Archive - The Common Reader

Elizabeth Bowen: as good as Henry James

Tessa Hadley in the Times

2 hrs ago • Henry Oliver

Does it matter if you don't like the characters?

I cannot reconcile my heart to this unlikeable approach to literature

Jul 23 • Henry Oliver

Manuel M. Novillo interviews me

Bob Dylan, the reading crisis, children, happiness, and more

Jul 23 • Henry Oliver

Homer Haunted, by Henry Power

Splendid literary criticism, dull politics

Jul 21 • Henry Oliver

My review of Nolan's Odyssey in GQ Australia

Jul 17 • Henry Oliver

No Spanish reading crisis?

66% of Spaniards read for pleasure; 75% of 14-24 year olds

Jul 14 • Henry Oliver

The Odyssey is about sons questing for their fathers.

REPOST from August 2025

Jul 11 • Henry Oliver

Et in Arcadia Ego

London, Arcadia, and the end of civilization

Jul 9 • Henry Oliver

Citizen Kane, Orson Welles

It took all my restraint, while everyone else was collecting their things and getting out of their chairs, not to start yelling out, “Play it again!

Jul 6 • Henry Oliver

Will Imagination be the Key to Thriving in the Age of AI?

David Brooks in the Atlantic

Jul 5 • Henry Oliver

America Should Love Itself Again

Happy Birthday to a very great nation

Jul 3 • Henry Oliver

The 2026 Hyperstition Unslop AI fiction writing contest

You can find the winner and runners-up here. I am just starting to read the results. My impression so far is that this is not slop, but it’s also not…

Jul 1 • Henry Oliver

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