1. Crime and Punishment 2. A Little Life 3. The End of Everything 4. Code Breaker 5. Empire of Pain

I love how passionate you are about books. It’s really inspiring.

1. The Waves - Virginia Woolf 2. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys 3. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky 4. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison 5. Bleak House - Charles Dickens Great video John - happy new year!

I read so much more this year, my top 5: 1. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie 2. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez 3. Natural Born Heroes - Christopher McDougall 4. Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne 5. The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri Great video John

HEY JOHN, HAPPY NEE YEAR AND THANK YOU FOR GIVING US ALL THE MOTIVATION TO KEEP READING.

1. Martin Eden - Jack London 2. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky 3. Atomic Habits - James Clear 4. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 5. The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith

If you read up on Dostoevsky's life, you can immediately tell where such a character is coming from. When it comes to Tolstoy, I also made the mistake of reading Anna Karenina first. Anna Karenina is for older readers. Once I read War and Peace I understood how fantastic Tolstoy's writing is. To me it is similar to what Tchaikovsky portrays through his music.

I was binging some book videos and this popped up. Happy New Year John!! Excited for your 2022 reads.

This year by watching your videos I read a lot of best seller books, actually your videos are full of motivation 😁✊🏼thank you! Happy new year! 🇰🇿🇺🇲🙏❤️💯

My top 5 books of 2021: 1. Know My Name by Chanel Miller 2. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin 3. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 4. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk 5. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

Thank you John for your massive inspiration! Happy new year.🥀

Hey man. That's four years in a row watching your content on KZfaq. Started following you while finishing High school and since then, you have been a massive inspiration. Can´t thank you enough for teaching me such great values. Here is my top 5 (no particular order): 1. Why Evolution Is True - Jerry A. Coyne 2. On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays - John Stuart Mill 3. Shoe Dog - Phil Knight 4. The Conquest Of Mexico - Tzvetan Todorov 5. The Social Contract and Discourses - Jean Jacques Rousseau Happy New Year and Greetings from Argentina.

Thank you, John Fish! Happy New Year!! I always watch your videos which are full of hopes and motivations all time. Big fan from Myanmar!! I really look up to you all time!

In no particular order... -Persuasion by Jane Austen -The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas fils. -The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath -The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin -Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This year I would love to go back to read more science fiction! I recently got A Little Life so I would like to start that soon. Science fiction, physics/science for dummies like me, PoC lit, and women's lit are my priorities. I'll take a children's and middle grade / YA lit class in college so that's gonna be fun!

Thanks John! I'll definitely take interest in these for the new year!

For anyone wanting to read or reread C&P, I recommend the translation by Oliver Ready published by Penguin Classics. It is highly praised by many in the literary community

Hey! I've been reading a lot lately and keep coming back to your content. Just wanted to tell you to have a nice new year. And Happy Holidays!!

I'm a new subscriber and really your stuff. Hope you have a great year John Fish. Keep being awesome!

1. The Stranger - Camus 2. A World Apart - Herling-Grudzinski 3. Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche 4. The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky 5. Brave New World - Huxley Others I enjoyed a lot: Siddhartha - Hesse A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway 1984 - Orwell The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov Faust I - Goethe The Prince of Darkness - Russell (as I became interested in the representation of Evil in Literature) Man's Search for Meaning - Frankl The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas Dune - Herbert

My top 5 Fiction books this year: - Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky - The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey - Don Quixote - de Cervantes - Where The Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

I always find something to read from lists. Thank you for helping me on my reading journey

Crime and Punishment is still my favourite novel of all time. I read a lot of time this year, Virginia Woolf, Fernanda Melchor, Gabriel García Marquez, Emmanuel Carrere, Ian McEwan, Pedro Calderon de la Barca and many more, it was a great year for me. I'm reading Les Miserables right now, 740 page right now. Nearly finishing my novel, so hope it gets published soon, wish me luck. Maybe some day you'll read it, hopefully! Good luck to everyone!

my top 5 books of 2021 1. meditations - marcus aurelius 2. siddharta - herman hesse 3. the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy - douglas adams 4. normal people - sally rooney 5. lord of the flies - william golding honorable mentions: dice man, slaughter-house five, and antigone

