FAVORITE Books BEFORE Booktube 👀📚❤️
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- čas přidán 24. 05. 2024
- Today I want to share with you some of my favorite books BEFORE I joined Booktube...all in a quest to find THE favorite. If that's even possible. Do you think it is possible to choose ONE favorite book? Or are you more comfortable having 50, 100, 200 favorite books? Also, are you stingy with your 5-star ratings? I used to be before Booktube, but not any more! Let me know in the comments!
Happy reading,
Susan
Channels Mentioned:
Olive @abookolive
Books discussed include:
Olive Kitteridge - amzn.to/3yBmQrR
The Secret Life of Bees - amzn.to/3UZpfnA
The Joy Luck Club - amzn.to/44TbkUR
East of Eden - amzn.to/3UYPw5q
Angle of Repose - amzn.to/3UTWed3
To Kill a Mockingbird - amzn.to/3KlXwII
The Scarlet Letter - amzn.to/3Ke80dg
The Great Gatsby - amzn.to/3UZEVai
The Age of Innocence - amzn.to/4azorM3
Persuasion - amzn.to/3KnkD5H
Pride and Prejudice - amzn.to/4bPksfi
The Bully Pulpit - amzn.to/4bo2twJ
John Adams - amzn.to/3R4H7fF
Founding Brothers - amzn.to/3wTuwVN
Team of Rivals - amzn.to/3QZIXOQ
Alexander Hamilton - amzn.to/3VcWeGr
Affiliate links above. Should you use them, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!!
Before Goodreads I never thought about rating books. I either liked a book or I didn’t. I am not stingy with giving 5 stars but sometimes it’s difficult because I always compare it to the last 5 star books that I read. I loved Olive Kitteridge too. I have so many books that I want to reread because I loved them so much but I have way too many unread books. Great selection of books. ❤📚
The pull between our books unread and favorites we’d like to re-read…it’s tough! 😁
and I don’t think I thought about rating books till Goodreads either. Hmmmm. 🤔
Happy Sunday! And thank you for watching and sharing!! ⭐️☀️🌸
Oh Susan -we are definitely book sisters! I’ve read and loved all these books. Although I’ve been stingy with 5 stars, but could give a majority of these 5 stars. I just read Angle of Repose a few months ago and cannot get enough of Wallace Stegner.
I love to hear we’re book sisters!!! And that you enjoyed Angle of Repose!! Happy Sunday!
I loved it too.
@@katherinebryan9921 love to hear that!
I grew up and lived in Lexinton, Massachusetts for many yrs. I am so thankful for that. The town of course is STEEPED in history.I could walk to the Battle Green from my house.I have The American Revolutionary War in my viens. I would walk to the Hancock-Clarke House, Buckman's Tavern, Munroe Tavern. Great memories of the Reenactment, the Patriots Day Parades (children's in the morn and the BIG one in the afternoon, started at 1p.m. Love the book John Adams by David McCullough (great author) loved the John Adams mini series. Lincoln is my favorite Pres. and I have many bks. about him. Lots on the Amer. Revol. War. I went to h.s. in Concord! Have been in Alcott's House so many times I could give the tour! Even after moving out of New England, when I went back to visit always went to her house and would do my journaling at the Concord River, some feet from the Bridge.Alcott is my favorite author and Little Women my ALL TIME favorite book. I collect copies of it and read it every 2 yrs. or so. Now I live in crummy s.e. Mi. NOT my idea to move here. Have always regretted leaving but had no choice. I remember The Concord Inn, Sally Ann's Bake Shop, Concord Academy and so many other spots. Nice to meet you!
Dream job: being a tour guide at an author’s home! Love Orchard House!! I’m jealous you got to grow up there! And I too miss it terribly. I think I have the husband’s agreement that we’ll go to visit this fall. (We got married at Walden Pond.)
Eileen, sorry to hear you're not as happy in Michigan as you were in Lexington. FWIW, I enjoyed reading all of your memories of your "home town." All that history can really only be found in states on the East coast. If you are able, please plan a trip back there.
First of all, I think you have inspired me to start a Book Tube Channel! Oh my days, at the risk of being a weird stalker, I SO resonate with so many of your favorite reads. My "before book tube" which in my case would be "before Goodreads or instagram" books are almost exactly the same as yours....The Red Tent, Secret Life of Bees, Olive, Kite Runner, etc.
