2022 smol book collection + my favorite books ♡｡･

Hello everybody, welcome to my book collection. This year, 2022, I decided that I would start this new series where each year I try to do a video of these where I show the books on my bookshelves, what they look like. So the first book, that's Circe by Madeline Miller. Madeline Miller is a trusted author of mine now. I've read before Song of Achilles, it has become one of my new favorites and so I knew that I had to have Circe and I love her prose and I love that she really loves mythology too. The way that she writes mythological characters is just everything. I need a lot of books from her, please. And this cover is just phenomenal. Next comes Susanna Clarke's Piranesi. I've never read anything by this author, but as you can see, it has been applauded by authors that I like. It also has been recommended in several videos as this book that is right up my alley, philosophical and prospective. We see the thoughts of a creature that lives in this house that's very mysterious and it has currents. I don't know much more than that, but it seemed right up my alley, so I purchased. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. It's this beautiful pink copy that I couldn't help but borrow. This is out of curiosity. I would like to someday read this book. It's in my bucket list. I also have A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, the first of the Sherlock Holmes book. This is a much more sober book, of course, and I loved to see the little details that stayed in the show and in the movies. Very interesting. And so it starts my Virginia Woolf collection. I have a bunch of books by Virginia Woolf. She is one of my favorite authors. I love her writings, but she's definitely not for everyone and I can definitely understand why because sometimes it frustrates me to read her. Like Mrs. Dalloway or The Waves. I believe this is definitely an author to study more than to just read out of a pleasure because this is definitely not going to be one of those books that you just read just for the fun of it. We're going to find a stream of consciousness that bleeds into everything that she ever touches her eyes on. For example, The Waves. Six characters completely blend into one another as there's this image throughout the book between chapters of the sun rising and the sun setting in an oceanside view. Very interesting. She has a very different style and I find so profound personally, so I love her so much. She also wrote A Room of One's Own. This is a nonfiction. This book is an essay, a feminist essay that was the result of two talks that she was invited to do to a group of students that were the first women college students in London, if I'm not mistaken. The theme of the whole book is women in writing. I basically highlighted every single page of this book. It was so good. I'll talk more about this book in a future video because it just deserves to. Next I have George Orwell's 1984. This is a dystopian sci-fi, extremely well known. If you are kind of afraid of it, I was afraid of it, but it's definitely not a difficult book to get into. This is a book that is just emotionally heavy because it touches on topics of omnipresent society that censors everything you do, has thought police. These are terms that were coined basically by George Orwell. Even nowadays is very relevant, and so I think everyone should read this except check the trigger warnings of this book and just make sure you're kind of in a learning mindset so you're emotionally prepared. Next I have two books by the Bronte sister, two of them, and we'll start with Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Such a strong female heroine that really defies marriage as an institution and also marriage for love because of her morals and her strong convictions, and you have so many layers with Victorian myths of the woman in the attic, so you can really never go wrong with Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights is definitely not for me a romance of any sort. It's more like a gothic story of obsession. It has amazingly beautiful prose, definitely got the five stars for me, but different than Jane Eyre. It has a gothic side of it that is very grueling, and it's very punishing. Next I have my Jane Austens. I have three books so far, and I guess we'll start with Emma. This was my favorite book of 2021, it was so good. Jane Austen sets the dislikable female main character, and then she tasks herself to make us like her. She has a way with words, always gives me butterflies, and it's just so wonderful. We see Emma as picky, she wants to help people, but she ends up really meddling with them. I feel like the cast of characters is even more tangled and intertwined of any books that I've read from her, and it gives such a rich plot and a diversity of moments, and I love her humor too, so I really liked reading that book. And then I also have Pride and Prejudice, which I have read the Portuguese translation, which I'll show in a bit, and so I'll talk about this book in just a bit, but I purchased recently the English edition because I wanted to read the original. Mansfield Park, because I know I'll enjoy it, and I found this beautiful edition, I absolutely adore this cover, has this painting, it's just so beautiful, I love it. Next I have my current read, which is North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I have never read this author before, yeah, 19th century romance novels, you can also not go wrong with that. So this is a story of a South England young woman, lives in the country, romance between her and the owner of a factory in the north of England, so you have a lot of debate and commentary for economical and social structures. Right now I'm on a passage where they are discussing riots from the workers in the factory. Margaret, which is the main character, she befriends a past worker who fell ill because of the conditions of the factory. It's sort of like a Darcy and Elizabeth, I still have to research more about that, but you can definitely see the resemblance in my opinion. Then I have two hardcovers, which are not usual, which start with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the Portuguese