10 classics YOU should read with me in 2024!

Thanks ever so much for 1000 subscribers!
Especially to ‪@saintdonoghue‬ and ‪@whatpageareyouon‬ for early and essential assistance!
My Instagram for questions - joe_spivey_
#books #booktube #readinglist #classics

[@ThatReadingGuy28]

You should host a readalong in 2024. Either have your audience vote or you can flex your dictatorial powers and force a book of your choice upon us.

[@JoeSpivey02]

In which case I might find myself putting it to a vote. How hideously democratic!

[@dathurd7261]

Coningsby - Benjamin Disraeli Scarlet and Black - Stendhal Waverley - Sir Walter Scott Selected Writings - Thomas Carlyle The Picture of Doria Gray - Oscar Wilde The Egoist - George Meredith War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens The Major Works - Samuel Johnson Iliad & Odyssey - Homer

[@calamari3707]

This feels very old youtube and thats cool

[@alanscheer2137]

I grew up obsessed with Penguin black covers-just the site of one drove me crazy with desire. But I’m into more Oxford Classics now-I think they’re covers are more beautiful and they tend to be less costly.

[@lukefarrell6769]

What a marvellously witty intro!! Such a great belated Christmas present coming across you. Have a great year

[@bekytg9393]

The KZbin algorithm is with you. Just have discovered you. I read War and Peace, took me 9 months to read. Hi from Australia

[@velvetyblue]

Gosh I’m so glad I came across your channel, you’re a breath of fresh air! Thanks for all the recommendations

[@HelloSinead]

Lovely Video ! I have that copy of Dorian grey and have been meaning to dig into it ! Also planning to get into some Dickens this year. Currently reading the Master and the Margarita to start off 2024 : )!

[@nimorsbooknook]

The eloquence of your speech is a joy to listen to. Great recommendations, I will be adding some of these to my classics TBR for sure. Oscar Wilde always makes me marvel at the abilities of the English language when I read him and I remember having a great time with the Portrait of Dorian Gray so it’s definitely worth the reread!

[@JoeSpivey02]

Eloquence, schmeloquence...

[@slurmcarey3069]

Just came across your channel. I am now thrilled to watch your reviews. It looks like you have good taste in literature.

[@marytumulty4257]

Wow! Congratulations on reaching 1K so quickly! Love the imaginative and rapid delivery of the verbal gymnastics.

[@JoeSpivey02]

I can't take all the credit. Mind-altering drugs do most of the work!

[@Ltchg]

What a charismatic guy! thank you for the recommendations :)

[@thelordkk512]

Your energy is so addictive

[@jansonneal7501]

This man speaks at a pace which my adhd brain can actually receive

[@katcho1216]

Thank you KZbin for recommending this gem of a channel. A read along would be ideal.

[@JoeSpivey02]

It’ll be centred around the life and works of Lord Byron, since his death will be 200 years ago in April!

[@beccabeecham5084]

you’re hilarious! the way you put these into a modern context

[@gaildoughty6799]

The Old Curiosity shop is an abysmal work of sentimental claptrap. Bleak House, on the other hand, is a truly great novel. Please don’t send the Spivey Police after me.

[@slackerlitgeek]

Hello! Your energy and vocabulary are exhaustive (exhausting?) and delightful, and I am thrilled to have found your channel. I've subscribed with alacrity and am happy to welcome our new literary overlord.

[@NandaAmaral-rn7rm]

You're too funny, it's cool to see such enthusiasm

[@orrenlehman]

Congratulations on reaching 1000 subscribers!

[@jacksondeleal3821]

Amazing chanel! "Scarlet (or Red) and Black" is on my 2024 list too.

[@hyacinthh6900]

❤ Dickens DOMBEY and SON was a truly magnificent story. ❤

[@josmith5992]

Congratulations on reaching a thousand Joe! Planning on rereading Our Mutual Friend this year and have Conningsby loitering on my iPad somewhere so look forward to seeing what you think 🤔

[@joncrary8924]

I added a few of your recommendations. I'm currently reading "War and Peace" and I'm enthralled so far. I read "Anna Karenina" and I would say that it would take a huge coup de tête to knock that off of my favorite and best classic and book I have read of all time.

