“I cannot live without books.”
—Thomas Jefferson
Disclosure: Most of the links below are affiliate links, which means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.
2022
NO. Librerias (Spanish Edition) by Jorge Carrion
NO. El infinito en un junco / Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World (Spanish Edition) by Irene Vallejo
NO. Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament by Michael A. Singer
NO. The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Canto Classics) by C. S. Lewis
NO. The Strange Case of Rachel K by Rachel Kushner
NO. The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 by Rachel Kushner
NO. The Mars Room: A Novel by Rachel Kushner
NO. The Complete Essays of Montaigne by Michel de Montaigne and Donald M. Frame
NO. Lacan: A Beginner’s Guide (Beginner’s Guide) by Lionel Bailly
NO. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
NO. Bluets by Maggie Nelson
NO. The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial/i> by Maggie Nelson<
NO. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
NO. Montaigne by Stefan Zweig
NO. A Summer with Montaigne: On the Art of Living Well by Antoine Compagnon
NO. Montaigne: A Very Short Introduction William M. Hamlin
NO. How to Read Montaigne by Terence Cave
NO. Notes on “Camp” by by Susan Sontag
NO. How to Live: 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion by Derek Sivers
NO. The Fish that Ate the Whale: the Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen
NO. Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
NO. Mating in Captivity: In Search of Erotic Intelligence by Esther Perel
NO. The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity by Esther Perel
NO. The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nahesi Coates
NO. Debunking Howard Zinn by Mary Gabar
NO. A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
NO. How to Keep an Open Mind: An Ancient Guide to Thinking like a Skeptic (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers Series) Audible Logo Audib by Sextus Empiricus
NO. How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
NO. Dubliners by James Joyce
NO. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante
NO. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
NO. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
NO. Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel, and Peter C Brown
NO. Letters to a Young Poet With the Letters to Rilke from the ”Young Poet” by (Author), Franz Xaver Kappus (Author), Damion Searls (Author)
NO. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
NO. Al-Ghazzali on Knowing Yourself and God by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
NO. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
NO. The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation and Commentary by Robert Alter
NO. A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell
NO. Queer Mormon Theology: An Introduction by Blaire Ostler
NO. Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration by Cheryl L. Bruno, Joe Steve Swick (III), and Ni̤cholas S. Literski
NO. A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell
NO. The Three Laws of Performance by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan
NO. Atomic Habits by James Clear
NO. Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
NO. Job: A New Translation by by Edward L. Greenstein
NO. The Book of Job by Anonymous, Stephen Mitchell (Translator)
NO. Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
NO. The Trial by Franz Kafka
NO. The Metamorphosis: A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky by Franz Kafka
NO. The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams by David S. Brown
NO. Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church, and What the Bible Has to Say by Preston Sprinkle and David C. Cook
NO. People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue by Preston Sprinkle
NO. The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity by Cynthia Bourgeault
NO. Ultralearning by Scott H. Young
NO. Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential by Tiago Forte
NO. The Book of Psalms: A Translation With Commentary by Robert Alter
NO. The Art of Biblical Poetry by Robert Alter
NO. A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell
NO. Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us by Simon Critchley
NO. The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind – A New Perspective on Christ and His Message by Cynthia Bourgeault
NO. The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
LINK
NO. Beyond Good & Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future by Friedrich Nietzsche
NO. Day: A Novel by Elie Wiesel
NO. Dawn by Elie Wiesel
NO. Night by Elie Wiesel
NO. Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem (Contemporary Studies in Scripture) by Michael Austin
NO. Macbeth (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. The Book of Job by Raymond P. Scheindlin (Editor, Translator)
NO. The Book of Job by Thomas Moore (Commentary)
NO. The Book of Job by Anonymous, Stephen Mitchell (Translator)
NO. Answer to Job: (From Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung) by C. G. Jung
NO. King Lear (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. Richard III (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. Henry IV ,Part 2 (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. Henry IV ,Part 1 (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. Macbeth (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. Othello (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. King Lear (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. Personal History by Katharine Graham
NO. Tyrants: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
NO. All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward (Author), Carl Bernstein (Author)
NO. Iago: The Strategies of Evil by Harold Bloom
NO. Iago: The Strategies of Evil by Harold Bloom
NO. Macbeth: A Dagger of the Mind by Harold Bloom
NO. Macbeth: A Dagger of the Mind by Harold Bloom
NO. Lear: The Great Image of Authority by Harold Bloom
NO. Lear: The Great Image of Authority by Harold Bloom
NO. Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton
NO. Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1 (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by by Marcel Proust (Author), Lydia Davis (Editor, Translator, Introduction), Christopher Prendergast (Editor)
NO. Prometheus Bound (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Aeschylus (Author), James Scully (Translator), C. John Herington (Translator)
NO. The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Lee Levin
NO. Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace by D. T. Max
NO. A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell by by Stephen Larsen (Author), Robin Larsen (Author)
NO. Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction by Brian Dillon
NO. Coriolanus (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
NO. Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark
NO. The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty
NO. Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser
NO. The Price of Salt, or Carol by Patricia Highsmith
NO. he Price of Salt, or Carol by Patricia Highsmith
NO. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
NO. How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture by Dan Kimbell
NO. Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith by Richard Bradford
NO. Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr
NO. Q’s Legacy: A Delightful Account of a Lifelong Love Affair with Books by Helene Hanff
NO. The Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an Act of Love by Thomas Moore
NO. Cheatingland: The Secret Confessions of Men Who Stray by Anonymous
NO. Whore of New York: A Confession by AUTHOR
NO. D. H. Lawrence in 90 Minutes: (Great Writers in 90 Minutes Series) by Paul Strathern
NO. Homo Irrealis: The Would-Be Man Who Might Have Been: Essays by André Aciman
NO. The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
NO. Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell
NO. The Rumi Prescription: How an Ancient Mystic Poet Changed My Modern Manic Life by Melody Moezzi
NO. The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life by Allison Fallon
NO. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
NO. Disturber of the Peace: The Life of H. L. Mencken by William Manchester
NO. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
NO. Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray by Helen Fisher
NO. Alcestis: A Play by Euripides and Ted Hughes
NO. The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts by Milan Kundera
NO. Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts by Milan Kundera
NO. The Art of the Novel (Perennial Classics) by Milan Kundera
NO. Monogamy by Adam Phillips
NO. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
NO. Blood, Guts, and Fire: The Gospel According to Leviticus by Rob Bell
LINK
NO. A Most Peculiar Book: The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible by Kristin Swenson
NO. 52 Blue (Kindle Single) by Leslie Jamison
NO. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
NO. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
NO. The Mars Room: A Novel by Rachel Kushner
NO. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
NO. Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate by Daniel Mendelsohn
25. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
24. Sappho: A New Translation by Sappho (Author), Mary Barnard (Translator), Dudley Fitts (Foreword)
23. Of Solids and Surds: Notes for Noël Sturgeon, Marilyn Hacker, Josh Lukin, Mia Wolff, Bill Stribling, and Bob White (Why I Write) by Samuel R. Delany
22. On Inequality by Harry G. Frankfurt
21. On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt
20. Bhagavadgita (Dover Thrift Editions) by Sir Edwin Arnold (Translator)
19. Inadvertent (Why I Write) by Karl Ove Knausgaard
18. Inadvertent (Why I Write) by Karl Ove Knausgaard
17. Inadvertent (Why I Write) by Karl Ove Knausgaard
16. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
15. Exodus for Normal People: A Guide to the Story—and History—of the Second Book of the Bible (The Bible for Normal People) by Peter Enns
14. Death Of A Salesman, Certain Private Conversations In Two Acts And A Requiem by Arthur Miller
13. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963 by Robert Dallek
12. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
11. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
10. George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by Davis L. Roll
9. The Writer’s Practice: The Writer’s Practice by John Warner
8. A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality by Ken Wilbur
7. The Hopkins Touch: Harry Hopkins and the Forging of the Alliance to Defeat Hitler by David L. Roll
6. The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst by David Nasaw
5. Macbeth (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
4. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
3. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
2. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
1. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
2021
206. In My Mosque by M. O. Yuksel
205. The Boy Who Would Be King by Ryan Holiday
204. The Life of the Buddha by Heather Sanche
203. On My Way to a Happy Life by Deepak Chopra and Kristina Tracy
202. Tao Te Ching: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
201. The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation by Stephen Mitchell
200. A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell
199. Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness by Stephen Mitchell
198. The Book of Job by Thomas Moore
LINK
197. The Book of Job by Raymond P. Scheindlin
196. The Book of Job by Stephen Mitchell
195. The Buried Book: The Loss and Recovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh by David Damrosch
194. Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
193. The First Christmas: A Story of New Beginnings by Stephen Mitchell
LINK
192. The Bible With and Without Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler
191. A History of the Bible by John Barton
190. Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis
189. Ten Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can’t, Because He Needs the Job) by Oliver Thomas
188. Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God by Brian Zahnd
187. God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson
186. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by Brandon J O’Brien and E. Richards
185. Cross Vision by Gregory A. Boyd
184. The Evolution of Adam by Peter Enns
183.
How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers―and Why That’s Great News by Peter Enns
182. The Sin of Certainty by Peter Enns
181. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book by Rob Bell and Don Golden
180. The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It by AUTHOR
179. Exodus for Normal People: A Guide to the Story—and History—of the Second Book of the Bible (The Bible for Normal People) by Peter Enns
178. A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace by Brian Zahnd
177. The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context (The Lost World Series, Volume 6) by John H. Walton
176. The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate (The Lost World Series, Volume 5) by John H. Walton
175. The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate (The Lost World Series, Volume 1) by John H. Walton
174. The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) by Karen Armstrong
173. The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (The Lost World Series, Volume 2) by John H. Walton
172. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now by James L. Kugel
171. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by أبو حامد الغزالي
170. The Communist Manifesto (Signet Classics) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
169. Paradise Lost by John Milton
168. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by أبو حامد الغزالي
167. Macbeth (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
166. What Is the Bible?: How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything by Rob Bell
165. Much Ado About Nothing (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
164. Al-Ghazali’s Path to Sufism: His Deliverance from Error (al-Munqidh min al-Dalal) by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (Author), R. J. McCarthy SJ (Translator)
163. Parmenides and Empedocles: The Fragments in Verse Translation by Stanley Lombardo
162. Fragments (Penguin Classics) (English and Greek Edition) by Heraclitus and Beooks Haxton
161. Romeo and Juliet (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
160. Religion as We Know: An Origin Story by Jack Miles
159. Romeo and Juliet (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
158. Romeo and Juliet (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
157. Politica by Johannes Althusius
156. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
155. Romeo and Juliet (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
154. Macbeth (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
153. There Is No God and Mary Is His Mother: Rediscovering Religionless Christianity by Thomas Cathcart
152. Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham
151. Macbeth (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
150. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
149. Othello (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
148. The Essential Leviathan: A Modernized Edition by Thomas Hobbes
147. Macbeth (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
146. Macbeth (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
145. The City of the Sun: A Poetical Dialogue (La Città del Sole: Dialogo Poetico) (Biblioteca Italiana) (Volume 2) by Tommaso Campanella
144. The Cod’s Tale: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World! by Mark Kurlansky
143. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw
142. Othello (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
141. Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 1) by Frank Herbert
140. King Lear (The Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
139. Oedipus the King (Plays for Performance Series)( by Sophocles and Nicholas Rudall
138. Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank Abagnale
137. Oedipus the King (Plays for Performance Series)( by Sophocles and Nicholas Rudall
136. King Lear (Pelican Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
135. The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Library by AUTHOR
134. The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King
133. Renaissance Woman: The Life of Vittoria Colonna by Ramie Targoff
132. The Great Gatsby: The Only Authorized Edition by F. Scott Fitzgerald
131. Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave by Ryan Holiday
130. Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes
129. Mellon: An American Life by David Cannadine
128. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
127. The Lusiads (Oxford World’s Classics) by Luïs Vaz de Camoes and Landeg White
126. Love People, Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
125. Werner Erhard The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of EST by William Warren Bartley III
124. How to Love (Mindfulness Essentials) by Thich Nhat Hanh
123. St. Francis of Assisi (Dover Philosophical Classics) by G.K. Chesterton
122. The Life of St. Teresa of Avila by Herself (Penguin Classics) by Teresa of Avila and J. M. Cohen
121. Morgan: American Financier by Jean Strouse
120. Prometheus Bound (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by by Aeschylus (Author), James Scully (Translator), C. John Herington (Translator)
119. Euripides’ Bacchae: A Dual Language Edition by Euripides and Ian Johnston
118. There Is No God and He Is Always With You: A Search for God in Odd Places by Brad Warner
117. Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day by Jay Shetty
116. The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer
115. The Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God Retold in Simplified English by Edward Viljoen
114. The Bhagavad Gita: Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War by Barbara Stoler Miller
113. Early Mormonism and the Magic World View by D. Michael Quinn
112. Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet by John G. Turner
111. Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier by Benjamin E. Park
110. Al-Ghazzali On the Treatment of the Lust of the Stomach and the Sexual Organs by Abû Hâmid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazâlî
107. Al-Ghazzali On Knowing Yourself and God by Abû Hâmid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazâlî
106. Al-Ghazzali His Psychology of the Greater Struggle by Laleh Bakhtiar
105. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by ابو حامد محمد بن محمد الغزالى
104. كيمياء السعادة (Arabic Edition) by ابو حامد محمد بن محمد الغزالى
103. The Alchemy of Happiness (Sources and Studies in World History) by by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali (Author), Elton D. Daniel (Author), Claud Field (Author)
102. The Alchemy of Happiness (Sources and Studies in World History) by by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali (Author), Elton D. Daniel (Author), Claud Field (Author)
101. A History of the American People by Paul Johnson
100. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
99. Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
98. The Book of the Courtier (Classics S) by Baldesar Castiglione (Author), George Bull (Translator, Introduction)
97. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
96. Three Early Modern Utopias: Thomas More: Utopia / Francis Bacon: New Atlantis / Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines (Oxford World’s Classics) by by Thomas More (Author), Francis Bacon (Author), Henry Neville (Author), Susan Bruce (Editor)
95. Grant by Ron Chernow
94. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
93. The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art Kindle E by Noah Charney and Ingrid Rowland
92. The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World’s Classics) by by Giorgio Vasari (Author), Julia Conway Bondanella (Translator), Peter Bondanella (Translator)
91. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
90. The Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics) by Simon Brodbeck and Laurie L. Patton
89. The Essential Writings of Machiavelli (Modern Library Classics) by Niccolo Machiavelli and Peter Constantine
88. Medea (Plays for Performance Series) by Euripides and Nicholas Rudall
87. Electra (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Sophocles and Anne Carson
86. Women of Trakhis: A New Translation by Sophocles by Sophocles and Robert Bagg
85. Elektra: A New Translation by Sophocles by Sophocles and Robert Bagg
84. Philoktetes: A New Translation by Sophocles and James Scully
83. Pico della Mirandola: Oration on the Dignity of Man: A New Translation and Commentary by Francesco Borghesi, et al.
82. Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam: On Copia of Words and Ideas by Erasmus by Donald King and David Rix
81. The Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics) by Juan Mascaró and Simon Brodbeck
80. Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
79. The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali (Library of Arabic Literature, 68) by Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī and Mario Kozah
78. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
77. The Praise of Folly: Updated Edition (Princeton Classics, 91) by Desiderius Erasmus and Anthony Grafton
76. Practical Yoga Nidra: A 10-Step Method to Reduce Stress, Improve Sleep, and Restore Your Spirit by Scott Moore
75. The Bhagavad Gita (Easwaran’s Classics of Indian Spirituality Book 1) by Eknath Easwaran
74. Columbus on Himself by Felipe Fernández-Armesto
73. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
72. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
71. The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
70. Erasmus: The Education of a Christian Prince with the Panegyric for Archduke Philip of Austria (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) by Erasmus and Lisa Jardine
69. Hector and the Secrets of Love: A Novel (Hector’s Journeys) by Francois Lelord and Lorenzo Garcia
68. Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord, James Clamp, et al.
67. Le Morte D’Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table (Signet Classics) by Keith Baines, Thomas Malory , et al.
66. Hinduism and Buddhism by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
65. Bhagavadgita (Dover Thrift Editions) by Sir Edwin Arnold
64. True Yoga: Practicing With the Yoga Sutras for Happiness & Spiritual Fulfillment by Jennie Lee
63. A Seeker’s Guide to the Yoga Sutras: Modern Reflections on the Ancient Journey by Ram Bhakt
62. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage
61. Reclaiming Epicurus: Penguin Special by Luke Slattery
60. Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering by Rob Bell and Don Golden
59. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell
58. Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality by Rob Bell
57. Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation by Stephen Mitchell
56. The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size by Julia Cameron
55. The Creative Life: True Tales of Inspiration by Julia Cameron
54. What We Talk About When We Talk About God by Rob Bell
53. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell
52. How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living by Rob Bell
51. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book by Rob Bell and Don Golden
50. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book by Rob Bell and Don Golden
49. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book by Rob Bell and Don Golden
48. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book by Rob Bell and Don Golden
47. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book by Rob Bell and Don Golden
46. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book by Rob Bell and Don Golden
45. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Signet Classics) by Frederick Douglass
44. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
43. The Canterbury Tales (Modern Library) by Geoffrey Chaucer (Author), Burton Raffel (Translator), John Miles Foley (Introduction)
42. Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls, Paul Boehmer, et al.
