Volumes.

Volumes.

Home
Features
Notes on a Reading Life
Words of Wisdom
Double Take
About
Re-reading "The Great Gatsby"
In the latest edition of the Double Take series, I discover how wrong I was about F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz-age novel.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
15
On Collecting Books
On how we store books, the library as an anti-algorithm, and finding freedom in the finite.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
Down With This Sort of Thing
On Jerry Springer, the Overton window, and cancel culture.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
4
An Appetite for Life
On Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar", and how to live life more fully by choosing less.
1
The World Beyond Your Head
Efforts to personalise all the settings on our lives make us lonelier and more narcissistic than ever — but reading can help.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
4
The Rewards of Difficult Books
On Dante's "Inferno" and what it can teach us about the pleasures and rewards of reading challenging books.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
Azar Nafisi: The Magic of Fiction
On the transformative power of literature and the meaning of "upsilamba".
 • 
Matthew Morgan
2
Milan Kundera: How Novels Defy Tyranny
On the role of art in defending all that we value.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
2
Vivian Gornick: On Writing Letters
How to resist cultural decline without giving in to pessimism.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
Why Tyrants Fear Art
Following last week's close look at Milan Kundera, I wanted to take another look at the role of art in defending our values, this time examining why art…
 • 
Matthew Morgan
A Day in Reading
On why we read, where we read, and how reading can change throughout the day.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
What is "Alice in Wonderland" Actually About?
A tumble down the rabbit-hole with Alice.
 • 
Matthew Morgan
3
© 2025 Matthew Morgan
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture