i understood this book even less after finishing reading it this is a book for people who are unstable and i loved it to my core i am a hater of this book this was the first book that i read for my english lit degree and it genuinely made me consider dropping out [Music] okay guys i think it's finally time so over the past year i have been doing some tier ranking with tia ranked celebrity autobiographies celebrity poetry or attempts at poetry and even the books that lisa simpson reads in the sim
psons and i feel like all of those videos have been leading up to this moment the final boss because today we are going to be tear ranking the classics this is the canon of english literature or at least the ones that i've read so welcome welcome welcome save your tears for another day because i've got mine right here let me show you the categories so at the bottom we have shoot it from a literal cannon this is a category for books that i despise these books are widely considered to be in the li
terary canon i think they should be projected out of one above that is i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy the mythia is called clothbound classic please tell me you know what i'm talking about here they are these beautiful cloth-bound editions of classic novels they're just stunning and so i feel like the books in this category deserve their status as a classic they're not overrated they're not underrated they are perfectly rated and that is where they belong the next category is i think you
drop something my jaw that speaks for itself and then the final category the top the creme de la creme is six out of five stars these are books that i want to give five stars but that's not enough and so i've invented a sixth star specifically for this tier this is literary criticism let's go okay we're gonna start with of mice and men i actually don't think i've felt happiness since finishing this book the ending is traumatizing someone please explain to me why we were like 14 years old and ou
r english teachers were telling us that curly's wife was a because she had red fingernails don't even get me started on curly's glove full of vaseline oh boy lenny just wanted to live off the fat of the land and you know what he can live in the land of jaw-droppers they deserve it okay next up we have moby dick do you want to read a book about whale anatomy no me neither look it's an iconic book it's one that i'm pleased to have read so that i can brag about it but it is literally time that i wi
ll never ever get back and i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy fun fact this is the book where starbucks gets its name so you can't say the jack edwards youtube channel doesn't prepare you for pub quizzes right the catcher in the rye people say it's a red flag if you like this book and you know what maybe i'm color blind i liked it it's about an angsty teen who's been through a hell of a lot of trauma and he's just sort of disillusioned with the world and so you can catch her in the mid tier
next up we have emma now jane austen put her whole austissi into this book it's an absolute corker i think it's her magnum opus i'm conflicted about which category to put it in here but i think if you're going to read a jane austen book you should make it this one it's at the top of the charts i had to do it um and while we're on the topic let's also do pride and prejudice listen i thought it was good i was waiting for it to be great also i do think it loses a point for inspiring bridgeton by ju
lia quinn because that book is possibly the worst thing ever written i love the series but the book is a crime against humanity okay pride and prejudice is taking a spot in the middle and actually while we're on the topic of classics i want to talk to you about one of my favorite classic tv shows that i loved growing up that show is waterloo road and the best news ever is that all 10 seasons of this show are available to watch on bbc iplayer i'm gonna leave a qr code on the screen right now whic
h you can scan and it will take you straight to the bbc iplayer page for waterloo road and also there will be a link in the description box down below but i've been absolutely binging this show and watching back all the seasons so much nostalgia i literally used to run home from school so i could watch this show and then the next morning i would run into school so that we could discuss it and watching it back i'm still just as obsessed i would recommend season seven with sambuca kelly it's the b
est one but there's so many brilliant characters and story lines it's all set in a school and they are actually currently making an 11th season so now is the perfect time to catch up on the original 10 series so that you're ready for when the new one drops on the bbc so massive shout out to bbc iplayer for sponsoring this video as i said the link is down below and you can join me in binge watching waterloo road and now back to these classics maul flanders we meet again this was the first book th
at i read for my english lit degree and it genuinely made me consider dropping out it's a horrible book basically daniel defoe who's the author is widely considered to be the father of the english novel and you know what i think he should have pulled out but essentially because poetry was all full of metaphors and similes and elevated language the novel needed to define itself as something that was distinctively different from poetry and as a result early novels are painfully precise in terms of