[@lukefarrell6769]

I have read War and Peace, I'm a geeky wargamer which I felt helped my ease of reading this tome. It truly is brilliant.

[@emmaj8337]

subscribed so quick. picture of dorian gray is on my 2024 tbr! cant wait

[@JoeSpivey02]

Thanks so much! I’ll be sure to keep Dorian towards the top of my list too!

[@ariellau9170]

you are my new favourite booktuber

[@belindadouglas7993]

New subscriber from Australia 🇦🇺 looking forward to your book selection..

[@summitsp]

I co-read "War & Peace" with my grandson in 2023. I truly read it ...and truly loved it. I found it helpful to compile a list of the main characters with their varying names/titles & their relationship to other characters. I loved the switch back and forth between the Russian aristocracy in Moscow & St. Petersburg (none of whom are likable at the beginning - but be patient!) and the battles. I also found it helpful to read by section with other books read in between, although the momentum carried me directly from Section 2 to Section 3. Enjoy!!

[@JoeSpivey02]

I always make it my routine to write about the characters in books so thankfully that's second nature!

[@denisadellinger4543]

Very ambitious. You can do it!

[@leafsonata]

I typically fast forward past intros, but you're hilarious!😂😂so glad I found your channel. Seems we have the same taste in media. My Q&A request is if a film adaptation is released for a novel, must you read the book before seeing the movie?

[@g.salencar8675]

That's actually a fun list. Just found this video recommended to me lol From this list I read only War and Peace, which took me five months to read (finished early December) and yeah, I don't usually take that long to read a book, but I had with this one. I confess I wish I could have liked it me more even though I recognize its value in the literary world so I'm definitely excited to watch your opinions on it. I read the same edition you got, the Wordsworth Classics, and I gotta say the translation is amazing. It flows really well.

[@ShadowLarkHill]

Just found your channel and I love your sense of humour. New subscriber here. Greetings from Mexico City

[@jaynehayes-nn3qj]

Congratulations Joe 1.2k 👍 xxxx

[@JoeSpivey02]

Thanks Aunt Jayne!

[@thelefthandedreader6632]

Oooo, a beguiling list! yes, of course a q&a! Oooh, the world of War & Peace. I’m sad to be out of that world. Not for long…I’m starting Anna Karenina tomorrow. I may be interested in trying Our Mutual Friend this year because I want to read a Dickens in 2024.

[@JoeSpivey02]

Well surely Our Mutual Friend ought to be our read-along book! I'll be surprised if you don't find Oblonsky the most enticing character of Anna Karenina!

[@thelefthandedreader6632]

@@JoeSpivey02 , I can't wait to find out (re: Karenina)! As far as our read-a-long, I agree. And... not included in my Classics for '24 video, but there are 2 American classics I'd like to get to this yr...maybe consider reading an American classic sometime this yr...more on that later...🙂

[@carolinenoel2556]

“Because they're cozy!” A sentence that has immediately been adopted into my lexicon.

[@EvelynHoskins-cb1qi]

I'm also planning on reading The Picture of Dorian Gray in 2024, so I'll be interested in seeing what you think of it. Congratulations on 1,000 subscribers!

[@leafsonata]

I loved it. I read it this year. It was an easy read with rich writing, but be prepared to be pissed off😂 the misogyny 😡but the writing is undeniably beautiful.

[@josietalksaboutbooks]

Happy New Year, and congratulations on 1K subscribers! Always enjoy your videos^^ I'll be making my first attempt at Jane Austin in 2024, but now I have to add Waverly to my list as well and you've reminded me to get to Homer's work✍ Might also cave and try The Picture of Dorian Gray, it's so well-known and I want to know what for👀

[@JoeSpivey02]

Thanks so much! Ditto for me with your videos! Oh you’ll love ANYTHING that Austen put to paper. Of course you have to start with Pride and Prejudice in my opinion.

