Thanks for watching! Ben doomantidote@gmail.comSAPPHO | an ancient Lesbian lyric poetBen Fensome2023-09-27 | Hello!
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/benfensomeHESIOD | theogony & works and daysBen Fensome2023-09-15 | Hello!
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/benfensomeHOMER | the iliad & the odysseyBen Fensome2023-09-10 | Hiya
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/benfensomeThe Epic of Gilgamesh | the great flood, the search for immortality, and the start of literatureBen Fensome2023-07-05 | Hey everyone!
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/benfensomeMy favourite books of all time!Ben Fensome2023-04-15 | Hiya
Ben here, about time I did this.... here are my top 10 favourite novels!
Thanks for watching! https://linktr.ee/benfensomeBEST BOOKS I READ IN 2022Ben Fensome2023-01-01 | Hello!
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 ProustIn Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust | a year long reading vlogBen Fensome2022-12-28 | This year I read all of In Search of Lost Time by 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
Thank you for watching! Ben email: doomantidote@gmail.com https://linktr.ee/benfensome
#insearchoflosttime #proust #booktube #readingvlog #classicbooks10 Classic Book Recommendations! | 3000 years down to 10 books? Easy!Ben Fensome2022-12-17 | Hello!
Ben here. Today we're condensing around 3000 years worth of classic western literature down to 10 books haha
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!MY PENGUIN CLASSICS COLLECTION | a black spine stock take!Ben Fensome2022-04-18 | Hello!
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 xWAR & PEACE by LEO TOLSTOY | a book discussionBen Fensome2022-01-18 | Hello!
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!
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!
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 LekyLets Revisit: HIS DARK MATERIALS! [CC]Ben Fensome2021-05-16 | Hello!
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
Ben xAPRIL 2021 READING WRAP UP | its all about love and death innitBen Fensome2021-05-01 | Hello!
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?
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 xMARCH 2021 READING WRAP UP | Middlemarch! Vanishing Half! Exciting Times! Piranesi!Ben Fensome2021-04-05 | Hello!
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
Ben xONE YEAR ON BOOKTUBE! | best (out of context) bits!Ben Fensome2021-01-16 | Hello!
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)CLASSICS I WANT TO READ IN 2021 | Classics TBR!Ben Fensome2020-11-22 | Hello!
"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?
xJANE EYRE | We need to talk about it! (spoilers)Ben Fensome2020-08-22 | Hello, Ben here! :)
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:
Thank you!a Jane Austen noob ranks her novelsBen Fensome2020-07-10 | Hello! Ben here.
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.
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!
xMY YEAR OF READING! | Catching Up On Classic NovelsBen Fensome2020-01-26 | Hello! Ben here.
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 1:01:20Pride & Prejudice, Lady Catherine De BourghBen Fensome2012-05-06 | ...