Sitemap - 2023 - The Common Reader
Aiming at something noble. Resolutions for human flourishing.
The books I enjoyed most this year, 2023
Open Thread: best reading of 2023 and what you're reading this Christmas.
Tyler Cowen: reading John Stuart Mill
The Glutton, by A.K. Blakemore
How Darwin became so persuasive
When is it acceptable to change historical facts to suit a story?
Second Act: What Late Bloomers Can Tell You About Success and Reinventing Your Life.
How do the most prolific people produce so much?
John Stuart Mill: the deeper springs of human character
You are a (partial) Utilitarian, whether you realise it or not.
Darwin book club tonight 19.00 uk time
How to Read a Poem: the sonnet
Why you should read John Stuart Mill's Autobiography.
Hypertext autobiography, a lifetime of Joyce, chatbots, botox, feuds, Perry nostalgia, and luddites
Converting to the the religion of the future
The rise and fall (and rise again) of Shakespeare's First Folio
Katalin Karikó: learning from failure
The art of the fragment in Lydia Davis
The religious despair of Sam Bankman-Fried
Critical essays on those boys are a goddamn dime a dozen
GOAT. The role of personality in economics.
Stop ignoring Harriet Taylor. She's the reason liberalism exists.
Dangerous empathy, slush systems, flowers, a hellcat meme-minter, and an escaped gorilla.
Details for John Stuart Mill book club
35 pieces of practical wisdom from my common place book
A hanging and flogging sort of liberal. John Stuart Mill's support for the death penalty.
The new culture will flower on the stem of the old
What makes Malcolm Gladwell a good writer?
Thoughts on Shakespeare and Sam Bankman-Fried
Self-direction and talented people
Auden was the best poet of the twentieth century
Being wrong about books. How to interpret literature
Alice in Wonderland. What Nonsense?
Yellowface, a hypocrite reversed?
Zadie Smith and the revenge of beauty
What’s the moral of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?
Did the novel die with Dickens?
Bleak House and the art of characterisation
Why I am writing about late bloomers
There is only one piece of writing advice
A nineteenth-century reading list
The Adorable Little World of Don Camillo
How to win a Victorian culture war
The Autists, by Clara Törnvall
Book Club programme. What to read before you die.
Bleak House, an obscuring and shadow filled world
Wren, pulp, fire, algorithms, etc.
"from Racine to a nurse romance"
Education: A Very Short Introduction, by Gary Thomas
There is no crisis in English Literature
Happiness research needs a new philosophy
An Arundel Tomb, a close reading
It is time to revive the compound-dash
The case for reading Great Books
The nineteenth century idea of literary talent
The battle-field and the madhouse
Simplicity is a technique, not a style guide.
Hamlet: The Motive and the Cue
David Copperfield, Carlylean Hero
Cramming vs curiosity—SATs, J.S. Mill and the secret to original thinking.
Will ChatGPT fact-check ambiguous political language?
David Copperfield Zoom link and Discussion thread
My debate with Robert Cottrell
Poor fellow! but a humorist in his way.
Creative non-fiction's moral mistake.
The plain style says one thing but the ornate style says many things.
Mansfield Park in space: talking prose with Una McCormack
The Windhover, by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins discussion thread
Best of late blooming novelists
A caterpillar among those mulberry leaves: The future of biography
The distant sound of the freight train horn
What is the role of the humanities in progress?
Peter Hitchens doesn't understand Charles Dickens
Agatha Christie: free speech is a copyright issue
Sometimes bad writing is good writing...
Should you hothouse your children or will it make them unhappy?
My new service as a reading coach
George Orwell is such splendid entertainment
What makes a good biography? Explaining the life.
What makes a good biography? Show the person.
How reliable are people’s diaries and letters?
Roald Dahl, King Lear, and sentimental editors
Excessive bitchery can get out of hand.
Welcome to the new age of magical thinking
Frank Lloyd Wright bleg: I'm going to Wisconsin
John Stuart Mill and the future of Effective Altruism
What are the biggest challenges facing adult common readers today?
A great deal of ruin in a talent
Just gurus enough to make us hate one another
Exit Orwell, pursued by a gigantic hound
The high charms of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
With a penny-piece on each eye, and his wooden leg under his left arm