My top 5 for 2021: 1. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse 2. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 3. The Secret History by Donna Tartt 4. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 5. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

First book of 2022 I've started is the Brothers Karamazov- I cannot WAIT for Crime and Punishment! I also read The End of Everything in 2021 and agree, it was wonderfully written! If you liked that, I recommend "Why Fish Don't Exist" by Lulu Miller and anything by Carlo Rovelli- I've not studied any subjects past a high school level but I love all things physics and biology, and these authors do a great job of writing accessibly! Here's to another great year of reading!

I've been watching your videos for a few years-- I'm planning to study computer science, and I'm also a book blogger, so I love your content! We read pretty similar books too; The Code Breaker and The End of Everything are both on my TBR, so I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed them. Have you thought about making a Goodreads account?

Love this list! Making a video of my favorites from 2021.

Happy new year John... Felíz año nuevo a toda esta linda comunidad. Gracias a John aprendo inglés, thanks.💯

in my opinion dostoevsky and turguenev are the best russian authors, followed closely by gogol. not a big fan of tolstoy, at least not up until this moment. my top 5 of the year are: 1. a breath of life - clarice lispector (tied with clarice's agua viva, cant choose between them) 2. rúdin - ivan turguenev 3. the stranger - albert camus 4. the secret history - donna tartt 5. de profundis - oscar wilde as usual, love it when you talk about books

Thank you for these recommendations!

Crime and punishment is an amazing book, and is definitely in my top 5 this year My #1 has to be The Brothers Karamazov. I need to re-read both

I started watching your channel 2-3 years ago. Because of you I was able to read one book a week in 2020 & this year I read 100. Thanks for the inspiration. My top 5 of 2021: Columbine East of Eden Anna Karenina The Catcher in the Rye Into the Wild

My top 5 books of this year 1 white nights 2 No longer human 3 love in the time of cholera 4 the invisible man 5 beyond Good and evil

Too bad you dont have goodreads account. i really want to see your read book shelves

I read crime and punishment last year as well for school. And yeah, it’s pretty good. We were assigned to do a short film about any chapter of the book, doing that I grew even more respect for it. It’s a great book

The code breaker was really great I couldn't put it down and it kind of makes all the scientists human so even we can relate to them

Every year I get excited to see your "best books" list.

My top five read in 2021: 1 capital in the 21st century - Piketty 2 midnight tides - Erikson 3 dune - Herbert 4 changes - Butcher 5 the prince - Machiavelli

Wow, definitely going to read Empire of Pain and Crime and Punishment after this! My favourite non-fiction this year was In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, and my favourite fiction was Vita Nostra by Maria and Sergey Dyachenko (originally in Russian!)

I read crime and punishment myself a little over a year ago and it was incredible! Glad to see it on your list.

Hi John! I’m Vanessa! I rediscovered my love for reading because of you. As a student studying computer science at UCSB and renewed book lover, I hope we can connect sometime just to chat about books, school, and our future goals.

I fucking love your videos, happy new year 2022. Hi from 🇲🇽

My top 5 pick for the year would be: 1. The Talent Code 2. No Longer Human 3. Tao Te Ching 4. Barking up the wrong tree 5. Factfulness

I'm 20 yo, and 2021 was the year I actually started reading outside school, and I read a lot! Better late than never. My top 5: Every Man Dies Alone - Hans Fallada The Nose - Nikolai Gogol Hamlet - William Shakespeare The Gambler - Fiódor Dostoiévski Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Wow, so glad to hear someone say they're a big reader and then say a book a week. I read about the same amount but I follow a few people who read like 100-200 books a year so I'm glad to know I'm not as slow as I thought.

My top 5 this year: 1. Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse 5 2. Angela Davis: An Autobiography 3. Andre Aciman: Out of Egypt 4. Vincent Bevins: The Jakarta Method 5. Oscar Wilde: Picture of Dorian Gray

I love your tapestry in the back, I have the same one. You are just so relatable and real. I have read "The Idiot" and I agree, it is one of my faves as well.

