Read Classic Books, Dumb*ss

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:01]Reading classic literature is one of the best decisions you will ever make in my life. It has given me potentially the greatest ROI of my time invested. And here's the thing, all of the modern informative content or media that you're consuming is just repurposed from classic literature, the podcast you listen to, YouTube videos like mine, short form content even, and then modern books themselves. It's just repurposed information from what a lot of the greatest authors, the greatest writers in history have already given us through some of the greatest works ever. Now, there's such a negative connotation. I want to get this out of the way at the beginning of the video that classic literature is boring, right? Like it's it's very descriptive. That's what people say it's slow. You know, the plot takes a lot of time, right? Like in lay miz, there's 30 pages of talking about the sewer system, right? And here's the thing, right?

[00:01:04]That is rid Like I think that's very very untrue. Sure. Is it going to have a crazy plot that, you know, keeps you on the edge of your feet, on the edge of your seat the entire, you know, 300 pages of the book?

[00:01:20]No, it's not going to do that. But it's going to teach you something that these modern books like Red Rising that might keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time better, right? I it just it objectively will teach you better. Now, it's so interesting why this is, but in my opinion, I think the characters and the character development and the character work in classic literature is just it's far superior than anything modern day. The very first classic novel I ever read, I think it was in maybe my junior year of high school was Crime and Punishment by Fedor Dosski. So, this book, if you haven't read it, it is about the main character, his name is Rolnikov. Now, Rasholikov is like a struggling um student who is broke and he thinks of himself as sort of in a in a godlike complex. He thinks that he is superior. There is an excerpt in here that says, you know, there are two types of people, ordinary and extraordinary. So, he thinks he's sort of above the law or morality specifically in some type of way. And so, you know, as the title suggests, crime, he ends up, you know, killing two people actually, but he he first plans on killing one person. And by the way, that's not a spoiler that happens in the first act of the book. And then the rest of the book is the punishment, which is really just like his psychological um downward spiral that he sort of goes on. And this whole this book is a lot of yapping. I'll I'll tell you that much.

[00:02:45]But when I was in Yeah, it was like I think it was my junior year of high school. Um, and I read that I've never obviously killed anybody, but I related to Rasholikov in like a really weird way. I know that sounds crazy, but it's the truth. And I've seen this, you know, over and over again with all of these classics where it's like I have nothing in common with these characters, but it's so beautiful the the way that they do it. You know, right now I'm currently reading Anna Corinina by Leo Toltoy. And that book first off is a hand. I mean, it's like 1,200 pages, I believe. But Leo Toltoy's character work is it might actually be the best of any author I've read. And there's something about what it teaches you that I just I I a self-help book like an atomic habits. A lot of people refer to it as like a corporate slot book. It just gives you a straightforward answer. Boom. Do this, right? Like like work hard and you're going to get results. Obviously, you know, it it's a more poetic way that, you know, James Clair, the author of Atomic Habits, might say it. But here's the thing. These books, classic books, they make you work. They will make you like I I guys, I can't even tell you like you have to figure out what is the meaning and you figure it out in relation to yourself. That's the beautiful thing of it. And you will remember a story, a character, the arc of the character more than a random page that's just going to tell you a non-fiction fact that's like self-help or something. Not like you do you understand what I'm saying? Like these books, they're they're just they're so important to read because they're the original source of information that we get.

[00:04:32]Right now, another thing that I've realized is that, you know, classic books, they do tend to run a little bit longer and, you know, they they are more descriptive. However, it's these descriptions that sort of build a it's not just world building.

[00:04:54]It's it's kind of like deeper than that, but it gives you a context where it allows you to have empathy and expand your empathy because you're understanding um a a different perspective of things, right? I feel like most of what's written in modern day is like yes, it can have a message. like there there's no denying that a lot of like modern day works like even even entertaining ones like Hunger Games they have a deeper message that's going on but at the end of the day it's just not sticking with you like a book um like a classic book like something that Charles Dickens will write or you know like this book John Steinback he's my favorite American author um East of Eden it's a fascinating book where he discusses the idea of what he call there's a word called timshell And Tim Shell is basically the thou mayest or thou mayest not. It's like you it this book tackles themes of you know basically trying to create your own destiny that's separate from your family like are you sort of cursed or predetermined to end up like similar to your family and it's this you know it's kind of had has this Kane enable storyline which I know sounds really weird but wrapped into it. um this book has gone crazy online. Like everyone online recommends this book.

