This Is Water : Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

What is the actual, real-life value of education? In this pointedly observant examination of daily life, David Foster Wallace seeks an answer to this deceptively simple question. In doing so, he notes that, "the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about." In other words, to really understand the world, we have to get out of our own thoughts and learn to see what's right in front of us. With this, he touches on the most basic, most important decision we all make every day--"how" to think about our world. Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of casual humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.

David Foster Wallace is the author of the novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System and the story collections Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Girl With Curious Hair. His nonfiction includes the essay collections Consider the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, McCain's Promise, Everything and More, and (with Mark Costello) Signifying Rappers. He died in 2008.