“Feminist” has become an insult, and the idea of feminism is associated with a specific mold. But the real definition is simpler than most people think. Roxane Gay is committed to equality for women, but she doesn’t always fit in with the traditional idea of feminism. She calls herself a bad feminist. In this book …
The Critique of Pure Reason (1781) is one of the most groundbreaking, revolutionary, and influential books in the history of Western philosophy. Pointing out the limits of human reason, it argues that we can have knowledge about the world as we experience it, but we can never know anything about the ultimate nature of reality.
I’d Rather Be Reading (2018) is a collection of stories and anecdotes that document the life of a bookworm and offer advice to fellow bibliophiles. From overflowing shelves to forbidden reading, these summaries offer a colorful take on what it means to be A Reader.
How to Live (2010) is both a biography of the writer Montaigne and an overview of the monumental work for which he’s famous: the Essays – a genre of writing that he invented. Along the way, it suggests some lessons we can take from his life and apply to our own.
How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997) melds literary biography with a self-help structure to argue that reading the work of twentieth-century French author Marcel Proust is not only culturally enriching, but potentially life-enhancing. Botton’s close reading of Proust’s masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time, offers up surprising and delightful insights into how to live …