- How are you gorgeous people.
Welcome back to my YouTube channel.
So it's currently Paris Fashion Week,
and this got me thinking,
I wonder what books supermodels recommend.
And the thing is,
you don't get more super
than Gigi and Bella Hadid.
And so I did a little bit of research
and this article is what came up.
It says Bella and Gigi Hadid make books
the hot new accessory of 2019,
which is just so bizarre.
Books have been popular for literally centuries.
How can books be a hot new accessory.
Once you hear about librarians
you're gonna lose your share.
And also it's not like a core set
which came back into fashion.
Books have always been there.
Like when the Bible was first published,
where people praising Christians?
having a hot new accessory.
I don't know, I wasn't there.
But secondly, aside from that,
isn't it pretty sexist,
misogynistic to suggest that these highly successful women
would only be carrying around books
for aesthetic value.
I'm gonna say something quite controversial here.
So be prepared,
but maybe they were reading them.
I mean, I carry around books regularly.
Yes, I am very trendy,
but I carry them because I'm reading them.
It's convenient,
it's practical.
But of course,
when it comes to supermodels,
they can only be a hot new accessory.
Some of the article opens with an absolute banger.
Those Hadid sisters are literary.
Honestly, I make fun of that.
If it wasn't a joke that I would also make.
(laughs)
Bella and Gigi are more than just pretty faces.
After all the supermodel siblings
have been recently photographed carrying books,
books, you know,
those antiquated analog vessels of information.
Okay, flex that English language GCSE.
Okay. (mumbles)
shake spear can retire.
In fact, I'm glad she opened by defining what a book is.
'cause I was confused for a minute there.
But aside from that absolute corker,
there's more.
There's antiquated analog vessels of information
usually associated with small people like Emma Watson,
because in case no one reminded you recently,
there is only one intelligent woman ever.
That's the rule,
there can only be one.
Emma Watson has taken that spot.
So, you might as well be pretty.
How dare you be multifaceted?
Who do you think you are better than Gigi Hadid
also the Hadid sisters are so intelligent.
My question is why are we gate keeping reading?
Surely there are more efficient ways
of clout chasing that reading.
It's not a thing
as Vogue reports,
Bella is deep in the throes of Stephen King's
"The Outsider"
a 560 page thriller that she's been toting around for weeks.
Why would Bella Hadid
(mumbles)
how long it's taking her to read that book.
Have you seen the size of it?
It's a mammoth and the writing is small.
My poor eyesight is actually
really gonna struggle with that,
but she's not only using this
antiquated analog vessel of information to read.
She's even using it as a shield against paparazzi
at Charles de Gaulle airport during Paris Fashion Week.
Multifunctional, we love to see it.
Joan of Arc could never.
Gigi meanwhile, has slightly more intellectual tastes.
It's the intellectual snobbery for me.
The blonde has been seen
holding a slim volume of Albert Camus
"The Stranger.
Why is this written as if it's describing the books outfit,
a figure hugging edition of our community,
"The Stranger" with a plunging neckline.
Anyway, she's reading "The Stranger"
which if you never took a high school literature class
is per Vogue,
A classic has been on the must read list
of philosophy nerds
and French literature themes for decades.
Who heard the journalist who wrote this article?
Is she doing okay?
Has anyone checked with her in a while?
Has anyone given her a hug?
'Cause why is everything she says so aggressive.
You would know this.
If you ever took a high school literature class,
okay, Jane Austen.
Let's just say that down a notch.
Anyway, she says, "tres chic and like true supermodels
"the gals know how to coordinate their outfits
to that brainy new accessories."
I actually can't get over,
how condescending this is.
I feel like if you were literally training
to be in the military,
your offices would be nicer than this journalist
is being to the Hadid's.
Am so unprovoked all they did was carry books with them
whilst they left the airport.
And that hotel rooms,
which are like prime reading locations,
Bella has shared a photo of the cherry-red
"Outside" book cover alongside
a cherry-printed vintage Louis Vuitton bag.
Okay books to Graham.
Book talk is squeaking.
Look at that, damn.
And of course the journalist is better about that as well.
She ditched her usual desperately trend-chasing threads
for slouchy great suits and low-key white sneaks.
Also unknown out of winter, right.
But I would argue these books
don't really match the outfits anyway.
Like if anything,
will the stranger go better with Bella's outfit.
I don't know who I am.
I don't know who I thought it was for a second,
this is like me judging that color outfits
in my pajamas at home,
even though I could never afford those outfits
and will never be invited to the mat.
So I think the journalist
should have warmed up for this one.
'Cause it's a stretch.
That's enough of that.
However, I am intrigued.