[@josietalksaboutbooks]

@@JoeSpivey02 Will do, absolutely🤩

[@inanimatecarbongod]

Picture of Dorian Gray is a must-read, though I personally prefer the "uncensored" edition which was his own original version of the story before it was cut for magazine publication (the final novel version being an expansion of that rather than the original). As far as War and Peace goes, I want to read it mainly because I don't want to say it defeated me. I've made two attempts on it, most recently in 1999 and finished neither; first with the old Penguin edition by Rosemary Edmonds and second the Wordsworth edition you show. Second time round I made even less headway than I did on the first go. I am determined that one day I *will* finish it (though this may not be the year that I do it; if I could make it all the way through Ulysses, W&P should hold no comparable terrors apart from the length. Translation is a vexed issue, depending on taste. I'm guessing that's the Samuel Butler translation of Homer. Seems a slightly small book to contain both Iliad and Odyssey, though.

[@ariespecula]

why am i in love

[@willieluncheonette5843]

"Another book by Leo Tolstoy: one of the greatest in all the languages of the world, War and Peace. Not only the greatest but also the most voluminous...thousands of pages. I don’t know that anybody reads such books except myself. They are so big, so vast, they make you afraid. But Tolstoy’s book has to be vast, it is not his fault. War and Peace is the whole history of human consciousness - the whole history; it cannot be written on a few pages. Yes, it is difficult to read thousands of pages, but if one can one will be transported to another world. One will know the taste of something classic. Yes, it is a classic. Nobody is more worthy of a Nobel Prize than Leo Tolstoy. His creativity is immense, he was unsurpassed by anyone. He was nominated, but refused by the committee because of his unorthodox stories on Christianity. The Prize committee opens its records every fifty years. When records were opened in 1950, researchers rushed to see whose names were nominated and cancelled and for what reason. Leo Tolstoy was nominated, but never given the prize as he is not an orthodox Christian. Tolstoy is one of Russia’s wisest men of the 20th century and his ideas on non-violence deeply influenced Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology. Mahatma Gandhi declared three persons his master. The first was Leo Tolstoy, the second was Henry Thoreau, and the third was Emerson. Once Leo Tolstoy was asked - How many experiences did you have of divine ecstasy in your life? Tolstoy started crying. He replied - Not more than 7 in my life of 70 years, but I am grateful for those 7 moments and miserable too. In those moments it was evident that is could have been the flavor of my whole life but that didn’t happen. Those moments came and went on their own. But I am still grateful to God that even without any conscious effort on my part, once in a while He has been knocking at my doors."

[@MaximusStetich]

The Scarlet and the Black! I’m predicting you’ll enjoy it the most out of the ones you’ve listed here; there’s some real Spiveyesque satire to it.

[@Szaam]

You have earned a new subscriber/slavish devotee to your cause

[@JoeSpivey02]

Welcome along for the ride!

[@Lu.G.]

Congratulations on reaching 1k+ subscribers! 👏🏻 Your channel will only continue to grow I'm sure and very soon I'll be saying "ah, I knew him when..." 🤓 War and Peace is on my shelf, unread; I have the Pevear version which was a total _cover buy._ 🙄

[@JoeSpivey02]

Ohh we're all guilty of cover buys every now and then!

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

I absolutely hated Dickens as a child and young adult, but have found some worth reading as an adult and now wish to read one book by him each year. LOVED Hard Times A Christmas Carol HATED Great Expectations and so many others I began I quit for being bored of them, but can't remember which ones.

[@tiredgirlreads]

Happy to be free from your future secret police raid 😂 9:28 had me laugh out loud, thanks for the humor going into the nw year. I'm also interested in reading the picture of dorian gray...i remember starting it years ago but then i fell off reading it. very atmospheric and grear characterization, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it.

[@Orpheuslament]

The Egoist by Meredith has been on my list for a while - I'll keep an eye out for when you discuss it here and see if I have time for it then. Keep up the good work and don't let the confederacy of dunces get to you (having just watched your video covering 'current events').

[@peterg1646]

'War and Peace' reads quickly and then you regret that it's over.

[@HannahsBooks]

I read Disraeli's Tancred a few years ago and didn't love it--but I certainly would like to have even a mediocre novelist at the head of government these day.

[@LiterateTexan]

What a fun list. Maybe I'll add these to my TBR for the year. Although I'm not sure if I'm up for Dorian Gray again. Wilde is just so "precious".

[@JoeSpivey02]

I think we can agree that ethereal would be a better adjective ;)

[@LiterateTexan]

@@JoeSpivey02 In San Antonio, next to the Alamo, is a hotel called the Menger. One of its claims to fame is that Oscar Wilde stayed there. And, of course, the bar where he drank there is still open, too.

