The Scholiast
a scholiast reads
with notes in the margins
I read, map and track the literature for your project, so your time goes into thinking instead of drowning in PDFs.
Most AI tools just hand you a pile of papers and a summary. They're built to fetch evidence, not to read a qualitative project. They miss the theory it works in, the argument it's making, the conversation it wants to join. That is the work here.
The work
Start small with a single reading, go deep with a full review, or keep me on to follow your field over time. Whatever fits where you are right now.
Send me your project and up to two key texts. For each one I write a proper reading: what it really argues, how it does it, where it sits in the debate, what it gets right and where it falls short, and how you might use it in your own work. Not a summary. The notes you'd take yourself if you had the time. (More texts, a little extra each.)
Tell me your topic and where you think you're heading. I map out the whole conversation for you: who matters, how the arguments group together, where the gaps are that your work could fill, and what you still need to read. It's the groundwork a chapter or a grant proposal really rests on.
Every couple of weeks I go looking for what's new around your project and send you the few things that actually matter, with a few honest lines on why each one is worth your attention. So you never again find out too late about the paper everyone starts citing.
A sample
A short excerpt, on a well-known public text, so you can see how I read before trusting me with your own work.
Sample reading · excerpt
Fraser, N. (1990). Social Text, 25/26, 56–80.
The difference
A summary tells you what a book says. A reading tells you what to do with it. Same text, two very different things:
A generic summary
"Fraser argues the public sphere had exclusions. She introduces 'counterpublics.' Women and minorities were left out. An important article in political theory."
Repeats the content. Anyone with the PDF gets it. No judgement, no stakes, useful to no one in particular.
A critical reading
"She turns exclusion into something built into the public sphere, not a flaw in it. That gives you the footing to treat digital counterpublics as normal, not as fragmentation. And since she never saw algorithms, the thing she doesn't say is exactly where your work comes in."
It takes a side and ties the text to what you're writing. Then it shows you the opening your own work can fill.
Who it's for
Anyone doing serious research is welcome. But the prices make the most sense when there's some funding behind the work, when the reading has to be solid, and when someone's time is genuinely worth saving.
How it goes
Tell me what you're working on
Just describe it in your own words and send a few of the texts at the heart of it. Nothing formal.
First reading in about four days
You read it and tell me what feels right and what doesn't. I adjust to how you think, so the next one fits you better.
Keep going if it helps
Go deeper with a full review, or keep me on to follow your field. No contracts. You stay only as long as it's useful.
Questions
A reading usually takes about four days. A full literature review takes one to two weeks, depending on how big it is. The radar comes every couple of weeks. If you're on a tight deadline, just ask, I can often move faster.
Yes, one round of changes is always included. The first piece is really about getting on the same page: you tell me what works and what doesn't, and everything after that fits you better.
Completely. I never share or reuse your topic, your sources or your ideas, and I'll delete everything once we're done if you'd like. Your work stays yours.
No, and I won't. I read and organise the literature so you can write from a clearer place, but the writing is always yours. I don't write theses, papers or grants for people. It's help with the reading, nothing that crosses a line.
A postdoctoral researcher in the social sciences, based in Europe. I keep my name out of it on purpose, so that what you're judging is the reading itself and not a CV. Look at the sample above and decide from there.
By invoice, once we've agreed on what you need. Nothing upfront. And while I'm just getting started, the first few researchers pay half.
Begin
Send me one project and a few texts. In about four days, you'll see whether this kind of reading is useful for your work.