reacting to 1 star reviews of CLASSIC books

[@lieved530]

My favorite one star review I've seen is one of Moby Dick that said reading the book was like getting cornered at a party by someone who wouldn't shut up about everything to do with whales, and when you lied and said you had to pee, they followed you into the bathroom and peered over the edge of the stall while continuing to blather on about whales. That review convinced me to buy the book.

[@KarlieStarrSings]

Isn't that the review where it starts off with a quote from The Simpsons??😂

[@lieved530]

@@KarlieStarrSings It isn't actually, but I just went to Goodreads to find the Simpsons one and that's a pretty good one too lmao

[@ninakrishnamurthy6674]

To be fair, I’ve read Moby Dick. Only half the book is actual plot; the rest is whaling trivia. I love classic literature, BTW; I just didn’t love Moby Dick

[@Theomite]

This is the greatest defense of _Moby-Dick_ I have ever read.

[@SR-zp4je]

Currently reading Moby Dick, mostly because of that one scene in Star Trek First Contact, and can confirm, that is exactly what it’s like.

[@m.vilaxo]

now the opposite: reacting to 5 star reviews of books you gave 1 star 🫶🏻

[@reereadstoomuch]

yes!!!

[@sylvaindore3190]

Very good comment!

[@KarlieStarrSings]

Me with any Colleen Hoover book

[@xtinakeren5575]

Yessssss

[@sashhhaa4874]

Yessss

[@greatestcalamity6886]

“needs more smut” followed by jack saying “IS NOTHING SACRED” is soooo funny

[@js66613]

It's also a bit funny coming from him after he mentioned having plenty of books that were just women's ramblings with some sex in the middle.

[@palemeadows]

@@js66613good for them!

[@wesley-qw1bs]

"too much crime and not enough punishment" he got sent to a penal colony in siberia⁉️⁉️⁉️

[@dyip-vb1wl]

Ppl be saying anything to try to be “funny and quirky“ 😂

[@strawberryorange3755]

I think they meant that he murdered 2 people and only got 8 years of penal servitude.

[@bluecannibaleyes]

The vast majority of the book takes place before the punishment, though, so the crime to punishment ratio is rather lopsided. He doesn’t confess and get punished until the very end of the book. The book is more like a little bit of crime, a little bit of punishment, and hundreds of pages of brooding about it in between. And I’m saying this as someone who liked Crime and Punishment. The guy had a point. 😅

[@DostoJR77]

@@bluecannibaleyes The "punishment" of the book has nothing to with a legal punishment lmao. How do you like it and not understand the most basic concept of the book?

[@gohtcheez]

@@bluecannibaleyesthe “brooding” IS the punishment … he literally spends the entire book in emotional and physical torment as a result of his actions ?!!!???

[@alesamaa]

“just a bunch of people going to each other’s houses” hahahaha that made me cackle

[@sassycatz4470]

It's true, but that's what they did for entertainment.

[@heather9130]

That's what makes it such a cozy read to me! I want to relax on a settee and hear all the latest gossip.

[@bartholomew887]

SAME

[@disab4649]

Literary genius is writing a book about a bunch och people going to each other's houses and making me care this much about it.

[@k49821]

Literally all of Jane Austen's books tho 😂

[@purplelily7764]

“Not enough smut” in a review on Romeo and Juliet is literally so funny.

[@musicandloveismylive]

"Goodreads looks like it was designed in 2006" And it hasn't been updated ever since.

[@ShinyAvalon]

Honestly, I like simple formats. What bothers me about Goodreads is the toxicity of the users, not the way it looks. It does what it's meant to do; that's all I ask from a site.

[@zeltzamer4010]

@@ShinyAvalonI always thought it was the exact opposite of simple. It takes like at least five clicks to do anything.

[@ShinyAvalon]

@@zeltzamer4010 - There are simpler setups, but I can generally find things in two or three clicks, which doesn't seem bad to me. I've defiitely seen worse.

[@pastapalads5598]

The search function on Goodreads feels completely fucked. You could write the exact title of a book and there will still be a bunch of other shit with completely unrelated titles that will show up before it!

[@qllams]

Yeah, when I heard that, I immediately said "and it WAS". I don't mind it though, it does its job.

[@carolb.3500]

saying THE ODYSSEY is generic and a "disgrace to the fantasy genre" when it is The Parent of adventure/fantasy books is WILDDDDD if you think it's generic, it's because you've read a ton of books that are the heirs of the odyssey's legacy

[@58angieb]

Exactly!! what you just said! 😊

[@carolb.3500]

@@58angieb it’s basically what Jack said about “On the road” too!! you may not like it, but it influenced many books that followed it

[@sorrybusyreading]

The Odyssey and the Iliad are so old that it was revolutionary to have that complex of characters! Writing is not the same today as it used to be

[@aloudjane137]

omg yes come for the odyssey and I will come for you!

