So, I have a problem.
Despite having shelves and shelves of unread books,
I'm a simple person.
I see a book that looks good, suddenly it's in my hand,
suddenly I'm paying for it, suddenly it's on my shelf.
(laughing)
I am weak.
I literally cannot stop myself from buying books
and it needs to stop.
And so today I am staging an intervention.
I need to start reading books that are already on my shelf.
Yes, this is a cry for help.
And so in order to get through more of the books
that were on my TBR, I'm going to load
every single unread book in my flat onto Goodreads,
which is like a book social media using this scanner,
but the reason for scanning them,
so that I can see every single book
that I have on my bookshelf in order of rating.
And this rating out of five stars will be the average rating
from every single reader who has ever reviewed
this book on Goodreads.
And so then stay with me here.
My plan for the week is to read on average,
the highest rated book and the lowest rated book
that I have on my bookshelf, because basically,
firstly, I'm curious to see what people hate
that I thought looked good,
but also to see whether my review
matches up with the general sort of consensus
that these books have.
So let's get scanning.
♪ I like it ♪
♪ Do you know that's the way that I feel ♪
♪ And I need it ♪
♪ Every day is becoming so real ♪
- [French Narrator From SpongeBob] One hour later
- Okay, we're back.
Everything has been uploaded onto my Goodreads account.
I've got my laptop and it's time to see
who's through to judges houses.
But first predictions.
These are the books I think might take the top spot.
Firstly, two words, Sally Rooney.
I love this woman.
She could publish her daily to do list and I'd read it.
This is a copy of her new book,
which comes out in September and I feel like
it's going to be quite critically acclaimed.
So I felt like this could have quite high average rating
so far, next sticking with the pink theme,
I got, Where the Crawdads Sing,
purely because every time I get on the tube,
someone is reading this book.
Are the pages of this book lined with crack?
Because people are addicted to it,
I see it absolutely everywhere.
And I'm very intrigued to read this one.
So I wouldn't be mad if it was this one.
In fact, I wouldn't be mad if it was any of these.
I also thought it might be Circe by Madeline Miller,
mostly because her other book Song of Achilles,
is so highly rated and widely loved.
Honestly, I've been really putting off reading this book
because I'm so convinced that I will love it.
That I am genuinely scared to be disappointed.
Another guess would be Richard Osman's,
The Thursday Murder Club,
because this has been at the top of the book chart,
like all year and maybe I'm just the hype beast, I dunno.
And then my final prediction is,
The House in the Cerulean Sea
because this has such a cult following.
I don't know an awful lot about this.
What I do know is that a subscriber sent this to my PO box
because they said it was that favorite ever book
of all time and I had to read it.
So could be this one.
And then for lowest rated book, I struggled with this
because obviously all of the books
that I've bought books that I think look good.
So my first guess was, The Circle, purely because
I don't think I've ever seen a positive review of this book.
I really love dystopias, which is why I bought it.
But since then, I've only really heard bad things.
And so I think it probably is quite likely
going to be this one.
And then my other guess was Shuggie Bain,
which not going to lie, it's a bit of a rogue guess.
This actually won the Booker Prize last year,
which obviously gives a book, huge exposure.
And I've heard that this is very gritty and raw.
So my thought process, which I'm now doubting,
was that, although this has been really well received
with literary critics, this book would have got
huge exposure and maybe even picked up by people
who wouldn't normally have chosen something like this.
That's what I'm thinking.
But it's the moment of truth, let's see,
who has topped my chart.
I seem to have typed in goof reads instead of Goodreads,
which is not what we're looking for,
but possibly quite a good description of my channel.
So let's see what this goof is going to be reading.
Okay, so I have 79 books on my bookshelf,
that I haven't yet read, which is shameful,
but let's see, let's rank by highest average rating.
Oh, why is that my proudest ever achievement?
I smashed it The House in the Cerulean Sea.
So this has an average rating of 4.5 out of five,
that's huge.
In second place, The Girl with the Louding Voice.
Third place Where the Crawdads Sing.
Forth is a Shuggie Bain,
let's just pretend that didn't happen.
Okay, so the Sally Rooney one was number 12
and Circe was number 17 with an average rating of 4.26.
So not the worst.
So we have our top rated book
and now lets see what's at the bottom.
Here we go,
oh, Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi.
That book was long-listed for the Women's Prize,
for the Man Booker Prize.
I got the wrong Booker Prize nominee.
And then that is followed by A Lonely Man
and then The Circle, damn I was 0.5 out.
However, what I will say is that
my lowest average rated book on my bookshelf is 3.39,
which is not that bad.
So what does that say about me, as a book buyer?
