Which level do you think you're currently on?

Level 1: 50 books (The Starter Canon) Level 2: 100 books (Well-Read) Level 3: 250 books (Seriously Well-Read) Level 4: 500 books (The Western Canon) Level 5: 1,000+ books (The Lifetime Project)

And what book would you add—or remove—from Level 1?

I will read 1000 classics … or die trying.
Thanks for posting this. I’ll watch it again

And I love your take on poetry  especially your advice to read them out loud. The last few years I’ve also taken to writing my favourite poems out long hand. That process demands a close reading of the poem. I must’ve copied out about 230 poems and I’m hungry for more.

I started to say something about higher level canons defined in part by how much preparation they need to understand and appreciate. Then the D&D mention ate my brain and I envisioned readers grinding out XP to level up and be ready for Ulysses. They read low-level stuff like tourist guides, mysteries by Irish readers, and books about Joyce. The real trash encounters are limerick collections and advice of coloring food green for St. Patrick’s Day.

I recently decluttered about 80% of my books after realizing I wasn’t actually motivated to read or reread most of them and it would take my actual lifetime to read them at a realistic pace. I’m almost 40 but have had such significant health issues for the past decade that it felt more like my 1000s of books (many classics) were taunting me and ticking like a clock. I pared down to about 50 books I know I love and want to reread again and again and another 50 or so that I haven’t read yet but really want to and which would be trickier to get from the library. I asked myself, as a reader, what would I want to spend my time reading if I only had five years left? And the answer was that I’d rather KNOW DEEPLY and truly appreciate some of my favorites - Paradise Lost, Stoner, War and Peace, Les Mis, Cold Mountain, the Bible, Emerson’s essays, Wolf Hall, Far from the Madding Crowd etc - than chase something new to me to glean as ‘much’ wisdom and beauty in this short life as I can like some hungry ghost. I do enjoy these Bloomian lists, but sometimes they can get a bit ‘productivity p*rn’ and I wonder how much one can truly enjoy and gain from such an immense and broad list, unless they are starting very young and slow down to appreciate more deeply as they age.

Bloom sites 1,864 works essential to the western canon.   I would be further along if I didn’t enjoy rereading classics so much.  But in the end ;at my stage in life I read for personal fulfillment.

My favorite author is Ron Currie Jr. For someone your age, here's some stuff to stay with:

Every Sherlock Holmes story and novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Catcher in the Rye

The Great Gatsby

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

King Solomon's Mines

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

And anything and everything that interests you

As an older, retired woman who has read many, many classics (since I was 12), I have no idea how many I have read. I love English, French, and Russian literature the most. I also loved Sigrid Undset, who wrote Kristin Lavransdatter, a wonderful trilogy about medieval Norway. I also love science fiction - Dune is my other planet.

"What a scholar one might be if one knew well only some half a dozen books." Gustave Flaubert

Dear Randy Ray, I'm 55, writing to you from Italy. First of all thank you so much for your channel and all your interesting videos. I like them very much. I just wanted to tell you that I have majored in English and American literature and minored in French literature. However that was ages ago and I was so much younger back then. I've been working as an English language teacher to adults (mainly business English) since then. Should I be lucky enough to live for another 20 years or so, I might be able to reach level 3. Why such a long time you may ask. First of all because I've gone back to reading the classics just last year (I am therefore currently back at level zero) and because when I read I mull over every sentence, the reason for the choice of words made by the author, the historical context of the work. I also love stylistics and linguistics. This means that it takes me about one hour to read 10 pages in any language. I have no intention of reading any faster than that, should I be able to, which is unclear, (unless it's a modern work of genre fiction but most certainly not a classic) and I'm fine with that. Plus reading is probably not my top priority even though I enjoy slowly savouring what I read. I hope you are ok with me being here anyways. So I'm definitely not well-read nor I'll ever be. For certain you've helped me to spend my time more intentionally going back to when sustained attention was not the exception, reading was a pleasure and getting bored was ok. All the best, Sylvia PS Keep up the important work you're doing 😊

I've got my own personal fiction canon and a  couple for non fiction (one is based around systems of harm and power as that's where my taste in NF generally lies and a separate WW2 canon). I find it gives structure and direction to my reading

I discovered your channel yesterday and I'm loving it. Today, I read for three hours. That's three hours so far -- it's only 6 o'clock. I know that reading all the classics is impossible, especially as I like to read less-canonical stuff once in a while. But the journey to the top of the mountain is wonderful, and I  will enjoy the scenery. 😊

I wish I could download all the great literature the world has produced in to my brain just to be able to experience every great story.

This is why I keep reincarnating-to read all these books. Damn, I got a few more lives to go!

I’m gonna damn try!

I went thru all the 'classics' at my local library back when I was at grade school. Thankfully the ladies at the library were easygoing enough to let me take out grown up novels as well. And in case you are wondering, no I was not bookworm as such, I had plenty other hobbies and spend most of my free time out of doors with friends. Still managed to read at least three books per week tho.

I'm currently at Level 1 for sure. It's been a few years since I started my journey to read well-known Western classics in their original languages (or in the closest languages I can read). I'm Japanese, by the way. Reading in non-native languages takes even more time, but the experience has been great so far. I don't mind if this becomes a lifelong journey and I'd be happy if I reached Level 2. I also feel the need to reread some of the classics I've already finished. Partly because of the language barriers, but also because I believe these works benefit from multiple readings. That will take even more time, so I'll be patient.

44:13 the mountain top reminds me of the end of The Last Battle, book 7 in Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia 🥲

I am currently on level one, closing in quickly on level two. I try to read at two classics a month. Sometimes I’m successful sometimes not.

Great video. Love your commitment. And enthusiasm. Your level one list has two Twain books, as a Brit,I feel that’s at least one too many. That’s not anti-American at all, just I feel his work is now dated and slipping from the canon to be replaced by Steinbeck and Faulkner and Baldwin and Fitzgerald. Of course, I could be 100% wrong. As you suggest, the canon is a movable feast. You’ve prompted me to come up with my own canon of 100 works. It’ll be fun.