The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads by Maria Popova

How to Be a Stone: Three Poems for Trusting Time
How to Be a Stone: Three Poems for Trusting Time

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What Makes a Soul Mate: Roxane Gay on Loving vs. Being in Love
What Makes a Soul Mate: Roxane Gay on Loving vs. Being in Love

“It isn’t perfect, not at all. It doesn’t need to be. It is, simply, what fills you up.”

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An Irishwoman’s Fierce and Poetic Record of Traversing the World on a Bicycle in the Middle of the Cold War
An Irishwoman’s Fierce and Poetic Record of Traversing the World on a Bicycle in the Middle of the Cold War

A wonder-smitten reminder “that for all the horrible chaos of the contemporary political scene this world is full of kindness.”

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Wander: Natascha McElhone Reads Hermann Hesse’s 100-Year-Old Love Letter to the Wisdom of Trees in a Cinematic Walk Through Kew Gardens
Wander: Natascha McElhone Reads Hermann Hesse’s 100-Year-Old Love Letter to the Wisdom of Trees in a Cinematic Walk Through Kew Gardens

“In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws… to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree.”

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Doris Lessing on How to Read a Book and How to Read the World
Doris Lessing on How to Read a Book and How to Read the World

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The Eternal Return: Nietzsche’s Brilliant Thought Experiment Illustrating the Key to Existential Contentment
The Eternal Return: Nietzsche’s Brilliant Thought Experiment Illustrating the Key to Existential Contentment

“Owning up: to recollect, to regret, to be responsible, ultimately to forgive and love.”

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How the Bicycle Was Born: Mount Tambora, the Year Without a Summer, and the Stubborn Courage to Reimagine the Possible
How the Bicycle Was Born: Mount Tambora, the Year Without a Summer, and the Stubborn Courage to Reimagine the Possible

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Annie Dillard on Unselfconsciousness
Annie Dillard on Unselfconsciousness

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Letting in the Golden Light: Oliver Sacks on How Love Changes What We See
Letting in the Golden Light: Oliver Sacks on How Love Changes What We See

“The day steeps everything in golden liquid… A sidewalk cafe in the evening, with a wonderful amber light flooding through the doors and windows: huge, mad stars in an indigo sky. For this, you have to be great, crazy, or wildly in love.”

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Virginia Woolf on Love
Virginia Woolf on Love

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