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About The Common Reader.
May 4, 2025
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Henry Oliver
92
15
Bacon, Swift, Smith: Three anniversaries in 2026
A different sort of anniversary
Jan 14
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Henry Oliver
66
8
4
Driving like a video game
Suburban life in NOVA
Jan 13
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Henry Oliver
76
19
7
Literature, politics, and the future of the humanities
A discussion with Julianne Werlin and Jeffrey Lawrence
Jan 7
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Henry Oliver
34
2
6
1:03:25
An economist asks: What is the value of reading great literature like Eliot and Tolstoy?
Joy Buchanan's Thoughts
Jan 6
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Henry Oliver
and
Joy Buchanan
145
9
13
Most Popular
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How to have good taste
Jan 12, 2024
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Henry Oliver
2,769
135
658
How to get started reading English literature.
Mar 16, 2025
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Henry Oliver
999
88
138
No, Taylor Swift is not Mary Shelley
Jul 23, 2024
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Henry Oliver
756
105
118
Is Mary Oliver a good poet?
Apr 9, 2024
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Henry Oliver
659
87
107
What should Tyler Cowen ask me?
I'm going on his podcast
Jan 3
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Henry Oliver
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44
1
Ten reasons to read great literature in 2026
A reading manifesto
Jan 1
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Henry Oliver
230
31
60
Year in review, 2025
Another good year
Dec 28, 2025
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Henry Oliver
100
7
5
What do we owe each other once we become different sorts of people?
Moral philosophy in On the Calculation of Volume
Dec 26, 2025
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Henry Oliver
79
3
14
No paywall, anywhere
Merry Christmas
Dec 23, 2025
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Henry Oliver
147
18
10
Recommendations
View all 23
Going Awol
Amos Wollen
A Year of Bach
Evan Goldfine
A.N. Wilson
A.N. Wilson
Strange Loop Canon
Rohit Krishnan
How We Homeschool
Catherine Oliver
Late bloomers
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You make your own luck.
No, really. It's actually kind of true.
May 4, 2025
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Henry Oliver
148
20
30
Does the flame of genius burn past 30?
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
Jan 31, 2025
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Henry Oliver
123
20
16
Launch day for Second Act!
What Late Bloomers Can Tell You About Success and Reinventing Your Life.
May 9, 2024
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Henry Oliver
37
20
6
High performers are late bloomers
A large new study in Science
Dec 22, 2025
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Henry Oliver
133
18
23
The books I enjoyed most this year, 2025.
In no special order and not necessarily published recently.
Dec 19, 2025
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Henry Oliver
195
47
18
Kiran Desai: catching a glimpse in the forest
The Loneliness of Sunny and Sonia
Dec 18, 2025
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Henry Oliver
63
9
9
Cat, Soutine, Feeling, Happiness, Conservative, Enigma
Some recent reading
Dec 17, 2025
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Henry Oliver
47
4
5
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Shakespeare
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Cymbeline book club
SUNDAY 7 p.m. UK time, 2 p.m. Eastern
Dec 14, 2025
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Henry Oliver
12
1
Coriolanus book club
SUNDAY 7 p.m. UK time, 2 p.m. Eastern
Nov 16, 2025
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Henry Oliver
11
7
Macbeth book club
SUNDAY 7 p.m. UK time, 2 p.m. Eastern
Oct 18, 2025
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Henry Oliver
27
3
2
Macbeth's brief candle
A tragedy of time
Oct 9, 2025
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Henry Oliver
65
5
10
Shakespeare’s mothers. The Countess in All's Well That Ends Well.
My piece in the new edition of Liberties
Oct 8, 2025
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Henry Oliver
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6
3
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