[@freakytostadacartoon]

That is like saying that beowulf is a cliché.

[@cheyennebarton]

“huge spoilers on the first page” that’s the POINT JENNIFER

[@meikusje]

That Wuthering Heights review shows exactly how the romance and dark romance trends are messing with people('s expectations). Wuthering Heights is NOT a romance story, and their love absolutely does NOT redeem Heathcliff and Catherine. The whole story is basically a cautionary tale against obsessive and toxic love. Heathcliff is incredibly abusive, there is NOTHING romantic about this story. Just because it features people who say they are in love does NOT make it a romance, and there is no happy end or any sort of redemption.

[@cassie2055]

thank you !!

[@solairefan5420]

I love Wuthering Heights ESPECIALLY because all of the characters are so flawed. Funnily enough by hating them you basically take part in the cycle of suffering and resentment plaguing the lives of everyone in the book. I would argue the novel has a "happy" ending because (spoilers) Catherine and Hareton manage to break the cycle and put an end to the tragedy of Wuthering Heights once and for all.

[@windy8544]

never read that but like a week ago i've seen a thread discussing why lolita is a bad romance book and i'm so confused

[@purplelily7764]

@@windy8544that’s insane. Do people not realize that some books exist to say something and not just entertain someone?

[@LynnHermione]

Holy moralizing batman. Its a story. If people think its romantic its romantic

[@aaaacarolina]

months ago a girl in brazilian bookstagram commented "does it contain smut?" on a post about Les Miserables and I won't shut up about it, y'all are late to the party

[@elysianemily]

she had to have said that as a joke because ain't no way 😭

[@aaaacarolina]

@@elysianemily I wish😭 Nothing in the context made it look like a joke

[@alixiaghedeir1101]

What does "smut" mean????

[@alex._420]

​@@alixiaghedeir1101sex scenes

[@the.lbd.diaries]

​@@alixiaghedeir1101 i know what it means but i'm not gonna tell you because you'll just end up traumautized. i'm not even kidding 😭 (hint: it has a lot to do with fanfiction and Wattpad. i'll just leave it at that 🙃)

[@blotski]

I did Russian at university. I graduated in 1980. I'm getting on a bit. I remember at uni we had to read Crime and Punishment in Russian. It was a nightmare. I was too immature to even read it in English and reading it in Russian and having to write essays killed it for me. Then I tried it again when I was in my early thirties. My Russian was better and I enjoyed it more but I ended up not finishing it - work, children, busy life. Then when I was in my forties I tried again. My Russian was even better and I was finally mature enough. I read it almost non-stop. Towards the end I was literally sobbing. I loved it so much I never want to read it again in case I don't like it as much. I also loved The Idiot. The mountain I have still yet to climb successfully is Brothers Karamazov.

[@coco_1002]

Props to you for sticking to it for so many years! I am currently starting to read "The Idiot" in Russian. Russian literature from the 19th century is by far my favorite, especially including the works from Pushkin, Lermantov and Dostoevsky.

[@sirspadille]

Russian is my native language, but reading C&P wasn't an easy task. Dostoevsky is generally regarded as a difficult writer to read, even among native speakers, so every time I meet someone who has only begun learning Russian jumping right into classics I can only wish them luck. It's crazy that they made you read it so early on though

[@AlexsandraKokoeva]

I first read it in high school when I was approximately 16-17 years old. It was difficult reading but I remember liking it. Been wanting to re-read it for some time now 😊

[@catherine_404]

Your perseverance is amazing. As a Russian, I'd prefer Gogol any day. Or Turgenev, Soloukhin, Goncharov, Bulgakov (except his Master and Margarita). Or Korolev. Or Grin. War and Peace, but not other books by Tolstoy, who is a piece of work. Just look into what was on USSR school curriculum and throw out excessively "patriotic" stuff.

[@ana-nim]

Interesting. I'm Russian and I've read Crime and Punishment when I was about 14 and I LOVED it. My favorite book ever since. I'm from Saint Petersburg and live near places where Crime and Punishment takes place and it was so surreal to read at 14 years old about places that I know very well. It helped me to fully immerse me into storyline and for some period of time I felt like I became every single character of the story. However Dostoevsky liked to "twist" Russian language to his likes and he completely ignored punctuation rules so it may be hard to read for foreigners in original.

