personal canon

everything i read in february & march 2026

and! my Dialectic podcast episode on creative fulfillment and the life of the mind ✦

Apr 1 • Celine Nguyen

253

32

23

February 2026

everything i read in january 2026

what Substack can learn from James Joyce ✦ philosophy from Bergson to Zhuangzi ✦ and essays/paintings worthy of sustained attention

Feb 1 • Celine Nguyen

285

28

23

January 2026

we've created a society where artists can't make any money

on artistic innovation, cultural stagnation, and the decline of Silicon Valley intellectualism

Jan 28 • Celine Nguyen

822

93

163

best books, essays, and poems of 2025

an invitation to read more in the new year ✦

Jan 14 • Celine Nguyen

467

45

56

December 2025

writing is an inherently dignified human activity

the case for starting your own newsletter ✦ and reflections on 2 years, 52 posts, and 31,000 subscribers

Dec 29, 2025 • Celine Nguyen

1,340

122

336

everything i read in october & november 2025

do you really need to read all the books you buy? ✦ plus reviews of 2 excellent debut novels ✦ an Italian novella about rogue AI ✦ and an attempt to…

Dec 3, 2025 • Celine Nguyen

290

40

26

November 2025

conversations with friends (on tech, culture, criticism, and bait)

my podcast conversation with the writer and technologist Jasmine Sun ✦

Nov 18, 2025 • Celine Nguyen

117

19

11

the occasional art report

the pros and cons of nostalgia, Wolfgang Tillmans, Korean ceramics, ideal translations, and the best show of Frieze London

Nov 5, 2025 • Celine Nguyen

155

21

10

October 2025

how to speak to a computer

against chat interfaces ✦ a brief history of artificial intelligence ✦ and the (worthwhile) problem of other minds

Oct 20, 2025 • Celine Nguyen

294

39

57

everything i read in september 2025

novels & nonfiction about AI poetry, lost love, corporate anthropologists, and more ✦

Oct 5, 2025 • Celine Nguyen

230

36

10

September 2025

everything i read in july & august 2025

15 books on love, communism, AIDS activism, and sleeping your way to the top

Sep 3, 2025 • Celine Nguyen

284

22

9

August 2025

how to expand the market for literature (and literary criticism)

the personal and social function of criticism ✦ and why the humanities are not dead, thank you very much

Aug 27, 2025 • Celine Nguyen

406

50

72