Name: How Do You Chew Your Books? @ramblingraconteur1616
Uploaded: 2026-09-25T08:17:00-05:00
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: How Do You Chew Your Books?

How Do You Chew Your Books?

Rambling Raconteur 2026-09-25 | How Do You Chew Your Books?

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Why Do We Value This Work?)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-13 | My thought from reading Lolita. Feel feee to share why you love or loathe this book!

Recommended if you like:
Pale Fire by Nabokov
Speak, Memory by Nabokov
Ada, or Ardor by Nabokov
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Like Death by Guy de Maupassant
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Rabbit, Run and the Rabbit Angstrom novels by John Updike
London Fields by Martin Amis
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Inferno by Dante
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, my discussion:
Stoner by John Williams
Other Men’s Daughters by Richard Stern
The Symposium and Phaedrus by Plato

#booktube
#vladimirnabokov

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin (Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-11 | A discussion with SPOILERS at the end, of Dibdin’s great Holmes pastiche.

0:00 Introduction
8:50 Dibdin’s Take on Holmes
11:43 Recommended if you like
17:16 SPOILERS and the Finale

Recommended if you like:
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures, Memoirs, and Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, particularly “The Cardboard Box”, “The Naval Treaty”, “The Empty Room”, and “The Final Problem”
From Hell by Alan Moore
White Chapell Scarlet Tracings by Iain Sinclair
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
Aurelio Zen mysteries by Michael Dibdin, particularly Cabal and Dead Lagoon
The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry
The Return or Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty by John Gardner
Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye
Dead Girls by Selva Almada, my discussion: youtu.be/5S_CH_ZTdBI?si=kdPiVjNiQjzqJ4Gn
2666 by Roberto Bolaño, my discussion: youtu.be/a8NTjNkpL1w?si=-ySJ0lV5cF5Dr7m9
Nineteen Seventy-Seven by David Peace
Sagittarius by Ray Russell
Death and the Compass by Jorge Luis Borges, my discussion on Borges’ Secret Knowledge: youtu.be/7cWEo3Rv6qs?si=kO7PheIctd1p-i-e

#booktube
#sherlockholmes
#jacktheripper
#victober
#victober2025

Paradise Lost Book XII: Milton’s Anti-Monarchical Finale #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-08 | ...

Paradise Lost Book XIb: Adam & Milton Question Violence #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-07 | ...

Paradise Lost Book XIa: Cain & Abel #johnmilton #booktube #paradiselost

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Paradise Lost Book Xb: Milton’s Elliptic Echoes #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-06 | ...

Paradise Lost Book Xa: Judgment in Hell #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-06 | ...

Paradise Lost Book IXc: Romance & Awakening Sin #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-05 | ...

Paradise Lost Book IXb: the Fall continues #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-05 | ...

Paradise IXa: the Fall Begins #johnmilton #paradiselost #booktube

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Paradise Lost Book VIII: Adam Needs Eve by Milton #johnmilton #booktube #paradiselost #maryshelley

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-04 | ...

Paradise Lost Book VII: Creation! by Milton #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

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Paradise Lost Book VIc: the Son Triumphant by Milton #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-02 | ...

Paradise Lost Book VIb: Artillery enters the war #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-02 | ...

Paradise Lost Book VIa: Homeric Echoes, War in Heaven by Milton #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-02 | ...

Paradise Lost by Milton Book V: Rebellion in Heaven #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-02 | ...

Paradise Lost: Sympathy for the Devil, Satan as Character #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-01 | ...

Paradise Lost Book IV: the Garden, Adam, and Eve by Milton #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

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Paradise Lost Book III: Father & Son by Milton #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

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Paradise Lost Book IIb Journey from Hell by Milton #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

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Paradise Lost Book IIa: the Council in Hell by John Milton #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-01 | ...

Paradise Lost Book I by John Milton #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

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Paradise Lost by John Milton, brief background #booktube #johnmilton #paradiselost

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Paradise Lost by John Milton, a third reread.

Rambling Raconteur 2024-10-01 | ...

