The 10 best books I've read, according to GoodReads

[@adriennelee26]

Half of my GR top 10 are Calvin and Hobbes collections.

[@BookwormAdventureGirl]

So glad you did this, Olly. I don't think it's original with me either, but I'm glad it inspired you. Maus is a graphic novel that I'm interested in reading. Love The Green Mile. Yay, we do have one in common. 😊💙

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thanks for the inspiration! It was a fun one to do

[@eriebeverly]

Interesting selection of books with those newer manga reads battling their way in. Now do the old switcheroo and do the bottom rung of your reads.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Oooh yeah! I hadn’t thought of that

[@ITCamefromthePage]

For an experiment I was like 'Oh I should do this" and then like 90% of the books ended up being warhammer books so I was like 'ugh no one wants to watch this' LOL. I had some Manga in there as well and some non-fiction stuff. Your list is much more interesting than mine.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha ha that doesn’t surprise me

[@BenjaminsBookclub]

Oh this is such a fun video idea! I may borrow it. Funny how the ratings on good reads go, I was surprised at what ended up near the top of mine, a lot of Manga and western comics. I havn't read the Monster manga, but I did devour the Anime adaptation, watching it three times back to back. Can't wait for the Novels edit :)

[@drstrangefreak]

Got Maus on my shelf, waiting for a good moment to read it. Somewhere this summer I think.

[@anotherbooktubechannel]

Maus is sensational. One of the greatest graphic novels of all time and one of the most important works ever created.

[@drstrangefreak]

@@anotherbooktubechannel Do love the art style. Waiting for spring/summer so I can read it on a park bench, where I enjoy reading the most.

[@materiagrix]

I loved the Berserk series and movies and I have been meaning to read the manga for years! But I’m trying to acquire all the volumes first so that I can read it altogether.

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

Such an interesting subject. I saw Jolene’s version and created my own list, but I used LibraryThing since I’m not on Goodreads. I haven’t filmed it yet. Maus is the best on your list, IMHO. I read the original Green Mile when it was a serial but my memories aren’t too favorable.

[@jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

This is an idea that has been doing the rounds of Booktube, I am watching your video because Benjamin of Benjamin's BookClub was inspired by you to do his own video on the topic. I also saw that Jack Edwards did this a couple of years ago and he too had "Natives" by Akala in his top 10. Benjamin also found that Manga rated highly and discounted them from his video. I think it is true as you say for series, sequels will inevitably have higher ratings, as the people who stay with the series are more invested in the characters and the story, I looked at my own Goodreads and the highest book with multiple ratings is The Hunted, which is the 18th book in a series (I haven't read the other 17 but imagine most of the other raters would have). Like you, I found the books I've read about Auschwitz like Kitty Hart's 'Return to Auschwitz' (4.55) were highly rated.

[@M-J]

Interesting list! I just looked up my stats and my results are spot on.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Oh cool!

[@gingerbibliophile]

I love how spread out your list is. Apparently I really don’t read much popular fiction. Most of my top reads had barely 100 reviews, some closer to 50 ratings. My list with the 1000 ratings criteria is basically Harry Potter and LOTR.

[@scp240]

My Top Ten following your criteria and excluding Books of the Bible and nonfiction: 1. Lord of the Rings by Tolkien 2. Martin Eden by Jack London 3. Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman 4. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges 5. East of Eden by John Steinbeck 6. Mutiny on the Bounty Trilogy by Nordhoff and Hall 7. A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman 8. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky 9. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne 10. Different Seasons by Stephen King Quite a diverse collection. All are worth reading I suppose though not necessarily my favorites or even given 5 stars. Excluding the one kids book the next on the list is Collected Stories by Franz Kafka. Which is one of my favorites, along with LOTR. Have you not read Tolkien? Otherwise I should think it would make your Top Ten.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That is a diverse collection!

[@FrshChees91]

Cool idea! Wasn't expecting Romantasy in your list! Lol. 6 of my top 10 I rated 5 stars. So some consensus there! 4 of my 10 are Brandon Sanderson. Not surprising as he's got some very highly rated books. Two of those I rated 4 stars and the other two at 3 stars.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

There’s nothing I won’t try reading at least once 😂

[@MetalSamantha]

I keep meaning to read Maus. Perhaps I will soon

[@Robutube1]

Actual list starts at 05:27. Before that is an exposition of caveats and qualifiers for inclusion. You're welcome.

[@AllenFreemanMediaGuru]

MAUS is great. I read the first book years ago then read all of it 3 years ago. Powerful.

[@GBru-hx6rx]

I don't have a GR, however, if I did, I suspect that my top ten would all be X-Men comics and their spin-offs, New Mutants, X-Statix, etc. I read a lot of things, but I have definitely read and reread various runs on X-Men dozens of times and have probably read more X-Men comics than anything else.

[@DuncanMcCurdie]

I had a look at mine and it was interesting enough to do a video on it. I had to eliminate quite a few books that had less than 10 ratings!