[@sorialitterreair]

A man of taste... i subscribe when i heard Selena Gomez and the waverly Place 😆 hi from France !

[@jennyyeh4730]

Oxford world classic’s War and peace translated by Maude but with edited/revisions is the best !! You can read it in 6-8 weeks - a large part of it goes by really fast ! In general i stay away from Pevear and Volokonsky! They translate too literally to the point that it’s clunky and difficult to read. The spirit isn’t there.

[@missjoshemmett]

Picture of Dorian Gray, War and Peace (I'd like to find the audio by Jonathan Firth...the younger, better looking and better actor bother of Colin), currently reading A Christmas Carol because I suddenly (at 77) realized that I've a collection of almost every movie including Black Adder but NEVER read the book. However, I have read the others and Dickens' books usually sound the way they do because they were serials and he was swayed by public opinion and word count, even he regretted he left Dodger being sent down. I, finally, read Black Beauty (but still love Mark Lester's movie turn) and am currently set to read Beauty and the Beast. I must say, that there is a lot of confusion over Fan's child in A Christmas Carol. Seems a lot of movies say Scrooge's sister had a daughter but she did, in fact, have a son. And Scrooge was DRESSED, not in a nightgown and cap, during the ghosts' visits. Then, there is 'trying' to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I have found that Dover publication is the best and, as a plus, sounds like Shakespeare wrote it. Yes, I love reading Olde Wobblesword and proud of it.

[@williamthomas2830]

I love Dickens but to each his own.

[@Calcprof]

Our Mutual Friend is a good one.

[@jbriaz]

The Maude translation of War and Peace works but obviously with some stilted early 20th Century English. I listened to the audiobook with that translation last year but separately read the Anthony Briggs translation from 2005. The Briggs translation is very readable and translated into modern English. I think that would be an easier read throughout.

[@Scottlp2]

I’m doing war and peace in my Bookclub and I like Maude, then again I’ve read it using this translation several times over the years, so used to it. Whatever you do, have a printed out list of characters to refer to since characters have several names they are referred to by eg first, last, nickname.

[@jbriaz]

I definitely agree re list of characters. I had a list of characters tab open on my desktop internet browser for the first 300 pages until I had them all memorized.@@Scottlp2

[@Hidinginyourcupboard]

You had me at sesquipedalian

[@Ignat365]

If you found the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation stultifying, perhaps it simply means that you got the very authentic experience of reading Tolstoy)) Because most of my classmates (in russian school) had the same opinion about the original text) I would say what Pevear and Volokhonsky do is take russian sentences and write them in english words (at least that's how it looks). Although this method may be controversial, given that Tolstoy's language is unique and original even for russian literature, it may not be the worst way to translate him.

[@apollonia6656]

Gosh, you are a real speed talker ! Are you also a speed reader ? I am English and find it that it is usually our cousins across the pond who talk fast 😅 Happy New Year from Cheshire.

[@susanhague4719]

But they don't use such wonderfully obscure words at intervals. Love and Happy New Year from NZ

[@tommonk7651]

First time viewer. Hilarious! Have you ever considered stand up? LOL

[@JoeSpivey02]

I wouldn’t want to sully an already damaged industry! 😂

[@apollonia6656]

The cerebellum would not help you in remembering anything....hereth speaketh a medic ! Honestly, I am serious.

[@Nate1975]

Yes Q&A interested to know where you come from

[@PricelessAudiobooks]

