*a childish felix clapping at kindergarden*
*shaky voice* Pewdiepie's Literature Club!
Doki Doki! Welcome back, everybody to Pewdiepie's book club!
That's right, who doesn't want to know about what I think ABOUT...
..BOOKS? *Laughs* (Ah well PEW tell us you LOVE Twilight)
(Desperation) Please keep watching.
Did you do your homework this month?
That's right, we have HOMEWORK on the Pewdiepie channel now.
Isn't that exciting? That's just what everyone wants more of!
*requesting again* PLEASE KEEP WATCHING! PLEASE KEEP WATCHING!
I've been reading a lot of great comments from last month, saying that- uh..
You got into reading because of the videos that we've been doing, and that's essentially the goals of these videos,
to get you apart of- part of this uh, Book Club we're doing.
Now last month, the books that we read was.. uhhhh...
The old man in the Sea
Moby Dick
Man's search for meaning
Tony Takitani
I couldn't find Tony Takitani, for some reason it's 600 pounds on Amazon
I'm so sorry if you spent that amount of money. *Laughs nervously*
This month, I made sure that all the books that I picked are actually accessible.
My apologies, okay?
I didn't do my homework on all of it, but I bet you didn't either.
And if you did, I am so sorry. (600 pounds gift to everyone who did LOL)
I also read Flowers for Algernon, recommended by Brad, really good.
The Sound of Waves
The Temple of Golden Pavilion
BUSHIDO: The Soul of Japan
The Book of Five Rings
Metamorphosis by FRANZ KAFKA
And I think that was it-
They're very short books that I read this month.
I think I made the mistake of reading too many short books cause' uh...
Next month I'm gonna- wanna read some longer novels instead of just novellas.
It just sort of happened-
I just pick a book I want to read and then I don't really look too much of-
-how long it is. ANYWAY, let's get into this.
'The Old Man And The Sea'
By Ernest Hemingway
You know about this book, everyone knows about this book.
This is the quintessential- 'teacher wants you to read in in-
-school kind of book, which is actually why I picked it as well, because uh-
I want- I want you to be part of this.
Did you read it? What did you think?
The story is of Santiago, this uh- sailor
He's very old, and he's- he's been unlucky for a very long time.
He hasn't caught any fish,
He has his young apprentice- 'the boy' as he calls him
and uh- he's not even allowed to sail with Santiago anymore because of his parents don't want him to-
they wants him to sail with someone that actually catches some damn fish.
It takes place out- of the Coast of Mexico, I think?
Or Cuba
Santiago sets out to break this unlucky spree that he's on
and finally catches uh-
something on his hook.
He doesn't know what it is or how big it is, but
uh, he knows it's big
And it(the fish) pulls him away from shore
And [Santiago] decides very early that he's going to commit to trying to catch this fish, no matter what.
It's a very short book, it's very simple to read
It's the pinnacle of a- minimalistic approach to writing
One character, essentially, and such a simple setting as the ocean.
I think- Ernest even called it himself, he coined it-
'Iceberg Theory'
Er- You can probably guess what that means
I'm guessing it's well, uh- he's giving us the tip of the iceberg
And it's up to us to interpret the rest:
WHat DoSE ThE FiSh MEaN?
WhY DoSe hE dREaM oF LiONs?
I really enjoyed it. I fought it was fun to read and what kept me through it was just: "Is he going to catch the damn fiss- fish or not?"
I don't know if I really think if there's that much to analyse personally
but I'm sure there is
I *chuckles*I just- I
Not that interested, to be honest. I dont-I didn't find it that interesting
especially after reading Moby Dick as well.
Which we'll get into later
There's this theme *about* MASCULINITY I think-
-that you have to catch this fish no matter what
There's a certain manliness attached to that.
