The BookJelly Podcast is an audible extension of what I try to do at BookJelly — explore books, ideas and the curious ways they shape how we live and think.
While my reviews dissect what’s on the page, the podcast looks beyond it. The medium allows for detours: a stray idea, a passing contradiction, the unpolished thought that never makes it to print. It goes into the larger questions that never fit neatly into a blog post. It’s where I allow my curiosity to wander without an agenda.
Why Reading Old Books Might Save Your Mind – The BookJelly Podcast
We live in a time where information is endless, but clarity is rare.
You scroll, consume, react… and still feel like you’re going nowhere.
In this episode, I dive into Breaking Bread with the Dead by Alan Jacobs, a deceptively small book that quietly challenges how we read, think, and live.
Jacobs argues for something almost unfashionable today: read old books.
Not for nostalgia. Not for intellectual showmanship. But to deepen your thinking.
Because when you engage with the past, you step outside the noise of the present.
You stop reacting. You start reflecting.
This isn’t a summary. It’s a conversation. About attention, depth, and why most of us are stuck in what Jacobs calls a “frenetic standstill.”
If you’ve ever felt mentally cluttered, distracted, or shallow in your thinking… this one’s for you.
- Why Reading Old Books Might Save Your Mind
- Lost in Thought: Why Learning Doesn't Need a Payoff
- Days at the Morisaki Bookshop Review
- Scott Adams Was Right: Goals Are for Losers | How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
- Why Business Nonfiction Ages So Poorly
- The Millionaire Next Door Review
- Remembering Umberto Eco – The Man Who Knew Too Much
- KLF 2026 and My Reflections
- Scott Adams (1957–2026): The Man Who Saw the Office Clearly
- The Doomsday Machine and the Illusion of Restraint