Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Authors Like
By Lisanne Swart · 6 authors · Curation & Cultural Essay · Updated July 2026
Maria Popova built The Marginalian into one of the internet's most sustained essayistic projects, weaving together science, poetry, art history, and philosophy into arguments built through accumulation and connection rather than linear exposition. Figuring, her book-length extension of that method, moves associatively across centuries of historical figures — astronomers, poets, naturalists — finding unexpected resonances between lives that never touched. The writers below share her cross-disciplinary curiosity and conviction that genuine insight often comes from connection rather than specialization.
Readers who enjoy Maria Popova often turn to Rebecca Solnit for similarly wandering, associative essays connecting personal observation to political and cultural argument, Susan Sontag for rigorous essayistic thinking about culture in an earlier era, Rebecca Elson for science and poetry held together with the same cross-disciplinary wonder, Annie Dillard for meditative attention to the natural world carrying genuine philosophical weight, Alain de Botton for accessible philosophy connecting everyday life to bigger ideas, and Oliver Sacks for scientific precision paired with deep humanistic curiosity.
Similar Voice & Approach
Rebecca Solnit
Solnit shares Popova's associative, wide-ranging essayistic method, moving between memoir, politics, and cultural observation in a way that builds arguments through accumulated connection rather than direct linear reasoning, much like Popova's own weaving of disparate historical material.
Read Solnit for Popova's associative essayistic method applied more directly to personal and political observation. Men Explain Things to Me is essential.
→ Read more about Rebecca SolnitSusan Sontag
Sontag shares Popova's commitment to the essay as a form capable of carrying genuine intellectual weight, applying rigorous, wide-ranging thought to photography and culture decades before Popova brought a similar cross-disciplinary sensibility to online cultural criticism.
Read Sontag for Popova's essayistic rigor rendered in a more austere, earlier register. On Photography is the classic entry point.
→ Read more about Susan SontagRebecca Elson
Elson, an astronomer and poet, shares Popova's conviction that science and poetry belong together rather than in separate disciplinary boxes, holding scientific precision and genuine wonder in the same sentence in a spirit closely related to Popova's own cross-disciplinary curation.
Read Elson for science and poetry held together with the same cross-disciplinary wonder Popova brings to her own curatorial essays. A Responsibility to Awe is essential.
→ Read more about Rebecca ElsonAnnie Dillard
Dillard shares Popova's gift for sustained, patient attention used as a doorway into much larger philosophical questions, though her lens is a single creek-side landscape rather than the sweeping historical and scientific range Popova draws on across The Marginalian and Figuring.
Read Dillard for meditative attention to the natural world carrying genuine philosophical weight. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is essential.
→ Read more about Annie DillardAlain de Botton
De Botton shares Popova's project of connecting philosophy and cultural history to everyday concerns, translating dense ideas into genuinely accessible essayistic prose that treats ordinary experience — travel, work, relationships — as worthy of serious philosophical attention.
Read de Botton for accessible philosophy connecting everyday life to bigger ideas, in a spirit closely aligned with Popova's own curatorial project. The Art of Travel is essential.
Oliver Sacks
Sacks shares Popova's combination of scientific precision and deep humanistic curiosity, treating neurological case studies with the same wonder and cross-disciplinary generosity Popova brings to the historical figures she curates across science, art, and philosophy.
Read Sacks for scientific precision paired with deep humanistic curiosity, applied to neurology rather than cultural curation. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is essential.
→ Read more about Oliver SacksMore from the shelf
Frequently asked questions about authors like Maria Popova
Who should I read if I like Maria Popova?
Readers who enjoy Maria Popova often turn to Rebecca Solnit for similarly wandering, associative essays connecting personal observation to political and cultural argument, Susan Sontag for rigorous essayistic thinking about culture in an earlier era, Rebecca Elson for science and poetry held together with the same cross-disciplinary wonder, Annie Dillard for meditative attention to the natural world carrying genuine philosophical weight, Alain de Botton for accessible philosophy connecting everyday life to bigger ideas, and Oliver Sacks for scientific precision paired with deep humanistic curiosity.
Is Rebecca Elson similar to Maria Popova?
Yes, Elson, an astronomer and poet, shares Popova's conviction that science and poetry belong together rather than in separate disciplinary boxes. Her collection A Responsibility to Awe holds scientific precision and genuine wonder in the same sentence, in a spirit closely related to Popova's own cross-disciplinary curation across The Marginalian and Figuring.
What should I read after Figuring?
Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me offers Popova's associative essayistic method applied more directly to personal and political observation. Rebecca Elson's A Responsibility to Awe shares Popova's cross-disciplinary wonder about science and poetry. For accessible philosophy connecting everyday life to bigger ideas, Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel is essential.
What is Maria Popova's Marginalian about?
The Marginalian, formerly known as Brain Pickings, is Maria Popova's long-running essayistic project weaving together science, poetry, art history, and philosophy into arguments built through accumulation and connection rather than linear exposition. It has become one of the internet's most sustained cross-disciplinary cultural criticism projects.