This year has been a major milestone for my reading habits. Last year I started reading and I read about 6 books. This year I made a habit of reading daily, and I made it to 32 books. Which is quite a lot for me personally. John has been a motivation for me to read. Thanks for everything. My Top 5 are - 1. 1984 2.The Trial 3. Sapiens 4. Harry Potter Series 5. A tale of two cities

Happy New Year 🥳 gonna start my book year goal with crime and punishment, thanks for the recomendations :)

Damn it’s too late to find a ytr like u recommending books worth reading again and again…..Pls continuously update the new videos of any topic, it’s really fun and thought-provoking to see your comments and recommendations ❤

My top 5 2021 1. Nada - Jane Teller 2. Sherlock Holmes 1st 3. Animal Farm 4. The adventures of Tom Sawyer 5. A christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

Top 4 fiction: - Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I already knew the story from the musical but reading it blew me away. Easily one of my favourite books of all time. - Bleak House by Charles Dickens. This is an absolute masterpiece of Victorian literature, and probably Dickens' best. - Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This was a reread -- ihad been at least 5 years since I last read it and I completely forgot how good it is! - His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I tried these when I was a child and didn't like them, but I tried them again this year and devoured them. Top 4 non-fiction: - The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. If you're struggling to read, this book explains why: the internet has rewired your brain. Good news is, it's reversible. - The World's War by David Olusoga. Fascinating history of the non-white soliders of the empires who fought in WW1. Did you know the first bullet of the Great War was fired in Africa? - The Defence of the Realm by Christopher Andrew. Amazingly detailed authorised history of MI5 from its founding to the present day. - Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer. A series of essays about mountaineering and other extreme sports. (Into the Wild by the same author is one of my favourite books of all time).

1. 2666 by Roberto Bolano 2. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami 3. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy 4. Dune by Frank Herbert 5. Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke

I wanted to read "Crime and Punishment" and you gave me a strong reason to.

Reading Swann’s Way right now and loving it

Iam from kurdistan I don’t know what you know about my country but however iam new here but when i watch the first video i realize how useful it is ,it seem like a motivation for me 😌

My top 5 of 2021: 1. Lord of the Rings (theoretically 3 but nvm) by J.R.R. Tolkien 2. Dracula by Bram Stoker 3. The bell jar by Sylvia Plath 4. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers 5. Faust I by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Glad you had a powerful experience with Dostoyevsky. I think Brothers Karamazov affected me more than anything else I read this year. Changed my worldview tbh

Here are mine: 1. Niccolò Ammaniti - Come Dio commanda 2. Saša Stanišić - Herkunft 3. Umberto Eco - Baudolino 4. Predrag Matvejević - Mediteranski breviraj 5. Stendhal - Le rouge et le noir (I am from Croatia and studying italian, french and german, hence the titles in different languages)

Happy I've read two of these already. Crime and Punishment is the authors third best book behind the idiot and BK.

My top 5 2021 5. The history of sexuality - Michel Foucault 4. Candide - Voltaire 3. Cats Cradle - Vonnegut 2. Republic - Plato 1. Listening Through the Noise - Joana Demers

Thanks for sharing, will check some of these out 👍

The Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe The Codebreaker - Walter Isaacson The End of Everything - Megan Abbott A Little Life - Hanya Yanigahara Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky

As somebody in biology what you said about research paper writing really hit home. You’re totally right! Like ‘oh no god forbid the laypeople can read it’. The science community really values specified vocabulary over common accessibility and it’s a serious problem

1 - Dune 2 - Shock Doctrine 3 - Fermat's Last Theorem 4 - Life of Pi 5 - Deep Work

Love your videos

You're looking great John 👍 👌 😍! I hope you continue putting 👍 😀 😊 out as much new content as you can in the new year 😀 👍! You're an inspiration 😀 😊 👍 💙 ❤ to everyone who watches your videos 📹 😀 😊!

Hello John, I am just a beginner of reading, I found reading and listening book can help me 'read' more book! I am still learning and finding the best way to study, keep reading and balance time of reading and working.

Thank you for sharing.