The New Roman Empire: a History of Byzantium by Anthony Kaldellis

Rambling Raconteur 2024-09-18 | A discussion with a few readings from Kaldellis’ new history of Byzantium.

Recommended if you like:
A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich
Norwich’s Three Volume history: The Early Centuries, The Apogee, Decline and Fall, my Top 10 Nonfiction Books from Early 2020 at the start of the channel: youtu.be/J5ze1cLl8v0?si=itsKrDP8XxGQle7F
The Secret History by Procopius
Byzantine Histories of Michael Psellus
The Alexiad by Anna Komnena
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
1453 by Roger Cowley
The Glory of the Empire: a History, a Novel by Jean d’Ormesson

#booktube
#byzantium
#byzantine_empire
#romanhistory
#medievalhistory

Reinhardt’s Garden by Mark Haber

Rambling Raconteur 2024-08-19 | A discussion of Haber's debut novel.

Recommended if you like:
Saint Sebastian's Abyss by Mark Haber, my discussion: youtu.be/iTFn9RMVEl0?si=hKFIN7Z-TXa5kGGF
Concrete by Thomas Bernhard, my discussion: youtu.be/FxsfSih95sw?si=MDNUZcpXnlb1Ib9P
Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard, my discussion: youtu.be/WLYTFXn5zS0?si=YeqIbYZPWdV1G_cp
The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
The Melancholy of Resistance by Krasznahorkai Laszlo, my discussion: youtu.be/rO5hygISvB4?si=E4LH8kvwvybWfl_y
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Zama by Antonio di Benedetto
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
Memory of Fire by Eduaro Galeno, my discussion on Genesis: youtu.be/q-9n1_jbfz0?si=CUvkJdA3dDZP3i18
and Memory of Fire: Faces and Masks: youtu.be/n8v-QZG3HNU?si=99gwfDqagF5zkJtf
Stories of Horacio Quiroga, my discussion of "The Decapitated Chicken": youtu.be/-bUhAbEiShs?si=Ev7sxdKkwzR-JioO
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Woman in the Dunes by Abe Kobo
2666 by Roberto Bolano

#booktube
#markhaber
#thomasbernhard
#krasznahorkai

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin 🇹🇼 🐊

Rambling Raconteur 2024-08-12 | A discussion of Miaojin’s postmodern Bildungsroman set at a university in Taipei.

Recommended if you like:
Last Words from Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin, my discussion: youtu.be/cGuJ33PmkGo?si=T9BhoOQxLJezm24i
Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki, my discussion: youtu.be/fJEbbQVyMpo?si=83RFF-ZnwnBTNj1p
No Longer Human by Dazai Osamu, my discussion: youtu.be/b3y9ylhhkPY?si=t98YtTrUZM-5x1ZT
The Ruined Map by Abe Kobo
Stories of Akutagawa Ryunosuke
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Mishima Yukio
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Marquez
Solo Dance by Li Kotomi
The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, my discussion: youtu.be/yo5AnL2mYOk?si=9c4SCoFVD7BRTyty
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, my discussion: youtu.be/21lGqigOfdU?si=DSWWnuaDUy-79fVh
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth, my discussion: youtu.be/OrMifpO_9-E?si=w2p4wDU1GkeA_h49
A Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
Dancing in the Dark by Janet Hobhouse
The Private Life of Plants by Lee Seung-U, my discussion: youtu.be/xQBjiWoKiuU?si=tdiJ_bnFIJCZ0PGh

#booktube
#womenintranslation
#witmonth
#qiumiaojin

July Marginalia (Stories, Essays, Poems, Books)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-08-10 | Works I read in July 2024:

Stories:
A Mirror and Birthday Girl by Murakami Haruki, collected in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman 🇯🇵
The Old System by Saul Bellow
Summer by Joy Williams, collected in Taking Care
A & P by John Updike
A Perfect Day for Bananafish by JD Salinger, collected in Nine Stories

Books:
Yellow-Dog Contract by Ross Thomas
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway

Nonfiction:
Too Much of Life, the Collected Cronicas by Clarice Lispector 🇧🇷
On Interpretation by Aristotle 🇬🇷
What Is Enlightenment? by Immanuel Kant 🇩🇪
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Charisma and Disenchantment, the Vocation Lectures of Max Weber 🇩🇪

Poetry:
Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? by Mahmoud Darwish 🇵🇸 my discussion: youtu.be/NP8N7dG_LEY?si=0ppSjdpuDBUuOAxd
Poetry of Thomas Hardy

Unfinished Book:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

#booktube

Reflections on Roald Dahl’s Children’s Books

Rambling Raconteur 2024-08-08 | After our daughter read most of Dahl’s children’s books this summer, she wanted to make a video!

Please note that we did not use her name during the video. Comments that do use it will be removed.

The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace, Failures of Language (and Excess)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-07-20 | A discussion with readings from Wallace's debut novel.

0:00 Introduction
2:03 Wallace on Language
11:57 Wallace's Excess
15:10 Metaphors Succeed and Fail
18:35 Influences, Recommended if You Like

Recommended if you like:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Girl with Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Nine Stories by JD Salinger
Franny & Zooey by JD Salinger
Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters & Seymour: an Introduction by JD Salinger
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
JR by William Gaddis
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
Omensetter's Luck by William Gass
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges
On Interpretation by Aristotle
Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Modal Logic by Cocciarella and Freund
Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig
Stories of Donald Barthelme
The Names by Don DeLillo
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami Haruki, my discussion: youtu.be/Q8toUY79DrY?si=1j9y09Ub-Tbb14qr
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
Other Men's Daughters by Richard Stern
The Ginger Man by JP Donleavy

#booktube
#davidfosterwallace

The Last Time The NY Times Told Me What Books to Read!

Rambling Raconteur 2024-07-14 | Memories of how the 2006 “What is the best work of American fiction in the past 25 years?” Prompt from the New York Times dominated my reading for two years.

The Article by AO Scott: nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/review/scott-essay.html

0:00 Introduction
7:43 The Top 5
14:22 The Long List
19:26 Contemporary Literature
21:24 1965-1980

Books mentioned:
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Rabbit Angstrom by John Updike
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
McCarthy’s Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain
Libra by DeLillo, my discussion: youtu.be/4BxUwzQ4IVU?si=gfAVnFbe0WHIHUBW
White Noise by DeLillo
The Counterlife, Sabbath’s Theater, The Plot Against America, and Operation Shylock by Roth
Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver
Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Mating by Norman Rush
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Ice-Shirt by William T. Vollmann
The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Ragtime by EL Doctorow
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, my discussion: youtu.be/iM5RB3WrImU?si=uns0pCg96LaD5piT
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
JR by William Gaddis

#booktube
#nytimes
#tonimorrison
#cormacmccarthy
#dondelillo
#johnupdike
#philiproth

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (Impressionism & Woolf’s Artistic Statement)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-07-01 | A series of impressions I focused on while rereading Woolf’s marvelous novel.

0:00 Introduction
2:43 Stream of Consciousness in Part 1
7:36 Ravages of Nature in Part 2
10:30 Woolf the Artist in Part 3
14:34 Recommended if you like

Recommended if you like:
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, my discussion: youtu.be/m4XHOXWROik?si=7rWiNhL_U0pRfcDz
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
Essays and Letters of Virginia Woolf
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Dubliners by James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, my discussion: youtu.be/dMc5igVIx-M?si=n-_K9arATz-otl04
Party-Going by Henry Green
Stories of Katherine Mansfield
Loving by Henry Green, my discussion: youtu.be/LjqjmrbZy0U?si=wjpAM1mshABS0hKG
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country by William Gass
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flowers by Marcel Proust
Love by Toni Morrison, my discussion: youtu.be/fELnk2EBxpI?si=cWX8qWI-AB4cTVfO
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Howard’s End by EM Forster
The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Poems of John Keats
Poems of Percy Shelley
Essays of Thomas Carlyle

#booktube
#virginiawoolf
#modernism
#impressionism
#jamesjoyce
#williamfaulkner

Library Memories: My First Disappointing Read (Age 8)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-06-29 | Our older daughter has been reading quite a few books this summer, and she recently read a book that is the first novel I can recall being genuinely disappointed in.

Let me know you’re interested in more memories from my library.

Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki 🇯🇵

Rambling Raconteur 2024-06-26 | A discussion of the strengths in Murakami’s first “realistic” novel.

0:00 Introduction
7:30 Grounded Settings
12:20 Norwegian Wood in Murakami’s Oeuvre
15:10 Relationships
20:19 Recommended if you like

Recommended if you like:
A Wild Sheep Chase by Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami, my discussion: youtu.be/Q8toUY79DrY?si=LgOsNAQCJwYcYtJn
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami, my discussion: youtu.be/Nb26nV_ysOk?si=XlJSpnUqtW_meEfr
After Dark by Murakami, my discussion: youtu.be/5s-tv5xwRQQ?si=EmVMW4TEp_oJVjl6
Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami
“Firefly” collected in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
No Longer Human by Dazai Osamu, my discussion: youtu.be/b3y9ylhhkPY?si=2KW89MPizubDXAXX
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
From Rockaway by Jill Eisenstadt
Beauty and Sadness by Kawabata Yasunari
People of the City by Cyprian Ekwensi, my discussion: youtu.be/RLnkPmjqbjk?si=1yvqSW4Z9daDsYOW
Scandal by Endo Shusaku
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust, my discussion: youtu.be/GJXXjgsJtZ0?si=oTWUMThcLuh04FTJ

#booktube
#japaneseliterature
#murakami
#murakamiharuki
#harukimurakami

Patrimony by Philip Roth

Rambling Raconteur 2024-06-18 | A discussion of Roth’s memoir of his father’s final months.

0:00 Introduction
2:44 First Readings
6:28 At His Mother’s Grave
13:29 Patrimony in Roth’s Oeuvre
16:43 Recommended if you like

Recommended if you like:
Roth’s Zuckerman Novels, particularly The Ghost Writer
American Pastoral by Roth
The Plot Against America by Roth
Goodbye, Columbus by Roth, my discussion: youtu.be/OrMifpO_9-E?si=oWD-DqDM9UmJsWEr
A Dreambook for our Time by Tadeusz Konwicki
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski
A Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
If This Is a Man by Primo Levi
Wittgenstein’s Nephew by Thomas Bernhard
My Struggle Book One by Karl Ove Knausgaard
“Death of Monseigneur” from Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon
The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust
Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

#booktube
#philiproth

Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert

Rambling Raconteur 2024-06-17 | A few spots from our hiking in the Petrified Forest and along the Painted Desert. These are the ancestral lands of Hopi, Navajo, and Ancestral Pueblo First Nations.

Saint Sebastian’s Abyss by Mark Haber (Bernhardesque Satire)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-06-10 | A discussion of Haber’s wonderful novel.

Recommended if you like:
Reinhardt’s Garden by Mark Haber
Old Masters by Thomas Bernhard
The Loser by Thomas Bernhard, my discussion: youtu.be/O9MfPD0G6zo?si=RKueQveMlX093Nqp
Herman & The Last Wolf by Krasznahorkai László
The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch
Ava by Carole Maso
Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett
The Aspern Papers by Henry James
Possession by AS Byatt
2666 by Roberto Bolaño, my discussion: youtu.be/a8NTjNkpL1w?si=e_YLYFuP5gUfL9zh
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
The Burnt Orange Heresy by Charles Willeford
Hadrian the Seventh by Baron Corvo (Frederick Rolfe)
The Unknown Masterpiece by Honoré de Balzac
Alien Hearts by Guy de Maupassant
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Mishima Yukio
Poetry of Francois Villon

#booktube
#markhaber
#thomasbernhard
#laszlokrasznahorkai
#williamgaddis

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany (Space Opera & Syntax)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-06-08 | A discussion of Delaney’s early novel.