translation that I just mentioned. I first acquired this book, I think it was in my 8th grade. I decided to use this book for a literature presentation. I fell in love with the story. I did myself on PowerPoint a little slide with all the characters, connected how the characters were related to one another with arrows, and I remember as I was delivering the presentation, everyone looked back to me with such like, what the heck are you talking about? And the teacher just looked at me, this is not a good presentation, we are not understanding anything. And I felt so embarrassed that I had a terror of talking about this book for the longest time. I have overcome my horror to that presentation. Time really does heal anything. This is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, and this is an intense book, gothic horror. Once I was at a bookshop and I heard two guys, and one of them was trying to explain this book to the other, and he was just like, I didn't like it because it's just like a magical painting and it's so stupid. No! This is not it. What it means, what it meant for the author, it's just such an important book. It's not, it's not a magic painting. Okay, next hardcover too, The Sherlock Holmes Collection, so gorgeous, I love this cover. And the book contains every single novel by Arthur Conan Doyle that is about Sherlock Holmes. There's this very interesting story, is that Arthur Conan Doyle was so sick of Sherlock Holmes that he actually killed off Sherlock. And he was basically forced by the public to bring him back to life, and yeah, we're so obsessed with this character that as long as the author lived, we could not let him go, so I think that's awesome. And then I have this beautiful book that is The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie McKenzie, gifted by a viewer, Sweet Christy. And this book is about self-acceptance, it's about kindness and friendship. The four characters that are on the title meet each other and go through this journey, and they just talk, and it's just the most pleasant self-help book I have ever read. The illustrations are just so gorgeous, it's so adorable, so I cried while reading this book, and I highly recommend. Next I have A Young Adult, this is Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, highly, highly recommended by like every single viewer of mine. I read only the first of the books, Six of Crows, and yes, I am sorry that they are from different editions, but there's nothing I can do about it now. This is a fantasy young adult, so a bunch of teenagers, they are on a heist, and they travel through this world. I'm excited to read Crooked Kingdom next, I really liked their banter, and it's just really soft, easy reading, and I really miss reading fantasy now that I'm thinking about it. Speaking of fantasy, here is my very old Harry Potter collection from my middle school grade years. These books, this series, was just my childhood. These are the books that carried me through a lot of my own pain, they showed me values of kindness, of hope, of magic. I felt protected while reading this, I remember bringing them to my middle school, and just reading in the bathroom stalls, I remember reading in my balcony of my room and just sobbing to these characters' lives. I don't know if you guys remember these covers, but they, for me, are the best ones. Maybe I'm biased. Next, I have four little books that are just together because of kind of the darker themes. The first one is Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Even when you know the story, the writing is really clever and really beautiful in this old-fashioned way. I hope that you're not scared because it's Shakespeare, because it doesn't take a big brain to understand this book at all, so you will be able to understand the beauty of this text. Next is The Catcher in the Rye, and if I give this another try and I still don't like it, I will definitely donate it or try to trade it for another book, because this book did not do it for me. J.D. Salinger, still not a favorite of mine. Next, I have The Night Circus, and this is by Erin Morgenstern. It's difficult to explain this book without giving spoilers, so I'll just say that this is a fantasy romance, and the main theme of the book is always the circus. I love descriptive books. I love to be inside a space. It is a slow-paced book. If you really like this soft type of magic, I think you will really enjoy it. Next, I have The Secret History by Donna Tartt. My one experience with this author was The Goldfinch, and I didn't like The Goldfinch, but then I knew from flipping a few pages of this book that I would like The Secret History. It caught me in the first sentence. Definitely a great character study, and I loved it. It was also her debut, which is crazy to think about. Now, I have a Charles Dickens, The Bleak House. This is one of the secondhand books. You can see there is definitely water damage to the pages, but it's the most wonderfully floppy book, and it was so cheap, and I can't wait, and it's translated, so it's just amazing that I was able to get this for so cheap, and it has these wonderful illustrations, and I can't wait to read this in the autumn, in the fall, when they have all the spooky vibes. It gives me spooky vibes. I can't believe I have these, but this is The Translated Virginia Woolf Diaries, okay, to Portuguese. Again, water damage, but I don't really care, because it has the five volumes of the diaries in just one, and I love Virginia, so it's just a pleasure to read her diaries and get to know her in a different way. Next, I have The Maidens, which was a book that did it for me. It's not a book that's supposed to be brilliant, I think, but I, at the time, I really enjoyed it. I think it was a really nice escape, and I like murder mystery, so I think it's a nice one, and I like the cover. The first self-help that I have here is How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. I think that's how you say his name. I think this was the best one that I've read so far. Then I have Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Amazing. I read it from the library, and then later in the bookshop, I found this translated edition that was just