Book Recommendations

A Practical Guide to Building a Literary Reading System

2025-03-24
Build a literary reading system with secondary sources and staged paths—from 19th‑century realism to core modernists—with a curated book list.
Poetics

The Poetics of Form: Why Rhyme Matters and Why It Doesn't

2025-02-02
Why rhyme matters—and when it doesn’t: Milton, blank verse vs. the heroic couplet, and how language structure shapes poetic form.
Book Recommendations

A Guide to Its Pioneers and Principles

2024-10-07
Post‑1945 literature’s pioneers and principles: a reader’s guide to postmodernism’s global landscape and who to read now.
Literary Criticism

The Indispensable Value of Reading Literary Classics in Full

2024-08-30
Why summaries can’t replace full texts: how detail, language, and realism build judgment—and what classics teach about society and human nature.
Literary Criticism

The Art of Scale and Dialogue in the Novel

2024-06-25
Length and “unnatural” dialogue are features, not bugs: why novels use scale and crafted speech to build a resonant parallel world.
Self-Improvement

Executive Attention: The Cognitive Key to Sustained Focus

Salem / 2024-05-29
A concise synthesis of what executive attention is, how lapses show up, and how focused practice — gaze anchors, brief daily meditation, protected deep-work blocks, and rest — leverages neuroplasticity to transform fleeting focus into lasting cognitive skill.
Self-Improvement

The "Random Audio Cue" Method: A Scientifically Grounded Approach to Focus

Salem / 2024-05-20
Use randomized micro-break cues and 90/20 cycles to improve focus, memory consolidation, and motivation.
Writing

A Three-Stage Method for Cultivating Writing Proficiency

Salem / 2024-03-15
A structured three-stage practice—volume, patterning, and internalization—to build a durable personal writing style.
Education

Beyond Practice: The Forces Behind Learning Breakthroughs

Salem / 2024-03-11
How concentrated high-intensity effort triggers step-change learning gains by activating primary cognitive forces.