7 essays by the author of LoTR

The best-known is "On Fairy-Stories," a discussions of the requirements of believable fantasy. It is not about those "Flower fairies and fluttering sprites...that [Tolkien] so disliked as a child." "A Secret Vice" has implications about programming and programmers.
The title essay ("The Monsters and the Critics") sheds light on the unsatisfactory Star Wars prequels.

In the Sahara, the Dogon have built a culture of ceremony and celebration in a world of drought. Architect Aldo Van Eyck's dedication to detail and integrity made him the ideal first interpreter of their elegant economy.

(Louis Kahn's "Silence and Light" appears in this same volume of Via.)

Composer Igor Stravinsky's conversations with Robert Craft have been reduced to a single volume, but I prefer the full-blown series for its full-blown personality. Why not start in the middle with Expositions and Developments? It's short and has plenty of bite. Profoundly grounded in music, this jumble of anecdote, analysis, and criticism reanimates the legends of 20th century art.

Sarah Benhardt was the great actress of her age and the first internationally outrageous star. She had a violent temper, a sublime ego, and insatiable appetites. Did she sleep in a silk-lined coffin (see pl. 27) and was the Prince of Wales one of her lovers?

(Biographers Fizdale and Gold turned to writing when they could no longer perform as duo pianists.)

Writing for non-mathematicians, Hardy illuminates the pattern, harmony, and seriousness of mathematics. This little classic is more vivid for being shot through with a sense of loss; it was written when Hardy's creative powers had deserted him ("no mathematician should ever allow himself to forget that mathematics...is a young man's game.")

Kurosawa painted his mind's-eye-view of the movie Ran down to the striking portraits of not-yet-contracted actors. These wild, colorful pages have little in common with ordinary storyboards.