The WORST books I read in 2024! | (*contains rants*)

[@kitjenkin713]

Whenever I read something translated, I'm always reminded of that great saying: "reading poetry in translation is like trying to take a shower with a raincoat on." It's always hard to judge the quality of a translated work, since you're reading the translator just as much as the author. I've tried on three separate occasions to read War and Peace and I failed each time. Too baggy and meandering. Which is why, if you haven't already, I'd encourage you to give Anna Karenina a try. I think the scope of that narrative benefits from a narrower focus on the emotional and spiritual arcs of four characters. Remains one of my favourite novels. But Middlemarch for the win, absolutely.

[@JoeSpivey02]

I've read a brilliant translation of Anna Karenina. I love that showering analogy and will probably be appropriating it for my own purposes in a video soon enough!

[@techidna-h9t]

I gave you a thumbs up for the Rooney rant alone.

[@ivat957]

I can't think of a writer who wrote two books so far apart in quality as Daniel Deronda, a stodgy mess, and Middlemarch, one of the greatest novels I've ever read. On the Russians, I have to admit I can't get into Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev. But the exception is Chekhov. He is my favourite writer. And nothing like the others at all. Thanks for the entertainment.

[@JeffRebornNow]

Why is Joe punishing himself reading Truss and Johnson and a book on Powell? I suspect a buried masochistic streak. Also, I have to laugh at a book titled "Shakespeare: The Biography." We don't even know who the man (woman?) was, so why not write a 500 page book on "his life." LOL I have to say, though, that Joe is a good and accurate critic when he hates something.

[@JoeSpivey02]

JeffRebornNow really ought to refer to the stated Booktuber in the first person, otherwise that same stated Booktuber will think JeffRebornNow is only speaking to the mob...and not directly to Him! I've always been an indefatigable and visceral hater of all that's overrated!

[@Mostirrelevant]

Stating that book is poorly written or not someone's cup of tea has nothing to do with patriarchy, so I have to disagree about this whole trend. This patriarchal opression thing is really lot more complicated, it makes sense in some circumstances, but is lot more complicated than that. I have to disagree about Rooney's being representative of a literature or whole generation. Her work differs a lot from usual British literature/topics, and a lot

[@JoeSpivey02]

On that we agree entirely!

[@orsino88]

Deronda-yeah, the Jewish subplot doesn’t quite work, but Gwendolyn and her nightmare marriage…brilliantly done. Tolstoy had an unmatched ability to bring utterly plausible beings into existence in a few sentences. The long excursus on war, the rising and falling generals-eminently skippable.

[@Geraldsbliss]

Very interesting what you have to say about Russian literature. Makes me wonder how familiar you are with 19th-century French literature. Do you know Stendhal and Flaubert? They are some of my favourite authors, but I have a sneaky suspicion you might be more of a Balzac and Zola man, to say nothing of Hugo.

[@JoeSpivey02]

My knowledge of French authors is awfully limited! But if they have been ushered into the Canon, then I'm sure I'll get to them at some point!

[@lolaphearse3688]

But Joe,what do you REALLY think of these books?

[@dreamofempire2114]

I think it is fair to surmise that you are probably not going to be included on Ms Rooney’s Christmas card list this year.

[@JoeSpivey02]

Her Christmas cards presumably suffer from the same hogwash so I'll count myself lucky!

[@orsino88]

I suspect that Rooney is where the Hoover and Maas readers land when they decide that they ought to improve their intellectual muscle and read some literary fiction; they simply can’t tell, after all that preposterous, smutty garbage, whether Rooney has anything to say.

[@emmaginationlove]

I'm 42 and I read 60 books this year: historical fiction, literary fiction and non fiction - I can attest that Rooney is nothing like Hoover and that other one. I do, however, see and suspect that Rooney is being maligned as "chick lit" by people who are suspicious of younger women writers. Intermezzo was pretty decent. It wasn't the best thing I read this year but it had pathos and things to say. The idea that she's "smutty" is a strangely adorable and puritanical thing for an adult reader to say.

[@orsino88]

@ , I don’t say that Rooney is. Maas’ books definitely are.

[@JoeSpivey02]

No no no no Emma! Don't fall into the traps Rooney sets by discrediting everyone who has the guts to criticise her as a blatant misogynist! I have it on good critical authority (i.e the oldest, best read, and fairest critic in the US) that Intermezzo was a pile of complacent garbage. If the sex it itemised and gratuitous in her books, which it is, then her smuttiness certainly needs to be mentioned without you patronising us as "adorable and puritanical". Thank you for contributing to the debate!

[@emmaginationlove]

@@JoeSpivey02Yet what could be more patronising than a smug and dismissive take down of a book that is held up as the contemporary female gaze by many. If themes of grief, disability, sexual exploitation, power dynamics, class and so on, are dismissed because the sex scenes are being pretty realistically described from a female perspective as "smut" - then what does that say about the person doing the denouncing? I'd be interesting in reading that old critic's review if you name them.

[@JoeSpivey02]

If themes of grief, disability, sexual exploitation and discussion of sed power dynamics are your desired topics then there are DOZENS AND DOZENS of writers I'd be gleeful to recommend who present and interrogate those topics more maturely and with greater literary composure. Those topics are VERY IMPORTANT, but please don't let a ninth-rate mediocrity and her personality cult wash your mind with this gender-baited nonsense.

[@inquisitor3255]

While I agree with your criticisms your speech pattern is headache inducing

[@JeffRebornNow]

I like his voice and his speech patterns. You have to take into consideration, though, that he's only like 21 or 22. At that age you're barely out of your cocoon state.

[@valpergalit]

What a silly comment. Joe is one of the most well-spoken people on BookTube.

[@JoeSpivey02]

@@JeffRebornNow By the same ageistic token then, everyone north of 50 is ready for the knacker's yard!

[@JoeSpivey02]

There are free painkillers posted through your door every time you recommend a friend along to this channel!

[@karenpotter3015]

Your comment is ridiculous. Joe is well spoken, knowledgeable and fun! So, take some ibuprofen or it will be your loss 😮