the level of detail so you can literally imagine exactly how every room they enter looks this book just explains absolutely everything it tells you constantly how much money she has in her purse she has a baby on like every other page and you know what there's two things i don't want to hear about capitalism and children so shoot out the canon get it away from me i'm having war flashbacks just thinking about it oh here we go let's introduce my real enemy charles dickens i'm sorry i just hate hi
s style of writing it's not for me and like this is an opinion i know is objectively wrong in the same way that i have absolutely no interest in going to space like if someone said to me you can go to space tomorrow i'd be like i'd rather stay at home you guys have fun though take a picture for me you know i just have no interest and i know that's objectively wrong i know that's a stupid opinion to have and that's the same way that i feel about hating charles dickens i appreciate the impact this
man had on english literature look i'm happy for him but if i never had to read another one of his books it would be too soon i had great expectations for this book but they didn't pull through and you know what it's being joined by a tale of two cities and bleak house bleak really is the word here do you know that someone spontaneously combusts in this book wild oh speaking of wild the picture of dorian gray not gonna lie oscar wilde did what needed to be done with this book it's a banger it's
a belter it's a classic my jaw did drop but i actually think it needs to go in six out of five this book literally invented the plot twist i love this book and i think it deserves every bit of praise that it ever gets so it's up there it's at the top and you know what it's gonna get some company because the bell jar is next this is a book for people who are unstable and i loved it ding ding ding we have a winner oh to the lighthouse more like to the top of the chart this is a kind of stream of
consciousness about time about memory about gender about perspective about loss and war you know what i think it needs to be at the top and what a line-up at the top this is a festival i would go to and another banger little women oh it's just so good and one of those few books where the movie adaptation just does it such justice the women may be little but my love for it is big it's going in at number two and then we have the book thief literally scraping my jaw off the floor as we speak this b
ook is narrated by death itself genius and that is where it belongs oh next we have in cold blood one of my favorite favorite books that i read during my degree it's about a brutal horrible murder and it's like the og non-fiction novel what's so interesting is that capote formed this really intimate bond with one of the murderers that he was writing about like while he was interviewing him for the book and so it's so interesting because it was only published after that guy died so no one really
knows for certain whether he only got close to this murderer so he could kind of get all his secrets for his story or whether he wrote about him sympathetically because they had that close connection either way it's fascinating and a fantastically well written book i'm actually tempted to put it up there i do really really like it i'm gonna leave it there for now and we'll come back to that oh here's another fun fact for you so when truman capose went to interview those murderers he went alongsi
de his best friend from childhood harper lee who wrote to kill a mockingbird mad name a more iconic duo other than spongebob and patrick this is excellent superb work 10 out of 10. thank you wuthering heights i actually can't believe that emily bronte wrote a whole book based on that kate bush song that's mad and i do think it's gonna go in clothbound classic i like it oh and while we're on the topic of the bronte sisters the heim of their day i have two books here by charlotte bronte starting w
ith jane eyre the original girl boss it's a great story it keeps you on your toes it's about social class religion love gender roles and it did give what needed to be gave i think however let's not talk about the time where i read jane eyre laid bare which is like an erotic twist on the classic novel because that made me want to twist my eyeballs out speaking of which the next book is villette which is also by charlotte bronte however this book is pretty unreadable unless you speak fluent french
because for some reason miss charlotte just decided to flex her french duolingo streak over here and aside from that it just isn't really an interesting plot so i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy sorry ah wide sargasso c now this was actually written as a prequel to jane eyre but it's by a different author and it's all about colonialism i think it's genius and you know what normalize writing prequels to books that you didn't write i loved it but i can't decide which category to put it in ok
ay fine you've charmed me heart of darkness is another kind of colonial book it's definitely a classic that i think everyone should read but it's not necessarily one of my favorites you know frankenstein such a brilliant book that i could talk about all day you know fun fact my hometown is actually where mary shelley's husband was from percy shelley and so literally everything is named after him they even at one point had a fountain that was named after him but unfortunately it looked so much li
