My top 10 reads of 2021 / books that shaped my year

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Comment below your top/formative reads of 2021 and maybe I'll add them to my TBR.
Love,
Dakota :)

CLASSICS FOR BEGINNERS

ON SUN SWALLOWING PRE-ORDER

SOCIALS
IG: dakota__warren
TT: sp3llb00k

[melancholy]

I’m fully addicted to people’s best books of 2021 videos

[gracelandtoo]

there’s no way i just thought to myself ‘i wonder if dakota uploaded that new vid yet?’, and i check and it was uploaded 30 secs ago.. that’s so funny

[levihall]

1. my dark vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russel

2. night sky with exit wounds - Ocean Vuong

3. second place - Rachel Cusk

4. bestiary - Julio Cortázar

5. paradise rot - Jenny Hval

6. the secret history - Donna Tartt

7. the master and margarita - Mikhaïl Boulgakov

8. the dangers of smoking in bed - Mariana Enriquez

9. a room of ones own - Virginia Woolf

10. love is a dog from hell - Charles Bukowski

[fionappIe]

My Dark Vanessa was absolutely moving yet so infuriating and tragic. It made me think so much once i finished it and the ending really tied it all together. Definitely my favourite book this year 🤍

[AnaWallaceJohnson]

I had a chance to visit Bulgakov’s home in Kyiv this summer & it was absolutely one of the most magical homes I’ve ever seen

[nicheanna]

i wanted to read my dark vanessa but i was reluctant because of the theme. anyway i got it in ebook, read it and cried for hours after i finished it. went and bought a physical copy the next day. this book is so raw.

[sophialapenna]

your content inspires me. i am irrevocably entranced by your way of speaking and the aesthetics of your livelyhood. i’m a fourteen year old girl, born and raised in massachusetts. from the absolute beginning of my life, i was held to the expectation that i would be smart. i won’t bore you with the specifics of the entirety of my life story, but this caused me to read obsessively because knowledge was fed to me as a necessity instead of a horizon to search for solely because i enjoyed learning. i would, and still do, constantly compare myself to others whom surpass me academically, and it absolutely kills me. everything i knew and enjoyed from childhood was twisted into a fierce and horrific competition, which made me despise the things i loved…including reading. your videos have reminded me of how it feels to read because of the simple pleasure it brings as opposed to relentlessly forcing myself to adhere to society’s standard of intelligence and intellectualism. in short, you have brought back one of my deepest passions. i am eternally grateful.

[ren.pfa.]

I'm really surprised you don't like Romanticism, it's very beautiful but dark too at the same time. One of my favourite literary movements, plus, it gave birth to Gothic writing.

[meredithellen]

Your videos truly inspire me to read.
Like a "I'll go get my books right now and be determined to finish then before dawn" kind of inspiration. Sometimes I pause in the middle of your videos just to go take a walk & read my book. I love you for that. Thank you.

[sayona]

Dakota you have quickly become one of my favourite booktubers, as others have said, and so thank you for your content! Just pre-ordered your book and cannot wait to read it.

[majucarvalho]

omg hearing you talk about bukowski just now was a relief. i've been feeling guilty for years for liking his work, at least partially, even though I've always read his books as critically as I can. and I always felt like I couldn't talk about all of these amazing poems I love because people would think somehow that i'm a "bad feminist".

[ValKagamineNyan]

if you enjoy latin american literature, i would recommend 'tales of love, madness and death' by horacio quiroga! i read it in high school and i still remember so many of the stories vividly

[beep_bop]

a lot already on my to read list and more to add! when I first found your channel it was one of the things that first drove me to discover my love for literature and for that I'll forever be grateful. I'm taking English lit as an a level already (it is my favourite) and plan to pursue it further, before this I wasn't really sure what I'd do but I really feel as though now I have finally found something I love <3. I've never read many books up until around 6 or 7 months ago, ✨adhd ✨ kinda naenaed my attention span and books always kind of scared me off. I've always read tho, fanfic and other things that never really felt as scary. I've always loved stories (audio books, tv, games, and such- I love escaping, falling weightlessly into another place) now that I've gotten over that fear I'm almost a menace, in that I can hardly seem to put a book down hahah.
Anyway, I took your recommendation for sweetdark (your poetry video was the first I saw, your enthusiasm really drew me in) and I absolutely adore it, I've always liked poetry but this is the first time I've bought a collection just for myself and not for school and though I really do quite like Carol Ann Duffy, this book spoke to me in a way not many things have.
I also have a recommendation :] Piranesi by Susan Clarke. It's a beautiful read, transporting in its vividness and deliciously mysterious. reading I had such a clear picture in my head <3 hope if u do read u enjoy it as much as I did

[lynncornelissen]

So many unique recommendations, I adore this channel. Breath of fresh air on the booktube. Adore your eloquence, Dakota ❤️

[boombangtramp]

if you liked cortázar and enríquez i really recommend "final del juego" and "historias de cronopios y de famas" (by him cortázar lmao), "the aleph" by jorge luis borges, "pájaros en la boca y otros cuentos" by samantha schweblin and "things we lost in the fire" (also by enríquez!). all of them are argentinian, maybe that's why they have this "same" vibe :0

[rmzdevl]

thank you so much for the recommendation! i am looking forward to read more in 2022, and your channel is guiding me through that way!

[karolina]

Every time I watch your videos I have my goodreads app open and just add every single book you mention. I trust u just like u trust staff recommendations!!

[parvathisasi]

Absolutely loved this video!! I am so glad I found your channel. Your recommendations are some of my favorites. So I am very excited to read the rest of the books on this list🖤

[ezereynoso]

I love seeing books from my country (Argentina) being read around the world! I'm pretty sure you will like a book called "The Tunnel" by Ernesto Sabato. It's pretty dark and intense; don't want to spoil it too much. But it's a classic here and quite short too!

[kristoffersweden]

Hi I am a Med. Student and I am thankful to find so much good book advice in your videos! I have just begun to delight in the russian writers and completed Doctor Zhivago last year (together with our favourite Algerian/French: Camus *the plague* how appropriate it was) now on to Master and margarita from your tips! And the sisters Brontës works!

Also* If I can leave a tip myself to my fellow reader; too much at once can get you overwhelmed, find one you really want to read and read it and so on!
I vary my genres also so i also read the Witchers series last year and boy was it some of the best books i ever read, and the complexity of the writing and the language is stunning amd absolutely delicious. So shoutout to Andrzej Sapkowski, polish writers get too little attention these days :)