Reading up to half of Albert Camus' The Stranger had me feeling the same way as you felt while reading Crime and Punishment.

U r my #1 book advisor. Period

Love the videos. I wish you would show a picture of the book when you speak about it.

Awesome recommendations!

I really want to read Empire of Pain. From my own reading in 2021, I would recommend Know My Name by Chanel Miller, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

I very much welcome your approach, that is, someone with both feet firm in the natural sciences who is broadening his horizons with the literature and the arts. Mind without heart does not mean much. Well done! BTW, when I watch these Ivy League students it always reminds me of J.D. Salinger’s book The Cather in the Rye. But you must have read it by now anyway...

I read in 2021.(ofc in Chinese XD) I love the author mostly for the novel . How he captures the darkest side of humans and tells the story in a way that mixes the reality with the fantacy amazed me. I started to reflect on myself and on the nature of humans when reading his novels. Tbh, I do not understand all parts of his writings, but the small parts that he can inspire me have already made me feel rewarding.

awesome stuff dude!

Its a difficult ask, but could you make a list of books you've read, i haven't been reading much, but plan to start, your list might help!

Check out Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev, it’s a good entry piece into the classic Russian authors. I was blown away by it. Turgenev is usually talked about much less than say Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky, but in my opinion he is equally up on the same platform with them. Fathers and Sons was such a beautifully written and thought provoking novel. I felt it gave such a clear picture into the ethos of that period in Russia, the 19th century before the revolution with these growing radical ideas. Also relatively short compared to a lot of Russian classics-I know a lot of people have a problem with that.

Here’s to one million in 2022 🎉🎉

Stoppp a little life AND crime and punishment are on my favorites shelf

Great vid. Would love to hear your thoughts on The Brothers Karamazov if you read in the future. :-)

Read War and Peace. It is the epitome of literature, the antithesis of the maudlin emotional manipulation of A Little Life (which I, nevertheless, kind of enjoyed)

some random book recommendations: - Dune by Frank Herbert - When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Hey John, do you sometimes read Stephen King? I like his writing style a lot and his characters feel so human.

Nice video John, have you read any work of CIxin Liu? I think you will enjoy his trilogy of the Remembrance of Earth's Past

John, have you ever thought about doing a podcast? I think that will be great!!

crime and punishment broke me. I wish I read it as a hard copy, the beginning was bit of jargon to me. At the end, I didn't know I had it in my to feel empathy for the a literal murderer. His prose was beautifully descriptive. I felt I was having the same experiences with the characters from an observational perspective. It was so beautifully written that I had to ponder hours after reading it. Glad it was your top book for the year. I am currently reading the idiot.

Read Ascent of Money, it is a pretty awesome book capturing how modern day financial systems were built

my top 5 from past year: crying of lot 49, the great gatsby, a portrait of the artist as a young man, stoner, and the intuitionist.

I read Crime & Punishment a few years ago and it's truly excellent. I've found that it ages well after reading and I like it even more compared to when I finished it. My top 5 of 2021: 1. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones 2. Exhalation by Ted Chiang 3. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 4. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed 5. Know My Name by Chanel Miller

I finished Crime and punishment last month and realised that dare to challenge our human morality... You'll never know until you read!

PLEASE READ ** The prettiest horse in the glue factory by Corey white , very well written. About Australian boy that ends up in the foster care system and how the system failed him . But With hard work and a stroke of luck he ended up in one of Australia’s top schools on a full scholarship . Based on his life this memoir, is worth reading

C & P is sooo good You should definitely check out the brothers Karamazov it's arguably the best russian novel of all time

Would be curious to learn how you discover new books to read.

"Happy New Year" 🎆!

My top five I think would be: 1. Kafka on the shore - Haruki Murakami 2. Killing commendatore - Also by Murakami 3. Child of the dark by Carolina Maria de Jesus 4. Confessions of a mask - Yukio Mishima 5. Schoolgirl - Osamu Dazai

My top 5: 1. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf 2. Swann's Way - Marcel Proust 3. Beloved - Toni Morrison 4. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston 5. Speak, Memory - Vladimir Nabokov

Great video

You inspire me.