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Reading James Baldwin is like listening to the blues, and yet more. He is able to take the pain of his subject (which is frequently himself) and make you laugh and cry at the same time. Beautiful prose, sharp satire, unflinching honesty, dry wit, long suffering compassion.

"One had, in short, to come into contact with an alien culture in order to understand that culture was not a community basket weaving project, nor yet an act of God; was something neither desireable nor undesireable in itself, being inevitable, being nothing more or less than the recorded and visible effects on a body of people of the vicissitudes with which they have been forced to deal. And their great men are revealed as simply another of these vicissitudes, even if, quite against their will, the brief battle of their great men with them has left them richer."

• From Equal in Paris.

C.S. Lewis, unlike so many Christian writers, never loses sight of what these earth shattering truths are like to live with day to day. I think everyone should read "Transposition" at least once. I will be referring back to and re-reading these for the rest of my life -- this side of glory.

A beautiful and amusing little miracle of a book. E.B. White could warm the coldest heart. The only word that hasn't aged well is "Indian."

If you aren't tickled by a swan staying at the ritz then I don't know what to tell you.

"Lord! What a strange world in which a man cannot remain unique even by taking the trouble to go mad!"

Will be chewing on this one for awhile. Quite a strange read, like some kind of absurd dream. Yet it is absurdly relevant over a hundred years later. My first Chesterton and not my last.

E.B. White proves that great writing can eschew all pretensions of greatness. A beautifully crafted tale about friendship (and writing) that exudes love and kindness from every page. This was my second time reading this as an adult, and I don't think it will be my last. Much like his "Elements of Style," this is a book I return to when I get lost in the sea of ambitious and clever fiction. Going to read it to my kids as much as they can stand it.

My blog post about writing lessons gleaned form Charlotte's Web: write.as/hdansin/the-elements-of-miracle

Dear Mr. Kappus,

It is with great envy that I read these letters. I wish I had the correspondence of such a wise and creative poet to guide my endeavors.

And yet, thank you for being brave enough to ask Rilke for help, that the rest of us can have this gift to read and find inspiration and hope in different worlds and cultures, which no matter how different or developed, will always attempt to starve and dismiss poets and their art.