[@rosesrosesroses]

No but I was so confused at that person calling the Odyssey a fantasy book like it’s supposed to be a crown of thorn of roses or something

[@rat-xo7mj]

I'M CRYING FRRR

[@rat-xo7mj]

Rhys talmin and Odysseus (or whatever their names are)

[@biancaalves2787]

lmao it's A Court of Thorns and Roses but I will say, I felt personally offended with that review of The Odyssey lmao

[@the.lbd.diaries]

"crown of thorn of roses" THIS GOT ME 💀

[@swaraapednekar8176]

I read a review of The Metamorphosis that said , "Any day you wake up as a cockroach is a s**t day"

[@Brianna-eo8nu]

I mean they weren’t wrong…

[@AlexsandraKokoeva]

Can’t argue with that😀

[@Aegean_Native]

"a book that was written 4000 years ago and is considered the pioneer of novels doesnt have the pacing, plot lines and fanfic-like dialogues im used to read from coleen hoover and booktok books, so its bad and you should not read it"

[@SM-ky6pb]

I haven't even read The Odyssey yet but when I saw the review "it's a disgrace to fantasy novels" my jaw dropped cause wdym disgrace?? They're talking about it as if it's a modern book and not a book written thousand years ago

[@mariyamak]

Their teacher sold it to them wrong. They tried to make into a like a modern fantasy novel, so they expected something like the YA fantasies they have read and so, of course, the kid didn't find it to be that. Teacher's fault maybe.

[@awholenewworld5796]

Funny enough, the romance genre wasn't a thing when the Odyssey was born. It called an 'epic poem' so it doesn't abide by modern narrative rules​@@SM-ky6pb

[@meghanelizondo774]

​@@SM-ky6pbCenturies? It's over two-thousand five-hunred years old. Lol

[@SM-ky6pb]

@@meghanelizondo774 my bad lol millennium then

[@seelistenlearnm7859]

I think one of the things about ‘red flag’ books is that it matters WHY you like. More than the fact that you do like it.

[@mariyamak]

Right? I agree with Jack that Catcher in the Rye is a great depiction of teenage angst, but wouldn't want to touch an adult man who identifies - in his current adult life - with Holden Caulfield with a 10-foot pole

[@mrsadfacepancake4338]

@@mariyamak this is exactly how i feel about adult men and rick and morty. like, enjoy the show, but the second you start feeling like you identify with rick and not seeing why that is a problem??? i would not like to associate with you Or lolita. read lolita, it's a fine book, but if you're reading it as a romance and not basically a horror, i am afraid of you (true story, knew a guy who was 18 reading lolita outside my classroom when i was 12. he memorized my mom's license plate and tried to show me a picture of himself in his underwear)

[@mariyamak]

@@mrsadfacepancake4338 That is hella creepy. I hope your parent(s) or another adult reported him. Sorry you went through that! If anyone reads Lolita as a romance and "enjoys" it, straight off to some sort of confinement. But there are those who read Lolita as a romance and are mad at/dosgusted at Nabokov. That's just stupidity

[@LynnHermione]

People dont owe you an explantion of their likes

[@jackdonohue7893]

@@LynnHermionethat seems quite defensive

[@QueenMegaera]

I mean, the "Dante's inferno is basically fanfic"-review is absolutely accurate, but that doesn't mean it's good or bad!? 😂

[@nanskugirl1762]

tropification has given us all brainrot lmaoooo

[@rachel5399]

Could not agree more! "Enemies to lovers," "friends to lovers," "grumpy x sunshine," "spicy," SHUT UP PLEASE

[@ShinyAvalon]

Nonsense. Knowing names for things in stories does _not_ keep you from enjoying them. The issue is that young people don't understand the "Seinfeld Isn't Funny" trope enough to give the trope-codifiers slack for being so early. They look at the Wright Brothers' plane and complain about the lack of in-flight WiFi.

[@nanskugirl1762]

@@ShinyAvalon I didnt say it ruins the book personally. To me its more annoying when books are only mentioned because of what tropes are in it, but then you dont know anything else about it. I picked up Cruel Prince because I saw so many videos saying it enemies to lovers, expecting it was going to be a lot more romance focused but it wasnt. Tropes arent bad, but the way BookTok depends on them is rotting out brains and we dont actually talk about books for their actual plots. (i havent watched any Seinfeld so idk what that means hahaha)

[@ShinyAvalon]

@@nanskugirl1762 - I think, then, that it's more that you don't like the shallow way BookTok treats books in general.

[@nanskugirl1762]

@@ShinyAvalon sure, and i think my comment still expresses that feeling?

