The Reading Paradox
The Hemispheres Create Paradoxes. One is Brewing Right Now: We're Reading More Than Ever But Reading Reading Less Than Ever
Reading
Reading: Kicking Against the Left Hemisphere's Hegemony
Few things are more degrading than being a child of the modern age.
“Prison wife” comes closest.
It ain’t our fault we were born into this asphalt dystopia of algorithms and plastic. But we can claw our way out. We can break the chains. The trick is knowing what
Read Your Way Out of Left-Hemisphere Hegemony
Read on the Run
For years, I've wanted to start the "On-the-Run Reader." It would be a Reader's Digest-type publication, but weightier and lighter. The subject matter would be more serious than RD, but the length of the "articles" (more like blurbs, quotes, summaries, and essays)
Substack Frustrates Me
Substack frustrates me like only a lover can get frustrated with his beloved.
It Suffocates. I get frustrated when I can't breathe. Substack frustrates me. It buries me with unknown authors who I want to read, but I can't possibly get to all of them.
Access
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
"Introducing a Person Who Needs No Introduction . . ."
My inadvertent love affair with book introductions. Plus a dozen introduction recommendations.
A Magisterial Appreciation for a Magisterial Effort: Fadiman's Lifetime Reading Plan
Nathan Payne at The Lamp
Frantically Trying to Fit in All the Spiritual Stuff?
I once told a spiritual adviser that I really liked a'Kempis' The Imitation of Christ. He shook his head a bit and said he preferred to read Thomas Aquinas. He said he found the profound truths of, say, the Summa Theologica more moving spiritually than devotional works.
Jeremy Clarke: A Great Reader
It's arguably the most popular column in Britain's oldest newspaper.
The "Low Life" column of The Spectator has entertained readers since 1975, when Jeffrey Bernard provided readers with, to quote Johnathan Meades, "a suicide note in weekly installments."
After Bernard's