Big thanks to Ridge for sending me this wallet and supporting the channel! Here’s the site if you want to check them out! > ridge.com/BETTERTHANFOOD

It's great to see Arthur Shelby turn his life around and dedicate himself to book reviews

This reminds me of a short passage from Haruki Murkami's Norwegian Wood: “It’s not that I don’t believe in contemporary literature,” he added, “but I don’t want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short.” And later on: "If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."

Until I get around to reading this, you are my Harold Bloom

This quote from Stoner (which I read because of this channel and is now probably my favorite book) comes to mind: "Sometimes, immersed in his books, there would come to him the awareness of all that he did not know, of all that he had not read; and the serenity for which he labored was shattered as he realized the little time he had in life to read so much, to learn what he had to know."

Dear solitary readers, please read selfishly, deeply, and creatively. Let's thrive.

Been following your channel for a year now. Just wanted to let you know that you are doing great work. Thanks.

Sometimes I get frustrated, I know I will die without reading everything that I want to read.

To love is to discriminate deeply. Thank God Bloom loved literature. P.S. I'd love to see a re-review of Blood Meridian.

I read his Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, where he goes through and talks about every play by Shakespeare and what it means to him. It was a complete delight.

In my opinion, you Cliff, also have a great ability to communicate what is so great and important about the books you review. What you do is very admirable, and I appreciate you for your hard work.

I bought a Harold Bloom book online. Hamlet: Poem Unlimited. The book I received is actually signed by Harold Bloom.

Love the classics. I just finished War & Peace the other day after starting it at the beginning of the pandemic and it really moved me in a deeply profound way. I feel like a different person after reading it. More grateful with what I have in life. Despite being 1200 pages I already want to reread it.

“who hurt you, man?”😂 well, I enjoyed Infinite jest- but I also love Bloom. He also hates Poe (my favorite author, but I forgive him). in fact I’ve been using his essays as supplementary material for my readings for some time now. How about some Camille Paglia, mr Sargent? :)

"Because he is able to illuminate what is so important about these books. And when you have somebody who can do that, when you have somebody that valuable.. they're worth their weight in gold." That is You, for all of us. I appreciate you.

I own Bloom's book "Genius" and, being from Portugal, I was curious about what he wrote on Eça de Queiroz, and the way he hyped the book "The Relic", one his least read books here, made me buy it and currently loving it. I think Bloom's sentiment can be expressed through this excerpt from Thoreau: "Men sometimes speaks as if the study of the classics would at length make way for more modern and practical studies; but the adventurous student will always study classics, in whatever language they may be written, and however ancient they may be. For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of men? They are the only oracles which are not decayed. To read well - that is, to read true books in a true spirit - is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written."

Thanks for posting this. I think something that kept me from reading before I decided to read most of the classics in literature, philosophy, and poetry was because there was too much stuff out there. But now that I’ve been able to to narrow it down to about 300-350 works, my journey can begin. I agree, everytime I finish one of these works, I’m left a much more rounded person. Like I understand people and the human condition a little better, a little deeper. The knowledge, love, wisdom, beauty, and virtue in these works do stand the test of time. I’m not intimidated by the nearly infinite amount of books out there, since I’m intent on only reading the classics. Same when it comes to music and visual arts.

Pynchon, while intimidating, is definitely worth a go. "The Crying of Lot 49" is a short, fun romp that gives you a good idea of Pynchon's style. I'm about to start "Inherent Vice", which a ton of people recommended to me as the most accessible of Pynchon's works. "Gravity's Rainbow" is sitting on my shelf and staring me down every day. I'll get around to it eventually.

“Shakespeare reads you..” - I like that.

I've been trying to find booktube\ book review channels that aren't pushing ya and poorly written contemporary garbage they get for free from publishers. Someone online recommended you and I am so glad. This was exactly what I was hoping to find👏 Thank you.

Great review! I would love to see a rereview of Blood Meridian.

Great video Cliff! I'd love to see a re-review of Blood Meridian.

Glad to hear that you are FINALLY reading Gravity's Rainbow. I'm due for a reread myself. I've been reading Pynchon since the Carter presidency.

The education of a lifetime. Exactly! I discovered Bloom last year. I'm in my fifties and I feel in desperate need of a decent education before I cast off this mortal coil but where to turn? Who would be Virgil to my Dante? Thankfully I discovered Bloom and do not have to wander alone in dark woods. Also, what better task to set oneself during this period of increased time with only one's own company than to become great friends with some of the greatest minds of all time?

I’m a new father and don’t make time to read like I used to. Your channel inspires me to pick up books, and your recommendation of Cormac McCarthy has changed the way I regard literature forever. Needless to say, another Blood Meridian review would be thoroughly enjoyed.

love your content! i was just waiting for a Video on Bloom and another one on George Steiner!!! Greetings from Brazil!!!

