Absolutely love the energy and passion you bring to your videos! Great list as well, I’m going to have to check out 2&3

Oh man, this is EXACTLY how i felt!! Especially with Miles, like, he was just straight up MPDG the whole time (what happened to him being a weed dude?) and I kept waiting for some other character calling him phony/fake nice/people-pleaser but there was none of that so he felt more like a caricature. Also YES WHY WERE THERE NO HIJINKS I thought the inciting incident would be Peter/Petra's wedding but then their break-up and the reason for their break-up felt something out of thin air and their redemption of Miles is just.... meh. Oh well, I've read better books of hers and I think this is a weak one. Happy Place is on my TBR! Anyway, thank you for this sir. Subbed 💗

My number one is and always will be Tolkien, the rest changes daily. :D

1) Clark Ashton Smith 2) Robert E. Howard 3) Thomas Ligotti 4)Lord Dunsany 5) Joe Abercrombie

1) fredrik backman 2) r.f. kuang 3) sabaa tahir 4) brandon sanderson 5) haruki murakami i really don't know lol i'm only sure about the first 2, i think i need to read more to decide the rest

Never thought I’d see Edmond Dantès talk about Edmond Dantès, great review

Bro you on crack tho?

Oh, I love this! So for me, there is a difference between an idea, theme, tone, plot, or character that really resonates with you at a time in your life (good book) and a book that resonates with you at any point in your life (a great book). It's about the layers and complexities that makes a work of art re-experiencable. That complexity and layers is also what helps it become a great book. So many people like it that it gets worked into the mythos of pop-culture.

Yes. And the same goes for what you deemed as "bad book" turning into a good book.

Brandon Sanderson and Haruki Murakami. There aren’t any other authors of which I’ve read enough of their work to call them a favourite.

The fact that you haven't read another Robin Hobb book for the rest of the year is a good thing. It's giving you something to look forward to for next year. I'm all about delayed gratification.

Recently finished book 2 in Farseer trilogy and blown away by Hobb’s writing! Excited that there is so much more to explore in the Realm ⚔️

Erikson supremacy

1) Fyodor Dostoevsky 2) Ursula K. Le Guin 3) Gene Wolfe 4) Susanna Clarke 5) Homer 6) Leo Tolstoy 7) Jorge Luis Borges 8) John Crowley 9) Sofia Samatar 10) Orson Scott Card (mainly his work pre-2000)

Just started Midnight Tides after a short Malazan break. It's awesome so far!!

Cool that Herbert made the list, and I'm glad you still have faith in DuMaurier. I'm sure you'll enjoy Frenchman's Creek. Totally agree about Steinbeck being one of the greatest authors of all time! My top 5 are probably the same as when I replied to your last top 5 video: Stephen Graham Jones, Charles Dickens, L.M. Montgomery, John Steinbeck, Joseph Conrad. I want to read everything all of them have written. I've discovered a few authors this year that might end up being favourites once I've read more than one of their books.

Joe Abercrombie Robin Hobb John M. Newman (non-fiction author) Christopher Ruocchio Steve Coll (non-fiction author) GRRM would probably be 6 if I was to continue the list. If I wasn't so uncurious about how the Dornish cheese smelt, perhaps he'd be even higher! 😅

At the moment if I have to rank only five: Philip K Dick Italo Calvino H.P Lovecraft Bernard Cornwell J.R.R Tolkien Children of Dune is also my favorite in the saga

Sarah Winman is right up there for me. She's only written a few books but she's never put a foot wrong in my opinion.

Steven Eriskon, George R.R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie, Haruki Murakami, Tolkien

I dont know my full top 5 but Robin Hobb, Fredrick Backman are up there. Maybe KJ Parker? I need to read more of him

Interesting list. My favorites are: Tolkien Austen Borges James Ellroy Michael Chabon

The intros are always so insightful ✨

Don’t crease your books lol not hard to avoid

Just sitting down to crack into these videos on a quiet friday at work. Regarding the T'orrud Cabal of Darujhistan and Baruk- this is covered in Orb, Sceptre, Throne - one of ICE's novels and Vorcan is part of the cabal too. Just giving you the pieces if you haven't read it.

I'm currently reading it. I have that same edition too. I'm about 300 pages in, and honestly I love it so far. It's a massive book tho.

For me, rereading allows me to really see the foreshadowing the author provides. I love going back and looking for all the little clues, hints, etc. that I can find that I may have missed before - I just rewatched Attack on Titan to do this exact thing and alongside seeing all the little pieces in play, I sort of got a new perspective on what the show is actually about; I feel the same about re-reading a book that provides that context

My favorite series too!!! My username is even Steel Slayer

Thanks for the update. I've recently gotten your videos recommended to me and I'm pretty glad for it. I'm pretty new into reading (consistently) so I like seeing people like yourself talk about the different books that are out there. I also get super hyped every time Stormlight Archive is mentioned lol

I just finished “Words of Radiance” for the first time a couple months ago, and I felt exactly how you felt on your reread on my first read. I really wish I could have enjoyed it more, but at its best, I thought it was just ok. I really feel like I’m missing out on this series somehow LOL

Shallan is a queen! Just finished this book and am on to oathbringer. looking forward to her story the most!

Glad you had a good time with it. :D

you absolute moron... (as a sign of respect for your wishes i'm going to skip this part). jokes aside, love your style man! big subscribe!

I like SA well enough but 1000 pages of dull sub par prose is pretty tough to trudge through when you already know what's going to happen. Malazan on the other hand... even on a re read, I know what's going to happen and maybe the part of the book I'm currently reading isn't the most interesting but the writing itself always keeps me interested and intrigued. No subtly to Sandersons prose and I think that's incredibly detrimental for a re read.

