Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
How do you decide what to read when there are millions of books competing for your attention?
I'm Mike - this is Riff Raff's Reading Renaissance. Welcome!
After a year on BookTube, countless hours of research, and reading through guides from Harold Bloom, James Mustich, John Sutherland, Anthony Burgess and many others, I've finally distilled my personal reading canon.
From Gilgamesh, Homer, Dante and Shakespeare to Tolstoy, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Orwell, Toni Morrison, Hilary Mantel and contemporary literary fiction, this is my attempt to answer one question:
If time is limited, which books are most worth reading?
This isn't a list of the "best" books. It's a personal canon built around reading for joy, discovery, and understanding the development of literature across 4,000 years of human history.
Featured authors include:
• Homer
• Sophocles
• Virgil
• Dante
• Chaucer
• Shakespeare
• Cervantes
• Jane Austen
• Dickens
• Tolstoy
• Dostoevsky
• George Eliot
• Virginia Woolf
• James Joyce
• Orwell
• Toni Morrison
• Gabriel García Márquez
• Cormac McCarthy
• Hilary Mantel
• And many more.
Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 Intro & 1,000 Subscriber Reflections
01:15 Building my personal reading canon
02:20 Researching what to read
06:36 The Ancient World (Gilgamesh to Virgil)
10:26 Early Common Era (Ovid to King Arthur)
14:07 Renaissance & Early Modern Classics
17:09 The 18th Century Canon
20:30 The Great 19th Century Novels
23:39 Dickens, Tolstoy & Dostoevsky
27:18 Late Victorian Literature
32:59 Modernism & Early 20th Century Classics
36:00 New approaches (Lawrence, Joyce & Kafka)
38:34 1920s – the novels after the Great War
41:55 1930s - Testing boundaries & challenging conventions
45:18 1940s – Emerging global literature
47:54 1950s – Epics, Black writers & the birth of fantasy
50:33 1960s - Literature tackles the inner self
53:36 1970s – Cold War paranoia, Historical Fiction & Absurdist Humour
56:37 1980s – Emerging global talents (Coetzee, Rushdie, Ishiguro)
59:51 1990s – Social issues (climate, racial prejudice) and difficult questions
1:02:57 2000s – Global upheavals and groundbreaking Historical Fiction
1:04:54 The Here & Now – Literature tackles some brutal realities
1:08:50 Summing up the Canon – a personal reflection
1:09:51 Final thoughts
QUESTIONS:
What books would be in your personal canon? Tell me what to put in and what to take out. Leave your suggestions in the comments.
Nominations for the 100 greatest books according to Booktube at @katiejlumsden
youtube.com/watch?v=KvNnpMvFkkM&t=36s
The '100 Best Novels of All Time' | What I've read, and can Booktube make a better list?
My survey: https://forms.gle/ki5zBffRZKVSvx8t6
Open until 1st July – please tell me your 10 best novels of all time!
And for the almighty algorithm : #books #classicliterature #readinglist #booktube #greatbooks #LiteraryCanon #readingrecommendations #classicbooks #booktube #classicliterature #greatbooks #readinglist
#LiteraryCanon #BooksEveryoneShouldRead #readingrecommendations
#worldliterature #bookrecommendations #literature
PINNED COMMENT
I've spent years refining this reading canon, drawing on everything from Harold Bloom's The Western Canon to countless "best books" lists, literary histories, and recommendations from fellow readers.
One rule: only 10 books per period.
Which books would you add? Which would you remove?
And what's the single book that absolutely belongs in your personal canon?
How do you decide what to read when there are millions of books competing for your attention?
I'm Mike - this is Riff Raff's Reading Renaissance. Welcome!
After a year on BookTube, countless hours of research, and reading through guides from Harold Bloom, James Mustich, John Sutherland, Anthony Burgess and many others, I've finally distilled my personal reading canon.
From Gilgamesh, Homer, Dante and Shakespeare to Tolstoy, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Orwell, Toni Morrison, Hilary Mantel and contemporary literary fiction, this is my attempt to answer one question:
If time is limited, which books are most worth reading?
This isn't a list of the "best" books. It's a personal canon built around reading for joy, discovery, and understanding the development of literature across 4,000 years of human history.
Featured authors include:
• Homer
• Sophocles
• Virgil
• Dante
• Chaucer
• Shakespeare
• Cervantes
• Jane Austen
• Dickens
• Tolstoy
• Dostoevsky
• George Eliot
• Virginia Woolf
• James Joyce
• Orwell
• Toni Morrison
• Gabriel García Márquez
• Cormac McCarthy
• Hilary Mantel
• And many more.
Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 Intro & 1,000 Subscriber Reflections
01:15 Building my personal reading canon
02:20 Researching what to read
06:36 The Ancient World (Gilgamesh to Virgil)
10:26 Early Common Era (Ovid to King Arthur)
14:07 Renaissance & Early Modern Classics
17:09 The 18th Century Canon
20:30 The Great 19th Century Novels
23:39 Dickens, Tolstoy & Dostoevsky
27:18 Late Victorian Literature
32:59 Modernism & Early 20th Century Classics
36:00 New approaches (Lawrence, Joyce & Kafka)
38:34 1920s – the novels after the Great War
41:55 1930s - Testing boundaries & challenging conventions
45:18 1940s – Emerging global literature
47:54 1950s – Epics, Black writers & the birth of fantasy
50:33 1960s - Literature tackles the inner self
53:36 1970s – Cold War paranoia, Historical Fiction & Absurdist Humour
56:37 1980s – Emerging global talents (Coetzee, Rushdie, Ishiguro)
59:51 1990s – Social issues (climate, racial prejudice) and difficult questions
1:02:57 2000s – Global upheavals and groundbreaking Historical Fiction
1:04:54 The Here & Now – Literature tackles some brutal realities
1:08:50 Summing up the Canon – a personal reflection
1:09:51 Final thoughts
QUESTIONS:
What books would be in your personal canon? Tell me what to put in and what to take out. Leave your suggestions in the comments.
Nominations for the 100 greatest books according to Booktube at @katiejlumsden
youtube.com/watch?v=KvNnpMvFkkM&t=36s
The '100 Best Novels of All Time' | What I've read, and can Booktube make a better list?
My survey: https://forms.gle/ki5zBffRZKVSvx8t6
Open until 1st July – please tell me your 10 best novels of all time!
And for the almighty algorithm : #books #classicliterature #readinglist #booktube #greatbooks #LiteraryCanon #readingrecommendations #classicbooks #booktube #classicliterature #greatbooks #readinglist
#LiteraryCanon #BooksEveryoneShouldRead #readingrecommendations
#worldliterature #bookrecommendations #literature
PINNED COMMENT
I've spent years refining this reading canon, drawing on everything from Harold Bloom's The Western Canon to countless "best books" lists, literary histories, and recommendations from fellow readers.
One rule: only 10 books per period.
Which books would you add? Which would you remove?
And what's the single book that absolutely belongs in your personal canon?
