to Balzac, but has practically become conventional wisdom on the Left nowadays. In Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt talks about how, when he was a teenager, he stole some money (can’t recall but it wasn’t much) from the little old lady he was reading to after she died, and he used that money to move to America. Obviously it’s a theme in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. On the surface this should be a moral no-brainer, Commandment 8, duuuh! But in reality as I think I’ve mentioned in other posts, in 3 decades of guarding convicts I’ve simply never met Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov doing time. And for that matter, I also never met Frank McCourt either. Prisoners would sometimes say ‘well everybody has done something that would have got them here if they'd got caught!’ Which may be technically true but when you get to reading those guys files you see real quick that they did that something a whole lot of times before they finally came to prison. I was so glad to hear you read some Frank McCourt, the guy was a great storyteller and brutally honest! So is Eric Clapton, his auto-bio “Clapton” is another great uplifting read. Bringing it back to Oscar Wilde, how is it that our society always takes its cues from these artistic types whose own lives were so f**ked up?!? Oscar Wilde would have probably been OK if he’d just kept his sodomies to himself (God bless poor Constance, I’ll come back to her) but he insisted on sueing that Marquess for libel and ended up wishing he hadn’t, not unlike the Trump v. Stormy thing. In his new ‘Message’ that everybody’s reading, Ta-Nehisi Coats very wisely points out that we play a dangerous game when we try to indict the powerful using their own laws. We automatically ceed the home court advantage. One can imagine how much better off Oscar would have been if instead of a lawsuit, he’d have written the old boy into some hilarious farcical scene in one of his plays, may be like the episode of Frasier where Marty & Niles pretend to be gay just so Frasier can get the girl (Season 7 Episode 15)...very funny, and waaaay better than 2 years hard labor!. But back to poor Constance, I don’t doubt that Oscar did her wrong, but come on girl…were there NO red flags about this dude before you married him?!? Sure Bill ought not to have messed with Monica, but come on Hillary, you did marry this playboy, what were you expecting?!? That was always my issue with Henry James’ Roderick Hudson, you feel bad for poor Mary Garland, but…he is Roderick!

Hi FEMKE, glad to see you back! Isn't Frank the world's best story teller?!? His other two children Tis & Teacher Man are just as good, if not kinda more of the same. And ---Spoiler Alert---he never did finish his PhD. But boy could he write!

Hi FEMKE, can’t thank you enough for putting me on to George MacDonald! As an old guy and a life long antinatalist I haven’t read very many children's books so I’m sure this one wouldn’t have crossed my radar screen if it hadn’t been for you! I’ve been a big C.S. Lewis fan since the 70’s and didn’t realize what an influence George MacDonald had been on him, even showing up in The Great Divorce playing a Virgil like figure to Dante in his Comedy. Also garners a direct reference that I’d never caught before in That Hideous Strength (One of my favorite Lewis titles, and a must read for all career academics!) J.R.R. Tolkin (think of his Orcs of Mordor), Lewis Carroll (George got to read Alice before it was published!) And aren’t you getting ready to read H.G.Wells for Victober?!?...spoiler alert!!!...The Morlocks of The Time Machine…all George MacDonald! There’s so much more to be said, but I won’t bore you, about ‘walking by faith and not by sight’, 2Cor5:7, nobody could see the old great grandma but the princess (it’s almost Halloween so think of Linus and the Great Pumpkin), or Isaiah 6:6, great grandma cleaning her dress with the flaming rose…I was a minister a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, used to know my King James like the back of my hand. Speaking of Victorian children's literature, I’m sure the best definition ever written of ‘worship’ comes from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Thanks again!

That "Angela's Ashes" copy is not in as bad a shape as it could be, in fact considering when it was likely printed the condition isn't bad. You talk about what actually interests you regardless of what century or decade it was printed and much praise to you for that! 👍 Congratulations on accepting the challenge of "Heart of Darkness," whether it is sooner or later (it looks like later 😸😁) I believe you will eventually appreciate the dark and sloggy genius of books like it. I believe its scenes of dying African slaves conveyed such horrors much better than a hundred preachy books by more famous authors. You could also try "lighter" Conrad like "Lord Jim," "The Secret Agent" and so on. For a guy who tried to kill himself on a ship as a young man he did okay 😁😸