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This time, perhaps due to my age, I am way more unsympathetic to Hamlet. And Ophelia seems much more tragic.

This book has been on my list of books to read for 20 years. The two most interesting aspects of reading this book are first that it is semi-autobiographical. You can almost see a young F. Scott talking to these people and scenes at school actually happening. Second, you get to see the beginning of his writing style.

So I knew about Annie Duke from poker and was really pleased to learn that an enormous chunk of this stems from her love of cognitive-behavioral decision science.

Like F. Scott’s This Side of Paradise, reading one of Hunter S. Thompson’s first forays into writing was interesting. All the elements are there, but not quite up to what you’d expect.

Always good to read Ryan Holiday. The only downside to an otherwise good book was his thoughts on a higher power.

I am trying to incorporate other forms of reading (such as poetry and plays) that I would not normally read. You can never go wrong with Oscar Wilde. Every other line is like a famous quote from Wilde.

This book has been on my list of books to read for 20 years. It is one of those books people (I think) like to quote from but have never read. Perhaps it is because I am not in danger of becoming a general, have no real adversaries, or it could simply be the translation; I was not too fond of it. In its proper context, it is extraordinary that this is the first time some of these strategies were written, but in modern times they read a bit like obvious truisms.

It had been a while since I had read any Chomsky and it’s always great to read thing you may have missed.

Michael Malice wrote the book using a combination of books about Kim Jong Il. It is one part hilarious and one part tragic.

I was trying to read at least one play by Shakespeare a month. Machbeth, was interesting in that I thought I had read it before but, wasn’t really sure until maybe the end.

Emily Wilson does a masters class in the life of Seneca. Perhaps my favorite stoic.

I am trying to reread some books that I enjoyed before and Meditations is a great choice.

I was interested in starting to read some of the beat writers and there are a couple of Kerouac books I wanted to read. This was about his travels down to Mexico and hanging out with Tristessa. Not my favorite.

I have also been trying to read more poetry and this is a great collection of old Zen poets.

This has been on my list to read for a long time. Sylvia Plath is an amazing writer. The story is I believe semi-autobiographical.

Et tu, Brute!

Another book that I hadn’t read in almost 20 years. I like that there is almost this entire new language that you have to learn to read the book.

I don’t really read too much in this genre but, John le Carre is great. I then re-watched the movie too which is also amazing. This and Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy are all great.

Came across this book after hearing a podcast with Sam Harris. Paul Bloom lays out a compelling case on how empathy clouds ones judgement.

These books were for school. A great overview of the Landsat, Sentinel and MODIS satellites.

I was worried that I wouldn’t understand a lot of what is in the Tractus but, surprisingly it is fairly easy to read and follow along.

I had never read it before. Was trying to read it to my kids but, they were not as in to it as I was.

I have never read any of Huxley before and I now know why the band The Doors are named what they are. I imagine this is a lot like reading the Electric Cool Aide Acid Test.

I wanted to read more Nietzsche this year. I have read parts of Beyond Good and Evil before is a collection but, the book stands by itself wonderfully. Probably my favorite of his works so far.

A great overview of the lives of various stoics. Lots of great life lessons there.

A love story / triangle of sorts. Not my favorite.

Another great collection of poems. Some very reminiscent of beat writings.

Richard Hofstadter is probably my favorite historian. The Paranoid Style literally reads like this could have come out of American politics in the last 8 years.

Probably my favorite of the stoic texts. Great stuff, easy to read and the humor is still amazing.

So I tried reading this when I was younger and I don’t think I got too far. But, an absolute classic.

Kind of a nice short book covering a variety of communication methods and strategies.

I loved the The Subtle Art and I journal everyday. So I read through this book to see if there were any good ideas in it. It’s more of a get your life on track kind of approach.

Like the communications book this one covers a variety of strategies for making decisions.

Still making my way through all of the plays. Measure For Measure was pretty good.

So where to start. This and another book I will talk about later are part of this new semi-stoic fuck your feeling easy self help book genre. Outside of Mark Manson, I don’t think anybody does it well.

I read this as a kid and it still is amazing. In part because Zappa is amazing.

Pretty much required reading. Deep and profound.

It’s a highly regarded book on stoicism but, for me it missed.

I actually really like Oscar Wilde. I thought that this book would be an interesting insight in to an artists view of his political convictions but, I feel like in some ways I was expecting more.

Even though I knew some of the words to this play I feel like this is one that would be better to be seen visually than to read.

I feel like this is a book that a lot of people talk about but, perhaps few have read. Clearly a classic but, probably reads a bit different than what its reputation has.

So I think I had this view of Virginia Wolf in my head that I did not like. But, I am really glad that I read this book because it is lovely.

This was really great and Charles Darwin is delightfully nerdy.

This is actually a fairly strange book in a good way. Will it give you any new insights in to Andy Warhol… probably not.

Another great book by Camus. I don’t always like the philosophy through novel approach but Camus is always great.

So this was the other book I was talking about. It didn’t resonate with me.

Scott Galloway is great. A Drift is the story of America in a 100 charts.

The Taming of the Shrew is actually a fairly good play and fairly funny.

Another great book by Ryan Holiday. Can be summed up by this one quote really. “Those who have subdued their ego understand that it doesn’t degrade you when others treat you poorly; it degrades them.”

A funny great play by Wilde.

A book about Stockdale’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Very much in line with The Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Oddly I don’t know a lot about Tesla but, this was an overview of what he thought his greatest contributions were. Scattered with a bit of autobiographical notes.

Like A Drift this looks at a number of factors that contribute to your happiness.

So Will To Power was in part a collection of his writings after his final mental break down. This did not resonate with me as some of his other works.

I have read parts of this over the years but, I have never finished it. It is an absolutely devastating critique of the mass media.

The Go-Giver could be summed up as five rules of how not to be an asshole.

There are some pretty great sonnets in the collection. …I guess obviously.

Down and Out is Orwell’s’ account of scrapping by in the restaurants of Paris and the poor houses in London.

My first Bukowski book and I loved it.

Think it had been about 20 years are so since I read this. Feel like it is much more depressing this time around.

Hilarious!

I feel like this would be a great book to re-read every once in a while.

Maybe the classic American novel.

I wasn’t expecting to like this much as I did. Probably my favorite out of the three Dostoevsky books I’ve read.

This was kind of a miss for me too.

A great series of dialogs from Seneca.

This was kind of a fairly weird book for me. In part I think due to the fact that I don’t normally read Greek philosophy.

King Lear was pretty good. Kind of a strange start that I don’t think really translates all that well to my modern sensibilities.

An interesting study in to potential opportunities when crisis happens.

Outside of the original texts, this might be one of the better stoic books.