Well, I disagree with two, I love Pride and Prejudice and Romeo and Juliet. People love Lizzie because she is fun, she has a great wit, a great sense of humor and big heart. She is also well read, (which I love, that is why I love Belle and she is now my favorite Disney Princess, it used to be Cinderella when I was a little girl.) She is also very funny. Darcy is shy really, not proud, and really has no idea at all how to communicate with a woman. Which is charming to me. I don't think either of them are average. Pride and Prejudice has moved to second place, my favorite is not Persuasion. I am fine with you not liking Passport to Frankfurt, it is not one I like either. If you want one of her thrillers my favorite is N or M. But another Queen of Crime has a book I really I don't like at all. I adore Lord Peter and Dorothy Sayers mysteries but I despise Whose Body, it is full of antisemitism, there is hardly a paragraph that is not filled with it. And what really broke my heart was that it was coming very beloved characters saying all this horrible stuff. So that is a book of hers I DNF'd about 50% through, I just couldn't stand it, and I will never read it again.

A really cozy children’s book I think every adult should read is The Girl Who Drank the Moon. It’s such a wonderful book. I ate it up in a day! 😊

When people complain about people not liking certain classic books I tend to think to myself "Well it's not like even many people back then cared about some of these books either."

Satanic Verses 😉

I DNF'd " On The Road". It was awful....

I liked Persuasion more than Pride & Prejudice, never expected that for a second. Crooked house by Agatha Christie was a classic book that left me with nothing.🙈 Great video again! Thank you!

I could only find my rotten tomato fork but we'll make it work. 1. Completely agree 2. Completely agree 3. Agree but Romeo and Juliette wasn't meant to be seen as romantic. 4. I love Kerouac's poetry but On The Road is unreadable. Kerouac was no hero. Ginsberg was a lot better. 5. This is an Agatha Cristie book I haven't even heard of. Maybe for good reason.

Not my favourite book but a lot in there to think about that is beyond the familiar legend: it is The Once & Future King by T.H.White.. The book is actually in 4 volumes: The sword in the stone; The witch in the wood; The ill-made knight & The candle in the wind. Familiar characters but not how you might think & many others.

Is nobody gonna say anything about how utterly boring The Old Man and the Sea is? No one? Ok fine, I'll say it...

Could not disagree with you more on the subject of Kerouac. I also think his greatness as an author is best measure in the influence he had. That doesn't make On the Road a great piece of literature, but it does make it the catalyst for a very significant cultural shift. Also, Kerouac through his entire literary career walked a tightrope between his beliefs and ideals (Catholic and Buddhist) and his base nature and the base nature of his cohorts. I think the point was more that under all the brokenness, there is a connection to the divine in all people, even the worst of us.

i would recommend giving pride and prejudice another go. if you're so inclined, try coming at it in a scholarly way, like watching people teach it on youtube because that way you get into the nitty gritty of a proper analysis of the text. jane austen is brilliant in so many ways, and p&p is a great representative of her talent considering it is one of her earliest works. there's layers to the way that austen writes that have to be pulled back in order to appreciate what she's doing. she's largely a feminist (given the overbearing confines of her time), and her prose drips with irony from the very first sentence. the bennets are a disaster, surely, but their characterization serves a purpose and acts as a dismal backdrop for lizzie to shine through, which may give you a different impression of her in comparison. she's not just "the popular girl," however. in fact, her older sister, jane, is better received all the way around. darcy's dismissal of lizzie in the beginning, mr. collins' grudge toward the middle, and lady catherine's disdain in the end are proof enough that lizzie is something of an outcast, actually. austen seemed to feel this way about herself: a girl perceived as too clever "for her own good," one might say. the fact that lizzie finds someone who grows (with a considerable amount of pain, mind you) to love her for her wit and the other things that proper society deemed undesirable in a woman is a beautiful thing not only for the reader to witness but for a young jane austen to assert. the fact that people love this story so much isn't a mistake! i could go on an on about this, but i'll leave it here lol. i do hope you can give p&p another chance, though. it has more to offer than originally meets the eye, i promise.

I can't tell you how glad I am to see Pride and Prejudice on here. I remember it as one of my least favourite reading experiences of all time 🫠

I read Jane Austen's Persuasion and never wanted to read anything by her again.

This was good fun! I agree with you on all counts. I really DO enjoy Persuasion from Austen. Anne is a much more likable (real) character than Elizabeth Bennet. My least favorite classic is certainly A Tale of Two Cities. I love Dickens (particularly David Copperfield), but for me, A Tale of Two Cities is the book that everyone raves over and I think the writing is mid at best.

Blood Meridian

finally someone said it about Pickwick papers. Dickens start to be good at David Copperfield

Philip K. Dick was one of my favorite authors and I read most of his novels. The only one I really didn't like was 'Man in the High Castle'. Maybe I need to give it another chance?

