5

What I Read in July 2025 - books are quiet and unobtrusive, and do not try to hustle the reader

22 hours ago

from Wuthering Expectations in literature

In general, however, he [Louis XVI] preferred writing down his thoughts instead of uttering them by word of mouth; and he was fond of reading,...

3

'Hardly the Most Fashionable of Writers'

19 hours ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715-47), died at the age of thirty-one after a life spent mostly as a soldier, though he lived for some...

4

Streams of Consciousness

2 days ago

from The American Scholar in literature

A writer’s intrepid exploration of troubled waters The post Streams of Consciousness appeared first on The American Scholar.

4

'Every Garden Is a Vast Hospital'

3 days ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

On Saturday I saw the first hummingbird of the season in our front garden. I’ve counted eight butterfly species there this summer and found a monarch...

5

Horse and Runner

3 days ago

from The American Scholar in literature

The post Horse and Runner appeared first on The American Scholar.

6

'A Writer Relies on Instinct and Intuition'

4 days ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

V.S. Pritchett is asked in his Paris Review interview, “Do you think living and writing conflict?” – a rather silly question -- and he replies: “I...

6

{…} by Fady Joudah

4 days ago

from The American Scholar in literature

Poems read aloud, beautifully The post {…} by Fady Joudah appeared first on The American Scholar.

8

Blink Twice to Quell a Quasar: Carl Sagan on Superstition

5 days ago

from The Marginalian in literature

Growing up in Bulgaria, in a city teeming in stray dogs and cars, I was deeply distressed by the sight of each dead animal in the streets between home...

9

The TERRAFORM print pamphlet is now available—here's what we earned

5 days ago

from The Elysian in literature

Plus, join our literary salon discussion this week!

6

'The Shakespeare of the Essay Form'

5 days ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

“ordinary sanity in extraordinary prose”  The phrase is the American poet David Mason’s in his essay “The Freedom of Montaigne.” In characterizing the...

10

“Dead Man’s Hand”

5 days ago

from The American Scholar in literature

The post “Dead Man’s Hand” appeared first on The American Scholar.

6

'A Ten-pound Life Will Give You Every Fact'

6 days ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

On this, the tenth anniversary of poet-historian Robert Conquest’s death at ninety-eight, let’s recall the sonnet he wrote about the treachery of...

9

How to Be a Happier Creature

a week ago

from The Marginalian in literature

It must be encoded there, in the childhood memories of our synapses and our cells — how we came out of the ocean 35 trillion yesterdays ago, small and...

15

A constellation of lookers

a week ago

from Escaping Flatland in literature

Fragments, vol. 5

10

'Only a Facsimile That Is Called Literature'

a week ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

I’ve learned with time that my mind has periods of attentiveness followed by drifts into passive, relaxed states of consciousness. I’m awake but...

13

We could return three continents of land to the wild

a week ago

from The Elysian in literature

And create an interspecies future that benefits humans and ecologies alike.

9

'Put Out Their Eyes When It Was Dark'

a week ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

“The man who is both happy and an optimist is an imbecile.”  Happiness has always felt like the byproduct of life properly lived, not a goal unto...

23

Hundreds and Thousands

a week ago

from The American Scholar in literature

The post Hundreds and Thousands appeared first on The American Scholar.

9

The Paradox of Knowing Who You Are and What You Want: Cristina Campo on Fairy Tales, Time, and the Meaning of Maturity

a week ago

from The Marginalian in literature

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales,” Einstein reportedly told one mother who wished for her son to become a...

8

'He Seemed to Think Lucidity All-sufficing'

a week ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

“[T]here is a very widespread and comfortable belief that we are all of us born writers. Not long ago I heard that agile and mellifluous...

10

“Ornithology” by Lynda Hull

a week ago

from The American Scholar in literature

Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Ornithology” by Lynda Hull appeared first on The American Scholar.

12

Daniel Kehlmann's G. W. Pabst novel The Director - Keeping it light. Keeping it carefree.

a week ago

from Wuthering Expectations in literature

Daniel Kehlmann’s previous novel, Tyll (2017), was about a magical clown wandering through the hellscape of the Thirty Years’ War.  Apparently that...

10

'This Greedy Appetite for New and Unknown Things'

a week ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

Montaigne’s Travel Journal recounts his wanderings through Germany, Switzerland and Italy between June 1580 and November 1581. He sought relief from...

10

Dan Lynh Pham

a week ago

from The American Scholar in literature

Labor of love The post Dan Lynh Pham appeared first on The American Scholar.

12

'Something Which Longs to Be Filled'

a week ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

An American children’s book published in 1908 reminded me of a metaphysical figment conjured by Jean-Paul Sartre. The book is The Hole Book, written...