I have yet to meet someone who can go between classics and modern lit like me ( and you!). It makes me heart happy to have found someone like me!!
Anyone who can go between David Copperfield and a The Good Sister is my kind of people. And you have inspired me to read War and Peace. My favorite read of 2022 was Anna Karenina....if you haven't read it yet...I HIGHLY recommend.
Too many similarities across too many videos to name....Tom Lake narrated by Meryl, oh my glory! Sea of Tranquility. Great Gatsby. I could go on forever.....
Thank you for making me feel SEEN! :)
Thank YOU for making me feel seen! :) And, yes, definitely start a Booktube channel!!! -- and let me know when you do!! :) Love to hear we have such similar taste in books!
Loved this video, Susan!
Thanks for sharing !
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you for watching!!! 🤗🌸🩵
congratulations on 2000 subscribers. Best wishes with what you choose to read and to your channel. Happy reading.
Thank you so much! Happy reading!!
Angle of Repose was such a great read! It’s bittersweet that it was your Mom’s last read.
Bittersweet puts it perfectly. Thank you!
Years ago, when I was checking out The Secret Life of Bees, the librarian said that I should listen to the audiobook. I did and she was so right! One of my favorites also.
That’s wonderful to hear! 🐝🐝🐝
Very intrigued by the John Adams book now! Thanks for sharing 🥰
It’s a great biography!!
I love The Great Gatsby, as you know! I always said The Catcher in the Rye was my favourite book before being on Goodreads so maybe time for a reread to see if it stands up. Pride and Prejudice - definitely. Other favourites are The Lord of the Rings, Rebecca, A Christmas Carol, Lord of the Flies, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Alice in Wonderland, Stoner, Atonement, the Book Thief, the Crimson Petal and the White and The Time Traveler's Wife to name a few! Olive Kitteridge and the Secret History are on my bookshelf to read. Thanks for your non-fiction recommendations. Big hugs about your mum. That book is so precious xxx
What a great list of favorites, Amanda!!! I need to re-read The Catcher in the Rye too! I remember liking but not loving it, whereas you usually hear people either love it or hate it.
Susan, this is a very unique and very fun video. I agree with all of your favorites and I, too, really loved Olive Kitteridge. Isn't in funny how our perception of, and ratings for, books change over time? I know I may get some blow back when I write this, but my favorite book as a young reader was the controversial Gone With the Wind. I read GWTW every summer, on a blanket in my back yard. My mother also loved this book. We grew up with not much discretionary income, so I will never forget Mom and I driving into downtown St. Paul one afternoon and seeing the GWTW movie in an old theater on 7th Avenue. What a special treat and a lifelong memory. I no longer rate the book as my #1 favorite, but it's right up there for me, even though I understand the negatives in the story, i.e., the Klan being the good guys, for heaven's sake. (Apologies to anyone triggered by the mention of this book.) Kindest regards from a new Subscriber.
My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice. I know that's a bit cliché, but there's a reason for that.
Thank you so much for finding me here on the CZcams and commenting, Julie! :)
I don't think Pride and Prejudice as a favorite should be considered cliche at all! It's so, so clever and well-written!
This was so much fun! Would love to see more 5-star battle videos!
Thank you!! I’m curious where more 5-star battles would lead!
Your story about Angle of Repose brought tears to my eyes. How wonderful that you have that copy. ❤️
I just started reading The Age of Innocence for the first time last night. So far, its very engaging.
I hope you enjoy The Age!!!! Keep me posted if you think to.
After today’s video, I’m putting that copy away with the very few sentimental items I’ve kept through the years. I’ll get another copy for my shelf.
Love this, Susan! Great idea to look at old favourites vs new, and see how your tastes have evolved. And yes! I would love to have a list of all the books I've ever read! That would be fascinating! And the thing is, for those born later, they can do it now on Goodreads! I think it's a great idea for parents to start keeping a record of books they read with their child, and keep it going until they take over as adults and fill in the rest!
That’s so true about the younger generation! Several of my nieces have been logging on Goodreads for years.
