 Hello everybody. E here. Welcome back to Top 5 Friday. Today we're talking about five books that I loved but did not understand upon first finishing them. I'm going to cut the title short, just five books I loved that I didn't understand. But these are books that I probably have, only one of them I haven't looked up extra information on. But these are books that I loved while I was reading them. And then after the fact I had to look up what they were about, what the message, the theme, whatever it was, the point of the book. I'm doing this list, this list is inspired by me having read Thomas Pensions, The Crying of Locke 4ix9ine. I got to thinking about it and there's quite a few books that I have read that I loved that I loved while I was reading them and I blew through them or I took my time and I really enjoyed myself, whatever it may be, I just didn't understand them when I got done and I had to look up information afterwards. So at number five we have Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. This book was a mess for me when I first read it but I loved it, it was funny, I had a blast with it but I didn't understand the build of it. I first read this when I was much much younger, I think right after high school, right around that time and I didn't understand the point of it. I still loved reading it, it was crazy, it was wacky, it was bizarre, I'm not a history buff so I knew absolutely nothing about the firebombing of Dresden, but this book, this fiction is what made me go and research the topic and made me go find out more about that terrible time in history. But I think the main thing that I loved here that I didn't understand was the Traffamadoria, whatever the aliens are called. I'm going to try not to spoil things here but there are certain things that will be so I will put the time signatures down there in the description if you don't want any spoilers whatsoever but I won't be doing any plot spoilers except for maybe one. But anyways, like I said, if you're worried about any spoilers whatsoever, please click to each and every one. So that's number five, I'll put this over here. Next up we have Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West. It's not really a subtitle, it's the OR title. It's the same thing with Slaughterhouse 5, it has one of those OR subtitles to it, something about children. But anyways, with this one, it fascinated me, completely, utterly fascinated me. It was terrifying, it was terrifically written, it was visceral, it was brutal, I didn't understand much of it at all. I knew the scenes, what was going on in the scenes, but the point of it, I kept hearing about how deep it was and I didn't catch any of that while I was reading it. I just had a fun time reading about the judge and was it the kid, I think it is, these characters and how the judge, this is going to be a spoiler for this book. I believe it's been a while since I read it, but I believe the judge was supposed to be the devil, either that or some kind of evil, some kind of supernatural evil, I think. I don't know. If you're going to tell me down there in the doobly-doo, please say spoiler alert for Blood Meridian. But this is one of those books, it truly is a testament to the great writing that I was able, and that's with all of these books, that I was able to enjoy it, even though I didn't catch the theme. It's like laughing at a joke, you don't fully understand, but you know something about it is funny, and that's pretty much what this book was. I had a blast reading it, I just didn't understand the themes. We have The Crying of Lot 49, or 49. I had to go deep dive, by Thomas Pension by the way, I had to do a deep dive into this one afterwards because I completely lost the thread. I had a blast reading it, it has a wonderful scene in here where someone who's just describing a play, that was amazing, I was engaged, my attention was just locked in place. And then the story keeps going, and I was like, I don't understand what any of this has to do with any of this. Come to find out, you know, the story is about paranoia, and I hear a lot, all of Pension's work is about paranoia. He's a recluse himself, but the themes of the book was completely lost on me. The fictional band in here is amazing, I love reading about them. Everything in the book is great, I just didn't understand it. And the funniest part here is when I started doing my deep dive, either most people don't understand this book, other than the paranoia aspect of it, because everybody has their own opinion on what the book is really about. I find that fascinating. It's like looking at a piece of art, like a painting, or abstract art, and going, I see this, I see that, I see a sailboat. If you get that reference, me and you can be friends. But anyways, yeah, number three, The Crying of Lot 4ix9ine. The next book on the list is going to be on next week's list also. Spoiler alert. But this one is Don DeLillo's White Noise, fantastic book. I remember, it's funny, I remember the way this one is built, more than anything else. There's a quick chapters for the first part and the third part, but the middle part of the book is one extremely long chapter. And I blew through the book very, very quickly, and it's probably to my detriment. I probably need to reread it, but I didn't understand a thing about it. The only thing that I caught, I think I grabbed on to concepts of paranoia and consumerism, I believe, but it's about a gas that's released and this family has to run away from it. That is a very, very simplistic. That's not what the story is about, that's just a plot point. It's a very deep and emotional book, and there are certain times when the wife is talking about how she always thinks about when she's going to die, how she's going to die. And that resonated with me. I don't know if that's a theme of the book. This is the one that I didn't really delve too far into afterward. I was reading a whole bunch of other books at the time. That probably, once again, was to my detriment. I probably just need to sit down and read this one slowly, just a little bit at a time. But