Hello. I started this channel as an outlet for my love of books.
I post reviews, recommendations, highlights, and themed videos (e.g. favorite opening lines; my criteria for evaluating books; and so on).
There are a lot of great channels out here on BookTube, so I am honored to be a part of the community.
Subscribe, comment, join the conversation with me!
Carpe librum!
Buy books featured on this channel:
bookshop.org/lists/books-featured-on-leaf-by-leaf
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- Leaf by Leaf
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These kind of book reviews actually encourage me to keep reading Proust, so I can enjoy it for myself. Thanks!
Congratulations! Huge fan of your channel and a former high school student from Kyoto who detested Tale of Genji being used as part of compulsory curriculum here. The one thing I was deeply struck by was your pronunciation of Japanese language in Tale of Genji video, so I am again awe struck that you are still willing to improve in foreign pronunciations, while I am pretty much used to how much Japanese language can be easily mispronounced. You have given me a reason to revisit one of the world’s oldest literatures and appreciate its beauty for the first time. Looking forward to even more videos on great literatures from all over the world!
Perfect
Awesome video per usual! Have you ever read any Toni Morrison? I’m currently absolutely devouring every word of Song of Solomon, I’m almost done unfortunately and was wondering where I should go next in her bibliography if you’re familiar at all with her work? I’m ecstatic I finally picked up one of novels and excited to read more.
5 years!! Congratulations Chris!! 🎉 🥳 🍃 📚
I would like to answer one of your sets of 5 questions (can you guess which one it was?): The Iliad Gilgamesh Metamorphoses The Jewish Bible Egyptian Book of the Dead And bonus: Linear A tablets 😂
Congratulations Chris, I was wondering if you could do a few more videos about the Tale of Genji?
What an achievement! Congratulations and thank you for this beacon of literary enlightenment. edit: I'm happily sipping along my filter coffee.
Thanks so much! Cheers!
I get more out of Leaf’s vocal cadences and emphases than out of any information or data he gives pertaining to all of his reading. Do you mind if I call you Leaf? It is after all not a bad nickname at all. It resides on the side of nature and this makes it post modern, I guess.
Sure, you can call me Leaf! I’ll answer to just about everything except my full name (Christopher), because that means I’m in trouble. Say-perhaps I should give some ASMR book reviews a try! 😜
I finally got around to reading _Clarissa_ last year and I was blown away. I was expecting it to be a dull, plodding thing that I would just have to get through. Instead, I found it captivating. It has jumped into my top ten novels of all time.
It really caught my attention when Harold Bloom praised it. I’ve started it a couple of times and realized it was something special but that I wasn’t ready for it yet. (This happens from time to time.) So it’s waiting for me. And now you’ve given me the nudge.
I was very disappointed to see that the Dalkey Press reissue has a truly ugly cover for Young’s book. They should have simply used Scribners original beautiful cover by Paul Bacon. I’m sure at this point there are no rights issues. And if there were they could have been easily addressed and negotiated.
Yeah, I’m not crazy about the template they’re using for the Essentials reissues (not to mention their other problems), but, hey, at least someone is making these texts available at affordable prices!
Many Congratulations! I am here to again make a request for a Susan Sontag episode …she is my fav writer and I request you to please do an episode on her work 🙌
Thanks so much! And-you’re right-it is shameful that she’s not on this channel yet! Thank you for nudging me. 🙏
I think one of the great things about these two books is I didn't understand almost any of the maths stuff and alot of this went over my head... I think but these books really spoke to me. I read them faster than any novels I've read before and think about them all the time. Anyway that's all I wanted to say ❤
Great library. Best wishes to you.
Thanks so much!
I loved the last list- and the rest of the video content, as well. I agree on Moby Dick: it must be The greatest of the Great American Novels. My East-Asian wife has been raving about The Story Of The Stone (or Dream Of The Red Chamber, as is known over here) for years- something I'd like to reiterate to you. Carry On The Good Work ! ! ! ! !
Thanks so much! I’ve enjoyed your company over the years! I’ve got Stone/Red Chamber slated for next year! All best!
Love your content man please keep it up.
Thanks so much!
Congratulations on the 5 year milestone Chris! Thank you for all your priceless content, you've introduced to me a lot of new authors and books, and been very inspirational with your literary taste. Here's to 5 more years!
Thanks so much! This has been a real pleasure! All best!
