The Good Life
Gems of wisdom and practical advice for living the good, noble and honourable life. Highly influenced by stoic philosophers, many of whom lived the life well lived.
- Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
- On the Shortness of Life – Seneca
- 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos – Jordan B. Peterson
- Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Non-Fiction
I love non-fiction, in an ideal world, I’d be reading them all day every day. Here are my favourites. All sorts of idea to itch your brain with.
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Carol S. Dweck
- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow – Yuval Noah Harari
- Outliers: The Story of Success – Malcolm Gladwell
- Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think – Hans Rosling
- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Short Stories
- The Egg and Other Stories – Andy Wier
PhD’s for Dummies
Getting knowledge right from the masters in their fields. Tenured professors, public intellectuals, decades of research, Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners and the Intellectual Dark Web. People who devote their entire lives to understanding their chosen slice of the world.
- Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies – Jared Diamond
- The Universe in a Nutshell – Stephen Hawking
- The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics – Bruce Bueno De Mesquita
- Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies – Geoffrey West
- Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality – Cacilda Jethá and Christopher Ryan
Biographies
Reading books about people I love, those who’ve changed the game, those special humans who did more than their fair share to understand the world, inspire those in it and make it a better place. There
- Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood – Trevor Noah
- Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – Ashlee Vance
- The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon – Brad Stone
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration- Ed Catmull
Science Fiction
This is the new genre that’s slowly growing on me. With a rich history and the most imaginative authors ever filling its shelves, I’m really eager to read more here.
- The Humans: A Novel – Matt Haig
- The Martian – Andy Wier
Self-Help
We all read it, no one admits it. Mark Manson is the one with self-help that works and most importantly doesn’t suck.
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving
a F*ck : A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life – Mark Manson - Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Carol S. Dweck
- The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter-And How to Make the Most of Them Now – Meg Jay
Masculinity
From “the crisis of masculinity” to the idea of a domineering “patriarchy,” these men discuss what it means to be a man today.
- The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire – David Deida
- King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine – Robert L. Moore and Douglas Gillette
- The Way of Men – Jack Donovan
- No More Mr. Nice Guy – Robert A. Glover
Relationships
I’ve read my fair share of relationship books and they all seemed a bit too corny for me. Waded through the love languages but it wasn’t what I was looking for.
- Essays in Love: A Novel – Alain de Botton
- Enlightened Sex: Finding Freedom & Fullness Through Sexual Union – David Deida
- The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire – David Deida
- Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic – Esther Perel
- The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity – Esther Perel
- Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game – Jon Birger
Memento mori
Shadowing “The Good Life” at the beginning we conclude at death. The memento mori means “remember (that) you will die”. Here include stories of tragedy and renewed hope as in their grief and impending mortality we learn what it really means to be alive.
- Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
- Tuesdays with Morrie: An old man, a young man and life’s greatest lesson – Mitch Albom
- When Breathe Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi
- How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life – Seneca