Listeners of the Hardcore Literature Podcast have been asking for a book club for a little while now, and I’ve finally put one in place: Hardcore Literature Book Club It’s been a lot of work, but has already been thoroughly rewarding and I’m excited for it to kick off. So I’d like to say thank […]
8 Difficult Books and How to Read Them
Even after all these years of deep reading, there are still some books and authors I run into that pose a difficulty. And different writers have different kinds of difficulty. The difficulty of Proust is not the difficulty of Swift. But if you value searching for the reader’s sublime (a difficult pleasure) and enjoy slow […]
How to Read Great Imaginative Literature
How do you read great works of imaginative literature? I get asked this question quite often, usually by readers who already know how to read certain other types of book (e.g. popular fiction, self-development, textbooks). But when it comes to these great big books, like Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina or Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, […]
What Is Art? (The Tolstoy Podcast)
What Is Art (1897) is the culmination of Tolstoy’s spiritual crisis after writing Anna Karenina. As an aesthetic philosophical tract on the nature of art, it’s certainly controversial, but also incredibly thought-provoking. In the latest episode of Hardcore Literature, and in anticipation of the upcoming Anna Karenina Book Club Lecture Series, let’s talk about Tolstoy’s theory of […]
About the Anna Karenina Book Club Lecture Series
I wanted to let you know about the upcoming series of pop-up lectures on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. We’ve put together the lectures dealing with the first part of the book, and already have hours of content. I am so excited for this lecture series, and believe it will be the best available anywhere dealing with this […]
An Oxford Student Reviews Mindvalley’s Super Reading with Jim Kwick
I never thought I would find a decent speed-reading course. I thought I’d just need to create my own as part of Hardcore University. And then I found Mind Valley’s Super Reading 3-Week Video Course and I was blown away. Now I don’t need to create my own speed-reading course, because Jim Kwik and MindValley […]
Lecture on Shakespeare’s Sonnets
I’ve just put out a free 75-minute lecture on Shakespeare’s sonnets, available with topic timestamps here: Thank you to everyone who has emailed me to recommend tons of great sonnet-related resources. I have so much to read now! Indeed, the journey never ends. And thank you to those who recommended poets for us to explore […]
15 Lessons Learnt about Reading, Readers & Life from 2020
2020 was my deepest reading year to date. The year I got the most out of the great books, considered the most, and felt the most connected to the wellspring of humanity. Here are 15 lessons I’ve learnt: Most people want to have read something, rather than actually read it. I noticed this in myself […]
Shakespeare’s Sonnets Podcast
Reading Shakespeare’s sonnets in sequence across a span of many weeks, ranking your favourites, then attempting to possess the best by memory is one of the greatest literary joys a book-lover can pursue. So today we’re kicking off the new year with a discussion on how to read the sonnets, why read the sonnets, and […]
Reading and Life Goals for 2021
2020 was a crazy year. But let’s look to 2021 and set some aspirational reading and living goals. Good reading is good living, and how you read your books (indeed, what books you read) transfers to every other part of your life. We’re talking about book clubs, reading plans, goals, roles, mantras, personal manifestos, breathing, […]
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