“Don’t.” That’s the first of Roger Rosenblatt’s More Rules for Aging, and the underpinning of many of the new book's 114 others. Don’t try to catch that 20-something jogger who just left you in the dust on your morning walk. Don’t criticize. Don’t worry about awards or accolades—or, for that matter, regrets. And don’t retreat, especially to Vermont.

Embedded in these wry and often funny maxims is genuine, hard-won wisdom gathered from a life now in its ninth decade of reading, teaching, and perhaps above all, writing. Rosenblatt is here to share some of it with us today.

Roger Rosenblatt is a New York Times guest essayist whose work has been published in 15 languages, the author of five New York Times Notable Books and three best sellers. He has received two George Polk Awards for journalism, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Emmy, and a Peabody. He held the Briggs-Copeland appointment in the teaching of writing at Harvard, has received seven honorary doctorates, the Kenyon Review Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement, and a Fulbright to Ireland, where he played on the Irish international basketball team. He received his PhD in English and American literature and language from Harvard Griffin GSAS in 1968.