That's why I never feel the need to rewatch Marvel films.

Eh. When you're trying to build a brand by just endlessly complaining about everything and calling it all bad, you might want to consider how it looks that you don't even seem to be aware that your video is insanely overblown. Do you have a powerful lamp pointed directly at you from a foot away? Your face looks like Gondor is calling for aid. I'm just saying, when your own technique is to just say every element of a book is bad, often for very specious reasons, you're just asking to open yourself up to counter-criticism. So you might want to up your own quality to at least baseline, or it's gonna be way, way too easy for people to read you to filth like you're trying to do for this book, like how you say a book can't have stakes unless everyone is always scrambling to not die sometime in the next five minutes.

...when in Era 2 did "the guy from stormlight" show up to save the day?

Stormlight is not my favorite of Sanderson's works, but I have to say, I disagree with most of the criticism I hear about interludes. I think ironically people give reasons to avoid saying "I just didn't like them" which oddly enough I actually consider to be a fair criticism. But you provided two of the most common complaints I've heard. 1. It breaks the pace. They always come when an entire segment is supposed to end, like the end of an episode. It cannot possible be breaking the pace when the pace is intended to come to a total stop, and then restart afterwards. They can only possibly serve to reinforce the stop for that 'part'. What I think people mean when they say this is, I'm ready for the next part, I want to see what happens next. Which is the tension built up by the good ending, to make you want to see what comes up. The interludes exist to ramp up that tension. I think if they weren't there, people would have more complaints about the books, they just might not be able to say why. 2. The cosmere touches. Those are deliberately vague. You're not supposed to feel like you're missing out if you didn't read the other books being referenced. Just don't worry about "wait is this so and so" and just enjoy the story like it's a random person. If he was like "here's this character from this book" then the other book is suddenly required reading, and it's not and it shouldn't be. Knowing the backstory is a garnish. When people point out how much knowledge you must have to squeeze every last drop of meaning, they're making the assumption that it's somehow required to squeeze out every last drop of meaning. It's not, it can just be a cameo. If people don't like the interludes, say that. They're almost never more than a handful of pages for each entire set, but if you don't wanna read that much tangential material and it doesn't grab you as a little vignette, say so. That's valid criticism.

I think it depends. Somethings are perfect one time but it think too many things are a one time experience now. I like books that are the equivalent of the show friends. You could pick it up a million times and even if you get nothing new from it you at least got some entertainment.

Yes, the reread is usually a definitive experience for me. You'll lose the element of suprise, but you can still appreciate the writing of it if its done well, etc.

Have you read the Old Star Wars Expanded Universe? I see a bunch of Star Wars in the background

This video was great! I enjoyed the book the first time, but not as much as Way of Kings. You nailed every point and shared an interesting reread discussion at the end!

In my humble opinion, Sanderson's works don't do well on rereads simply because they are plot-driven, not character-driven, nor theme-driven. The plot is always the focus. So, once you know the plot, what's left for you to focus on on a reread other than the negatives that you ignored in your haste to know what happens next? Personally, I won't reread any of Sanderson's works. It's not really worth it. And I watched a very comprehensive recap in preparation for Winds and Truth. And I'm also watching your videos.

Especially the duel scene could have been shorter. Have the cool moment then keep it moving instead of wasting time on a pretty boring fight scene

I think that longevity is a semi-objective factor with many many things. (The quality of buildings or precious metals, etc.) so literature being able to hold its quality for a long time I feel is a good standard as well. Not to harp on this but if you reread Gene Wolfe you find that his books get better and more interesting on a reread and I think that indicates a certain quality to them. I’m not sure the same is true for Sanderson.

oh hey, YT stopped recommending me your videos for a while, idk what that's about lol Glad to hear about progress on MT though, always excited for the Malazan reread videos!! As for Stormlight... I reread them all in October basically. Looking back -- started Way of Kings 9/21 and finished Rhythm of War 10/28. And that includes the novellas but hey, I have no life sooooooooo yeah And I think Stormlight reread is... well it's different for everyone of course, but a common theme is yeah a lot of things don't hit the same, cause when you know it's coming the impact is frequently lessened. That said, I still found the emotional moments gripping, and I also appreciated seeing the foreshadowing I missed the first time. IMO Sanderson does a good job balancing those aspects that better first read vs better second read. But again this is such an individual preference thing, as to whether or not these things work for you as intended But anyway. Will be watching out for the WoR in-depth video!

I had a pretty bad stinker this year with Roadside Picnic. Just a book that did not click with me at all. One of my least favorite books ive ever read.

Thank you very much for all the time and in-depth commentary you put into your videos- you put a BIG smile to my face 😃!!!!! In my new job role, I am able to listen to audiobooks, so I am EXCITED to listen to a number of them... i hope to begin The Count lf Monte Cristo by the finish of this year or early next year!?!?! May your week be a swell, warm one: Keep cozy, keep healthy, laugh, smile, enjoy and enjoy and until next time, terrific Toasty Towns!!!!! 🎉🌌🥮

Interested in your thoughts on The Three Musketeers. I've been wanting to read it for a while and is high on my classics TBR list.

I'm currently reading Midnight Tides by Erikson and Blackwater by McDowell. Last month I read House of Chains, The Troop by Nick Cutter, and Slewfoot by Brom. Pretty banger month even though I read less than I usually do. House of Chains was the easy book of the month though. WITNESS.