I don’t think you understand On The Road at all. If you think the book is a cover for bigotry I would say you need to learn more about Kerouc. The book is his eyes his very religious, Catholic, and is far from an endorsement for pure freedom or carelessness. On The Road shows that these men cannot find joy no matter how many miles they go, at it’s core it’s about men lost in a world that seemingly leaves them behind. There may be elements that are abrasive in it, but if you can’t get over of how people were back then I would stop reading literature made before 2010. Calling Kerouc spoiled is a insult to a man that struggled his whole life, from the early death of his brother to suffering from depression and schizophrenia, it shows a lack of empathy or willingness to see beyond the words on the page. Just because there’s sexism or racism doesn’t mean the author has some evil intent, it shows they are broken people that continue to make poor decisions. On The Road is a about a serious of failures with wild energy yet Kerouc perseveres, a theme explored in every one of his works. I would expect a video like this to look beyond the status or reputation of the book and find something more. Also the point about Romeo and Juliet being a toxic relationship, yeah they’re children and key theme of the work is that their naïve love contrast with a complicated and cruel conflict, led by the adults in the story, who should have more sense and the children who simply love. For Kerouc in particular I would not paint him as an obnoxious sexist but to look at his life as a whole and see how weird, complex, and inspiring he is. Someone from Lowell Massachusetts doesn’t really scream being a brat. I think reading On The Road as a ode to freedom is a overly simple and reductionist reading. To write off the beats is ignorant, these people lived difficult and troubled lives on and off the page, from Kerocus drinking or William Burroughs heroin addiction. I’d recommend reading Kerouc’s other works such as Visions of Gerald or Desolation Angels or to know more about his life to give more context to this work.

"The lack of Jane Austen is the beginning of a great library." --paraphrasing Twain.

"In Search of Lost Time" can suck a fat one - I've never encountered a more overwritten pile of pretentiousness. The protagonist is second to maybe only Holden Caulfield in punchability. I hear it is better in french, but I'm not learning a new language just to read the world's longest novel 🙄😄

Mine is Ordeal by Innocence. Thank you for your great vid.

No good at lists ☹ Tried to read the Idiot but gave up a third of the way through as I thought "get to the point!" Just pages & pages where nothing happened, so I'm reluctant to try any more Dostoevsky. Also gave up on Kafka's Metamorphosis. Had a school friend that read most of Wolfe, another after Ulysses went on to tackle Finnegan's Wake which is even more impenetrable. Time to reread Dracula

Fun video -- you are the bravest man I know, Bart! 😆😆😆

Typical US popular list. Catcher in the rye is there as well as Mockingbird. Reminds me of my school days when require reading was Golding's Lord of the Flies & Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie. I can't pick a #1 as I'm not well read & not good at literary criticism. I read or saw on YT that Beloved is not a well written book, just popular. 1984 & Brave New World are well down the list & On the road is there 🥱 Oh God, there is Harry Potter when Earthsea (which obviously influenced Rowling) by Ursula K Le Guin is not. Why no Primo Levi If this is a man/The Truth. Why pick Fellowship when Tolkien wanted LOTR to be 1 book but it was post WW2 paper shortage that caused it to be publish in 3 volumes plus The Two Towers is better than Fellowship. That number 70 is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro underscores that the list is one of popularity & familiarity more that great works of literature.

I love Charles Dickens, but Pickwick Papers???? Yikes, beautiful and hilarious analysis. This was the first time I ever used Cliff's Notes :)...We had to read it over the Christmas break and I just couldn't. I am also glad you included Pride and Prejudice- Persuasion is my favorite of Miss Austin.

Tomatoes incoming. 🍅 🍅

First up novel you dont't love and it's Pride And Prejudice. You, Sir, are my man! Let's face it, Jane Austen basically invented chick-lit two hundred years early, but because the sisterhood have canonised her you must never say that out loud.

I couldn't finish Moby Dick. Maybe I'm stupid but some non-story chapters are just too abstract and boring

Absolutely loved the count of monte cristo ! One of my favorite books. But honestly hated Frankstein

Couldn't agree more about the beat generation. Having a copy of On The Road is the equivalent of having a Che Guevara poster on your dorm room wall, or getting a celtic sign tattooed on your lower back.

Surprised you didn't mention Roger Ackroyd here

On the one hand, yes, Romeo and Juliet is not a good play and one of Shakespeare's worst, which nobody wants to admit. On the other hand, everybody already knows it's about a toxic relationship, or at least they should. But it's bad because of how heavy-handed it is in exploring that relationship. It's more of a shallow crowd-pleaser than a serious work of drama. Every word you said about Jack Kerouac was true, though. It just shows how much is wrong with the literary world when his dreck is held in such esteem.

