Hello, hello, hello! Welcome back to my youtube channel -- today we are drinking coffee and spilling tea.
Over the past few months I have been reading books recommended by celebrities and today we are
tackling Kendall Jenner -- not physically, just intellectually. So basically I was watching
Kendall Jenner's house tour on Architectural Digest because I like to judge rich people's taste
in interior design... I like to think how differently I would decorate their multi-million pound houses
while I sit in my rented accommodation above a pizza shop in London. People get exhausted trying
to figure me out and I just let them. Anyway, Kendall Jenner has a lovely house, however the
video that she did with Architectural Digest left me feeling a little bit mad -- a little bit
agitated -- and this is why: look at the way that Kendall Jenner displays her books! "Everybody
always asks me what these are... not exactly sure" Are you actually having a giggle? What is going
on there? Look, I get it, maybe I'm overreacting. I'm definitely overreacting, but why the hell are they
spread out at the end of the bed like that? What?! So I did a little bit of digging and it turns
out that Kendall has also recommended this exact same spread of books on her Instagram stories and
in an article with Vogue, and so -- like a perfectly sane and logical person -- I kind of bought all of them.
Can we talk about how stunning some of these covers are? Like, I didn't know there was such thing
as hipster books but these are giving me hipster book energy. The other thing is that they're all
poetry or short story collections, which isn't what I naturally would gravitate towards so I'm
quite intrigued to read these. So, yeah, welcome to the video -- this week we are going to be judging
Kendall Jenner's taste in books... could be a long week. So i read the first book and, uh, momager
come pick me up, I'm scared. Okay, I'm not gonna lie, we are off to the worst start possible. The
first book I read was this one, simply because the title is so provocative, it's "Literally Show Me
a Healthy Person". The structure is essentially a kind of montage of ideas, in kind of tweet-sized
chunks. It's all lower-case, there's no grammar, there's no punctuation. It's kind of set out like that -- if
you can see that? It's post-modern, definitely a product of the 21st century -- it's cool, I get that.
This is essentially a series of fleeting observations that are sometimes kind of funny
and they amalgamate into this kind of collage of self-deprecation, trauma, and sex -- emphasis on sex,
like, I think the word c*m is mentioned on every single page. I'm not talking about "come on Eileen".
And, although it's non-linear, there are kind of themes and motifs that are threaded throughout
the book to kind of make it feel like a cohesive piece of work. Darcie Wilder, I was rooting for you...
we were all rooting for you! I've never in my life read a book and felt genuinely embarrassed for the
author, like the second-hand embarrassment that I got from this book was actually painful. Listen, I'm
not against the concept at all, I'm just against the way it was executed -- as in, like, it made me want
to be executed. Basically, Darcie Wilder just gives off the most "pick-me" energy I've ever encountered.
It's this weird juxtaposition of, like, trying too hard to look like you're not trying at all and
having a kind of deliberately nonchalant tone whilst talking about things that are incredibly
shocking behaviors and I just thought it made it seem a bit calculated and therefore insincere.
Yeah, I didn't enjoy this at all, but I appreciate the effort -- oh, actually I need to grab this back
to show you that on the cover there is a quote by Scott McClanahan that says "this book is the
future of writing" -- is that a threat? If this is the future of writing, I'm shredding my english
degree. Anyway, Literally Show Me a Healthy Person? Literally show me one good thing about this book.
Okay, it's day two and we have another book with a very sexy book cover. This is just exquisite.
So I've read the first few short stories in this collection now and let's just say it's
ironic that there's a chair on the cover of this book because it's the tables that have turned! I
am loving it, this is so good! You know what else I'm enjoying? The fact that when I
first started out on Youtube and Instagram I used to go to Grind coffee shops in London to
take my artsy, Instagramable, aesthetic pictures and now they are the sponsor of today's video...
what?!?!?! This is the Grind "at home" collection and the aesthetic is immaculate. Is that or is that not the
most beautiful coffee machine you've ever seen in your whole life? And i cannot espresso enough
how good this coffee is -- you see what i did there? And it's not too latte to get your own. We've got
the matching milk frother, these pink reusable tins with the coffee inside which make me want
to redecorate my whole kitchen, and these are the coffee pods which are Nespresso compatible
so we just chuck her in there, flick that on, pull down the lever (which makes me feel so cool every
time), and then we're good to go! Give me that goodness! Listen, when I learn how to do coffee
art it's over for you b*tches. And this has given me a whole new definition of "the daily Grind". So
this video is not just about taste in literature, it's also about tasty coffee. And Grind coffee is
*chef kiss*. Do you know how many coffee pods are sent to landfill every single year? 30 billion!