[@ninakrishnamurthy6674]

To Kill a Mockingbird was the first book I ever had to read in school that I genuinely loved. I used to separate “reading for fun” and “reading for school” into two diametrically opposed camps because the classic books I had to read in school were SO. DULL! To Kill a Mockingbird shocked me with how much I enjoyed it. I have since reread a lot of classics I had to read in high school and enjoyed them much more as an adult, particularly Shakespeare. To be honest, I feel like a lot of the literature that gets taught in high school (again, Shakespeare stands out; he’s raunchy as Hell!) aren’t really suited for teenagers.

[@vanessagatsby803]

When you talked about not liking a classic but still appreciating its value I was precisely thinking about "On the Road"! I really enjoyed in-class discussions about it but hated reading every single page.

[@Youknowwhoyounopoo]

I have found my people!

[@purplelily7764]

What I do when I read a revered classic is after I find some analysis to better understand it. Especially if I didn’t like it or get it. Crime and punishment was literally painful to get through and I stubbornly insisted on finishing it. After i found a video explaining it and I was like wow what a work of art lol.

[@DivineTech]

I’m reading it now for the first time and how he writes, the characters paranoia, madness and agony is… 🤌🏼 wonderful

[@SnowflakeRainbows]

@@DivineTech Thats how I felt - I personally love the russian 19th century writing style, which means that I thoroughly enjoyed the book from page one and read through it within days

[@nafsikaisbored]

I'm so sorry I take Jane Austen criticm very seriously ... y'all will start coughing in three days

[@accordingtokarenb1360]

Same!

[@58angieb]

They're incompetent readers! 😊

[@Bluebanisters_in_Arcadia]

She's like the Coleen hoover of classic literature, overrated, bland and boring

[@nafsikaisbored]

@@Bluebanisters_in_Arcadia Comparing Coleen Hoover to Jane Austen is very telling

[@Bluebanisters_in_Arcadia]

@@nafsikaisbored sorry, i just wanted see if i will cough in three days

[@lilybrown4180]

The Colour Purple review was giving sexism. Can a mother not raise a child and simultaneously put her efforts into something else, like writing one of the world's greatest books?

[@Pandazillaaa]

Apparently according to the author herself not since in one of her books she literally had a character murder her baby and acted like it was justified because the character was forced to drop out in the 1960s or something as an African American.

[@wolfiiu]

nothing like being misogynistic AND trying to call someone else misandrist in the same breath

[@adorabell4253]

No, in this was it was a dig at the fact that she was an incredibly neglectful mother who seems to have cared less about her child and more about how that child would interfere with her ability to be creative to the point of leaving her alone in a house with no food.

[@gohan12991]

​@@wolfiiu So calling out a woman for neglecting her child is misogynistic? Lmao. That word has been overused by pseudo feminists who can't even fathom that a woman can be a bad person.

[@tarantulvtrusah]

omg as a native russian speaker READING THOSE REVIEWS ON DOSTOYEVSKY WAS SO PAINFUL😭

[@charlytaylor1748]

How can anyone talk fyodor down?

[@aventine95]

The comment about bringing Joyce back to life just to kill him again is honestly very valid

[@officialblimp]

i feel like some of these one star reviews were just people trying to be witty with one-liners like others do on letterboxd as a means to get likes and views. it’s never a full analysis on why they disliked it. i wonder if they actually took the time to read the book or came in with an open mind (because i see some of booktok find it trendy to hate on classics and only crave books that contain romance and spice). that being said, i know art is subjective and people are allowed to dislike a book that i might really enjoy, so therefore people are of course allowed to have different opinions on books

[@wowkir]

*Tech*nically people are allowed to have differing opinions - but we also can’t deny that sometimes those opinions are fucking stupid 😂 I also noticed how very few of these reviews explained why they didn’t like it, which probably translates to: they didn’t understand it.

[@BGsBooks86]

The "not having to like classics" thing applies to me, but with movies. And I agree 100%.

[@rurubelle2920]

Jack describing Haruki Murakami's writing: "THE BOOBS WALKED INTO THE ROOM... THE NIPPLE WINKED AT ME." Pretty accurate tho. 🤣🤣🤣

[@plutus2559]

Bad and boring was my opinion too when being forced to read classics in my early teens. I didn't have the knowledge of the context they were written in or the life experience to really relate to the characters and events. Today I love the classics.

[@annakobuk3618]

Exactly, that's the thing with classics. We cannot relate either to their times n or to their lives while still early in live and education while most teachers are unable to ignite the enthusiasm for older literature among teens. Edit: grammar.

[@rachelmilne6603]

I like the opening statement: I don’t have to like it just because it’s a classic; be willing to ask yourself why not, and why it’s a classic.

