Books, ideas, and the stories that stay with us.
Personal essays, reading habits, big ideas and carefully chosen recommendations. A continuing exploration of why books work, how writers create them and what reading does to us.
↔ Machine
Who Wrote This?
The ideas and experiences are mine. AI helps me shape them into essays. Does that make the writing less human, or is it simply a new version of the writer-editor relationship?
Read the essay →Latest posts
Remains
The Books We Forget Are Still Part of Us
Why the stories we can barely remember sometimes leave the deepest impressions.
→ Stars
Epic Fantasy Is Everywhere. Let’s Talk About Epic Science Fiction.
From Dune and The Expanse to Foundation and Red Rising, ten epic sci-fi book series with extraordinary worlds worth getting lost in.
Literature
Comic Books Are Literature. It’s Time We Stopped Pretending Otherwise.
From Secret Wars and Watchmen to The Walking Dead, why some of the most meaningful stories I’ve ever read came with pictures.
Lives
I’ve Lived a Thousand Lives. And They’re All Mine.
How reading fiction helps us understand other people, experience different lives, and see the world through someone else’s eyes.
By Choice
The Matrix Won’t Need to Trap Us. We’ll Enter Willingly.
From Orwell’s 1984 to GTA 6, why the future of virtual reality might be something we choose for ourselves.
New Reader
Why Books Feel Different When You Read Them Again Years Later
The words stay the same. The reader doesn’t.
→ Next
Books Like Lonesome Dove: 8 Books to Read Next
The best book to read next depends on what you loved about Lonesome Dove in the first place.
Reading Again
10 Books to Get You Back Into Reading
A practical strategy and ten different doors back into reading for anyone whose reading habit has slipped away.
→ Next
Loved 1984? 5 Books to Read Next
Five books for readers who want more dystopia, big ideas and uncomfortable questions about society, power and truth.
Keep Reading
It’s Okay to DNF a Book
When to move on, when to give a book a chance, and how familiar favourites and audiobooks can keep you reading.
→ Voice
The Joy of Audiobooks
Great narrators can turn familiar books into entirely new experiences, even if they embarrass your children.
→ Classics
Where Should You Start With the Classics?
Seven approachable classics that still feel alive, from Dorian Gray and 1984 to Dracula and Steinbeck.
↔ Machine
Who Wrote This?
When a human supplies the ideas and AI shapes the language, who actually wrote the finished work?
→ Moved On
The World Has Moved On
Why Stephen King’s Dark Tower remains one of fantasy’s most compelling worlds, even when no ending could equal the journey.
→ Epic
Why Are Fantasy and Science Fiction Books So Long?
World-building, unfamiliar rules and epic character arcs help explain why speculative stories need so much room.
Favourite
The Books I’ll Never Admit How Much I Love
Anne Rice’s vampires, the 1994 movie and the immortal world of Lestat remain an irresistible lifelong obsession.
→ Read
The Books That Brought Me Back to Reading
How social media fractured my attention, and how 1984 and Brave New World helped me find books again.
≠ Listening
The Song We Sing Without Hearing
What one catchy chorus reveals about attention, interpretation and whether we are losing the habit of thinking deeply.
→ World
Where Do They Come Up With This Stuff?
Why ideas like psychohistory and Allomancy feel almost impossible, and whether a machine can ever find the same creative muse.
→ Books
How I Fell in Love with Science Fiction
Foundation, Neuromancer and Dune turned a childhood fascination into a lifelong addiction to the genre.
→ Invention
Everything Is Star Trek
Science fiction does not simply predict the future. It gives scientists and engineers something worth building.
Perspective
Why I Read About the Universe When the World Gets Too Loud
How cosmology, relativity and quantum mechanics provide perspective and a comforting escape from human noise.
→ Screen
Peter Jackson Ruined The Lord of the Rings for Me
The movies were so brilliant that returning to books I once considered my favourites now feels almost impossible.
↔ Literary
Why I Alternate Between Epic Fantasy and Literary Fiction
Moving from Sanderson to Steinbeck is not about ranking one kind of book above another. It is about changing mental gears and keeping reading fresh.
Series
Loved Mistborn? Try These 3 Fantasy Series Next
Three series that capture different parts of what makes Mistborn memorable, from character and dialogue to moral complexity and meaningful magic.