And that's what's so great about the Grind coffee pods because these are 100% plastic free and fully
compostable, so not only do these taste absolutely phenomenal, they're also so much better for the
planet. Someone let David Attenborough know about Grind. In the meantime, while we try to contact Dave,
I have secured a 25% discount on Grind's monthly subscription for you, so that means you can use
the exclusive code jack25 to get 25% off your first three months of a Grind subscription -- link will be
down below, check it out. I can't believe this is real, thank you so much Grind, I love you! Okay, time
has passed, coffees and short stories have been consumed. This book is called The Houseguest and
it really made me think of Edgar Allan Poe and, as we all know, I'm an Edgar Allen Hoe -- I love that
man! These stories are so creepy and sinister and mesmerising, and they're just consistently
really good. And each story leaves you having to kind of fill in the gaps of what happened
before the story started or what happened after or even during the story. Amparo Davila is a
Mexican author -- this is her first work in English, and I will be reading anything else that she puts
out because this was so great! So thank you Kendall! Hello there, and welcome back to "Jack reading eight
books in seven days" -- you know, it doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Okay, I've got it: welcome to
Keeping Up with the Car-crashians... because I am a car-crash. Okay, so the next book that I read was
this one: this is How to Cure a Ghost by Fariha Roisin. Right, I'm going to say it, I think this
is one of my favorite book covers of all time! In fact, the whole book is just absolutely stunning.
I would say this has a very similar vibe and tone to Milk and Honey and, I've said it before and I'll
say it again, just because something appeals to a mass audience and can be understood by everyone
doesn't mean it's inherently bad. In fact, this poetry collection is really bloody good. As in,
I was reading this on the train last night and I was so engrossed in the poetry that I was reading
that I missed my stop and didn't notice until like three stops later. But it presents this really
powerful and poignant and interesting perspective of a queer muslim, and how she's kind of navigating
a world that she feels wasn't built for her. It discusses intersectionality in a range of
different scenarios. It covers colonialism, diaspora, love, belonging, and also privilege. And, y'know, I
can see why Kendall Jenner is such a fan of this book. After all, she did end police brutality
with a can of Pepsi so, y'know, CEO of activism! I mean, RIP Malcolm X, you would have loved Kendall Jenner.
Anyway, um, back to the collection of poetry. There's a few kind of filler poems in here, which I
wish had been edited out because they do sort of kill the momentum at parts, but overall I thought
this was breathtaking and I would recommend! I have just finished reading this book, this is called So
Sad Today and, to be honest, I can't fault it -- it did do what it said it would do on the cover, it made
me so sad today. So sad that I spent money on this thing. This book is a freaking roller-coaster. It's
kind of similar to Literally Show Me a Healthy Person in the sense that it's very irreverent and
post-modern, but this one at least didn't make me lose brain cells. Y'know, it's achieving the bare
minimum for me! This is a selection of personal essays by Melissa Broder and let me just read
you some of the essay titles. So we have "I want to be a whole person but really thin", "help me not
be a human being", "honk if there's a committee in your head trying to kill you". Okay, this one
is called "love like you are trying to fill an insatiable spiritual hole with another person
who will suffocate in there" and that essay is all about two people sexting for 30 whole pages. Uh-huh,
how did we get here? How did we get here? Weirdly, if you guys remember my video
on Halsey's poetry, Halsey has this poem where she's like "on day one I realised I wasn't enough"
and that's exactly what the first essay in this book is about as well, and I hated it in
Halsey's poetry collection and I hated it in here. I really feel like we just need to let this idea go,
like this whole "when did I ask to be born?" idea -- let it go guys, let it- it's gone! Because it's just dumb.