00:09 I put out a shamelessly sycophantic call SL plea for subscribers, and we have now positively leaped beyond a thousand. I am still the same Moody, rabidly caffeinated CIS battalion young man, but I feel a slight spring in my step. 01:05 Sherlock Holmes would not have it that you are luminous, but you are indeed conductors of light. Your families will be looked on favorably when he gets his grubby oily tentacles on the monstrously dictatorial power, and there will be no crepuscular knocks at the door. 01:58 Alex from What Page Are You On and Steve Donahue boosted one of my videos and quickly got me to 150 subscribers. So without them, I wouldn't be trendy. 02:43 Aaron Faer, Renee as the left-handed reader, Katie at books and things, Randy Ray, the literate Texon, and Mark's book time with Elvis are all excellent and imbue me with the will to continue. So, let's get into the nitty-gritty of this stuff. 03:26 Could you ask the member if you want to know how long the member is, what type of car one drives, where I live, or any other extramarital vicissitudes? 03:45 I make my channel essentially only about classic fiction, and I read predominantly black-spined Penguin Classics because they are cozy and have been almost by definition put into a pantheon of expertise. 04:27 Benjamin Diesel was a Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 19th century and a famous rival of William Gladstone. He wrote a sophisticated rhetorician, and nowadays, our Prime Ministers merely consort with oligarchs and trade Munitions to Saudi Arabia. 05:16 Kby stands first in the thorny genre of the English political novel and gains power from two contrasted figures who grow in dimension. 05:39 The first Blackpine Penguin classic is Stendal Scarlet and Black, written by Stendal in 1830. It is about a boy named Scarlet and his black cat named Black. 06:25 A clever, ambitious up from nothing hero loses his head in a crisis in S. Walter Scott's Uh, Waverly, a novel that has become synonymous with Selena Gomez on Disney Channel and the Wizards of Waverly Place. 07:20 Walter Scott is said to have popularized the historical novel and raised it to a higher acceptable level within the Literati with his highly readable story of a romantic young man in the Jackaby Rebellion of 1745. 08:09 Carile is a much referred to historian whose main idea is that history is catalyzed and weaponized by a few ultimately charismatic people, usually men, usually on a Pulpit, generally trying to seem like every man appealing to the Hoy pool. 09:17 Thomas Carlile's selected writings are on the front of the book. He has a scruffy beard and knows so much about history. Oscar Wild's alluring novel of decadence and sin follows Dorian Gray, who exchanges his soul for Eternal Youth and Beauty. He is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his Desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite Society. 10:25 Oscar Wild was a famous gay person who was a little bit ornate and came out with some sophisms and truisms. I've never found the play Importance of Being Hest quite good, but I will get through The Picture of Dorian Gray. 11:12 George Vedis, the egoist, wealthy, handsome, aristocratic, and looking for a wife, is also vain, shallow, and entirely self-interested. He creates a consummate portrait of monstrous vanity, a man in thrall to fashion and image who values nothing for his own sake. 12:03 Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is a vast epic centered on Napoleon's War with Russia and peopled with a cast of over 500 characters. The artless and delightful Natasha Rostov, the World Weary Prince Andrew Bonsky, and the idealistic Pierre Be Bov illustrate Tolstoy's philosophy. 12:59 This is a translation of War in Peace by Ma M. I read the first page, and it sounds excellent, but it is obviously a thousand and0 Pages. Please let me know in the comments whether this will suit me. 14:04It's known really for Tolstoy's opinions, and it's length. I'm not sure I'm going to enjoy it, but Rene, the left-handed reader, famously read one chapter of Day in 2023 and cannot sing its praises high enough. 14:44 I'll be able to read this book in two weeks, or I'll have to take a month, but I'm sure Fortnite will finish most of it. 15:03 Charles Dickens is our mutual friend. I have my misgivings about Mr. Dickens, but I'm giving him another chance because he creates some quite dimensional characters, and some of the characters in his novels aren't well-researched. 16:11 Dickens breaks the fourth wall in his books, but he does it in a self-satisfied, lip-licking way that doesn't add much to the conversation. I'm going to give him another chance with our mutual friend. 16:46 This is the penultimate last book, containing the significant works of Samuel Johnson, a Titan, a totem of criticism. It also includes poetry and his periodical essays for The Rambler and The Idler Dictionary of English Language. 17:41 I' ll be getting through some of Johnson's later pros and biographical and critical prefaces to the works of English poet Dryden Young Gray, all That lot, maybe eight months into 2024 when I' ve got lots of it read. 18:27 The Odyssey is the story of Adus returning from the Trojan War, and the Iliad is the story of the Trojan War. 18:44 The book begins with the anger of Achilles, son of Paleas, which brought countless ills upon the means. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield prey to dogs and vultures. 19:37 If you want to ask me a question, you can add me on Instagram and send me a message or leave one in the comments. I will ramble on for at most 20 minutes, so thank you for watching.

