Okay, so today i'm going to be building my perfect
book. This is a video that i challenged Daniel to do
a while ago because i thought it would be interesting if he did it. He then
challenged me to do it. I probably should have seen that coming.
So let's do it. Daniel set up a bunch of categories for this which i did not
provide for him. He built this video really. He set up a
bunch of categories to do. I think i got them all. I might have
missed one or two, but i think i got them all
and uh and then he set some rules out it has to be a cohesive book he even
said what his book is gonna be about that he's building (not that he's writing,
just like building for this fictional scenario). I am going to disregard
his rules because i read a lot of genres and i wanted to include
a lot of my favorite authors uh so this book is not gonna be cohesive,
it's not gonna, it's not gonna work well together with all these authors... but i'm
doing it anyway. Daniel: "This sounds rather easy, right? Just go
through pick your favorite authors, throw them together, spit them out; you
got something. NO! NO! That would be a chaotic mess..." It's
gonna be a mess. Also because people keep asking,
Oathbringer isn't on the shelf because i'm currently rereading it, so
it's in another room. Let's get started! And we're going to kick it off the first
category that we're going to cover is: "tone." Which author is going to set the
tone of the book and the author i chose is: i
don't actually know how to say her name correctly Daphne Du
Maurier? Du Maurier? The author of Rebecca. I'm actually currently reading my second
book by her. My Cousin Rachel and i love
the way this author said i i love the tones of her book. She writes gothic
fiction which is one of my favorite subgenres
that i don't read enough, but she can set this
creepy, mysterious and she sets this tone that just draws
me in and that makes me feel like everything
is... i can't, i can't expect anything. I can't
trust anything on the page. It's so hard to describe
her tone. It's gothic. Her tone is gothic. That was easy to describe
I feel like she could take any story and and
create this mysterious, creepy, odd tone around it and it's something
that i just dive into and eat up.
Next category is: "Characters." Now let me tell you something
about this daggum challenge tag thing.
It was stressful to make my list because i could have put so many different
authors in each of these categories and since i'm not even trying for
cohesiveness it was, it was difficult to do. So,
characters. So many good choices but i chose
Frederik Backman. The reason i chose Backman for this
is because even though Backman has so many strengths,
i think one of the things that he does better than most any other author i've
read is, he has this deep level of
understanding of humans and humanity. He has this ability
to really understand the depths of a person
and then write his characters in a way that portrays those
depths, those fears, those insecurities, the pain,
the flaws. Everything in a way that is so transparent
that's so subtle and nuanced yet at the same time you read it and you just
feel understood by his works, by his books, by his characters.
Yes, i'm going to read Anxious People as soon as i'm done with Oathbringer.
I'm waiting, actually. Korey and i are going to read it together. Anyway,
Backman writing characters; absolutely! Next category is:
"Magic Systems." So, again this one was a little bit hard because there's a lot of
phenomenal authors out there. My problem is i had to
make sure that so many authors hit so many categories.
So, here's the thing. There's going to be a lot of predictable
authors on this list but they're not going to be in
the place that you would predict them to be. Here we go;
Jordan. Robert Jordan is easily the author... i should get his book.
Robert Jordan definitely deserves this spot. If you're interested i have a
video where i talk about all of my top magic
systems and i go into depth about what what
these magic systems are; what they look like (i'll link it in the corner).
Robert Jordan. His magic systems in this world are so cool. They're based
off of elemental magic, but then they are so much more complex and nuanced
than that. And i loved the way this magic system is
described. Weaving a pattern, taking the threads of
the different parts of the magic and weaving them together into a specific
pattern that does a specific thing. It's so
visual! It's so cool! And i really loved his
magic system in The Wheel of Time series. "Villains."
Another difficult category. Another author that
could have fit in many categories. I'm going with... I'm going with Joe
Abercrombie for this one. The reason is because in his First Law
trilogy almost all of his characters are very
morally gray and really it's not that it's... I really enjoy
following the characters that are not necessarily
"the hero" but following either the morally gray
or the outright bad guy and Joe has this way of delivering this
level of depth and humanity to all of his
characters that even the villains; i just want more
page time with them. Even the antagonists even the bad guys, i just
need more from them and generally a villain isn't really, the antagonist
isn't really a character that i pay much attention to or care
that much about. I don't know why. I just don't find villains that
compelling. Joe Abercrombie adds so much depth
to every single character that he puts on the page
that even the villain i want more from. Even the bad guys
i want more from. Now, i'm holding up a series,
i'm holding up a book where the main characters
are not cool. I think that Joe can write any character morally gray, downright bad;
with a level of depth that makes them so compelling
(which means that he could also be in the characters category). A lot of these
authors can be in multiple categories. The "Hero" of this story is going to be
written by Brandon Sanderson. I thought a lot about this
and the reason i put Sanderson in this category instead of
magic systems or world building is because
i find that i typically am more interested and invested in side
characters than i am in the main character that we follow, but
that is not true for Sanderson. We have
Kaledon, Dalinar, Shalon... all of these characters are incredibly compelling.
For the Mistborn trilogy we have Vin. Incredibly compelling character
with a lot of depth to her. Someone that i loved following
and over there on my sci-fi shelf we have
Skyward. Spensa. Who is, as i've said many times before,
the single most Y.A. teen girl character that i have related to
the most; written by a middle-aged man! I related to Spenca so much. She's such
a fully fleshed out, real nuanced
character and i love her so much. Review for skyward
in the corner if you want to understand why i relate to her so much.
Sanderson makes main characters that are flawed and so compelling!