Thank you for these videos, and congratulations on 5 years. I suspect KZread must feel like shouting into the void at times, but I hope you know that even if the echoes don’t come back to you, your thoughts are certainly reverberating with many many people. You are really giving out something which can’t be gotten elsewhere, so thank you!
Very, very kind of you to say. Thank you for that encouragement. Yes, even if each video only resonates with one person, it's all worth it. Thanks so much!
I'm thrilled you've read "Too Loud a Solitude"! What a great little book. Have you read any other books by Hrabal? A friend of mine and I both admire Hrabal's work, and one other book of his we both love is "Closely Observed Trains." I'm trying to get my friend to read "I Served the King of England," and you as well. You should totally do Verse By Verse, by the way; then we could talk theology and scholarship and such. I know I've asked before, but I cannot remember your answer: have you read "Metamagical Themas" by Hofstadter? That' the book I learned about Hofstadter through when I was a teenager. It is a part of my lifelong obsession with math. Congratulations, by the way. I remember your first video well.
Finally a wonderful review. That pushed me of how to end my second novel which was started around time of being John m. Thanks for the great review
Thanks so much! And congrats on your writing progress!
Congrats - and I'm glad you started off with Mason & Dixon : the fact of the existence of that video is what introduced me to your channel, of which I've been a fairly constant viewer ever since. And I have to admit listening to your Against the Day video all the way through twice, as an auditory car-driving soundtrack. I also have finally gotten around to reading the Mad Patagonian series on your recommendation, and at about the halfway-through-the-2nd-book point, and it might be one of my top 10 series already. Thanks for everything you do
This is perfect timing, I just stumbled upon bubblegum at a book store in Chicago and started and I am blown away so far.
Honestly, I think _Bubblegum_ is my favorite Levin so far. Outstanding work of imaginative literature.
Cheers! That was very entertaining. I love your work, and I'm looking forward to videos on short story collections (maybe even an interview with Garielle Lutz?).
Thanks so much! Lutz is an excellent suggestion!
Congratulation to the first lustrum of the channel, Chris! I was flattered to be mentioned as the one suggesting you Blinding and I am always so happy to see that the great Mircea Cartarescu keeps being among your favourite authors (being in 3 of your top 5 lists!). And I’d also like to share with you that The Recognitions was the reason I found your channel: after being blown away by this masterpiece I could not find much about it, so I stumbled upon your video on this book. And it was like discovering an hidden gem in KZread (not the first place where I thought I could find high level literary material, honestly). Here are 5 things Leaf by Leaf has given me: 1) the drive to keep reading great literature 2) the happiness to know that high quality, complex, even difficult books are appreciated by many people 3) the disbelief in being the one (I, a isolated reader in an obscure little city in a small country) promoting a great writer like Cartarescu to you and many other readers 4) the uncertainty on taking on serious reading in english and on abandoning translations (I’d love to try Pynchon, Gaddis, DFW, DeLillo, McCarthy in original language, but I am afraid of the task) 5) the feeling of being, after all, not so isolated in appreciating good literature! 5 more years!! (and, than, 20 more!!)
What a journey!! Loved finding your channel in early 2020 and reading Musil along with you. You've come so far!
Wow--4 years in! High five!
Oi, Mr. Leaf, Zizek violently disagrees with that quote, he does not endorse it as a way of thinking! It's only being used by him to be criticized.
Yeah, I should have verified this quote before offering it. I clearly heard only what I wanted to hear when I first encountered it. Thanks for the clarification! 🙏
I like the cameo of your washing machine
This house is full of appliances that want to make cameos!
I was the English major who hated the classics. I own many, but just didn't read them. I found your channel. The passion you have for them made me want to go back to those books that sat, unread, on my shelves for over 20 years. And I've found that I love many of them. I read all of Shakespeare's plays last year and liked most; loved many. Don Quixote may be my favorite book of all time now. That said, our tastes still don't fully align (which is probably going to be true for any two readers). For example, I finally read Infinite Jest. Good God, I hated that experience.
I'm so thrilled to hear this! I would much rather you fall in love with Shakespeare and _Don Quixote_ than _Infinite Jest_ ! You're right--no two readers will ever be 100% isomorphic. All my best to you!
🌿🙌
Indeed! :)
Thumbs up!!! and to the next five years!.
Thanks so much!
Ok this is probably going to be the funniest, strangest comment today! You are the most handsome men ever !!!! Swoon! But thanks for an amazing channel :)
Congratulations Chris! Any interest in Saul Bellow?
