The essay is a form that I've come to value as much as the novel, which is something I couldn't have said ten years ago. The best essays are not shorter versions of longer arguments — they're a different kind of thinking, one that follows an idea associatively rather than logically, that allows the writer to be uncertain, to change direction, to include what doesn't fit.

Montaigne invented the form by writing about himself as a way of writing about everything. His essays are astonishing because the scope keeps expanding — 'On Cannibals' is not really about cannibals; 'On Experience' is not really about experience in any narrow sense. Each essay is a record of a mind in motion.

I recommend starting with the Screech translation. The essays are also available online and many are short enough to read in a single sitting. Start with whatever interests you. The form is fully formed from the first essay.