Ten Hard Books I Want to Read (But It’s Fine If You Don’t)

In which I show some of the big, difficult books I'm excited to read in the future (while also insisting you not feel any pressure to read them yourself).

The other BookTubers who are showcasing similarly tough books they're excited about:
@ThatReadingGuy28
@BookishTexan
@materiagrix

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Chapters:
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00:00 Intro
01:37 Book 1 (Philosophy)
05:47 Book 2 (Historical Fiction)
09:31 Book 3 (History/Philosophy)
11:38 Book 4 (Fiction)
14:08 Book 5 (Science)
16:55 Book 6 (History)
19:29 Book 7 (History)
21:42 Book 8 (Science/History)
23:24 Book 9 (Science/Philosophy)
25:53 Book 10 (Fiction)
28:59 Bonus (Philosophy)
30:22 Outro

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*Books Featured* (With Global Amazon Links):
[Let me know if links break.]
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I can create these links for any books I choose, so this does not affect my choice of what books to cover for this channel.

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[PlakaDelos]

Just happened on this by chance and now I own five new books. I love books that make me think. I will be 78 in 4 months and books like this keep me young. Also enjoyed your presentation with the comments on why you're interested.

[TK-kfzc]

I just finished the 1, 100 page The Tale of Genji. I am ready for your list. Parfit, Volman, just stunning.

[jayv]

Ah! I have “Bottom’s Dream”! Five-ish years ago, a limited number of copies was published and I snagged one of them for ~$100. I don’t even know how I came across the news, but probably through one of the many, many bookish e-mail subscriptions I’ve followed. It holds a central position in my home library, and everyone’s eyes bug out of their heads when they see it, lol. Hopefully you acquire a copy soon, it’s a beautiful book.

Also, awesome list. Most of them I’ve had on my TBR list for a while now.

I’m about to indulge in your Part 2 video. Keep up the great videos!

[BERNERAUS]

When I was a kid, I read Chekhov' The Bet, and the desire stayed with me since. It is a pity that most book lovers don't have all the time to read. Thank you for the suggestions - added a few to my list.

[Blicero]

great video!
You mentioned a lot of unknown jobs that i didn´t knew anything about of before, i expected the usual "finnegan´s wake" "gravity´s rainbow" "ulysses", but that last book with the three columns was just full madness, looks more obscure and hard even that finnegan´s.

[downscreen]

All I read is fiction and while I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, I feel like I should branch out into non-fiction a bit. I love history, so I may give The Story of Civilization a shot. Also, on a completely unrelated note I've noticed that you're a really good speaker. I can tell when you are thinking of a phase instead of filling the empty space with "um's" and "like's" you'll take a half second or so to form your thought. That's a good habit (I should probably do it more myself).

[adnanferdousleo]

Fantastic video . Thank you for all your efforts on making this video

[sreekumarmenon]

Thank you for including Dr. McGilchrist 's Matter with Things. It is long and expensive. But Dr. McGilchrist has a series of YouTube conversations which go over the book chapter by chapter which may be a good way to begin with them. Thank you for the nice characterization of Stephen Jay Gould. Agree with you entirely.

[hardheadjarhead]

Durant’s series isn’t hard. It’s just long. There is a lifetime of absolutely wonderful reading right there.

I’ve been listening to the old cassette recorded audiobook version done by Grover Gardner. I would like to actually get the entire series from my bookshelf, but at age 67, I don’t think I’m going to get through them all before I’m done with life.

The review is correct… It’s some of the most beautiful and masterful prose you can engage. I can’t see coming away from reading these without being a better writer as a result.

This is true of his standalone books too. He has several.

[BookishTexan]

Enjoyed your video. I never thought it would inspire videos from readers who love to read philosophy. I have been meaning to read Vollman for sometime. Thank you for the reminder.

[harrylew]

Fascinating. One suggestion: maybe include the titles and authors in your show notes, especially helpful in cases where your hand obscures the title/author in the video (eg.: marxist book).

[Vocatus]

You will enjoy the Will Durant work it is a monumental gift to us. I am still making my way through it since beginning it during my undergrad days in the early 80s!

[samadams]

Nice shout out to On what matters. If I remember correctly, volume three was the one he “died working on”, but it was largely complete before he died.

Even though I disagree with him largely, I think it’s one of the best written works of philosophy I’ve read, and a great source of strong arguments for me to argue against.

[antoinemalette]

Interesting choices. I seemed to notice a book on your shelves behind and thought: "I bet this guy is from Montreal." The Sheppard book "HA!" strengthened my suspicion. It is a wonderful book about Hubert Aquin (hence the initials HA!), one of Québec's most important writer. I did my Masters thesis on the influence of Joyce in Aquin's writing. Very interesting stuff indeed.

[jamiebbooks]

Some fun books. I used to read a lot more non-narrative philosophy, but for the past decade or so I've been more interested in real life problems that require concepts of chaos and complexity, and systems thinking rather than the stripped down philosophical approaches that ignore the messiness of reality. I thought about doing a response video on this thread, more in response to Steve Donoghue's response probably, but I am already doing a 24 tomes in 2024 project this year, using a random number generator to pick from my list of 24 hard/big books that I plan to finish this year. Maybe I'll do a list more along the lines of these response videos next year when it won't be competing with an existing reading project.

[skeller]

Very interesting list, thanks! I’m 63, and have not read as much as I would like. I’m mostly through with collecting my “retirement library”, which includes Darwin’s Beagle, Origins, and Descent books, as well as Dawkins’ Selfish Gene. If and when I make it through that series, your suggestion of The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (Gould) seems like a great next step. Thanks!

As an aside, my parents had the Durant books, as well as the Great Books series, and the Encyclopedia Brittanica. I wish I would have started reading those long ago, but the font size and line spacing really put me off. It wasn’t the density of the ideas, but the literal density of the text, that drove me away.

Anyway, I’ve subscribed and appreciate your suggestions.

[Thetrilingualreader]

I appreciate you explaining why you want to read the history of civilization despite its shortcomings. It is an important thing to mention.

[fredwelf]

Here’s my list:
Randall Collins - Sociology of Philosophies
Juergen Habermas - Between Facts and Norms
Nico Poulantzas - Fascism and Dictatorship
Talcott Parsons - American Society
Jeffrey Friedman - Power without Knowledge
Slavov Zizek - Living in End Times
Carol Vance - Pleasure and Danger
Rasmussen - The Handbook of Critical Theory
Pierre Bourdieu - Logic of Practice
Jacques Derrida - Disseminations

[Chatetris]

Youtube suggested this video to me and I am quite impressed that I found another book lover that is reading meaningful books and I can tell is well read.

[LaughingStockfarm]

Lovely to hear someone speak so intelligently about some books with serious depth. I’m curious about Government House, and you’re the second person to mention it. You might be interested in ‘Buddhist Phenomenology’ by Daniel Lusthaus.