Hi, Cliff! I really appreciate what you're doing with the channel. You treat, and i believe it's the right way of doing it, literature as a starting point for a discussion. In these days that's what we need the most!

Hey Cliff, great review as always. Totally agree with a lot of what Bloom says, especially with regards to reading the great works, memorization as essential to understanding and "possessing" great poetry etc. I've always found his blind spot to be his politics or at least his insistence that the works he didn't like suck because they are more political than aesthetic. Although this sounds reasonable on its face, I get the sense that "political" to Bloom means politics he doesn't agree with or just live political issues in general. He's known to have praised Hadji Murad (well worth the read btw) calling it his "personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction" but a purely aesthetic reading of Hadji Murad is artificial. Tolstoy's description of Tsar Nicholas; his similarity with the tyrannical Shamil; the folly of Russia's foray into the Caucuses; and how it's the poor and unacknowledged who suffer and die while aristocrats play officer is incredibly political. Admittedly it was political for 1890s Russia and is pretty distant to us now, it's pretty clear that aesthetics and politics can, and often do, coexist in great works. I just think he was less comfortable with contemporary politics than history. That's just food for thought. I'm still a huge Bloom fan and his utter genius allows me to overlook some of his controversial (and imo largely unsupported views). Will definitely be picking his stuff up soon. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Gravity's Rainbow. Also, will there be a video on your thoughts on Infinite Jest? Or even Infinite Jest compared with Gravity's Rainbow??? Cheers For reference: voltairefootball.wordpress.com/2016/01/08/a-critique-of-harold-bloom/#:~:text=Bloom%20concedes%20that%20Hadji%20Murad,t%20seem%20out%20of%20place.&text=Hadji%20Murad%20is%20not%20heroic,the%20great%20injustice%20of%20Russia.

Bloom actually seemed pretty down to Earth for a literary critic. I gotta respect him for arguing that classic books should not be subjected to modern analyses and standards. Usually I tend to think that high caliber critics are just kind of full of themselves, but I actually do value some of Bloom's contributions.

Thanks as always for your great Work Cliff.

I love Harold Bloom! Definitely one of the smartest men to ever walk. Do read up on his adoration of Freud!

I think your channel is great, man. Thanks a lot, so freaking inspiring. I love Bloom, by the way. I read this one, How to read and why, like 15 years ago, back in Cuba, in Spanish, I really loved it, still do. Thanks again for your work and passion.

Very sincere and informative stuff.....keep it coming!

You ARE the kind of man that you described here, concerning influential people, books, and reading. You're a major influence in the literary world. I appreciate you so much.

Oh the irony, I rely on the tirany of the visual to quench my thirst for the written (word). Your passion for literature is contagious. May it spread.

I needed to hear this message. Thank you!

Great content. Thanks for all the hard work! FWIW, would love to see an expanded re-review of Blood Meridian. Cheers.

Absolute amazing video! Thankyou!

Long time fan of Harold Bloom, so glad to see that you've come around to his works and thoughts.

There is another beautiful soul as great as Bloom if not greater. George Steiner is his name and I can super recommend Tolstoy or Dostoevsky of his or you can watch some amazing material like Of Beauty & Consolation on youtube. In the age of everything-is-relevant and your merit is defined by your identity group and not your actual artistic value, Harold Bloom is more important than ever. Great video, thank you.

Love the review! You should definitely re read Blood Meridian brother, it is so worth seeing how much better the book has become with time. I think throughout my reading "career" I could say reading is a skill that everyone should develop and experience. When you can see/feel how far you've come, how much better you can comprehend material, how your memory gets clearer when trying to remember what you just read, how expansive your imagination becomes, its real humbling to know that the human experience is so vast and infectious, molding and changing, rigid and stone cold, high and low. What is truth just becomes one color in a palate. And communities like the one you have made is such a perfect place to bring such vastness to a digestible place and truly I thank you Cliff, keep doing you man!

i think this book is a absolute gem. I have read 6 of the books he recommended now; Diary of a hunter, Hamlet (x5 times now, read it twice in highschool), crime and punishment, Bergtagen, Swanns Way and blood meridian. All of these are books that i could read on repeat for the rest of my life.

I have read a lot of Bloom, but I still have to get to this one (right on my end table). He is a presence that I miss and consider every time I go back to the classics!

Great video. Harold Bloom has helped so much in reading literature. I’m reading his Shakespeare: Invention of the Human” right now

You've convinced me to read about reading. Thank you.

I like what you said about comprehension and rereading. I've reread all of my favorite books multiple times. When it comes to R. A. Lafferty I'm not sure I tick the comprehension box all the time, but I definitely reread every one of his stories or books.

