Ben Fensome
MARCH 2022 READING WRAP UP | an hour chatting weird and wonderful books!
updated
A compilation of my BBC Pride & Prejudice lip syncs so far from tiktok and insta (somebenfen)
I don't own any of the audio! At time of upload you can watch the original BBC series on BBC iplayer, britbox, amazon prime, hulu.
Thanks for watching! 🧷👒
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
We're talking the Father of Tragedy and Greek Draaaama
Books mentioned:
Prometheus Bound and other plays (translated by Philip Vellacott)
The Oresteia (translated by Ted Hughes)
Thanks for watching!
Ben
doomantidote@gmail.com
Thanks for watching!
Ben
doomantidote@gmail.com
Today we are moving slightly forward in time to Sappho, the great lyric poet! I've recently read three translations and wanted to share my thoughts on each.
Timestamps:
00:00 Sappho
05:50 Stung with love: Poems and Fragments (translated by Aaron Poochigian)
09:13 If not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (translated by Ann Carson)
12:52 Sappho (translated by Mary Bernard)
Thank you for watching!
Ben
email:doomantidote@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
Ben here again, sharing my thoughts on having read two translations of Hesiod!
Hesiod: Theogony/Works and Days (translated by Dorothea Wender), Penguin Classics
Hesiod Theogony Works and Days (translated by M.L.West), Oxford World Classics
Thanks for watching!
Ben
email: doomantidote@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
Ben here, continuing our slow meander through foundational BCE literature with HOMER!
Thanks for watching!
00:00 Homer
4:03 The Iliad E.V. Rieu
14:14 The Odyssey Emily Wilson
Ben
email: doomantidote@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
I recently read The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Andrew George, as well as The Buried Book by David Damrosch and had to share my thoughts!
00:00 a lost epic is found
05:30 The Epic of Gilgamesh
16:00 Its influence
This may be the first of a series discussing foundational texts so lemme know if its something you'd be interested to see more of.
Thank you for watching!
Ben
email: doomantidote@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
Ben here, about time I did this.... here are my top 10 favourite novels!
Thanks for watching!
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
Ben here, here are the best books I read this year!
Thank you for watching!
Ben
email: doomantidote@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
Books mentioned:
If Not, Winter, Fragments of Sappho, Anne Carson
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
A Room With a View, EM Forster
1984, George Orwell
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Stoner, John Williams
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie
Disgrace, J.M.Coetzee
The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan
After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz
In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
Here's how it went
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 A madeleine moment
00:50 Swann's Way
06:27 Within a Budding Grove
12:54 Midyear Check In
15:10 The Guermantes Way
20:24 Paris Trip
21:24 Sodom and Gomorrah
28:51 The Captive
33:36 The Fugitive
36:24 Time Regained
43:04 Tips Advice, and final thoughts
50:26 Proust Dance
Here's some other vids on Proust that I found valuable:
@HardcoverHearts
youtube.com/watch?v=kZGlX8b_9Z0&t=257s
@JuanReads
youtube.com/watch?v=LpJ7axMwmyQ&t=257s
@alanaestelle2076
youtube.com/watch?v=FF8HcR5vwew&t=25s
@BetterThanFoodBookReviews
youtube.com/watch?v=ovdZTxBxQIk&t=717s
@Fiction_Beast
youtube.com/watch?v=47zd7JIdVcE
Full videos:
March Reading Wrap Up (Swann's Way)
youtube.com/watch?v=JJcoZxAf0-A&t=1018s
April Reading Wrap Up (Within a Budding Grove)
youtube.com/watch?v=eB9P4-Lz9-s&t=1706s
Mid Year Freakout Tag
youtube.com/watch?v=J_pgjVXwZWs&t=334s
June Reading Wrap Up (The Guermantes Way)
youtube.com/watch?v=hxjglbGoQ9E&t=1048s
I went to Paris
youtube.com/watch?v=otT1SpGyDgk&t=778s
August Reading Wrap Up (Sodom and Gomorrah)
youtube.com/watch?v=Yp7TEbYDtx8&t=1744s
October Wreading Wrap Up (The Captive)
youtube.com/watch?v=0uMa_itytgk&t=1645s
November Reading Wrap Up (The Fugitive)
youtube.com/watch?v=i7p1NH8OYb0&t=722s
Thank you for watching!
