4 Big Books I'm Reading This Year

[@jackwalter5970]

A journalist interviewed William Faulkner, who said Don Quixote was his favorite novel. "Isn't it too long?" the journalist asked. Faulkner replied, "I hadn't noticed." All four of your books are great. I love big books!

[@vmanias]

2666 is a true masterpiece! You ll definately love it!

[@davidcaza8643]

The bigger the book the better!

[@crimsonwhispersva2498]

Then look into a book series on kindle or audible called the wondering Inn by Pirate its a really good series I am enjoying

[@DuaneJasper]

Good luck. For me, this year I have read Shantaram, Caledonian Road, and am finishing Bleak House. I also plan to finish Against The Day

[@ToReadersItMayConcern]

Fantastic selection. You're set for a great reading year! (Pynchon is a bit tough if you started out reading David Foster Wallace, since Wallace took some of Pynchon's aims and, in my view, elevated them through beauty, honesty, and a softer wit, but so many love Pynchon-I know I have to go back and give him more of a chance; I'm glad you're doing so.)

[@suzannebousquet2710]

I recently read Moby Dick and am on Part Two of Don Quixote. I would highly recommend both. In the winter, I am planning on reading Anna Karenina.

[@gamingsfinest3356]

I don't read a lot of big books. I generally have the view that shorter books illustrate an author's ability to effectively condense a story and their ideas more efficiently, I subjectively integrate shorter length as a marker of quality. Ultimately I think this is borne out of my primary genre of choice being science fiction where the sweet spot is 200-400 pages. Given the subject of this video and many of the comments I've read through, this will probably be a pretty scorching take in this comment section (seriously though, no shade intended for long books and long book lovers

[@johnradovich8809]

Magic Mountain is far and away my favorite. Be sure to get to it eventually.

[@jbriaz]

I read War and Peace last year, and I am reading Anna Karenina right now (90% done). War and Peace is the far superior work in my opinion. But Anna has plenty to work with, and it’s definitely easier to follow the cast of characters.

[@jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

200 to 350 words is my comfort zone for reading, in March I will try a mammoth. This year I read The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili which weighed in at over 1200 pages, a generational drama spanning the 20th century in Soviet Georgia, which was an incredible story. The previous March (2023) I tried Crytonomicon by Neal Stephenson and had to throw in the towel. Good luck with your big books.

[@TheActiveMind1]

Wow, I see a lot of praise and high ratings for The Eighth Life. I’ll have to add it to my list for next year! Let me know if you are enjoying it

[@jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

@@TheActiveMind1 I enjoyed it, I read it in 3 weeks. I live in Georgia (the country) so it was very interesting for me.

[@Ricky-es9vg]

My uncle is a huge reader and he recently recommended 2666 to me, he read it in the original. Mysterious one, a very intriguing book to me. Great selections!

[@judgementkazzy420]

No way 💀 I finished Anna Karenina audiobook last Feb, bought Gravity's Rainbow on audible (haven't started yet), and literally started 2666 last month because it became free with a Kindle plus subscription. I haven't heard of The Corrections but I guess it's on my reading list now. Anna Karenina I'd say is the easiest and most interesting among the three. 2666, which current I'm only halfway through on its first part, isn't 'hard' as say Gravity's Rainbow, it's hard akin to Infinite Jest as in the highs are very high and lows are so uninteresting and boring that I find it hard to get through (so far). Since both Anna Karenina and 2666 are translated, it's technically 'easier', but GR is just a beast.

[@TheActiveMind1]

That is a funny coincidence! I actually didn't find Infinite Jest too hard - just garrulous or tiresome at times. But Gravity's Rainbow is giving me some confusion keeping up with the plot, characters, and historical references. Definitely looking forward to Anna Karenina and 2666!

[@Amy-vr5yt]

It’s really worth not rushing gravity’s rainbow- I recommended the course hero study guide so you can get the most out of it

[@aleksandrshapovalenko4263]

"Anna Karenina" is a great choice! Good luck! I've read that it's actually the best Tolstoy's novel, not "War and Peace".

