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The Reading Room

Essay Collections That Earn The Hardback

Most collections are three good pieces and a contents page. These are not.

a list by Ash Bell8 books

  1. The Fire Next Time

    “Ninety pages. The standard everything else is measured against.”

    James Baldwin

    Shelve
    1
  2. Slouching Towards Bethlehem

    Joan Didion

    Shelve
    2
  3. Ways of Seeing

    “Four essays and three picture sequences. Nothing since has bettered it.”

    John Berger

    Shelve
    3
  4. On Photography

    Susan Sontag

    Shelve
    4
  5. Consider the Lobster

    “Despite the footnotes.”

    David Foster Wallace

    Shelve
    5
  6. Trick Mirror

    “Two commissions in the middle. The rest holds.”

    Jia Tolentino

    Shelve
    6
  7. Notes of a Native Son

    James Baldwin

    Shelve
    7
  8. The Argonauts

    Maggie Nelson

    Shelve
    8