Recommended if you like:
The Ballad of Beta-2 by Delany, my discussion: youtu.be/CAAUI8546RY?si=_qruKO8rPQx8SApw
Nova by Delany
Dhalgren by Delany
Triton by Delany
Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison (includes Delany’s “Aye and Gomorrah”)
Joseph and his Brothers by Thomas Mann, my discussion: youtu.be/AZ9JciETbm0?si=VhwL_yhfpc9IYT9r
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, my discussion: youtu.be/AztAFas-R34?si=xs3N2kLtfOXOStqi
Molloy by Samuel Beckett, my discussion: youtu.be/TDjWt9EGXxM?si=Gw8sSYHaSxejsVLA
Invisible Cities and Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, my discussion: youtu.be/kMc8KGIK4Nw?si=Aa-eDe4P7ttRz9aZ
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami Haruki, my discussion: youtu.be/Q8toUY79DrY?si=RCJDAEnNSj2ax7o1
Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Rocannon’s World by Ursula K. Le Guin, my discussion: youtu.be/pobUGne5vuY?si=VpuIilw53CTI_pbR
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, my discussion: youtu.be/sZ42jfZrd2E?si=oYOCfIL_HMU93RbY
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny

#booktube
#sciencefiction
#samuelrdelany
#newwave

Confessions of St. Augustine of Hippo (Memory, Time, and Perception)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-05-31 | A discussion of Augustine of Hippo’s crucial work, with a particular emphasis on his writings regarding memory and time.

0:00 Introduction
4:00 Confessions as Autobiography
9:31 Memory
16:25 Time
20:04 Conclusions
23:45 Recommended if you like

Recommended if you like:
City of God by St. Augustine
Political Writings of St. Augustine
An Augustine Synthesis
Writings of Paul
The Psalms
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
Dialogues of Plato, my Where to Start with Plato: youtu.be/uDrqlQhb_aU?si=NwRU8wh0VQC9GMRX
Sayings of the Desert Fathers
The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Ulysses by James Joyce
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, my discussion: youtu.be/AztAFas-R34?si=KfNWZbdHxASVfW5Y
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust, my discussion: youtu.be/GJXXjgsJtZ0?si=DWIP4opuiNZR4Lm9
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
A Fan’s Notes by Frederick Exley
My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgard
Septology by Jon Fosse, my discussion: youtu.be/SMDUDFiCpJ4?si=a8xZJtbLTxlmCilN
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
Sermons and Poems of John Donne

#booktube
#staugustine
#augustineofhippo
#philosophy

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (an Epitaph for the Jazz Age)

Rambling Raconteur 2024-05-29 | A discussion of Fitzgerald’s final complete novel.

Recommended if you like:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway
Other Men’s Daughters by Richard Stern
Mating by Norman Rush
Antony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

#booktube
#fscottfitzgerald
#jazzage

25 More Contenders for the “Great American Novel”

Rambling Raconteur 2024-03-28 | 25 books I recommend as a great novel from the US organized chronologically within themes.

0:00 Introduction
1:04 Redemption
6:12 Conspiracy/Individualism
11:29 Legacy
19:16 Greed
25:01 Race
30:31 Subverting the Dream

Brian @BookishTexan and his list: youtu.be/YtVwCuO3mkI?si=Jtxnizri5sigzWSf
Inspired by Greg’s video @SupposedlyFun : youtu.be/LMSkNViSOFE?si=52BO1r2Ar11vOI-w

Redemption:
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937) my discussion: youtu.be/tfR6c85EwHk?si=c-wRiy0WE9Vs_LQ6
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (1952)
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977) my discussion: youtu.be/iM5RB3WrImU?si=Eb7fciwCzOQVgcZT

Conspiracy/Individualism:
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)
Libra by Don DeLillo (1988) my discussion: youtu.be/4BxUwzQ4IVU?si=fguqYeyhtWm96MlN
Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson (1992)

Legacy:
Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott (1868-69)
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936)
American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (2008)

