Episode · How I Write · 2026-07-22
David Perell & Scott Dikkers: books mentioned on How I Write
Scott Dikkers: 11 Ways to Make Your Writing More Funny | How I Write
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Scott Dikkers discussed Silas Marner by George Eliot and others, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Silas Marner
Silas Marner by George Eliot is a classic Victorian novel about a reclusive weaver whose life is transformed by the arrival of an abandoned child.
Discussed“So, you want 100% of your audience to get the headline and laugh, but once you're down at paragraph eight, you can do an obscure Silas Marner reference that two people are going to get.”
Where to get it
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Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is a classic satirical novel that follows Lemuel Gulliver on extraordinary voyages to strange and fantastical lands.
Discussed“However, in Gulliver's Travels, he got really serious and preachy and the whole last part of the book is just him preaching at you about how the world should be different.”
Where to get it
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is a beloved comedic science fiction classic that satirizes bureaucracy, existentialism, and the absurdities of the universe.
Discussed“Like Eeyore, like um, the robot in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Now, that's a funny irony robots, you know, they have no emotions.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“So I wrote my first nonfiction book which was how to write funny where I just spell out the science of okay cuz nobody does that.”
“The bureaucrat is one of the 40 character archetypes that I lay out in my book How to Write Funny Characters...”