I talked about this book briefly with my mom and she said that she actually really really didn't like it
And I wonder if it is because of all the masculinity involved with it
I enjoyed it, It was a- It was alright but
but the more I think about it, the less I enjoy it
To be honest this whole ICEBERG theory thing just kind of
annoys me the more I think about it, is there even
an iceberg underneath the tip, Hemingway *HAH*
Moving on to Moby Dick
Moby Dick is a story-
(Someone left while adding subtitles and.. I know why now) (You're just not trying enough, mate)
-we all know about Mobi Dick
What I actually didn't know that Mobi Dick was a real whale that-
that actually existed in the 1800s
It was called 'Mock-a-Dick' *chuckles* (It actually spells "Mocha Dick" but I suppose nobody wants to know.)
And Hermon Melville, who wrote the story
was a whales-man as well-
-or SEaMEN
*wheezes and bangs on table because he thinks his pun is genius*
And a book like- like Moby Dick just wouldn't exist unless that was the case
this- Moby Dick is the heart of a whales-man
in--in itself.
It really covers every single last aspect of whaling
-and by every single last aspect of whaling, I mean Every. Single. Aspect.
But we'll get into that. First of all, you kn- you probably know the story anyway.
It follows a narrative of Ishmael, who is this uh-
a good-natured christian who wants to join a whaling voyage
so he travels and he stumbles upon-
uh, the other character which is Queequeg-
which is a harpooneer who has face tattooes
He's a Cannibal.
Eh--complete opposite of Ishmael but they become best-
they become close friends anyway
and they have to share a bed together in the early chapters and-
I remember reading it thinking wow, this is so--silly and it's so funny and so easy to follow
I r-- I read a lot of comments saying
'Dude, are you actually gonna read Moby Dick? That's pretty tough stuff'
and oF CouRsE I'm naive as always--thinking
'Wow this is so easy to follow. What are people talking about
tHey MuST nOT bE AS SmARt aS I aM' *awkward chuckle*
Little did I know, the chapters varied a LOT
The book changes style of writing-
-you could say, a LOT
It goes from narrative to-
straight up facts about whales, for exaples, to poetry, to philosophy
And uh, it's surprisingly lack of narrative in this book
You think the story of Moby Dick is so famous with Captain Ahab,
the captain that wants to capture this white whale no matter what to the bitter end
Because he seeks to revenge upon Moby Dick for taking away his leg
Literally inside Moby Dick there's the book of whales inside it
Which is very different from this minimalist book *chuckles*
You have a book with books inside it
And if you are not interested in whales
I definitely don't recommend reading this book. It basically covers every. Single. Aspect of whaling.
'Let me tell you about the economy and the ecology and the anatomy,
and the philosophy and the poetry and the-
-the weight and the scale and the whales of whales and the whales of- (pls stop)
Everything there is about whales is basically covered in this book
and if you're not ready for that, then, uh yeah, I don't know
But there are parts that really truly shine
I almost wanna just read the passage from it but-
I don't think we're on that level of cringe yet (oH rEaLLy?)
But, I'll tell you what; when I finished reading the book and I was uh--flipping through the pages.
The first line, which is a very famous line: Call me Ishmael
Maybe you don't understand why it's--it's uh-
it's hard to explain why that carries such an emotional response, reading that line.
But, uh--it, it really does and for anyone that's read the novel knows what I'm talking about
It's obviously a book filled with symbolism-
the whole expression with the white whale is a saying of itself
Herman really tries to deliver something real, he doesn't-
doesn't just give us the tip of the iceberg, he gives us the whole thing.
And uh, there's something honourable, and uh, you can really appreciate about that
And--I think Moby Dick, I probably-
-to be honest, I'm probably not really ready for it yet, but I'm really glad I read it
Look forward to read it again at some point in the future
The third book that we read, I'm so glad that I picked
I think this book is incredibly important.
I didn't know. I just picked it randomly cause I wanted to read something about philosophy
It's "Man's Search for Meaning" by Dr. Viktor Frankl
What's so special about this book is that Frankl is an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor
And he's a psychiatrist, so he can then answer the questions [of]
what went through the minds of people that survived these concentration camps
And I REALLY wanted to discuss this book with people and whenever I did, I was just met with BOREDOM
Because no one wants to hear about the holocaust. People are tired of hearing about the holocaust
We know it's bad, okay?
How often are we gonna get a piece of literature that really puts to test-
Almost, you can say, it's almost like-
Viktor treats himself as a lab rat--that's not appropriate expression--but I think it's the best way to explain it
He discusses a lot, for example the quote from Nietzche: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."
-and Viktor really puts this to the test because uh-
[Let's] put it this way, the whole phrase "what's the meaning in life"
It's--it's asked to death-
but Frankl actually does a really great job at trying to answer that question
And uh, I--I couldn't help but agree with a lot of it
I also thought that, uh-
-it was really great how this book was originally written in, uh, without an author's name in mind?
It was published anonymously originally.
I feel like this book is a great tool to just help people-
-and especially--maybe I'm over gene-ralising here--but I feel like lots of millenials are struggling to find meaning
I suddenly feel better equipped for in case--I know that sounds a bit weird to say-
-but in case something really bad happens, I feel like I- *chuckles*
-from reading this book, I'm better equipped to know how to handle it
That's a bit naive to say, but I really think there are some important stuff in here
and it's hard for me to explain clearly *nervous laugh*
The next book is a--much easier to talk about
It's recommended by Brad
"Flowers by (for) Algernon" Thank you Brad. Great recommendation. Really enjoyed this one.
After reading Moby Dick, I wanted something easier to follow
It follows a story of Charlie Gordon, who has an IQ of 68
He lives a happy life, and he works at a bakery
and he enjoys his time around his friends.
But he knows he's not very smart, he knows he's stupid
He wants to become smarter more than anything.
And, we basically follow his progress reports through the book that he writes-
-he's instructed to write because he's undergoing this experiment that will actually-
make him, uh, successively more and more intelligent
And we follow him realising that, things that used to be positive such as
People that he thought were his friends were actually just making fun of him
And uh, he has to quickly find himself growing up in a short period of time
Uh, you can't help but sympathise for charlie
It's a very tragic sad story
It was really fun to read from start to finish however and I really really enjoyed it.
It was a great recommendation. Thank you, Brad. Appreciated it.
The Metamorphosis with Franz Kafka--*unintelligible* I read. It's so quick
I almost uh, kinda feel like I should discuss it next, um--
--month?
BUT I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT ANYWAY
To me, the idea of turning into in--an insect is just the most disgusting idea ever and it just freaks me out.
I remember in the movie District 9,
the main character sorta become this alien weird insect-like thing and-
IT FREAKS ME OUT
Funnily enough though, Franz Kafka explicitly didn't want the cockroach to be on the cover
'cause, once you read the boo--uh--the novella, you really understand [that] it's not about the cockroach
The story's about Gregor, who one day wakes up and finds himself
-that he's turned into a giant cockroach
And the first thing that goes through his mind is funnily enough
"How am I going to get to work?"
*chuckles*
Gregor has been supporting his family by--uh--financially by working
and he doesn't really enjoy his job.
He knows he wants to quit it but he's not able to do it quite yet
But now he finds himself that he's a cockroach-
and we follow how the family tries to deal with that
They tried and lock him in. They wanna help Gregor but they don't really know how
And they sorta keep, uh, keep him a secret from other people
They don't want other people to find out--uh--about this obviously
It's really just a story about isolation and feeling not wanted and feeling like you're a problem
It's such [an] awful feeling. Anyone that's felt like that can--can sympathise with Gregor-
and feeling like an actual cockroach
And that's at least why I think he chose the cockroach while writing this
It's a very--sad story [to be] following and I can't help but sympathise with Gregor
And reading about Franz Kafka's life as well, afterwards,
I sorta understand more and more that this is a very personal story
Uh, he had issues with his father.
Franz Kafka burnt 90% of his work as well. He didn't even want anyone to read it.
Which I also can then understand cause it's--it's clearly very personally drawn
and uh-, whenever I do stuff that's very personal on YouTube, I wanted to delete it afterwards
cause I don't want other people cha--
I don't know if that's the case for why he did it but-
Um-, I can at least relate to it in that sense..
Uh...Yeah it's a sad story, I know what are you gonna tell me.