Greed:
McTeague by Frank Norris (1899)
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (1905)
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)
JR by William Gaddis (1975)

Race:
Cane by Jean Toomer (1923) my discussion: youtu.be/WacfkDJUaLw?si=XwAeJxzH75kU80zd
Kindred by Octavia Butler (1979) my discussion: youtu.be/jDy3F-taoSM?si=1ZlslnPjzblYoS92
Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison (1999) my discussion: youtu.be/9L0vaSHedu8?si=a1CumwYE5dubTPdR
The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012)

Subverting the American Dream:
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (1947)
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (1960)
Ragtime by EL Doctorow (1975)
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. LeGuin (1988)
The Dying Grass by William T. Vollmann (2015)

#booktube

Master & Commander by Patrick O’Brian

Rambling Raconteur 2024-03-02 | My first foray into O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels, and the aspects I enjoyed most.

Recommended if you like:
Post Captain by Patrick O’Brian
Sharpe’s Rifles by Bernard Cornwell
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser

Channels I’ve seen discuss the Aubrey-Maturin novels:
Brian @BookishTexan
Mark @BookTimewithElvis
Mark @richardsonreads573

#booktube
#patrickobrian

The Blue Octavo Notebooks by Franz Kafka 🇨🇿 Aphorisms, Parables, Microfiction, and Fragments

Rambling Raconteur 2024-02-03 | A discussion with numerous readings from Kafka’s Blue Octavo Notebooks, composed between 1917-1919.

0:00 Introduction
6:01 Kafka on Paradise
11:34 Contrast to the Diaries & Letters
12:49 Kafka on Life & Death
16:03 Recommended if you like

Recommended if you like:
Diaries of Franz Kafka
Stories of Kafka, my discussion on The Metamorphosis: youtu.be/21lGqigOfdU?si=NW0-wVojb3CJHoBJ
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Pensees by Blaise Pascal
Too Much of Life by Clarice Lispector
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
The Book of my Life by Girolamo Cardano
The Dhammapada
The Analects of Confucius
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible
Sayings of the Desert Fathers
The Writings of Elias Canetti
Stories of Jorge Luis Borges, my discussion on his exploration of Gnosticism: youtu.be/7cWEo3Rv6qs?si=WUxrggOQTlU9ErkS
Zibaldone by Giacomo Leopardi
The Tragedy of Man by Madách Imre

#booktube
#kafka
#franzkafka
#philosophy

Larva ♾️ Midsummer Night’s Babel by Julián Ríos 🇪🇸 Joyce’s Successor: Coherent Excess and Chaos

Rambling Raconteur 2024-01-14 | A discussion of the highly unconventional novel by Ríos, translated by Richard Alan Francis, Suzanne Jill Levine, and the author.

0:00 Introduction
2:11 Reading Larva
9:39 Literary References
16:42 Recommended if you like

Recommended if you like:
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, my discussion: youtu.be/AztAFas-R34?si=fmMJfhyZaQH2OzYH
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Mulligan Stew by Gilbert Sorrentino
Writings of Alexander Theroux
Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes
Parallel Stories by Nádas Péter
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
Don Juan by Lord Byron
The Unnameable by Samuel Beckett
JR by William Gaddis
Abel and Cain by Gregor von Rezzori
Jerusalem by Alan Moore
Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Faust, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 by Goethe
Poetry of Arthur Rimbaud
Poetry of Charles Baudelaire
The Tales of 1001 Nights
Writings of Jonathan Swift
Gargantua & Pantagruel by Rabelais
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Poetry of Fernando Pessoa
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
Plays of Aristophanes
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Don Juan by Molière
Steps by Jerzy Kosinski
Sexus, Plexus, Nexus by Henry Miller
Stories of Jorge Luis Borges
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess

#booktube
#experimentalfiction
#julianrios

Favorite Fiction Reading in 2023!

