“What should I read?” – My Book Recommendations

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid. And, today, we are looking at some book

recommendations because I've had a few requests from... from you, the viewers,

to recommend books that might be worth reading. And so, what I have here on the

board are — one, two, three, four, five — six novels; fiction books. Some

written in the nineteenth century; some in the twentieth century. Three are

written by men, and three are written by women — just to get the balance right.

And so, what I've done — I've put the... the opening line of each novel to give

you a sort of flavour of... of what it sounds like. So, let's have a look,

then. So, the first one — it's just a very, very short sentence: "Call me

Ishmael." So, that's a bit intriguing. And it's meant to be, of course, because

the... the point of the first line is to make you want to carry on reading, so it

should make you feel... it should, you know... provoke your curiosity and make

you want to read on to find out what, you know... "What's this all about?" So,

"Call me Ishmael." And is the first line of a novel; a very big novel — long

novel called: "Moby Dick", which you may have heard about before, and it's about

a whale and about a ship, and the captain wants to hunt down a whale. He

has some sort of vendetta; some sort of vengeance. He sees the whale as a... as

an enemy; it's rather personal. So, the captain of the ship wants to... to kill

the whale. It's not the purpose of the trip, really, but that's his secret

plan. So, that's what the novel is all about. So, "Moby Dick" is the name of

the whale. The... the... the name of the author is Herman Melville — an American

novelist. And the date it was published was 1851. Okay. So, it's quite a

difficult novel, and very long. So, with all of these, you might want to watch a

film version, perhaps, just to get to know the story. Even though sometimes a

film version might play around a little bit with the story from the book, so you

can't be sure it will be exactly the same. But you always have that option of

seeing a film version as an easy introduction to the story, and then you

might want to read the novel afterwards. Or you might prefer to read the novel

first, then watch a film, and see... compare in your mind how similar they

are or maybe they're a bit different. So, okay. So, this line, it sort of...

you can tell that the... the character in the story is telling the story. It's:

"Call me Ishmael." And here am I telling you a story about something that

happened because he's one of the sailors on the ship who experiences this... that

hunt for the whale. So, he's the, what you call "the narrator" — the person who

tells the story. And you would say he's a first-person narrator because it's

"me". "I", "me" — first person. So, it's a personal account of the story. Okay.

So, that's that one.

The next one — let's have a look at this opening. "It was a bright, cold day in

April; and the clocks were striking thirteen." Wow. So, that's a bit

strange, isn't it? Again, that makes you want to read on: "How...? How come the

clocks strike thirteen? Is something wrong with them? Does somebody need to

repair them?" Clocks don't usually strike that number; they... they go as

far as twelve — don't they? — and then back to one again, so that's a bit

strange. You might think: "What kind of place is this?" It gives you a feeling

it's a bit strange; sinister, even. And so, this novel is this... the date it

was published, this is the title of the novel: "1984". And although that date

has gone by, of course, when the book was written in 1949, actually... or it

was published 1949 — I think the novelist would be writing it in 1948, so

he kind of reversed the date. And he was making it a kind of futuristic novel;

something happening in the future. So, "1984". At that time, in 1948, they

would think: "Oh, gosh, 1984 — that sounds like a long time ahead." But to

us now, of course, it's a long time in the past. And the novelist, George

Orwell, an English writer. Okay. And it is about a place where things are quite

bad. The thirteen also... thirteen — an unlucky number. It's... it's a terrible

place where people are treated badly. So, that's a little hint in the first

line that something is wrong here. Okay.

Right, so moving on to this one. This is quite a famous opening line; it's quite

complex. It's a very long sentence, but I think you'll get the sense of it. "It

is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a

good fortune must be in want of a wife." Okay. So, because this was written quite

a long time ago — 1813 — the style of the language is much... it's quite

different, really; long sentences. And "must be in want of a wife" means must

be in need of a wife, or must be looking for a wife. So, it's a slightly

old-fashioned style that you have to get used to, as you're reading. And it's

quite sophisticated, the way it's put. But, actually, it's a kind of humour,

really. This novelist, Jane Austen, is known to be very witty and humourous.

But the humour is in the language. You have to kind of appreciate the humour

through the language — the way she writes it; the style. Okay. So, it's

saying: "Well, we all know that a single man with a lot of money must... must be

wanting or must be looking for a wife." Well, is that true? Maybe not nowadays.

Maybe not then. But this is the kind of... it's suggesting the mindset, the

attitudes of the people who live in this particular place in English society;

sort of middle-class English society. And it's very much the attitude of

the... the mothers of a family of... of daughters. And in those days, the only,

you know... the only thing that girls would do would... would be to look out

for a husband, because they had no way of earning a living or having a

profession in 1813. They would be dependent on men all the way through

their lives, most of them. So, they would be looking out for a husband with

a lot of money so that they could have a comfortable life, basically. And the

mothers also have a strong motivation to find husbands for their daughters. So,

this is the kind of thing a mother in this society... "Oh, wow, this young man

has just moved into the big house. He must be rich. I have five daughters. Oh,

I hope, you know... there's a good chance he might want to marry one of my

daughters." And then that will be one less daughter to worry about. So, this

is a kind of attitude in the minds of the mothers, particularly in this

English society. Okay. So, it's called: "Pride and Prejudice", because these are

two of the attitudes that come out in the characters. And in the main

character, who, you know... she's... has a kind of pride at first that isn't a

very helpful attitude. And she has prejudice as well, which is another

unhelpful attitude. So, it's a kind of human story about someone who has some

faults to begin with, but she learns about herself and about other people

during the course of the novel. Okay. And the author's name is Jane Austen.