I'm getting emotional just talking about it *sad laugh*
It's a kind of novel that's uh-
-it's open for in-terpretation. Lots of people discussed it
Is the father the bad figure or is it the sister who is the bad one?
and blaladadada
Um, yeah.
Whatever you think. I don't know.
Read it. It's good.
Discovering this author has been one of the most fun discoveries I had in a very long time
I'm s o intrigued by this author,
Yukio Mishima
I wanted to read more Japanese literature cause I really like Murakami
So I uh-
-randomly picked Yukio Mishima's "The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea"
and I was so en-
*buffers*
-what's the right word? Entranced by it?
I felt so lost reading this book in th--in the best possible way
And I absolutely loved it
It follows a story of a young boy who sorta have an adolescent mind
Noboru is a very young boy but he has an--like I said he has an adolescent mind
He lives in a seaside town of Yokohama, which is, I think south of Tokyo
It doesn't matter, I don't know why i said that *sad laugh*
He's secretly part of this--
strange gang
It's sorta like a thought gang?
It's the best way to describe it.
They--they completely reject conventional ideas and mor--they have their own set of morals
Which is so interesting. It wasn't like anything I've ever read
and I really really enjoyed that cause of how different it was, and how strange it was
It's not like I agreed with everything but I just--was intrigued hearing about it
Noboru, uh, meets with this sailor called Ryuuji
and he sees Ryuuji in an extreme high regards
He's a pristine figure, because he's the pinnacle of manliness
Essentially he's a man that committed his whole life to the sea:
He's deliberately chose not to settle down with a wife
and he goes on all these adventures
And uh Noboru just looks up to this sailor.
But then Ryuuji meets with Noboru's mom who's a widow and works in a shop-
-and they connect and eventually they want to settle down with each other
So, Ryuuji wants to settle down and become a husband, essentially-
-even though it was against his principles
And Noboru, obviously he has a problem with this-
-because in--not just because it's his mom that's involved,
but because in his thought gang, they look at fatherhood as one of the worst things possible--is to be a father
And he wants to protect this pristine image that he has of Ryuuji
Noboru and his thought gang decides--I don't know why I keep calling it thought gang, it's just a gang-
-but um--they decide what they're gonna do about it
and that's all I'm gonna say
eh HEheHheHh
It was really fun reading a story that was so interesting
and then obviously, the symbolism with all the characters
Two cultures meeting: you have Ryuuji who's uh, the pinnacle of manliness
He represents honour and uh, o--I think old--old Japan?
The wife, that's--that represents the post war culture
And then you have Noboru that wants to gate-keep and protect the culture
cause uh--there was a giant culture shift
Aft--uh, after the World War 2, and that's a big theme for Yukio Mishima's work which I learned afterwards
Right after reading the--The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea,
I loved it so much and I wanted more because it was so short
I read "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" and I absolutely
L O V E D I T
I feel like I wanna do a video just exclusively--at some point--about Yukio Mishima
once I--I read more of his works, cause I'm so fascinated by him
His whole life is a story in of itself and that sort of strangely merged with all his novels
It's just so interesting.
Don't uh--if you're interested in reading the books, just read the books first, I would say-
-cause I, for me the discovery of this author was just uh-- so much fun.
and I don't wanna take that away from anyone
I also read "[The] Sound of Waves". I don't really have too much to say about it
But I think I should move on from Mishima for now
and then maybe we'll discuss it more in the future
After I read The Book of Five Rings,
I feel like such a kid uh--
when it comes to this book *chuckles* I just can't help myself
This is like the coolest book ever *laugh*
I know, I know it's a kind of book that people take very seriously
and they wanna--uh, they wanna really analyse and give a lot of thoughts to--to um--the words
Um--but I just, I feel like such a child with this book
ANYWAY, It's about Japan's greatest warrior
It's an undefeated warrior who is passing along his knowledge that--of what he's learned
He's--uh, master of strategy, I think he calls, or something like that
It's a real work, it's not a--it's not fiction, or who knows?
I mean it was written literally hundreds of years ago
so I don't know if any of it has been confirmed or not-
-but it's still--how cool is that, you have an *undefeated* warrior
who's just explaining how he became undefeated
How cool is that?