I’m never going to read ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. I’ve given it several chances but… no

I will have to give this a a thought for my answers. But as to yours-- I don't hate pride and prejudice, but I don't fall over Jane Austen. I just finished "persuasion" , the whole time I kept thinking: "I bet people hate this because it's so slow... but...characters are actually RATIONAL in this and not making overly dramatic drama decisions... I...kind of connect with Anne more than other 'more entertaining' Austen heroines. " As to Romeo and Juliet... I don't hate it but I blame it for being the origin of the miscommunication trope that has forever haunted us. Though I have some fond memories of my class reading it... (having already read it, one classmate volunteering to read pretty much EVERY character set to die at some point I had such a hard time not snickering as he hadn't...I could see it on the teacher's face to... ) I will say while it's over done, I listened to a retelling of it on audible prety much ONLY for the narrator/it was on sale...and ya' know... I didn't mind it. IT didn't knock off my socks and went a little heavy on the Juliet gains autonomy in 'strong YA female' type ways but, it was a pleasant surprise. Dickens I have a hard time with. I've only barely begun to touch his work, really, but I thought Copperfield was going to be the death of me. I like a LOT of what was going on. But I think it was similar to what happened to you with Papers-- if he hadn't been paid by word count and it had been more concise, I think it would have been excellent. Don't get me wrong, I like a good slow burn. But at one point I was just internally screaming : GET ON WITH IT.

It's funny, but it does seem like their is Pride and Prejudice cult out there. Some even have said they wished they lived in that world, enamored with the fashion and romance. I think they forget that hygiene, no toilets, and no air condition among so many other important inventions that would make a night out at the gala actually fun didn't exist. Also, why would they envision they'd belong to the upper class?

Known about the Leopard for a long time & it is still TBR. Visconti made a film in the 1960's starring Burt Lancaster but I haven't seen it either.

I agree with all of these except the first. Lol I love P&P because of the dialogue, the well-drawn flawed characters, the social criticism and her writing, which is clever, sharp and insightful while feeling light as a feather. I'll be even more controversial about Christie and say I find Murder on the Orient Express boring! I recently reread all her mysteries, and I barely made it through that one. I also deeply dislike The Great Gatsby. There's some masterful writing there, but the characters and story leave me cold. The biggest great classic that I don't like is probably Middlemarch. The MCs are boring, the writing bland, it has no interesting description... It didn't work for me on any level. Then I got to the end and thought "That's it?" I read over 800 pages and that's your great moral lesson? It was the most disappointing book of the decade for me. This is a great idea for a video! I hope you get lots of views and responses.

Two books that you will get more out of as an adult are Alice's adventures in wonderland and Through the looking glass.

I tried reading P&P and I couldn't pass the second half. The story was familiar to me because I saw the 2005 film adaptation and not by choice, my sister made me watch it a dozen times 🙃. But still couldn't finish the book and it confirmed what I already knew: I don't like Austen 😅.

I don't know how many times you've read Pride and Prejudice, but once isn't enough. It's not long so a second or third reading might make it clearer. It isn't a conventional romance, although many people think it is, and her writing is soaked in irony, which might not be obvious first time round, or if English isn't your native language. She was always an outsider and her fiction is often slightly subversive although dressed up in the conventions of the day.

I'm a huge Christie fan and I DNFed Passenger To Frankfort. I also couldn't finish Man In The Brown Suit. She has so many great books, but she has a few absolute duds as well.

I went to Naropa University and studied Poetics at the Master's level. The writing school there was founded by Allen Ginsberg and is called The Jack Kerouac School for Disembodied Poetics. (The latter bit is a nod to Gertrude Stein.) And ugh. I never could get into Kerouac. And a lot of the beat stuff is pretentious. But there are exceptions, like Diane diPrima's Rant and Amiri Baraka's An Agony. As Now. The classic I absolutely hated was Siddhartha. It may be partly that I was already familiar with Buddhism, but I just didn't find the writing enjoyable or think that it had anything profound to say. It felt desperately trying to be profound. And I enjoyed the section where he was working as a ferryman. But I put it down twice before I got through it. And am baffled that so many consider it life-changing. I suspect I just dislike Hesse's style, but will give another of his books a try before deciding for sure.

I'm on board with a lot of this. I was forced to read Emma in school and developed a life long aversion to Jane Austin. I agree about the red flags and toxicity of Romeo and Juliet, still liked it though. And thank CHRIST someone has stood up and and said what crap On The Road is. When Agatha Christie was in her later years her stuff is all over the place, I read Halloween Party and she gives me big "hey you kids, get off my lawn" vibes.

I could never get Madame Bovary. Found the character entitled and boring. What is your most enjoyed Jane Austin? Thanks for all the great commentary.

I think those who really like On The Road are those of the same generation, who for one reason or another could not go on the road. They lived vicariously through the book.

I read Anna Karenera (sorry about the spelling). Everyone, ok mostly women hold the book to their heat and say it is the greatest book ever written. Do I finally checked it out…to me it was ok., but not the greatest book ever written!

I feel about Don Quixote as you do about Pickwick Papers. The funny episodes get a bit tedious and I can’t get committed to 800 pages that lack any plot (at least none that I can find).