Okay.

Right, next one. So, we have a twentieth century novel now. And this one...

twentieth century novels were often not quite as long as nineteenth century

novels; they just got a bit shorter, quite a lot of them. I think Victorian

novels tended to be very, very big. At one time, they used to publish them in

three volumes. And then if you put a three-volume novel into one book, like a

paperback, it's very big — might be 900 pages or more. So, it takes a long time

to read. But this one — twentieth century is shorter. And the first line:

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." Oh, okay. And then the

title is "Mrs. Dalloway". So, she's in the first line of the novel, quite

rightly; it's all about her. And she said she would buy the flowers herself.

So, again, it's a bit intriguing. Why is she buying flowers? And why herself? Who

else would buy them, if she didn't? But then you find that she's quite a rich

lady; she has servants, so she could have sent a servant out to buy the

flowers, but she's decided to go out and buy them herself. And you find it's for

a party that she's organising. So, the whole novel is about the preparations

for the party. So, that's "Mrs. Dalloway". The author is Virginia Woolf,

and the date of publication — 1925. Okay.

Okay, so now we're back to nineteenth century again, and here's the first

line: "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." Oh, so, you

think: "Oh, this is negative. This is what you couldn't do. So, what...? What

are they going to do in this novel?" If you start off with something that you

can't do, does that sort of set a... a feeling for the novel? A novel about

being restricted in some way, that you can't do this; you can't do that? It's a

little bit like that, I suppose. But then we find, quite quickly, that the

people in the house can't go for a walk because it's raining, so that's what it

is. But I think it's quite a, you know... it has other suggestions in it

as well. And it's written from the point of view of... well, again, it's

first-person narrative. So, "Jane Eyre" is the title. Jane Eyre is the main

character, and this is her story. It begins when she's a child. And she can't

go out for a walk. But she's quite happy, really, because she's reading a

book. So, she's happy to stay in the house and read the book. I don't think

she cares about going for a walk. Perhaps it was a good thing that she

could stay in and read instead. Okay. So, the novelist is Charlotte Brontë,

and the date — 1847. So, early Victorian novel, English again; and Virginia Woolf

also English. In fact, they're all English, apart from Melville on this

list. Okay.

And then, finally, we have this very famous story. And, oh, I've lost count

of how many film versions there are of this. "A Christmas Carol". So many

different versions; a lot of American ones. So, this starts: "Marley was dead

to begin with; there is no doubt whatever about that." So, that's

interesting. It's the beginning of the story. "Marley was dead to begin with."

So, gosh, that's... What sort of beginning to a story is that, that

somebody's dead? Who...? Who are the characters going to be? And there is no

doubt whatever about that. Why? Why would you need to say there's no doubt?

Because it is a bit doubtful because... well, Marley does appear in the story as

a ghost, actually. So, he is dead, but he's a ghost. So, you know... that's a

bit of a problem for the main character. So, "A Christmas Carol", so it's a

Christmas story. Charles Dickens. And Christmas is such an important time for

Charles Dickens, and for Victorians in general; a very popular time with trees,

and presents, and all that sort of thing, and the family getting together.

So, there we are. That was written in 1843.

So, some of these books are easier to read than others. So, I think the Jane

Austen is quite difficult until you get used to the style, and start to see the

humour in it. Moby Dick is very long, but it's an adventure story, really, so

it's quite exciting. George Orwell — that's a kind of... well, almost

science-fiction, really; what you call a "dystopian novel", about a society where

things are very bad — the opposite of "utopian". Okay. "Dystopian". Right. But

quite straightforward, I think, to read; not too difficult in style. Mrs.

Dalloway — I think that's quite straightforward as well, really. It's a

bit psychological. It's all about what's going on in her life and in her mind.

Jane Eyre — I think that's a good story. It's quite readable; not too difficult.

And Charles Dickens as well — this one — it's a kind of long short story. Quite

easy to read, I would say; the language isn't too difficult. So... so I hope

those six recommendations are helpful for you. So, you might like to also have

a look at my... my video on book reading in general, which is a kind of group

discussion with some other people — if you haven't seen that already, have a

look at that. And that's also talking about different books, and each person

is recommending one or more books that they've read and that they've enjoyed.

So, I think that will give you plenty of ideas for any... any books that you'd

like to read. So, okay. There we are, then. Thank you for watching, and I hope

to see you again soon. Okay. Bye for now.