[@RJRobertson-fd8xy]

Once again, nice job. I just finished The Iliad and Odyssey and will segue into Ulysses (gotta keep up with that Greek mythology vein at least in title) I, like you, like to mix it up with larger works interspersed with short stories and readings (Checkov, Kafka...Twain.) However, since my focus this year is primarily on foundation building, I am sticking with Greek works: the Tragadians (Aesculys, Sophocles, Euripides, etc.), early Greek philosophy particularly the pre-Socratics (Thales, Pythagoras, etc.), history (Heroditus, Plutarch, and Thucydides, yes some romans, but...) and the early Greek mathematicians. Well, you asked for it...

[@curtjarrell9710]

Another novel which touched on themes included in The Corrections is the second novel by Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22. The book is Something Happened, and it's fascinating.

[@DarkRuins]

anna karenina is such a crucial story. anna has borderline personality disorder, and witnessing her decline, paranoia, and delusions in contrast to her husband and the affair she has is just... an absolute masterpiece. the climax of her death, her last thought, is a lesson to anyone that spirals down her same path. i personally prefer war and peace but anna karenina is just... so vital in the study and healing of mental illness.

[@user-zm5zt1sd1j]

What a great video. I have been watching your videos from the very start and i want to say that they are getting better and better. I have only found two other channels about literature with this kind of content quality and depth (also you have very good production quality). I am saying that because i can not underestand why you do not have 50K+. Anyway, i am a slow reader and generally preferred reading shorter novels - to be honest i have not read any big book. Now i am reading the hunchback of Notre Dame by Hugo so i can tell you about my experience. Reading a big book requires a reading habbit in order for someone to be interested in the book. Reading books have not been a part of my routine, i would read a novel in a week for example and for the next month i wouldn't read anything. Also this specific book is very slow in the start and also Hugo often stops the main narrative and talks about all kind of stuff (which is very insteresting) making it slower. I am reading it in english (which is not my mother tongue) and that makes the reading even slower. However i can say that the book is really amazing! I mean it really has very very different form compared to shorter classic novels or novellas. He takes his time building something much bigger in temrs of the setting, the characters, the themes. It's very grand. I mean it is not like reading a novel it's more like discovering a new world! It's like Hugo is not writing a novel but creating a whole world - if that makes sense. I am not so much into travelling but reading this book makes me want to go to Paris to see Notre Dame! His prose is beautiful, i am definitely want to read Les Miserables next. I want to read Anna Karenina as a big book next year so i am looking foreward to your review, once you finish it.

[@TheActiveMind1]

Thank you for the kind words! It’s impressive for you to read it in a language other than your native one. I hope I can read a Russian novel in Russian in the next few years

[@crimsonwhispersva2498]

The big book series I am reading right now is the wondering Inn by Pirate and I am doing them by audiobook and the audiobooks are really good.

[@kurtgroner3360]

i'm glad i found your channel. inspires me to start reading again fiction!

[@TheActiveMind1]

Honored to reinvigorate your spirit!

[@roawr59]

I really wish that one of your big books this year would be JR by W. Gaddis

[@TheActiveMind1]

The Recognitions by Gaddis is locked in for next year!

[@arunjoseph3199]

currently reading the new edition of Adam Levin's Instructions, it's a riot...

[@TheActiveMind1]

I’ve been seeing that book more lately. I might need to grab a copy

[@JonStallings]

I am definitely a 200-ish page guy. I also am a bit of a slow reader with all I have going on. But I am trying to branch out. I am about 3/4 through Lord of the Rings. I have War and Peace qued up next.

[@TheActiveMind1]

I can understand that. You’ve got your hands full with LOTR and War and Peace

[@SLMDNKAHO]

I like a good 700-800 pages the most but I like the longer ones too 👍

[@SLMDNKAHO]

Also, I read a longer book just one at a time. Then after, I smack two or three shorter books before starting another big one

[@TheActiveMind1]

That’s similar to my reading behavior 👍🏼

[@waffle.23]

Im reading Don Quixote right now, its my first "mammoth read" im like 15 pages in but im already loving it and excited for the journey. Have you read that one?

