True story, reading also helped me quit drugs. I remember thinking about how crappy my life was and how it wasn't what I'd hoped it would be. It hit me that it never would be what I wanted if I kept living how I was living. I decided right them to quit all the drugs, including nicotine and alcohol, and filled all my free time with reading. If I didn't keep myself occupied, it would have been easier to fall back into my habits. Reading was good, because it activated other pleasure centers in my brain that counterbalanced the areas the drugs had been activating. It was still really hard for about a month, but I was determine and forced myself to stay focused. After the first month, it only got easier. 14 years later I'm still clean and still reading.

I always liked reading and wanted to read the classics but I thought I wasn't smart enough and was intimidated by them. I finally got around to reading Crime and Punishment and enjoyed it so much I couldn't put it down. I found it a perfect gateway with how much of an intense page turner it was. After finishing it I read The Idiot and then I started reading Camus, Kafka, Hesse, Hamsun and thought to myself, I can do this. I've just started Infinite Jest and I'm about 60 pages in, enjoying it so far despite its difficult reputation.

You are a treasure.

You've got to keep at it and make reading a priority. TV was wasting my time. It's still sitting here but I rarely watch it. I get a lot more out of books.

Started “Crime and Punishment,” and then life started happening pretty hard. I read the first 40 pages and felt great about it and was loving it. I think the advice about flirting with other books is what I needed to hear because I feel as though I’m trying to juggle it with some other lighter reading instead of just jumping in head first. Thank you!!

I have found I like the idea of reading more than reading itself sometimes. I fantasize about the hundreds of classics I will read and how much knowledge it will give me, but when it comes down to it I probably only average about 5-10 books a year, I'm just such a slow reader. I really struggle with those last 50-100 pages, I will often read the first half of any given book in maybe a day or two, and then slowly as the book goes on it gets slower and slower, and the fire slowly dies.. haha. I do try to keep positive and remind myself, even if 5-10 pages a day I will finish this book.

This was excellent, big book lovers unite! :D

I love big books as well, after a while youre so deep into it that your life starts imitating the book, you start thinking like the book, of course regular and short books can do that too but it's easier with a big ol book Still watched the vid cuz of your amazing insight, thanks and im glad to see youre keepin the great content coming, gotta catch up!

Never thought I would hear such great relationship advice in a video about big books

I'm surprised I just found your channel, I really like your open and independent approach to reading!

I've had Infinite Jest on my shelf for 4 years! I tried giving it a read back when i bought it, I was a bit intimidated haha. The last big book i read was Crime and Punishment (which I'm looking forward to reading again sometime), two years ago. Thank you so much for this video, I am thrilled to have discovered your channel! I've been in a slump for ages, and your videos get me excited to read again.

Another inspirational and helpful video, Chris! I really appreciate the time you took to break down the whole endeavor of "reading big books." From the classifications you used all the way to the tips for scheduling reading time and eliminating distractions, these were all sage words of advice. I feel a bit more prepared to tackle 2666 this year now! :) Thanks again...love your channel!

Re: letting the book speak to you rather than constantly analyzing it while reading it, I thankfully broke that habit thirty-five years ago when I read a book called Ecology of Mind by Gregory Bateson, engaged with it actively throughout (filling up the margins with my own arguments, criticisms, etc.), and at the end of the (relatively short) book, I realized I didn't (and still don't!) have a clue what I had read and remembered only what I had said in response to it! From that day on I made it a point to do the opposite: immerse myself in a book the way a good listener listens to an interlocutor (I like your metaphor), let it cast its spell on me in its own way, then perhaps LATER to analyze and criticize it.

12:10 start: how to read big books

Excellent advice. Thank you so much. I struggle to find time to read and my attention span is lessening with years but your tips have been a real help.

relationship is a good analogy - good job!