[@slurmcarey3069]

If your getting into SF please cover Philip K Dick.

[@You-TubeUser2836]

Doctor Johnson !❤❤❤❤❤

[@xMo29]

If ADHD was a person....it would envy Mr. Spivey here

[@kimerlyhogan6567]

Agreed! He speaks so fast he makes me weary. 😳

[@chrisbeveridge3066]

he moves with a clumsy boyancy,tumbling over his feet and talking all the while as he goes. His thoughts,as he says himself, "so throng to get abroad they over-run each other in the crowd."

[@GentleReader01]

Have you read anything by Thomas Brookside? He’s done two of the more amazing pastiches I’ve read in some time. De Bello Lemures is allegedly a recent recovered Latin manuscript with footnotes and all, a letter from the commander of Roman forces in Brittany to Emperor Commodus about the Romans’ fight against an unleashed zombie horde. The Most Extreme Crueltie and Revenge of Shylock of Venice: Born a Jew But a Christian by the Mercy of the Doge and Antonio the Merchant is a sequel to The Merchant of Venice,min which a mysterious figure grants Shylock vast supernatural power and urges him to seek revenge. It feels like a style that Umberto Eco somehow failed to write.

[@captainnolan5062]

You really should read the 'Anthony Briggs' 2005 translation of War and Peace. [I also have enjoyed the Ann Dunnigan (1968) translation.] The Maude translation is inferior.

[@user-iz6cc6lz3j-Vickie]

I tried to read war and peace but only got a little over 100 pages into it. I think it might have been the translation. It was translated by Ann Dunnigan. I am gonna see about a different one.

[@sarahk4354]

The Penguin version reads much easier.

[@gannonkuehn2189]

I subscribed please don't hurt my family

[@Old_Scot]

Re Waverley: the Jacobite Rebellion was defeated in 1745 at the Battle of Culloden. The Battle of Bannockburn was in 1314, some time earlier. Oscar Wilde was part of the aesthetic movement in the late 19th century. I love Dorian Gray for the atmosphere he creates.

[@JoeSpivey02]

I knew I’d slip up somewhere. Forgive me if I take Scottish victories with a pinch of salt! 😂

[@johnmooney9403]

Hi Joe enjoying your excellent channel. Have you read the Count of monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas?

[@JoeSpivey02]

Thanks so much John! Sadly not but I've heard very good things. I infer that you've read it?

[@jennyyeh4730]

Unabridged translated by Robin Buss (penguin black classic) is best😊

[@johnmooney9403]

@@JoeSpivey02 The Count of monte Cristo is a tremendous book Joe

[@ryanand154]

Benjamin Disraeli wrote an essay called “Grind my Gears” that influenced the first power trio in rock.

[@ryanand154]

Waverley is normal.

[@captainnolan5062]

Bleak House is Dickens' best novel.

[@leafsonata]

I was looking for your review of Great Expectations but couldn't find it. I'm really struggling through it. I enjoyed many of Dickens other books but I'm half way through GE and want to DNF it. Did you prefer it to his others that you've read?

[@JoeSpivey02]

Sadly my reading of Great Expectations preceded my Booktube channel! It'll be re-read at some stage for sure.

[@leafsonata]

@@JoeSpivey02 I look forward to it.

[@battybibliophile-Clare]

I love Scott, unfashionably, but who cares about fashion? Waverley is excellent, but I absolutely love The Antiquarian. A nice list altogether. War and Peace is a great favourite. I have read it every 2 or 3 years for decades. I totally agree about Pevear and Volkhonshy, they are overhyped and their Brothers Karamazov is lousy, despite a loads of endorsements on here.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Just so you know I subscribed early, before you became famous. I fully expect to be spared your secret police ever smashing down my front door once you conquer the world. It would be an absolute scan-dahl otherwise.

[@JoeSpivey02]

You and your family have nothing to fear. In fact, I even had you penciled in for a seat on my interior legislative cabinet. That's only if you turn out to be a loyal ally and apparatchik!

[@GentleReader01]

And I’m here thanks to Michael’s recommendation. This may or may not be to his credit. :)

[@richarddelanet]

Will the Spivey cabinet (and benign regime) be ultimately based in the appellation of the U.S.A. ?

