Here’s what’s on my bedside table this Saturday morning. Links to books, articles, blogs, and videos below. Books: Walden by Henry David Thoreau: Was Thoreau autistic? Read his essay in this wonderful collection ‘On Reading’ and tell me what you think. It’s been hypothesised before. Something to think about. On an unrelated note, Thoreau is […]
The Poetry of Reddit: Vol. 1 (Video)
One of my favourite pastimes is being an absolute snob. I like to scroll through the poetry subreddit, r/Poetry, and lightly shit-talk the criticisms and selections. So why not turn the camera on for that? The Poetry of Reddit: Vol. 1 This tentative first episode contains poems by: Bukowski Shakespeare D. H. Lawrence Mako Iwamatsu […]
How to Read Shakespeare in a Year (Video)
I’ve talked about how to read the complete works of Shakespeare in a year. But I’ve recently decided to read everything Shakespeare wrote in chronological order and document my journey in video form, kicking off with this introductory video here: I’ve decided on reading Shakespeare chronologically because I want to know Shakespeare the man, the […]
Analysing ‘The Horla’ by Guy de Maupassant (Video)
‘The Horla’ by Guy de Maupassant is one of my favourite short stories of all time. So here’s my brand of analysis. We take a short story – sometimes a poem or a play or a philosophical tract – and we make the poetic eminently practical. We suck the marrow out of the work. We […]
My Favourite Supplements: Graded, Ranked & Reviewed (Video)
I’m a complete supplement junky. Most supplements are bunk. But after years of trial and error, I’ve found a stable rotation that have completely enhanced my life. Effective supplementation helped me: Through finals and dissertation writing at Oxford University Learn Japanese to conversational fluency in Tokyo Teach myself the basics of computer coding, graphic and […]
Books I’m Reading This Month (July 2020 Video)
Reading some superb books this month. So I thought I’d put together a little show-and-tell. I particularly want to show you the pictures inside the first two books. So check out the video below, then let me know what you’re reading this month. Books I’m Reading This Month July 2020 Books mentioned: William Blake The […]
Wim Hof Method Q&A Video
I’ve practiced the Wim Hof Method for half a decade. I was one of the early adopters and one of the first people to spread the word about how life-changing the Wim Hof Method is. So, many years on, I’ve decided to answer a few common questions about the Wim Hof Method. Let’s consider this […]
#1 Poetry Reading Round-Up: Hopkins, Sappho, Catullus, Browning, Donne
I’ve been recording a lot of poetry readings. It’s my new favourite pastime. Reading poems aloud energises them (and me), makes meaning clear, and gives me the same feeling as a decent glass of red wine. I’ll be playing around with long poetry readings with 10-20 poems from disparate poets perhaps grouped by theme, with […]
The Poem That Made Me Fall In Love with Poetry (Video)
Every lover of poetry remembers the poem that made them fall in love with the art. It’s usually not even an entire poem that makes us fall in love. Often it’s just one line. Sometimes one phrase or word. Stephen Fry, in the wonderful Ode Less Travelled cites an innocuous line from Keats’ ‘The Eve […]
Reading Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Chapter One (Video)
I mentioned one of my passion projects was to read the entirety of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations aloud following the original serialised publication dates. Well, I’ve got started on that with the first two chapters, with chapter one released today. In an ideal world, I would have read this great work in front of a crackling […]