The book contains The Book of Fire, The Book of Water, Wind, Earth and Void
It discusses the--how his strategy is scalable and if you master his strategy,
if you can defeat one foe, you can defeat any numbers of foes and essentially become invincible.
The pinnacle of Zero Deaths™, everyone
He has this sort of nonsense approach to fighting-
where no flair involved, you should really just focus on just cutting down your enemy,
that's the number one thing
He talks about the fact the he--instead of holding the katana traditionally, people hold it with two hands
He ha--holds it with one hand which is harder-
but if you can master it, it's very beneficial
but and then he holds in his other hand the Wakizaki (prob. Wakizashi, a companion/secondary sword)
*Swedish boi mode activated* How fucking cool is that. HOW COOL IS THAT??
I've been enjoying just--uh, keeping this in my pocket
and reading uh--passages every once in a while, and just thinking about it
I'd be lying if I said I understand anything that is in this book
*Japanese flute BGM* "To apply stickiness;
when the enemy attacks, and you also attack with a long sword,
you should go in with a sticky feeling
and fix your long sword against the enemy's as you receive his cut.
The spirit of stickiness i snot hitting very strongly,
but hitting so that the long sword do not separate easily.
It is best to approach as calmly as possible-
when hitting the enemy's long sword with stickiness.
The difference between stickiness and entanglement-
is that stickiness is firm, and entanglement is weak.
You must appreciate this."
(Oh lord, have we reached that level of cringe where Pewds read passages from the books for us already? )
*wheezes*
Obviously there's a lot to learn from this book
and people still--um, use the teachings for other fields of profession today
Obviously you don't have to be a Samurai in today's society-
but people use it in business, for example, and using his strategy in business
I just love how--how...this book esists
*chuckles* I think it's fantastic
Last but not least, I read--uh, I was so fascinated by the whole Samurai
and I wanted to learn more about Samurai so I read "Bushido: The Soul of Japan"
For anyone that wants to learn more about Japanese culture and the history of it,
I think Bushido is a great starting point.
It's--the book is called "Bushido: The Soul of Japan" for a reason
because the code of ethic of the Samurai has left such a huge impact-
-[on] Japanese society and culture even still today
They're explaining why politeness is so important in Japanese culture-
and the logic behind the politeness as well.
It was really interesting to know about.
I think this is a great book if you wanna learn about self control--control your self impulses-
But the chapters that I enjoyed the most was the--grimly enough, about Seppuku
I'm sure you've heard about Seppuku before,
but in case you don't know, it's the act of committing suicide, or execution.
It's sort of a mix in between, but the --the Samurai valued honour more than anything.
Honour was more valuable than life itself
and--if a Samurai messed up in a--in a way, made a bad choice-
-or--the punishment would be Seppuku
but it will also be a way for them to restore their honour;
Going down on--on your knees, and cutting your guts open with a short sword
and there's a specific reason why the guts is chose for it
and then someone would cut off your head--uh, right afterwards
The--the reason why they did do this was to restore honour,
and they--honour meant more to them than anything
and their approach--the Samurai's approach to death
I find so interesting
Instead of trying to fight it, they see it as an opportunity
I don't know, I thought it was very fascinating to learn about and I really really enjoyed it
I definitely recommend this book if you're-
interested in Japanese culture
That's right, I love Japan.
What are y--What are you gonna do? Sue me?
That was it!
*clapping to himself*
Thank you for watching
Ta-ha we did it!
I'm loving this series. I'm having so much fun reading.
I know it sounds so pretentious in a way, almost. But-
now, for the books that we're gonna read next month,
I really wanna read "Crime and Punishment"
Uh, a lot of people recommended it from last month so I thought,
oh, okay. Yeah, why not?
I also wanna read "Stoner". I also wanna read "No longer Human"
Aaand I think we should just start with those 3.
I don't wanna overwhelm you guys as well.
ANYWAY I'LL--thank you guys so much for watching.
Uhh, really appreciate all the support and all the fantastic comments that I get on these videos
It really means a lot. And I'll see you next month.
*meme review outro*