with this one, I remember very vividly that scene where she's talking to her husband. I'm like, that's me. For the longest time, I was concerned with the fact that I was eventually going to die. It was the first thing I thought about before I went to sleep is the first thing I thought about when I woke up, and that's what I latched onto. Is that the theme of the book? I have no clue. But it's one of the things that I loved about the book. But the rest of it, I mean, that's a very, very, very short scene. And as I was reading, it didn't seem to fit into the rest of it. But now, as I'm talking about it with you guys, now, well, this is kind of a one-sided conversation camera, but now that I'm thinking about it, maybe that's it. I mean, they're running away from death. Maybe that is the whole point of the story. I don't know. Let me know down there in the doobly-do what you think. But I think what I'm going to latch onto most here is there was only that one scene. But is that one scene the pivotal scene? I have no idea. So on with the list. See all the confusion? See, that's the whole point of this video, really, how you can be confused about something and still enjoy it. Just because you're reading a book, and I don't want to go on any diatribe or tirade or anything, but just because you're reading a book and you don't understand it, if you're enjoying it, you're enjoying it. You're enjoying the situation. You're enjoying what you're reading. You look at a piece that, like, going back to the artwork thing, if you look at a piece of art and it is aesthetically pleasing to you, then you like it. It shouldn't matter whether or not you understand it. Is that right? I think so. Let's talk about that down there in the doobly-do. But once again, if you want to explain white noise to me, please, put spoiler alert for white noise before your comment. Last but not least is a book that I think about. I am not kidding. When I say this, I am not exaggerating. This isn't hyperbole. I think about this book at least once a day. A day. As a former addict myself, I did heroin from 1997 to 2001. As a former addict myself, this book meant a lot to me, but I don't really understand it. Um, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. One of my favorite books of all time now. I read this one very slowly to my wife about 10 pages a night. We had an absolute blast. We enjoyed it. Did we completely understand it? No? In fact, I have a video on the channel called The Smartening, where me and Shell talk about the book. But the thing is, we still don't fully understand it. Um, and as far as that Smartening thing goes, that series is probably discontinued because we only did one episode. Because she's so busy with her own stuff. Her side of things, what she does on her own time, has started to take off. And I'm not going to take away from that. On top of that, she homeschools the kids. So she's a very, very busy lady. But this book, I think it'll behoove you. If you have not read it, behoove you? I don't know. I think it'll help you out if you read it very, very slowly. Um, I caught some things. I watched several videos, several explanations after the fact. After, you know, finishing it. And I got some of the things right. But other things, I just, it didn't click. But I still loved reading about those things. There's one point in this book toward the end. I think it's less than 50 pages from the end. He completely gets rid of everything else earlier that he's been talking about. Goes to an entirely new character that you've never heard of. And has that person give a talk at like an AA meeting or an NA meeting? You know, Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. And he's just talking about his life. It has nothing to do with the book. Nothing whatsoever. And I watched several videos that talk about, that's the point of that. Is what Wallace was trying to do was to say, see the way that you react to this person, how you say that this does not matter, that this person's experience, even though it does not fit into the thread of the story, it doesn't matter. That's the point. How you feel about that person not mattering because it's not a part of the bigger picture, that is the point. And that, if that is true, unfortunately Wallace passed away. He committed suicide. If that's true, if that's real, if that was his intention, that's brilliant. But did I catch that? Hell no, I didn't catch it. I'll be completely honest with you. And I want to close out this video by saying that, if you do not understand something, there is no shame. Yes, there are people who will make you feel ashamed for not catching these things. But there should never be any shame in not knowing. There should never be any shame in saying, I don't know. And on the flip side of it, if you're one of those people who get upset or make fun of someone because they miss the point and you don't feel like you have the time or you don't want to be bothered to explain it to them, you're part of that problem. The whole point of this, other than entertainment, there's a spread of education through reading. I think it is the best way to continue on with an education outside of school. But that's not really the point either. It's that we also have this community that we help each other out. And if you don't understand something, if you see someone not understanding something, and maybe you understand it, be a friend. Be someone who helps them out. Don't be the person who laughs in their face because they didn't get it. I'm sure there's something, something that you have come across in this world, in your existence, that you did not fully understand and had to ask for help with. On the flip side again, flip it back to people who don't understand these things, don't feel ashamed. If someone makes you feel ashamed, they are in the wrong. You are not in the wrong. Anyways, that's how I feel. If you want to discuss that topic down there in the doobly-doo, please do. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been on the top five Friday. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!