Bookshelf Tour: Dostoevsky's Demons
Added 2025-11-13 11:36:27 +0000 UTCHello my wonderful patrons :). I always find it difficult to talk about this book because I have read it multiple times and do not quite understand it. Nonetheless, it is fantastic!
Joe :)
Comments
Demons is my favorite book of all time. Dostoevsky manages to cover so many different topics, questions, and philosophical ideas all while writing a plot that is everything from tragic and dark at times to hilarious and witty at others. SPOILER WARNING: I've felt so physically effected by an event I read in a novel as I was by Shatov's murder. His character is heartbreaking
Grantham Smith
2025-12-24 08:23:40 +0000 UTCI’m reading Crime and Punishment right now and in the nightmare ! This is how I found your Patreon by the C&P YouTube video after looking for some much needed camaraderie in Dostoyevsky. I’ll read his other works too in 2026. Glad to be here.
Anna B.
2025-11-22 01:03:00 +0000 UTCBecause of your videos on Notes from the Underground and Blood Meridian, I went out and bought the books to read. It’s been years since I’ve read a book, and I’m really excited to start again. Thank you!
H
2025-11-15 03:04:53 +0000 UTCMaybe another option for a book club reading here?
Lizelle Van Wyk
2025-11-14 15:07:57 +0000 UTCHi there, I’m in the same boat! I think we’ve both experienced seeing something that’s originally in English get completely ruined by a bad translation into our native languages (or vice versa) and just wanting to scream, and then becoming super wary of the quality of any translated works. I went through the same debate you did not long ago and have settled on probably going through the novels on my reading list in my native language first, and then going back to reread the ones I like in English. (I’m just making plans for the future, right now I want to focus on my non-fiction reading list, and for those I’ll stick to English.) Doing it in my native language will be a breeze, I can probably read at least five times faster. Plus, I think you can also relate to the fact that we can effortlessly pick up many more details and nuances when reading in our native languages (assuming the translator did a good job, of course).
100% Human
2025-11-13 16:23:32 +0000 UTCNo one understands another's demons, Joe. :)
Cheryl Jeska
2025-11-13 15:23:51 +0000 UTCMaybe the one book from Dostoyevsky that I HAVEN'T read
Natrice
2025-11-13 14:50:23 +0000 UTCI have yet to read any of Dostoevsky's works, but your videos on them really compell me to want to pick one up. I'm weirdly stuck on the point that I don't know which translation to get, an English one or a German one (German being my native language), because when not reading the original language, some context will always be missing, such is the nature of translation, but I feel a really good translation can make up for most of it, and I wonder whether English might just have the overall better translation. Anyway, I really enjoyed you putting your thoughts like this and I hope you'll figure out how to make a video about the book. I for one wouldn't mind an opening going into the society and politics of the time as background for the writer and the novel, but I am also always interested in the things others find dry, so I'm no good judge of what would make a good video ^^
Thoronris
2025-11-13 14:06:00 +0000 UTC
