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10 Book Reviews in 4 Minutes

2009-04-28 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · advice recommendation

With his camera battery dying, Hank speed-reviews ten books, from Les Misérables and Le Guin to The Bermudez Triangle, and ends by promoting John's riddle-told story This Is Not Tom and the forum he started for it.

What is said

00:00:00 — Lost camera cord, ten quick reviews: Les Misérables, Hyperion, Le Guin's Powers trilogy

  • ★★ Hank has lost his camera's power cord and has little battery left, so he makes a quick video reviewing ten books. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank finally read Les Misérables, knowing only one song from the musical, and thinks it will be a classic for decades or centuries. (playful) (hedged) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank warns people who like how they see the world not to read Hyperion, joking that it warped the minds of 37% of the warped people he knows. (playful) (hedged) — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ A self-declared Le Guin fan, Hank says her Powers trilogy makes us imagine worlds as they have been or could be and the people in them, showing amazing people come from all circumstances. (hedged) — 00:00:29

00:01:00 — A bad joke book, Interworld, Ringworld Throne vs Ringworld, Pratchett's The Truth, Sorcery and Cecilia

  • ★★ Hank says a joke book he bought while thinking of another jokes video sucks; the jokes Nerdfighters leave in comments are far better. (playful) — 00:01:00 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank calls Neil Gaiman's Interworld less dark than typical Gaiman but fun and mysterious; it was originally meant to be a TV series. — 00:01:00 · Neil Gaiman
  • ★★ Hank says Ringworld Throne 'kind of sucked' but the first Ringworld was very good, with fascinating engineering and characters; he advises skipping the sequels. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ Hank calls Terry Pratchett one of the world's greatest gifts to him and The Truth a gift for journalists, with Moist von Lipwig (as he says) taking on journalism as a con man. — 00:01:29
  • ★★ Hank calls Sorcery and Cecilia adorable, like Harry Potter meets Pride and Prejudice: two young women in a dangerous magical mystery, really about infuriating boys in marvelous outfits. (playful) — 00:01:29 · Harry Potter

00:02:13 — Sorcery and Cecilia (cont.); Maureen Johnson's The Bermudez Triangle

  • ★★★ Hank, who only just read Maureen Johnson's The Bermudez Triangle, can't believe people wanted to ban it; it should be required high-school reading, the best portrayal of friendship and sexuality he has read. — 00:02:13 · Maureen Johnson

00:02:38 — This Is Not Tom: John's story told through weekly riddles; Hank's thisisnotforums.com; ask for short reviews; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says John, bestselling author of Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, is writing another book, This Is Not Tom, released through weekly riddles. — 00:02:38 · John Green, Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines > «books have riddles in them all the time, but riddles have never had books in them before.»
  • ★★ Hank says a new riddle is posted weekly at youtube.com/isthistom, telling of a young girl on the run, and he started thisisnotforums.com where people help each other with hard riddles. — 00:02:38
  • ★★ Hank asks anyone else who wants to give short book reviews to do so in the comments. — 00:03:20

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