Nolan Can Read

autobiography

July 19, 2023

The Journey

By Sergio Pitol

I mean, a personal predilection for just a little bit of pretension, for the fluency with literature and the literati, definitely does have an impact on my opinion of Sergio Pitol - lists of names and works and influences and...

June 25, 2023

Walden

By Henry Thoreau

I listened to Walden while walking through the woods around Walden, and I gotta say - the words still ring true. Yes, he was a few hours walk from Boston, yes his mom probably did his laundry for him and...

June 25, 2023

The Snow Leopard

By Peter Matthiessen

Reading this brought to mind Susan Sontag’s On Photography, or at least what I remember of it/what I imagine it as saying, having read it a number of years ago. Not to say that they have anything in common or...

May 28, 2023

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

By Annie Dillard

An entirely self-indulgent conversation with a passionate believer in the wonder and the beauty of the natural world, full of excellent tidbits and charming vignettes, of life by the creek and Life by the Creek. I like the review that...

January 27, 2023

Ducks

By Kate Beacon

Kate Beaton is great, this book is great, this book is heavy and traumatic and human and occasionally a bit sweet. Should be read.

January 26, 2023

The Art of Flight

By Sergio Pitol

Part autobiography, part literary criticism. I was a bit skeptical at first, and maybe to a certain extent throughout the entirety - while most of it is beautifully wrought, there is a tendency for Pitol just to simply start listing...