Great video and fantastic advice! I love reading big books because of the immersion and complexity of thought. When I start a big book that I'm interested in I have this sense of defeat (in a good way) because of the big task ahead of me, but also very excited. This combination leads me feeling patient and serene. At the moment I'm reading Proust's In search of lost time. It's been exactly 3 months since I started and I'm currently going through the 5th volume and my excitement is still high. I think it helped me to have some small breaks in between volumes. Another big book I loved is The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I think it's my favorite novel of all time, I can't stop thinking about it. I would highly recommend. I love you channel! :)

Second new channel for me. I have had The Count of Monte Cristo on my shelves for a long time, but I had never picked up then a couple years ago I surprised my self. I picked it up getting more than half-way but all the sudden I stopped. It started seeming slow and a bit confusing, and I'm used to YA fiction, which has a faster pace to it and the plots don't feel as complicated. When you mentioned being distracted by other books, I thought, that is me in a nutshell. I keep thinking I have so many other books that won't take as long, and I try not to be a quantity over quality person, but in a way maybe I am.

Great video! I used to LOVE big books, but I find that lately I get halfway through and suddenly I think of other books I want to read. I really need to get over my book ADD lol. Thanks for the great tips .

love the tips you gave about reading big books! Moreover, I see these tips are great for any size. Thank you

So happy I found your videos! I'm re-reading The Recognitions and came upon your review about it. Thanks for not only this, but your other videos as well.

"The Unfortunates" is one of my favourites. Not many people have heard of it, I'm amazed it made it to America.

I watch this video almost every day for the past week. You're a great inspiration, especially for non-native like myself. 12:02 my bookmark.

Great advice! I think I'm gonna utilize it in my current first reading of The Magic Mountain

Faulkner told an interviewer Don Quixote was his favorite novel. "Isn't it too long? asked the interviewer. Faulkner replied, "I hadn't noticed."

Thanks for that, helped a lot Keep up the good work.

I love your hair. Thanks for the amazing tips. I will try them. I will have to watch again to make notes.

Awesome video! And a truly fascinating topic. What helped me the most with reading more huge books is switching to a Kindle. Sounds ridiculous but taking away the daunting physical aspect of a huge book helped me tremendously.

Just finished Joseph and His Brothers recently, I read The Wind in the Willows immediately afterwards for an obvious change. I think having some variation in what you’re reading before and after a long book is important to stay motivated/excited.

Thank you, I have been reading a lot this year and recognize a lot of this advice. Will say that, with nonfiction, I keep my phone handy (for good and ill) to snap a photo of any page where the author mentions a source book that sounds interesting. Most of my reading is library books so markup is not an option.

It seems that I found your channel at just the right time in my life. I've always loved books and reading, but up until now, have mostly read whatever I felt like whenever I felt like it (mostly contemporary, some classics). Like most other people I've kept mental (and physical) bucket lists of some of those big classics I really want to tackle during my lifetime. However those books have been part of my mental awareness for so many years, that I sometimes get the feeling I'm already familiar with them, when in actuality I've never even read one page. It's such a strange relationship one can have to those books, isn't it? We feel like we know them, but we don't. Then a few months ago it really hit me. I need to actually start reading them, and I need to be more selective in my reading going forward. It's about quality, not quantity. I found a good way into Dostojevskij, and watching your videos about how to be a better reader and so on, really helps me to reflect and be more careful about my reading habits. So thank you for that :)

I have Stephen King's " OnWriting" on my reading list for my painters! And I crafted my 'painters tool box' from his writers toolbox! Love it. And I don't read King, (only a few of his short stories). Thank you!!

All your tips are good. Thanks. Some years ago I found reading more than one book at a time helped improve my overall daily reading experience and helped me to some big books. For example, whilst reading Bolano’s 2666, especially the part describing women that were raped, (over 100), I found I could only read 10 to 20 pages a day. So I allocated about 30 minutes to ‘2666’ that I found a difficult read and read another, shorter book. I did the same thing with ‘Infinite Jest’ and ‘Clarissa’. Reading 3 hours of Clarissa a day would have driven me batty. Mind you, I am glad I read Clarissa and will never forget her or Mr. Lovelace.

21 minutes into this video, and I'm finding your advice and reasoning very very compelling (I'll finish watching another time, but for now it's time to turn off youtube/amazon/goodreads/etc. and get into a big book!) In all seriousness, after watching other videos of yours, I like your set-up and conversational tone. No exaggeration, this particular video came at the perfect time for me, I've been frustrated with my reading habits (generally) for quite some time, (lack of focus/waning discipline/loss of interest/etc.) So far, this video has offered up some good perspective on the matter. Thanks!