[@datmelonblob]

the person complaining abt needing more smut... i read this for english and the teacher pointed out all the freaky bits in the story while going thru it XDDD

[@miriamharvala1329]

Mine too 😂

[@prilljazzatlanta5070]

Reading reviews of practically any art form reminds me of one of the things that bothers me most about humanity…no sense of history, no understanding of context

[@maddiherrmann]

nobody should be able to disrespect janey like that.

[@anvee3901]

like that's my wife you're talking about..

[@JF-qf4oq]

My kid read R&J in 8th grade and the class had to also watch scenes from the classic Zeffirelli film and Gnomeo and Juliet. Kid RANTED about the gnome version for DAYS. 🤣

[@schoo9256]

What was his argument?

[@platonsergiu9454]

Well, it's official. This is my go to feel good place on youtube. I love how Jack manages to be so entertaining in his videos and so delightful. The man has tons of charisma and sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Honestly listening to him, especially when he presents the books he loves, makes my reading appetite grow. Keep doing the good work sir!

[@jibby1986]

Jack has returned from his hiatus of like two days! I'm saved!

[@melissaalbrecht6399]

Our master has summoned us again

[@myragroenewegen5426]

Jane Austen is "Just a bunch of people going over to each other's houses." It's fun to try to imagine what this person was expecting. I mean they could be traveling in the Amazon and the same plot could traspire but . . . Like, at this time in history, what else do reasonably wealthy country women get to do?! And, to be strictly fair, by the end of the book, Lydia and Kitty have gotten out to improperly fraternize with soldiers in town leading Lidia to run off across a border to illicitly marry an utter scoundrel across the border. Also, lacking a convenient horse to ride Lizzy makes an epic journey in the rain to get to her sick sister at one person's house. Also did you notice these are very big houses? With giant properties and gardens? If we're going to spend all our time visiting, these are the houses to be in, clearly.

[@CedricVermeire]

On the road is so much more than its context. It's so raw, melodic and poetic. Guess it's a matter of taste, but it's right there at the top of my favourite books of all time. Still, appreciate your dedication to the world of literature in all its forms. Kind regards from a fellow '98 baby.

[@sahala3788]

being colourblind to the catcher in the rye is the realest thing. i remember i had this book for a degree paper and the professor was a huge fan of the book but he had to tread lightly while teaching us girls. he had to keep repeating almost every class 'you should view books in the feministic perspectives yes, but doing that here, you will end up missing the point of it all'. almost everyone was criticizing the writing and such, all i wanted to say was YO THIS BOOK SLAPS SO HARD

[@patax144]

I had to read Crime and Punishment for school and make a presentation on the characters, I couldn't finish it at the time, maybe because I was trying to read out of my grandma's old copy or because it was for school, but I ended up making like a comparison chart between that book and the count of montecristo, and got a good grade still. Same happened with 1984 in which I had to write an essay for a class called english culture, couldn't finish the book in time, so I made my essay instead about a documentary I saw on dictatorships and totalitarian governments on Netflix, related it to some concepts of the book of what I had managed to read, got a 99,2 out of 100.

[@carefulangel13]

I’m beginning to think that Jack is secretly obsessed and runs the Spanish Love Deception fan club 🤔

[@michaelaporro7039]

This man does not sleep

[@annakobuk3618]

I believe he reads in his sleep

[@sadiebrown4353]

Goodreads is savage fr. It’s so fun to read sm tho. Especially ones on famous ya like divergent and the selection

[@Happytravellerkimmy]

Yeah. When I write reviews on there, it's not with the author's feelings in mind. Mostly, my reviews are "brutal. Would not recommend." Or "I liked it." 😂

[@Anton15243]

I remember once reading a review of the Bible that, while positive, also clearly went into the reviewing with secular priorities in mind and rated each book based on how much fun it is to read, as well as a one-line summary. Probably the most fun I had on the site

[@NiamhGyulay]

Also, I think it's healthy to have one arch-nemesis classic because it means you have your own critical eye. My sister and I both loathe Wuthering Heights, but pretty much love every other book in this video!

[@melissalincourt7261]

I could have watched this for another hour lol Please make more of these 1 star review readings!