It's a tweet at best -- a tweet that should have been saved in the drafts, not an essay or a poem that
makes it into a collection. It's about as clever as saying "no one asked for the sky to be blue", like
it doesn't matter. Overall, I felt like this book was a better version of this book, but I still
didn't like it. And i am so sad today. Wait-- why have I never used this filming location before? This is -- oh,
that's probably why. Right, get out of the way. Now that I've hit 400k
everyone wants a collab! Anyways, today's book is this one! This is Sea of Strangers.
It goes without saying, this cover is divine. Before I talk about any author iI always make sure
to look up how to pronounce their name and when I searched up Lang Leav this is what came up: [incoherent noise]
So, anyway, that was not helpful! And it's a collection of poetry and prose that is very much
fine... like, it's just fine. The poems said nice things, and they said them using nice words.
All of the words I'm using here are positive, but they're just, like,
aggressively average, y'know? I found this collection just a little bit,
like, forgettable, and I think that's because a lot of the ideas that are presented are ones you've
probably come across before. For example, there's this one called "Meant To Be" and it goes: "if they
were meant to be in your life, nothing could ever make them leave. If they weren't, nothing in the
world could make them stay." Don't you feel like you've just heard that before somewhere? Hello!
Look at this setup, it's quite nice isn't it? "Yeah it's cute, here have these" Thanks, what a result!
Thank you -- we got the goods! Just call me "Snack Edwards" -- anyways, um, as I was reading the collection
I just felt like I was coming across lots of things that I already knew or had already heard
before, but just in a nicer way than I am capable of articulating myself. Y'know, for example,
there's this one which is called "With Anyone Else": "you came into my life and made everything
else feel like a rehearsal. Love always came to me as a question, but with you it felt like an answer.
I didn't know I had put up walls until you brought them crashing down. I couldn't figure out why love
was different with you until I realized it hadn't been love with anyone else." That is quite lovely! So,
yeah, that is Sea of Strangers and it's something that I think would maybe be a good gift to someone
who you think would like poetry but doesn't read very much of it... if that makes sense? I've heard
that Leav's other collections of poetry are a lot better than this, they're a bit stronger, so
yeah I would just say don't expect anything groundbreaking here. It's kind of similar to
Kendall within the Kardashian clan because y'know, it's nice, it's beautiful to look at, but
it's not necessarily serving us iconic moments. I don't even know where I'm going with this, um, that was Sea of Strangers. I will see you strangers tomorrow -- you're not strangers, you're friends!
Good morning treacles -- the vibes today are immaculate. Today's book was "Tonight I'm Someone Else"
by Chelsea Hodson and, I hope you can see this, but the pages have deckled edges which is
a real treat. This book is introspective, psychoanalytical, and melancholy -- similar
to So Sad Today. This is also a collection of personal essays, but it's so much better. Chelsea Hodson
sort of explores femininity and the experience of being a woman in society but she doesn't shy
away from kind of gruesome encounters and scenarios, and things not always having the
perfect conclusion and not always making the most morally sound decisions. So, yeah, out of Literally
Show Me a Healthy Person, So Sad Today and this, I would pick this every time. The one thing that
I'm finding as a general kind of trend in this video is that with short story collections and
collections of essays like this, they're not necessarily as gripping as, like, a novel would be --
just because I think when you're reading a story you're kind of-- the incentive to keep reading is to
find out what happens, and how the plot develops. Whereas, with these, when you get to the end of a
short story or the end of an essay collection it's kind of like self-contained and you could
quite easily stop there. So I'm-- I'm finding it more difficult to actually think about picking
these books up, but that's very much a me problem. Going forward I think I will continue to read
stuff like this. I think the perfect kind of place for this in my life would be to put a book like
this in my bag that I take with me on the tube or, you know, when I'm commuting anywhere and I just
want to read in like bite-sized chunks because the kind of self-contained nature of these stories
is perfect for that kind of scenario, and if any of you do pick up this collection, um, The New Love
was my absolute favourite and it was so good. So she's in a class and her teacher asks her to
imagine her "peak experience" -- so the moment that is just pure happiness to reflect upon -- and she
realises that she doesn't have one, and as of that moment throughout her life she's always thinking
about, like, when is my "peak experience" going to be? So, yeah, super cool and I will see you tomorrow!