pretty cheap. It was 8 euros, so this is a biography that starts around 1500, like 16th century, because he doesn't age, so he lives through centuries, and he gets to know different characters in history. A feminist classic, and also has been wildly studied as a transgender book. Another book by Virginia Woolf, The Widow and the Parrot, and I found this book in my sister's bookshelf. This little children's short story. Even though it's a children's book, you can very heavily see the themes that Virginia continues to use throughout her adult novels. Next I have The Unbearable Likeness of Being by Milan Kundera. This book is a strange one. It's basically about human existence. It takes place in Prague between the 60s and 70s. It explores communism, it explores censorship, please check the trigger warnings, etc. of this book. I also purchased my first Murakami a while ago. I found it at a bookstore. It's a short story collection. Definitely thought that I would like it more than I did, but I enjoyed the magical realism aspect of his. Recently I purchased How to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I don't want to get spoiled by anything, so I'm just going to jump into it without knowing any of it. So I definitely want to read it and study it, can't wait. Next I have these two books that are kind of from the same collection, you can see. First one is The Extraordinary Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, and the second one is Alice in the Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. These books take me back to my childhood. Then I have The Inhabitable Earth by David Wallace Wells, Life After Warming. This book is amazing. It details consequences of global warming that I had never thought of, and it's an extremely current and important topic to educate ourselves on, so I highly recommend this read. Next I have this little volume of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. This is a lovely story about a group of women that to me felt like a children's book. If you want this warm feeling inside, I highly recommend it. Next I have A Sally Rooney. I'm very conflicted by Conversations with Friends, at the time I really liked it, and I think I gave it 4 stars or something like that, but looking back I don't even know if that deserved 4 stars, and so I need to reread it and try to figure out if I really like it or not. What I gathered was the dialogue at times was smart, but other than that, I don't got that much from the book. Then I have The Girl Who Reads on the Metro. The cover is really beautiful, I must say, and it gives a nice premise, but it doesn't accomplish it. It did not work for me, so I don't think I recommend it. I'm recently trying to reread it because I still haven't rated it because I was convinced that my opinion of this book was a fever dream. Then I have A Sibila by Agustina Bessa Luiz. This is a Portuguese author, Portuguese novel. This was kind of difficult to read, this took me a while. It talks about family generations, existence in general, in this very raw way, so I think I liked it, but I don't remember much of it, it was years ago. This is a book that I wanted to read pretty soon this year, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. After The Picture of Dorian Gray, I just want, like, I have to read more from him, and so this play, very popular, wanted to read. Then I have Os Lusíadas by- Portuguese people are gonna be laughing at me, but I wanted to have this book for myself. We studied this a lot in high school, and I was at a book fair, and I really liked this cover. I like this book, I liked studying it, and I want to read it and study it worse someday. Then I have The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. This is a non-fiction about evolution. I loved reading more about science, I love science. Then I have two other self-help books. From the both of them, I really liked Atomic Habits most, I really like that book, at least I learned more about habits, and it gave me a good feeling while reading it. The other one by Mark Manson, I think I- I think it was okay, but it's one of those books that I'm probably not gonna touch again. Then I have Becoming by Michelle Obama, which is amazing. I really liked this. She tells her story from growing up to being the first lady of the United States. I really like her. Then I have The World Needs To Know by Gustav Corona. This is a Portuguese doctor. He did a bunch of work in countries in need, and so he tells his stories in a very passionate, empathetic way. Then I have The Hundred by Cass Morgan, which was what the TV show was based on. This is yet another one of those situations where I do not recommend this book, I did not like it. I think I gave it one star, I hope I did, I would just recommend you watch the show that it's much better. Then I have three Nicholas Sparks books, pretty much the same format, the same delivery and formula, but you know, good escape. Next I have two books by John Green. The first one is Turtles All The Way Down, which to Portuguese is translated to A Thousand Times Goodbye, which I am just very confused about that choice. But I moderately liked, and then An Abundance of Katherines, I did not like. I have since read his nonfiction that he released during the pandemic, and I very, very much liked his nonfiction better than his fiction, but because I like him so much, I wanted to discover more of his books. But yeah, these are two that I kind of have, and I don't really know what to think or do with them. And then I have Starseeker by Tim Bowler, which was my favorite book also growing up. As a middle grade student, I really like this and it tackles aspects of bullying and music and yeah, I just really like this book. I haven't read it okay in a while, so I'm basing this on my children, child perspective, but this was one of my favorite books also growing up. And that ends my tour of all the books. I hope that next year I will have even more books that I'm very fond of. And yeah, I think that's it for now. I will see you very soon. Thank you so much for stopping by and for watching me ramble about books. Let me know your recommendations and your favorite books. I'll see you very soon. Bye!