Answering YOUR (mostly) bookish questions!

Thanks to everybody who sent in questions. The next half will be answered next week!
Here’s my Instagram where my reads are posted irregularly | joe_spivey_
#books #booktube #qanda

[@robbiecee2]

2:03 - Favourite Dostoevsky book 3:03 - Hobbies beyond reading 5:05 - Ideal job 5:42 - Dream trip/adventure 6:44 - Opinion on Brexit 7:40 - Dinner with three historical figures 10:13 - Favourite poem by Lord Byron 11:04 - New years resolutions 12:37 - One book recommendation 14:02 - Author and musical artist who viewers would be surprised you like 15:53 - Plans regarding university 16:48 - Reading experience that was pivotal or meaningful 17:36 - Pets 18:41 - How did your interest in 19th century literature evolve 19:29 - Subject at university 19:40 - Participation in debate clubs 20:10 - Are your parents readers 21:15 - Impact of university study on reading 22:43 - Why are some academics so fixated on gender ideology etc 26:18 - Age, Favourite Middlemarch character, Pancakes or waffles 26:38 - Is Time's Arrow representative of Amis works 28:07 - Do you do war gaming

[@pretentioussystem]

Thanks a lot Robbie!

[@kjmav10135]

I am so glad you are writing novels of your own when yoyu aren’t busy ruling the Spivian Empire. Your command of every corner of the dictionary means you’d be a great one.

[@christinaalvarez332]

Wow, congrats on 2000 subs and on writing book! Amazing feats! And you also inspired me to pick up my first Amis book. I found Other People at a library book sale and snatched it right up but not sure when I'll read it yet. ☺

[@lukefarrell6769]

Great episode oh Supreme Leader!! May your rule be eternal 😆 very witty response to my question!! Take care, happy reading

[@watermelonmanied]

You put me in mind of a sober, southern Mark E. Smith of The Fall.

[@Gooders478]

I met Mark E Smith a few times, in fact one of my flatmates was a long standing bass player in The Fall. Smith was very polite, soft spoken and unassuming when out and about, he used to frequent the Third Man bar, downstairs at the Hacienda, but he was a tyrant with his band members, kicking, shoving and pinching them on stage. It was painful to watch.

[@CrispyTaters]

I just discovered your channel and am following intently. I am not very well-read on the classics (yet). Two “modern” guys I’ve read recently and enjoyed are Nabokov and Steinbeck - have you read either?

[@Hidinginyourcupboard]

I have a friend who is a university professor and he describes this very phenomenon of student as customer amongst the students. If they are failing it's certainly not their own fault and they require a specific rubric at all times :|

[@JoeSpivey02]

It's almost certainly why they so often genuflect to the whims of immature students.

[@thelefthandedreader6632]

“A smattering of earth on my sleeve…”. 😅. It’s so refreshing to hear about ANYONE changing their mind about anything..as your stance on Brexit has evolved. Writing a novel!🎉🎉. Congratulations! How exciting. I love the pivotal book answer. Martin Amis’ The Rachel Papers… albeit I’ll try an Amis. He sounds too much like Updike to me, but I may dip a toe in The Rachel Papers at some point…

[@JoeSpivey02]

Unfortunately he made Updike an idol of his!

[@thelefthandedreader6632]

@@JoeSpivey02 , 😅

[@Tanya-vx4pc]

Loved this! I'm one of those of the harangue of new people here. I agree with your ideas completely and I love to see someone so young with so much sense. And hey, I am also making my way through Middlemarch and strangely, your personality and youth (😂) remind me of Will Ladislaw! But I'm only 30% of the way through so waiting for the story to unfold. Pleased to be a new harangue in your world.

[@JoeSpivey02]

Many would disagree with that apparent “sense” 😂

[@bernardofitzpatrick5403]

agree about the cesspool that is academic undergraduate studies . Totally antithetical to any kind of “education” .

[@louamina]

Thank you for the videos! I observed pretty much the same things when I was at university (was studying art though) it made me feel so sad... And I'm a black girl so it was a bit easier for me to say what I was thinking about this whole "woke" ideology but still didn't work out well for me haha. (Sorry for the mistakes I do when I write, English is not my mother tongue)

[@JoeSpivey02]

Thanks for such a considered comment. Identity politics has clogged the debate to such an extent in those places that you have to belong to an ethnic minority in order to have the assurance that your comments won't be misconstrued. It'll be different when I'm in government!

[@louamina]

@@JoeSpivey02 Yes exactly, and even then people will tell you that this is some internalized discrimination :,))). I can't wait for you to become the world's president!

[@rayboydstun1626]

Writing novels can be fun!

[@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk]

Surely it was not earthly matter while it was up there? Nor while on the way down. Only when it hit the ground? Enlightening and entertaining as always. I think if I went to study English Literature at University now I would be a in a duel every morning defending the honour of my gender ethnicity and country. Best wishes.

[@sqweiqueu7]

New subscriber, been loving your videos. Missed the q and a post, but, have you ever read any brazilian literature? good luck with the channel

[@JoeSpivey02]

I don’t believe I have. What would be some Brazilian works (in translation) that you think would suit me well?

[@sqweiqueu7]

Machado de Assis has been translated into English, you can find Penguin Classics editions of his major novel, the Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, as well as his short stories (I would personally recommend the novella "The Alienist" to start with). He was a contemporary of the Victorians, and took inspiration from 18th century English literature, which you might appreciate. @@JoeSpivey02

[@sab8019]

+1 for Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas!

[@GameAlone997]

If Boris Johnson was young, sexy and liked books that would be you Sir

[@JoeSpivey02]

By implication you don't think Johnson is sexy?! I know twelve or fifteen secretaries on Fleet Street who would disagree with you 🤣

[@GameAlone997]

@@JoeSpivey02 🫣😂

[@ThatReadingGuy28]

Isn't it interesting that this was supposed to be a Q&A to celebrate 1k subs, but once you published the first Q&A video, you already shot past 2k. Almost as if you have preternatural powers of hypnosis over scores of feckless readers stumbling across your channel.

[@JoeSpivey02]

Don't portray me as some sort of cultish Svengali preying on the masses😜I would rather be thought of as a helper, suckling those most in need!

[@gramatprieks]

It is so precious to know that you don't breed camels and don't knit😅

[@JoeSpivey02]

I've tried but the local authorities won't allow it.