How to stop yourself - The Sophist

When I was at sixth-form college, doing English Lit A-Level, our teacher began the course with an idea that has stayed with me. He told us about the plays that Shakespeare had written, and that we would study a couple of them. He told us there were also books about Shakespeare, by literary critics or historians, and so here was a list of those that we could read too. And then he looked at our panic-stricken teenage faces and added, kindly, “But just remember that Shakespeare himself never read a single book about Shakespeare.” It is a notion that has soothed me ever since. (It also gave me the courage to go to the library and read a book about Shakespeare.) After this memory came back to me last night, I started thinking about other soothing notions that help me deal with daunting tasks. It is January, and I am trying to pay off debts, and also to sort out the flat we recently moved into. So in the interest of these two very Januaryish pursuits, I want to share my best ones with you. W

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• Madhu Nathani