[@worldobserver3515]

Maybe do a video, based on your opinion, on what the 10 or 15 best books were over the last 10 or 20 years. Add-on: I found your 50 novels of the last 50 years video and put it in my queue.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I do need to do that sometime. the 50 one was a bit of a cheat because I just picked one book per year

[@Unpotted]

I understand your feelings about the author who shall remain unnamed, and I fully support your decision to avoid those titles. I never read Harry Potter, but I saw parts of some of the movies and I was correct in my assessment that they weren’t for me. On the other hand, the C B Strike books are right up my alley for palate-cleansers, so I just pretend they really were written by Galbraith. 🤷‍♂️ 🫣 I don’t know much about any author’s politics or personal beliefs, but if I did, and avoided work by everyone I disagreed with, it would be both exhausting research and a short stack of fiction for my tbr. To each their own. 😺✌️

[@evansclan4eva49]

Hear hear!

[@pickyourpopculturepoison]

I was going to do this but Harry Potter books made up the majority of the list, which wasn’t interesting!

[@Shadowslayer87]

I have read a great de!l of those

[@lindsay3793]

You don't read JK Rowling anymore. 🙄

[@CriminOllyBlog]

🙄

[@lindsay3793]

@@CriminOllyBlog Just be a fan. So phony.

[@MetalSamantha]

@@lindsay3793I don’t think he’s phoney at all.

[@lindsay3793]

@@MetalSamantha It's two-faced and sheepish. JK Rowling stood for everything he was in agreement with, loved what the books represented, including standing up for women. JK Rowling continues to stand up for us women. She never changed, he did.

[@Unpotted]

I’m unimportant, and this is just my opinion, but I feel like anyone with a platform who spews hatred and intolerance at even just one of us, based upon our identity, is doing a disservice to all of us based on our community. A wise person once said “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto me.” I am not a religious person, but as a member of society, I have to agree. “The tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.” Interested parties may wish to search for the author of that quote. Knowing what Marion Zimmer Bradley is alleged to have done, would you still purchase her books, even if those sales support her alleged victim? Moral quandaries abound in life. Everyone must choose for themselves when and where and if to draw a line. It seems unkind to berate someone else’s moral choices. 😺✌️

[@marconacher01]

You don't read JK Rowling but you read HP Lovecraft? Can't you differentiate between an author's work and his or her personal views? If I only read works by people I'm in complete agreement over everything, I'd end up reading nothing.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

HPL doesn’t get my money.

[@marconacher01]

@@CriminOllyBlog Luckily, you can borrow the Harry Potter books from your local library. Problrm solved.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@marconacher01 authors get money when you borrow their books from the library. And I’ve read them all

[@marconacher01]

@@CriminOllyBlog Fair point 👍

[@krisprepolec5616]

I agree with your stance on JK Rowling. It makes me very sad and angry that her ridiculous and harmful opinions have ruined her wonderful books for so many of us, but I just can’t support her anti-trans views by reading her work anymore. She is an intelligent woman, and one day I hope she will she how wrong she has been.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you. She’s definitely become a polarising person. My comments in this video lost me a few subscribers, as I knew they would.

[@GBru-hx6rx]

I have read Deathly Hallows, Maus, Green Mile, the first 5 or so volumes of Spy x Family and the first hardcover omnibus of Beserk. Maus deserved its Pulizer Prize, Green Mile made me cry like a baby and Spy x Family is just incredibly fun. Harry Potter used to be one of my favorite series. I'm 35, so I am part of what was then the target audience. Rowling killed my love of Harry Potter. Utterly murdered it by being such an awful terf. It got to the point where I cannot see Harry Potter merch without thinking about what an awful bigot she is, so I had to purge the series from my collection. Beserk. I did not connect with it the way most readers do. I remember finding it kind of mean spirited. I am certain that the classical fantasy sort of setting didn't help. For whatever reason, I don't often connect with sword and shield Lord of the Rings or Conan the Barbarian style fantasy. I do not know why, but it seems to hyperactivate my ADHD, making it very difficult for me to maintain my interest in the material.

[@retrog1]

So I looked on Goodreads and yes; it's mostly Harry Potter. So kill me already

[@CriminOllyBlog]

😂

[@CleaSelene]

Same, meaning my version of this would be insanely dull. 😭

[@Amzone007]

Best books I read in 2024 at kindle (at 1 dollar or less) Nonfictional 1. Good Idea Bad Idea - by SON. E (Business, delta 4 method to find good and bad business ideas) 2. Death : The Last Sleep - by TOD. S (death, afterlife) 3.Vivid Victory : A Guide to Success - by John T. W (successful life) 4. Amigos : A Guide to genuine friendships - by Lookman. E (about friendships, methods to find genuine) Fictional 1. WTF?! (Season 1) - By SON. E(must read) (4 different mystery thriller stories which contain investigation etc)