The Best Articles in Books
The most useful articles and videos in Books from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Books Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Books by Refind users in 2023 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
I learned a system for remembering everything
Go to https://squarespace.com/mattdavella to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code MATTDAVELLA. Thanks to Squarespace for sponso...
What Really Happened When Agatha Christie Went Missing
Agatha Christie is the most translated writer of all time - her books have been enjoyed in over 100 languages. She’s also been featured in the Guinness World...
Viewfinder - Announcement Trailer
Challenge perception, redefine reality, and reshape the world around you with an instant camera. Viewfinder is a new single player game offering gamers hours...
Discovering Isaiah Berlin (Short version)
Isaiah Berlin was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1909, then part of Tsarist Russia. When he was six, his family moved to Petrograd. There in 1917 he witnessed both Revolutions…
What is ...?
New to Books? These articles make an excellent introduction.
15 of the Best Philosophy Books for Beginners
From classic texts to modern philosophy books for beginners, these are the best philosophy books to fill your shelves with.
How to ...?
How to make more time to read
Many of us would like to have more time to read, but life can get in the way of picking up a book. What are strategies that actually work?
«However, speed reading limits your comprehension of the novel, reducing the accuracy of what you read and hindering how much you retain of the story»
How to Choose Your Next Book
Get the simple two-step filter that I use to help me select what to read to improve my total return on invested reading time. Basically, I combine two ideas that both work together.
«“The more basic knowledge you have … the less new knowledge you have to get.”— Charlie Munger»
How To Remember More Of What You Read
Do you draw a blank trying to remember books you've read? Try these techniques to retain more of what you read.
«Spend less time worrying about meeting your Goodreads reading challenge, and more about picking out books you’re really excited to read.»
How to read more books
Modern life can feel too frantic for books. Use these habit-building strategies to carve out time for the joy of reading
How To Read A Self-Help Book In 90 Minutes
Do you have a lot of self-help books on your reading list? This simple system helps you to read a self-help book in 90 minutes.
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Books on Refind.
Becca Rothfeld: "In the Shallows"
Why do public intellectuals condescend to their readers?
The Low Down on the Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World
From "unabridged" to "slanguage," Madeline Kripke's library is a logophile's heaven (or hell).
George Scialabba’s Prejudice for Progress
“When I started writing this review, I resolved to avoid the mawkish, almost elegiac tone that often seeps into essays about Scialabba. As you can see, I’ve failed.”
‘The good guys don’t always win’: Salman Rushdie on peace, Barbie and what freedom cost him
What can the great myths (and the summer blockbusters) tell us about peace? The writer, who has turned to fables all his life, weighs their wisdom – and considers the price he himself has paid for…
«‘Peace only exists here in pink plastic’ … Barbie, one of this summer’s legends.»
Days of The Jackal: how Andrew Wylie turned serious literature into big business
The long read: Andrew Wylie is agent to an extraordinary number of the planet’s biggest authors. His knack for making highbrow writers very rich helped to define a literary era – but is his reign now…
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Books—all under 10 minutes.
Aldous Huxley's Deep Reflection
Huxley was a very special kind of expert witness to his own unusual states of consciousness, which he actively cultivated in the service of his writing.
These 38 Reading Rules Changed My Life
It’s a weird thing to say, but I guess I’m a professional reader. That’s really what authors are. A book is made of books. “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading; a man will turn…
«great line the Stoics loved—that we never step in the same river twice.»
6 brilliant authors who only wrote one novel
Some authors are known for their prolific output. Far more romantic, however, is the image of the suffering author who dedicated their time to a single masterpiece. Here, we look at six authors who…
A reading guide for grownups who don’t read
Librarian secrets to getting into books for the very first time.
On the Difficulty of Getting Rid of Books
The time had come again. The little white bookshelf in the dining room, two shelves, three feet wide, was full. Overly full. The books were stacked in columns, bottom edges rather than spines show…
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Books.
9 Books That Explain How the World Works
From the rise of information to liberalism and extinction, these 9 books will explain to you how the world works.
«Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigueby Ryan Holiday»
What does a happily ever after look like?
We looked at over 1,400 romance novel covers featured in Publishers Weekly from 2011 to 2023 and evaluated each cover based on its raunchiness (or level of undress), art style, and representation of…
Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy
Reading Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s encyclopedic study of magic is like stumbling into a vast cabinet of curiosities, where toad bones boil water, witches transmit misery through optical darts, and…
The Woman Behind Borges
Maria Kodama's fierce loyalty transformed the legacy of Argentina's most-cherished author, Jorge Luis Borges.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: Summary, Notes, Review
Rating: 8/10. Read this book and your life is guaranteed to be a success. Jokes aside, this collection is really one of the most dense packages of modern wisdom and easily applicable mental models out…
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Books, including:
Guardian Books
News, reviews and author interviews plus tweets from the @Guardian and Observer books team. Support the Guardian today: http://support.theguardian.com
London Review of Books
Europe’s leading magazine of culture and ideas, published every fortnight.
Los Angeles Review of Books
A multimedia literary and cultural arts magazine with an enduring commitment to the written word.

Strand Book Store
Legendary home of 18 miles of new, used & rare books since 1927. Located at Union Square and UWS.📚 Shop online at http://strandbooks.com📕

Powell's Books
The legendary independent bookstore.
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Who are the thought leaders in Books?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Books, including Guardian Books, London Review of Books, Los Angeles Review of Books, Strand Book Store, Powell's Books.
Missing a thought leader? Submit them here
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
300k+ smart people start their day with Refind. To learn something new. To get inspired. To move forward. Our apps have a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Refind free?
Yes, it’s free!
How can I sign up?
Head over to our homepage and sign up by email or with your Twitter or Google account.