And so I am gonna be reading these books
inspired by the Hadid sisters.
I have a copy of the "Outsider" by Stephen King.
Do you need to go buy a copy
of "The Stranger" by Albert Camus.
And I am actually living in France.
So it would be a pretty cool place
to buy a copy of that book.
So while we go
and see if we can find a cool Parisian bookstore
and we'll grab a copy
because I really felt that my outfit isn't complete
without a hot new accessory.
(suspenseful music)
Okay, so I went to Shakespeare and Co,
which is this really lovely English bookshop.
And I now have an edition of "The Stranger"
However, slights issue.
This book basically has two titles.
So the French title for it is the stranger,
but occasionally some copies
translate that as a The Outsider,
meaning that we now have a situation
where both books I'm talking about
in this video have the same name.
So for the sake of confusion,
I'm gonna refer to this book as "The Stranger"
because it's gonna make everyone's lives
a whole lot easier.
Also the addition that Gigi Hadid say the stranger.
So just pretend that's not that
just like the existence of James Corden.
If we all just pretend it's not happening,
maybe it will just go away.
Anyways Gigi's is clearly no stranger
to thought-provoking fiction.
The stranger is this absurd existentialist little book
and it is quite little,
it's in Nevada.
It's only 125 pages long and 12 whole euros.
Then my bank account got violated
and this book has one of the most iconic opening lines
to any book ever mother died today
or maybe yesterday I can't be sure
that is so disarming as an opening line.
It just completely flipped on its head.
The typical attitudes that we associate with grief and loss
and mourning right from the offset.
And of course it's a family member,
the woman who literally birthed you
instead of the characters entirely nonchalant,
unbothered, unphased.
So right from the get-go this book is so intriguing.
It's a book you have to carry on reading.
And that is what makes the opening line,
so genius.
And it also really sets the tone for the rest of the book
where the social expectations
we impose on this character are constantly being challenged.
And so be fast.
So our expectations of the book,
'cause the opening line sort of suggests
that the book is going to be about his inability
to cope with loss.
But no, honey,
you've got a big storm coming
because actually this book sort of takes a turn
and it actually becomes a book about murder.
Yes, murder
A novice mom,
that's irrelevant.
The main character goes to the beach one day.
And instead of getting an ice cream or a tan,
like the rest of us would he gets a criminal record
because there's basically this group of troublemakers
who are trying to cause a bit of stuff
trying to provide people on the beach
and they basically have a little altercation
with the main character,
and then later that day
he just goes and murders one of them.
Yeah, he's the only tiny show why he does it as a reader.
We're not entirely sure why he does it either.
And so the book is divided into two halfs.
The first half is before the murder
and the second half is kind of like the trial
and his sentence.
Can we describe this book as the nakedness of man
faced with the absurd?
And honestly he did a very good job
of describing his own book,
fair play album, fair play.
Did I enjoy reading this book?
Well, I first read this in February of this year
and it's still ingrained in my brain.
And I find myself coming back to it
and thinking about it regularly
and sort of using it as a benchmark
to understand other pieces of fiction.
I think it's a tough read though,
because the voice of the central protagonist
is just a little bit dull,
but like intentionally so.
I once saw a review of this book that said
that the main character
is like that guy you avoid at house parties.
And I just think
that's the perfect piece of literary criticism.
I agree wholeheartedly. (laughs)
I think that's kind of the point
because we have these ridiculous scenarios
juxtapose with a narrative voice that frankly doesn't care.
He finds everything a bit meaningless.
He talks a little bit like a robot.
And honestly I hope Gigi is doing okay after reading this
'cause this intense,
it's also funny in a very dark kind of way.
And also a huge theme in this book is freedom
because although the character is locked away in prison,
that his freedom is stripped from him.
He doesn't feel remarkably different.
And that is the thing that is remarkable.
It's not necessarily something I agree with,
but I guess that's the point all fiction,
for example, would we want everything
that we see on a fashion show runway?
Probably not,
but the influence of these huge singular risk-takers
trickles down into the stuff that we do regularly consume.
And so I think that the absurdist tradition
that Albert Camun was such a huge pots off
still impacts fiction and culture today.
So I think that's the legacy of this book.
It poses these huge unanswerable questions.
So I completely understand why Gigi hadid
want to read this.
It's a cult classic and it's such a memorable book,
but not necessarily one of my favorites.
So there you go.
Okay, moving on and saved by the Bella,
because Bella Hadid was also carrying a book.
As author mentioned,
quite confusing
'cause this is also cool to "The Outsider"
but this is by Stephen King,
a man who is king by both name and nature
'cause he is literally royalty
when it comes to the horror and thriller genre,
this man has published 63 novels, 63.