You are my reading doppelgänger, Susan. We have so many favorites in common (I swoon even at the mention of “Secret Life of Bees”, and shudder at “The Grapes of Wrath.” Did you read Olive Again? I loved it even more than Olive Kitteridge. I do have a definitive favorite book, “The Kite Runner.” I don’t think anything will ever dethrone it, but I hope I’m wrong!
Sounds like I need to read The Kite Runner! ⭐️👍🏻📚
I love to hear that we have so many books in common!! (When it comes to Olive, my heart is with the original.)
Enjoy your weekend!!!
Now you should do a video on favorites Since Booktube!! Then you can compare. Yes, I think book favs change with our age, life experiences, etc!! So many to choose from!!!❤
I just did this past weekend. 🤗 And you’re right: soooo many to choose from!
Susan, i was cracking up watching you talking about Gatsby. I feel like im in permanent defense mode when it comes to that book. "It IS great!" Usually i can accept someone not having the same opinion on a book but ill go to my grave chanting that The Great Gatsby is a masterpiece and that everyone who disagrees is wrong. Your pile looks a lot like mine. Age of Innocence and Olive Kitteridge would certainly be in my stack as well. I read Count of Monte Cristo over ten years ago and back then i declared that as my favorite book and greatest reading experience, but i don't remember it at all. Whats your favorite book is a tough question to answer!
We will die on the Gatsby hill! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
The Count was also an amazing reading experience for me, having read nothing else like it.
Enjoy your Sunday!! 🤗☀️📚
I love the background of your book shelves.
Oh thank you! It makes me happy every time I walk into this closet. :)
I’m going to dig out The Joy Luck Club. I loved it too. But I don’t remember what it was about!
I’m looking forward to reading some of your non-fiction choices. You make me excited to check them out.
Those 5 non-fictions are ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!!
After reading The Joy luck Club years ago, I devoured many more Amy Tan books. But JLC was my fav!
Happy Sunday!!
And yes! Do a video comparing these to the ones post Booktube to see what ends up being your top 3 -5 books. I can probably narrow my favourites down to 4 or 5, but the thing is, as you read new books, some of those are going to (hopefully) be even better than some of the favourites from before, so of course it will change over time as you read more books.
You’re right! I think my reading has gotten better over time and some of my favs will have been over the last five years.
Happy Wednesday! Thank you for watching!! ⭐️🩵📚🤗
Oooo! I’m going to get Team of Rivals for my hubby for Christmas! 😂
It would be a wonderful gift!!!
Team of Rivals is a book I learned so much from! Many of these books are such modern classics/ classics in general. I hope you explore this further! Happy Reading this week
Wasn't Team of Rivals so good!! The *battle of the favorites* will continue...;)
I do have an absolute favorite book. I've heard many mixed reviews of it but I've read it over and over. It kind of breaks my heart everytime I read it but I love Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly. I have several books that I really love: Blackbird (a memoir) by Jennifer Lauck, Sophie's Choice by William Styron, and Anya by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. There are probably others too but those are the books that come to mind as favorites.
Yes, I am on Goodreads but I am not going to skim books just to have a high count.
I don't know when you started reading but I started at 3 and am now 78. Although, when asked, To Kill a Mockingbird just comes out of my mouth (and I was wearing the tee yesterday), I can tell my fav books easily. Once reading, father ditched the Little Golden books and we started reading. He read aloud to me until I was 12 and we were starting The Secret Garden for the 3rd or 4th time. Mother was not a reader. She decided she was sick of hearing books and I was old enough to read by myself. (Sadly, except for a very few times, father then gave up reading because of mother.) I am seldom seen without a book. My top three of all time? The Secret Garden, Hobbit/Lord of the Rings and Lord of the Flies. However, I feel like I have to add The Little Prince because my grandmother gave it to me and I still have my original.
Oddly, I was surprised that The Scarlet Letter was the first book you pulled. I read it in high school and just didn't get it. So, I recently bought a copy and it is in my TBR stack and I will reread it soon.
So before I discovered and starting watching Book Tube (another: It came out of COVID 19), I read a lot of books and I can remember them! I have other books that I reread but they have to go into the "I Own Every Movie/TV Special Versions of Them" like, A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist and, well, yes, Secret Garden. (I love Dickens and Shakespeare.)
BTW Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys are back and you can get the originals and the new series being written.
