Short Classic Books That Are EASY To Read

[00:00:00]Hey gang, today we are going to talk about short classic books. The short kings of the world of classic literature. A big part of what I've always tried to do on this channel is make great books accessible. I want to provide an internet on-ramp for people so that they can enjoy and better understand great books. And short books, I think, are really useful for that project because this isn't always the case, but short books are in a lot of cases are are a bit more accessible.

[00:00:28]Maybe you're new to classic literature and and some seem pretty intimidating.

[00:00:32]You don't you're not sure if you want to start with The Odyssey or War and Peace.

[00:00:36]Maybe you want to read more, but you're worried that the TikTok algorithm has fried your attention span. And so you want to start with something short and and gradually build up your mental muscle. I'm also going to try to keep this video short and sweet. We're going to talk about three books and then at the end of the video we'll do a lightning round where I will rapidly recommend some short books for you to speedily survey swiftly. They won't take you long to read. That's all I'm saying. First short classic book I'm going to recommend Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

[00:01:09]Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel about about book burning. It's about a future American society where where books are contraband. Books are burned.

[00:01:19]The main character is is this guy named Montag and he is a he is a fireman, but but fireman means something very different in this context. They don't put out fires. They are the book burners. He is he is one of the book burners. It's a fairly brisk and engaging story. Montag, he starts to have doubts. He starts to have a crisis of conscience. He starts to wonder what's in these books and he's drawn to the allure of these books that he's that he's supposed to be burning. Bradbury's is just one of the of many classic dystopias from the 20th century in which in which many writers were thinking through especially like the the tyrannies and and the totalitarian governments of the middle of the 20th century and thinking through their their governing and tyrannical techniques. And this is a cautionary tale about censorship and about the relationship between literacy and freedom. Okay, next short book, The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. This is a short set of autobiographical essays. So, it's a work of non-fiction. James Baldwin, if you if you never read Baldwin before, he is one of the the great essayists, period.

[00:02:21]Certainly one of the great American essayists, one of the greatest American writers. And this book was published in the in the early 1960s. It's '62 or '63.

[00:02:30]So, this is this is right right in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. And Baldwin is one of these great writers who his writing sort of moves moves up and down. He talks about himself. He talks about his private life, his own biography, his his childhood, his adolescence, his his young adulthood.

[00:02:47]But, he's able to connect his private story, his personal story, his autobiography to to a larger narrative about about history, about American politics, and especially about racism and the history of racism in the United States. And that's not all because Baldwin also talks about religion in this book. And one of the really interesting things about this book, he talks both about Christianity and about Islam. And he meditates on these religions and and specifically what they offer to black Americans like him. And the way I think about it is he's he's kind of evaluating these religions to see if if they have like if if they offer the spiritual resources necessary to address the grave injustices of the day. Like, what do they have to offer? And Baldwin himself is not a believer, but he's but he's also very sympathetic to people who do believe. And listen, just James Baldwin, like, you're not going to find a better writer. Like as as a as a prose technician, James Baldwin in a league of his own. Okay, third, we're going to go way back in time. Way back in time. And we're going to we're going to say Sophocles's Antigone.

[00:03:52]Have you read Antigone? This is a Greek tragedy, one of the greatest Greek tragedies. Antigone is a woman in Thebes, and what's happened in Thebes is there was a civil war, and fighting on either side of the civil war were two brothers, Antigone's brothers, Eteocles and Polynices. And they they fight in this this civil conflict, and they kill each other. The two brothers kill each other. And then their uncle, Creon, takes over. He's the new king, and he decides that that Eteocles was a hero and a and a patriot, and Polynices was was a traitor. And what's he going to do with the traitor? He's going to leave his body out unburied to be eaten by dogs and birds. That's pretty awful.

[00:04:30]That's that's the terrible setup. And so Antigone, who is the sister to to both of these men, she has to figure out what to do about the fact that one of her brothers is unburied. She has an unburied brother, and she she refuses to allow that to happen. She is going to bury her brother even though even though she herself will be branded a traitor of the state, and and will be executed.

[00:04:51]Maybe a lot of you have read Antigone.

[00:04:53]It is it is one of the greatest works of literature of all time, certainly one of the greatest Greek tragedies. It's I teach it almost every year. Like it it is a classic. If you have not read Antigone, you've got to read Antigone.

[00:05:06]It features this this contest. I need a haircut. I need a badly need a haircut.

