Reads from 2014
The Best of Brain Pickings 2014
The psychology of the perfect daily routine, how to criticize with kindness, the creative purpose of boredom, Kafka on what books do for the soul, and more.
Pioneering Children’s Book Author, Artist, and Early Twentieth-Century Woman Entrepreneur Wanda Gág Reimagines the Brothers Grimm
A visionary take on classic stories that continue to give us “a tingling, anything-may-happen feeling… the sensation of being about to bite into a big juicy pear.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson Selects the Eight Books Every Intelligent Person on the Planet Should Read
How to “glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world.”
Wole Soyinka, the First African Writer to Win the Nobel Prize in Literature, on Faith, Medicine, and the Healing of the Human Spirit
What a continent’s “rich tapestry of intuitive forces” can teach us about healing, of body and of soul.
The Definitive Reading List of the 14 Best Books of 2014 Overall
From the origin of the universe to the unusual stories behind people’s tattoos, by way of secular spirituality, the hummingbird effect, and Werner Herzog.
Conscience and Spirit: Leo Tolstoy on Why Humans Drink
“The seeing, spiritual being, whose manifestation we commonly call conscience, always points with one end towards right and with the other towards wrong, and we do not notice it while we follow the course it shows.”
What It Really Takes to Be an Artist: MacArthur Genius Teresita Fernández’s Magnificent Commencement Address
“Being an artist is not just about what happens when you are in the studio. The way you live, the people you choose to love and the way you love them, the way you vote, the words that come out of your mouth… will also become the raw material for the art you make.”
Maurice Sendak’s Weird and Wondrous Illustrations for “The Nutcracker”
“It is rare and genuine and does justice to the private world of children. One can, after all, count on the instincts of a genius.”
Van Gogh on Principles, Talking vs. Doing, and the Human Pursuit of Greatness
“Principles are good and worth the effort only when they develop into deeds… The great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.”
ABOUT
CONTACT
SUPPORT
SUBSCRIBE
Newsletter
RSS
CONNECT
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Tumblr