11

Kiss: Ellen Bass’s Stunning Ode to the Courage of Tenderness as an Antidote to Helplessness

a week ago

from The Marginalian in literature

There is no greater remedy for helplessness than helping someone else, no greater salve for sorrow than according gladness to another. What makes life...

12

'Someone, I Think, Heard the Name I Named'

a week ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

It’s not fair to think of our dead as “The Dead,” a demographic category that erases all distinctions but absence. My brother (d. 2024) and Jane...

11

Hold On Let Go: Urns for Living and the Art of Trusting Time

a week ago

from The Marginalian in literature

Ceramics came into my life the way the bird divinations had a year earlier — suddenly, mysteriously, as a coping mechanism for the confusions and...

11

The Linguistics of Brain Rot

2 weeks ago

from The American Scholar in literature

Adam Aleksic on how social media is transforming our words The post The Linguistics of Brain Rot appeared first on The American Scholar.

10

'The Actual and the Unexceptional'

2 weeks ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

In its Summer 1965 issue, the editors of The American Scholar asked forty-two writers and critics the following question: “To what book published in...

16

A Plasticity of Being: What a Rare Bird of Prey Reveals about the Deepest Meaning of Intelligence

2 weeks ago

from The Marginalian in literature

“True teachers are called into being by the contradictions generated by civilization,” the poet Gary Snyder reflected in his reckoning with the real...

11

'That's How a Tale Should End'

2 weeks ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

With an old friend I was reminiscing about the remarkably stupid things we did when young. Neither of us had much money when we were students – this...

11

No Time at All

2 weeks ago

from The American Scholar in literature

The post No Time at All appeared first on The American Scholar.

13

'He Would Not Be Bored'

2 weeks ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

“The very catalogue of the authors whom he knew is apt to repel modern readers. We forget that we read countless ephemeral books, magazines, and...

15

“Lament” by Thom Gunn

2 weeks ago

from The American Scholar in literature

Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Lament” by Thom Gunn appeared first on The American Scholar.

13

'Beware Also of Tellers of Tall Tales'

2 weeks ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

Advice can be dangerous stuff. If taken and the result is unfortunate, disappointment and resentment will likely follow. “Advice is offensive,” Dr....

27

An annotated reading of "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace"

3 weeks ago

from The Elysian in literature

The techno-utopian poem by Richard Brautigan.

13

'Some Temperamental Undercurrent'

3 weeks ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

We squabble and seethe about it but our tastes in literature – and other realms, like food and music -- ultimately remain mysterious. It has taken me...

14

Puzzled

3 weeks ago

from The American Scholar in literature

In the world of jigsaws, there can be a fine line between productivity and pleasure The post Puzzled appeared first on The American Scholar.

14

Doris Lessing on How to Read a Book and How to Read the World

3 weeks ago

from The Marginalian in literature

Born in Iran and raised in Zimbabwe, Doris Lessing (October 22, 1919–November 17, 2013) was fourteen when she dropped out of school and eighty-eight...

16

We need a fourth branch of government

3 weeks ago

from The Elysian in literature

A discussion with Marjan Ehsassi, executive director of FIDE North America, about citizens' assemblies and how they can be used in politics, business,...

13

'In My Hands the Morning They Find Me'

3 weeks ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

Who remembers the first book he ever “read”? Qualifying quotes because I don’t mean some wordless board-book given to an infant by optimistic...

13

A Splendor Wild and Terrifying

3 weeks ago

from The American Scholar in literature

Lost in the woods, a writer confronts the duality of nature The post A Splendor Wild and Terrifying appeared first on The American Scholar.

18

I went looking for friends, see what I found

3 weeks ago

from Escaping Flatland in literature

Of all the ways this blog have changed my life, the most exciting was in December 2021 when I wrote a post about Ivan Illich that ended up, to my...

15

The Canyon and the Meaning of Life

3 weeks ago

from The Marginalian in literature

Anything you polish with attention will become a mirror. Anything to which you give yourself fully, vest all your strength and risk all your...

170

'Martyrs of a Future World Religion'

3 weeks ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

A longtime reader and fellow blogger shares with me a taste for aphoristic writing, prose that is concise, of course, but also dense with meaning and...

18

Flummoxed

3 weeks ago

from The American Scholar in literature

The post Flummoxed appeared first on The American Scholar.

15

'A New Past'

3 weeks ago

from Anecdotal Evidence in literature

Robert Conquest writing thirty-one years ago:  “Literature is the expression of our whole past, of our whole context in life and time – and not...

14

“Parachutes My Love, Could Carry Us Higher” by Barbara Guest

3 weeks ago

from The American Scholar in literature

Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “Parachutes My Love, Could Carry Us Higher” by Barbara Guest appeared first on The American Scholar.

18

Building an operating system for Earth

3 weeks ago

from The Elysian in literature

How we went from an architecture of collapse to a simulation for survival