[00:05:11]But that's beside the point. There's this there's this incredible war of wills between Creon, who's this this patriarch, domineering kind of tyrannical figure, and then on the other side Antigone. And she is defiant and courageous and articulate and and a a little bit insane. I love a good Greek tragedy. You can you can read one in a couple of hours. They're they're extremely short, and often you can find them in in collections of multiple Greek tragedies. So, you've you've got a bunch of short classic texts to sink your teeth into. Sink Are you going to sink your teeth? Don't eat them. Chew on them metaphorically in your brain. Okay, enough. It's time for the lightning round. More short classic texts for you to peruse. I've chosen things from different genres, different types of books. It Look, it it doesn't matter where you start with classic literature. There's no There's no special order you have to go in.

[00:06:05]There's no wrong way. Don't be intimidated. Just find an entry point and and enter in. Welcome to the this conversation that has been going on for millennia with like the greatest minds who have ever thought. It's awesome. We've been interrupted. I'm trying to keep this video short.

[00:06:25]>> [laughter] >> What do you have to say?

[00:06:27]>> That we need to watch Avatar. Not the blue people.

[00:06:30]>> The Last Airbender, yeah. Mhm. We should watch Avatar: The Last You should watch Avatar. Everyone should watch Avatar: The Last Airbender.

[00:06:39]>> It's peak.

[00:06:41]>> [laughter] >> It's peak.

[00:06:43]>> Yeah.

[00:06:43]>> That's what the kids say these days. All right, okay. We will Let me finish this and then we'll we'll watch some Avatar.

[00:06:49]>> Not the blue people.

[00:06:50]>> Not the blue people. Okay, lightning round. Book number one, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. This is This is kind of a classic horror novel, right? Kind Maybe sort of sci-fi, but but really kind of horror. What if a guy could turn invisible? Pretty creepy once you start once you start to think about it. It's like science-related horror. The subtitle is a Grotesque Romance. That's amazing. A Grotesque Romance, come on.

[00:07:16]Lightning round, book two. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Medieval poem, Arthurian poem about about Sir Gawain, who This is like a Christmas story where this this They're having a party at Camelot, Christmas party at Camelot.

[00:07:33]Then this giant green guy comes in and starts trash talking everybody.

[00:07:39]Uh he gets his head cut off and he doesn't die. And then Sir Gawain, who who cut his head off, enters into the He enters into this weird deal with him where he has to go to his castle like a year later and get his head cut off.

[00:07:55]It's It is bizarre and magical and strange and um uh provocative. It's also that J.R.R.

[00:08:05]Tolkien did did a translate I don't have that translation with me, but J.R.R.

[00:08:08]Tolkien did did a translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. So, look that up. Lightning Round, book three, A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.

[00:08:16]This is an essay written by Woolf in kind of in the form of a story, but it's really a meditation on on like the canon on the literary canon, and Woolf ponders the question why are so many of the the famous great writers throughout history why are so many of them men and and why aren't as many of them women? And her thesis is basically this that if you want to be a writer, if you want to write, what you need is is a room of your own, which is is kind of metaphorical for you need space, you need time, you and you need some money. And that is a thing that that women have not traditionally been afforded throughout history. This essay is is powerful, it packs a punch, but it's also very funny. It is a delight A Room of One's Own. Lightning Round, book four, The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K.

[00:09:06]Le Guin. I I've been talking about this book for for a couple of months. I read it a couple of months ago, and I I really I love this book. It's really good. This is a classic work of science fiction. Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the most highly regarded science fiction novelists, story writers ever.

[00:09:21]This book is kind of like It's kind of like a classic episode of Star Trek or The Twilight Zone. It's it has that vibe. It's written in the '70s, and the premise is this: There's a guy named George Orr, and sometimes his dreams it reality. He has a dream and he wakes up He wakes up into a world where his It's not that his dream then comes true. It's that he wakes up in a world where his dream has already come true. So, like the reality he dreamed about is the reality he wakes up into. So, if he dreams somebody dies, he wakes up and they're dead. If he has a dream in July that it's winter, he wakes up and it's winter. And he seeks out the psychiatrist / hypnotist / scientist who who's going to help him. His name is William Haber. But then um then Haber Haber has his own ideas and and drama ensues. Lighting round, book five, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. This is a short play, classic work of American literature. Willy Loman is is the protagonist. He's this like a traveling salesman kind of guy. Willy Loman, he's got these two boys, Happy and Biff. And and it's American dream stuff, right? It's the It's the American dream and the nuclear family. And Willy Loman, he wants to be a big shot. He wants to He wants to make it big. And Willy Loman, if he's not going to make it big, he wants his boys to make it big, especially his his boy Biff. Biff Biff is his favorite. Happy is not. And and you you got all those those dynamics. And he's got all this confidence that Biff is going to make it big. And this play tracks the collapse of of Loman's dream of the American dream. It functions as a kind of interrogation of the American dream. If you want more short books, I have more short books to offer you. Here's a video I made on five short books that will open your mind. Click the link. I will see you there and I'll talk to you soon.