I'm very good at judging books by that covers apparently.
So I've just gone to retrieve that book.
And these are the two books that I'm going to be reading,
this week, House in the Cerulean Sea and Burnt Sugar.
But speaking of things that have a raving reviews,
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Thank you so, so much to Fiverr for sponsoring this video.
And now your boy's got some reading to do,
so I will catch up with you when I'm done with
The House in the Cerulean Sea.
(cheerful music)
That sea is not just blue, it's not turquoise,
it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean.
If you thought I was going to discuss this book
without referencing The Devil Wears Prada, you were wrong.
Now I am not usually into fantasy books,
but The House on the Cerulean Sea,
is kind of gentle fantasy.
It has just the right amount for me, you know.
This is a book about a government worker,
who works with orphanages, who look after magical children.
It's basically Ofsted, just for magical people.
So this government worker basically goes
and inspects the orphanages to check that the children
are being properly cared for
and that their particular needs are being met.
Because he is such an obedient worker
and has basically sold his soul to the system.
This guy is A, a massive wet wipe
and B, trusted by the people in charge to basically
be assigned a top secret, very important case.
In other words, he is assigned to
The House in the Cerulean Sea,
this is a foster home for particularly dangerous children.
As in like one of them is quite literally,
the son of the Antichrist and the local people
are literally terrified of these children,
which creates a huge divide between the orphanage
and the local town.
And without giving too much away,
these children actually turn out to be way less monstrous
and scary than you may imagine
when you hear the word Antichrist.
And the story kind of progresses from there,
where the assumptions and views of the local people
and the government worker are challenged and questioned.
When they get to know these outsiders as individuals.
So this book is a great exploration of empathy,
of preconceptions, of a catch all government systems
and the way that outsiders are perceived
by those who ostracize them and the hostile environments
that government sometimes cause.
It's also a great summer read
because it's sat on a peninsula, on an island
and it just feels very summery and warm.
It's fluffy, it's very, very sweet
and it melted my icy heart.
Genuinely, it's such a charming book
and it's funny, it's so witty,
there's so many cracking one-liners.
So I can definitely see why it has such
a strong average rating because it's so feel-good,
very love conquers all, kind of vibes.
Now I also have to discuss the controversy
that this book has surrounding it
because I've done a bit of research into the source material
that TJ Klune, was inspired by for this book.
Basically between the fifties and sixties in Canada,
around 20,000 indigenous children were forcibly taken
from their home, from their parents
and forced to live in foster care.
This was an attempt at cultural assimilation,
but it's so traumatic for everyone involved
and just horrible.
And the government basically hopes that
these indigenous people would be adopted by white families
and that's as the source material complicates this book
because on one hand, I think the point of this novel
was that in life we're often told
that certain specific groups are dangerous.
And actually these are just people who want to live
and laugh and love.
I just live, laugh, loved, I can't believe I just did that.
My point is these people just want peace.
And sometimes governments and communities
do create hostile environments towards people
who just want to live harmlessly
and they just want to co-exist.
And even before doing all of that research,
this book really made me think of
the attitudes towards refugees here in Britain,
in which innocent well-meaning people who just want
to be safe are marginalized as others.
I think the purpose of this book is to show that often
that perception is misguided and wrong
and the first person narrator, is a government worker.
So we literally watch someone who embodies
these values of these institutional beliefs.
He's literally the person who enforces these regulations.
We watched that person change his mind with more information
and more understanding comes new ideas and new values.
We also see that the violence and the scare mongering
and the intimidation of the local people is wrong
and cruel and horrible.
And there's this huge juxtaposition with that violence
and the fact that these people who they're so mad at
are literally children.
So I kind of feel like I can see
the author's intention here, however,
that are also problematic elements of this book
that you do need to consider.
Firstly, does a privileged white author
have the rights to package up other people's trauma
into a fluffy fantasy novel?
Is it his story to tell?
I would guess he chose fantasy so that he didn't,
co-opt a history that isn't his,
but comparisons are obviously inevitable
and likening indigenous people to monsters in this book.
Doesn't sit that well.
We also have the issue that it's the government worker
in the story who kind of saves the day
and is able to translate and communicate
between the children and the angry mob in the town.
And the more I've thought about this
and the more I unpacked it,
the more they sort of resembled a white savior complex.
And the government worker seems to be the equivalent
of that kind of a figure,
which I just think it's quite questionable.
Now the author, TJ Klune has addressed all of this,
but he did it in a way that I just don't think
was delicate enough and sensitive enough
for such a difficult issue.
He wasn't very careful with his language
when discussing it and I'll leave links down below.
so you can read for yourself and make your own opinion.