Please go over Blood Meridian once more.

Is this comparable to “How to Read a Book” by Mortimer Adler? I found a lot of value in that book.

YESSSS please rereview Blood Meridian. That's the book review from BTF that made me interested in reading actual literature.

Your book reviews make me so happy. Thank you :)

Mr Arthur Shelby, loved your video. Kudos👍🏻👍🏻

I have found with stubborn friends that Tennyson is often a gateway drug to poetry. I recommend spending time with a work. "Ulysses" is powerful, especially when he begins to comment on old age. "Break, Break, Break" likewise is very thought provoking. The barrier to entry with poetry, I am convinced, is work. Multiple readings. Reading it out loud. Wrestling with it. Finally, mastering it. It is worth the effort. Thanks for the video. Because of you, I've read both "Stoner" and "The Peregrine" in the last month.

Also, I would LOVE a re-review of Blood Meridian! I've read it 4 times and I just believe it's a book with infinite possibilities for discussion. It's cryptic without being opaque, I just love the concepts that are brought up around the campfire lol. I vote yes for a re-read and re-review :)

Great to hear about you reading Pynchon! With you being one of my favorite reviewers and him one of my favorite writers, I'd always hoped for you two to intersect some day. I would wholeheartedly recommend the Pynchon in Public podcast as a companionpiece to GR. They do chapter by chapter commentary and discussion on his novels, one novel per season, and they are funny and entertaining as well as insightful. I could have never made sense of the last twenty-or-so pages (now my favorite part of the book) if I hadn't listened to the brilliant discussion they held about that ending. Absolutely recommended.

Great review and points, thanks

I have one thing to say : You are my Harold Bloom ! For the last few years you have been a literary mentor, and I hope you continue to be so ! ❤😁

The statue... Creepy indeed... Very clever.

I liked your shirt! Good talk about the book.

Can you please review works of Hubert Shelby Jr, Philip K Dick and William S. Burroughs?

Love the channel! Have you ever read any Walker Percy. I’d love to see you review some of his work!

I have been trying to teach myself how to read, understand and enjoy poetry for a few years now. It has been very slow going, but I have managed to make small gains and in doing so I have opened my world up to W.B Yeats who I absolutely love. I have also learned that I'm not meant to love every poet's work. It either speaks to you or it doesn't, which makes it very special when you find a piece of poetry that does. I've had to source out a lot of supplementary material to help me along the way. Thankfully, there is no shortage of this material on the internet. I am currently struggling with T.S. Eliot which I am finding very difficult but I certainly understand more of it now then I did when I first started. I feel like it has been time well spent and I'm pretty sure that teaching myself to enjoy poetry will be something I will work on for the rest of my life. I expect it will just unfold one little bit at a time.

I feel that there are a lot of booktubers but they usually read best sellers and random stuff. You really read and review great literature. Thanks!

I really like your content, it's amazing

Excelent insight. Congrats

Excellent review as always. I agree on your view of poetry. Maybe it only appeals to a different kind of reader. But for me Novels and novels only do the trick. And for Infinite Jest you should give a try maybe. It’s worth the anger and frustration.

Man, I hope you read Miss Lonelyhearts, it’s a gem. A perfect, little masterpiece. Just read it again for the sixth time a few weeks ago. Also, hope you do another review of Blood Meridian!

Very well done sir!!!!

I see Amos Tutuola's Palm-Wine Drunkard back there, can't wait to hear your thoughts on that!

I’m quite interested in checking out this book, though I am already finding quite some things I don’t agree with and will have to check it out myself to determine that better! But that’s beside the point: I’m in an interesting place as a reader where I spent 4 years studying comparative literature while also working as a literacy mentor at elementary schools where I worked directly with struggling readers. I’m studying to be an English teacher now (most likely middle school) and I’m in an interesting place when it comes to pedagogy behind K-12 education. Because in my literacy methods classes we discuss how we can encourage this aesthetic love of reading in kids, especially kids who struggle. For anyone who wants to rethink who they are as readers: spend some time with a child just learning to read. It.Is.Difficult. The more i delve into learning how children read, how we teach reading, the more I have reflected on my own reading and how understandable it is that without good support children can give it up all together and become adults who refuse to read for their own. As adults when we read there are so many steps we take that children have to be taught explicitly. And teaching children to be deep readers comes from adults who teach them and model for them that reading is more than just doing it to make teachers happy or pass a standardised exam (gotta love the post No Child Left Behind era ...). I 100% think that children deserve quality books!! But I also genuinely believe that literary canons should be critiqued especially when we are pushing Eurocentric literature to children who do not relate to these experiences (I myself as a Latina who was an avid reader as a kid, found it hard to enjoy or relate to a lot of what we read in school, even if it was okay literature). Of course, we need to teach kids to be prepared for the world and the systems they’ll have to be a part of (those darn exams ...) but also, exposing kids (and ourselves) to more than just European centered narratives. I love your review of this book and I have to check it out myself, see what I can learn from it for myself mostly, but I also think back to how a lot of what I read has my students in mind and how to get them to read with intention and love reading which let me tell ya is not always easy to do especially with kids who struggle 😅 but yeah, valuing reading as adults definitely helps kids value reading as well! And I think this book will make for an interesting reflection on what we teach in schools and why. I was lucky to be raised a bookworm and writer , who went on to study literature and read some impressive, heady things. But now as an educator to very young people, it’s interesting to come back to earth for a little and think about how we read as normal people and not Uni professors , and that watching my 8th graders read graphic novels and such with joy and all the discussions we can make from new books written with diversity in mind - it makes all this work very worth it :)

