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 one of the most sophisticated writers I have ever come across. His structure, vocabulary, and classical allusions are stronger than almost any other writer.
- How to Think Like Shakespeare by Scott Newstok: I’m fortunate that I get a lot of books sent to me, but I hardly have time for the overwhelming majority of them. I made an exception for this book, and am incredibly excited to read more. Thank you to Scott for thinking of me!
- The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis: I’m spinning a random number generator and reading a random books from the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die to see if they’re actually good recommendations. I landed on this Nobel Prize winner’s work and, as someone who used to live in Lisbon, am loving it so far.
- Peter Ackroyd’s Shakespeare: One of my all-time favourite biographies so far.
- The Plays of Christopher Marlowe
- Complete Essays of Montaigne: Thank you to my friend Misha Thomas for giving me a firm push towards Montaigne.
- Henry VI Pt 1 & 2: Thank you to my friend Matt Gordon for giving me an exciting way to organise my Shakespeare shelf.
- Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
- The Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant
- Chekhov Short Stories Vol 1
- Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
- Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: If you know anything about the publisher La Belle Sauvage, let me know how much you think my copy is worth (around 5:30 mark in the video). I picked it up for £3, but I think it’s likely worth 100x more.
What books are you reading?
Magazine articles:
- The New Yorker’s unpublished Hemingway short story and a short story from Haruki Murakami. If you want to hear my hateful rant on this publication, check out the video.
- The Spectator: I will always pick up this magazine whenever I get the chance just for Douglas Murray’s controversial columns alone. Highly recommended. Basically the only good magazine on the market today.
What articles have you enjoyed?
Recommended blogs/websites/wider web:
- Bradbury Media. I’m a huge Bradbury fan and cannot wait for the Bradbury 100 Podcast to drop.
- Hokku. Deep-dive poetry analysis, a flavour of which personally delights me.
- Patrick Stewart’s sonnet videos on Twitter.
- Tolstoy Therapy: particularly check out this article on bibliotherapy.
- Shakespeare & Beyond.
What blogs are you reading?
Bonus! Videos I’ve loved this week:
I’m including my own video, one I’m proud of, along with some other videos that I’ve consumed and enjoyed.
Here’s a young Ian McKellen analysing Macbeth’s ‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’:
Here’s myself analysing my favourite short story from Guy de Maupassant, ‘The Horla’:
And here’s Peter Brook talking with Charlie Rose: