book pickings

a visual way to explore the brain pickings book archive :: otlet's shelf theme :: back to brain pickings

CREATIVITY :: DESIGN :: SCIENCE :: HISTORY :: PSYCHOLOGY :: ART

literature

  1. The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov Andrea Pitzer Nabokov and Homeland Security – how Russia’s most revered literary émigré became an American

    The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov

    Andrea Pitzer

    Nabokov and Homeland Security – how Russia’s most revered literary émigré became an American
  2. Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series Malcolm Cowley “The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood.” The great Malcolm Cowley on the four stages of writing:

    Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series

    Malcolm Cowley

    “The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood.”

    The great Malcolm Cowley on the four stages of writing:
  3. Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds Harold Bloom “Genius, in its writings, is our best path for reaching wisdom … the true use of literature for life.” Harold Bloom’s 100 geniuses of language and literature, visualized.

    Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds

    Harold Bloom

    “Genius, in its writings, is our best path for reaching wisdom … the true use of literature for life.”

    Harold Bloom’s 100 geniuses of language and literature, visualized.
  4. Dear Mark Twain: Letters from His Readers R. Kent Rasmussen “This world would not be satisfying unless one person were allowed to express gratitude and thanks to another.” Heart-warming fan mail for Mark Twain

    Dear Mark Twain: Letters from His Readers

    R. Kent Rasmussen

    “This world would not be satisfying unless one person were allowed to express gratitude and thanks to another.”

    Heart-warming fan mail for Mark Twain
  5. Afterwords: Letters on the Death of Virginia Woolf Sybil Oldfield “For myself and others it is the end of a world. I merely feel quite numb at the moment, and can’t think about this or anything else…” T.S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell, E.M. Foster, Elizabeth Bowen, H.G. Wells, and others grapple with the ineffable

    Afterwords: Letters on the Death of Virginia Woolf

    Sybil Oldfield

    “For myself and others it is the end of a world. I merely feel quite numb at the moment, and can’t think about this or anything else…”

    T.S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell, E.M. Foster, Elizabeth Bowen, H.G. Wells, and others grapple with the ineffable
  6. Tender Buttons: Objects Gertrude Stein “A feather is trimmed, it is trimmed by the light and the bug and the post, it is trimmed by little leaning and by all sorts of mounted reserves and loud volumes…” A book is a book is a book… unless it’s a BOOK. Gertrude Stein’s vintage verses about objets, gloriously illustrated by artist Lisa Congdon.

    Tender Buttons: Objects

    Gertrude Stein

    “A feather is trimmed, it is trimmed by the light and the bug and the post, it is trimmed by little leaning and by all sorts of mounted reserves and loud volumes…”

    A book is a book is a book… unless it’s a BOOK. Gertrude Stein’s vintage verses about objets, gloriously illustrated by artist Lisa Congdon.
  7. A Writer’s Diary Virginia Woolf “The habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments. … What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and yet not slovenly, so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind. I should like it to resemble some deep old desk, or capacious hold-all, in which one flings a mass of odds and ends without looking them through. I should like to come back, after a year or two, and find that the collection had sorted itself and refined itself and coalesced, as such deposits so mysteriously do, into a mould, transparent enough to reflect the light of our life, and yet steady, tranquil compounds with the aloofness of a work of art. ” Virginia Woolf on the creative benefits of keeping a diary:

    A Writer’s Diary

    Virginia Woolf

    “The habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments. … What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and yet not slovenly, so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind. I should like it to resemble some deep old desk, or capacious hold-all, in which one flings a mass of odds and ends without looking them through. I should like to come back, after a year or two, and find that the collection had sorted itself and refined itself and coalesced, as such deposits so mysteriously do, into a mould, transparent enough to reflect the light of our life, and yet steady, tranquil compounds with the aloofness of a work of art. ”

    Virginia Woolf on the creative benefits of keeping a diary:
  8. Monday or Tuesday Virginia Woolf A rare first edition, featuring gorgeous black-and-white woodcuts by Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell:

    Monday or Tuesday

    Virginia Woolf

    A rare first edition, featuring gorgeous black-and-white woodcuts by Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell:
  9. Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1897-1909 Virginia Woolf “All the Arts … imitate as far as they can the one great truth that all can see.” Virginia Woolf’s early journals and letters:

    Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1897-1909

    Virginia Woolf

    “All the Arts … imitate as far as they can the one great truth that all can see.”

    Virginia Woolf’s early journals and letters:
  10. My Ideal Bookshelf Jane Mount & Thessaly La Force Artist Jane Mount paints “portraits” of beloved thinkers (writers, artists, filmmakers, philosophers) through the spines of their favorite books – absolutely wonderful:

    My Ideal Bookshelf

    Jane Mount & Thessaly La Force

    Artist Jane Mount paints “portraits” of beloved thinkers (writers, artists, filmmakers, philosophers) through the spines of their favorite books – absolutely wonderful:
  11. Both Flesh and Not: Essays David Foster Wallace “Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable.” David Foster Wallace on the nature of fun:

    Both Flesh and Not: Essays

    David Foster Wallace

    “Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable.”

    David Foster Wallace on the nature of fun:
  12. Kurt Vonnegut: Letters Kurt Vonnegut “In an unmoored life like mine, sleep and hunger and work arrange themselves to suit themselves, without consulting me.” Vonnegut’s uncompromising daily routine:

    Kurt Vonnegut: Letters

    Kurt Vonnegut

    “In an unmoored life like mine, sleep and hunger and work arrange themselves to suit themselves, without consulting me.”

    Vonnegut’s uncompromising daily routine:
  13. The Graphic Canon, Vol. 2: From “Kubla Khan” to the Brontë Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Russ Kick Some of today’s most exciting graphic artists adapt a remarkable spectrum of literature since 1800, spanning everything from “the bad boys of Romanticism” — Keats, Byron, and Shelley — to cornerstones of science and philosophy like Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra.

    The Graphic Canon, Vol. 2: From “Kubla Khan” to the Brontë Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray

    by Russ Kick

    Some of today’s most exciting graphic artists adapt a remarkable spectrum of literature since 1800, spanning everything from “the bad boys of Romanticism” — Keats, Byron, and Shelley — to cornerstones of science and philosophy like Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra.
  14. Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters from the End of the Affair Anna Holmes “I just love as much as I did when I landed into your disappointed arms, that means with my whole self and all my dirty heart; I cannot do less.” ~ Simone de Beauvoir

    Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters from the End of the Affair

    Anna Holmes

    “I just love as much as I did when I landed into your disappointed arms, that means with my whole self and all my dirty heart; I cannot do less.” ~ Simone de Beauvoir
  15. Romeo and Juliet Illustrated by Kevin Stanton The Shakespeare classic, brought to new life with artist Kevin Stanton’s stunning cut-paper illustrations.

    Romeo and Juliet

    Illustrated by Kevin Stanton

    The Shakespeare classic, brought to new life with artist Kevin Stanton’s stunning cut-paper illustrations.
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