Skip to content

Nerdfighter Book Recommendations: A Gift Giving Guide for Nerdfightastic Readers

2012-11-27 · review / recommendation · John · 3:46 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Advice & reviews · tags: self promotion

John gives a holiday gift guide of book recommendations in an 'if you like X, read Y' format for different Nerdfighter interests, asks for viewers' suggestions, and says books make the most lasting gifts.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Intro: John's huge book collection, no favorite book, the if-you-then-you gift-guide format, Fifty Shades joke

  • ★★ John says he and the Yeti keep several thousand books in their house and even two-year-old Henry has a sizeable collection, so he feels qualified to recommend books. — 00:00:00 · Sarah Urist Green, Henry Green
  • ★ John says he is often asked for his favorite book but has no single favorite; he has hundreds. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ For the holiday gift season John recommends books in an 'if you like X, then you might like Y' format. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Recommendations: The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber (Swoodilypooper fans), Behind the Beautiful Forevers (world-suck fighters)

  • ★★ For fans of his fictional Swindon Town Swoodilypoopers, John recommends The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, the true story of a Hungarian hockey goalie who robbed banks and escaped prison. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ For people interested in decreasing world suck, John recommends Behind the Beautiful Forevers, the most interesting and complex book about poverty he has read, and says it is great rather than merely sad. — 00:00:29 · world suck

00:00:58 — Recommendations: Sula, Jane Austen for Downton Abbey fans, The Blood of the Lamb, dystopias for Hunger Games fans

  • ★★ For fans of The Catcher in the Rye, John recommends Toni Morrison's Sula: if Catcher is the great American novel of growing up without a friend, Sula is the one about friendship in adolescence. (hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ For Downton Abbey fans, John recommends Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, Persuasion or any Austen novel, joking about the novels' costume design. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ For readers who liked his The Fault in Our Stars, John thanks them and recommends Peter De Vries's The Blood of the Lamb. — 00:00:58 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ For Hunger Games fans John, a big fan of dystopias, recommends Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, Ally Condie's Matched series and Veronica Roth's Divergent series, which he calls infuriatingly unfinished. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Recommendations: Matched, Divergent; Telegraph Avenue and Bossypants for couples; rereading Harry Potter, The Magicians

  • ★★ For couples reading together, John names the two books he and the Yeti read together this year (2012) and liked most: Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue and Tina Fey's Bossypants (he is unsure how to pronounce both surnames). — 00:01:27 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ For Harry Potter fans, John says to reread the books, which stand up to rereading, and recommends Lev Grossman's Magicians series and Melissa Anelli's Harry, A History about the fandom. — 00:01:27 · Harry Potter (book series)

00:01:56 — Recommendations: Harry, A History; The Art of Fielding, The Book Thief (Zusak joke); Wolf Hall for Crash Course World History fans

  • ★★ For a novel whose characters you care about without knowing why, John recommends Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding or Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ For Crash Course World History fans who enjoy fiction, John recommends two long books: Wolf Hall and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (volumes 1 and 2). — 00:01:56 · Crash Course

00:02:26 — Recommendations: Octavian Nothing, The Emperor of All Maladies, books for Looking for Alaska fans, To Say Nothing of the Dog for Whovians

  • ★★ For Crash Course Biology enthusiasts, John recommends The Emperor of All Maladies. — 00:02:26 · Crash Course
  • ★★ For Looking for Alaska fans, John recommends E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks for the boarding-school parts, and A.S. King's Everybody Sees the Ants and Gayle Forman's If I Stay for the other parts. — 00:02:26 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ For Whovians, John recommends Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, maybe his favorite time-travel book. (hedged) — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — Sherlock recommendations; asks for viewers' recommendations; books make lasting gifts, shown with books given by Hank, Sarah, Dad and Mom; sign-off

  • ★★ For Sherlock fans, John recommends The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, and thinks they would like P.D. James. (hedged) — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John asks Nerdfighters to tell him in the comments what he should be reading. — 00:02:55 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John reminds viewers that books, especially from a local bookstore, make great gifts, and asks them to consider giving books over the holidays, his own and other people's. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John says no gift has lasted as long as books, showing Ship Breaker from Hank, The Human Stain from Sarah early in their dating, Microserfs from Dad (Christmas 1997) and Where the Red Fern Grows from Mom (age 10). — 00:03:24 · Hank Green, Sarah Urist Green, Mike Green, Sydney Green

Humor (significant)

  • John demonstrates his if-you-then-you gift-guide format with Fifty Shades of Grey fans. — 00:00:00

    “if you like Fifty Shades of Grey, then you can find lots of that stuff on the internet for free.”

  • Recommending Jane Austen novels to Downton Abbey fans, John praises the novels' visuals. — 00:00:58

    “I mean the costume design in those novels is fantastic.”

  • After recommending The Book Thief, John gushes about its author's looks. — 00:01:56

    “Oh well, don't tell him I said this or anything, but Markus Zusak has fantastic muscles.”

  • John warns Sherlock fans that his pick will sound crazy. — 00:02:55

    “I recommend that you read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: Henry Green · Jane Austen · Markus Zusak · Mike Green · P. D. James · Sarah Urist Green · Sydney Green

Projects: Crash Course

Works: Behind the Beautiful Forevers · Bossypants · Divergent · Doctor Who · Downton Abbey · Everybody Sees the Ants · Fifty Shades of Grey · Harry Potter (book series) · Harry, A History · If I Stay · Looking for Alaska (novel) · Mansfield Park · Matched · Microserfs · Persuasion · Sherlock · Ship Breaker · Sula · Telegraph Avenue · The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes · The Art of Fielding · The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing · The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber · The Blood of the Lamb · The Book Thief · The Catcher in the Rye · The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks · The Emperor of All Maladies · The Fault in Our Stars · The Human Stain · The Hunger Games (book series) · The Magicians · To Say Nothing of the Dog · Uglies · Where the Red Fern Grows · Wolf Hall

Terms: world suck

Concepts: time travel

Characters: Swindon Town Swoodilypoopers

Only in the description or credits: A. S. King · Ally Condie · Arthur Conan Doyle · Chad Harbach · Connie Willis · E. Lockhart · Gayle Forman · Hilary Mantel · Julian Rubinstein · Katherine Boo · Lev Grossman · M. T. Anderson · Melissa Anelli · Michael Chabon · Peter De Vries · Scott Westerfeld · Siddhartha Mukherjee · Tina Fey · Toni Morrison · Veronica Roth

← Previous: Black Friday: An Accident of History · Next → VidCon 2013!