41. Troilus and Criseyde (Oxford World’s Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer and Barry Windeatt
40. Antigonick by Anne Carson
39. Antigone (Oberon Classics) by Anne Carson
38. I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy by Hafiz and Daniel Ladinsky
37. Antigone (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Sophocles and Richard Emil Braun
36. Antigone (Wisconsin Studies in Classics) by Sophocles and David Mulroy
35. The Downfall of the Famous: New Annotated Edition of the Fates of Illustrious Men (Italica Press Medieval & Renaissance Texts) by Giovanni Boccaccio and Louis Brewer Hall
34. Emerson: The Mind on Fire by Robert D. Richardson, Jr.
33. Antigone: A New Translation by Sophocles and Robert Bagg
32. Oedipus at Colonus (Wisconsin Studies in Classics) by Sophocles (Author), David Mulroy (Translator)
31. The Way of Forgiveness: A Story About Letting Go by Stephen Mitchell
30. Oedipus at Kolonos: A New Translation by Sophocles and Robert Bagg
29. On Famous Women (Medieval & Renaissance Texts) by Giovanni Boccaccio and Guido A. Guarino
28. Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us by Simon Critchley by Simon Critchley
27. Bacchae (The Norton Library) by Euripides (Author), Aaron Poochigian (Translator)
26. Bakkhai by Anne Carson and Euripides
25. Bakkhai (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by by Euripides (Author), Reginald Gibbons (Translator), Charles Segal (Introduction)
24. Bacchae by Euripides (Author), Robin Robertson (Author)
23. Bacchae by Euripides and Paul Woodruff
22. The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus and David Greig
21. The Decameron: Selected Tales (Dover Thrift Editions) by Giovanni Boccaccio and Bob Blaisdell
20. Euripides: Suppliant Women (Aris and Phillips Classical Texts) by James Morwood
19. The Phoenician Women (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Euripides (Author), Peter Burian (Translator), Brian Swann (Translator)
18. Seven Against Thebes (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by by Aeschylus (Author), Helen H. Bacon (Author), Anthony Hecht (Translator)
17. Of what is History capable?: Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 17 December 2015 by Patrick Boucheron
16. Two Faces of Oedipus: Sophocles’ “Oedipus Tyrannus” and Seneca’s “Oedipus” by Sophocles (Author), Seneca (Author), Frederick Ahl (Editor, Translator)
15. Hamlet (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
14. The Essential Petrarch (Hackett Classics) by Petrarch and Peter Hainsworth
13. Hamlet (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
12. Othello (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
11. Othello (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
10. Much Ado About Nothing (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
9. Oedipus the King: A New Translation by Sophocles and Robert Bagg
8. Oedipus Rex (Wisconsin Studies in Classics) by Sophocles and David Mulroy
7. King Lear (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
6. King Lear (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
5. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
5. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
3. Myth: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Robert A. Segal
2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
1. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan, et al.
2020
224. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman
Bushman’s Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
223. How to Give: An Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Seneca and James S. Romm
Romm’s How to Give
222. Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Headley’s Beowulf
221. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo by J. R. R. Tolkien
Tolkien’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Pearl; [and] Sir Orfeo
220. How to Be Content: An Ancient Poet’s Guide for an Age of Excess (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Horace and Stephen Harrison
Harrison’s How to Be Content
219. Antigone (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Sophocles and Richard Emil Braun
Braun’s Antigone
218. Oedipus at Colonus (Wisconsin Studies in Classics) by Sophocles and David Mulroy
Mulroy’s translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus
217. Oedipus Rex (Wisconsin Studies in Classics) by Sophocles and David Mulroy
Mulroy’s translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex
216. The King Within: Accessing the King in the Male Psyche by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette
Moore and Gillete’s The King Within
215. The Qur’an and the Life of Excellence by Sultan Abdulhameed
Abdulhameed’s The Qur’an and the Life of Excellence
214. The Qur’an: What Everyone Needs to Know by Jane McAuliffe
McAuliffe’s The Qur’an: What Everyone Needs to Know
213. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel
Finkel’s The Stranger in the Woods
212. The Way of Myth: Talking with Joseph Campbell by Joseph Campbell
Campbell’s The Way of Myth
211. Meister Ekhart’s Book of Secrets: Meditations on Letting Go and Finding True Freedom by Jon M. Sweeney and Mark S. Burrows
Sweeney and Burrows’ translation of Meister Ekhart’s Book of Secrets
210. The Travels of Ibn Battuta: in the Near East, Asia and Africa, 1325-1354 (Dover Books on Travel, Adventure) by Ibn Battuta and Samuel Lee
Lee’s translation of Ibn Battuta’s The Travels of Ibn Battuta
209. First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process by Robert D. Richardson and John Banville
Richardson and Banville’s First We Read, Then We Write
208. The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation by Thomas Keating
Keating’s The Human Condition
207. The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation by Thomas Keating
Keating’s The Human Condition
206. Animus and Anima: Two Essays by Emma Jung
Emma Jung’s Animus and Anima
205. An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in conversation with Michael Toms by Michael Toms
Toms’ An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in conversation with Michael Toms
204. Dante: Monarchy (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) by Dante and Prue Shaw
Shaw’s translation of Dante’s Monarchy
203. The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder by Richard Rohr O.F.M.
Rohr’s The Wisdom Pattern
202. The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah
Shah’s The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin
201. The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah
Shah’s The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin
200. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ by Joseph Smith
LINK
Smith’s translation of The Book of Mormon
199. Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self by Richard Rohr
Rohr’s Immortal Diamond
198. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others (Oxford World’s Classics) by Stephanie Dalley
Dalley’s Myths from Mesopotamia
197. The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our “Correct” Beliefs by Peter Enns
Enn’s The Sin of Certainty
196. The Zimzum of Love: A New Way of Understanding Marriage by Rob Bell and Kristen Bell
Rob and Kristen Bell’s The Zimzum of Love
195. This Is It: and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience by Alan Watts
Watts’ This Is It
194. Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are by Jack Kornfield
Kornifield’s Bringing Home the Dharma
193. The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
Payne and Payene’s The Dead Are Arising
192. Paradiso by Dante
LINK
Dante’s Paradiso
191. The Buddha Is Still Teaching: Contemporary Buddhist Wisdom by Jack Kornfield
Kornfield’s The Buddha Is Still Teaching
190. The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety by Alan Watts
Watts’ The Wisdom of Insecurity
189. Everything Is Spiritual: Who We Are and What We’re Doing Here by Rob Bell
Bell’s Everything Is Spiritual
188. What Is the Bible: How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything by Rob Bell
Bell’s What Is the Bible
187. Purgatorio by Dante
LINK
Dante’s Purgatorio
186. Inferno by Dante
LINK
Dante’s Inferno
185. The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus by Marvin Meyer
Meyer’s The Gospel of Thomas
184. De Vita Nuova (Oxford World’s Classics) by Dante and Mark Musa
Musa’s translation of Dante’s De Vita Nuova
183. Teachings of the Buddha by Jack Kornfield
Kornfield’s Teachings of the Buddha
182. Dante: De Vulgari Eloquentia (Cambridge Medieval Classics) by Dante and Steven Botterill
Botterill’s translation of Dante’s De Vulgari Eloquentia
181. Treatise on Law (Hackett Classics) by Thomas Aquinas and Richard J. Regan S. J.
Regan’s Treatise on Law
180. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Sappho and Anne Carson
Carson’s If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
179. The Dance of Shiva: Fourteen Essays by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Coomaraswamy’s The Dance of Shiva
178. The Recognition of Sakuntula: A Play in Seven Acts (Oxford World’s Classics) by Kalidasa and W. J. Johnson
Johnson’s translation of Kalidasa’s The Recognition of Sakuntula
177. Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Holiday and Hanselman’s Lives of the Stoics
176. Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell
Campbell’s Myths of Light
175. The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell (Author), Phil Cousineau (Editor), Stuart L. Brown (Foreword)
Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey
174. A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong
Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth
173. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien
Richards and O’Brien’s Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes
172. On Kingship to the King of Cyprus by Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas’ On Kingship to the King of Cyprus
171. The Qur’an: A New Translation by Thomas Cleary
Cleary’s The Qur’an: A New Translation
170. The Song of the Cid (Penguin Classics) A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text by Maria Rosa Menocal and Burton Raffel
Maria Rosa Menocal and Burton Raffel’s The Song of the Cid
169. Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville
Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor
168. The Meaning of Happiness: The Quest for Freedom of the Spirit in Modern Psychology and the Wisdom of the East by Alan Watts
Watts’ The Meaning of Happiness
167. Psychotherapy East and West by Alan Watts
Watts’ Psychotherapy East and West
166. Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation by Alan Watts
Watts’ Still the Mind
165. In My Own Way: An Autobiography by Alan Watts
Watts’ In My Own Way
164. The Love Poems of Rumi Translated by Nader Khalili (Timeless Rumi) by Rumi and Nader Khalili
Khalili’s The Love Poems of Rumi
163. The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who Your Are by Alan Watts
Watts’ The Book
162. For Now (Why I Write) by Eileen Myles
Myles’ For Now
161. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Chernow’s Washington
160. Bewildered: Love Poems from Translation of Desires by Muhyiddin Ibn Al-‘Arabi and Michael Sells
Sells’ Bewildered
159. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh
AUTHOR’s The Miracle of Mindfulness
158. Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s Happiness
157. Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s Taming the Tiger Within
156. The Energy of Prayer: How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s The Energy of Prayer
155. Making Space: Creating a Home Meditation Practice by Thich Nhat Hanh
LINK
Nhat Hanh’s Making Space
154. Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s Reconciliation
153. The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo (Author), Peter Harris (Editor), William Mardsen (Translator), Colin Thubron (Introduction)
Polo’s The Travels of Marco Polo
152. Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day by Jay Shetty
Shetty’s Think Like a Monk
151. The Conference of the Birds by Farid Attar
Attar’s The Conference of the Birds
150. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Paine’s Common Sense
149. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman
Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence
148. King Lear by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s King Lear
147. Ethical Writings of Maimonides by Maimonides, Raymond L. Weiss, and Charles E. Butterworth
Weiss and Butterworth’s Ethical Writings of Maimonides
146. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin
145. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
144. Three Arabic Treatises on Rhetoric: The Commentaries of al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes by Lahcen Elyazghi Ezzaher
Ezzaher’s Three Arabic Treatises on Rhetoric
143. Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels
Pagel’s Revelations
142. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall
Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal
141. Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
Goggins’ Can’t Hurt Me
140. Bodas de Sangre by Federico García Lorca
Lorca’s Bodas de Sangre
139. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Gaiman’s Norse Mythology
138. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Gibran’s The Prophet
137. I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy by Hafiz and Daniel Ladinsky
Ladinsky’s I Heard God Laughing
136. The Book of Certainty: The Sufi Doctrine of Faith, Vision and Gnosis by Martin Lings
Ling’s The Book of Certainty
135. Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Frankl’s Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning
134. The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life by Noah Lukeman
Lukeman’s The Plot Thickens
133. The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman
Lukeman’s The First Five Pages
132. The Five Levels of Attachment: Toltec Wisdom for the Modern World by Don Miguel Ruiz, Jr.
Don Miguel Ruiz, Jr.’s The Five Levels of Attachment
131. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Lamott’s Bird by Bird
130. Zen and the Birds of Appetite by Thomas Merton
Merton’s Zen and the Birds of Appetite
129. The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
Karr’s The Art of Memoir
128. The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s The Art of Communicating
127. Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s Living Buddha, Living Christ
126. Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings by Marcus Borg
Borg’s Jesus and Buddha
125. The Pocket Pema Chodron by Pema Chodron
Chodron’s The Pocket Pema Chodron
124. The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr. by Peniel E. Joseph
Joseph’s The Sword and the Shield
123. Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith
Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith’s Blood Brothers
122. He: Understanding Masculine Psychology (Perennial Library) by Robert A. Johnson
Johnson’s He
121. Romeo and Juliet (Dover Thrift Editions) by Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
120. Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s Touching Peace
119. The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de’ Medici by Elizabeth Lev
Lev’s The Tigress of Forli
118. The Qur’an (Oxford World’s Classics) by by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (Translator)
Abdel Haleem’s translation of The Qur’an
117. The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
Schwartz’s The Magic of Thinking Big
116. The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery (Toltec Wisdom) by Don Miguel Ruiz
Ruiz’s The Fifth Agreement
115. John Adams by David McCullough
McCullough’s John Adams
114. Ancient Beliefs & Modern Superstitions by Martin Lings
Lings’ Ancient Beliefs & Modern Superstitions
113. The Novice: A Story of True Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s The Novice
112. Introduction to Sufi Doctrine (Spiritual Classics) by Titus Burckhardt
Burkhardt’s Introduction to Sufi Doctrine
111. The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s The Heart of Understanding
110. Molly’s Game [Movie Tie-in]: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World by Molly Bloom
Bloom’s Molly’s Game
109. The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor (Vintage) by Ron Chernow
Chernow’s The Death of the Banker
108. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Cheronw’s Alexander Hamilton
107. The Recognition of Sakuntala: A Play In Seven Acts (Oxford World’s Classics) by Kalidasa (Author), W. J. Johnson (Translator)
Johnson’s translation of Kalidasa’s The Recognition of Sakuntala
106. Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard
Leonard’s Mastery
105. Mecca: From Before Genesis Until Now by Martin Lings
Lings’ Mecca
104. Gilgamesh Retold (Carcanet Classics) by Jenny Lewis
Lewis’ Gilgamesh Retold
103. The Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous (Author), N. K. Sandars (Translator)
The Epic of Gilgamesh
102. The Beatitudes by Charles H. Spurgeon
Spurgeon’s The Beatitudes
101. Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: And Other Tough-Love Truths to Make You a Better Writer by Steven Pressfield
Pressfield’s Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t
100. The Artist’s Journey: The Wake of the Hero’s Journey and the Lifelong Pursuit of Meaning by Steven Pressfield
Pressfield’s The Artist’s Journey
99. The Warrior Ethos by Steven Pressfield
Pressfield’s The Warrior Ethos
98. The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer
Bauer’s The Well-Educated Mind
97. Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s Peace Is Every Step
96. Peace Is Every Breath: A Practice for Our Busy Lives by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s Peace Is Every Breath
95. The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by Author
The Arbinger Institute’s The Art of Peace
94. The Art of Peace: Teachings of the Founder of Aikido by by Morihei Ueshiba (Author), John Stevens (Compiler, Translator)
Ueshiba’s The Art of Peace
93. Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
Nhat Hanh’s Being Peace
92. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning
91. Night by Elie Wiesel (Author, Preface), Marion Wiesel (Translator)
Wiesel’s Night
90. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Dover Thrift Editions) by Benjamin Franklin
Franklin’s The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
89. In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria
Zakaria’s In Defense of a Liberal Education
88. Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction
87. Dumbing Us Down -25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling – 25th Anniversary Edition by John Taylor Gatto
Gatto’s Dumbing Us Down
86. The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I by Barbara Tuchman
Tuchman’s The Guns of August
85. New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation
84. The Naked Now: Learning To See As the Mystics See by Richard Rohr
Richard Rohr’s The Naked Now
83. The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah
Shah’s The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin
82. Parmenides and Empedocles: The Fragments in Verse Translation by by Stanley Lombardo
Lombardo’s verse translation of the fragments of Parmenides and Empedocles
81. How to Drink: A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Vincent Obsopoeus (Author), Michael Fontaine (Editor, Translator)
Fontaine’s translation of Obsopoeus’
80. How to Think About War: An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy (Ancient Guides for Modern Readers) by Thucydides (Author), Johanna Hanink (Translator, Introduction)
Hanink’s selections from and translations of Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War
79. The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes
78. The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles’ Antigone by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney’s The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles’ Antigone
77. The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Women at the Graveside, Orestes in Athens by Aeschylus (Author), Oliver Taplin (Translator)
Oliver Taplin’s Oresteia
76. Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis: Eastern Contexts of Greek Culture by Walter Burkert
Walter Burkert’s Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis
75. The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro
Robert Caro’s The Power Broker
74. Machiavelli: The Man Who Taught the People What They Have to Fear by Patrick Boucheron
Patrick Boucheron’s Machiavelli
73. A Summer with Montaigne: On the Art of Living Well by Antoine Compagnon (Author), Tina Kover (Translator)
Antoine Compagnon’s A Summer with Montaigne
72. Montaigne by Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig’s Montaigne
71. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. IV by Robert A. Caro
Robert Caro’s The Passage of Power
70. Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
Ross King’s Brunelleschi’s Dome
69. Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III by Robert A. Caro
Robert Caro’s Master of the Senate
68. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation
67. The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History (Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology) by Mircea Eliade (Author), Willard R. Trask (Translator), Jonathan Z. Smith (Introduction)
Mircea Eliade’s The Myth of the Eternal Return
66. How to Be a Bad Emperor: An Ancient Guide to Truly Terrible Leaders (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Suetonius (Author), Josiah Osgood (Editor)
Josiah Osgood’s How to Be a Bad Emperor
65. How to Be a Leader: An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Plutarch (Author), Jeffrey Beneker (Editor, Translator)
Jeffrey Beneker’s How to Be a Leader
64. Srimad Bhagavad Gita With Text, Word for Word Translation English Rendering, Comments and Index by Swami Swarupananda (Translator)
Swami Swarupananda new translation of The Bhagavad Gita
63. The Upanishads: A New Translation by Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions) by Vernon Katz (Author), Thomas Egenes (Author)
Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes’s new translation of The Upanishads
62. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers
61. Averroes on Plato’s “Republic” (Agora Editions) by Averroes (Author), Ralph Lerner (Author, Editor, Translator)
Averroes’ commentary on Plato’s Republic
60. Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #2) by Robert A. Caro
Robert Caro’s Means of Ascent
59. Decisive Treatise and Epistle Dedicatory (Brigham Young University – Islamic Translation Series) by Averroës (Author), Charles E. Butterworth (Translator)
Averroës Decisive Treatise
58. Medea: A New Translation by Diane J. Ravor (Editor, Translator)
Euripides’s Medea
57. The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1) by Robert A. Caro
Robert Caro’s The Path to Power
56. John of Salisbury: Policraticus (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought by John of Salisbury (Author), Cary J. Nederman (Editor)
John of Salisbury’s Policraticus
55. Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism by Algis Uždavinys
Algis Uždavinys’s Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism
54. The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy by Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade’s The Forge and the Crucible
53. Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul by Titus Burckhardt
Titus Burkhardt’s Alchemy
52. Medea: A New Translation by Euripides (Author), A.E. Stallings (Introduction), Dr. Charles Martin (Translator)
Euripides’s Medea
51. Candide and Other Stories (Oxford World’s Classics) by Voltaire
Voltaire’s Candide and Other Stories
50. Free Will by Sam Harris
Sam Harri’s Free Will
49. Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by Jon McPhee
John McPhee’s Draft No. 4
48. Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
Krishna-Dwaipayan Vyasa’s Bhagavad-Gita
47. That One Should Disdain Hardships: The Teachings of a Roman Stoic by Musonius Rufus
Musonius Rufus’s That One Should Disdain Hardships
46. Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield’s Turning Pro
45. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
Steven Pressfield’s
Do the Work
44. The Alexiad by Anna Comnena
Anna Comnena’s The Alexiad
43. Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey: A Biography by Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel’s Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey
42. The Spark and the Grind: Ignite the Power of Disciplined Creativity by Erik Wahl
Erik Wahl’s The Spark and the Grind
41. Get Out of Your Own Way: A Skeptic’s Guide to Growth and Fulfillment by Dave Hollis
Dave Hollis’s Get Out of Your Own Way
40. The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke by Rainer Marie Rilke
Rilke’s The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke is beautiful!