I don't even think I have that many brain cells
that's higher than my IQ.
And also let's put that into context.
He's 74, 63 books.
This is not as more productive than Taylor swift.
And by saying something,
but this book was released in 2018.
So pretty recent.
He said that he'll probably have written
and released another whole book
in the time that it's taken me just to review this one.
It's funny because the article that inspired
this whole video kind of mocked Bella Hadid
for carrying this book around for weeks,
basically poking her
at how long it took her to finish this book.
And now I've read it.
I completely empathize because holy moly,
I felt like I aged a couple of years getting through this
because it's just so long.
Get to page 300 and you think surely we'll wrap this up now,
but no, there's another 200 pages to go.
And I think this is quite a common criticism
of Stephen King's work,
especially more recently.
And I think the issue is he's so well-established
highly respected and commercially successful
in his genre that publishing houses
and editors don't really meddle
with his work too much.
They kind of just let him do his own thing.
And sometimes there is a limit
to how much freedom someone should have
normalize telling people when to stop.
Page 300 would have been nice
because this man just does not do concise,
but maybe he should.
(laughs)
The book honestly,
just drags on for way longer than it needs to.
And it sort of kills the momentum
that it spent so long building up
because the plot itself is really fascinating.
And king is the master of creating a really suspenseful
and tense atmosphere
where you can't pin it down
because you are literally begging him
to reveal the answer to this mystery.
And so the outsider is basically about this brutal
and horrible and deprived and disgusting murder
of a young boy.
But the culprit seems pretty obvious
and pretty straightforward.
There are eye witnesses.
There are DNA samples of this man.
So the police are so adamant and confident
that it is this local sports coach
that they arrest him a massive baseball game
in front of the whole town.
It's a statement saying your prick.
We're not gonna let someone treat us like a prick,
no way. (laughs)
Possibly the first time someone has used
to live in reference to describe a Stephen King novel,
but that's what this channel is for, right?
However, there's a twist
because, despite every sign pointing at this one man,
he has an alibi.
He was a literary convention.
He was being filmed on a live stream
asking a question at this convention miles away
from where the murder took place.
And yet the evidence is undeniable.
So the question is how could this man
be in two places at once?
It gets incredibly dramatic,
very tragic and there's moments that will shock you
to your very core.
And I think that Stephen King is very good
at believable dialogue between characters
and also a narrative style that just flows so easily.
Eminem, Jay Z,
Kanye west, they're jealous of the flow.
This man has.
However, after creating this kind of mind-boggling puzzle,
you're sort of expecting resolution
and this big revelation and an answer,
and you do get that.
But instead of it being a rational conclusion,
we sort of start to breech
on the supernatural paranormal realm.
And that's what the second half of this book is all about.
And that is kind of where it lost me a little bit
because I think for me possibly
It was more terrifying than the supernatural realm
is the actual pure evil of humankind
that we see in the world sometimes.
And so I was kind of disappointed
that the conclusion wasn't anything to do
with the real human world,
it was all about paranormal activity,
but it was enjoyable to read for sure,
especially the first half.
I mean, it was kind of like Riverdale
in the sense that it started off quite normal.
And then it just got progressively batshit crazy.
That is the trajectory of this book.
And so for that reason,
this isn't necessarily a book thought I would recommend
just 'cause I think there are better murder mystery novels,
and it's more creepy and sinister
when it stans human beings.
I do something that king is a fantastic writer.
And this has proven to me that Bella Hadid
doesn't just have fashion taste.
She also has taste in rises.
I'm glad to have read another one of his books.
Did I buy this just because a supermodel recommended it?
Yes, I Hadid
I'm heroic.
So what have we learned from this video?
Firstly, you can not gatekeep reading,
which has been a hobby for literally centuries.
And secondly, just because someone is famous
and well-known for being a supermodel,
that doesn't mean they are entirely one dimensional.
They are allowed to have other interests
as well and reading.
I mean, it's great if that's one of them
reading makes perfect sense as a supermodel activity.
'Cause they surely spend a bunch of time
traveling to different places,
spending nights in hotels,
sitting on shoots all day every day.
So if anything,
it makes perfect sense to me
that the Hadid sisters
would spend that time at reading
and yeah, they have good tastes.
Neither of the books were my favorite book ever,
but I enjoy the experience of reading both.
And I'm glad that I've read both
and I'd be intrigued to see
what Gigi and Bella thought of that hot new accessory.
So thank you very much for watching this video.
I hope you enjoyed it.
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you can press the subscribe button.
I wouldn't be mad if you did that.
That would be fine by me.
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All the best.
Stay in touch,
have a wonderful day
and I'll catch you next time. Bye-bye.