Just discovered your channel and I'm really enjoying your videos! Always exciting to come across discussions on classic literature.

I read Lolita for a book club several years ago and we had the most amazing discussion. I think it lasted for over 3 hours (and it was all about the book!)

Recently discovered your channel and I'm so so happy. Your videos are so soothing and informative🤎🤎🤎

I love Paradise Lost! You don’t really need any background before going in, but you could read the first couple of chapters of Genesis in the Bible if you wanted. Happy reading!

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It took me 3 months to get through The Magic Mountain but I was determined. Mann is a wonderful writer and there are humorous parts and amusing characters. If it intimidates you, you could start with Buddenbrooks which is a family saga, easier reading. War and Peace intimidates me too, I've heard there are too many characters to keep track of. The Karamazov Brothers is also an intimidating prospect. I read Crime and Punishment for high school and really liked it. I agree about Lolita, people should read it for the language alone if necessary, which is exquisite. I've had "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter" by de Beauvoir on my shelf forever, one of these days I'll read it. Same goes for "Letters Written during a Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark" by Mary Wollstonecraft.

I have never seen that edition of War and Peace - who is the translator? I recently finished all ten books in Stephen R Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series - I am in no mood for that Joe Abercrombie or any other giant epic fantasy series!! Medieval Bodies looks very interesting! Don’t be mad at your two translations of Marcus Aurelius - comparing different translations is sometimes very interesting! Bill Bryson’s Short History of Everything is what I call a ‘Bathroom Book’ - you can just pick it up, open to a random page, and read an interesting page or two while you take your comfort break. I really like that idea of illustrating letters of Victorian authors like that! For some reason, lots of letters compilations come in that shape - I recently purchased a book of soldiers’ letters from the Spanish American War - exact same shape as your book!! I have never read Foucault’s Pendulum, but I am currently reading the same author’s Baudolino and I am just loving it - yeah a bit of a knowledge of medival Christian legends and history would help with this novel, but fortunately that is right up my alley! Of all the books you showed off, I have only read Brothers Karamazov - I found it to be OK but just OK. Get ready to log all the names and characters to keep track of everybody. I recently read that same author’s The Devils and absolutely loved it. Thank you for the very interesting book discussion video.

About war literature I always recommend Storm of Steel (Ernst Junger), All Quiet in the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque) ,both set in the I World War , For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway ( set in the Spanish Civil War) and The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, about a young conscript fighting in the US Civil War.

You are charming! It’s hard to believe that English isn’t your first language. I have the Jane Austen book Letters to Cassandra, too. I’ll have to dig it out and go through it again. My memory is that it was a little light on content.

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Oh man the translator thing would bug the hell out of me too. I hate when they make it difficult to identify the translator. It's so annoying when the audiobook translator and hard copy's translator are different. It's not just you, I pause books all the time, I even have a shelf on Goodreads called "hiatus"

Newer is not necessarily better.