Episode · How I Write · 2026-05-13
David Perell & Maria Popova: books mentioned on How I Write
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".
Maria Popova recommended Existentialists and Mystics by Iris Murdoch, and discussed Walden by Henry David Thoreau.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Walden
Walden by Henry David Thoreau is a classic transcendentalist reflection on the value of simplicity, self-reliance, and intentional living in deliberate harmony with nature.
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 collection of essays and philosophical writings exploring ethics, literature, art, and the human condition through the lenses of both existentialist philosophy and mystical thought.
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
