“I’m not saying that you have to be a reader to save your soul in the modern world. I’m saying it helps.”
Walter Mosley
I’ve always devoured books. Why, exactly, I’m not sure. Obviously a big reason to read is because it’s fun. As Petrarch, a famous book lover observed some 700 years ago, “books give delight to the very marrow of one’s bones.” But if I was honest, I would say the real reason that I’ve spent so much time with my nose inside this book or that book is because I have been searching for something: a way to life. There is a Latin expression: liber medicina animi (a book is the soul’s medicine). That’s what I’ve been after.
My whole life and career, I’ve been seeking out, reading, and taking notes on books that can teach me things. How to live. How to learn. How to find happiness. How to understand the past. How to prepare for the future. How to succeed. How to manage relationships. How to be a good person.
I used to go around and ask every smart person I met—even emailing important people I didn’t know— “What books do you recommend to a kid like me?” That’s how I was introduced to the Stoics. That’s how I found many of the books on the list below. The quake books—as Tyler Cowen put it—that shake you to your core. Having been introduced to them by those kind, patient individuals, I thought I would pay it forward by putting together a list of the books that have shaken up my life and that have helped make me the person that I am. It’s a list that has changed over time—and will continue to change—but it’s a good enough place to start.
Pick one of them up and let it lead you to another. And then when you come to a dead end, come back to the list. And don’t forget to sign up for my Reading List Email which recommends a new set of life changing books each month.