But I do definitely think it's worth considering this book
in context and using this as an opportunity
to educate yourself and research the sixties scoop
in Canada, because I had never heard of it
before reading this and doing subsequent research,
but equally having said all of that,
I don't think it's ever useful to view things as binary's,
like this doesn't have to be a great book
or incredibly controversial and canceled.
I actually think it facilitates
a really interesting conversation about whose stories
we are entitled to tell and how you should tell them.
And having said all of that, on the surface level,
this book was a very pleasant and cozy read.
Also, if you're looking for a queer love story
that just blends itself quite naturally
into a narrative, this is your next read.
The only other thing I think I would say about
my reading experience is I found this very predictable.
And so for me, this was four stars
because I also felt like the ending really dragged,
like we could all see where it was going.
It was just a case of getting there.
But overall, I did enjoy reading this book
and I'm so glad that I finally got round to it
and that this video has encouraged me to read this book,
that I just had sitting on my shelf collecting dust
and it's been very thought provoking.
You know what else?
I am thinking about, the fact that maybe it was dumb
to start with the good book,
because now I've got to read the bad book
or at least the one that other people rated badly.
So I will catch up with you
when I have finished Burnt Sugar.
(cheerful music)
So Burnt Sugar was not so sweet.
This book genuinely could not be any more different
to the other book, if it tried,
like this was a shock to the system,
this book is so slow paced.
And it's about a woman in India whose mother has dementia,
throughout her life, her mother has always been
incredibly distant and uncaring.
Yet now it falls on the daughter to care for her.
So obviously straightaway, very weird dynamic to negotiate.
And because it's about dementia,
the theme of memory is explored in vivid detail.
Also bodily fluids.
(chuckles)
Bodily fluids are discussed on every page.
And honestly it's disgusting.
The nature of life and death is depicted
as incredibly cyclical,
but the true focal point of this book
is the mother daughter relationship and bond,
or lack there off.
It's all about how they clash and collide and drift
and morph into one another
and seeing yourself in your parents,
whether you like it or not.
There's also a huge Oedipus complex
and also, I guess the reverse of that,
let's just say that Sigmund Freud would have
a field day reading this book,
if he picked this up in a bookstore,
he would feel like he'd won the lottery.
And what I would say is that it's one of those books
that I can see exactly why it was so critically acclaimed
and why it was award nominated,
but I didn't enjoy reading it.
You feel weirdly distant from the author,
but also the characters, like none of them are likable
in the slightest and usually I quite enjoy reading books
about unlikeable characters.
I don't know what that says about me,
but I find characters that are deliberately unlikable,
very fascinating and endearing, but just not here,
if you want something like that,
I would recommend Exciting Times as an alternative to this,
but there are some beautiful, beautiful quotes.
I made so many notes in this book,
'human degeneration halts and splutters,
but it does not reverse,
I nod because he's right, but I want to cry for being stupid
for giving him the tools to make this incision.'
'Sometimes I refer to ma in the past tense,
even though she is still alive, I am grieving,
but it's too early to burn the body.'
And so I did think at times the writing was stunning.
I just think it's such a fascinating discussion
of like morning someone who hasn't yet passed.
The book is definitely very rooted in Indian culture.
And so I think that readers who have more of an insight
into that culture will enjoy this a lot more.
When I got to the midway point,
I was so close to giving up, so close,
but the ending was so worth sticking around for
it is so harrowing and haunting and heartbreaking.
And now that I'm finished, I feel like I can appreciate this
as a piece of art, which I'm like cool, great over there.
But when I was actually reading it, I was not having fun.
It's so intense and sharp,
but it definitely keeps you at arms length.
And so I think three stars is the way
that I would review this.
So I think to conclude, I kind of agreed with the ratings
that these were given on average on Goodreads.
And what I will say,
I have also signed up to The StoryGraph,
which is a Goodreads alternative,
and I filmed a second channel video
showing me setting myself up on that website and stuff.
So if you want to go check the out, link is down below,
you can follow me over there if you like.
To conclude this book was not bad
by any stretch of the imagination.
It just wasn't necessarily my cup of tea.
And this book was not quite as perfect
as I expected it to be and I think that the intention
and the outcome were misaligned,
but I thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience of this book
and thoroughly hated it for this book.
So there you go, those are my reviews.
I would highly encourage you to take on this challenge
and scan your own bookshelf and see what's rated top,
what's rated bottom and give them a go.
All my social media links will be down below.
You can like this video if you liked it
and subscribe for more me and turn the notification bell on.
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Thank you for watching.
Have a wonderful day and I'll catch you next time.
Ba-bye.