Rambling Raconteur 2024-01-06 | My favorite novels that I read in 2023:

Satantango by Krasznahorkai Lászlo 🇭🇺 my discussion: youtu.be/Ars3CtOkRs4?si=OPso5Jzm-Qfz30uo
Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo 🇬🇭 my discussion: youtu.be/af2QGQHv850?si=N8g1vqqtsmgJGFgF
A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kiš 🇷🇸 my discussion: youtu.be/DD5-xnkdmC0?si=q_mE8p2lYYZKD3qT
But Crime Does Punish by Ján Johanides 🇸🇰 my discussion: youtu.be/RCZzDwR8USs?si=KvYqhnVPk8QOJ_FA
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 🇺🇸 my discussion: youtu.be/8a9Hg6gdB5A?si=a862F8RmQRuPct-O
The Secret History by Donna Tartt 🇺🇸 my discussion: youtu.be/65TfxA-SHRQ?si=1fZAMxAHdZ4Q63CJ
Feebleminded by Ariana Harwicz 🇦🇷 my discussion: youtu.be/nrOZoopyhS4?si=wLDgZIUlOQfyYMD9
The Loser by Thomas Bernhard 🇦🇹 my discussion: youtu.be/O9MfPD0G6zo?si=GJeDc6Fhr19cfzJU
Layli and Majnun by Nizami Ganjavi 🇮🇷 my discussion: youtu.be/bPOAP_fSAs8?si=QiAuWJRy32xT8iDD
Memory of Fire: Faces and Masks by Eduardo Galeano 🇺🇾 my discussion: youtu.be/n8v-QZG3HNU?si=pDIIxs3K-stNNRnh
Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison 🇺🇸 my discussion: youtu.be/9L0vaSHedu8?si=lmBqvyTdEJwlgVmy
Água Viva by Clarice Lispector 🇧🇷 my discussion: youtu.be/5v6fB43ZlSA?si=zfOko0TDXmbHojLZ
Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia 🇧🇷 my discussion: youtu.be/aYvA9CEzP0k?si=BXUTpuFMF1DsUwI2

Honorable Mentions:
Mexico Set by Len Deighton 🇬🇧 my discussion: youtu.be/wGCJjEZfbvc?si=Hf9Pn_IoBCu6Rlem
Sunflower by Krúdy Gyula 🇭🇺 my discussion: youtu.be/v3HGK1lhzSI?si=k-630e0wT8qMd9pB

Unfinished Novels:
Emperor of the Sorcerers by Budhasvamin 🇮🇳
Outlaws of the Marsh by Shi Nai’an 🇨🇳

#booktube
#favoritenovels
#favoritebooks

The Tale of Aypi by Ak Welsapar 🇹🇲

Rambling Raconteur 2023-12-27 | A discussion of Welsapar’s novel examining the collision between modern and traditional culture in a Turkmen fishing village and the ghost of a woman from the past.

Recommended if you like:
The Chosen Place, the Timeless People by Paule Marshall
Maru by Bessie Head, my discussion: youtu.be/5IhYcGT8c3g?si=B429_2V5KbwUf6vd
Stories of Nikolai Gogol
Stories of Nikolai Leskov
Vis & Ramin by Fakhraddin Gorgani, my discussion: youtu.be/hN6jMM29J9k?si=V2Re8zZZzuUeFUGD

#booktube
#akwlesapar
#turkmenliterature
#asianliterature

My Desert Cave of Books Lost to Time

Rambling Raconteur 2023-12-24 | A discussion of texts that once existed but have been lost that I would love to see found. Please share your own lists in the comments or as a response video!

0:00 Introduction
2:46 Greek and Roman Texts
8:11 Burnt Books
14:50 My Top Two!