Ben
email: doomantidote@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
#insearchoflosttime #proust #booktube #readingvlog #classicbooks
Ben here. Today we're condensing around 3000 years worth of classic western literature down to 10 books haha
Video was inspired by:
@KDbooks
youtube.com/watch?v=IspFvLiFFAE&t=178s
@saintdonoghue
youtube.com/watch?v=XTnRYqRlBzs
@BrandonsBookshelf
youtube.com/watch?v=OKuTaP86o4g&t=1s
Thanks for watching!
Spoilers:
Greek Epic Poet
Greek Tragedian
Roman Poet
Middle Ages Italian Poet
Middle Ages English Poet
Renaissance English Playwright
18th Century Nigerian/British Abolitionist Writer
19th Century English Romantic/Gothic Novelist
19th Century Russian Realist Novelist
19th Century American Renaissance Novelist
Ben x
email:doomantidote@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/benfensome
since you're down here...
I've written a play! And it is being put on in London next February!
We have launched a kickstarter to help us bring it to life, if you are able to donate, anything small or big is greatly appreciated!
http://kck.st/3jbhSug
More info on the show here:
vaultfestival.com/events/buff
Thank you!
I decided to go on a short Paris trip and here's what I saw! (and the books I read/bought)
Thanks for watching!
Ben x
email: doomantidote@gmail.com
insta: benthefen
Ben here, here's all the black spine penguin classics I currently own!
00:00 Intro and preamble
04:20 The Collection
The majority of these books I have purchased second hand, either from second-hand bookshops, charity shops or online.
Authors and titles include:
Dickens
Hardy
Charlotte and Emily Bronte
Elizabeth Gaskell
E.M Forster
Charles Darwin
Tolstoy
Dostoyevsky
Boccaccio
Chaucer
Moby Dick
The Faerie Queene
The Koran
Don Quixote
The Mahabharata
Plato
Aristotle
Sappho
Homer
Virgil
Sophocles
Alexander Dumas
and many others!
Thanks for watching!
Ben x
Ben here, I finished reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy for the first time and wanted to share some thoughts about it!
I read the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (I pronounce her name wrong) published by Vintage Classics
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 War and flipping Peace
02:07 The Second Epilogue
04:13 Free will vs Determinism
05:57 The Main Characters
12:33 Fiction with Non-fiction
13:56 I should have annotated it
15:18 Is it worth it?
16:46 Pierre and the Great Comet of 1811
17:58 Conclusion!
Follow up Vids!
Here's a couple other reviews on this book which I really enjoyed:
@TheBookchemist youtube.com/watch?v=NeOViN1KTQ4
@whatpageareyouon youtube.com/watch?v=F0LthBLZtBk&t=99s
Thanks for watching!
Here's a run down of the top 12 books I read in 2021!
Non spoiler timestamps in publication date order:
00:00 Intro
01:14 PART ONE: CLASSICS/BACKLIST
#1 1600
#2 1871
#3 1980
#4 1987
#5 1993
#6 2018/20
15:56 PART TWO: NEW RELEASES IN 2021
#7 7th January
#8 4th February
#9 16th February
#10 4th May
#11 17th June
#12 18th July
29:12 TOP 3 AND FAVOURITE BOOK OF THE YEAR!
Thanks so much for watching, commenting, liking, disliking, subscribing, everything! I'm really grateful for all the fun we've had this past year. I hope we can have some more good times on this weird little channel in 2022!