After reading Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged it changed me in unexpected ways and the effects lasted for years.

This video is helping me read Gravity’s Rainbow. Thank you!

Thanks for the motivation! I'm currently reading through the International Booker prize longlist, and I definitely needed some encouragement to tackle The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili which is a 900+ page beast. Btw, I'm really looking forward to your review of 2666!

Not Ken Follett?... Lol. I'm so glad I discovered your channel! Happy reading, sir. :)

I have the exact same bookmark. I've even got a shelf on GR dedicated to all the novels I've read over 500,000 words. Three cheers for big books, Chris!

would love to see some Infinite Jest/DFW content on this channel. Also Pynchon's Against the Day. And the big russian classics too (Brothers K, Anna K, War & Piece)

Needed this for infinite jest, so thank you. Turns out my problem is reading it simultaneously with other books.

New to your channel. Great job with the videos. I Especially like this one.

I love your channel! Keep 'em coming!! One thing: Should I plunge right in and start with 'The Pale King' and go insane or should I first read some short stories by Wallace and then move on to his novels? Is 'The Pale King' even the right novel to start my Wallace journey with?

Buddy Read helps to get through big books. And if it’s classic, many website with contexts & explanations so we avoid boredom from not understanding.

Can’t wait for that Pynchon review, I’m halfway thru Gravity’s rainbow, I have to say it makes me feel dumb, I loved Against the day & Bleeding edge tho.

Reading Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest were goliaths for me. They were worth reading. Love the Plato quote. I'm trying to send it to a friend. Texting on touch phones are a struggle. Lol. Stay awesome.

Excellent video Chris, I loved the comparison between reading a large book and commiting to a long term relationship. Following that metaphor, the desire of squeezing dry every possible meaning that a large book (or any book on that matter) has to offer, seems to be as hopeless as wanting to completely understand every nook and cranny that makes up your partners psyche. As psychoanalysis teaches us, the other will always be an enigma, and I think it's safe to say the same when it comes to books. However, that permanent mystery should'nt be a turn off for reading a book. On the contraire, it should make it all the more attractive! (in Spanish we would say: "tiene un no-se-qué". Also we often get bored when a person we are with seems predictable to us... so that "no-se-qué" seems essential). I say this, but I am currently battling with Werner Jaegers "Paideia" for my masters thesis... videos like this rekindle the courage to carry on such an odyssey (pun intended haha). Greetings from Colombia! :)

Forget the page numbers is good advice, Sometime you read more then you intend to when it's a good book and it goes faster then you think.

Recently found your channel, very engaging & thoughtful. I'm currently reading Dashiell Hammett's LoA collection (5 novels; 'Red Harvest', etc). Next BIG book on my shelf is Eugéne Sue's 'The Mysteries of Paris'. I noticed your goal of reading Murakami in other vids, have you also considered '1Q84', or did I miss something?

I'm just discovering this channel, and loving all your videos! I greatly appreciate your insistence on developing deep personal connections with whatever one is reading. Just finished The Recognitions and I'm realizing I fall into something like the opposite of Senioritis. the congealing mass of themes and events really carry me away around the final 1/3 of a book. Do you experience anything like this?

Watching this and taking notes in preparation for a September read of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa. The fact of its being one of Harold Bloom's favorites is making it impossible for me wave away.

It would be interesting to hear you talk about big small books, like Notes from the underground.

I like reading big books with depth. After reading a few of those, I feel like I need more.

Fernando del Paso's Palinuro of Mexico is my favorite big, and brilliant, book.

Great video, Chris. Of course you're preaching to the choir with me but I trust and hope this video will help other readers. One thing that crossed my mind near the end. At what point do you give up on a big book? I consider myself a fairly resilient reader, a careful reader, but I gave up on several big books last year and this. My chief reason was that the writing was poor/riddled with cliches and/or not engaging due to redundancy/monotony (for me, the style must be artistic and have some form of polyphony to justify its length). So maybe you can talk a bit about that, the acting of abandoning a reading project that doesn't stem from being a bad reader, as it were. Or is it always the reader's fault? P.S. According to your parameters, my first big book was Infinite Jest and it changed my life.