[@JoeSpivey02]

It will still be known as the United Kingdom, with The People’s Republic of East Yorkshire given rights as a municipal tax haven!

[@richarddelanet]

@@JoeSpivey02 So does Devon way foot the bills then?!

[@kittyfuggle-hops7904]

The Signal Man , i believe thats the name, is a short ghost story by Dickens. Arguably (imho) the only good story by him

[@RichardJSchwartz]

I understand that you weekend on your yacht with a wealthy and beautiful supermodel. Could you share with us photos of the boat?

[@katjack2780]

I second that motion.

[@JoeSpivey02]

All in jest my friend! Plus Ariadne doesn’t take kindly to having her photo taken out of hours.

[@thebraxtonater8466]

Waverley was good!

[@JoeSpivey02]

It's looming rather large on the end of my bed 🤣

[@thebraxtonater8466]

@@JoeSpivey02 Heart of Midlothian is longer

[@ryanand154]

I fell asleep reading the back of Meredith.

[@Nate1975]

Bleak House is quite bleak

[@ryanand154]

He makes it home. Penelope is annoyed.

[@laurawhichello]

Will these snap crepuscular police raids take the form of War and Peace pop-quizzes in the gloaming? And as early subscribers can we apply to the Joe Spivey Office for a written exemption?

[@JoeSpivey02]

My boys will be round to issue identity papers when the New Year is settled in.

[@trxvxn]

i highly recommend adding something by Toni Morrison to you reading list this year. Beloved, Sula, or Song of Solomon. She’s one of the greatest authors who ever lived, and she is in fact punished by penguin as well

[@ednorton47]

Is this about acting, or reading books?

[@JoeSpivey02]

Can't it be about both? I was astonished by your performance in Hannibal Ed! Do you have any more acting gigs coming up?

[@nathfrancis01]

@@JoeSpivey02 Ed Norton was in Red Dragon not Hannibal, it was Julianne Moore in Hannibal. Both great performances though.

[@BubbleFortress]

Subscribed at 2.65K, I hope I do not receive any thumb screws or get shipped off to distant lands.

[@ryanand154]

You look like a handsome young Mark E Smith.

[@castillomark]

I really enjoyed the Rosemary Edmonds translation of "War and Peace."

[@masterprocrastinator7078]

I’ve subscribed out of fear. Please don’t hold it against me that I did not make it into the first thousand

[@marjorietalcott]

Quite candidly, instead of reading War and Peace myself, I would almost prefer you describe the preface more through the eyes of this windswept campy cartoon lady! I suppose proving how one should not judge a book by its ridiculous cover. Wordsworth might not approve of his name on this marketing scheme. Or it could have been bring your daughter to work day and allow them artistic freedom? I enjoy your sense of humor! Refreshing!

[@taske195]

I play this video on 0.75 speed

[@JoeSpivey02]

And why would you do a thing like that? 😂

[@taske195]

@@JoeSpivey02 I love your energy, but you talk too fast, I feel like I'm at work, where my boss dictates what I need to do :) At 0.75 I receive same message, but in a more relaxed way ;)

[@lizparker8431]

Me too.

[@donovanmedieval]

Are you related to the "How Art Made the World" guy?

[@JoeSpivey02]

Sadly me and Nigel Spivey are not related. Nor, as has been suggested, are we in a civil partnership 😂

[@donovanmedieval]

@@JoeSpivey02 I couldn't remember for sure if that was his first name.

[@ryanand154]

War and Peace is a book for people who wear reading socks.

[@Nate1975]

You in politics? The way you speak and the amount of words 😮😮😮 you should be in politics

[@JoeSpivey02]

I shall aim to be more than a mere footnote in the biographies of the greats 😂

[@markelliott2619]

Home address?

[@ryanand154]

Samuel Johnson was the first man to call himself a doctor without being able to prescribe drugs.

[@peterg1646]

Translation, shmanslation. Just read it.

[@romuloseverinodossantos9348]

Brazil 🇧🇷

[@willbass2869]

Several "book" yt channels have popped into my feed last few days. So i heard upteen recommended lists. What is it with you Brits TOTALLY ignoring a top 10 19th century book....."Moby Dick"? Really should read that!

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

British education may have a blind spot for American authors and literature.