Ben x
Email: doomantidote@gmail.com
Books mentioned (alphabetically):
A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Detransition Baby, Torrey Peters
Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead
Middlemarch, George Eliot
No One Is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood
Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson
Parable of the Sower, Octavia E Butler
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
The Promise, Damon Galgut
This Mournable Body, Tsitsi Dangarembga
What You Can See From Here, Mariana Leky
After 20 years I recently reread Philip Pullman's HIs Dark Materials trilogy and here's some rambly thoughts on it!
Closed Captions available.
His Dark Materials:
Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass), 1995
The Subtle Knife, 1997
The Amber Spyglass, 2000
Very vague timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:55 Paradise Lost 2: The Revenge
03:24 NORTHERN LIGHTS
09:05 THE SUBTLE KNIFE
16:10 THE AMBER SPYGLASS
21:13 What is the message at the end of the trilogy?
25:00 Conclusion
Here's a fantastic (SPOILERY) interview where Philip Pullman goes deep into the themes of the book:
highprofiles.info/interview/philip-pullman
Couldn't find the artist's name but here's where the image of the Mulefa came from after a Google image search:
reddit.com/r/hisdarkmaterials/comments/e7u6vr/since_i_saw_people_were_posting_those_this_is_my
Thanks for watching!
Ben x
Ben here,
Here's the books I read in April! 4 of which may very well be in my top 10 of the whole year!
It's a long one... (bonus points for anyone who finds the Theresa May reference)
Timestamps (or chapters as I believe they're now called):
00:00 Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist Reaction
03:30 The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (trans. by Michael Hulse)
08:10 The New Sorrows of Young W., Ulrich Plenzdorf (trans. by Romy Fursland)
10:16 Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin (trans. by James E. Falen)
16:32 You, Nuala Ni Chonchuir
19:52 The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco (trans. by William Weaver)
24:40 By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, Elizabeth Smart
27:59 Beloved, Toni Morrison
32:18 Story of the Eye, Georges Bataille (trans. by Joachim Neugroschal)
38:39 Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters
45:14 Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson
Many of these books were provided by Kieran @KDbooks (THANKS SO MUCH MATE!!) If you don't follow him then what are you even doing?
Here is his review of Story of the Eye:
youtube.com/watch?v=6mYnjRX11Xw&t=397s
Other Follow up Vids:
The Book Chemist's in depth review of The Name of the Rose:
youtube.com/watch?v=9JHbd34D3zM&t=500s
Great review of Open Water from a new booktuber Satbo Reads Books:
youtube.com/watch?v=F2vSZzfkywk&t=205s
A brilliant comprehensive review into Detransition Baby from Zack Wilson (I want him to make more vids so please send him some love!)
youtube.com/watch?v=CwdUR_oDmNY
Thanks everyone!
Ben x
Ben here.
Here's what I read in the month of March!
Timestamps:
Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan 02:49
The Book of Not, Tsitsi Dangarembga 08:24
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke 13:20
Red White and Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston 17:12
The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett 21:23
Hard Times, Charles Dickens 28:12
Love After Love, Ingrid Persaud 32:17
Wordsworth Classics covers & editions chat! 37:41
Middlemarch, George Eliot 39:35
Booktubers mentioned!
* Alex @whatpageareyouon
* Bob The Bookerer youtube.com/channel/UCo9wDCo3u3J5Sky9skhVkXA
* Svea Schaike youtube.com/channel/UCNMT-Q8WIDsgXpIc96UYUfg
* Charlotte @CoynieReads
* @brittabohlerthesecondshelf Womens Prize for Fiction Reaction: youtube.com/watch?v=4C7BmTWzxmU&t=150s
Follow up Vids for Love After Love (for balance haha)
* Here's a very positive review from @shawnbreathesbooks
youtube.com/watch?v=GM5yB0rzY7E&t=365s
* I also really enjoyed this detailed mixed review from @Comfycozyup
youtube.com/watch?v=t1NlwhVpHhA
Think that's everything!
Thanks so much for watching! Stay safe!
Ben x
January 2021 marks my first year anniversary on Booktube!