[@bibliomania158]

What a special gem.... 2 videos in 1 week!!! Keep them coming, Jack! ❤️😁

[@Shaylee_W]

Calling The Odyssey a "poor excuse of a fantasy book" is WILDDDD

[@Omnilegent_22]

Please can you do a part two? I’m such a fan of your videos! 👍

[@imperfectanimal57]

This is your friendly reminder to reread The Master and Margarita. My favorite book. Thank you :).😊

[@milicadiy]

Yeah! It's such a great book ❤

[@AlexsandraKokoeva]

One of my all time favourites☺

[@nataliesvt]

going through a rough and new patch of my life right now and you and your channel and your cute background music makes it better. thanks jack

[@NjIceTea]

Great video! More people need to give classics a try imo. Lots of misconceptions and fear surrounding books that could change peoples life

[@etsukiikanaa]

recently I reread Emma by jane Austen because I was still haunted by my Literary stylistics teacher telling us how Emma is a beautifully written character that You can never understand until you master your major. I got my master's degree in Literature and Civilization and gave the book a second chance, I shall be dead if the character Emma have no hater. Edit: I understand y'all in the replies, but my teacher couldn't accept my critic to Emma's character and she insisted that her character is perfect and serves a purpose. For me her character has flaws that need to be corrected and disliked. + I enjoyed the comments, thank u for being nice.

[@aventine95]

Emma can, quite frankly, suck my arse 😂 The book is definitely well written, the character is not the one 😅

[@sakurabunnn_]

Yessss but for me I think the point of the story was that emma actually is such a flawed character and we were supposed to feel that way and that Mr. knightley, the only one who is openly critical of Emma which nobody including Emma is, is kinda like the voice of reason or the voice of the reader

[@tungstenmouse]

That's a really weird take by your teacher. Austen clearly wrote Emma to be disliked. It's the whole plot of the book. She's not the worst but is definitely unlikeable.

[@xJillie]

i’ve found that people either love Emma or hate her, and there is no in between. I personally love her and it’s my favorite Austen, but I get it lol

[@abs6384pumpkin]

I think the point isn’t to love Emma blindly, but to understand her character as a flawed human being- like all of us.

[@eileen9898]

"I used to have a brain, now I have a graveyard of memes" - I can't 😂

[@nafsikaisbored]

I'm such a snob that I know what book I won't like and if I spend money on something I think I'll like and I end up not enjoying it I'm gaslighting myself into thinking it's my new favourite book . An Aquarius is never wrong and I ain't made of money either

[@athenaapostolidou1750]

Damn, feels like I just found my twin😂 i do exactly the same to myself and only a couple of times has this system failed me (I don't like to talk about it🙄) need i even say I'm an Aquarius too? 😂

[@jointhejincult5425]

Library?

[@nafsikaisbored]

@@jointhejincult5425 ''I'm such a snob'' is my opening phrase lmao . But truly I love owning a book because I usually re-read them and I think its more convenient if I own them

[@nafsikaisbored]

@@athenaapostolidou1750 I fear it may also be the fact that we're greeks .

[@athenaapostolidou1750]

@@nafsikaisbored ομγ τώρα το συνειδητοποίησα αχαχαχαχα σοκκ

[@beatriceanobah6388]

LOLLLL: "writing it was a crime and reading it was a punishment!!" best book putdown Eva

[@Moonstar79]

That was a crazy thing to say about Haruki Murakami's female characters but it is EXACTLY how I felt reading "Men Without Women" 😭

[@officialblimp]

i’m honestly so glad i jumped ship from goodreads and got onto storygraph

[@Diushok]

I love how you normalize people's diverse reading opinions. I really appreciate that, Jack! ❤

[@reachchill]

I’m convinced that anyone who calls the Odyssey boring hasn’t actually read it

[@NothingNew-MarksVersion-]

How does this man get handsomer and handsomer every single video?!?

[@thattinyfox]

I just finished reading the catcher in rye and really enjoy it. Could not understand the reviews saying that Holden was just a brat, I thought he was just a very sad and depressed teenager struggling to process trauma. Anyways. Loved this video!

[@ClaraCB5]

I have a theory that people who dislike the Catcher in the Rye completely missed the fact that he is a traumatised teenager. I love this book and will defend it until I die!

[@bluecannibaleyes]

I would ask you to explain what the point was, why it didn’t have a plot, and why he smoked so many cigs, but I don’t have $5 to bribe you with. Then again, it is one I need to reread, as I read it back when I was a teenager. But I remember hating it back when I was an angsty depressed/emo teenager, so I never understand why so many people love it.

[@tysonn4736]

@@bluecannibaleyes Maybe because Holden is also an angsty depressed/emo teenager?

[@bluecannibaleyes]

@@tysonn4736 Well, that’s my point. People who were angsty teenagers always say that made him relatable to them as a teen, but I was kind of an angsty emo kid as a teen and I couldn’t relate to him at all. So I don’t ‘get’ it.

[@tysonn4736]

@@bluecannibaleyes Sometimes a mirror being held up is embarrassing instead of authenticating. Sounds like it was embarrassing, in your case.

[@paulzrulz]

I tell myself that all this content from Jack this week is cuz it’s my birthday week 🥰

[@Showtunediva]

Happy Birthday!