[@TheActiveMind1]

Not yet! It’s on my list!

[@waffle.23]

@@TheActiveMind1 Cool, I have to say its a suprisingly funny book. Its fascinating how a book 400+ years old can be so funny and feel very modern.

[@genevievechaput2552]

Salut, je préfère aussi les grosses briques de livres. Merci pour la vidéo

[@jakenap7184]

Have you read any Virginia Woolf?

[@TheActiveMind1]

Not yet, but I’ve been trying to find a good used copy of her works at my local stores

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

Oof, 2666 is *the* worst book I've ever read. Just 800 pages of flat prose and flatter characters. Honestly I didn't even find it as disturbing as everyone else seems to either. Oh well, maybe you'll like it more than I did.

[@TheActiveMind1]

Dang! I’ll at least give it a try. Perhaps it falls into the Infinite Jest-type category where readers either adore or despise it

[@jasonuerkvitz3756]

When I was younger in college, if I was given a recommendation, I would read the work, even if I hated it, fighting my way through simply to say I had read it, and not to seem like an utter idiot despite obvious shortcomings. So, as it was, I was told to read all of Pynchon as he was important and "the best." I got about 120 pages into _Gravity's Rainbow_ and shelved it. Terrible book. I'm not interested in playing the idiot's game with Pynchon and voyeuristicly watch him flex and fondle himself with his words. There's a reasonable capacity to one's ability to stomach pretentiousness and in recent years, my tolerance diminished significantly. I wanted to read and like _GR_ because all of the posh, snobby lit majors in their retro, sometimes shabby clothes insisted that it was one of the best books ever written. The book would pop up as a prop in movies to indicate the brilliance of characters who would have it lying around their rooms. People I would visit who had extensive libraries would have _GR_ front and center, eye level to show how sophisticated they were. So I really needed to read that one. I had read _V_ first, and really loved it, so I read it again. I later read _The Crying of Lot 49_ and didn't care for it at all, perhaps because it illustrated through its snobbish masturbatory writing what an absolute mental midget I was and I really should stick to ditch-digging and panhandling down on skid row. Eventually, years later, having sunk my teeth into a healthy amount of Faulkner and all of Cormac McCarthy, I felt I was ready for _Gravity's Rainbow_ but, boy, was I wrong. Simply have no interest in continuing with a book that talks about a psychedelic adventure into the plumbing depths of a shit-filled toilet in search of a harmonica. I'm not easily offended when it comes to certain things regarding race--Thomas Wolfe didn't offend me, even though many passages in some of his work are horrifically dated, but they were honest, raw, and part of the time, hence historical--but something about that passage in _GR_ turned me off, outside the scatty butt humor and the clear theme of phallic worship--bananas, rockets, hedonism. _V_ is perhaps a study of the female, _Gravity's Rainbow_ the study of the male, but I didn't find Pynchon's attempt at humor amusing, nor did I find it particularly interesting. Good luck with that one, I decided to go my own way and not worry about old trends, or important books, and allow for my inner voice to lead me true. If I don't like it, I'm not going to read it. Go Tolstoy! I really would like to read _Anna Karenina_ and _War and Peace_ but I'm a bit daunted. And there is always Dostoyevsky's _The Brothers Karamazov_ . For a hefty epic, I recommend Larry McMurtry's _Lonesome Dove_ . Superb novel.

[@TheActiveMind1]

I’ll add Lonesome Dove to my list! Looks like a great one!

[@jasonuerkvitz3756]

@@TheActiveMind1 I hope you enjoy it. Be prepared because that one, though beautiful through much of it, is suffused with a great deal of sorrow, melancholy, and tragedy. It's simply a gorgeous thing. A true labor of love.