Ten Hard Books You Don't Have To Read (Unless You Want To)

I am hereby absolved. Thank you, pastor Bookish!

This is a great video. I enjoy reading "classics" and "difficult" books sometimes, but I completely agree that no one should be reading a book simply because they think they "have to" in order to be "well read" or a "serious reader". Reading is a hobby. There are so many books, of all kinds - and everyone can and should find what they enjoy. I fully believe the reason why more adults don't read is because they were forced to read books they didn't like in grade school and that can really sour a person on it.

Great points! I have deffinitly read a few books that i wasnt excited for because they were "essential reading" and in most cases i did not enjoy them, i believe had i waited for myself go be ready to read them and ezcited to read them my opinion may of been quite different!

Great video, great encouragement! I had to read The Sound and the Fury for class when I was a “baby” English Lit Major. Oh boy was that an experience. I do remember getting something out of it due to class discussion, but I really was not ready for that level of lit. I truly would like to read it again with a lot more experience. Somewhat out of curiosity and somewhat out of a desire to actually read it. Infinite Jest? That sat on my shelf, unread, for years and so it went to another home. Who knows - maybe I’ll get a bee in my bonnet and read it someday 🤷🏼‍♀️

I agree. Very nicely done. .

I enjoyed this video, thank you! As someone who just finished reading Joyce's Ulysses for the fourth time about three weeks ago (I've returned to it every few years for a deeper appreciation of it), and as someone who can honestly say that Ulysses is among my favorite books... even with all of that I'd agree with you that the book is not something anyone should feel they have to read. (Unless they want to!)

Great list and wise advice! In the long run though I think that books I have had to spend more time on have become some of my most memorable. There are also ways of easing the effort - my read of Ulysses was made possible by the audio book narrated by Jim Norton, Foucault’s pendulum was helped by Jason and Faulkner in August has seen me through some of his books. Paradise is my next Morrison and I want to read it as I want to read all of her novels so fingers crossed!

Worthy titles for the list! As with healthy eating and exercise, I do think there's much to be gained from reading (or just attempting to read) hard books, even if we don't want to do it. However, I do recommend finding a coach, bringing a buddy, and taking baby steps. I couldn't make it through the first chapter of TSoundatFury; then I checked out the Cliffs Notes and it suddenly clicked (still didn't finish it). I'm stalled at the 60% mark with Beloved and looking forward to finding out what others got from it. But I'm also reading a bunch of other books that I am enjoying and mining lots from. Fortunately, there's lots of good books out there; no need to get hung up on a handful (even if I want to).

Obviously I agree with your essential premise that nobody has to read anything and reading certain things doesn't make you a superior reader. I have never been tempted to read Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow. Reading the first third of the Proust sequence was enough to give me the flavour and I may go back to the rest. But all the others on your list I have read. Blood Meridian wasn't hard, just violent. And I think Foucault's Pendulum didn't justify the effort involved. But all the others paid me back in spades for any hard work involved. So I do think there is nothing wrong with encouraging people to push themselves sometimes to read things that are one step beyond their usual fare to see how they find it.

Great video, Brian. What I’ve read: Ulysses, The Sound and the Fury, Proust (the whole thing 😮), 2666, Cloud Atlas. DNF: Infinite Jest, Blood Meridian, Foucault’s Pendulum. I’ve tried other Pynchon and DNF’d him every time. I was assigned Blood Meridian in a class. I got to about 60% and just could not face another page. I wanted to read those that I’ve read and decided the others weren’t books for me. There are many classics and “important” books that I have no intention of ever reading and I am totally okay with that. Don Quixote and Moby Dick come immediately to mind. I’ve tried them both and it’s just never going to happen.

The Sound and the Fury is on my all time favorites list. I need to reread it one of these days. I’d still like to try Paradise and Cloud Atlas from this list.

Ive read one of these (Cloud Atlas) and have three more on my list - Infinite Jest, 2666, and In Search of Lost Time. I definitely heard about all of them first as "hard books everyone needs to read" but these have filtered through to being books that actually really interest me, so theyre some of the ones that stayed on my list. At this point Ive pretty much given up on the idea of ever reading Charles Dickens for example (unless I have to for college), and honestly its a nice feeling. Very good video!

Great conversation. Lots of variables, of course. I do feel compelled as a reader to tackle the toughies, but I completely agree not everyone should bother, especially if you're miserable doing so. I will go through the experience of these long journeys, and if I feel I must revisit the journey, I will. It took me three readings of Paradise, but this one was personal to me and I was going to travel the path until I felt like I'd absorbed the experience. Others...once was enough.

I'm glad you included Proust here. I read Ulysses (love it) and Faulkner (love it), and read ALL of In Search of, but did not love it. I'll also admit I DNF'd Beloved, (gasp) and will never go back, so that's on my list. I have a long list of books I've read that everyone seems to love, but which I don't love (I already know you and I share a disdain for Wuthering Heights). If you haven't already done this, I'd love to see you do a video about books you feel you're SUPPOSED to like, but didn't.

Blood Meridian is my favorite novel. I love all of Cormac McCarthy’s books, but Blood Meridian is a masterpiece.

Your description of some of these books makes me want to try them. I only got through Ulysses because of audiobook and several documentaries about Ulysses. I studied Dubliners for A level English literature in 1980. I find Joyce fascinating.

I felt Infinite Jest was easier for me to read than The Sound and the Fury. Faulkner’s work through a wrench in my gears and was very hard to understand and get through. I love this video and you got yourself a new subscriber!

Thanks for this video. I have read a few books on the list: 'Ulysses', 'In Search of Lost Time', 'The Sound and the Fury', 'Blood Meridian'. I had plenty of motivation to read 'Sound and the Fury', mainly a course in Wm. Faulkner I took in college. The lectures and criticism made it more lucid to me and made me curious to read it about three more times over the past 40 years or so, to the point where I think I got most of what Faulkner was saying. 'Ulysses' I have read once, with the aid of some literary criticism that elaborated on the parallels with Homer's 'Odyssey'. Some of it I enjoyed, much of it I just coasted along in the rhythm of the prose and didn't worry about what I didn't get. I've thought of re-reading it but probably never will. I read the seven volumes of 'In Search of Lost Time' over a five-month period and loved a lot of it. This is a work that I keep telling myself that I want to re-read sometime. Proust's philosophical observations are fascinating. He really takes a microscopic look at perception. 'Blood Meridian' was not that difficult to read stylistically and perhaps I blocked out much of the violence because it didn't shock me that much. I will re-read it sometime. McCarthy's 'Suttree' is far more of a challenging read. It's longer and has denser prose and seems more thematically complex. I also want to re-read this one sometime. I read Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' about 30 years ago and hope to re-read it sometime. It's powerful but a bit on the obscure side. I've read her first three novels, 'The Bluest Eye', 'Sula', and 'Song of Solomon', all of which are a little easier to read than 'Beloved'. What you say about 'Paradise' surprises me because I don't consider her to be a particularly difficult writer to read. I'll keep that in mind whenever I get to that book in the chronology. The other books on your list I've already decided are not worth the effort.

Great recommendations for me, thanks!

Good list! I've read 3 and DNF'd 3. Like you, I adored The Sound and the Fury.