Thank you so much for sharing!! It sounds like you a lovely, rich reading life. 🌸🌸🌸 Just reading your comment brings a smile to my face!!
I’m stingy with 5-star reads. Not because I want to be, but because I give it 5 only if it left something special in my heart. I wished they were all 5-stars! At this time I don’t really rate books but only use a reading log to record what I read. But this is how I personally view a 5-star rating.
I think that’s a great standard for awarding 5 starts!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’m reading Beautiful Little Fools which is from the female’s perspective in the Great Gatsby. So far I’m enjoying it. I just got Olive Kittredge from the library. I hope you reread and share. In 2020 I was able to have more time for reading and have kept my favorites. I hope to start reading maybe 1 a month in 2025. Loved this video
Thank you for watching!! And thank you for reminding me about Beautiful Little Fools. It’s been neglected on my Kindle.
I hope you have a great weekend!!
I loved Olive Kitteridge! It is so well-written. I actually like Olive as a character. All of the fiction books you put in your top 5 are also favorites for me.
I liked Olive as a character too - she made sense to me. But I know so many readers couldn’t stand her. 😂
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and comment!!
Thanks for sharing this! very interesting video
I just read the Scarlet Letter for the first time this year❤It was not what I expected
Very tragic and remarkable at the same time
I am still thinking about it😢
So happy to hear you read The Scarlet Letter this year! It’s packs a punch, doesn’t it!!
Hope you have a great weekend!!
Yeahhh i have a hard time choosing 1 fav. Lol
Agreed! But that won’t stop me from trying! 😂
No Greek mythology? haha- I get it though, that probably happened after booktube, right? Thank you for this video! Some of those I have had on my tbr for waaaaay too long! I agree with you on The Great Gatsby!
Thank you for backing me up on The Great Gatsby! 😂 it’s a lonely opinion at times!
Thank you for watching and I hope you have a wonderful week!! ⭐️📚🩵
Favorites can change over time and, as you said, many books have sentimental value or feelings aside from the book itself. My all-time favorite book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. And I have many runners-up. On Goodreads I have about 70 books that I have rated 5 stars, but I think a favorite is one that I want to read again.
Excellent favorite book!! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn wrecked me…in a good way! 70 5-star reads sounds like you’ve done some excellent reading!
Ok, I may have to try The Great Gatsby. 😂
Yes!! 🙌🏻🥳
Very interesting video idea! I’ve always said that ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ is my favorite book but it’s been years since I read it and I don’t remember all of it. I wonder now if it would hold up to a reread!
Also, would you mind sharing your Goodreads? I would love to follow you! 🤍🤍🤍
Sounds like you're ready for a re-read of A Tree! :) :) (That book devastated me...in a good way.)
My Goodreads profile is: susanroadreads. I really just use it as a log, but if you like, feel free to friend me there! :)
Such an interesting video. I don’t think I can name a favorite book. My favorite author( Philip Roth) would be easier. With all the books I’ve read, the most meaningful ones affected me both intellectually and emotionally. You are correct that “The Great Gatsby” is perfection. It has the best ending line.
Philip Roth! - Joni, you never cease to surprise me! 🤗
And thank you for having my back re: Gatsby. We’re a small few I fear.
I am a huge fan of Roth’s. He is unsurpassed in his powers of observation in my opinion.Have you read “The Human Stain”? I highly recommend the novel. It was made into a very good movie starring Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins.Also, his “The Plot Against America” is uncanny in relation to the reality of the political climate today.
Oh thank you for the Roth recs!!
My reading is not high brow. I have 4 favorite series. First is George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984. I read Animal Farm in 9th grade and 1984 in 11th grade. As far as I’m concerned, they are a duology. They made me look at humanity, politics and how much we learn from our elders and tend to emulate them whether we want to or not. 1984 scared the pee out of me! Different times throughout my 68 years on this planet, certain phrases from that book run through my brain after certain current events happened. I credit my teachers with explaining these stories to us.
The Roselynde Chronicals (6 books in the series by Roberta Gellis). Ms. Gellis was a lifelong researcher and the detail in this medieval historical series captivated me. I think the books were over 600 pages each. I read the series many times over. Colonialism, Catholicism, upper and lower classes, the invention of scrapnel, and the Christian Crusades were covered. As well as the monarchy, peasants and everyone in between.
