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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

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