Thanks! Absolutely! I've sadly only read _Seize the Day_ . I need to get on this!
Sold! Great review as ever, man.
Thanks so much! I love this book!
Dude, your floor shelves. 😂 I never noticed until now. Kudos to you for making it work; I have those too. I got as high as turning windowsills into shelves. Happy 5 year anniversary, Chris. It's always a pleasure to watch your videos.
They are, indeed, everywhere! You can't see the piles and stacks on the wall in front of me! If my windowsills were deeper... Thanks for the kudos!
"Surprised by Joy"!
Would you say that you were surprised by surprised by joy? :)
@@LeafbyLeaf Yes. Hearing you praise that book reminded me that many book lovers tend to neglect C. S. Lewis (with the exception of the Narnia series). Example: To me, "Screwtape Letters" is a comic masterpiece, up there with "True Grit," "Lolita," P. G. Wodehouse & so on, but I rarely hear it mentioned-outside of Christian circles. Anyway, I've been thinking of Lewis & for some reason I forgot that "Surprised by Joy" was my introduction to him & yet it's a title I seem to rate as highly as you. Has any other modern writer written more masterpieces across so many genres? Memoir ("Surprised by Joy"), Religion ("Mere Christianity"), Children's Books / Fantasy ("Narnia"), Fiction ("Screwtape Letters")? Of course I've hardly read everything by Lewis & wouldn't be surprised if more gems should be credited to him. Peace, MAS
If an arsonist were to break into your home and set fire to your entire collection of books, what is one book that could get you through the pain of loosing your cherished bound leafs?
Luckily, my recent guesting on the Beyond the Zero podcast set me up for this question. I would have to go with my maternal grandmother's tattered, coffee-stained, inscribed paperback of _1984_ . Priceless and irreplaceable. It's like my Gutenberg Bible.
Congratulations!!! Love this channel ❤️
Thanks so much!
Congratulations! Keep up the great work! 🎂🎆📚
Thanks so much!
Congrats!
Thanks!
thanks so much for the content you make man. I hope you know that your unwavering enthusiasm about all kinds of good literature is inspiring and infectious. I think I subscribed around 2.5 years ago previous to that I had not read anything properly for about 3 years. I am just turning 18 now and am currently reading runaway horses by mishima. Thankyou for sharing your authentic joy for reading.
Congratulations! Great channel, love it! And thanks for all the fish, I mean - recommendations! 😀
Haha! I'll be sure to use that Adams quote if I ever make a final video!
Congratulations! Just discovered this channel in April by searching 'Gaddis reviews' (rabid JR fanatic here) and so glad I found your work! And here's one way to get to Frances Yates' The Art of Memory: Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition was more interesting to me, I read that first b/c interested in the guy, but reading that made me want to read more of Yates.
I, too, have been interested in Bruno every since I heard about his concept of the memory palace. This is a fantastic idea. Thank you!
Happy Birthday 🍃 by 🍃
Thanks so much! :):):)
Congrats Chris! I’ve been here since the beginning! Love your work and can’t wait to see what comes next! Happy 5 years! 🤍
Thank you so, so, so much!!! XOXO
Thank you my friend for putting in the effort and creating a great place for book lovers! I wish you the best and look forward to future videos.
It is truly a pleasure! Thank you so much!
Congratulations! Thank you for all the content you share in this channel, the high quality of it is undeniably, and your passion is dangerously contagious. To many more years of fantastic reading!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! All best to you and yours!
What's the name of the poet you mentioned? _______ O'reilly, maybe?
Atsuro Riley! Don't miss it!
Congratulations and God bless! Thanks for mentioning Vollmann a few times and for bringing out your hardcover edition of Women and Men…. Yes, reading it is an experience worth waiting for!
Thanks so much and God bless you, too!
Would love to see and hear you do a full episode on Europe Central by Vollmann.
I've got it slated for 2025! Thanks!
Five years? Wow! Where has the time gone? Thanks Chris for so many book recommendations, many I was unaware of, many I was procrastinating to read that you gave a nudge to me with a great review. Thank you fine sir, and I hope we get many more years of great reviews, you are truly a national treasure. It's always a good day when I see a new review/discussion is posted by Leaf by Leaf. Rock on Chris!!!!!!
Congratulations! 🎉🎉🎉
Thanks so much!