Joseph Francis Burton

BookTube Brain Teaser:

Marian Evans and Charlotte Brontë were both Victorian Era authors who wrote under pseudonyms with the intention of remaining anonymous. Both authors published their novels under their chosen pseudonyms. The true identities of both authors were discovered before their deaths. Both authors continued to use pseudonyms in their professional lives and their actual names in their personal lives.

So why do modern publishers and readers always call Marian Evans ‘George Eliot’, but never call Charlotte Brontë ‘Currer Bell’?

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 7

Joseph Francis Burton

This is a shoutout to Rashmika - from the channel Rashmika Likes Books. Do yourself a favor, stop what you are doing and subscribe to her immediately.

‪@RashmikaLikesBooks‬

I am not going to write too much about her here. She will tell you all you need to know if you listen to her book videos. All I will say is that in 2018 while I was making my own book videos, Rashmika found my channel and introduced me to the wide world of BookTube and to the literature of South Africa. From there we collaborated together on many buddy reads and video reviews, and got to know each other a bit. She stopped uploading around 2019 for personal reasons but wants to begin uploading again weekly, and I hope you can give her a warm welcome back and listen to her videos. Rashmika is as intelligent and insightful in her reading as they come. She is truly awesome, one of my all-time favorite channels. Subscribe to Rashmika you will not be sorry.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 7

Joseph Francis Burton

For the Unread Books tag challenge, I randomly selected FIVE novels from my shelves. I was challenged to read ONE of these randomly selected, unread novels in the next 90 days. Of course, good or bad, the selection will come with a detailed critical discussion video!! Help me pick which of the five contenders I should read!

1) The Mesilla, by Mary Armstrong, 2021, purchased from the author
2) The Musk Ox Passion, Thomas York, 1978, stolen from a fancy hotel lobby decor of about 500 green books, Alexandria, Virginia
3) The Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L’Engle, 1978, rescued from the COAS Bookstore dumpster, Las Cruces, New Mexico
4) Centennial, James Michener, 1974, purchased from Goodwill Store, Socorro, New Mexico
5) The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy, 1972, purchased from Black Cat Books, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 12

Joseph Francis Burton

Have you ever watched a movie that was a bit puzzling, but by the end you sort of see how all the pieces fit together so you immediately want to watch the movie again to see what you missed? Mysteries are often like this.

Have you ever experienced the same thing with a book? Have you ever finished a book and immediately felt the need to re-read it? If you have, comment below what book that was!

Well, I just sat down this morning to record a review video for Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter from 1850. I did my usual routine : I consolidated all of my notes into an outline for a roughly 30 minute video discussion, reviewed a few things to say, slammed a shot of tequila, then setup my laptop camera. But my discussion was not working, and I kept stopping my recording after 5 minutes of talking. My discussion just did not feel sufficient. I fear that my reading was just focusing on the obvious things in this novel, but I was missing too much below the surface.

I don't care much about video production, but I do care about the substance of my discussions (hard to believe, I know, but .. ). So I will do a quick re-read of The Scarlet Letter over the next few weeks, focus on some less obvious features of the novel and give my review another try next month.

So no more book review videos for the remainder of the year. This year of 2025 was book-ended by two outstanding reads, so I began and finished the year strong. My first read of the year was Po-on by Francisco Sionil Jose and I was expecting that to be my top read of the year, but that just may be surpassed by my last read, The Scarlet Letter. Expect to hear my thoughts and opinions on Scarlet Letter sometime next year. In the meantime, I might schedule some old ham 'n' cheese Steppenwolf audio readings instead.

Thank you again to the few but dedicated people out there who are interested in listening to some of my outlandish opinions. My style tends to alternate between very silly to somewhat profound, and I know I loose a lot of people in the process - so thank you again for enduring the erratic format. Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season from Joseph and Rosemary.

5 months ago | [YT] | 10

Joseph Francis Burton

I am currently reading Hermann Hesse's _Steppenwolf_ , and finding it excessively difficult for me to get through. But I want to finish it. Reading it aloud helps, so I thought I would just kill two birds with one stone and record it as an audiobook. But my English translation was published in 1929 so it is not open source!! What should I do?

1 year ago | [YT] | 2