Next category is: "Action" and for action sequences i'm going to cheat
a little bit and i'm going to say: the writers of
the Avatar series. No, i have not read The Rise of Kiyoshi yet. Yes i do plan to
soon, but i have read most of the graphic novels over there by The Wheel of Time
series and i've watched Avatar and i love it so
much! I don't know. They're technically
book authors because they wrote these and
action sequences; oh my goodness! I love the way they write them
so much! Yeah, it's a little bit of a cheat, but
i'm not gonna change my mind. Going off of that we also have a separate category
of "Battles." Again, this author could have held many categories, but i put Tolkien
in my category for battles. Now i know that there's a lot of discussion around:
some people love Tolkien's battle sequences, some people
don't. I do. I think that they're very well written.
I think that they're very exciting and compelling and i
i love the way he writes them, but that's not why he's in this category. The reason
he's in this category is because i love falling action.
After the battle is done i want to see the consequences
of that battle. I want to see the consequences of the world after the war
has finished. I want to see the consequences of the
crew after what they've just been through.
Both emotionally and physically. I want to see the falling
action and Tolkien very intentionally; very
purposefully puts a lot of focus on that falling
action. It's an integral part of his story
because it's an integral part of what he was trying to convey to the reader.
I love Tolkien's falling action. I think he writes
great battles but he's in this category specifically because of what comes
after the battles. Which i think ties well together.
For "Plot" I chose Scott Lynch. Again, Scott Lynch could fit into many
categories but i love his plot lines. Now,
i know this is another thing that a lot of readers argue about. I think that book
one is well received. Book two has some mixed
reviews but generally well received and book three
the plot isn't as strong. And i agree that the plot of book three
isn't as strong, BUT he still writes it so
compellingly. He has these intricate, very detailed, nuanced plots that have
these little threads that are all over the place and then
when they come together, it's so purposeful; so intentional. And to
me, that's my favorite kind of plot. There are a lot of authors that i could have
put in this category that do that, that have
a lot of little threads going on, that all come together in this big
catastrophic amazing way. Intentionality
is my favorite author trait. Intentionality of prose, intentionality
of plot, intentionality of characters, and
Scott Lynch has such intentional plots.
And even though i found book 3 much less compelling in plot, i don't care.
Scott Lynch can write a plot for me any day. Next category is: "World Building."
And... okay. While there are many authors that
could have, and arguably should have taken the spot
for this one, i chose Michael Creighton. Creighton? Creighton. The reason i chose
Michael Creighton is because i love how environmental
his world building is. So, I've read two of his books now. Jurassic Park
and Timeline (over there on my sci-fi shelf) and in both of these they're set
in our world with sci-fi elements to it. They're not futuristic, um
they're just advanced technology and the way he immerses me in the science
of his stories before he begins the plot, before he even starts
moving... but then when he does move he moves so fast and he
can because he spent so much time building it up in a non-info-dumpy way;
delivering me the mechanics of how this world is different with this new
technology in a way that is so immersive that i feel like without info
dumping he's delivered me all the information i need in order to
run pace along with his characters when everything starts going wrong.
I know he's a he's a sci-fi author and it's odd to put him
in a world-building category, but i don't care.
Cretan, Creighton, Creighton gets the cake. Next category is:
"Romance" and this was surprisingly easy for me
to do because even though i'm not a big fan
of romance; having a heavy element in my stories
(most of the time) especially not in a non-romance-centric
story. If it's a fantasy or whatever. Okay anyway...
I DO have one romance author who she is not exclusively romance. She
writes comedies, she writes gothic style stories,
she writes literary fiction, she... it's a social commentary a lot of the time.
There's a lot that she covers. I think it's pretty obvious who
i've chosen now so i'll just get the book.
Jane Austen. This is the the white book set right here is my Jane Austen
set. Jane Austen, no matter what genre she's writing, she
has a romance that takes a big focus of her story (which is why
she's pegged as a romance author and nothing more for
people who haven't read her books). Jane Austen is one of the few authors
that in every single book of hers that i read
i am fully invested in the romance and i love every page that the romance is
at the focal point and arguably, i just want
more of it. She has so much going on in her stories. There's so much social
commentary, there's so much humor, there's so much discussion in her
stories. And despite all these things that i
enjoy so much, I am always excited to get back to the
romance. She writes these stories, these characters and what
they're going through in such compelling interesting ways
and i love it. The last category for this is going to be:
"Prose." Again, a lot of these authors could have
fit this category. Easily Joe Abercrombie
and um Frederick Backman are perfect for the prose category. Instead,
i chose one of my other favorite authors who again could have...
okay so, i almost put here... let me get this. Neil Gaiman. I almost put him in "tone"
because he has these environmental, spooky, creepy books much like the author
that i did put in "tone," but i ended up putting him in
"prose" because Neil Gaiman is one of the very few authors where not
only do i love how complex his plots are and how every
every element that he introduces matters. And not only do i love
his environment and his tone and the overall feeling that he sets for his
books. Not only do i love his characters, not
only do i love everything that Neil Gaiman does,
but also i love his prose. He's one of the few authors
that he could write about anything and i would be fully
captivated because of the way he puts words on a
page. Backman is also in that category that
you could write about anything and the way the way they word
things, the way they form their sentences just enamors me
no matter what the subject matter is and that is just such
a rare writing quality for me. I love Gaiman's prose. I will read
anything this man writes because i just want to read
how it's written. So there you go. That's my perfect book. It's a jumbled up mess.
It's not cohesive at all, but i'm gonna read it. So there you go. That's my
perfect book. Because this is a challenge video, i'm going to challenge a couple of
my friends. I'm going to challenge: Michael Knipp, Catherine Reads and Call Me
After Coffee . All three will be linked in the description.
Daniel's channel will also be linked in the description as he's the first one
who did this video. Be sure to chat with me
more about these books and these categories in the comment
section. I'd love to hear how you would
build your perfect book. I post videos every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday. I'll see you guys again soon. Bye.
bye
you