Codex Alera, a 6-book series by Jim Butcher is a fantasy/historical fiction. Mankind is blessed with magical Furies. (Earth, wind, water and fire.) Humans use these furies to light candles, fly, build castles, etc. There is an enemy on this planet that is not human. They are terrifying and almost monstrous. Do not confuse this series with Butcher’s Dresden Files. Dresden Files is written at an 8th grade level. The Codex Alera is, I believe, is written at a college level. It is a masterpiece of warfare, coming of age, and so much more.
Elizabeth Peters wrote a 20-book series entitled Amelia Peabody. It takes place mostly in Egypt when British colonialism is still going strong, Christians are trying to convert the Egyptians. White Brits expect differential treatment by the native population and archaeology in The Valley of the Kings is the main pursuit of our single-minded archeologist. We see Amelia eschew a traditional woman’s place when she inherits her father’s fortune. She takes a young British woman along as a chaperone to visit the pyramids. She stumbles on a local dig, meets the grumpiest man in the world and romance, murder, and intrigue happen. For all her faults, she is kind to animals and has enough knowledge about medicine to treat injured camels, sick infants, and help another woman her age who was in love with a scoundrel who enticed her to Egypt, stole all her money, and ruined her reputation. Do we get to enjoy the discovery of Tutankhamen’s chambers? Yes we do!
Fantastic story that explains the woes of Egyptians in their changing world.
Sorry…I really love these series. It is impossible for me to consider them as individual books.
Thank you so much for sharing these series with me!! I can tell they are dear to you!!
the heart is a lonely hunter ❤
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing!! ⭐️🤗
Yes I'm definitely stingy with 5 stars... BUT I still have some favorite books that are 4 even tho my criteria for all time favs will rate a 5.
I started Olive K and loved the first "vignette"... when it got to the next one (I think that was it?) With the mention of self harm, I just wasn't in the mood for a more contemporary style story that wasn't like the first 1 or 2 felt like... so I'll try again later.
That’s a great strategy! 👍🏻⭐️
Edited
Some of Strout’s writing is pretty disturbing. But, at least for me, Olive Kitteridge - which I read while still a very sensitive reader - was not disturbing beyond easy tolerance. And so worth it.
How did I miss this video?! 😅
😂😂 I snuck it in. 🥰
I can narrow it down to three favourite novels: 'Pride and Prejudice' 'Persuasion' and 'Jane Eyre'. I suppose if I could only read one it would be 'Pride and Prejudice' - 'The Great Gatsby' is wonderful. I also love 'Tender is the Night' which I had to study and I still love it. Non fiction probably what I'm interested in, at the time.
You’re speaking my language with your choices!!!
So who knows i had to read Sarlet Letter in h.s. my fav h.s. required book was Picture of Dorian Grey. I also was a member of The Sherlock Holms club in colege so all those.
Those all sound great! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Can stand Grapes of Wrath?? 😪😪😪
Sorry! But, yes.
Are you also a fisher person? 🤣🤣🤣
😂😂 Words are hard. 🤔
Olive Kitteridge as a top book for fiction? Please. She is not Steinbeck, Arthur Miller, or Amy Tan. I was shocked when Olive Kitteridge won a prize. How about Melville? Winning a Pulitzer isn’t always telling, it is what editors think can make money.
I agree re: the Pulitzer, but for me, Olive Kitteridge is excellent.
I do have an absolute favorite book. I've heard many mixed reviews of it but I've read it over and over. It kind of breaks my heart everytime I read it but I love Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly. I have several books that I really love: Blackbird (a memoir) by Jennifer Lauck, Sophie's Choice by William Styron, and Anya by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. There are probably others too but those are the books that come to mind as favorites.
A book that breaks your heart every time sounds like a gooooood book!! Thank you so much for sharing some titles. (Have wanted to read Sophie's Choice. So thank you for the reminder!)
@@RoadReads Thanks for your response. I just came across your channel looking for another person's channel that I couldn't find but I love yours. I really relate to the books you talked about. Looking forward to catching up on some of your other videos from before and your upcoming videos.💚
@@betsymaher9489 Thank you so much for finding me, Betsy!! 😊