ke a vagina that they had to take it down they had to remove it this is what it looked like i wish i was joking the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy this is one of the few sci-fi books i've ever enjoyed i think it's really great i love that it's ridiculous and revels in its own absurdity big fan on the other hand is dune which sucks in my opinion it's a long story and it's very boring i think the characters are one-dimensional it's all about spice and yet has none even timothy shalamy and zenday
a couldn't save this for me after reading the book i've got no interest in the film and i'm really sorry about it to my core i am a hater of this book okay now we have the great gatsby iconic cover iconic book and you know what i know that i'm trash for devouring this book like it was an all-you-can-eat buffet but i'm a basic and i'm owning it at one point i even wrote a whole essay on the semicolons in this book like that's it don't even get me started i'll go all day speaking of which a single
man is the book that i wrote my dissertation on i think this is brilliant it's getting a bit crowded at the top but i'm not mad about it okay uh a journal of the plague year this is another book by defoe which i definitely would not recommend maybe this would have been good if i hadn't read it during our own plague year i don't know it wasn't for me dracula i love this book graham stoker understood the damn assignment and this book genuinely terrified me the first time i read it and i don't thi
nk i've ever felt such intense fear from a book before or since awesome orwell next we have animal farm and 1984. i would say these are probably the books that made me fall in love with literature and i actually think they both belong at the top this is like trying to pick between my babies i remember the allegory for the russian revolution in animal farm just blowing my little mind and made me realize what you can actually do with a book and then 1984 is a book that i'll just never ever forget
reading so i love them you know what else i love a handmaid's tale my copy of this book is so densely filled with notes that it's actually now hard to read the actual original text because every time i reread it i just find so much more such a textured book so brilliant it's at the top fahrenheit 451 is another great dystopia and brave new world also excellent treasure island is a masterclass in making an adventure really unbelievably dull i don't know how they managed to do that but shoot it fr
om the cannon it's not for me alice's adventures in wonderland obviously it's great and groundbreaking we know this alice you can sit right next to dracula that's a duo you didn't expect life of pie hmm i remember this book being great at the beginning and at the end it's just the middle that was the problem i think the fact that it's so repetitive and monotonous is an artistic choice but it's not one that i enjoyed and i found it really quite laborious to read oh ulysses now this is one of the
most clever and celebrated pieces of fiction ever to exist but it just went straight over my head to be honest you have to read so much stuff in advance of reading this book to understand what the hell james joyce is going on about and i just don't have the smart call particles for this book like it's not you it's me i'm just not on that level next we have the odyssey by my favorite homer after homer simpson just phenomenal we are going on an odyssey to the top and then of course we have the ili
ad now this is like if you had a favorite reality tv show that's been on for like 15 seasons and suddenly they do an all-stars show but also it's a battle to the death that's what this book is for greek mythology lovers fantastic of course it's up there beloved holy moly what an exquisite book it's about slavery about making difficult choices about family about solidarity everybody say thank you tony morrison thank you indeed the scarlet letter um now if anyone has seen the film easy a with emma
stone that's the scarlet letter it's one of those books where it's a great story it's had a huge impact on pop culture but it's really horrible to actually read the actual prose is kind of unreadable like it makes about five points per sentence so um i'm actually not sure i'm gonna be nice and put it there next we have the crying of lot 49 and truly crying is the key word here that's how it left me i understood this book even less after finishing reading it and you know what i don't think that'
s a sign of a good book but again maybe it's me maybe i'm the problem on the contrary around the world in 80 days i enjoyed this a lot so i think we're on to our second line and i think you dropped something my jaw 20 000 leagues under the sea also by jules verne except this had me going who's jules do i know jules because it's so boring it feels like you've been reading it for 20 000 pages it just keeps going on and on and on so get in the bin rebecca oh amazing twist thank you next oh the alch
emist pretty sweet pretty naive pretty basic it's a self-help fictional book about listening to your heart and following your dreams but it lacks a lot of nuance no nuance just vibes right here so it's going in the mid tier for sure lord of the flies if you haven't read this you absolutely should test the derbavilles if you haven't read this you absolutely should a farewell to arms um if you haven't read this maybe don't bother it's all about being kind of disillusioned and desensitized by war a
nd it's got some lovely lines but you know what it is quite dull lolita i think is a brilliant book i think this is where you have to really separate theme from art because the themes in this book are disgusting and depraved and horrible but as a piece of art it's brilliant the unreliable narrator is executed so well and though the themes are horrid it's a great book charlotte's web is exceptionally sweet but it also just really irked me that the pig gets all the credit for the spider's work bec
ause the pig actually isn't special at all in fact he's entirely useless so i have a beard my bonnet about this book and so that's why it's going in the middle crime and punishment for me was one of the biggest surprises out of any book i've ever read i didn't expect to enjoy it as much as i did middle march is a book that i simultaneously enjoyed but also it reignited my big book fear george eliot both impresses and terrifies me with this book things fall apart is pretty stunning but it's a tou
gh read it's about masculinity about traditions language pre-colonial life and invasion and it's really interesting to read about the friction between two lifestyles and ways of living and finally lord of the rings this is the first book the fellowship of the ring i didn't get past this one so that's a bit of a spoiler as to where this is gonna go i literally saved this to near the end of the video in the hope that less people would see me rape this badly it's literally just a bunch of creatures
walking i felt like i was doing my dmv and for me the quality of the writing just wasn't good enough to justify that plot this is my unpopular opinion and maybe i'm just wrong but i do think it's over hyped sorry and so that is my finished tier ranking list i think i'm pretty happy with it you can absolutely disagree with me in the comment section down below i'm sure you will if anything it's encouraged thank you so so much for watching this video if you enjoyed it you can give it a thumbs up a
nd subscribe down below the simulation has completely glitched and we're approaching a million subscribers which shouldn't be allowed but if you haven't subscribed yet please please do also remember you can check out waterloo road over on bbc iplayer the link is down below thank you so so much to the bbc for their continued support this channel it means the world to me and i'll be back very soon with another video so all the best stay in touch have a wonderful day and i'll catch you next time by
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PART 2 HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzMT2PpaGlU
"Normalise writing prequels to books that you didn't write" it's called fanfiction actually
I feel like the ranking is lacking a "meh" category. Because going from "nice classic" to "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy" seems a bit extreme to me xD
The fact Dune and LOTR are bottom on this list just makes me know Jack isn't a fan of those types of genre. No hate. I clicked this video since im looking for book ideas.
I always love seeing people rate Lolita because it is definitely one of the most beautiful books I've ever read... that is also extremely fucked up ๐ the only book I love that if anyone's ever like "I hate that book" I'm like alright girl, I get it, I ain't defending its honor or nothin
As a lotr lover. This was hard for me to witness ๐ญ but I loved watching these rankings as a classic books lover.
This tier-list definitely shows your preferences for a very particular type of literature. Not that it's a bad thing. But putting Dune/LotR and books like them at the bottom is definitely a taste thing I feel, rather than a quality of writing thing. Meanwhile I found 'Emma' remarkably... okay?
lotr isn't a walking simulator, it's just such a big journey that tolkein had to make it awful for the reader too (but still my fav book of all time)
I think I'm secure enough in my love of Tolkien not to mind that much. Also, I have to admit the series is nearly impossible to read straight through lol
The heart of Lord of the Rings is perfectly encapsulated in the line from the book: "All that is gold does not glitter". After watching this video, I can tell that Jack Edwards enjoys a good Sunday afternoon read with a brilliant book with enchanting characters that won't let you put it down. There is nothing wrong with that, but LOTR books are an entirely different type of novel. First, it's built as an unbiased factual retelling of events similar to a history book . Unlike a history book, we as readers are often up close and personal with the characters, seeing their feelings and intentions, yet the unbiased factual style remains. The reading may feel slow and undramatic scene by scene, but it is only when we connect the parts to the larger quest that the depth of the novel begins to shine. A nearly hopeless quest that will determine the fate of the world in either success or failure. A quest that demands courage, companionship, hope and sacrifice from its "everyday folk", who are the heroes of the story. These virtuous themes are the hidden gold that is in every page of the book. Yet it is only when we connect these themes to the quests in our own lives that we truly arrive to the heart of LOTR. For while the brilliance of the world-building in LOTR, which it can be argued is perhaps the greatest in all of modern literature in terms of scale and detail is truly exceptional, it is in the end only a vessel for Tolkein to share his insight in the human condition and the quests that each of us are on through our lives. In that sense, the reader has compassion on the characters with the depths of compassion for oneself and the lessons taught go far beyond a Sunday reading and can be carried with the reader for the rest of their lives.
Jesus Christ, Moby Dick is such an amazing novel, the whale anatomy bits are part of the experience engrossing you into the books world that Melville was obviously very familiar with. But to each their own.
It upsets me when people say liking The Catcher in the Rye is a red flag. It's one of my favorite books because of how it describes earlier-20th century NYC and because I feel like J.D. Salinger would have truly understood my pain (especially while I was in college).
You should do a tier ranking if easiest to hardest classics to read!! That would be so helpful for so many people- I always get scared before reading a classic as to whether itโs going to be to advance and then put me into a reading slump, so it would definitely be very helpful
I would actually recommend people watch the lotr movies BEFORE they read the books. I loved reading the books as a child and today but I think the only reason that I did was because I was already in love with the story, world, deeper meaning and characters. The books ARE very slow but if you already love the story it's extremely pleasant how long it is because you can linger in that world for far longer than you usually can with most books. Definitely watch the extended version though, the theatrical release sucks in comparison. It not only cuts out sub-plots but they take random clips out of scenes so the pacing feels rushed to me and doesn't match as well with the gorgeous soundtrack. Please skip the hobbit films though until you've finished lotr bc they depart waaaay too far from the source material and are quite corny. These are all just my personal recommendations though;)
The first time I read The Lord of the Rings I thought the same as you, that it was just a bunch of walking. But because my husband loves this book so much I decided to read the series again the following year. It is now one of my favorite books/series and Samwise Gamgee is one of my favorite literary characters of all time. I challenge you to try again, and read all 3 books๐
Thank you, Jack, from Ukraine for this tier list๐ Was surprised by the amount of brilliant books in the list and with some rankings too๐ฎ I've compiled the text version of the tier list with timestamps. No book is missed unlike other timestamp comments. 6 out of 5 stars: "Emma"(2:57), "Picture of Dorian Gray"(6:20), "The Bell Jar"(6:45), "To the Lighthouse"(6:55), "In Cold Blood"(7:35), "Wide Sargasso Sea"(9:34), "The Great Gatsby"(11:03), "A Single Man"(11:22), "Animal Farm"/"1984"(11:58), "The Handmaid's Tale"(12:22) i think you dropped something... my jaw: "Of Mice and Men"(1:50), "Little Women"(7:12), "The Book Thief"(7:23), "To Kill a Mockingbird"(8:20), "Jane Eyre"(8:45), "Frankenstein"(10:04), "Dracula"(11:45), "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"(12:55), "The Odyssey"(13:43), "The Iliad"(13:51), "Beloved"(14:08), "Around the World in 80 Days"(14:56), "Rebecca"(15:22), "Lord of the Flies"(15:42), "Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman"(15:46), "Lolita"(16:01), "Crime and Punishment"(16:37), "Things Fall Apart"(16:54) clothbound classic: "The Catcher in the Rye"(2:39), "Pride and Prejudice"(3:14), "Wuthering Heights"(8:36), "Heart of Darkness"(9:54), "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"(10:30), "Fahrenheit 451"(12:37), "Brave New World"(12:41), "The Scarlet Letter"(14:19), "The Alchemist"(15:25), "Charlotte's Web"(16:19), "Middlemarch"(16:43) i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy: "Moby Dick"(2:15), "Great Expectations"(5:31)(objectively wrong๐), "A Tale of Two Cities"/"Bleak House"(6:13), "Villette"(9:14), "Life of Pi"(13:03), "Ulysses"(13:20), "The Crying of Lot 49"(14:40), "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"(15:06), "A Farewell to Arms"(15:30) shoot it from a literal cannon: "Moll Flanders"(4:36), "Dune"(10:41), "A Journal of the Plague Year"(11:31), "Treasure Island"(12:44), "The Fellowship of the Ring"(17:07)(how dare you๐ง)
i love how he can give an opinion on each book without going into too much detail. Like it makes me want to (not) read the book but doessn't give away the plot. Always a great time coming back to his channel.
"smarticle particles" cracked me up ๐๐ I thought I was the only one in the world who preferred Emma to Pride & Prejudice, nice to see there's another one ๐
"Do you wanna read a book about whale anatomy?" Yes "No, me neither" Well this is off to a good start
Dune and LoTR were books that brought me into the reading space, I don't know where I would be without them. I do prefer older classics though; Hawthrone, Austen and Poe being toward the top of the list. Putting LoTR near the bottom just leaves me puzzled, I get it, opinions and all, but it just feels in err.