De Vita Contemplativa

Notes on slowness, attention and the quiet life

Reading

Books that reward slow reading. The list changes slowly too.

  • Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
  • Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
  • Henry David Thoreau, Walden
  • Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture
  • Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
  • Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude
  • Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
  • Matsuo Bashō, The Narrow Road to the Deep North