[00:06:12]But anyways, when when you read these different classics, it becomes apparent to you um through a ingrained story how the world works and how that relates to you and how it's going to be different for other people. And this basically just gives you a different type of perspective when you have conversations with somebody new, when you're analyzing world events that are going on. And and I just I don't know how to explain it.

[00:06:40]Like reading modern books is still good.

[00:06:41]I'm not I'm not I'll never dox reading period. But I just think that there's something that you have to work for in classic books. That's not just it's not just spelled out for you. Well, ironically, because it's a freaking book spelled out for you, but you get what I'm saying. Like, it's not just told straight up to you. And not every book is like that slow. For example, you know, the Kamani Cristo, it's like 1,200 pages. It's,200 pages of action, bro. It's 1,200 pages of like non-stop action. And some people regard it as the greatest book of all time. I think the I'm trying to think if any modern book really is in there. I think there's one book in my top 10 of all time modern book and that's the sword of Kagan which I think came out in 2019. It was published or something. I I could definitely be wrong on that. However, yeah, there there's something about older books that will speak to you in a way. Here's something I want to point out. Modern books aren't really as filtered. And what do I mean by that?

[00:07:50]like modern day stuff goes through publishing companies and publishing companies have an agenda undeniably, right? They they're always trying to like it has to fit within a certain narrative. As somebody who's not political, I've said this before on my channel, I've realized that a lot of modern books have like tend to lean a little bit left and I think that's just like annoying. Like it's just something I' I've been able to tell. But it's it's not the biggest deal to me because 90% of the books that I read are classic books. Like I I'm going to read classics until I've read all the classics and then when I'm done with all the classics, I'll probably go back and reread, you know? I I just I don't know.

[00:08:23]Like modern books don't really appeal to me that much. Even when I like a modern book, like I I recently was trying to get my two best friends into reading.

[00:08:31]And they like don't read at all period.

[00:08:34]And so I was like, it's got to be the Red Rising series. That's what we're going to read. And I hadn't read it yet.

[00:08:38]And so we started reading Red Rising.

[00:08:41]And I was like, you know, this is like good. like I did enjoy it, but there's not really like a strong takeaway from that story besides like resilience and and it's kind of in a weird way similar to War in Peace and that the the what War in Peace tries to teach you is that you know things change over time with with very like small actions that just accumulate over time by a very large amount of people. It's not just like kings that have all the power and it's not just a dictator that can change the world which which certainly they have like much power but over a very long period of time talking like more than your lifetime or my lifetime you know things are going to happen. So, it's like that book is just objectively just so much. Well, you can't say objectively, I guess, but it's it's just better. Okay, it's better in my opinion, but I I I think everyone else should have the same opinion. But anyways, you will start to connect the dots between these different books and you will start to almost like create a a little ball of truth that you believe in like, okay, that makes sense. like this is true about how to develop as a person or you know you just start to pick up on like random things and you're like ah that makes sense right and it's weird like I want to go back to that thing I said before with like empathy or and sympathy like you start to gain empathy and sympathy by reading these books and it's it's not like your mom could just tell you hey you need to have empathy cuz it's like yeah like no duh right but sometimes you need to go through experiences and you need to sit down for 10 hours and read a book, not in one sitting, but you know the 10 hours that it will take you to read a book. Like you need to do that and it's going to teach you so so much. Reading when you start to learn and pick up on things and you have to work for it will literally change your psyche. It changes the the neural activity, excuse me, in your brain and you basically become, in my opinion, just overall a more intelligent person. Often times it's directly correlated to speaking better. It's direct it's directly correlated to being able to formulate thoughts better. Another really important aspect of reading old books is the vocabulary. Because I'm trying to remember which philosopher said this, but human our our ability to understand and comprehend our emotions is limited by our vocabulary. If you have a wider vocabulary, you could more accurately define a feeling and you can sort of describe things better.