Okay, so it is the final day and I've actually finished two books today. Firstly we have this
one, this is by Lydia Davis and this is Can't and Won't. And I can't and won't recommend this book -- I
cannot believe this won the International Booker Prize in 2013! Like, were no other books published
in that year? It's not that it's bad, it's just definitely not worth that amount of praise. Like,
it's basically kind of observations of the very small elements of our lives and, like, universally
recognisable thoughts and feelings and sentiments and experiences, and those are kind of unpacked
and highlighted. I just didn't really gain anything from reading this, I don't think. They're generally
sort-of short observations-- it kind of feels like a whole book of someone telling you about their
dreams. In my opinion, there is nothing more boring than someone telling you about a dream that they
had the night before because it didn't happen. It didn't actually happen -- you imagined that thing
so I don't want to hear about it! And that's basically what this book is, but just for 300
pages. For me, this put the dull in Ken-dull. There's this one that's called "Her Geography: Alabama" and
it just goes "She thinks for a moment that Alabama is a city in Georgia. It is called Alabama, Georgia."
I've got nothing else to say. However, this book was immaculate -- this is called "No-one Belongs
Here More Than You" and it's by Miranda July, and I would read this in April, May, June, July and
August because I just thought it was really good! I reckon it's kind of an acquired taste but, like, I-
I have that taste! They're these wacky and wonderful short stories but, different to the other
book, they're told in a really captivating way. For example, the first short story is called "The Shared
Patio" and it's all about this woman who lives above an elderly couple, but they share a patio,
and she's always timed it so that she never goes on the patio at the same time as they're on there,
but then one time she decides "I'm just gonna go and i'm gonna sit with the old man and we'll have
a chat". Anyway, the old man has an epileptic fit and, instead of helping him like you might expect,
she falls asleep on him and communicates with him through kind of telepathy, I guess. Then the wife
comes home and she's like "what the hell are you doing? Go inside and get his medication to help
him!" and she goes inside and, instead of getting the medication, she just looks at the family portraits
on the wall. I won't give too many other spoilers but the second story is about a lady who teaches
old people how to swim in her kitchen and it's all just quite bizarre. So, if you're into that
kind of thing, this is really quite great. I mean, Kendall Jenner has just launched that tequila
brand and I feel like this was probably written by someone who was drinking a lot of tequila
perhaps. It's kind of odd because I don't know who I would recommend this to, but I did really, really
like it. These two were a real contrast, this is "you versus the guy she tells you not to worry about" --
this was me versus Kendall Jenner, this is the Matalan catalogue and this is the Chanel runway.
So, to recap, these were the eight books that I read this week. These three -- definitely more Car-crashian
than Kardashian. This one was really, really boring and these two were an absolute cringe-fest. It's
like Fyre Fest, except this one actually happened. Sea of Strangers has some gorgeous lines but it's
not really unique. Tonight I'm Someone Else and How To Cure a Ghost had style as well as substance,
these were quite fantastic, and then the creme de la creme: No-One Belongs Here More Than You
and The Houseguest. These are both short story collections which I adored. So, Kendall Jenner,
this has been a real mixed bag. I did not expect to encounter books I absolutely despised as well
as books I absolutely loved, but y'know what? That is all the fun of the circus! And, really and truly,
this is what Kendall Jenner looks like when she reads these books. Meanwhile, while I read these
books I look like -- well, me. So the joke is very much on me. Thank you guys so, so much for watching all
the way to the end of this video, I really, really appreciate it, and of course a massive shout out to
Grind -- firstly because this coffee has got me through this week and secondly because it's
both delicious and sustainable! So, if you want to get 25% off use the code jack25 -- link is down below.
Have a wonderful day, I love you all loads and I'll catch you next time. Bye bye! And subscribe!