Reads by Maria Popova
I Feel, Therefore I Am: Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio on Consciousness as a Full-Body Phenomenon
“Ultimately, we are puppets of both pain and pleasure, occasionally made free by our creativity.”
The Loveliest Children’s Books of 2021
From the river to the Milky Way, by way of trees, geese, and unsung heroes.
Dreams, Consciousness, and the Nature of the Universe
“Perhaps dreams are an arena that can enable supracognitive powers to perform calculations and perceptions of reality that may be incomprehensible in our wake state.”
Orwell’s Roses: Rebecca Solnit on How Nature Sustains Us, Beauty as Fuel for Change, and the Value of the Meaningless Things That Give Our Lives Meaning
“What is it that makes it possible to do the work that is of highest value to others and one’s central purpose in life? It may appear — to others, sometimes even to oneself — trivial, irrelevant, indulgent, pointless, distracted, or any of those other pejoratives with which the quantifiable beats down the unquantifiable.”
The Scar: A Tender Illustrated French Meditation on Loss and Healing
Uncommon consolation from the body to the soul.
Escaping the Trap of Efficiency: The Counterintuitive Antidote to the Time-Anxiety That Haunts and Hampers Our Search for Meaning
“Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster… Since finitude defines our lives… living a truly authentic life — becoming fully human — means facing up to that fact.”
Before I Grew Up: A Stunning Illustrated Elegy of Life, Loss, Our Search for Light, and Loneliness as a Crucible of Creativity
An uncommonly original and tenderhearted celebration of how an artist becomes an artist.
Nietzsche on Walking and Creativity
“Our first questions about the value of a book, of a human being, or a musical composition are: Can they walk? Even more, can they dance?”
Carl Jung on How to Live and the Origin of “Do the Next Right Thing”
“There is no pit you cannot climb out of provided you make the right effort at the right place… do the next thing with diligence and devotion.”
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