This Is Water
Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
by David Foster Wallace
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“I’ve listened more than 100 times to the audio and now I’ll add this method of consumption to one of the most important speeches ever given or at least ever heard by me.”
Source →“I’ve listened more than 100 times to the audio and now I’ll add this method of consumption to one of the most important speeches ever given or at least ever heard by me.”
Source →“I’ve listened more than 100 times to the audio and now I’ll add this method of consumption to one of the most important speeches ever given or at least ever heard by me.”
Source →Recommended by 5 notable people, including Nat Eliason and James Clear
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Should I read this?
Recommended by 7 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books, Philosophy, and Psychology.
Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life, during a commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College. The speech is reprinted for the first time in book form in THIS IS WATER. How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous Adult, life unconsciously How do we get ourselves out of the foregroun...
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Why recommended
Recommended by 7 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books, Philosophy, and Psychology.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Nat Eliason
Author and entrepreneur
“I’ve listened more than 100 times to the audio and now I’ll add this method of consumption to one of the most important speeches ever given or at least ever heard by me.”
Appears In
Not sure if this is the right fit?
Consider The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. Recommended by 8 sources.
“Soft-spoken, heavily illustrated fable built from short dialogues and watercolor sketches. Each spread pairs a spare line of text with a loose drawing, so the pleasure is visual and aphoristic rather than narrative; readers collect felt-true sentences more than plot. Most useful when you want quick consolations, a prompt for conversation with a child, or a pause during a rough day. Limiting if you want sustained argument, concrete advice, or tightly plotted storytelling: the repetition of gentleness can feel sentimental or thin after a while.”
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Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
This Is Water
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