39. Why I Write by George Orwell
George Orwell’s “Why I Write” is the title essay of this little gem of a book.
38. A Brief History of the Soul by Stewart Goetz, Charles Taliaferro
Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro’s A Brief History of the Soul
37. From the Dust: Finding the Faith to Listen Beyond the Veil by Rachel Logan
Rachel Logan’s From the Dust inspired me.
36. Devotion (Why I Write) by Patti Smith
Patti Smith’s
Devotion was a huge disappointment after first having read the second book in the
Why I Write series,
Inadvertent by Karl Ove Knausgaard, one of the best books on any subject I’ve ever read. I’m even considering reading Knausgaard’s multi-volume autobiographical novel, My Struggle, even though I’d never have considered it were it not for
Inadvertent. Devotion not only wasn’t anywhere near as good as
Inadvertent, it was terrible! And it didn’t even answer the question the series poses. It also didn’t keep the promise printed on the inside of the front flap to reveal Smith’s writing process. It was the worse thing I’ve read since I tries to read
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. For the record, I’d never even heard of Patti Smith (any more than I’d heard of Knausgaard) before I ran into this series under “Essays” at Barnes & Noble.
35. Siddhartha (Dover Thrift Editions) by Hermann Hesse
Herman Hesse’s
Siddhartha hit home with me. You see, like Siddhartha, I too had to learn things the hard way. And yet, like Siddhartha, I expect my son not to make the same mistake (Or is it a mistake?) Recommended to all fathers.
34. Faust: Parts One and Two (Dover Thrift Editions) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe’s
Faust was the last of the three works covered by Santayana in
Three Philosophical Poets, and the last of them I read. The other two, Dante’s
Divine Comedy (
Divina Commedia) and Lucretius’s
On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) are both personal favorites I’ve read and reread for the pleasure of it. Goethe’s
Faust, like Homer’s
Odyssey (unlike Homer’s
Iliad) didn’t land well for me and will require rereading for me to full appreciate.
33. Gilgamesh Retold (Carcanet Classics) by Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis’s
Gilgamesh Retold
32. The Letters and Other Writings: Selected Songs and Poems (Hackett Classics) by Abelard & Heloise (Author), William Levitan (Translator), Stanley Lombardo (Translator), Barbara Thorburn (Translator)
Abelard & Heloise’s Letters
31. Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell’s
Pathway’s to Bliss
30. The Alchemy of Happiness by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali’s
The Alchemy of Happiness
29. Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell (Author), David Kudler (Editor)
Joseph Campbell’s Thou Art That
28. Goddesses: Mysteries of the Divine Feminine (Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell’s Goddesses
27. Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol by Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Raymond P. Scheindlin
Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s poems
26. Don’t Keep Your Day Job: How to Turn Your Passion Into a Career by Cathy Heller
Cathy Heller’s Don’t Keep Your Day Job
25. The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
24. Beowulf: An Updated Verse Translation (Perennial Classics) by Frederick Rebsamen
Frederick Rebsamen’s Beowulf: An Updated Verse Translation
23. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition) by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
22. Beowulf by Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell’s Beowulf
21. The Hero With a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces
20. The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn: An English Translation of Epistle 22 by Lenn E. Goodman and Richard McGregor
The Brethren of Purity’s The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn
19. The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness
18. Stress Less, Accomplish More: Meditation for Extraordinary Performance by Emily Fletcher
Emily Fletcher’s Stress Less, Accomplish More
17. The Reformation of Morals: A parallel English-Arabic text (Eastern Christian Texts) by Yahya Ibn ‘Adi and Sidney H. Griffith
Yahya Ibn ‘Adi’s The Reformation of Morals
16. On the Perfect State: Mabadi Ara Ahl al-Madinat al-Fadila by Abu Nasr al-Farabi and Richard Walzer
Al-Farabi’s On the Perfect State
15. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Lings
Martin Ling’s Muhammad
14. Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders by Denise Spellberg
Spellberg’s Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an
13. The Song of Roland (Hackett Classics) by John Duval (Author) and David Skaines (Introduction)
12. If the Oceans Were Ink by Carla Power
Carla Power’s If the Oceans Were Ink
11. Two Lives of Charlemagne (Penguin Classics) by Einhard (Author), Notker the Stammerer (Author), David Ganz (Editor, Translator, Introduction)
Two Lives of Charlemagne
10. The Chronicle of Theophanes: Anni Mundi 6095-6305 (A.D. 602-813) (The Middle Ages Series) by Harry Turtledove
Theophanes’s Chronicle
9. God in the Qur’an (God in Three Classic Scriptures) by Jack Miles
Jack Miles’s God in the Qur’an
8. The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran by Robert Spencer
Robert Spencer’s The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran
7. The Koran: A Very Short Introduction by Michael A. Cook
Michael Cook’s The Koran: A Very Short Introduction
6. The History of al-Tabari, Volume 6: Muhammad at Mecca by محمد بن جائر الطبري (Translation), William Montgomery Watt (translator), Muhammad Ibn Jarir Al-Tabari
Al-Tabari’s History
5. Understanding the Koran: A Quick Christian Guide to the Muslim Holy Book by Mafsen Elass
Mafsen Elass’s Understanding the Koran
4. What the Qur’an Meant: And Why It Matters by Garry Wills
Garry Will’s What the Qur’an Meant
3. A Two-Hour Koran (A Taste of Islam) by Bill Warner
Bill Warner’s A Two-Hour Koran
2. The Crucifixion and the Qur’an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought by Todd Lawson
Todd Lawson’s The Crucifixion and Qur’an
1. The Koran in English: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books) by Bruce B. Lawrence
Bruce B. Lawrence’s The Koran in English
2019
105. Medea (Hackett Classics) by Euripides (Author), Diane Arnson Svarlien (Translator), Robin Mitchell-Boyask
Euripides’s Medea
104. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Robert F. Kennedy and Arhur Meier Schlesinger
Robert F. Kennedy’s Thirteen Days
103. Zen and the Birds of Appetite by Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton’s Zen and the Birds of Appetite
102. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders is good. Really good. I first read it in ninth grade. It was good then. It’s good now. I was fifteen then. I’m 50 now. It’s that good.
101. Breathing Under Water by Richard Rohr
Richard Rohr’s Breathing Under Water
100. Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation by Alan Watts
Alan Watt’s Still the Mind
99. Medea by Euripides by Medea
Euripides’s Medea was recommended to me by an actor as the one Greek tragedy to read. I actually read Sophocles’s Oedipus trilogy first. And that more than once. But I’ve not ready any other Greek tragedy as much as I have Medea. And I’d read it again.
98. Focus: A Simplicity Manifesto in the Age of Distraction by Leo Babauta
Leo Babauta’s Focus
97. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World
96. Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition by Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton’s Conservatism
95. The Essential Augustine by Saint Augustine of Hippo and Vernon J. Bourke
The Essential Augustine
94. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer
Brian Grazer’s A Curious Mind
93. The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion by Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade’s The Quest
92. Face to Face: The Art of Human Connection by Brian Grazer
Brian Grazer’s Face to Face
91. The King Within: Accessing the King in the Male Psyche by Robert Moore Douglas Gillette, et al.
Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette’s The King Within is one of four books written by this pair of Jungian practitioners after King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, covering each for the four archetypes in greater detail its own book and the one still in print. The Warrior Within, The Magician Within and The Lover Within are all still available, but only used, and some sometimes only at a hefty price.
90. Psychotherapy East & West by Alan Watts
Alan Watt’s Pscyhotherapy East & West
89. John F. Kennedy by Robert Dallek
Robert Dallek’s John F. Kennedy is a short biographical sketch of JFK by the author of what is probably the best biography of the JFK: An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963.
88. Julius Caesar (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar isn’t very good actually. I recommend reading Shakespeare’s source on Julius Caesar: Plutarch’s Lives and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice instead.
87. How to Think About God: An Ancient Guide for Believer and Nonbelievers (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Marcus Tullius Cicero and Philip Freeman
How to Think About God is a translation of Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods (De Natura Deorum), a thought-provoking work on the nature of the gods. It is only in keeping with the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series if you use it as suggested as a manual on how to think about God. Because it is so thought-provoking, it is a fine manual on it’s subject. I’ve always found a comparative religious approach to religion to be helpful.
86. Eusebius: The Church History by Eusebius and Paul L. Maier
Eusebius’s The Church History (Historia Ecclesiastica)
85. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Marina Zhigalova
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince
84. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life and Death by Jean-Dominique Bauby and Jeremy Leggatt
Jean-Dominique Bagby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is astonishingly well-written (and that’s without taking into account how Bauby wrote it: blinking his left eyelid when his scribe reached the letter he wanted upon reciting the alphabet to him).
83. The Wisdom of the Desert (New Directions) by Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton’s The Wisdom of the Desert
82. The Essential Plotinus (Hackett Classics) by Plotinus and Elmer O’Brien S.J.
Plotinus’s Enneads are some of the most difficult reading I’ve ever done. I did this reading in one “sitting” (go) and did it standing to keep me alert. I should have taken more time. I’ll have to go back and read over it again. I may go with The Heart of Plotinus next time, though the selections vary. I’ll tackle all of the Enneads eventually. More background in Plato might help.
81. King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette
Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette’s King, Warrior, Magician, Lover (KWML) was recommended to me while in grad school working on my MA by my primary care physician, who in addition to being an MD was also a Jungian psychologist. I still have the prescription paper with the title written on it tucked in the book. I finished grad school at 43. It took me until 50 to read it.
80. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles
Héctor García and Francesc Miralles’s Ikigai
79. The Bhagavad Gita (Oxford World’s Classics) by W. J. Johnson
The Bhagavad Gita
78. Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung, James Cameron Stuart, et al.
Carl Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections was recommended to me by my friend, Joseph Wheeler. It captivated my imagination. It was my second book by Jung. My first was The Undiscovered Self, which, if memory serves me, was recommended to me by my Latin professor (and Hebrew and Ancient Greek tutor), Ed Firmage. Ed also introduced me to James Hillman.
77. Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals by Michael Hyatt
Michael Hyatt’s Your Best Year Ever
76. Medea (Masters of Latin Literature) by Seneca and Fredrick Ahl
Euripides’s Medea was recommended to me by an actor as the one Greek tragedy to read. I actually read Sophocles’s Oedipus trilogy first. And that more than once. But I’ve not ready any other Greek tragedy as much as I have Medea. And I’d read it again.
75. Medea (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Euripides, Michael Collier, et al.
Euripides’s Medea was recommended to me by an actor as the one Greek tragedy to read. I actually read Sophocles’s Oedipus trilogy first. And that more than once. But I’ve not ready any other Greek tragedy as much as I have Medea. And I’d read it again.
74. Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation by Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell’s Bhagavad Gita
73. The Life and Ideas of James Hillman, Volume 1: The Making of a Psychologist by Dick Russell
Dick Russell’s The Life and Ideas of James Hillman left me wanting for more.
72. Ancient Rhetoric: From Aristotle to Philostratus (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Habinek (Editor)
Thomas Habinek’s Ancient Rhetoric
71. A Confession (Dover Books on Western Philosophy) by Leo Tolstoy and Aylmer Maude
Leo Tolstoy’s A Confession
70. The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient by William B. Irvine
William B. Irvine’s The Stoic Challenge is his third book on Stoicism I’ve read, the other two being A Guide to the Good Life and A Slap in the Face.
69. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo
Carmine Gallo’s The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs had been sitting on my shelf unread for years. It was only after I read Gallo’s latest book, Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great that I knew I had to read this one, as well as The Storyteller’s Secret and Talk Like TED.
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs delivers on its title’s promise as Jobs’ secrets to being as “insanely great in front of any audience” as anyone who saw one of his keynote presentations (especially his later ones) or his 2005 Stanford commencement address knows. The fact that Jobs’s later speeches were even better than his earlier ones points to his greatest secret of all—practice. Jobs is widely believed to be “a natural” who needed no practice. Not so! The book is also a nice reminder of some of the greatest Apple ads.
68. No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life by Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh’s No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life was my eighth book by Hanh and every one of them has been enlightening. This one, in particular, helped me finally to understand a few key Zen Buddhist principles that had previously at least somewhat alluded me, even after reading seven other books by Hanh. At the same time, parts of this book read slower for me than had any other of the seven books by Hanh I had read. Still, it was worth the effort to gain a deeper understanding of Zen Buddhism. Hanh remains my favorite Zen Buddhist monk. I’ve learned more about Buddhism from him than I even could have from an outsider.
67. Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make Room for Happiness by Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin’s Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organized to Make Room for Happiness, like her other books, is full of various ideas on how to achieve a happiness-related goal. I would recommend this book over Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up as at least one of Konmari’s core ideas is included in it: holding objects and asking whether they “spark joy” (Rubin also includes an alternative question if Konmari’s doesn’t do it for you as it doesn’t do it for Rubin). That said, Konmari’s other core idea of gathering all like things Together before decluttering isn’t. Komari’s book is only really useful if one wants to find out whether her one-and-only-way of decluttering is the way one wants to go, or how to go about it if one has. I’d also recommend watching the Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo if implementing her method. If you’d like to explore more than just Konmari’s one way of decluttering—lots more (is there anything Rubin didn’t think of)—and would enjoy Rubin’s references to great literature, then read Rubin.
66. Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise by Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh’s Silence: The Power of Quite in a World Full of Noise was my seventh book by Hanh and just the right one to read after reading Ryan Holiday’s Stillness is the Key. While the seven other books (among others) I had read by Hanh had already brought to my attention the need for silence in a noisy world, it was René Guénon’s The Crisis of the Modern World that so deeply resonated with me and had me begin insatiably to crave not only silence, but darkness. Both are hard to come by in today’s world. When I say silence, I mean not even the sound of the refrigerator or A/C unit; and when I say darkness, I mean not even the little light from the surge protector or the power adapter plugged into it, yet alone the street lamp or neighbor’s light outside one’s window. “Progress” comes at a cost. Hang, Holiday, and Guénon speak to this cost with varying levels of intensity, in the order I’ve listed them. While we may not be able to turn back the tide of “progress,” as Guénon laments,—and the cost may be higher than even Hanh discusses—we are still, thankfully, able to escape from it, if only temporarily in nature (its sounds count as silence) or, even in the midst of our noisy world, in still meditation. As for darkness, I use, and recommend using, a sleeping mask.
65. Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday’s Stillness Is the Key is Holiday’s (age 32 years) ninth book and his fifth Stoicism-themed book, and is sure to be a bestseller like all the rest. Reading one of Holiday’s four books written after the manner of his mentor, Robert Greene, is, like reading Greene’s own books, like reading a couple of hundred books at one time, or, at least, like gleaning the lessons from them. Stillness Is the Key is one of these four books and is no exception to the rule.
64. Annals and Histories (Everyman’s Library) by Eleanor Cowan (Editor), Alfred Church(Translator), William Brodribb (Translator), Lane Fox, Robin (Introduction)
Tacitus’s Annals cover the reigns of Tiberius (AD 14-37), Claudius (AD 41-54), and Nero (AD 54-68) and his Histories cover the “year of the four emperors” (AD 69). The emperors covered by Tacitus are fewer than those covered by Suetonius in his Lives of the Caesars, which includes Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero among others—the preceding two Julio-Claudians, Julius Caesar and Augustus, Caligula, whose reign falls in between Tiberius’s and Claudius’s (AD 37-41), as well as the first six successors to the Julio-Claudians, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian)—but Tacitus’s Annals go into deeper detail than Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars on Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero and his Histories cover the “year of the four emperors,” Suetonius also doesn’t cover. If you’re interested in the lives of the Caesars, start with Suetonius, and then read Tacitus. For the later Caesars, read Marcellinus.
63. Living Buddha, Living Christ: 20th Anniversary Edition by Thich Nhat Hanh (Author), Elaine Pagels (Introduction)
Thich Nhat Hanh’s Living Buddha, Living Christ does two things and does both well: (1) It takes a comparative religion approach to Buddhism and Christianity, giving both Buddhists and Christians a better sense of each other’s religion, and (2) invites Buddhists and Christians to embrace the common ground they share with each other—and other believers—and peace. The former is done with great awareness and sensitivity; the latter with the wisdom of both the Buddha and the Christ that cuts to the core of inner peace and the outer peace that can only come from that inner peace.
62. Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living by Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh’s Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living was my fifth book by my favorite Zen Buddhist monk. A long-time peace activist (Hanh, a native of Vietnam, advocated for peace during the Vietnam War alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., who nominated Hanh for a Nobel Peace Prize), Hanh shares his knowledge and experience of how to create inner peace that radiates outward to the levels of society and the environment.
61. The 33 Strategies of War (Joost Elffers Books) by Robert Greene (Author)
Robert Greene’s The 33 Strategies of War was the third out of six books he wrote and the last I read. All of the other one’s were more appealing to me as a peace activist. Nevertheless, the lessons Greene culls from history with his usual keenness of insight go beyond war to the everyday, including an excellent exposition of Machiavelli’s (and Greene’s) rhetorical strategies.
60. The King of the World (The Collected Works of Rene Guenon) by Rene Guenon (Author), James R. Wetmore (Author), Henry Fohr (Author)
René Guénon’s The King of the World is a fascinating read. Guénon draws connections between all of the revealed religious traditions (that for him all stem from a primordial one) to explicate the idea of the king of the world.
59. The Crisis of the Modern World (The Collected Works of Rene Guenon) by René Guénon Guénon (Author), James R. Wetmore (Editor), Arthur Osborne (Translator)
René Guénon’s The Crisis of the Modern World is a scathing critique of modernity that, regardless of whether you agree with his Perennialist / Traditionalist diagnosis, is is difficult to dispute. Guénon, a metaphysician, laid the foundation for the Perennialist / Traditionalist school. Today, the Dark Enlightenment / Neoreactionary movement is arguably founded on a misunderstanding of Guénon’s work, if not on his work itself. Too, modern “spirituality” without religion is arguably founded on a misunderstanding of Guénon’s work, if not on his work. His work is hugely controversial.
