You can tell who the readers are because they have to read the sign first 🤣

I love the guy that pulled out a pen and paper and wrote down your suggestion!

His experience of so many people saying they don’t read books will make Fahrenheit 451 hit even harder cuz it’s about a world where people just decide they would rather be entertained with TV and amusement parks rather than read. We aren’t far away from that world being real.

The guy writing the recommendation in his notepad was so unexpected! Most people would open Goodreads or the notes app...he was a breath of fresh air wow

"sorry I don't have any cash" lmaoooooooo stop it RN

This is such a fun idea! Maybe camp out in front of a Indie bookshop next time and give the best pitches a bookshop gift card!

Literally my dream come true, someone ASKING me to tell them about my favorite books. Literally have to force people to listen to why they should read my faves 😆

My whole life I was convinced that nothing would ever be as good as the LOTR... and then I read The Stormlight Archive, which is now my all time favorite. Highly recommend!

Aww, the number of people who said they dont read or havent read on a long time made me sad 😢

when that person said "Colourless Tskuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage" I audibly gasped cause when people rec Murakami it is VERY RARELY that one and I personally find myself always recommending that specific one haha

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky Murder mystery in an insanely well crafted world and intricately built characters. Though it starts a bit slow, you come to know the characters like friends

The Picture of Dorian Grey is my all time favorite. It makes you think and ponder about morals and things that youre doing in your life that you could do better. Its also mildly horrifying, but its so beautiful.

I still think about this book everyday. It’s called Flowers for Algernon. It’s about a man with a very low IQ that gets chosen to test a new surgery that will make people smarter. You follow him throughout the entire process of becoming smarter. It touches on things like friendship and relationships with coworkers and for me it showed me how people have feelings even if they can’t express it very well.

Love this idea. You’re brave talking to strangers about books 😆 would love a follow up like a reading vlog reading some of these books 😊

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It's a classic for a reason. First of all, it's one of the greatest love stories ever written and started the enemies to lovers trope. But more than that it's a study of human character, our motivations and conflicting desires, how we fit into society and what society even is. It's a challenge but worth it.

The Count Of Monte Cristo. I have never been so wrapped up in how revenge would be had without causing harm to those who dont deserve it. It’s so well written without giving away how it’s going to end. (Also with discussion on what is okay to take into your own hands and what is considered going too far)

The Book Thief is beautifully written historical fiction set in WWII Germany. It follows the life story of a young girl while also portraying the sheer scope of human tragedy that WWII was. I have yet to find one that I like more. I don't want to spoil anything, but figuring out who the omniscient narrator is brings a whole new level of intrigue.

I love this idea! Takes a lot to stand out in public and be vulnerable! Go Ian!

Two of my favorite books are Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte. Intense, crazy people and monster, feeling all the feelings, but mostly the difficult ones, cursing the world and everybody around them. You'll remember these books forever.

Brothers Karamazov!! It doesn't even need my rec. And you don't even need to read it all to be amazed: every chapter is extraordinary

I don't know why this video made me tear up. I love having conversations with people about books. 2 of my favorites were recommended, Scythe and Fahrenheit 451

Beartown by Fredrik Backman! It’s about a small town in Sweden that is reliant on the success of their high school hockey team for economic reasons and also overall morale of the town. Something terrible happens which alters the course of the story and divides the whole community of characters. What sets it apart is that the whole book goes between several different perspectives of people in this town and you could spend as little as one page in someone’s pov and feel so much love and care for that person. These characters are so complicated and one minute you’ll be so furious and the next you’re crying hopeful tears. It’s truly a book that breaks your heart and mends it back together.

Project Hail Mary-Andy Weir. Finished the kindle version last week, bought the audio book (I NEVER listen to audio books-but would HIGHLY recommend this one), and bought a physical copy. I can’t describe how much I loved this book. Definitely my favorite book so far this year!

Hey Ian! As someone who struggles finding new book recs at times, if you were to put this question on a t shirt I would totally buy it! I really like the idea of a stranger recommending me something they love.

I totally agree with that guy that suggested to read Jurassic Park. It's very different from the movies. I'm currently reading the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. I'm only on book two,but I'm liking it so far. He sees ghosts and the ghosts help him to solve crimes.

Piranesi is something you have to know nothing about going into it. All I know is that it was about a character who lived inside this gigantic house that also had multiple oceans inside of it. It's short but every single word matters, every moment of it is deliberate, and you might even feel frustrated half way through it, but just keep with it. It's not that big of a committment but it pays off enormously. It's incredble and layered the way Inception is. It has layers of meaning and symbols.

100 Years of Solitude. Because the book still haunts me 15 years later.

Not my all time favorite book, but The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a book I think about often. It’s about a woman named Nora who is dissatisfied by life and decides to attempt unaliving herself and gets sent to her own personal library between life and death. She gets the opportunity to live out alternate lives she could’ve lived depending on the choices she made and if she truly loves the life she tries out, she gets to stay. If not, she gets sent back to the library. It’s such a heartwarming, thought provoking read.

THE GOLDFINCH - DONNA TARTT Coming of age story. So incredibly immersive. Amazing writing.

Loved this video! My fav book is Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I also love The Blue Castle by the same author. Both are classics with beautiful nature writing, but one is about a young girl, the other is about a young woman. Anne is a book about an orphaned girl who gets the chance to live in Prince Edward Island in Canada, but when she gets there, she finds out that her foster family was supposed to receive a boy, not a girl. What takes place in the rest of the book is a telling of relationships. It is of found family, best friends, boyfriend/girlfriends and how these relationships change a young girl for the better. It has a lot of nature writing, and humour as well. The Blue Castle, by the same author, is an adult book that has laugh out loud humour and a love story that will make even you swoon, Ian! In it, we follow Valancy and she has a family that have all told her she is nothing but a spinster and will never marry. She is lonely but doesn't see a way out of her stagnant life. Then, she finds out she doesn't have much time to live and decides to live out her life as she wants, to heck with her family! What ensues is a funny love story that I absolutely love. I hope you read one of these books! Anne is book one of a series, but can be read as a standalone, and The Blue Castle is a standalone.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Even if you've already seen the musical, even if you kind of didn't like the musical (like me!), Les Mis is literally just such an amazing book. It gets a lot of comments for all its long random bunny trails, but the way it is written is so beautifully poetic. Yes, it's long. Yes, it took me like... a year to read, and I certainly wouldn't recommend reading it without simultaneously reading lighter books. But I find myself frequently going back to my copies and rereading all kinds of parts because the poetry is unimaginable. It's a book about everything and nothing. It's a book about faith and hopelessness, kindness and disrespect, children and old men. It is a book about humanity. It is a 19th century book that feels more compassionate toward the everyman than the average 21st century self help book. It's a classic for a reason.

I love this idea of asking random people to talk about their favorite book. As a reader, I’m always interested in hearing people talk about their favorite. Mine is Jane Eyre which I first read in high school. I’ve reread it numerous times since and the ending still gets me.

House of Leaves. It's considered ergodic literature. It's about a guy that finds a manuscript written by a deceased man, and the manuscript is about a "found footage" video of a house that's larger on the inside than it is on the outside. It's extremely difficult to read and has footnotes, appendices, an index, citations, etc. It can be classified as horror with a bit of romance.

Flowers for Algernon is my favorite! I just think the themes and overall format is really cool

My favorite book is Watership Down by Richard Adams. It's a tale of survival, loyalty, family, heartache, adventure, politics, etc. It's told through rabbits. One of them has visions of death and convinces a small band of rabbits to find a new home. They run into other warrens of rabbits on their journey, each with their own way of dealing with life. One of them eats the good food left out by humans but one must never mention the rabbits that disappear. One is run by a totaltarian dictator and is cery reminiscent of Hitler's Germany. One are domestics buns that live in a hutch outside. Adams created a rabbit mythology and some of those tales are also interspersed throughout. It's so good! It's the only book I've read more than twice (too many books to read out there).

i second fahrenheit, Ray Bradbury really wrote one of the most amazing, thought provoking books ever made. I think about it often (genuinely a no. 1 rec!!)

This such a fun way to encourage talking about books in the real world and not just online! Loved this video!!

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is my favorite book. At the surface, it follows a caravan that travels around the northern US and southern Canada and put on Shakespeare plays after the apocalypse, but at its core, it's a story of found family, survival, art, and memory. It beautifully weaves together the story of many different people across time and place. One of my favorite quotes from it is "survival is insufficient." If you haven't read it before, I strongly recommend it!

I just finished Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy? It’s the autobiography of Hollywood’s first big child star. She started acting at age 19 months and within 3 years had made 27 million dollars! In 1920s money! Her parents squandered her entire fortune, twice. She was incredibly intelligent and self aware even as a toddler. There were at that time virtually no rules or oversight protection children or anyone really in show biz. Baby Peggy worked long days and did all her own very dangerous stunts. The book is a fascinating peek into the early Hollywood scene. Peggy grows up and overcomes a ton of trauma, but looks back with fondness on many of the characters of her life. A story both tragic and delightful. I couldn’t put it down!

The Kite Runner… it’s about 2 boys in the Middle East one comes from a wealthy family and the other is a servant for that other boy and they are “friends” but they both go through a lot and it’s a very sad story

One of my favorite books is Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It’s a period piece and you follow like 3 different storylines that all converge at the end.

A book that I can't get out of my head is Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore. I don't cry easily but I cried for these women and their families. It is about the women who worked for a company painting radium dust onto the numbers on watch faces so that the numbers would glow in the dark and allow soldiers to tell the time in the dark during WWI and how the chemical effected their bodies (it goes into vivid physical descriptions). I like to read books like this because there are lots of things that have happened throughout history that we have not heard about and I feel like these women should not be forgotten.

This is so wholesome! Beloved - Toni Morrison One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang! It was one of the first books I read this year, and I legitimately don’t go a day without thinking about it ❤

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini A historic fiction about an Afghan boy who had to leave his country behind after the Soviet invasion. A beautiful story about Family, Friends, Betrayal, & Redemption

I love this video! The man who took out a pen and paper to write down the name of The Stand - I love it! My favorites are Jane Eyre, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Frankenstein - just to name a few.

Wind in the Willows. Incredible characters and incredible prose.

Can't stop laughing at your reaction to the dude that said he has no cash 😂 My favorite books Project Hail Mary, LOTRs, The Vampire Chronicles by: Anne Rice the first 3 books, Norse Mythology and Graveyard Book by: Neil Gaiman, Dune 1, 2, 3, 4. Havent read 5 and 6 of Dune, Piranesi and Legends and Lattes.

First things first, this video is so wholesome. The gentleman asking for your red and writing it down made me so happy! As for recs I’ll leave some and you decide 😅 (defeats the purpose I know). 1. The Picture of Dorian Gray: I love that we get to see how society and expectations can make or break someone and how these things can affect how you view the world. 2. The Book Thief: is just so sad but at the same time gave me hope how the MC and for those who are in need/want a better life and a family. 3. Don Quijote (yes, I know): I just loved how brave he was (as well as kinda crazy) and how I could picture everything in my mind. 4. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez: love the family drama, how sad, silly and dark it could be, and how they criticized the government/society with magical realism (if you don’t want to read One Hundred Years of Solitude, maybe try Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez) hope you and/or Ashlynn pick at least one of these (even more if it is one of the Hispanic Classics) 😊

Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible. A story about a missionary family’s good intentions and how it all falls apart. Told through the POV of four daughters; with one sentence you immediately know which is narrating. A masterpiece of writing, truly.

One of the books that i also loved as a movie is Life of Pi. It’s a book about a boy who is on a ship with his family and a storm capsizes the boat, leading to him then being stranded on a small boat with a tiger on board.

omg he convinced me to read Fahrenheit 451

Dude yes, I second the Ted Dekker recommendation for you - thriller and horror and a little bit of sci-fi with allegory.

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas is my favourite book. It's for kids, but the world building is great, it has a fun form with letters included, and a secret language you can decode. It has even recipes at the end! It's a trilogy, and something I read over and over for comfort. The magic system in it is just so charming. I really recommend the books!

As a lifelong reader and book lover, I love what you're doing. My favourite book is a classic, but please don't let that put you off. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexander Dumas. Set in the time when Napoleon was a prisoner on the island of Elba,. Edmond Dantes is a young guy with everything ahead of him, a sailor about to take command of a ship for the first time, gorgeous fiancee whom he loves to bits, he's got it all going on . Jealousy and envy on the part of people he thought he had reason to trust, leads to him being imprisoned in a dungeon on a remote island in the the bleak Chateau D'if. After a long time he meets a fellow prisoner, stages a break out which nearly costs him his life, finds a treasure on the remote isle of Monte Cristo, the fellow prisoner talked of, sets himself up in fine style, calling himself the Count of Monte Cristo - and sets out for revenge on those whose lies landed him in prison,

KZfaq just suggested this video and it made me an instant subscriber of your channel. My recommendation is Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Words escape me at the moment to describe how much of a sweeping story it is! It is a long one but considering The Stand is your favorite , long books probably don't intimidate you. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is another suggestion. I love how the story unfolds.

The house in the cerulean sea. A lovely story about found family with some fantasy elements in it and a lot of wholesomeness

The Count of Montecristo by Alexandre Dumas, a classic story of revenge. Long but I couldn’t stop reading once I started.

Scythe being the first book mentioned makes me so happy, 5 stars !!

I love that you are outgoing enough to do this video. It was fun to watch. The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold fry is one of my favorites. It is about a guy who is retired and kind of in a rut with life and ends up going on a long walk to see an old friend.

My favorite book is Perfume - The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. It is hard to describe it, but it's kinda eerie and fascinating in a way and the writing really draws you in. It's unsettling, haunting, horrifying and strangely beautiful and is somewhere between fantasy, mystery, horror and historical fiction, without really being any of that.

The Book Thief - my convincing: it's narrated by Death!

I second the Jurassic park recommendation! I love both the book and the movie. The book was such a fun time! Plus I love the amped up horror in it as well!

Ian, I would love to see you read Beartown / Us Against You by Fredrik Backman if you haven't already. It tells this story of a little town, hockey is their way of life. And when tragedy hits their city we delve into each character and how they go about coping with and rectifying the situation. You follow a lot of povs but as the books goes along you get a really insightful view into each character. It also touches on some really heavy topics in a way that is almost lyrical and palatable. This book made me really think about and question how I approach people and how I can be a better person in my daily life. I started this book off not really liking any of these people, but by the end, I was fully convinced that this was my town and these were my people and I am rooting for them.

The Outsiders. ❤

I love how you just put yourself out there like that. I could never!

that's so cool man , I would never have the courage to go out and just talk to people like that, really inspiring.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - first one is called Storm Front, the books get even better as the series goes on. Hes a wizard living in Chicago who works periodically with Chicago PD to solve “the weird ones.” One of my favorite first lines of a book comes from that series: “The building was on fire, and it wasnt my fault.”

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller! A great fantasy fiction following Achilles' story with Patroclus. I highly recommend it if you like Greek tales or are meaning to get into them. Madeline Miller's writing is fantastic. Very simple and yet manages to heavily impact you. I still think about quotes from the book to this day, and I read it back in 2022.

I don’t really have a single favorite book, but I recently read The Tale of Despereaux, and absolutely _loved_ it. The characters are endearing, the story is engaging, and the author’s voice is unique (at least among books I’ve read) and matches the whimsy and charm of the whole thing. I was hesitant to pick it up, because both the premise and font size suggested it was written for somewhere around 8-12, but I honestly think any age group could enjoy it. (My copy was illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, and his artwork elevated the book to a whole new level, it fits perfectly and I can’t imagine the characters any other way now)

Thanks for doing this, so fun to watch!

I know you already have Mistborn planned but its the only fantasy series ive finished so far and I’m still thinking about it 3 months later. The first book and 3 book are both so satisfying and heart wrenching at the same time. Book 2 has some great mind games and politics. And the growth you see out of characters is immense. Its the reason I am continuing into fantasy series such as LOTR, Wheel of Time and Stormlight Archive. Also I wanted to try to leave out the magic system because its what everyone talks about but I couldnt. It really is one of the very best and built up hard magic systems. Once you finish book 1 you will know what every power is.

This was a super dope idea & a really great, funny video 🙌🏾 definitely need to get more people reading tho 😅

This video is so heartwarming, just people you don’t know and will never see again talking to you about what they love

Please do more of these. It's so fascinating seeing people talk about books.

This video was amazing. I can watch you and your wife’s videos all day long. Thank you so much for your content 😊

Dang. I miss downtown SLC. I love the man taking notes about the book you recommend! Read "The Bar Code Tattoo" series. Set in the "future" (current times for us) where everyone over a certain age are tattooed a barcode with all their personal info. But of course, people start dying and it turns out the tattoo isnt as innocent as it seems. Not a perfect story, but one that sticks with you.

The Stand is one of my favorite books too!

The Dollmaker of Krakow! It's a middle grade book about a doll who helps save a little Jewish girl during the Holocaust. I think about this book all the time. It's such a beautiful reminder that you can choose to be more than what you think you can be.

I absolutely agree with Jurrasic Park and Station Eleven votes! Top tier ✨️ However, a book I do not hear much about is a new favorite called The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Imagine being an outcast half Goblin son of the Emperor. All of a sudden the your father, the Emperor, is killed along with several other members of the family. You're automatically crowned heir despite banishment and thrown into court without any formal training in royal life. Learning the ways of court, being fair and just is a tricky game. I read this as slow as possible to soak it in. The audio is superb as well. There is a second book that I look forward to reading as well. I hope one day you'll enjoy it too!

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. I borrowed it from the library and loved it, was very reluctant when I had to return it. I think Ashlynn would love it too! Also, Eva Evergreen Semi-Magical Witch by Julie Abe. Has adventure, fun, whimsy... so good!

I don't know why but this video made me so happy! I caught myself just smiling so big, thank you for a great start to my day! I can't wait to see which ones you read :3

Dude the confidence you have displayed... amazed!!! Very inspiring from someone who has social anxiety!

HTTYD is a book series fyi 😂 One of my favorite books is actually Meditations by Marcus aurelius, its journal entries of how marcus felt and thought during his reign as emperor and how he views the world. Its more of a philosophy book and it is under Stoicism and how to improve your life by living by their 4 basic virtues.

Your body language is so endearing, I loved even the parts of the video where nobody was answering. My favourite book is the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. It’s a super easy read filled with dry English humour and has an extremely intriguing and unique premise that’s quite hard to find, for me at least.

Another fantastic video! Thank you!

That's such a good idea, I loved seeing how kind some of the people were🤍

My top series for anyone looking for their next reads: 1. White trash zombie- MC is a druggie who is turned into a zombie and uses her second chance to turn her life around while solving mysteries and fighting bad guys (action, fantasy, amazing character arcs, good romantic subplot, 6 books) 2. Outliers- Malcom gladwell, how to be be successful in life/ 10,000 hours to mastery (nonfiction study/ hypothesis’ standalone book) 3. Undying mercenary series- MC joins earths mercenaries to fight on alien planets, every time you die you get regrown with the information from your last saved data (action, sci-fi, super long series) 4. Dungeon crawler Carl- aliens take over earth and MC fights in a live game show, if you win you can reclaim earth (sci-fi, action, TALKING CAT WITH ATTITUDE, LASER EYES, AND A CHARACTER ARC *nuff said*) 5. Anne of Green Gables- adopted orphan with a big personality and bigger temper meets uptight mother figure. She’s ultra smart and has ambitions (coming of age, romance, slice of life, slightly older writing style 😍 decent length series) 6. Percy Jackson- Teenager is the son of posidean and has goofy friends who he goes on adventures with (if you haven’t read this or don’t know this series crawl out from under your rock and read it. Shouldn’t even have to explain this series to you smh. Action, adventure, comedy?, small romance subplot. Tons of books to devour) #’s 1-5 are adult #6 is definitely YA/ Teenagers. I believe only #1 might have hints of spice? But very mild. All of these recommendations are pretty clean save for violence and language in a few. Hope you enjoy the recommendations! Lmk if you have any books that you want to share!

Okay so, my favourite book is Bridge to Tearbithia. This is a sad story, I must warn you but it's actually amazing. It talks about hope and joy blooming where there was none and finding a place in the world. No clue if it's classified as a children's book. If you want something lighter I'd say Good Omen by Neil Gaiman. Heaven and hell are two celestial offices that are preparing the Earth for total destruction. An angel and a demon are sent to keep an eye on things and of course everything goes sideways from there. It's seriously hilarious

My favorite book this year so far (out of 33) has been A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and funny enough I got the recommendation from a KZfaq video where a random said it was their favorite book. Such a heartwarming story the characters are so lovable!

Ohhh can’t wait to see you reading all these books this is such a fun way to get a TBR

Ready Player One - a fast paced dystopian novel with fantasy elements, puzzles and so many pop culture references. The Eyes of the Dragon - it's Stephen King, it's fantasy, It's dragons!!! Ninth House and Hell Bent - a duology with lots of magical and horror elements, but also a mystery with a small romance subplot. Thanks for you great content. I recently subscribed and I really enjoy your thoughts on what you are reading. I think this video was a brilliant idea. As soon as I finish the ACOTAR series, I'm going to read Red Rising.

I am Legend by Richard Matheson. Read it in one sitting in the middle of the night and i had chills! The book is similar to the Will Smith movie but the differences are definitely significant!

Such a fun idea for a video! You and Ashlynn gave me the confidence to start my own book tube channel and I am so excited for what lies ahead! ❤

LOL!!! That was the funniest part! That poor man couldn't get away fast enough!!

Fav part was you mentioning the Solas. Sister in Christ here. This video made me cackle with joy! Thank you. Finally read the Wheel of Time at middle age and have to say it was mind blowing. Loved it.

It’s hard for me to pick a favorite, but I recommend this series a lot because I never see it mentioned anywhere but I don’t know why, because it’s funny, captivating, fantastical without being “fantasy”- the series is called The Books of Babel, and the first book is Senlin Ascends. If you like fantasy and sci-fi you will like this even though it isn’t truly either one, but it still has that sense of crazy adventure, battles, established worldbuilding, etc. It’s about a guy named Thomas Senlin, a school teacher who goes on a honeymoon with his new wife to the famous “Tower of Babel”, a tower so tall you can’t even see the top of it from the ground. It has hundreds of floors and it’s so wide that each one is its own city. Senlin loses his wife at the base of the tower and goes inside to find her. Right off the bat he is a fun character because he is very clever and he is smart about getting himself out of bad situations. I first saw it recommended on Ellias’s channel (actually this is the one time I’ve seen anyone mention it) and it is literally one of the only series I have continued on in, and I leave a lot of series unfinished after book 1.

Great vid idea! You're so patient and nice with people

I love the way they talked about their favorite books, also love their excitment when he understood them ❤❤ And thanks fot the last girl, i needed somthing like that

1984 by George Orwell And “The Giver” series by Lois Lowry (but ya gotta read the whole series to really appreciate it)