As I Lay Dying was like a punch in the stomach, I'd love your review of this one!

If you're looking for some discussion and recapitulations on GR, over at the Thomas Pynchon subreddit we're doing a group read. We're halfway through Part 3, and every week we've been doing analysis and discussions for about 3-5 sections.

I would love to see you review Hamlet, Macbeth or King Lear! Also, if you want to get into poetry more, check out the original 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass! There's a great Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of it with an intro by Bloom. I'll send it to you if I have to!

Man, Im so glad about this review, Cliff! Ive been skimming through Blooms "Western Canon" every now and then. You might also like it, in the end there is an extended reading list ;-)

thank you For this cool articulation

Review Milan Kundera! Was surprised to find you haven´t made a vid about any of his stuff before.

Great review!

As a huge Pynchon fan (and DFW for that matter) , I highly suggest Mason & Dixon , its probably my favorite Pynchon novel.

love it mate... love it!!!

Bloom praised 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘔𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯, so he's cool.

Great video! It was almost a Master Class!

I’d love to see you re-review Blood Meridian. It was the first real “literary” (I guess) book I read, and it’s how I found your channel. I also want to re-read it after I go through Moby Dick and Paradise Lost, but that’ll take pretty long time, so another review from you would be great.

Now I am reading Suttree. McCarthy is really intense to read. I burst out laughing when you made that voice, man. Regarding mentors who inspire, you make the list. Great insights, as always

Good job!

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Macbeth act 5 scene 5 The last line is, perhaps, the most meaningful: Faulkner said in his Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech that people must write about things that come from the heart, "universal truths." Otherwise, they signify nothing.

Thanks, think I might get around to this after reading a few books by Cormac McCarthy

Found your channel recently, great content! I think you're like the Anthony Fantano of literature, you've a similar style..

Great video man you are great defender of the canon

A young novelist he loved in his last years (along with the other living novelists Pynchon, McCarthy, DeLillo, and Crowley) was the writer Joshua Cohen, and especially his novel Book of Numbers. He considered it one of the best books for our time.

Just discovered your Channel. Saw Harold Bloom and clicked immediately. Amazing work you’re doing mate, looking forward to watching your videos. 🫡

Hey man don't worry everyone feels the same way in the middle of Gravity's Rainbow lol. It's a very exhaustive and dense book. I encourage you to continue. Even when I finished I was still quite lost, but it really grows on you, eventually I felt compelled to read it again and it was a huge treat, far easier, and I enjoyed the humor waayy more the second time around. It's hilarious. It's just generally easier to get a grip on it the 2nd time. Pynchon is strange to get into but once you do he's great. You should try Inherent Vice after GR. It's absolutely hilarious and a really great read, far lighter than GR. Looking forward to your thoughts on GR.

Daaamn dude. One of your best!

Hey Cliff, did you once do a review of Tarkovsky’s book on film theory, Sculpting in Time? I swear I remember watching you review something like that, but now I’m having trouble finding it!

Hey! Love the review, I am definitely looking for this book. I great poet to change your mind about poetry is Carlos Drummond de Andrade. He is the best in this gender in Brazil and I know he was translated to English ;)

I like how the head moved around as the video rolled on.

Based on all of your other reviews... You're gonna love Hamlet man.

Another review of Blood Meridian would be great. I think Harold Bloom read had read it around thirty times. Equally, The Iliad would be a great review.

Kudos to you sir!

Thanks for your thoughts on this book! The idea that none of us will come close to even a percentage of reading the best of the best is depressing. But prioritizing the 'best' works, I think, is subjective. Some will take more personal value from reading Shakespeare, whereas others will take more value from reading books about knowledge of practical things, like stock trading or personal development.

"The internet was eating me, why didn't you help" The best quote ever😂

Reading the canon is spending time with genius.