3 Reasons to Read Emma

3 Reasons to Read Emma

I am an amateur in literature; there are many classics I am still discovering or just beginning to appreciate. But Jane Austen’s Emma captivated me from my first reading it in grad school. This summer my third time through solidified its unique place in my life: just...
Leave the Shallows: Read Together

Leave the Shallows: Read Together

Reading together can change everything. It is a great example of a rich activity for families and friends that should be ordinary but is quite rare. Fortunately, it is very much in our reach with real intentionality. A dramatic, negative phenomenon of our age is that...
Winter: A Time for Noble Joy

Winter: A Time for Noble Joy

What does it take to form virtue—or to ‘educate’ in the most important sense? This perennial question concerns all of us, at all stages of life. Aristotle offers a simple but surprising principle that should focus us on what we’re doing at home in these winter days....
A Moment That Says It All

A Moment That Says It All

It’s a stunning moment in one of the great books: Jim Hawkins doesn’t jump the stockade. The other day when reading Treasure Island aloud with the family, I fairly wanted to jump out of my skin when we came to it. For the fortunate hearer, a moment like this can...
The Best Reason to Read Aloud Together

The Best Reason to Read Aloud Together

There is nothing quite like the silence that comes over the room at the close of the final sentence. For a brief yet timeless stretch we are all there together, highly aware of one another but in wonderful solitude. Then, the conversation begins. The power of reading...

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