Episode · How I Write · 2026-05-13
Books mentioned on Maria Popova: How to Write Something Truly Wise | How I Write
Maria Popova writes one of the internet's best personal blogs. Originally called "Brain Pickings", it is now known as "The Marginalian".
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Walden
Walden by Henry David Thoreau is a classic philosophical memoir chronicling the author's simple, self-reliant life in a cabin near Concord, Massachusetts, and serving as a timeless critique of societal conformity and materialism.
Discussed“Well, I mean, I love Walden. And people say whatever they say, but but I just I love Thoreau and um more of his notebooks than not just Walden.”
Where to get it
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Existentialists and Mystics
Existentialists and Mystics by Iris Murdoch is a profound collection of essays exploring philosophy, literature, ethics, and the human condition.
Recommended“She used the word unselfing in a kind of almost as an aside in she has a book called Existentialists and Mystics that you would, I think, appreciate given what you just said about the the light. Uh and she talks about how art and nature, our encounters with art and with the natural world, are occasions for unselfing.”
Where to get it