To celebrate, here's a compilation of me messing about over the past year. Expect silly voices, esoteric film quotes, and a strange dance...
Thank you so much to everyone who's joined me on this bizarre journey... to anyone who has subscribed, liked, commented, recommended, shared, buddy read, or simply watched A BIG BIG THANK YOU!
Hope you enjoy!
Ben xx
(n.b. a handful of clips for some reason have lost frame rate in the editing process, that's just down to my knackered laptop haha)
"You better call Ben with the stupid hair" here.
I wanted to create a Classics TBR for myself for the coming year and see how I do!
Books and authors mentioned:
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
Charles Dickens
Middlemarch, George Eliot
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Elizabeth Gaskell
Thomas Hardy (briefly)
The Tenant of WIldfell Hall, Anne Bronte
Villette, Charlotte Bronte (briefly)
Clarissa, Samuel Richardson
What are some classics books you'd like to get to next year?
Booktubers mentioned:
Leo @ A Little Book Life
youtube.com/channel/UC-FEiOwoPLd1RWQzEvEoyIA
Simon @ SavidgeReads
youtube.com/user/SavidgeReads
Steve @ Steve Donohue
youtube.com/user/saintdonoghue
Thanks for watching!
x
I LOVED reading Jane Eyre for the first time and needed to talk about it!
This is a rambling (kinda chaotic) chat through the plot and CONTAINS SPOILERS. If you have not read Jane Eyre I would encourage you to read it BEFORE you watch this video but just for safety sake I start talking about major spoilers from 09:20
I don't really pre-plan these videos, and as this is more an unfocussed ramble of my own experience/reaction reading the novel, I didn't get to all the key subplots and characters (sorry Blanche!). If you're after a more analytical or in-depth review of Jane Eyre I would highly recommend the following videos:
The_BookChemist youtube.com/watch?v=qm2XgIo77N0
Life by Jo youtube.com/watch?v=2G1pY-uPHFc&t=394s
Books and Things youtube.com/watch?v=WUKKaOqyOOQ
Other than that, hope you enjoy!
Thank you!
So I'm a new fan of Jane Austen! I recently finished reading Jane Austen's finished novels and thought it would be fun to rank and discuss them based on my initial read.
Timestamps!
#6 03:13
#5 06:05
#4 08:53
#3 12:55
#2 14:51
#1 18:57
The books:
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Emma (1815)
Northanger Abbey (1818)
Persuasion (1818)
What are your favourites?
I'm slightly piggy-backing off Jane Austen July which is being hosted by Kate at Books and Things: youtube.com/watch?v=KYi82SaBTjc and Marissa at Blatantly Bookish: youtube.com/watch?v=IJeokFmt_Ns Also, be sure to follow the hashtag #JaneAustenJuly for lots and lots of Jane Austen content from various booktube creators. I'm enjoying it all so far :)
Thanks everybody!
x
Reading in 2019 became a big hobby and in this video I recap and reflect on my experiences of reading classic books (and modern bestsellers) for the first time.
The books I talk about and timestamps:
100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez 02:00
Maurice, E.M. Forster 03:40
Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown 05:20
Persuasion, Jane Austen 07:40
Emma, Jane Austen 08:55
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 10:12
Celestial Bodies, Jokha Alharthi 12:55
Milkman, Anna Burns 15:08
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier 18:45
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte 22:47
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert 27:05
The Color Purple, Alice Walker 28:05
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons 30:58
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe 32:30
Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger 34:35
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy 36:42
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad 39:19
If On A Winter's Night A Traveller, Italo Calvino 41:22
Bright Lights Big City, Jay McInerney 43:10
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid 44:04
Moby Dick, Herman Melville 45:35
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley 49:38
The Overstory, Richard Powers 50:49
The Sea The Sea, Iris Murdoch 53:39
Kafka On The Shore, Haruki Murakami 55:15
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid 56:29
A Man Called Ove, Fredrick Backman 59:22
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen 1:00:15
Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller 1:01:20