I watched this video a few days ago and I’ve thought about it often. I found your arguments compelling even if I disagree strongly on the matter of longer = + gratification. I tend to gravitate away from massive books, especially if they were written after the 20th century. The reason why I value not brevity but synthesis, was already unbeatably expressed by Borges, and even by Aira, whom we talked about before. But I do feel I must defend myself and brief books by saying that my preference is not due to a frantic search of quick gratification. Brief and concise writing, at least for me and only in the best of cases, requires slower reading and rereading. And I don’t believe that the greatest satisfaction obtained from reading is finishing the book. I can read three brief books in the time it takes me reading a long book and not necessarily feel more accomplished. Although I can understand why this would seem the case. In fact, I have often thought that “low literature” tends to be longer because people make a simplistic calculation: if the book is longer, I obtain more for my money. Different views on how consumerism affects reading. Of course, this does not apply to the books which you refer to, which have obvious artistic merit. I’m on the last third of _À la recherche du temps perdu_ (in Spanish, my French is more basic than yours) and it has been an unforgettable, changing experience. I’m also almost halfway through _Infinite Jest,_ and I’m still not sure about it. I can maybe agree that he was a genius, but I’m not sure if I believe that he was a great writer, if this makes any sense. I feel that Jest is too cluttered with efforts to show the author’s enormous intelligence, and this can get in the way of real art, at least for me. I’ve read some of his other shorter books, by the way. And even if this is a very premature evaluation of _Infinite Jest,_ I think it articulates the problems I have with many contemporary long books. It could also be that my constant reading of poetry has conditioned my reading of fiction. I’m referring to contemporary poetry mostly, of course, since epic poetry can be very long. Still, after all of this, I understand the charm of immersion, and it now seems absurd how many of my favorite books, and how many of the books on my to-read-list, are very long. Seems ironic that my defense of brevity has resulted in such a lengthy comment. I apologize. However, it does support my point that saying things in few words is hard and precious. I do hope the grammatical errors are not too egregious.

Do you remember the first big book you read? Awesome video, man! Very particular! I think that there isn't anything like this on youtube. Ps. My first big book was anna karenina(I read it in eight grade).

Based on what I've heard of it, I want to read atlas shrugged until I see it (such mass!) on the a shelf. I'll get a used copy and start.

Superb video. Thanks for going to the trouble 👍

I really enjoy your videos. You talk about a lot of books and authors I have heard about before through other sources (KCRW's bookworm with Michael Silverblatt is a great one) and I definitely want to read (and I already have them waiting on my shelves: Gaddis, Vollmann, Barth, McElroy, Sorrentino, Theroux, even Evan Dara), but: English isn't my first language. Though I can read through a, say, Salinger without a dictionary, I do need help with those Gasses and Pynchons and Wests (Paul). So either I read them with help of my phone or computer or I have the German version of it with me (which are usually one and a half time as long as the original - for example Infinite Jest in German has 1500 pages). This way I'm easily distracted is what I want to say, and never make it through the whole thing. On the internet I stumble upon so many great English or American books ... I guess, I should, as you say, just turn it off for a while and read Musil and Proust (there's no way I can read him in French, so ...) and Nádas. Do you have any experience reading big books in another language?

Great video. I wish I had your patience. I tried to read Infinite Jest but couldn’t finish it. But-his ”Consider the Lobster” is excellent.

Great video! please do one of those on lit theory/crit and a maybe a top 10 list of your prefered littheory books

Thank you for this channel, you've clarified a lot of things to me, and answered a lot of my puzzling questions. I want to ask you about your journal, in this video you claimed that after highlighting then annotating you write a summary with red on your journal, but what about the black and blue writings? do you recopy the highlights and annotations or you expand more, is it in the first reading or second reading? I ask those questions as i try to put your framework in parallel with Mortimer J. Adler - How to read a book framework - i.e. inspectional reading, then second analytical reading, Specially that i am starting to read philosophy based on your philosophy reading list. My second question did you read Sonke Ahrene's - How to take smart notes? and if yes what is your opinion about his method i.e. Luhmann's slip box method?