[@nikkiallen3799]

PLEASE read 5 star reviews of the books you rated 1 star 😭😭🙏✨

[@rokayaenafielmetni5232]

THIS NEEEEEDS to be a series

[@stschubs]

this might be my fav book, the way you read those reviews *chefs kiss*

[@PokhrajRoy.]

“Now I have this graveyard of memes rattling around in my skull.” HAHAHAHA TRUER WORDS

[@どらイムンド]

It's literally therapeutic to read 1 star reviews on the books I dsilike (wheter they're classics or not) instead of watching a raw one hour video lecturing how the book is awesome, i'm just convinced and i cannot lie, knowing I'm not the only one who was eyerolling at each page satisfies me SO MUCH it's like hashish really

[@e.c.ritter]

I read Moby Dick in 7th grade. I love reading classics, but that one will not be reread anytime soon. And yet, however hard classics may be to read, we read them and love them because their stories portray human nature in all of its messiness, and that is something that doesn't change even as millennia pass. It will always resonate with people and make them feel less alone.

[@alexjames7144]

Moby dick is mainly bad because like 80% of it is an encyclopedia of whale references and blatantly wrong facts about whales. I can change him. Honestly think it would be massively improved just by editing it to around 15-20% of it's original size and it would only improve. It wouldn't lose anything of value, the only reason the bad whale facts are there is because at the time reading was frivolous and silly unless it had educational value, it's not like it's an artistic choice. Genuinely most classics, I think, would be made genuinely far better with some heavy editing. Editors weren't as big of a thing at the time and they didn't have the benefit of proper literary education so it's no suprise they're all overwritten. Anyone nowadays that said books are always better if you don't have an editor would call you an idiot (and rightly so) so I don't think it should be controversial to say that classical literature would be improved by some good editing.

[@ninakrishnamurthy6674]

@@alexjames7144 I agree with you about Moby Dick, but I don’t agree that most classics would be improved by heavy editing. Jane Austin, Treasure Island, Dracula; these are all classics that I have read (in the same month as Moby Dick) and loved. They don’t need heavy editing; they’re exactly as long as they need to be. Hell, Dracula is recent enough that it actually reads more like a modern novel. I’d argue that it feels more modern than LOTR despite being 50 years older, though that may just be because of the epistolary format. (Not hating on LOTR, by the way; I just think that Bram Stoker’s writing style was ahead of its time) In Moby Dick, the story literally just STOPS for several chapters at a time of outdated whaling trivia. Which is a shame, because the actual plot is quite riveting in my opinion.

[@alexjames7144]

@@ninakrishnamurthy6674 I don't think that every pre-1900 novel is absolutely terrible or needs to be edited to death. But they could all still have been improved by some editing. Jane Austen I will agree was very ahead of her time and doesn't need heavy revisions. Dracula I'd disagree on, but that's purely a stylistic problem. The format is only chosen because it was a popular way of telling a story at the time, but it's quite clear that you inherently undercut the suspense of a story by having it told via letters, by definition implying that at the very least the protagonists survived the adventure. Telling any story in retrospect does usually limit the suspense as the ordeal is already over at the point of being told. It's not the worst example of it though, Wuthering Heights is terrible for this and the russian doll of narrative voices gets very tedious and ruins any tension. I still enjoyed Dracula but I feel like it could have been far better if told via first person narration rather than via letters written after the fact.

[@ninakrishnamurthy6674]

@@alexjames7144 Oh, I vehemently disagree on Dracula: the characters are writing the letters and journal entries DURING the story, so it doesn’t undercut the suspense at all for me. And when I say that Dracula feels very modern, it’s not JUST the epistolary format. It’s also the language used, the narrative style. I don’t really know how else to explain it. But when I read Dracula, it was the last book I read of a three-month long classic novel kick I was on, and it felt so much more similar to something that would be published today that it felt genuinely refreshing, and that may have colored my perspective on it

[@wowkir]

I didn’t finish Moby Dick, not because I found it boring but because I got quite offended and annoyed by what I think the author was signaling: That the whale (this beautiful wild animal) was an evil monster that needed to be destroyed. I know it’s from another time, so I acknowledge why it’s a classic. But my animal-loving modern brain just couldn’t get past that old perspective, that animals exist on earth to serve humans as if we have the ethical high ground just because we’re more evolved.

[@mjmovingforward]

“Just a bunch of people visiting each other’s houses” Must have finally got a few defined abs from laughing for a good few minutes straight.. 😂❤

[@zaramel4694]

Me being chill right up until The Little Prince comments come up like: "VENGEANCE WILL BE MINE!!!"

[@emmal7510]

There are worst things that can happen to booktok lists than completely random books making their way onto them.

