#1 in Philosophy
This Is Water
- 142
- Pages
- about 2.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
A commencement speech about attention and compassion, “This Is Water” doubles as a brief, serious guide to ordinary adult life. David Foster Wallace delivered it at Kenyon College in 2005, and in book form it is very short. Some readers go back to it regularly as a reminder of how to live; others find that the author’s death shadows the advice and makes it painful to read, while still admiring the writing.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life is an essay by David Foster Wallace. The text originates from a commencement speech Wallace gave at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005. The essay was published in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 and in 2009 its format was stretched by Little, Brown and Company to fill 138 pages for a book publication. A transcript of the speech circulated online as early as June 2005.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.9 across 160 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 52% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Philosophy average of 8.0. That is how 8.5 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.4 | 17 | 11% |
| Hardcover | 8.9 | 143 | 89% |
Frequently asked
How long is This Is Water?
It has 142 pages — shorter than 75% of the ranked books in Philosophy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Philosophy — with scores between 7.9 and 8.4, closest to this book.