It just took me a year to finish "A History of the World In 100 Objects". Thankfully I read other things throughout that time. Have you read "The Ragged Trousered Philanthrapists"? A few years ago I gave it up after being about 2/3 of the way through, but want to try again next year.

James here. This was a great video and good effort. How do you read a long book? Firstly, you must want to. This is exactly how I tackle other challenging, but not entirely necessary, facets of life. Like 400-1000 pushups a day. Why do I do that? Honestly I don’t know. You are living a great life and making great videos. Hats off to you. And I’m waiting on the Mason & Dixon review. (!!!)

Haha. I was watching this before bed and then I grab a 75 page book.

I've never considered big books as any different from smaller books. I just think of the story. I've read some bigger books quicker than smaller books, just because the story was more engaging. Now that my son and I are on booktube, I've been more diligent about giving myself a timeline to finish books. Like you mentioned, that is good discipline. I'm currently reading a mammoth on Virginia Woolf and just finished a section which describes how she read books. I thought it was fascinating. Of course I read nonfiction differently. It's so refreshing to find videos like yours, because so many booktube channels do seem to be more about the quantity of certain books that neither my son nor I are interested. Not bad, just not our interest. We like books with some meat.

Excellent video! Currently 300 pages into William Gass’ “The Tunnel” (truly his magnum opus), and I am curious if this has appeared on your reading lists. If so, when do you plan to start? If not, why not?

Thanks for the wonderful advice. What do you think about reading more than one book at the same time?

Have you done the reread I _Gravity's Rainbow,_ yet? Noah and I are reading (a reread for me) _Against the Day,_ next year. Ive read _2666_ twice; wanna read _Savage Detectives_ and his new one, to boot: _The Spirit of Science Fiction._

I sort of rediscovered you. Really enjoying your content. Great BookTuber!

Hey there, thanks for this video! Had a question for you: Have you ever read any of Will Self's novels? Thanks, - Drew

How do you feel about audiobooks? Do you think they are effective?

If a great novel is 1000 + pages long, you'll hardly notice it if the author's on his game. I remember reading "Journey To The End Of The Night" and "Death On Credit" consecutively and not wanting either of them to end.

Is that your personal library, of books, in the background ?

Im a massive lotr fan but cant get into the book i think its becuse its quite daunting and very dence and a lot of info to take in i read 30 pages a day at the moment before bed i dont read it to quick 1 becuse i dont read alot but want to read more and 2 becuse i want to absorbe all the info and rmember all the cool details any tips am i doing it ok or am i not also am i douing good i dont know 😊😑😐😊

The genre you are reading also makes a big difference. I read Stephen King's "It" twice. Not so sure would bother with James Michener. Oh well...off to read Delaney's "Dhalgren" for the first time... 🙄😳🤯

You know I have war and peace of Leo Tolstoi and I can't seem to read it and I have it in my own language Spanish to tell yeah if is in Spanish it will be better for me but when I begin to read I can't pass 10 pages 😁

Sorry to cut your video short but gotta go read Musashi.

It's nice to recall that, for instance, Brothers Karamazov, is still a big book. And i get why you had to fling out a limit, but to most Moby Dick is a big book--my guess would be that among US Americans the most attempted and unfinished among the great big books...

Doesn’t it give you FONO? I can read 3 McCarthy novel for one Infinite Jest.

i love big books , only if i can read it

True haha:. Rather crummy one-off boy aquaintance of my sister saideth, "I only read obscure books." For an encore, he twisted my t-shirt. My brother told us that the Third Reich was, "A good idea taken too far.". Do these people need no book?

easy for this dude to say..by virtue of how fast he says he read My Struggle he reads at leas a hundred pages an hour...well good for you

If you want a good big book consider: "Human Action" by Ludwig Von Mises :)

Get a fat dictionary! Best decision I made in a long time. Used to get sucked down the internet every time I googled an unfamiliar word

Big? Min. 700 p

He's well read; it's well known. His books may be petty, obfuscating, evasive, pedantic, envious and pretentious but... they're BIG!!!! lmfao

You can also add weight. 😂

Now read Anatomy of the State 😈