Topic
Reading
A collection of 26 issues
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
"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.
This is Your Brain on Books
Elyse Graham at Public Books
Picture Books for Adults
This is a delightful piece from Public Books. I especially liked this observation about how medieval monks would read:
This form of reading, de Hamel says, is one reason why so many medieval manuscripts have richly decorated pages. The decorations “helped impress a page visually in the reader’s memory,
How to Re-Read
Joseph Epstein at The Lamp
What Was Literary Fiction?
Dan Sinykin at The Nation