2018
The March Up Country: A Translation of Xenophon’s Anabasis (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) by Xenophon and W.H.D. Rouse
Xenophon’s Anabasis, or March Up Country
Mastery by Robert Greene
Robert Greene’s Mastery
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
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.
A Blue Fire by James Hillman and Thomas Moore
James Hillman and Thomas Moore’s A Blue Fire
The Soul’s Code by James Hillman
James Hillman’s The Soul’s Code
The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore’s The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life
The Artist’s Way: 25th Anniversary Edition by Julia Cameron
Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way
Managing Oneself (Harvard Business Review Classics) by Peter F. Drucker
Peter F. Drucker’s Managing Oneself
Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship by Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore’s Soul Mates
Care of the Soul, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Ed: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine
William B. Irvine’s A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change by John Glassie
John Glassie’s A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change
How to Read Machiavelli by Maurizio Viroli
Maurizio Viroli’s How to Read Machiavelli
Filone, l’eredità del Tardo Antico e la formazione dell’Islam (Italian Edition) by Massimo Campanini
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.
The Education of Cyrus (Agora Editions) by Xenophon (Author) and Wayne Ambler (Translator)
Wayne Ambler’s translation of Xenophon’s The Education of Cyrus
Giordano Bruno: Philosopher / Heretic by Ingrid D. Rowland
Ingrid D. Rowland’s Giordano Bruno: Philosopher / Heretic
How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Seneca (Author), James S. Romm (Editor, Introduction)
How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life
Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’Amour
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.
How to Win an Argument: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Persuasion (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) by Marcus Cicero and James May
How to Win an Argument
L’ignoto ignoto (Italian Edition) by Mark Forsyth
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 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 (actually, the subtitle) caught my attention. I also bought a copy for my friend, Travis, 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!
The Unknown Unknown by Mark Forsyth
Mark Forsyth’s The Unknown Unknown
A Libertarian Critique of Intellectual Property by Butler Shaffer
Butler Shaffer’s A Libertarian Critique of Intellectual Property
From Aristocracy to Monarchy to Democracy: A Tale of Moral and Economic Folly and Decay by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Hans Hermann-Hoppe’s From Aristocracy to Democracy: A Tale of Moral and Economic Folly and Decay
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger’s Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History is amateurish.
Jefferson and the Rights of Man (Jefferson and His Time, Vol. 2) by Dumas Malone
Dumas Malone’s Jefferson and the Rights of Man (Jefferson and His Time, Vol. 2)
Thomas Jefferson: President and Philosopher by Jon Meacham
Jon Meacham’s Thomas Jefferson: President and Philosopher
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness by Russ Roberts
Russ Roberts’ How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
Hadrian’s Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy
Adrian Goldsworthy’s Hadrian’s Wall
How to Run a Country: An Ancient Guide for Modern Leaders by Marcus Tullius Cicero and Philip Freeman
Phillip Freeman’s How to Run a Country consists of carefully selected excerpts from and illustrative of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s political writings.
How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians by Quintus Cicero and Philip Freeman
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).
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
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.”
The Aeneid (Penguin Classics) by Virgil (Author), Bernard Knox (Editor, Introduction), Robert Fagles (Translator)
Virgil’s Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas who, after fleeing the fall of Troy, founded Rome.
Aristotle: Problems, Volume II: Books 20-38. Rhetoric to Alexander (Loeb Classical Library) by Aristotle (Author), Robert Mayhew (Translator), David C. Mirhady (Translator)
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.
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn
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.
The Persian Wars, Volume IV: Books 8-9 (Loeb Classical Library)
Books 8-9 of Herodotus’s The Persian Wars
Herodotus, Books V-VII: The Persian Wars (Loeb Classical Library) (Volume III)
Books V-VII of Herodotus’s The Persian Wars
The Persian Wars, Volume II: Books 3-4 (Loeb Classical Library)
Books 3-4 of Herodotus’s The Persian Wars
The Persian Wars, Volume I: Books 1-2 (Loeb Classical Library)
Books 1-2 of Herodotus’s The Persian Wars
The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance by Paul Strathern
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.
How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life by Massimo Pigliucci
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.
Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by Tom Holland
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.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
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.
Rhetoric by Aristotle
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.
Poetics by Aristotle
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.
The Jefferson Bible by Thomas Jefferson
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.”
Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday’s Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue
Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City by Paul Strathern
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.
Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Hollland
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.
Rubicon: The Last Days of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
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.
The House of Medici: Is Rise and Fall by Christopher Hibbert
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.
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
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.
Concise 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
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.
Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power by Ross King
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.
In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire by Tom Holland
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.
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts and Timothy Ferriss
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.
Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts by Ryan Holiday
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.
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
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
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance by Josh Waitzkin
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.
Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni
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.
The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and Life by Leo Babauta
Leo Babauta’s The Power of Less contains clutter-cutting counsel, habit-honing help, and power-producing principles for living life with less.
The Niche Of Lights (Brigham Young University – Islamic Translation Series) by Al-Ghazali and David Buchman
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. 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 author of this exegesis is the second most important figure in the Islamic tradition after the Prophet Muhammad himself, and one of the mot important figures in all of intellectual history, being an acknowledged intellectual influence on St. Thomas Aquinas, who knew his as Algazel, his Latinized name. Interestingly, while al-Ghazali rejected Neoplatonism in his The Incoherence of the Philosophers, this work is clearly Neoplatonic.
The Alchemy of Happiness (Sources and Studies in World History) by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali
Al-Ghazali’s The Alchemy of Happiness is an 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.
The Flowering of Muslim Theology by Josef van Ess and Jane Marie Todd
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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) and his adherence to truth as he knows it and openness to further truth and willingness to embrace it despite having invested so much of himself in what he may have believed to be 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 persuasively that Genesis 1 is a temple text in the context of ancient cosmology. A four-page summary of the argument of the book 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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Life Nomadic by Tynan
If you’ve always wanted to travel the world and think 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.
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.
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, whom Leo has turned to support him in building habits. I know of no better book on the subject than Tynans. 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 Tynans’ books, starting with this one, in one weekend.
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.
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.
The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimony (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 Renaissance after a thousand years of neglect, as compellingly exposed in Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt.
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.
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
Why Read? by Mark Edmundson
The Mainspring of Human Progress by Henry Grady Weaver
Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie
Enchiridion (Dover Thrift Editions) by Epictetus and George Long
In a Dark Wood: A Memoir by Joseph Luzzi
Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe by George Santayana
The Beginning of Guidance by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf
The Islamic Vision of Development in Light of Maqasid al-Shariah by Muhammad Chapra
The Christians and the Fall of Rome (Penguin Great Ideas) by Edward Gibbon
Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther
The Paradiso (Signet Classics) by Dante Alighieri and John Ciardi
The Purgatorio (Signet Classics) by Dante Alighieri and John Ciardi
The Inferno (Signet Classics) by Dante Alighieri and John Ciardi
A Life of Dante by Benedict Flynn
Maqasid al-Shariah: A Beginner’s Guide by Jasser Auda
Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life by Nick Vujicic
A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century by Oliver DeMille
Ibn Rajab’s Refutation of Those Who Do Not Follow the Four Schools by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali and Musa Furber
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri and Clive James
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books by Matti Friedman
Lucretius: The Way Things Are: The Way Things Are: The De Rerum Natura of Titus Lucretius Carus by Lucretius (Author), Rolfe Humphries (Translator)
Cicero: De re Publica (On the Republic) , De Legibus (On the Laws) (Loeb Classical Library No. 213) by Cicero (Author), Clinton W. Keyes (Translator)
Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds by Joel L. Kraemer
Plato’s Republic by Plato and Benjamin Jowett
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1 by Edward Gibbom and J. B. Bury
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Joseph Spider and the Fallacy Farm by David Grant
Politics (Dover Thrift Editions) by Aristotle and Benjamin Jowett
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle and David Ross
The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey by Muhammad Ali and Hana Yasmeen Ali
Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions) by Marcus Aurelius and George Long
The Law by Frederic Bastiat
The Inferno of Dante by Dante Alighieri and Robert Pinsky
The Communist Manifesto: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Karl Marx (Author), Friedrich Engels (Author), Killoffer (Illustrator), Marshall Berman (Introduction), Samuel Moore (Translator)
Two Treatises of Government (Everyman’s Library) by John Locke
The Prince (Dover Thrift Editions) by Machiavelli and N. H. Thompson
The Trojan Epic: Posthomerica (Johns Hopkins New Translations from Antiquity) by Quintus of Smyrna (Author), Alan James (Editor)
How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem by Rod Dreher
The Alchemy of Happiness by Al-Ghazzali and Claude Field
Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto and Thomas Moore
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
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)
The Book of Job by Stephen Mitchell
Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy
We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident: 12 Natural Laws of Freedom, Progress, and Success by Oliver DeMille
Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior (Hoover Essays) by James B. Stockdale
Zen to Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System by Leo Babauta
Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue by Sam Harris