Books mentioned:
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Poetics by Aristotle
Dead Sea Scrolls
Lyric Poetry of Sappho, Anacreon, and Alcaeus
Niobe by Sophocles
Histories of Livy
Suspiria de Profundis by Thomas de Quincey, my discussion: youtu.be/vYUqgfVRvXA?si=dGcO-d3_PZnf3QwR
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison, my discussion: youtu.be/9L0vaSHedu8?si=dloKqslAwzNDgXQG
Lord 8 Deer Jaguar Claw
Aztec and Mayan Codices
Prometheans Ancient and Modern by Burton Rascoe
The Satyricon by Petronius
Brihatkathā by Gunadhya aka the Great Narrative
Emperor of the Sorcerers by Budhasvamin aka Brihatkathāślokasamgraha
Kathāsaritsāgara by Somadeva aka The Ocean of the Rivers of Story
Vasudevahindi by Sangharasa

#booktube

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (Dark Academia and Greek Philosophy)

Rambling Raconteur 2023-12-21 | A discussion of the elements in The Secret History, focusing on elements in Greek philosophy and tragedy and the sense of finding oneself as a young adult.

0:00 Introduction
5:32 Elements of Greek Thought
14:40 Socrates & Alcibiades
19:37 Recommended if you like

My Take on the Dark Academia Tag: youtu.be/lFgeCLTmIPY?si=obZOxGkF0ZcC3Lmy

Recommended if you like:
The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
The Bacchae by Euripides
Dialogues of Plato, particularly Alcibiades I, Phaedo, my video on Where to Start with Plato: youtu.be/uDrqlQhb_aU?si=jUSyhpiwXGDtd61u
Apologia by Plato, my discussion: youtu.be/HKWzKRP-yFg?si=aYPHXNo-RLMaIiHR
Crito by Plato, my discussion: youtu.be/sZVm46zJQlg?si=MbdpTkVBnEH1v--P
The Bacchae by Euripides
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, my discussion: youtu.be/8a9Hg6gdB5A?si=aOK0QZRMjgVMX15I
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Tragedies of Seneca
The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil by John Webster
The Lover’s Melancholy, The Broken Heart, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Wh0re by John Ford
The Atheist’s Tragedy by Cyril Tourneur
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
The Player by Michael Tolkin
The Big Chill, directed by Lawrence Kasdan

#booktube
#darkacademia
#donnatartt

Śatakatraya by Bhartrihari 🇮🇳 (Sanskrit Poetry on Wisdom & Love)

Rambling Raconteur 2023-12-19 | A discussion with numerous readings from Bhartrihari’s Hundred Verses, translated by Greg Bailey in the Clay Sanskrit Library.

0:00 Introduction
2:43 Poems on Politics
7:19 Poems on Passion
10:54 Poems on Disenchantment
17:00 Recommended if you like

Recommended if you like:
The Hermit and Love-Thief by Bhartrihari and Bílhana, translated by Barbara Stoler Miller
Speaking of Śiva
Says Tuka by Tukaram
I, Lalla, the Poems of Lal Dêd, my discussion: youtu.be/brkDlkNC2u4?si=A-qGSXoRJdDCyOOc
The Upanishads, my discussion: youtu.be/D0B3jXLvO6Q?si=wLjklKl94WFWWzrr
The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam
Poems of Hafiz
Poems of the Late T’ang, my discussion: youtu.be/-K5wz-kd4IQ?si=MUsgi41vYkzvNjLb
Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible

#booktube
#poetrytube
#bhartrihari
#sanskritliterature
#indianliterature

Erasure by Percival Everett (adapted as American Fiction)

Rambling Raconteur 2023-12-14 | A discussion of Everett’s brilliant satire.

Recommended if you like:
The Trees by Percival Everett
I Am not Sindey Poitier by Percival Everett
Native Son by Richard Wright, my discussion: youtu.be/S8h1pqvRXm4?si=fsj1vDcxFfReYkJ3
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison, my discussion: youtu.be/9L0vaSHedu8?si=nuKd2n8KOmAcN0dR
Zuckerman Bound by Philip Roth
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, my discussion: youtu.be/tfR6c85EwHk?si=aT0wK4MJ2Jr8ngmU
Cane by Jean Toomer, my discussion: youtu.be/WacfkDJUaLw?si=BiDHW8g1VP5m-fAb
Black No More by George Schuyler
Gulliver’s Travels and A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

#booktube
#percivaleverett