Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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I'm Mike - this is Riff Raff's Reading Renaissance. Welcome!
Today I'm doing the Name Five Tag, created by Sue Jackson to celebrate her 5th Booktube anniversary. I was tagged by Cliff @CliffsDarkGems.

In this video I share:
📚 My five favourite BookTube channel recommendations
📖 Five underrated BookTubers you should discover
❤️ Five wonderful members of the BookTube community
🏛️ Five classic novels I absolutely love
🎧 Thoughts on audiobooks and my favourite narrators
💎 Five brilliant books that deserve far more attention

Along the way I discuss classics including Anna Karenina, The Iliad, Vanity Fair, Lolita and The Story of an African Farm, together with modern masterpieces like Damon Galgut's The Promise, Alan Paton's Too Late the Phalarope, Anthony Burgess's Nothing Like the Sun, and Tim Marshall's Prisoners of Geography.

If you're passionate about classic literature, literary fiction, reading recommendations and BookTube, I hope you'll discover a few new books—and perhaps a few new channels—to enjoy.

If you've done the Name Five Tag, let me know below. If you haven't, consider yourself invited! Please share your own favourite classics and hidden gems in the comments.

👍 Like, Subscribe and join me for more conversations about great books.

Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 Intro - Why I Started My BookTube Channel
01:29 Five Favourite BookTube Channels
05:06 Five Smaller BookTubers You Should Know
07:23 Five Classic Books I Love
10:09 My Thoughts on Audiobooks
13:35 Five Underrated Books Everyone Should Read
19:57 Tagging Other BookTubers & final thoughts

Booktubers mentioned / recommended:
‪@SueJacksonDE who created the Tag - linked here:
youtube.com/watch?v=nbdHxgvoeyE
@CliffsDarkGems - who tagged me - here's his tag link -
youtube.com/watch?v=d8mRAYDp6EU&t=990s
Steve - @saintdonoghue
Shelly - @Shellyish
Alison - @alisontalksbooks
Margaret - @MargaretPinard
Greg - @anotherbibliophilereads
Alan - @hardbooks770
Gareth - @bookssongsandothermagic
Hannah - @HannahsBooks
Kelly - @booksimnotreading
Randy -@LiterateTexan
Robert G - @RobertGReaderofBooks-r3p
Aaron -- @AaronReadABook
Ruby - @rubyhartbooks
Ally - @genteelblackhole
Meli - @meliinthemargins
John - @MustReadMore
Catherine - @theliterarylatte
Alan - @AlansReads

Authors mentioned :
• Leo Tolstoy
• Homer
• William Makepeace Thackeray
• Vladimir Nabokov
• Olive Schreiner
• David Mitchell
• Stephen Fry
• J. K. Rowling
• Damon Galgut
• Alan Paton
• Anthony Burgess
• Tim Marshall
• William Shakespeare

Books mentioned:
• Anna Karenina
• The Iliad
• Vanity Fair
• Lolita
• The Story of an African Farm
• Unruly
• 1066 and All That (mentioned for comparison)
• Mythos
• Heroes
• Troy
• The Odyssey
• Harry Potter (series)
• The Promise
• Cry, the Beloved Country
• Too Late the Phalarope
• Nothing Like the Sun
• Prisoners of Geography
• The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World

And for the almighty algorithm :
#booktube
#bookrecommendations
#classicliterature
#reading
#books
#literaryfiction
#AnnaKarenina
#vanityfair
#thepromise
#SouthAfricanLiterature
#booktags
#readers
#readingcommunity
#classicbooks
#hiddengems