Essays on a wide range of topics
Laugh, Kookaburra, David Sidaris, The New Yorker, 2009: here
Documents, Charles Dambrosio, The New Yorker, 2002: here
Once More to the Lake, E.B. White, Genius, xxxx: here
Fail Better, Zadie Smith, xxxx, here
Death of the Moth, Virginia Wolf, here
My Misspent Youth, Megan Daum, The New Yorker, 1999, here
Go Gentle Into That Goodnight, Roger Ebert, here
Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell, 1936, here
A Hanging, George Orwell, here
Assassins of the Mind, Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair, 2009, here
The New Commandments, Christopher Hitches, Vanity Fair, 2009, here
The Pleasure Principle, Philip Larkin, Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982 (Faber and Faber, 1983): 80-2, here
Thoughts for the Times on War and Death, Sigmund Freud, 1915, here
Some Notes on Attunement, Zadie Smith, 2012, The New Yorker, here
Total Eclipse, Annie Dillard, from Teaching a Stone to Talk, xxxx, here
When I Look at a Strawberry, I Think of a Tongue, Édouard Levé, The Paris Review, 2011, here
How to Tame a Wild Tonguem, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, here
Dispatch from a Man without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, here
On Fear, Mary Ruefle, here
On Interpretation, Susan Sontag, here
A few words about breasts, Norah Ephron, here
Does Truth Matter? Science, Pseudoscience and Civilisation, Carl Sagan, 1996, here
How to do what you love, Paul Graham, 2006, here
Mister Lytle: An Essay, John Jeremiah Sullivan, 2010, The Paris Review, here
On Self Respect, Joan Didion, 1961, Vogue, here
On Camp, Susan Sontag, 2010, here
Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841, here
Consider The Lobster, David Foster Wallace, here
The Nature of the Fun, David Foster Wallace, here
Attitude, Margaret Atwood, here
The Fourth State of Matter, Jo Ann Beard, here
Tryptamine, Hallucinogens and Consciousness, Terence McKenna, here
The Little Store, Eudora Welty, here
The Search for Marvin Gardens, John McPhee, here
No Name Woman, Maxine Hong Kingston, here
On Keeping a Notebook, Joan Didion, here
Goodbye To All That, Joan Didion, here
Reflections on Ghandi, George Orwell, here
Politics and the English Language, George Orwell, here
On libraries, Oliver Sacks, here
The Responsibility of Intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, here
The Riddle of the Gun, Sam Harris, here
Reflections on Exile, Edward Said, here
It's as Simple as One, Two,Three, Richard Feynman, here
The Religion of the The Forest, Rabindranath Tagore, here
Letter to His 10-Year-Old Daughter, Richard Dawkins, here
The Minotaur, (or, The Stop in Oran), Albert Camus, here
In Praise of Idleness, Bertrand Russel, 1932, Harper's Magazine, here