hello readers welcome back to keep
reading your channel for great book
recommendations it's been 12 weeks of
lockdown in the UK now so I thought that
I'd share a video with you of all the
books that I've recommended over the last 12
weeks in this style of a chart countdown
all of the books in the countdown have
their own video on the channel so go to
the link above and select a video for a
more in-depth review also you can
subscribe at any time by clicking the
logo in the bottom right of the screen
or you can look at the link that's in
the description below the video don't
forget to hit the thumbs up if you liked
the video so without further ado in at
number 13 is steal like an artist by
Austin Kleon this is a great little book
for anyone who wants to unlock their
creativity which should be all of us
whichever walk of life we come from and
in at number 12 is blink by Malcolm
Gladwell this is a great book it's all
about the power of thinking without
thinking it's about those moments when
we know something but we don't know why
Gladwell says trust your instincts
and make spontaneous decisions as
they're often better than carefully
considered ones
and so in at number 11 is The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak this is a brilliant
ambitious book set in 1939 Nazi Germany
tells the inspiring but often
harrowing story of Liesel a
nine-year-old girl fostered by a German
couple when her parents are sent to a
concentration camp this is an uplifting
book and celebrates the power of words
and their ability to do good in the world
so in at number 10 we have a possible
life by Sebastian Faulks and this is a
beautiful book and it's a collection of
five short stories that might seem
disjointed at first but you soon realise
that the stories are entwined and he
also describes this book as the chance
to feel your heartbeat in someone else's
life it's a bit like a good album you
might have a favourite track but it's
clear that the album was conceived as an
entity this beautiful book poses a
number of questions about the human
condition in at number nine is the
subtle art of not giving a you can see
that it's by MarK Manson and it's a
controversial book but well he
calls it a counterintuitive approach to
living a good life
the author is unflinchingly honest about
today's culture being obsessively
focused on unrealistic positive
expectations of themselves
it has a ruthless humor and can guide
you to care about the things that matter
most
and in at number eight is sapiens by
Yuval Noah Harari it's an interesting
and provocative book and the author says
it's a brief history of humankind it's
an account of our extraordinary history
from insignificant apes to rulers of the
world this is a must read and the author
has followed this up with two other
great books called Homo Deus and
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
and in at number seven is A Thousand
Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini this is
a gorgeous book it's beautifully written
and deeply moving and it tells a
desperate and heartbreaking struggle of
two women during Afghanistan's turbulent
thirty-year transition from Soviet rule
to brutal Taliban control the book
demonstrates how love gives people the
strength to perform devastating and
heroic acts of self-sacrifice and in
at number six is atomic habits by James
Clear now this is a great book and it's
all about building good habits and
breaking bad ones
he says tiny changes have remarkable
results and it's all about the compound
effects of lots of small changes that
can have a significant and positive
impact on your life
and in at number five is The Water
Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates this is a
tale of slavery in pre Civil War
Virginia and tells the remarkable story
of Hiram Walker who was born into
slavery but has a mysterious gift this
is one of the best novels I've read for a
while definitely give this one a go
and in at number four is any human heart
by William Boyd this is the fascinating
story of Logan Mountstuart who lived
through every decade of the 20th century
he lived life to the full and he met
some very interesting characters along
the way I read this maybe 15 years ago
and I still think of it often and that
must be the sign of a truly great book
and in at number three is the plague
by absurdist philosopher Albert Camus
this book won the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1957 and it tells the
story of a virus that takes over the
town of Oran on the algerian coast
this is a very very interesting book and
it mirrored some of the things that we
have probably all seen over 
the last three months
and in at number two is cosmos by Carl
Sagan this is an extraordinary book it
was published in 1981 and it's the story
of cosmic evolution science and
civilization Sagan takes you on a
journey from our own tiny fragile ball of
rock to the limits of the observable
universe
Sagan explains difficult
scientific ideas with ease making them
both graspable and exciting and in at
number one top of the pops is
meditations by Marcus Aurelius this was
written by the only Roman Emperor who was
also a philosopher he was known as one
of the Stoics and he taught that virtue
is the only good the stoic
practices in this book to manage stress
are I think as relevant today as they
were when Marcus Aurelius wrote them
nearly 2,000 years ago
you simply can't read this book without
coming away with a phrase or a line that
will be helpful to you next time you're
in a difficult situation so that's the
12-week lockdown book countdown done
hope you enjoyed it hit the thumbs up if
you did you can click on the keep
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I'll catch up with you soon with a
another great book recommendation until then
stay safe stay healthy stay positive and
keep reading