[@ridiculous.reader]

The enemies to lover joke was epic 😭

[@elizabethrichie6231]

The fact you got white nights to trend is incredible. I am also apart of that bandwagon of people to jump on the white nights train. The book is sold out everywhere

[@portishphonic]

Finally got an 1964 Romanian copy for cheap after looking for this book for about a decade. A few years ago, you could still find it but it was ridiculously expensive. It was the only Dostoievski novel that I was missing from my collection and that I never read before.

[@natwilliams2215]

I'll never forget being so terrified in 1st year showing up to a seminar not having finished Mrs Dalloway. Stream of consciousness is not my thing ok. Big up my tutor for telling us it's ok to dislike it to the point we can't finish, as long as we can explain our reasoning

[@atinyofficial]

One of the hardest things i learned in my uni english classes was that you don’t have to like a book but you should still try to find the Point of it and its significance not only in the story itself but also in historical context and impact. That’s not to say it doesn’t get FUCKING BORING though. Because it does

[@Toughmittens]

Ok but that little prince review about trampling the flower made me laugh out loud and I still think it’s one of the best books ever written.

[@ChaekOnMonica]

I agree with some of these (or at least I did when I was forced to read them in school) BUT I remember loving Catcher in the Rye so much and everyone in my class hated it and didn’t understand why I loved it - so I ended up going home and writing a rant/essay about what the book means and why it was so good, and my teacher made me recite it in front of the class because she was so glad someone “got” it 😅 But The Odyssey was ☠️ and I agree it was like wading in quicksand 😂

[@bluecannibaleyes]

I didn't ‘get’ Catcher in the Rye but I kind of had a similar experience with The Scarlet Letter. It’s one of my favorite books of all time and everyone else in my class hated it intensely. I think I was the only person who even read it. To each their own, people will always have their own personal tastes. 😅

[@bon3999]

this feels like watching your descent into insanity and it's got me chuckling every other sentence

[@jenniferfranklin9960]

These are hilarious! You have to do more of these kind of videos! 😂😂😂

[@leehillshire5154]

I had a book end up in the toilet once. It was set on the counter as I was washing my hands, and as I turned to grab the towel I knocked it in. I enjoyed the book though, and it still stands on my shelves as the book that survived the toilet. 🤣

[@ellyt3429]

not the person critiquing the odyssey as though it’s just another fantasy genre novel published this very year lmaooooo 😭😭😭😭

[@chocolateoreo6489]

We love the more uploads from Jack recently❤

[@victoriacalvert7499]

I kinda agree with the Wuthering Heights hate. I've tried 3 or 4 times and just can't do it. The ones about The Great Gatsby and 1984 hurt. Those are two of my favorite classics 😢

[@nipiti]

The "how do you say" in a french accent is actually from the cinematic masterpiece The Most Popular Girls in School.

[@c.5095]

if that one person at the start thought white nights had smut, would they think crime and punishment was some BDSM story?

[@celinegrant1338]

Please make this a series! 🫶🏻🫶🏻

[@lphy198]

Jack saying "is nothing sacred ?" Killed me 😂😂😂😂

[@mary_nyan]

Thank you 3 people who asked for this (i'm having a blast)

[@pastacoffeeandbooks]

favourite booktuber ✅ favourite comedian ✅✅

[@Rakkeyal]

"He was actually just a pretty good Gatsby" - Raph Chestang

[@ariguzman9598]

I love the constant video posting❤❤❤

[@wei2gori]

omg i watched this, i had literally just finished reading on the road and did not get the hype. your intro got me HOOKED.

[@kk28262484]

interesting how these 1 star reviews only throws out one liner, but never talks about what they don't like in the book

[@wowkir]

Because they don’t understand. So they don’t know why. It’s a them-problem.

[@cheekyfish1233]

Jack I love your videos, they feel like a warm cup of tea in bed on a Sunday afternoon whilst its raining outside

[@lif33g03s0n]

for the 100th time wuthering heights is not a romance novel...... when will people understand that 😭

[@valasafantastic1055]

Same with Romeo and Juliet! Tragedy!

[@kattahj]

There are definitely classics I've forced myself through just to increase my knowledge of literature (20 000 leagues under the sea) or given up on (which sometimes happens even with books I enjoy, because I get distracted), but there are also ones like Vanity Fair, where I'm like, I guess what I'm doing with my free time for the next week, because I'm not putting this 900 pages book down!

[@cinemalordi]

the murakami note is so real

[@elenam550]

I was eagerly awaiting the reviews for To the Lighthouse so we need a part 2.

[@isaidwhatisaid12]

your commentary this video had me actually chuckling