58. Al-Shariah, Ijtihad and Civilisational Renewal (Occasional Paper) by Mohammed Hashim Kamali (Author), Dr. Anas S. Al Shaikh-Ali (Editor), Shiraz Khan (Editor)
Hashim Kamali’s Al-Shariah, Ijtihad and Civilisational Renewal
57. Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius
Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars is a Classic critique of corrupt Caesars from the eponymous Julius Caesar to Domitian. It is required reading for Models of Excellence, the Online Instructor-led Classical Education for Teens I founded, though only the author is a model of excellence (as a writer). The Caesars themselves are anti-models of excellence to varying degrees of disgust. The lesson of Suetonius was, perhaps, best expressed by Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars makes this lesson clear.
56. The Argonautika by Apollonios Rhodios (Author), Peter Green (Translator, Introduction)
Apollonios Rhodios’s The Argonautika
55. Medea by Euripides (Author), Oliver Taplin (Translator)
Euripides’s Medea was recommended to me as the best Greek tragedy with which to begin reading Greek tragedy. So far, I haven’t read one I didn’t like, though I find some more compelling than others-Medea most of all. It haunts me. I first read it a few weeks earlier in the Robinson translation and felt compelled to reread it a few weeks later. Just a few weeks later and I’m already looking for another translation to reread it. It’s that compelling! Like Robinson’s, the poetry of Taplin’s new translation sings like Euripides’s.
54. Maqasid Al-Shariah Made Simple (Occasional Paper) (Occasional Papers) by Mohammad Hashim Kamali (Author), Shiraz Khan (Editor), Anas Al Shaikh-Ali (Editor)
Mohammad Hashim Kamali’s Maqasid Al-Shariah Made Simple
53. The Book of Certainty: The Sufi Doctrine of Faith, Vision and Gnosis (Islamic Texts Society) by Siraj ad-Din, Abu Bakr (Author), Martin Lings (Translator)
Martin Lings’s The Book of Certainty was cited by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, co-founder of Zaytuna College, in a tribute to Lings (aka Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din), as initiating Yusuf into the religion of Islam:
I remember purchasing a small metaphysical treatise by an author with a foreign name way back in 1976 as I was browsing the shelves in a small spiritual bookstore located amidst a beautiful garden in Ojai, California. The title was The Book of Certainty: The Sufi Doctrine of Faith, Vision and Gnosis, and the author was Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din. At the time, I knew nothing of Islam, let alone who the author was, yet the title intrigued me. It was, in essence, what I was searching for – certainty. I read as much of the book as I could but recall not understanding very much. It quoted extensively from the Quran and offered highly esoteric commentaries in a language quite foreign to me. I set it aside, but my curiosity had been piqued that shortly thereafter, in a life-altering transaction, I purchased a Quran and began to read a very personal revelation that would compel me to convert to the religion of Islam.
52. Illuminated Prayers by Marianne Williamson (Author), Claudia Karabaic Sargent (Illustrator)
Marianne Williamson’s Illuminated Prayers
51. The Metamorphoses (Signet Classics) by Ovid (Author), Horace Gregory (Translator, Afterword), Sara Myers(Introduction)
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
50. The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now by Thich Nhat Hanh >(Author)
Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Art of Living
49. Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott Young (Author), James Clear (Foreword)
Scott Young’s Ultralearning
48. Beowulf by Stephen Mitchell (Translator)
Stephen Mitchell’s Beowulf
47. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition) by Seamus Heaney (Translator)
Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf
46. Lying by Sam Harris and Annaka Harris
Sam Harris’s Lying
45. The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History (Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology) by Mircea Eliade (Author), Willard R. Trask (Translator),Jonathan Z. Smith (Introduction)
Mircea Eliade’s The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History was for me quake reading, as it introduced me to a new paradigm: traditional man’s “anhistorical” way of being (i.e., outside of chronological time). This isn’t to say that he saw himself outside of biological time; he knew he was growing old and would eventually die, but performed sacred acts that unbound him from chronological time and returned him to illo tempore (lit. that time) his profane acts had taken him out of and restored him from chaos to cosmos.
44. Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine, an Autobiography by Huston Smith (Author)
Huston Smith’s Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine, an Autobiography was truly a wonderful tale of a life of adventure in practicing (not just studying) and teaching world religions from the inventor of comparative religion. Smith is an exemplary scholar.
43. A Slap in the Face: Why Insults Hurt–And Why They Shouldn’t by William B. Irvine(Author)
Bill Irvine’s A Slap in the Face: Why Insults Hurt–And Why They Shouldn’t is one of a number of books on philosophy as a way of life (specifically Stoicism) by Dr. Irvine and it’s just as good as all the others. Dr. Irvine does in this book what philosophers do best in asking lots of questions one untrained in the philosophical method would not think to ask and what the average philosopher today doesn’t do well at all today in asking useful questions and offering relevant answers—answers that lead to the good life.
42. The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy is the book in which the idea of God existing outside of time was first introduced, as far as I can tell (If it turns out I’m wrong, please let me know!) Read it to find out why and see whether it is a satisfactory answer to the “problem” it purports to solve!
41. The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate by John H. Walton (Author), N. T. Wright (Contributor)
John H. Walton’s The Lost World of Adam and Eve
40. The Good Life Handbook: Epictetus’ Stoic Classic Enchiridion by Chuck Chakrapani (Author)
Chuck Chakrapani’s The Good Life Handbook
39. Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown (Author)
Brené Brown’s Braving the Wilderness
38. Finding Ultra, Revised and Updated Edition: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself by Rich Roll
Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra changed my life. It’s the story of how one man went from world-ranked college athlete to alcoholic to alcoholic corporate lawyer to recovering alcoholic corporate lawyer who, after he got winded climbing a flight of stairs, changed his behavior and became a plant-powered world-ranked ultra-athlete, answering for himself the question, what’s possible if I make up my mind? The answer for him and for you is, much more than you think! This book isn’t about going vegan (although I did immediately after reading it) or becoming an ultra-athlete (I don’t even have the faintest desire to do that!) It’s about finding your own ultra—whatever that is. By “finding” is meant not only figuring out what it is, but achieving it despite the odds. You will be inspired if you read this book. The Rich Roll Podcast is also inspiring.
37. The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate by Longman III, Tremper (Author), John H. Walton (Author), Stephen O. Moshier (Contributor)
John H. Walton’s The Lost World of the Flood
36. The Niche of Lights (Brigham Young University – Islamic Translation Series) by Al-Ghazali (Author), David Buchman (Translator)
Al-Ghazali’s Niche of Lights is a work I’m centireding. It is a Neoplatonic Sufi exegesis of the Light Verse and Veils Hadith despite the authors apparent rejection of Neoplatonism. That’s what makes it interesting to me. You might find it interesting on the face of it for its mystical (Sufism is Islamic mysticism) treatment of the manifold layers of reality both seen and unseen. The verse and hadith itself speak to something primordial within the human soul, even without any exegesis:
God is the light
of the heavens and the earth
The simile of God’s light
is like a niche in which is a lamp,
the lamp is a globe of glass,
the globe of glass as if it were a shining star,
lit from a blessed olive tree
neither of the East nor of the West,
its light nearly luminous
even if fire did not touch it.
Light upon light!
God guides to this light
whomever God will:
and God gives people examples:
and God knows all things.
(āyat al-nūr, Qurʾan 24:35)
God has seventy veils of light and darkness; were He to lift them, the august glories of His face would burn up everyone whose eyesight perceived him.
(the Veils Hadith)
35. Theogony and Works and Days: A New Bilingual Edition (Northwestern World Classics) by Hesiod (Author), Kimberly Johnson (Translator)
Kimberly Johnson’s translation of Hesiod’s Theogeny and Works and Days is my translation of choice for these two works. My criteria for choosing it, as is usual for me when choosing a translation of a poem is its poetry. If you’re looking for a more literal translation, buy the Loeb Classical Library edition.
34. This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water
33. How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson
Donald Robertson’s How to Think Like a Roman Emperor tells Robertson’s own story as well as Marcus Aurelius’s to teach the reader how to be Stoic. Robertson knows his Stoicism in general and Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations in particular, as well as the source on Marcus’s life and invents, what isn’t known when necessary to tell a tale to teach his reader Stoicism. If you are interested in Stoicism and like learning from stories, this book is for you.
32. Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope
Mark Manson’s Everything is F*cked
31. Working by Robert Caro
Robert Caro’s Working was written by Caro while writing the fifth of five planned volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, and those who do not, what he has been up to since he started working on The Power Broker in 1964. If you are one of the ones who does not, then you owe it to yourself immediately to find out. If you are one of the one who knows, then Caro wrote this so you would have something to read while you wait for that above-mentioned fifth volume he’s painstakingly working on right now. Caro is a consummate researcher and writer. Even if you don’t read any other book Caro wrote (and you surely will after you read this one), you owe it to yourself to read this one if nothing else to learn of the craft of writing that is the antithesis of the sound-byte of news or the SNS post.
30. The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov and Dmitri Nabokov
Nabokov’s The Original of Laura
29. The Writing Life by Annie Dilliard
Annie Dilliard’s The Writing Live
28. Medea by Euripides and Robin Robertson
Euripides’s Medea
27. Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse by David Ferry
David Ferry’s Gilgamesh
26. Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness (Mind/brain/behavior Initiative) by Nicholas Humphrey
Nicholas Humphrey’s Seeing Red
25. Stop Doing That Sht: End Self-Sabotage and Demand Your Life Back by Gary John Bishop
Gary John Bishop’s Stop Doing That Sh*t
24. TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson’s TED Talks
23. Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor by Anthony Everitt
Anthony Everitt’s Augustus
22. The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
Robert Greene’s The Laws of Human Nature
21. Propaganda by Edward Bernays
20. Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great by Carmine Gallo
Carmine Gallo’s Five Stars
19. On Truth and Untruth: Selected Writings (Harper Perennial Modern Thought) by Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche’sOn Truth and Untruth
18. Aristotle’s Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall
Edith Hall’s Aristotle’s Way
17. Mein Kampf (The Ford Translation) by Adolf Hitler (Author) and Michael Ford (Editor)
The Ford Transltion of Hitler’s Mein Kampf
16. The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives by Plutarch (Author), James Romm (Editor), Pamela Mensch (Translator), Mary Beard (Foreword)
Pamela Mensch’s The Age of Caesar
15. Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt
Anthony Everitt’s Cicero
14. The Civil War (Oxford World’s Classics) by Julius Caesar (Author), J. M. Carter (Translator)
Julius Caesar’s The Civil War
13. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism
12. The Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell’s The Second Book of the Tao
11. The Gallic War: Seven Commentaries on The Gallic War with an Eighth Commentary by Aulus Hirtius (Oxford World’s Classics) by Julius Caesar (Author), Carolyn Hammond (Translator)
Julius Caesar’s The Gallic War
10. Inadvertent (Why I Write) by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Author), Ingvild Burkey (Translator)
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Inadvertent is one of the best books I’ve ever read.
9. How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Seneca (Author), James S. Romm (Translator, Introduction)
James S. Romm’s How to Keep Your Cool
8. Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions by Alberto Manguel (Author)
Alberto Manguel’s Packing My Library is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I first read it in the throes of packing my library of over 5,000 volumes in 200 boxes to move from Utah to California.
7. Fall of the Roman Republic (Penguin Classics) by Plutarch (Author), Robin Seager (Editor, Introduction), Rex Warner (Translator)
Fall of the Roman Republic
6. The Rise of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics) Reprint Edition by Polybius (Author), Ian Scott-Kilvert (Translator), F. W. Walbank (Introduction)
This is required reading for my Models of Excellence program with my kids.
5. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
Angela Duckworth’s Grit proves out Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics with empirical research.
4. Al-Ghazzali’s Mishkat al-Anwar (“The Niche for Lights”) by W. H. T. Gairdner
I’m centireading this. That said, I’m not centireading this edition, but this one: The Niche of Lights (Brigham Young University – Islamic Translation Series) by Al-Ghazali (Author), David Buchman. I read this edition to once read the introduction and translation of Gairdner just for good measure.
3. The History of Rome, Volume 2, Books 6-10 by Titus Livy by William Mafsen Roberts
This is required reading for my Models of Excellence program with my kids.
2. The History of Rome, Volume 1, Books 1-5 by Titus Livy, William Mafsen Roberts
This is required reading for my Models of Excellence program with my kids.
1. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
This book was recommended to me by my friend, Gus Hartman, who reads a lot too. It was one of his top two recommendations from among the books he read in 2018.
2018
97. The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition by Grant Hardy (Editor)
740 pages | 25 hrs and 19 mins | Read
The Book of Mormon
96. How to Be a Friend: An Ancient Guide to True Friendship (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Marcus Tullius Cicero and Philip Freeman
208 pages | 1 hr and 36 mins | Read
Marcus Tullius Cicero’s and Philip Freeman’s How to Be a Friend
95. The Essential Marcus Aurelius (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions) by Jacob Needleman and John Piazza
144 pages | | Read
Jacob Needleman’s and John Piazza’s The Essential Marcus Aurelius
94. How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Epictetus and Anthony Long
232 pages | 1 hr and 55 mins | Read
Anthony Long’s How to Be Free
93. The Undiscovered Self: The Dilemma of the Individual in Modern Society by C. G. Jung
128 pages | | Read
C. G. Jung’s The Undiscovered Self
92. The Road to Serfdom – Special Abridged Edition by Friedrick A. Hayek and Edwin J Feulner
48 pages | | Read
Edwin J Feulner’s special abridged edtion of Friedrick A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom
91. Islamic History: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Adam J. Silverstein
176 pages | 4 hrs and 3 1 mins | Lied
Adam J. Silverstein’s Islamic History: A Very Short Introduction
90. Fascism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions Book 77) by Kevin Passmore
184 pages | 6 hrs and 4 mins | Lied
Kevin Passmore’s Fascism: A Very Short Introduction
89. The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need To Write…The Ultimate PhD Proposal by Thomas M. Saunders
37 pages | | Read
Thomas M. Saunders’ The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need To Write…The Ultimate PhD Proposal
88. Freud: A Very Short Introduction by Anthony Storr
176 pages | 3 hrs and 55 mins | Lied
Anthony Storr’s Freud: A Very Short Introduction
87. Darwin’s Origin of Species: Books That Changed the World by Janet Browne
192 pages | 4 hrs and 23 mins | Lied
Janet Brown’s Darwin’s Origin of Species
86. Marx’s Das Kapital: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) by Francis Wheen
144 pages | 3 hrs and 16 mins | Lied
Francis Wheen’s Marx’s Das Kapital
85. Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man (Books That Changed the World) by Christopher Hitchens
320 pages | 3 hrs and 36 mins | Lied
Christopher Hitchen’s Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man
84. You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh and Melvin McLeod
160 pages | 3 hrs and 54 mins | Lied
Thich Nhat Hanh’s You Are Here
83. Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising by Ryan Holiday
176 pages | 2 hrs and 17 mins | Lied
82. Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
288 pages | 2 hrs and 50 mins | Lied
Jason Fried’s and David Heinemeier Hansson’s Rework
81. The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll
320 pages | 5 hrs and 43 mins | Lied
Ryder Carrols’ The Bullet Journal Method
80. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
320 pages | 5 hrs and 35 mins | Lied
James Clear’s Atomic Habits
79. The 50th Law by 50 Cent and Robert Greene
304 pages | 8 hrs and 16 mins | Lied
Robert Greene’s and 50 Cent’s The 50th Law
78. An Unlikely Prince: The Life and Times of Machiavelli by Niccolo Capponi
360 pages | 12 hrs and 12 mins |Lied
Niccolo Capponi’s An Unlikely Prince
77. The Campaigns of Alexander (Penguin Classics) by Arrian and J. R. Hamilton
432 pages | 11 hrs and 55 mins |Lied
Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander
76. Abraham or Aristotle? First Millennium Empires and Exegetical Traditions: An Inaugural Lecture by the Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths Given in the University of Cambridge by Garth Fowden
48 pages | | Read
Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths Garth Fowden’s inaugural lecture “Abraham or Aristotle? First Millennium Empires and Exegetical Traditions”
75 .Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions) by Henry David Thoreau
159 pages | 4 hrs | 1 hr | Read
Henry David Thoreau’s On Civil Disobedience
74. Plutarch Lives, VII, Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar (Loeb Classical Library) (Volume VII) by Plutarch and Bernadotte Perrin
640 pages | | Read
Plutarch Lives, VII, Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar. covers two of the most celebrated speakers and two of the most memorable military men in history. Demosthenes was perhaps the most celebrated speaker of Ancient Greece and Cicero of Ancient Rome. Alexander was perhaps the most memorable military man of Ancient Greece and Caesar of Ancient Rome. Cicero and Caesar were ruthless rivals at the Roman Republic’s end. Demosthenes and Cicero both rapidly rose in the ranks of their respective societies by their speaking skills. Alexander extended the empire of Greece, Caesar that of Rome. Demosthenes’s and Cicero’s speeches are scrupulously studied to this day as models of excellence.
73. The Book of Knowledge: Book 1 of The Revival of the Religious Sciences (The Fons Vitae Al-Ghazali Series) by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali (Author), Kenneth Honerkamp (Translator)
336 pages | | 21 hrs and 34 mins | Lied
Al-Ghazali’s The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Iḥiyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn) is al-Ghazali’s magnum opus. The opening book of Al-Ghazali’s Iḥiyāʾ, The Book of Knowledge (Kitab al-‘Ilm) deals with knowledge
72. Jung: A Very Short Introduction by Anthony Stevens
196 pages | 3 hrs and 52 mins | Lied
Anthony Stevens’ Jung: A Very Short Introduction didn’t disappoint. It was as thorough as all the other books in the series I’ve read (which is always surprising considering they’re all “Very Short Introduction[s]”). I’m ready to tackle some of Jung’s own writings now. I think I’ll start with Judith Harris’ The Quotable Jung to continue to get the broadest exposure to his ideas in a single book.
71. True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh
120 pages | 1 hr and 28 mins | Lied
Thich Nhat Hanh’s True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart ties mantras and meditation to meaningfully meeting your own heart’s and your sweetheart’s most deepest desire for true love.
70. Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers
96 pages | 1 hr and 30 mins | Lied
Derek Sivers’ Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneuer is an unusual book by an unusual entrepreneur: one who ddin’t want his company to grow — one who understood that the key to a successful company is to focus first on keeping the customer satisfied, not on making more money at the cost of customer satisfaction. I’ve found in my own experience by making the mistake of putting profit above customer satisfaction that it paradoxically doesn’t pay as much as the inverse.
69. Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics) by Lao Tzu and Stephen Mitchell
144 pages | 1 hr and 41 mins |Lied
Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell is a gem like all of Mitcell’s translations or versions of classics I’ve read: Genesis, Job, selections from the Psalms, the Gilgamesh, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. Mitchell is a prodigious poet whose prose is even poetic. After reading Mithcell’s version, I’m looking forward to The Essential Tao by Thomas Cleary and the version of the Tao Te Ching by Stanley Lombardo. All three translators are consummate poets and translators and all are well-versed in Zen.
68. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
304 pages | 7 hrs and 44 mins | Lied
Cal Newport’s Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by first broke through the social-media-induced distraction that made it hard for me to finish 52 books last year and came to my attention via The Art of Manliness blog, if I remember correctly. The author’s two TED Talks, “Quit Social Media” and “‘Follow Your Passion’ is Bad Advice” on also came to my attention around the same time. This book lays out a compelling case for quitting social media and more and doing deep work that matters and makes a difference in delivering value in one’s career and in the wider world.
67. Concise Art of Seduction by Robert Greene
224 pages | 5 hrs and 9 mins | Lied
Robert Greene’s Concise Art of Seduction served me as an introduction to and preparation for The Art of Seduction, of which it is an abridgment. After finishing The 48 Laws of Power and Mastery by the same author, I couldn’t decide whether to start The Art of Seduction or The 33 Strategies of War next, so I decided to start with the abridgments of each to help me make the decision. Whichever I go with, I will be glad to have gone through the abridged and unabridged edition of both in the end since Greene’s subject matter and writing are always compelling enough to read and reread again.
66. The Niche of Lights (Brigham Young University – Islamic Translation Series) by Al-Ghazali (Author), David Buchman
80 pages | | Read
I’m centireading this. As esoteric as it is, it is necessary to centiread it to successfully psyche it. It’s a Sufi exegesis of the Qurʾanic Light Verse and Prophetic Veils Hadith, both of which are mysteriously mystical and scintillatingly seductive — especially to an orientalist scholar interested in Sufi exegesis, especially that of a philosopher-theologian who has sworn off Neoplatonism then seemingly used it.
65. Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop
224 pages | 3 hrs and 23 mins | Lied
Gary John Bishop’s Unfuk Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life goes over seven assertions guaranteed to “get you out of your head and into your life” if you will live by them:
I am willing
I am wired to win
I got this
I embrace the uncertainty
I am relentless
I expect nothing and accept everything
64. Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli in His World by Erica Benner
384 pages | 13 hrs and 30 mins | Lied
Erica Benner’s Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli in His World is an intimate portrait of Machiavelli, who is assumed by those who ignore the context of his well-known but not well-understood The Prince to be Machiavellian when he is not. Benner contextualizes The Prince, revealing a master of rhetoric. I look forward to reading her Machiavelli’s Prince: A New Reading and Machiavelli’s Ethics. Benner’s work first came to my attention when search YouTube for lectures on Machiavelli, where I found her panel discussion “Is Machiavelli a Moralist or a Realist.” I also found Maurizio Viroli, whose How to Read Machiavelli I’ve also reviewed here. I look forward to reading his Niccolo’s Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli, as well as his Machiavelli (Modern Social & Political Philosophies). Both Benner and Viroli paint a picture of a sly-as-fox un-Machiavellian Machiavelli who is up to something other than what he appears to be up to in writing The Prince. I recommend reading both scholars to learn what.
63. The March Up Country: A Translation of Xenophon’s Anabasis (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) by Xenophon and W.H.D. Rouse
224 pages | 7 hrs and 32 mins | Lied
Xenophon’s The March Up Country or Anabasis is the tale of the march up country of the Ancient Greek general Xenophon and his 10,000 mercenaries in the despearate attempt to flee from their employer Cyrus’ brother Ataxerxes after they fail in their attempt to assist the former in dethroning the latter. My favorite line comes when those left (not all then thousand make it) first see the sea: “Thalatta! Thalatta!” (“The sea! The Sea!). It is only then that they knew they were escaping Persia.
62. Mastery by Robert Greene
352 pages | 16 hrs and 9 mins | Lied
Robert Greene’s Mastery is a consummate work on what it takes to become a master at one’s craft. Full of the usual illustrations from the illustrious lives of masters past and present, it delights while it informs. Success leaves clues and Greene is a Sherlock when it comes to picking up on them. As I understand it, he reads approximately 200 books per year to write the books he writes. In this one, he brings to bear that restless research (Greene really does wrestle restlessly when writing a book), delivering detailed step-by-step instructions on how to follow the masters to become one yourself.
61. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
452 pages | 23 hrs and 6 mins | Lied
Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power has been sitting on my bookshelf mostly unread since 1998, the year it was published. I read a few chapters in it back in 1998; in fact, I remember reading in it at Starbucks at a Barnes & Noble store in Houston before buying it from Amazon and shipping it to my grandmother’s in Baltimore while living in Houston. I don’t even remember what I was doing in at my grandmother’s! The author, Robert Greene, recently came to my attention again via his protégé, Ryan Holiday. Greene’s books, have all been international bestsellers: The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law (with rapper 50 Cent) and Mastery. Holiday has followed in his footsteps.
The 48 Laws of Power is a Machiavellian book in the popular sense and has given its author a similar reputation for writing it, but Machiavelli wasn’t Machiavellian in the popular sense, and neither is Greene. That said, Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power is a lot like Machiavelli’s The Prince. Greene follows a simple formula in writing his books: He chooses a topic to write on, reads 200-300 biographies looking for examples, takes notes on them, and weaves his notes into a book. Holiday has done the same and found the same success. The result, generally speaking, in the case of both authors, has been internationals bestsellers for each author every time he writes a book. In the case of The 48 Laws of Power in particular, the result is 48 principles exemplified by famous people in history who have kept or violated those principles and the results in terms of power gained or lost.
60. A Blue Fire by James Hillman and Thomas Moore
336 pages | 5 hrs and 53 mins | Lied
James Hillman and Thomas Moore’s A Blue Fire
59. The Soul’s Code by James Hillman
352 pages | | Lied
James Hillman’s The Soul’s Code
58. The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
416 pages | | 2 hrs and 49 mins | Lied
Thomas Moore’s The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life
57. The Artist’s Way: 25th Anniversary Edition by Julia Cameron
272 pages | 3 hrs and 6 mins | Lied
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way
56. Managing Oneself (Harvard Business Review Classics) by Peter F. Drucker
72 pages | 44 mins | Lied
Peter F. Drucker’s Managing Oneself
55. Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship by Thomas Moore
304 pages | 10 hrs and 37 mins | 2 hrs and 55 mins | Lied
Thomas Moore’s Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship
54. Care of the Soul, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Ed: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
352 pages | 12 hrs and 17 mins | Lied
Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul
53. A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine
336 pages | 8 hrs and 3 mins | Read
William B. Irvine’s A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
52. A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change by John Glassie
352 pages | | Read
John Glassie’s A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change
51. How to Read Machiavelli by Maurizio Viroli
128 pages | | Read
Maurizio Viroli’s How to Read Machiavelli
50. Filone, l’eredità del Tardo Antico e la formazione dell’Islam (Italian Edition) by Massimo Campanini
32 pages | | Read
Massimo Campani’s Filone, l’eredità del Tardo Antico e la formazione dell’Islam came to my attention while searching for Campanini’s translation of al-Ghazali’s Mizan al-‘Amal, La bilancia dell’azione e altri scritti (Italian Edition) and immediately piqued my interest as its topic is the formation of Islam in the context of late antiquity, a topic on which I’ve read, watched lectures on YouTube, and thought a lot over the course of this year, and its author known and trusted by me. As soon as I saw it, I bought it without a second thought and without noticing its length was only 28 pages. Now that I’ve read it, I’m once again reminded that page counts don’t tell much as all pages are not created equal. This book/lecture (I should have noticed “Lectures on Philo” emblazoned on the title in plain English when I was buying it, but I didn’t) packs a punch in its paltry 28 pages. Campanini cites almost all of the sources I’ve either read or seen cited in my research on of the formation of Islam in the context of late antiquity over the course of this year. Campanini dismisses any direct influence of Philo on the formation of Islam, but considers the possibility of indirect influence. As for the sources he cites on the formation of Islam in the context of late antiquity with skepticism toward traditional Islamic sources on the formation of Islam, he is skeptical and points out that we have no more reason to trust Christian or Jewish sources than Islamic.
49. The Education of Cyrus (Agora Editions) by Xenophon (Author) and Wayne Ambler (Translator)
336 pages | | Read
Wayne Ambler’s translation of Xenophon’s The Education of Cyrus
48. Giordano Bruno: Philosopher / Heretic by Ingrid D. Rowland
352 pages | | Read
Ingrid D. Rowland’s Giordano Bruno: Philosopher / Heretic
47. How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Seneca (Author), James S. Romm (Editor, Introduction)
245 pages | 2 hrs and 29 mins | Lied
How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life
46. Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’Amour
272 pages | | Read
Louis L’Amour’s Education of a Wandering Man cam to my attention thanks to The Art of Manliness. I don’t remember whether I first read “How and Why to Become a Lifelong Learner” and clicked through to “The Libraries of Famous Men: Louis L’Amour,” or whether I first read another in the “The Libraries of Famous Men” series. Regardless, I recommend reading all of the above and L’Amour’s book. It is one of my favorite books.
45. How to Win an Argument: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Persuasion (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Marcus Cicero and James May
288 pages | 3 hrs and 3 mins | Lied
How to Win an Argument
44. L’ignoto ignoto: Le librerie e il piacere di non trovare quello che cercavi (Italian Edition) by Mark Forsyth
28 pages | | Read
I picked up this book at the cash wrap at La Feltrinelli bookshop in Messina, Sicily last June when I was buying an Italian translation of a Greek or Roman Classic in an inexpensive paperback edition with the original Greek or Latin facing the translation. I bought a few of those while touring Italy last June as there is no such thing as an inexpensive edition of a Greek or Roman Classic (whether paperback or hardcover) including the original Greek or Latin text in the US. The title “L’ignoto ignoto” (actually, the subtitle, “Le librerie e il piacere di non trovare quello che cercavi”) caught my attention. I also bought a copy for my friend, Travis, a fellow bibliophile, thinking he’d like it. He said he did. I don’t recall whether I noticed at the time I bought it whether I took notice of the Anglo name of the author. It turned out to be a translation of an essay originally written in English: The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the delight of not getting what you wanted. At any rate, I must either not have noticed, I wanted to read it in Italian, or I wanted the delight of not getting what I wanted (or, at least) of getting what I wanted and a little something extra. I love the serendipity of finding something I wasn’t looking for while shopping at a bookshop, the subject of this essay. I guess I couldn’t resist. I’m glad I bought it. Travis wasn’t the only one who like it. I liked it too. And I love La Feltrinelli bookshops!
43. The Unknown Unknown by Mark Forsyth
27 pages | | Read
Mark Forsyth’s The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the delight of not getting what you wanted
42. A Libertarian Critique of Intellectual Property by Butler Shaffer
60 pages | | Read
Butler Shaffer’s A Libertarian Critique of Intellectual Property
41. From Aristocracy to Monarchy to Democracy: A Tale of Moral and Economic Folly and Decay by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
70 pages | | Read
Hans Hermann-Hoppe’s From Aristocracy to Democracy: A Tale of Moral and Economic Folly and Decay
40. Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
304 pages | 4 hrs and 52 mins | Lied
Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger’s Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History is amateurish.
39. Jefferson and the Rights of Man (Jefferson and His Time, Vol. 2) by Dumas Malone
523 pages | 18 hrs and 56 mins | Lied
Dumas Malone’s Jefferson and the Rights of Man (Jefferson and His Time, Vol. 2)
38. Thomas Jefferson: President and Philosopher by Jon Meacham
336 pages | 4 hrs and 55 mins | Lied
Jon Meacham’s Thomas Jefferson: President and Philosopher
37. How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness by Russ Roberts
272 pages | 5 hrs and 29 mins | Lied
Russ Roberts’ How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
36. Hadrian’s Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy
192 pages | 3 hrs and 14 mins | Lied
Adrian Goldsworthy’s Hadrian’s Wall
35. How to Run a Country: An Ancient Guide for Modern Leaders by Marcus Tullius Cicero and Philip Freeman
152 pages | 1 hr and 17 mins | Lied
Phillip Freeman’s How to Run a Country consists of carefully selected excerpts from and illustrative of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s political writings.
34. How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians by Quintus Cicero and Philip Freeman
128 pages | 1 hr and 5 mins | Lied
Phillip Freeman’s How to Win an Election is a translation of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s brother Quintus Cicero’s letter to Marcus, a little-known text called the Commentariolum Petitionis, on the occasion of Marcus running for the Roman consulship (the highest office in the Roman Republic).
33. A Mind at Home with Itself: How Asking Four Questions Can Free Your Mind, Open Your Heart, and Turn Your World Around by Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell
336 pages | 9 hrs and 10 mins | Lied
Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell’s A Mind at Home with Itself is a translation of and commentary on the Diamond Sūtra, a Mahāyāna (Buddhist) sūtra from the Prajñāpāramitā genre of sutras, meaning “Perfection of Wisdom.”
32. The Aeneid (Penguin Classics) by Virgil (Author), Bernard Knox (Editor, Introduction), Robert Fagles (Translator)
496 pages | 12 hrs and 26 mins | Lied
Virgil’s Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas who, after fleeing the fall of Troy, founded Rome.
31. Aristotle: Problems, Volume II: Books 20-38. Rhetoric to Alexander (Loeb Classical Library) by Aristotle (Author), Robert Mayhew (Translator), David C. Mirhady (Translator)
672 pages | | Read
The Rhetorica ad Alexandrum is a Pseudo-Aristotelian treatise on rhetoric now generally believed to be the work of Anaximenes of Lampsacus but still included in the traditional corpus of Aristotle’s work. It is shorter and more practical than Aristotle’s longer, more theoretical Rhetoric.
30. An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn
320 pages | 10 hrs and 37 mins | Lied
Daniel Mendelsohn’s An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic is a memoir of the odyssey of the author’s eighty-one-year-old father attending the undergraduate Odyssey seminar he teaches at Bard and of the two traveling together on a cruise retracing Odysseus’s trip home from Troy.
29. The Persian Wars, Volume IV: Books 8-9 (Loeb Classical Library)
432 pages | 27 hrs and 58 mins | Lied/Read
Books 8-9 of Herodotus’s The Persian Wars
28. Herodotus, Books V-VII: The Persian Wars (Loeb Classical Library) (Volume III)
592 pages | | Lied/Read
Books V-VII of Herodotus’s The Persian Wars
27. The Persian Wars, Volume II: Books 3-4 (Loeb Classical Library)
448 pages | | Lied/Read
Books 3-4 of Herodotus’s The Persian Wars
26. The Persian Wars, Volume I: Books 1-2 (Loeb Classical Library)
528 pages | | Lied/Read
Books 1-2 of Herodotus’s The Persian Wars
25. The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance by Paul Strathern
464 pages | 16 hrs and 21 mins | Lied
Paul Strathern’s The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance covers not only the Medici, but the figures surrounding them—figures like Leonardo DaVinci, Marsilio Ficino, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Girolamo Savonarola—and the interactions between them that make up the story of the Italian Renaissance. One of the most interesting among the interactions among these figures Strathern covers is the collaboration between DaVinci and Machiavelli to divert the Arno river from its course to leave Florence’s rival city Pisa high and dry. This quite quixotic project ultimately failed leaving both men in pubic disfavor, resulting in the self-imposed exile of DaVinci from Florence, leading him ultimately to broader horizons elsewhere, and Machiavelli’s self-imposed absence from public life during which he wrote his most famous political treatise, The Prince.
24. How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life by Massimo Pigliucci
288 pages | 6 hrs and 35 mins | Lied
Massimo Pigliucci’s How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life first came to my attention right before my last trip to Europe to lead the Leisure Learning Italy 2017 Educational Tour. The book was scheduled to be released while I was in Italy. I was browsing the Feltrinelli book store at the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence when I saw an Italian translation of the book for sale a couple of days before the release date for the original in the US. Pigliucci is Italian, raised in Rome, but lives and teaches in the US. I bought the translation at a new arrival discount and started reading it. I read in it while training around Italy and cruising the Mediterranean with ports of call in Italy, France, Spain, Sardinia, and Malta.
Though I had read more than half of the Italian translation, Como Essere Stoici: Riscoprire La Spirutalità dei Classici per Vivere una Vita Moderna, before returning home, once I got home, I got caught up in my day-to-day life and didn’t finish it. Meanwhile, I had bought the English translation online from Amazon.com the day it was released, while still in Italy and it was waiting for me when I got home. I started over from the beginning in the original English and finished it in two days. It was okay, but I’d rather read Epictetus’ Enchiridion than Pigliucci’s commentary on it. Especially when all he had to add to Epictetus’ Stoicism was atheism, Darwinism, “modern psychology,” and “modern science.” Epictetus knew more about ultimate reality and human psychology than Pigliucci. Nevertheless, I’ll probably finish reading the Italian translation before I lead the Leisure Learning Italy 2018 Educational Tour this spring.
23. Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by Tom Holland
464 pages | 14 hrs 51 mins | Lied
Tom Holland’s Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West was brought to my attention by my good friend and mentor and fellow bibliophile, Jabra Ghneim. He mentioned it to me when I told him I was reading Holland’s In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire, which first came to my attention when I came across Holland’s Rancho Mirage Writer’s Festival lecture, “The Origins of Islam” on YouTube in the course of my research into revisionist Islamic history contradicting traditional Islamic history, which I’ve also been researching. I’ve since read Holland’s Rubicon: The Last Days of the Republic and Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar. Jabra also recommended Holland’s The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West and Athelstan: The Making of England. I also intend to read Holland’s translation of Herodotus’ The Histories after learning about it recently from Holland’s Hay Festival lecture, “Tom Holland on Hertodotus’ Histories” on YouTube. I’m torn between The Forge of Christendom and Herodotus!
Like Herodotus in The Histories, it takes Holland half of Persian Fire to get to the Persian wars. He first covers the Khorasan Highway, Babylon, Sparta, and Athens in chapters by the same names to give the background necessary for understanding the Persian wars like Herodotus spent half of The Histories telling stories of his travels inquiring into the cause of the same himself. Holland comprehends all of Herodotus and more.
22. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
224 pages | 4 hrs and 50 mins | Lied
Peter Thiel and Blake Master’s Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future is more than just another startup book. For Thiel, startups are about the kind of innovation that leads to transcendent technological advancement, ultimately transcending life on earth and death itself. Thiel wants to revive the spirit of his and my youth when we expected our futures to include flying cars. He laments we’ve settled for smartphones.
21. Rhetoric by Aristotle
192 pages | 13 hrs 28 mins | Lied/Read
Aristotle’s Rhetoric ranks among the earliest extant writings on the art of persuasion, preceded only by those of Gorgias (not extant), Plato’s Gorgias (ca. 425 BCE) and those of Isocrates (fl. 390-338 ) (also not extant) on the subject, and is the first systematic treatment of it. In it, Aristotle lays out three steps or “offices” of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, and style. These will later be codified, with three more, as “the five canons of rhetoric:” inventio (invention), dispositio (arrangement), elocutio (style), memoria (memorization), and pronuntiatio (delivery) in Roman rhetoric. He also lays out three modes of persuasion: ethos (character), logos (reasoning) and pathos (appeal to emotions). He emphasizes enthymematic reasoning, whereby the rhetorician uses syllogisms sans major or minor premise to be easily filled in by his audience, who by easily filling in the missing premise is thereby persuaded. Finally, he identifies three genres of rhetoric: Forensic or judicial (dealing with the past), deliberative or political (dealing with the future), and epideictic or ceremonial (dealing with the present). Prosecuting, lawmaking, and toasting or eulogizing, respectively, are examples of each genre.
20. Poetics by Aristotle
64 pages | | Lied/Read
Aristotle’s Poetics is the playbook for storytelling and the playbook hasn’t changed since he wrote it, so if you’re a storyteller or want to be and you haven’t read it, it could make a significant impact on your storytelling. Anything written on the subject after it, is a mere shadow of Aristotle.
19. The Jefferson Bible by Thomas Jefferson
160 pages | 2 hrs 38 mins | Lied
Jefferson’s The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, the title Jefferson gave “The Jefferson Bible” is the result of a cut-and-paste job whereby Jefferson, a self-avowed Epicurean (read deist, not atheist), “an Abstract from the Evangelists of whatever has the stamp of the eloquence and fine imagination of Jesus.” and “abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by it’s lustre from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the diamond from the dung hill,” to get at “the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man: outlines which it is lamentable he did not live to fill up.”
18. Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue by Ryan Holiday
336 pages | 11 hrs and 39 mins | Lied
Ryan Holiday’s Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue
17. Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City by Paul Strathern
448 pages | 14 hrs and 28 mins | Lied
Paul Strathern’s Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City showed up in my Amazon search for books on the Medici along with Strathern’s other book on the Medici, The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance by Paul Srathern. After watching PBS’ “The Medici: Godfather’s of the Renaissance,” and reading Christopher Hibbert’s The House of Medici: It’s Rise and Fall, I wanted to know more about the Medici and Savonarola. I was delighted to learn that the focus of this book is Savonarola and I was equally delighted to learn that Strathern’s other book on the Medici I also intend to read may have been the basis of the above-mentioned PBS documentary. I’d also like to read Lauro Martines’ Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence as my interest in Savonarola was perhaps only deepened by my close contact with him through Paul Strathern’s Death in Florence. I look forward to it!
Part of what makes Savonarola such an intriguing character is the company he kept. He was in close contact with Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, two of the greatest minds of his time. Also of interest are his own ideas and writings, including democratic ideals and a treatise on political science, 15 years before Machiavelli wrote what is considered the first treatise on political science. Also intriguing is how his ideas went so wrong. On the one hand, he is said to have freed Florence from tyrannical Medici rule instituting a republican utopia; on the other hand, this eventually transformed into a religious fundamentalist dystopia banning and burning the art of Botticelli among others. In addition to being a political scientist ahead of Machiavelli, who is considered the first, Savonarola was also a reformer ahead of Luther, who acknowledged this. It’s never as easy as you’d think to label good guys and bad in the story of Savonarola’s struggle for power with the Medici and the Catholic Church.
16. Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Hollland
512 pages | 16 hrs and 5 mins | Lied
Tom Holland’s Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar was the obvious next book to read after finishing his Rubicon: The Last Days of the Republic. Rubicon was recommended to me by my good friend and business partner, Travis Patten. As is indicated in its subtitle, Dynasty covers the Julio-Claudian Dynasty: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero (27 BCE to 68 CE). As usual, Holland’s account reads like a novel yet is well-researched and documented. His sources are authoritative and he is an authority in his own right. As for the Dynasty itself, it goes from bad to worse, starting with Augustus’s excesses and ending with Nero’s neuroses. I’m not sure why Gibbon’s Decline and Fall doesn’t begin with Augustus.
15. Rubicon: The Last Days of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
464 pages | 16 hrs and 5 mins | Lied
Tom Holland’s Rubicon: The Last Days of the Roman Republic was recommended to me by my good friend and business partner, Travis Patten. He told me it was the best book on the end of the Roman Republic. At the time, I had read Rome’s Last Citizen, another book on the subject, though technically a biography of Stoic Sage Cato the Younger, and Travis hadn’t. I recommended Rome’s Last Citizen to him. Unsurprisingly, given Rome’s Last Citizen‘s focus, though the dramatis personae of both books are the same, Cato included, Rubicon covers the period in more depth and detail.
14.The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall by Christopher Hibbert
364 pages | 11 hrs and 16 mins | Lied
Christopher Hibbert’s The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall was one of a few books on the Medici I found in a search for books on the Renaissance Florence banking family after watching PBS’ “The Medici: Godfather’s of the Renaissance,” including the book the PBS documentary was based on, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance by Paul Srathern. I recognized the author from his biography Queen Victoria: A Personal History, which is on my to-read list along with A.N. Wilson’s Victoria: A Life and Julia Baird’s Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire. Hibbert’s one-volume The House of Medici was an excellent introduction to the Medici. I look forward to reading Paul Stathern’s Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City and The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance, one of which (probably the latter) I suspect is the same book as The Medici: Godfather’s of the Renaissance under a different title.
13. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
608 pages | 18 hrs and 30 mins | Lied/Read
Mary Beard’s SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome was recommended to my by my good friend and Positive Forces Project co-founder, Shiloh Logan; as well as by my good friend and Leisure Learning co-founder, Travis Patten. It is an excellent one-volume history of Rome covering Rome from its founding myths to Caracalla’s 212 CE edict granting of citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire, which Beard considers Rome’s end, or at least the beginning of it. Beard spends half the book from the founding myths to Julius Caesar, beginning at the time of Catiline’s conspiracy and looking backward to the founding, and the other half from Augustus to Caracalla. As is characteristic of Beard, she covers not only the Roman patricians, but also the plebs, giving her reader a sense of a street-level view of everyday Roman life the way she does in her BBC Two documentary, Meet the Romans.
12. Concise 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
208 pages | 9 hrs and 52 mins | Lied
Robert Greene’s Concise 48 Laws of Power jumped out at me at Heathrow Airport in London where I had a layover on my way home from a tour of Italy, France, Spain, Sardinia, and Malta due to it’s familiar cover design and title (The “The Concise” part was so small I didn’t even notice it). Greene’s 48 Laws of Power had been sitting on my one of my bookshelves mostly unread since I purchased it from Amazon after starting to read it at the Starbucks in the Barnes & Noble across from The Galleria in my then uptown Houston neighborhood. Once I had figured out what it was I was holding in my hands (The Concise 48 Laws of Power), I had to have it. I could read it first, I told myself, then finish The 48 Laws of Power. I searched Amazon for concise editions of all the rest of Robert Greene’s books upon my return home and found and purchased all of them. They are a great way to taste Robert Greene’s masterful art of book writing and Joost Elffers’s masterful art of book design. The Concise 48 Laws of Power served me of a reminder of why I was attracted to Greene’s writing and Elffers’s design in the first place. Both are aesthetically pleasing.
11. Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power by Ross King
256 pages | 7 hrs and 11 mins | Lied
Ross King’s Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power packs a punch. Machiavelli’s multifaceted milieu and multifarious mischief made me marvel. King covers this stormy, controversial Renaissance-Italy purveyor of power politics with aplomb despite the sometimes confusing contradictions of a man equally at home in Florentine palaces and brothels, machinating and moralizing, weak and strong. King’s Machiavelli delivers in short-order.
10. In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire by Tom Holland
560 pages | 18 hrs and 11 mins | Lied
Tom Holland’s In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire covers the rise of Islam and its rapid expansion from a historical perspective that questions traditional Islamic history while drawing on the best late antique history available. In covering the subject of this book, Holland contextualizes his revisionist Arab-Islamic history in late-antique Roman and Persian history, two civilizations he has covered in his other books, Persian Fire, Rubicon, and Dynasty. In the Shadow of the Sword first came to my attention through Holland’s Rancho Mirage Writer’s Festival lecture, “The Origins of Islam” on YouTube. The lecture is controversial, as is the book.
9. Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts and Timothy Ferriss
240 pages | 4 hrs and 9 mins | Lied
Vagabonding is a great book and vagabonding is a great lifestyle. I’ve had the opportunity twice to live this lifestyle while studying Arabic in at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan in the summer of 2008 and at Damascus University (briefly) and with private tutors (mostly) in Damascus, Syria in the summer of 2010. My 2008 three-month stay in Jordan included a ten-day tour of Egypt on my way to Jordan, a ten-day tour of Israel and Palestine during a break from my studies in Jordan, and an overnight layover in Cairo, Egypt on my way back home. My 2010 three-month stay in Syria included a tour of sites in Jordan I hadn’t seen while living there in 2008 on my way to Syria and a tour of Syria before heading back home. I toured Syria again in January of 2011 with my wife. We saw the Arab Spring erupt in Tunisia from Hama and in Egypt from JFK on TV.
8. Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts by Ryan Holiday
256 pages | 7 hrs | Lied
Ryan Holiday’s sixth book, Perennial Seller, is a book on books, as well as other crafts, that sell perennially and how to create and market them.
7. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
304 pages | 6 hrs and 13 mins | Lied
Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals covers the daily rituals of 161 of the world’s most famous architects, choreographers, composers, filmmakers, painters, philosophers, playwrights, poets, scientists, sculptors, and writers in approximately one and a half pages each with an aim toward capturing the commonalities of creatives. Easy to pick up and put down, Daily Rituals was a fun read. The one story that stood out most in Currey’s collection of creatives’ daily rituals and eccentricities was Frank Lloyd Wright’s. Wright, writes Currey, never sketched anything till completely conceived in his psyche. He didn’t begin sketching his architectural masterwork, Fallingwater, until his client called to say he’d
6. The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance by Josh Waitzkin
288 pages | 7 hrs and 55 mins | Lied
Josh Waitzkin honed The Art of Learning first as an eight-time national chess champion child prodigy subject of Searching for Bobby Fisher, then as a thirteen-time Tai Chi Chuan push hands national champion and two-time Tai Chi Chuan push hands world champion. The art of learning can be learned and taught and Waitzkin not only teaches it, but teaches how to learn it. He guides his reader step by step through the process telling his story along the way. The Art of Learning is a Tim Ferriss Book Club selection, which isn’t surprising considering it’s about mastering learning. Josh Waitzkin is not only a master of The Art of Learning, but also a master storyteller. His book was as entertaining as it was enlightening. As a college writing instructor, I’ll be using the story Waitzkin tells at the beginning of Chapter 15: The Power of Presence as an example of the art of storytelling. Whether you’re interested in learning chess or Tai Chi Chuan in particular, or learning in general, Waitzkin’s book will not disappoint.
5. Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni
384 pages | 13 hrs and 9 mins | Lied
Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni’s Rome’s Last Citizen is the first full-length biography of Cato the Younger and covers many important events in late Roman Republic history all occurring in Cato’s lifetime and in all of which Cato was involved: The rise of Pompey, the rise of Cicero, the rise of Caesar, the fall of Cicero, the fall of the Roman Republic, and the rise of the Roman Empire. Also covered is the legacy of Cato down through the centuries from the Roman Stoics to the American Revolutionaries who saw him as a Sage.
4. The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and Life by Leo Babauta
192 pages | 3 hrs and 54 mins | Read
Leo Babauta’s The Power of Less contains clutter-cutting counsel, habit-honing help, and power-producing principles for living life with less.
3. The Niche Of Lights (Brigham Young University – Islamic Translation Series) by Al-Ghazali and David Buchman
80 pages | | Read
Al-Ghazali’s The Niche of Lights is a book-length Sufi exegesis on the Light Verse, one of the Qur’an’s most enigmatic, and the Veils Hadith. The Light Verse reads in Cleary’s translation:
God is the light
of the heavens and the earth.
The simile of God’s light
is like a niche in which is a lamp,
the lamp in a globe of glass,
the globe of glass as if it were a shining star,
lit from a blessed olive tree
neither of the East nor of the West,
its light nearly luminous
even if fire did not touch it.
Light upon light
whomever God will:
and God gives people examples;
and God knows all things.
The Veils Hadith reads in David Buchman’s traslation: “God has seventy veils of light and darkness; where he to lift them, the august glories of His face would burn up everyone whose eysight perceived Him.”
The author of this exegesis is the second most important figure in the Islamic tradition after the Prophet Muhammad, and one of the mot important figures in all of intellectual history, being known in the Islamic tradition as Hujjat al-Islam (The Proof of Islam) and being in the Western tradition an acknowledged intellectual influence on St. Thomas Aquinas, who knew him by his Latinized name, Algazel. Interestingly, while al-Ghazali seems to have rejected Neoplatonism in his The Incoherence of the Philosophers, this work seems to be Neoplatonic.
2. The Alchemy of Happiness (Sources and Studies in World History) by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali
160 pages | | Read
Al-Ghazali’s The Alchemy of Happiness is n Sufi work on religious ethics by the second most important figure in the Islamic tradition after the Prophet Muhammad himself, and an acknowledged intellectual influence on St. Thomas Aquinas. Known in the Latin tradition as Algazel, al-Ghazali, in turn, shows clear Aristotelian influence in The Alchemy of Happiness, as well as in his philosophical ethics, his Mizan al-‘Amal (The Criterion of Action). This edition is an abridged English translation made by Claude Field from the original Persian. Al-Ghazali wrote this work in Persian for the uneducated masses. Arabic was the language of scholarship in al-Ghazali’s milieu and and that of most of his other works, his Mizan al-‘Amal included. This abridged translation of The Alchemy of Happiness is one of the books I cover in online Great Books discussions for Leisure Learning.
1. The Flowering of Muslim Theology by Josef van Ess and Jane Marie Todd
240 pages | | Read
The Flowering of Muslim Theology by Josef Van Ess consists of a series of four lectures given by Professor van Ess at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris in 1998 with a fifth chapter and introduction added. It was originally published in French a Prémices de la théologie Musulmane in 2002. This English translation by Jane Marie Todd was published in 2006. This remarkable little book serves as an introduction to Professor van Ess’s masterwork Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. un 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra (Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra). I bought my copy of The Flowering of Muslim Theology in 2015 for $20.05 and hadn’t gotten around to reading it until now that I’m waiting for my copy of the English translation of Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. un 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra (Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra Volume 1) translated by John O’Kane and published in 2016 to arrive. I read it with interest in a couple of days.
Chapter 1: Theology in Its Own Eyes: Division and Heresy in Islam. Chapter 2: Theology and the Koran: The Mi’raj and the Debate on Anthropomorphism. Chapter 3: Theology and Science: Mu’tazilite Atomism. Chapter 4: Theology and Human Reality: Historical Images and Political Ideas. Chapter 5: Theology and Its Principles: Hermeneutics and Epistemology.
2017
45. Lucretius: On the Nature of Things (Loeb Classical Library No. 181) (Bks. 1-6) by Titus Lucretius Carus (Author), W.H.D. Rouse (Author), M.F. Smith (Author)
Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things is one of my favorite poems. This year, I started and ended the year reading it. I read the verse translation of Ian Johnston at the beginning of the year and this, the prose translation of W.H.D. Rouse at the end. The poetry of Lucretius’s original Latin comes through the English prose translation of Rouse. Johnston’s is my favorite verse translation and Rouse’s is my favorite prose translation. This Loeb Classical Library edition afforded me the opportunity to read the Latin whenever a particular passage tickled my fancy. I included passages that did in my commonplace blog, where you can read them, along with commonplaces from other translations. Lucretius is one of three philosophical poets, along with Dante and Goethe, as Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana pointed out in his book, Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe, Lucretius being the poet of the natural, Dante the supernatural, and Goethe the romantic.
44. After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam by Lesley Hazleton
Lesley Hazleton’s After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam is epic indeed! She begins with a brief biographical sketch of Muhammad familiar to anyone who has read her earlier book The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad. As in the story of Muhammad, Aisha, the Prophet’s second and most controversial wife, figures prominently in the epic story of the Shia-Sunni split, almost as prominently as Ali, the Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law, and adopted son, from whom the Shi’a derive their name, Shi’at Ali (the party of Ali), or Shi’a for short. Hazleton recounts the passing over of Ali as Caliph or successor (khalifa) to Muhammad as political leader of the Islamic community (Umma), first in favor of Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Uthman, before becoming the fourth of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (Rashidun) only to be assasinated like Umar and Uthman before him. Along the way, Hazleton describes in detail the Battle of the Camel, the first Fitna or Muslim civil war. After the assasination of Ali, Hazleton covers the martyrdom of his son, Hussein and the subsequent significance of both and of the entire ordeal of the passing-over of Ali in terms of the tension that tore and continues to tear apart an erstwhile united community and the politicization of succeeding the Prophet to this day. The Shia-Sunni split was the beginning of civil strife among Muslims that continues to this day and is exacerbated by the same political jockeying that brought it about 1,400 years ago, political jockeying that now involves Wahabbis and Washington, in addition to Shias and Sunnis.
43. Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy by Jonathan A.C. Brown
Jonathan A.C. Brown’s Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy is a tour de force! It is erudite and accesssible. It has breadth and depth. It is for the most part a treatment of the Hadith, or reports of the Prophets sayings and doings, and his Sunna, or practice. It covers the controversial nature of both, given the difficulty of the epistemology involved, as well as the penchant under political pressure for the forgery of Hadith. While, on the one hand, Brown is a believing Muslim, on the other hand, he is an objective scholar. He covers all of the most controversial topics in Hadith scholarship from flagrant forgery to pious pretension and everything in between. Brown gives us a sweeping sense of the turbulent tradition of Hadith scholarship while at the same time defending its soundness, without failing to admit its pitfalls and follies. Through his handling of the historiography and hagiography of Hadith scholarship and prophetic biography respectively, Brown adeptly demonstrates the development of orthodoxy through “the challenge and choices of interpreting the Prophet’s legacy” from the passing of the Prophet to the present. Among the most controversial issues in the Islamic tradition dealt with are child brides and wife beating. Brown’s handling of these and other controversial issues is even-handed and erudite, while evincing evidence of an ever-unfolding tradition.
42. The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) by Homer (Author) and Stephen Mitchell (Translator)
I didn’t like The Odyssey as much as The Iliad, but I did like Stephen Mitchell’s poetry, as I always do. I’ve read his translations of Gilgamesh, The Iliad, Genesis, Job, some of his Psalms, and some of his Rilke, and all of it has been good. He is one of my two favorite translators, the other being Thomas Cleary, who’s translation of the Qurʾan is one of the two best experiences of the poetry of the Qurʾan in English, the other being Shawkat Toorawa’s. Although I didn’t like The Odyssey as much as The Iliad, I am very much looking forward to the first translation of The Odyssey by a woman, Emily Wilson, but not until after I enjoy the first translation of the Virgil’s Aeneid by a woman, Sarah Ruden, first.
For those unfamiliar with The Odyssey, it is an account of the adventures of Odysseus, the hero of the Trojan War and artificer of the Trojan horse stratagem, on his way home from Troy and of his overcoming the many suitors seeking his wife’s hand to win her and his home back. The Trojan horse incident as well as the famous death of Achilles by an arrow to his heal is not found in The Odyssey, nor in The Iliad, but in The Trojan Epic or Posthomerica by Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Iliad covers the siege of Troy to win back Helen, who was taken there by Paris, a prince of Troy. As for whether Helen was taken by Paris to Troy by force or whether she went willingly, the story is variously told in other works of ancient literature.
While The Iliad is all about war, and includes serial scenes of slaughter, each warrior cut down in battle is given a human face and so the poem is more mournful than merely magnifying of martial virtue. In other words, The Iliad, contrary to popular belief, is best read an anti-war poem. The Odyssey, on the other hand glorifies the violence Odysseus commits in the end against his wife’s faceless suitors to win her back from them.
41. Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence by Gregory A. Boyd
Greg Boyd’s Cross Vision was recommended to me by my Positive Forces Project cofounder, Shiloh Logan. I will never read scripture the same way again after reading this book. Boyd’s “cruciform hermeneutic” attributes to man the biblical violence man attributes to God as it is not fitting Him who willingly gave up his life to overcome his enemies, rather than taking theirs. All the while, Boyd upholds the “God-breathed” (1 Tim 3:16) nature of the Bible, sidestepping the issue of its historicity, while arguing that we mistake in meting out moral judgment on God for the violence He does not commit, but that is imputed to him by prophets who, in their ancient context, don’t know any better, but only follow in the tradition of fathers. In their ancient contexts, the ancient Israelite prophets believed YHWH (usually translated “the Lord”) was their warrior god, just as neighboring tribes believed Baal (an honorific title meaning “Lord”) was theirs. God allows this injustice just as he allows His Son to be unjustly crucified, showing his true nonviolent nature in both cases. If you’re not sure how to reconcile the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New, this book is for you. Boyd also published The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Volumes 1 & 2, a more scholarly treatment, in the same year.
40. The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad by Lesley Hazleton
I discovered this book via the author’s excellent June 2013 TEDGlobal Talk, “The Doubt Essential to Faith.” Also excellent is her October 2010 TEDxRainier talk, “On Reading the Koran.” Her biography of the Prophet of Islam did not disappoint. I’m looking forward to her second book, After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam. Hazleton follows traditional Muslim biographer Ibn Ishaq closely, while giving her own analysis of the Prophet’s life. Hazleton is deft at handling all of the most sensitive subjects in the seerah (traditional Muslim biography of the Prophet), such as the Prophet’s marriage to his companion Abu Bakr’s daughter, Aisha, who was widely believed to have been only nine years old when her marriage to the Prophet was consummated, largely on her own account. Hazleton points out that Aisha giving this account is typical of her flair for frivolous flamboyance, by which she sought to distinguish herself from the Prophet’s other wives. The Prophets other wives is another subject Hazleton deals with deftly in defiance of age-old Western stereotypes of the Prophet’s plural marriages as profligacy, by pointing out that each of the Prophet’s marriages was to seal some alliance or another, not for personal pleasure. Overall, Hazleton’s biography of the Prophet was adroitly authored and accessible. I also recommend Daniel Peterson’s Muhammad, Prophet of God.
39. The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims by Mustafa Akyol
I came across this book at Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library while in the process of applying for a PhD program in Arabic and Islamic Studies at The Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, a study and research center in Rome. One of my mentors, Dr. Glen Cooper, who was in the process of writing me a letter of recommendation and helping me write my CV and Statement of Purpose had also recommended it to me. It sat on my desk throughout the application process and I only picked it up after I saw that the International Qur’anic Studies Association had just met for its annual conference and discussed the book with the author. I read it over the course of a weekend.
The subject of this book, the Islamic Jesus, is little-known by Muslims and less-known by non-Muslims. It has been the source of Christian-Muslim polemics for centuries. When Reza Aslan wrote Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, many wondered why he didn’t write a book on the Islamic Jesus. Mustafa Akyol has and it is well-written, well-researched, and well-documented. The book deals not only with the Islamic Jesus but, as hinted by its subtitle, with the Jewish and Christian Jesus as well. Akyol introduces Jacobite Christianity in James (James’ Aramaic name was Ya’acov), also known as Jewish Christianity, as opposed to Pauline Christianity in the epistles of Paul and traces Jewish Christianity to its apparent demise in the fifth century. He then argues for its rebirth through Islam in the seventh century and its rebirth in the West in the 1600’s in the Socianianism of the English Renaissance. Finally, based on the current situation of Muslims, which Akyol compares to the situation of the Jews at the time of the advent of Jesus, Akyol calls for Muslims to turn to Jesus’ example to solve Islam’s present problems.
38. Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
While Gary Vee’s first book is quite outdated in terms of its specific recommendations, it is very much up-to-date in terms of the general principles it teaches. And while some say Gary Vee doesn’t know what he’s talking about, some of what he predicted about social media in his first book has come true and I find his message motivational as much as informational so that while it may fail correctly to inform, it never fails to motivate. I am a regular listener of Gary Vee’s podcast, which while often crude is highly motivational if not informational. I recommend this book to any aspiring entrepreneur who, like Gary Vee, wants to put family first and business second and “cash in on your passion.” Some find Gary Vee’s message of putting in insane hours off-putting, but I find it only realistic and consistent with the true meaning of passion (to suffer).
37. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
Malcolm X is one of my greatest heroes. What I admire most about him is his tenacious spirit of kaizen (i.e. continuous improvement), his adherence to truth as he knew it, his openness to receiving further truth, and his willingness to embrace it despite having invested so much of himself in what he may have earlier believed to have been true, but later discarded in favor of investing all of himself in newly embraced truth. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X and Alex Haley is one of my favorite books. I’ve read and reread it with profit, especially Chapter 11: Saved, which details Malcolm X’s conversion to the Nation of Islam and his education; and Chapters 17-19, which detail his conversion to Sunni Islam.
Marable’s book is meant to add to and correct The Autobiography of Malcolm X, though it does more to add to it than to correct it and only often only offers speculation as a corrective. One way in which it simultaneously adds and corrects is by critically analyzing the construction of the narrative Malcolm X presents in The Autobiography. While I do not in any way object to this analysis, I do not take it as certain either. If anything, Marable’s thesis only further proves the genius of Malcolm the master rhetorician. The most significant way in which Marable’s book adds to The Autobiography is by providing context missing in (and extraneous to) it. Marable’s book is as much about the Civil Rights Movement and African-American Muslims in general as it is about Malcolm X in particular. One way in which Marable’s book attempts to correct The Autobiography is by pointing out apparent inconsistencies between the facts of Malcolm’s life as Marable sees them and as Malcolm tells them. In the end, even if Marable is right, Malcolm was not disingenuous in crafting The Autobiography, but was only a master rhetorician. Marable was only a historian.
36. Parmenides and Empedocles: The Fragments in Verse Translation by Stanley Lombardo
It is difficult to put into words how moving the poetry of Parmenides and Empedocles as rendered in verse by Stanley Lombardo is. Parmenides gives an account of the nature of things that is an antithesis to Heraclitus‘ flux: “It is not possible to step twice into the same river according to Heraclitus, or to come into contact twice with a mortal being in the same state” (Plutarch). Parmenides presents an unchanging, wholistic view of the cosmos that explicitly mentions the opposite view as a false perception. Empedocles presents a synthesis of Heraclitus and Parmenides in which he relates the one to the many and the many to the one. Lombardo’s verse translation renders these two oft-misunderstood mystical poet-philosophers into English in their original poetic form so that they move the reader with their complementary if contradictory cosmic world views.
35. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
I was surprised by the depth and breadth of the insights I gained from Marie Kondō’s book. I’m pretty tidy, decluttered, and organized. Still, I found insights into the nature of the relationship in which I stand to the things I own such that I was able to gain a better appreciation for the few things I have (in addition to my books, of course) and a path to minimize and simplify more while appreciating what little I have or am left with.
34. Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World by Charles J. Chaput
This is the third book of its kind I’ve read this year, all three of them published this year, about a month apart from each other The other two are Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture by Anthony Esolen (published about a month earlier) and The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher (published about a month later). All three were intellectually stimulating in pointing out the corruption of Christian culture in America and in presenting solutions to the decay. Chaput’s was, perhaps, the most well-thought-out of the three for being less alarmist and most pragmatic. Still, I found value in reading all three and recommend all three for each author’s unique insights into and approach to the subject. I knew Esolen from his translations of Lucretius and Dante and Dreher from How Dante Can Save Your Life. I didn’t know Chaput but am glad to. I may read his Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life.
33. The Qur’an: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) by Bruce Lawrence
Lawrence begins with a brief biographical sketch of the prophet of Islam and the revelation of the Qur’an. That I expected from the title of his book. The rest was a pleasant surprise. Lawrence took me chapter by chapter through several classical, medieval, and modern metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political, and aesthetic interpretations of the Qur’an. If you’re not familiar with Qur’anic exegesis, you may be surprised to learn how wide and varied the interpretations of the Qur’an over the last 1,400 years have been. The interpretations included in Lawrence’s book range from Sufi mystics Ibn ‘Arabi and Rumi to Salafi jihadi Osama bin Laden. The aesthetical aspects of the Qur’an include Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, India’s Taj Mahal, and faith healing. The Qur’an has meant many different things to many different people in many different places.
32. Aeneid Book VI: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The English poetry of Seamus Heaney’s translation of Book VI of Virgil’s Aeneid is superb! I read it aloud as I always do poetry and thoroughly enjoyed it! If you are unfamiliar with Book VI of the Aeneid, it is the story of Aeneas’ descent into the underworld. It compares to Odysseus’ descent into the underworld in Book XI of Homer’s Odyssey and Dante’s in Canto X of Dante’s Inferno. In fact, Book VI of the Aeneid could be called “Virgil’s Inferno.” Would that Seamus Heaney had translated all of the Aeneid! Alas, he did not and since he passed in 2013, he cannot.
31. The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues (Dover Thrift Editions) by Plato and Benjamin Jowett
Plato’s Socratic dialogues Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and the death scene from Phaedo are a great introduction to philosophy in general and Socrates (or at least Plato) in particular. The Jowett translation has been the standard translation for a century and is still readable despite its age. These four dialogues recount the last days of Socrates. In the Euthyphro, we meet Socrates on his way to his trial. In the Apology, we hear Socrates’ defense at his trial. In the Crito, Socrates, awaiting the execution of his death sentence in prison, turns down his friends’ offers of help escaping out of respect for the law, despite his unjust sentence. In the Phaedo, Socrates discusses the immortality of the soul with his friends and, in the end, calmly drinks the poison appointed him and dies. The questions Socrates raises and his martyrdom immortalized him.
30. The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher
The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher and Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture by Anthony Esolen both came to my attention around the same time before they were published. I knew I wanted to read them as soon as they were published. I knewDreher as the author of How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem, a memoir on Dante’s influence on Dreher and Esolen as a translator of and lecturer on (Catholic Courses) Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradise, as well as a translator of Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things: De rerum natura. In The Benedict Option, Dreher dreadfully diagnoses the malady that ails America today, including it’s intellectual history, gives a poignant prognosis of it, and prescribes a contrarian cure to counter our current cultural carelessness. If you read only one of the two books (Dreher’s or Esolen’s), read Dreher’s. It describes in detail the problem and the solution.
29. Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture by Anthony Esolen
Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture by Anthony Esolen and The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher both came to my attention around the same time before they were published. I knew I wanted to read them as soon as they were published. I knew Esolen as a translator of and lecturer on (Catholic Courses) Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradise, as well as a translator of Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things: De rerum natura, and Dreher as the author of How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem, a memoir on Dante’s influence on Dreher. In Out of the Ashes, Esolen issues a scathing critique of American culture or, rather, lack thereof since, Esolen argues, America has no culture, only mass habits and calls for a return to apple pie, baseball, and church. Esolen is not as detailed as Dreher in his diagnosis or treatment of the malady that ails America today, but is worth reading along with Dreher.
28. The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy by Heinrich A. Rommen
First published in German in 1936 and in English translation in 1947, Rommen’s book is a excellent primer on the natural law. This edition is a 1998 reprint published by Liberty Fund. In Part I, Rommen covers the history of the idea of natural law from Ancient Greece and Rome through the Age of Scholasticism, the turning point in Hugo Grotius, and the Age of Individualism and Rationalism to a turning away from natural law in favor of positivism. In Part II, Rommen argues that the idea of natural law is nevertheless perennial and is the only way positivism is legitimated. Rommen argues against the positivist view that will makes law in favor of the natural law view that truth makes law, while arguing against the rationalist individualist natural law of the Skeptics and Stoics in favor of the metaphysical natural law of St. Thomas Aquinas. It’s a tour de force.
27. I Need Your Love – Is That True?: How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation and Start Finding Them Instead by Byron Katie
I love Byron Katie! And I love her husband, Stephen Mitchell! Her work is Buddhist. His is Taoist. They make a great couple! Like Loving What Is, I listened to the abridged edition of this book because it is narrated by Katie herself. Since the book is dialogue-based, and features Katie doing “The Work,” it has to be experienced in her own sweet voice. “The Work” is deceptively simple: “Judge your neigbor. Write it down. Ask four questions. Turn it around.” Yet it is powerful. Like Roman Stoicism, Katie’s Buddhism offers freedom in assenting only to truth and loving what is.
26. Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Biblical Stories by Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell is one of my favorite translators of classic biblical literature, Robert Alter being the other. Mitchell’s translation of Job was the first in verse (The Hebrew original is in verse.) Alter’s translation of Job was the second in verse. As is the case in Mitchell’s translation of Job, his introduction alone is worth the price of the book. In Genesis, Mitchell is erudite and poetic as always. As usual, he does not hesitate to make emendations to the text whenever he deems them necessary and, as always, he makes note of them, giving ample justification, when he does.
25. The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton
The thesis of Walton’s book is that Genesis 1 is not about material origins, but rather functional origins. He argues that Genesis 1 is a temple text in the context of ancient cosmology. A four-page summary of the argument of the book by the author can be found in Genesis 1 as Temple Text in the Context of Ancient Cosmology Summary Description by the author. Walton provides Biblical and ancient Near Eastern evidence to back up his thesis. Walton demonstrates that a correct interpretation of Genesis 1 depends on a correct understanding of the worldview of its author(s).
24. The Love Poems of Rumi by Rumi and Nader Khalili
Thanks in large part to Coleman Barks, Rumi is the bestselling poet in America today. But the Persian poet has been perennial worldwide for centuries. Born in modern-day Afghanistan, Rumi met his Sufi master, Shams al-Tabrizi while studying Islamic jurisprudence in Syria. From there he went to Konya in modern-day Turkey where he wrote his Masnavi, one of the most important pieces of Persian literature. Like Barks, Iranian-American architect and Cal-Earth Institute founder, Nader Khalili, translates Rumi with the sensitivity of a poet, but from the original Persian.
23. Caesarean Moon Births: Calculations, Moon Sighting, and the Prophetic Way by Hamza Yusuf
This book is an excellent example of Islamic scholarship by an erudite scholar who is one of The Muslim 500. Notwithstanding, it is written for the lay person. While its intended audience is Muslim American, it is of interest to anyone who would like to get inside the mind of a Muslim scholar and learn how the 1,400-year-old tradition of Islamic scholarship works. Since the sources the author draws upon are the Qur’an and the Sunnah, this is technically a legal treatise. So, if you’re intestested in sharia and how it is interpreted, this book will give you a sense of that.
22. The Life and Times of a Remarkable Misfit: A Collection of Essays About Changing the World by AJ Leon
I first saw AJ Leon interviewed on Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. Next I watched AJ’s TED Talk, This Is Not Your Practice Life and some interviews of him and his wife, Melissa on YouTube. One of the things that really struck me about AJ was his relationship with his wife. I decided to read his book. My key takeaway from AJ’s book was that “Confidence is not nearly as important as courage” and “acting like you can.” I recommend AJ’s book to anyone who hates their job and, like AJ was before he quit his, is living for the weekend.
21. Lit: How to Get Your Soul Back by Bryan Ward
Lit: How to Get Your Soul Back by Bryan Ward is only available on the author’s website. I stumbled upon an article by the author online and ended up on his website where I read through one of those long sales pitches and wasn’t about to buy. Certainly not for $9.99. But the copy was so well-written, I sent a link to my friend Shiloh Logan. Shiloh bought the book and shared it with me. I’m glad I read it. My key takeaway from it was not to expect my wife to be my muse but to make her my masterpiece instead and to cultivate my art to cultivate my marriage and family.
20. On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long if You Know How to use It by Seneca and C. D. N. Costa
This book contains three of Seneca’s Moral Essays: “On the Shortness of Life,” “Consolation to Helvia,” and “On Tranquility of Mind.” As in the first of the Letters from a Stoic, in “On the Shortness on Life,” written to his friend Paulinus, Seneca will wake you up from your slumber and call on you to live your life fully. In “Consolation to Helvia,” written to his mother upon his being exiled to Corsica after being accused of adultery with the Emperor Caligula’s sister Julia Livilla, Seneca will call into question the value you place on national identity and material possessions and remind you things can always be worse. In “On Tranquility of Mind,” written to his friend Serenus, Seneca will make you question your priorities.
19. The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Pt. 1) (English and Italian Edition) by Dante Alighieri and Robin Kirkpatrick
Kirkpatrick’s is one of the two best English verse translations of Dante’s Inferno. Robert Pinsky’s is the other, but he only translated the Inferno. Merwin’s translation of the Purgatorio only a perfect companion to Pinsky’s Inferno, but there’s no translation of the Paradiso only to complete the Comedy. Though not in terza rima like Dante’s original or even some English verse translations like Dorothy Sayers’ or, Robert Pinsky’s, Kirkpatrick’s poetry sings, and it sings in tune with Dante’s original. Kirkpatrick’s translation moves along with Dante’s and matches his tone and diction, and even his highs and lows of register, throughout. Kirkpatrick also translated the Purgatorio and Paradiso.
18. The Essential Koran: The Heart of Islam by Thomas Cleary
Cleary is one of the best translators of the Qur’an. While his translation of the entire Qur’an, The Qur’an: A New Translation, is out of print and costly, this “rosary of readings and recitations” is in print and economical. The selected chapters and verses represent “the heart of Islam” inasmuch as they demonstrate what preeminent Islamic theologian al-Ghazali (d. 1111) called “the six aims of the Qur’an.” The selections portray “the essential wisdom, beauty, and majesty” of the Qur’an. In addition to Cleary’s translation in verse, which captures some of the aesthetic value of the Qur’an, especially when read aloud, Cleary’s copious linguistic notes expand on his translation, elucidating key Qur’anic terms.
17. Martial’s Epigrams: A Selection by Garry Wills
Martial ranges from bold to bawdy, from irreverant to iredeemable and from racy to raunchy in his poetry and Garry Wills captures the whole gamut in rhyming verse. Martial deals with baldness, banqueting, and body odor; marital fidelity, marital infidelity, and misogyny; tributes to emperors, tributes to friends, and tributes to the dead, but the best of the best of his epigrams are on the simple life and on the writing profession. His epigrams on the simple life are as fresh as Marie Kondo’s or The Minimalists’ and his epigrams on the the writing profession are as incisive, insightful, and inspiring as Ann Lamott’s or Steven Pressfield’s. Martial mockingly rhymes like a rapper in denigrating his detractors.
16. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield and Shawn Clayne
The War of Art is a tour de force on overcoming Resistance and doing the work you were born to do. As Ryan Holiday learned from Robert Greene, there’s alive time (the time you are “passive and biding,” or “Resistance” in Pressfield’s terms) and dead time (the time you are “learning and acting and leveraging every second,” or “work” in Pressfield’s terms. “Which are you in?,” asks Holiday. Pressfield walks you through identifying the work you were born to do and recognizing and the Resistance you have to it (he points out that Resistance actually points to the work) before walking you through how to overcome Resistance and do your life’s work. If you’re stuck in Resistance, read this and overcome it!
15. Meditations: A New Translation by Marcus Aurelius and Gregory Hays
Originally untitled, what we now know as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius were once known as To Himself (Greek: τον αυτόν), both fitting titles for what were meditations of Stoic Emperor-philosopher written to himself. While Hays’ translation is easy to read, he doesn’t do as well as other translators when it comes to handling the technical terms of Stoicism. The reader who prefers “to study texts with precision, without being content just to skim over them in a general, approximate way” would do well to read Robin Hard’s translation (Oxford) or Martin Hammond’s (Penguin). For comparisons of passages with key technical terms of Stoicism see my commonplaces from The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot.
14. Dante’s Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri and Mark Musa
Dante’s Vita Nuova is a strange, but beautiful book. Dante fell hard for Beatrice Portinari when he and she were both only nine years old and never got over her. She married someone else and so did he. She died young, and he was exiled from Florence. He wrote the Vita Nuova to showcase poems and sonnets he wrote about her. He then wrote the Divine Comedy to be led by her up through the nine circles of Heaven after being led down through the nine circles of Hell and up the seven terraces of Purgatory to the Earthly Paradise, or Garden of Eden, atop Mount Purgatory by the poet Virgil (the author of the Aeneid) at her bidding to be defied with her in Heaven.
13. Dante: A Life (Penguin Lives) by R. W. B. Lewis
Lewis’ brief biography of Dante is an excellent introduction to the Sommo Poeta and his works. It deals with both in chronological fashion, treating each of Dante’s works in turn as it is written, including the texture of Dante’s life and times surrounding the writing of each work. Includied in this treatment is a picture of the places and politics influencing Dante. The treatment of each of Dante’s works is detailed enough to give the reader a good sense of the overall content and structure of the works. Lewis ends with a brief overview of Dante’s influence on the later poets. A even more brief biography of Dante without the detailed treatment of each of his works is A Life of Dante by Benedict Flynn.
12. College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be by Andrew Delbanco
This book contains a useful concise history of higher education in America from colonial times to the present. This history is helpful in contextualizing the current state of higher education in America. Additionally, this book raises challenging questions about the nature of education in a democratic society and offers answers. You may not agree with the author’s assessment of the challenges facing higher education in American today, or with his answers to those challenges, but you will be challenged yourself. The author knows his history and has a good handle on the current situation, if not the exact causes of it.
11. Make Her Chase You: The Guide to Attracting Girls Who Are “Out of Your League” Even If You’re Not Rich or Handsome by Tynan
This book, as indicated by its title and vulgar cover image, contains helpful advice for attracting women, but is not vulgar as its cover image suggests and isn’t limited in its usefulness to the subject of its title alone. In fact, It is cleverly marketed to attract men lacking confidence in themselves when it comes to striking up conversation with the fairer sex, but contains principles for How to Win Friends and Influence People in general, to borrow Dale Carnegie’s title. Tynan developed these principles fully in his later book, Superhuman Social Skills. His insights into human nature in both books are invaluable.
10. Around the World in Fifteen Friends: Fifteen Short Stories of Love, Crime, and Kindness by Tynan
This book was better than I thought it would be. Tynan is a master storyteller and his meditations on travel and friendship demonstrates it while giving insight into human nature and the nature of friendship. The stories exemplify the author’s mastery of the art of storytelling detailed in his earlier books, Superhuman Social Skills and Make Her Chase You. It is a tour de force. In addition to its keen observations on human nature, it contains insights into the kinds of experiences that make long-term travel worthwhile.
9. Superhuman Social Skills: A Guide to Becoming Likeable, Winning Friends, and Building Your Social Circle by Tynan
This book is a contemporary How to Win Friends and Influence People. Tynan, like Dale Carnegie before him, has keen insights into human nature and knows how to apply them to building relationships. In this book, Tynan fully develops the ideas he earlier exposed in Make Her Chase You, demonstrating that the same skills used by pick-up artists apply to building relationships with people in general. Tynan brings to bear his own experience of stepping outside his comfort zone to talk to strangers and convert to friends when it didn’t come naturally to him and teaches his reader how to do the same.
8. Life Nomadic by Tynan
If you’ve always wanted to travel the world and think you can’t afford to, think again: you can. In fact, it costs less than staying put. Tynan’s book is your passport. In it, he details his own experience of living the dream and walks his reader through how to do it step by step. Even if you’re not interested in vagabonding, you’ll find tips and tricks to buying cheaper fares and saving money on all kinds of other travel expenses as well. You’ll also learn how to have the best experience traveling abroad. As an experienced world traveler and sometimes vagabond I can tell you, “[n]ot all those who wander are lost” (Tolkien), and the experience of long-term travel is unbeatable when it comes to getting an education.
7. The Tiniest Mansion – How to Live in Luxury On the Side of the Road in an RV by Tynan
This is one of those books that stretches your imagination and calls convention into question. Would I live in an RV? Maye, maybe not. Regardless, I found value in the provocative ideas in Tynan’s book and know better what it would take to do it in style. Tynan recounts his years-long experience of living a minimalist lifestyle in an RV that can fit in any parking spot anywhere and the modifications in his lifestyle and the RV itself it took to make it possible. I’ve lived aboard a 26-foot sloop and have considered living in what is sometimes aptly called a land yacht. After reading this book, I’m considering the possibility of living in two smaller RVs instead of one large one when my son is old enough to drive one.
6. Superhuman by Habit: A Guide to Becoming the Best Possible Version of Yourself, One Tiny Habit at a Time by Tynan
This book contains the secrets to successful habit building. If you like Leo Babauta, you’ll love Tynan, to whom Leo has turned for support in building habits. I know of no better book on the subject than Tynan’s. This book was mentioned in Charles Chu’s Quartz article, “In the time you spend on social media each year, you could read 200 books.” After reading Chu’s article, I shared it on Facebook where I found it, deleted the app and read all of Tynan’s books, starting with this one, in one weekend.
5. The Inferno of Dante Alighieri (The Temple Classics) by Dante Alighieri and John Carlyle
The Temple Classics edition of the Carlyle-Oakey-Wicksteed translation of Dante’s Commedia is out of print, so I’ve linked to this Vintage Classics edition instead. This is the best public domain prose translation of the Commedia. Dante is one of the three philosophical poets detailed in Three Philosophical Poets by Santayana. Dante’s Inferno, the first of three Canticas in the Commedia, details Dante’s descent through the nine circles of Hell to reach the center of the Earth before emerging in the Southern Hemisphere to climb the seven terraces of Purgatory to the Earthly Paradise, or Garden of Eden, in his Purgatorio, then to fly through the nine spheres of Heaven to be deified in his Paradiso.
4. Musonius Rufus: Lectures and Sayings by Cynthia King and William B. Irvine
Musonius Rufus is the least well-known Roman Stoic philosopher, his student, the Roman slave philosopher Epictetus, and his student, the Roman Emperor philosopher Marcus Aurelius, being better known. Yet Musonius Rufus, my favorite Stoic philosopher, has a lot to offer. He was avant-garde in so many ways and very much a product of his time in others. Reading Musonius Rufus can give you a sense not only of Roman Stoicism and it’s applicability to life today, but of Roman life and it’s surprising parallels with life today. This volume is the best English edictionary of Musonius Rufus’ writings in print.
3. The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia (Hackett Classics) by Epicurus and Lloyd P. Gerson
Epicureanism is less read and even lesser understood than Stoicism. Although I recommend reading Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura for a fuller exposition of Epicureanism, I also recommend reading this, one of the few English language renditions of the few extant writings of Epicurus himself. Less popular than Stoicism, Epicureanism had proponents as luminary as Thomas Jefferson. Additionally, in its exposition in Lucretius, Epicureanism was pivotal in fueling the Renaissance after a thousand years of neglect, as compellingly exposed in Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt.
2. The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness by Epictetus and Sharon Lebell
This interpretation of Epictetus’ Enchiridion is sublime! I highly recommend it as an introduction to Stoicism. I recommend following up the reading of this with the writings of Epictetus himself, those of his little-known teacher, Musonius Rufus, and those of his well-known student, Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism has much to offer today as witnessed by the recent publications of The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 by Tim Ferrris, The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday, Musonius Rufus: Lectures and Sayings by Cynthia King and William B. Irvine and A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine.
1. On the Nature of Things by Lucretius and Ian Johnston
This book, a translation of De Rerum Natura, contains the fullest exposition of Epicureanism and is written in verse. The author, Lucretius, one of the three philosophical poets subject of Santayana’s book, Three Philosophical Poets, was influential on Virgil, who in turn was influential on Dante, another of the three philosophical poets covered by Santayana. Johnston’s is one of my two favorite contemporary English verse renditions of Lucretius, the other being Alicia Stallings’. Johnston’s translation is also available in audiobook from Naxos and can be sampled or even read in its entirety on Johnston’s personal Web page, Johnstonia.
2016
51. Why Read? by Mark Edmundson
Mark Edmundson’s Why Read
50. The Mainspring of Human Progress (LVMI) by Henry Grady Weaver
Henry Grady Weaver’s The Mainspring of Human Progress
49. Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie
Byron Katie’s Loving What Is
48. Enchiridion (Dover Thrift Editions) by Epictetus and George Long
Epictetus’ Enchiridion
47. In a Dark Wood: A Memoir by Joseph Luzzi
Joseph Luzzi’s In a Dark Wood
46. Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe: Volume VIII (Volume 8) (Works of George Santayana) by George Santayana (Author), Kellie Dawson (Editor), David E. Speech (Editor), James Seaton (Introduction)
Santayana’s Three Philosophical Poets is brilliant.
45. The Beginning of Guidance by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf
al-Ghazali The Beginning of Guidance
44. The Islamic Vision of Development in Light of Maqasid al-Shariah by Muhammad Chapra
Muhammad Chapra The Islamic Vision of Development in Light of Maqasid al-Shariah
43. The Christians and the Fall of Rome (Penguin Great Ideas) by Edward Gibbon
42. Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther
Martin Luther’s Concerning Christian Liberty
41. The Paradiso (Signet Classics) by Dante Alighieri and John Ciardi
Dante’s The Paradiso
40. The Purgatorio (Signet Classics) by Dante Alighieri and John Ciardi
Dante’s The Purgatorio
39. The Inferno (Signet Classics) by Dante Alighieri and John Ciardi
Dante’s The Inferno
38. A Life of Dante by Benedict Flynn
Benedict Flynn’s A Life of Dante
37. Maqasid al-Shariah: A Beginner’s Guide by Jasser Auda
Jasser Auda’s Maqasid al-Shariah
36. Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life by Nick Vujicic
Nick Vujicic’s Life Without Limits
35. A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century by Oliver DeMille
Oliver DeMille’s A Thomas Jefferson Education
34. Ibn Rajab’s Refutation of Those Who Do Not Follow the Four Schools by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali and Musa Furber
33. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri and Clive James
Clive James’ translation of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy
32. Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday’s Ego is the Enemy
31. The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way
30. The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books by Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman’s The Aleppo Codex
29. Lucretius: The Way Things Are: The Way Things Are: The De Rerum Natura of Titus Lucretius Carus by Lucretius (Author), Rolfe Humphries (Translator)
Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura is one of my favorite books.
28. Cicero: De re Publica (On the Republic) , De Legibus (On the Laws) (Loeb Classical Library No. 213) by Cicero (Author), Clinton W. Keyes (Translator)
Cicero’s De re Publica (On the Republic), De Legibus (On the Laws)
27. Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds by Joel L. Kraemer
Joel L. Kraemer’s Maimonides
26. Plato’s Republic by Plato and Benjamin Jowett
25. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1 by Edward Gibbom and J. B. Bury
Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
24. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Jung Chang’s Wild Swans is breathtaking in breadth and depth. It is unputdownable.
23. Joseph Spider and the Fallacy Farm by David Grant
David Grant’s Joseph Spider and the Fallacy Farm
22. Politics (Dover Thrift Editions) by Aristotle and Benjamin Jowett
Aristotle’s Politics
21. The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle and David Ross
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
20. The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey by Muhammad Ali and Hana Yasmeen Ali
Muhammad Ali and Hana Yasmeen Ali’s The Soul of a Butterfly was the biography of Muhammad Ali (AKA Cassius Clay I turned to when I had been scheduled to give a lecture on Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali died. Given Al’s death and the two men’s once close friendship, I wanted to speak on both men at the same time. A recording of the lecture, “Liberty Lecture on Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali: Champions Of Liberty,” is available on SoundCloud.
19. Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions) by Marcus Aurelius and George Long
Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations as the writings of the Stoic Emperor (perhaps and example of Plato’s Philosopher King) have come to be known, are writings I one to half a dozen times per year, though not always in this translation. I’ve written a comparison of ten different translators’ handling of key Stoic terms on my blog on this site under the title “4 Key Stoic Terms Compared in 10 Translations of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.”
18. The Law by Frederic Bastiat
Bastiat’s The Law is a gem. It succinctly explains the principles upon which the United States of America were founded. A 19th-century French political economist, Bastiat was a fan of the American Founding and wanted to put the principles upon which the American Founders established the United States in simple terms.
17. The Inferno of Dante by Dante Alighieri and Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky’s English terza rima verse translation The Inferno of Dante is the best English translation of the first Canticle of The Divine Comedy of Dante.
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16. The Communist Manifesto: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Karl Marx (Author), Friedrich Engels (Author), Killoffer (Illustrator), Marshall Berman (Introduction), Samuel Moore (Translator)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s The Communist Manifesto
15. Two Treatises of Government (Everyman’s Library) by John Locke
John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government
14. The Prince (Dover Thrift Editions) by Machiavelli and N. H. Thompson
Machiavelli’s The Prince forever altered its genre of mirrors for princes (specula principum). It is rather an anti-mirror for princes. Instead of prescribing how a prince should rule, as others in its genre, it describes how princes do rule.
13. The Trojan Epic: Posthomerica (Johns Hopkins New Translations from Antiquity) by Quintus of Smyrna (Author), Alan James (Editor)
Alan James’s English translation of Quintus of Smyrna’s The Trojan Epic: Posthomerica
12. How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem by Rod Dreher
Rod Dreher’s How Dante Can Save Your Life
11. The Alchemy of Happiness (Sources and Studies in World History)by Al-Ghazzali and Claude Field
Claud Field’s abridged translation of Al-Ghazali’s The Alchemy of Happiness
10. Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh
9. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto and Thomas Moore
John Taylor Gatto’s Dumbing Us Down
8. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is one of my favorite books.
7. Educating Your Child in Modern Times: How to Raise an Intelligent, Sovereign & Ethical Human Being by John Taylor Gatto (Author), Hamza Yusuf Hanson (Author), Nabila Hanson (Author), Dorothy Sayers (Author)
Educating Your Child in Modern Times
6. The Book of Job by Stephen Mitchell
Stephen Mitchell’s The Book of Job
5. Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy
Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy’s Living Forward
4. We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident: 12 Natural Laws of Freedom, Progress, and Success by Oliver DeMille
Oliver DeMille’s We Holds These Truths to Be Self Evident
3. Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior (Hoover Essays) by James B. Stockdale
James B. Stockdale’s Courage Under Fire
2. Zen to Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System by Leo Babauta
Leo Babauta’s Zen to Done
1. Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue by Sam Harris
Sam Harris’s Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue
