Reading Advice From History’s Greatest Minds: Critical Linking, May 29, 2020
“If there’s one thing that unites philosophers, writers, politicians, and scientists across time and distance, it’s the belief that reading can broaden your worldview and strengthen your intellect better than just about any other activity. When it comes to choosing what to read and how to go about it, however, opinions start to diverge. From Virginia Woolf’s affinity for wandering secondhand bookstores to Theodore Roosevelt’s rejection of a definitive “best books” list, here are seven pieces of reading advice to help you build an impressive to-be-read (TBR) pile.”
Listen, Seneca: get off my neck.
“A few years back, if you enjoyed classic crime fiction and wanted to explore authors less familiar than Agatha Christie and a handful of others, you were out of luck. Most vintage detective novels were simply unobtainable. Today, it’s a very different situation—the classic crime fan is spoilt for choice. A whole new generation of fans now has the joy of discovering treasure long buried in the British Library’s archives. The global success of the British Library’s Crime Classics series has reintroduced authors, novels, and short stories long forgotten, appearing as they did in the first half of the twentieth Century. Their lovely period cover artwork makes the books devilishly collectible, while the stories provide wonderful escapism (especially valuable in times as strange as these…!).”
Look up this series ASAP if you love classic crime. So fun!
Famous people! Are they really just like us? In the case of these individuals, the answer is a resounding yes when it comes to loving books. To help you add even more titles to that Want to Read shelf, we asked these well-known bookworms to tell us the titles they find themselves recommending over and over again.
From the books that inspire Alicia Keys in her songwriting to the stories that ignite Trevor Noah’s imagination, here are their picks. And don’t forget to click on the names of your favorite book lovers below to follow them on Goodreads for their latest recommendations (and to get a peek at what they’re currently reading).”
My cynical self never knows if people are honest in these lists, but these picks are pretty solid.
