Benjamin McEvoy

Essays on writing, reading, and life

How To Ace Your Exams (Video)

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I filmed this video on exam advice last summer. The educational climate was different back then. Who would have thought something like coronavirus would come along and change everything. The exam institutions might need to adapt, but the advice in this video still holds true when it comes to studying in any capacity. So, if […]

How to Learn a Second Language (Video)

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I came back from the gym sweaty and tired, but decided to turn the camera on and record a few tips on how to learn a language. I realised that it was a few simple habits, like pairing vocabulary learning with cardiovascular exercise, that made it easy for me to pick up a language quickly. […]

The Aristotle Podcast

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After Shakespeare, Aristotle is my favourite writer and thinker. So in this episode of Hardcore Literature, one of many covering Aristotle, we delve deep into The Nicomachean Ethics. The result? A conversation about virtues, vices, habits, happiness, and meaning laced with rants about the current generation abound in this 30-minute primer to the greatest philosopher who […]

The Rumi Podcast

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Rumi is one of my favourite poets of all time. So, having read through the wonderful Rumi: Selected Poems, I couldn’t help but turn the microphone on and let it all gush out. The result? Rants on victimisation culture, religious fundamentalists, the negative attitude of men towards women, low-consciousness humans, and liars. There’s also beauty! We […]

The Art of Marginalia

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When I was ten-years-old, the worst thing in the world was a book with a cracked spine. I detested dog-eared pages. Inky underlinings and margins stuffed with scrawlings made me recoil. Books were supposed to be kept pristine. It was a sign of love. Keep them clean, then stack them on a shelf with the […]

April 2020 TBR – What Books I’m Reading This Month

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So it’s Quarantine Day.  Again.  And I’m not getting as much reading done as I would like. Despite reading for hours each day. I’ll block off two hours in the evening, usually after a run, and sit on my balcony with a stack of books and a notebook and pen. It’s the notebook and pen […]

The Viktor Frankl Podcast

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I consider Man’s Search for Meaning to be the best book I have ever read. After countless people getting in touch with me after writing this article on Man’s Search for Meaning, I thought it was about time to sit down and have a chat about it. You can get the book here: Man’s Search […]

How Robert Browning Writes A Poem (Video)

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‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning! One of my all-time favourite poems. I love Browning’s poetry so much, I decided to put out a 38-minute video analysis. ‘My Last Duchess’ Analysis – How Robert Browning Writes A Poem ‘My Last Duchess’ At A Glance: Heroic Verse – iambic feet (five stress lines), couplets (aabbccdd), rhyming. […]

How to Learn a Language

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I’ve learnt three languages over the last decade. In degrees of fluency: Japanese, German, Latin. As I’m now embarking on a new language learning project (Italian), I’m going to quick-fire share some language learning tips and tricks here. There’s some conventional advice here, but a lot of this advice has been hard-won in the trenches […]