A Shout-Out to the Public Libraries
Note to reader: This piece isn't as lame as the title implies.
Topic
Books
A collection of 327 issues
Books Aren't Rational. They're Tactile.
Back in the greasy, disco-lit haze of the 1970s and the dawn of the Reaganite ‘80s, the publishing world churned out a billion paperbacks. They were dirt cheap, some even free, handed out like girlie pamphlets on the Vegas strip.
But there was a hook: they were riddled with ads,
Books Can Shield You From Cults
Role models are great. We all oughtta have a few.
But don’t underestimate the anti-role models. These cautionary wraiths of consequence are more often the true educators in this carnival of folly called “modernity,” whispering not “be like me” but “For God’s sake, be anything but.”
That lean
Twenty 20th-Century Books for Young Autodidacts
(Actually, there are 33, if you count the honorable mentions)
Joseph Epstein is arguably the best essayist alive. He’s urbane, funny, self-deprecating. He’s a fine stylist, and he’s remarkably well-read.
I remember William F. Buckley marveling at Epstein’s erudition and wondering how Epstein could have so
Are You Trapped in the World of Total Work?
Josef Pieper (with a G.K. Chesterton kicker) teaches us the importance of leisure
It’s commonplace knowledge that many of our best ideas hit us in the middle of the night or in our first waking moments. While we are completely at rest, not obsessed with ourselves or our
The Silence of St. Thomas, by Josef Pieper
A Micro-Review/Essay
14 Funny Passages from David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster
which means that some staff photographer came in and popped a flash in the face of a traumatized kid at prayer.
Six Maniacal Observations from G.K. Chesterton
They'll help make sure you don't think like a maniac
The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy: A Micro-Review
If I had to come up with a list of books whose title makes the book sound far drier than it is, I'd nominate Gilson's The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy. Merton fans may recall that he bought the book in his pre-Catholic days, then nearly hurled
50-Year Anniversary of The Gulag
Gary Saul Morson at The New Criterion