Archive - The Common Reader

How to have good taste

Taste is knowledge.

Jan 12, 2024 • Henry Oliver

How to get started reading English literature.

An introductory syllabus.

Mar 16, 2025 • Henry Oliver

No, Taylor Swift is not Mary Shelley

The philistine supremacy is real.

Jul 23, 2024 • Henry Oliver

Is Mary Oliver a good poet?

Uh, yeah she is. “The world offers itself to your imagination.”

Apr 9, 2024 • Henry Oliver

Writing advice is a lie.

Just learn grammar and rhetoric instead

Oct 7, 2024 • Henry Oliver

What to do about the decline of the humanities.

Stop complaining and just read the best books that you can and talk about them.

May 9, 2025 • Henry Oliver

Here's a simple solution to the pessimism culture. Read a book.

If you want to break the doom loop, take the Jane Austen cure.

Aug 1, 2024 • Henry Oliver

The modern discourse novel

Novelists who allow the internet to set limits on how they think

Jul 2, 2024 • Henry Oliver

Ignore the pessimists — we are living through a literary golden age

Literature is booming. Literary culture needs to catch up.

Oct 17, 2025 • Henry Oliver

The books I enjoyed most this year, 2025.

In no special order and not necessarily published recently.

Dec 19, 2025 • Henry Oliver

The American art of being busy.

Mozart in the mountains and blueberry pie at Gettysburg,

Oct 29, 2025 • Henry Oliver

Why we love Jane Austen more than ever after 250 years

She wrote about what really matters

Dec 13, 2025 • Henry Oliver

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