[00:11:22]But if you don't read a lot and if you're only having conversations with people that just scroll TikTok all day, the vocabulary is going to be very limited and by proxy, you're not going to be able to process your emotions as well. You think I'm joking, but it's very serious. The language that you use is very, very important. And so, you know, reading classics is is going to help you with this stuff.

[00:11:47]My biggest pitch to you guys would be, you know, what else are you doing with your time? If you are scrolling for eight hours a day, I I think you can, you know, shovel off an hour a day just to indulge in a book, right? And if you really want like the most action-packed book and you're kind of like you have a short attention span, you're kind of cooked, just read the Count of Monte Cristo and don't worry about the length.

[00:12:07]Yes, it's a very long book, but don't worry about the length. Just give it like a 100 pages. I bet you'll be hooked. I bet you will be hooked. You know what I mean? So, do that. Start to invest your time into into getting to know these characters. And what you'll do is you're going to find you're going to be like, "Doniote, why why does he why do I relate to this guy who's just like like almost like psych um in psychosis, you know, like he's almost not psychosis, what's the word I'm looking for? Schizophrenic, right? Like he's this dude that's fighting windmills thinking that they're giants." But you start to read these books and you're like, "Oh my gosh, like I I do relate to these guys." And it just expands your overall surface area of of knowledge and your desire to learn more. A curiosity, in my opinion, is an addiction. Once you start reading these books, you start to go more and more into things. And also, a lot of these books tackle ideas that are so relevant to today. You know, I talked about 1984 on here. Animal Farm also by George Orwell. Those are two great books to read. Animal Farm is ridiculously short. If you're trying to get into Dostyki, which seems like the thing that all men want to get into, Notes from Underground is a great book to start.

[00:13:20]You could also read White Knights as literary um introduction to him. When I was in high school, um White Knights was White Knights was like my favorite book of all time until I was like a sophomore in college and then I really started to expand and go into more difficult books.

[00:13:37]But yeah, I mean, I love that one.

[00:13:40]Crime and Punishment. The Brothers Carmaz also by Fedor Doyowski. I actually have not read The Brothers Carmaz yet, which I hope to. The reason I haven't is because I have also not read Demons, and I want the Brothers Carazoff to be the last one of the five great novels that I'm going to read. But everybody says that's like their favorite book of all time. So, I'm like ridiculously excited to read that book.

[00:14:02]Um, yeah, you could get into I I I personally am am partial to classic Russian literature.

[00:14:11]So like The Master Margarita, anything by Leo Toltoy. If you're looking for a short introductory work, um, The Death of Ivan Ilitch, if I'm saying that right, um, is great. Um, How Much Land a Man Need? I've I've talked about that.

[00:14:27]That's a short story. I've talked about that on here before. I think that's a great book. Obviously, War in Peace.

[00:14:33]Obviously, Ana Corinina by him. These are all great books. Um the there are just so many you you can look up a million videos online that will give you recommendations and you really just you can't go wrong with anything. I say give give it a one book try and don't choose too difficult of an introductory book. I would say try to find something that has a that it has a large online consensus for being good like East of Eden, like Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. A lot of you guys probably read Mice of Men by John Steinback in high school.

[00:15:12]These are all great books to just get you intellectually curious. And I think that that is a a once that ball starts rolling down, you can't stop it, which is a beautiful thing. I think curiosity is a beautiful thing.

[00:15:26]So, yeah, I will be making a video in the future about my top 10 books of all time. That's a highly requested video.

[00:15:34]Um, it's going to take me a lot more effort because I want to go in depth about each of my top 10 books. And also, off the top of my head, I actually don't even have my 10 favorite books. So, I feel like Brothers Carmaz will be in there, but I haven't read it yet.

[00:15:49]Anyways, thank you guys for watching.