I take pleasure from the fact that I can enjoy books whenever it pleases me to do so. Books are, I find the best provisions a man can take with him on life’s journey.
— Michel de Montaigne
I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mastery, by Robert Greene
The Lion Tracker’s Guide To Life, by Boyd Varty
Boyd Varty is a South African lion tracker and life coach who I first heard on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast. His story and perspective on life, meaning, and the innate wild self truly inspired me on the podcast. This book is short and sweet and had me tearing up as I turned the final page. It’s a story which will ask you to dig deep and chart your own path.
To Have or To Be, by Erich Fromm
The Wealthy Gardener, by John Soforic
A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life, by Heather Heying & Bret Weinstein
Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
The Practice, by Seth Godin
The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User’s Manual, by Ward Farnsworth
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl
Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave, by Ryan Holiday
Ego Is the Enemy, by Ryan Holiday
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, by Charles Eisenstein
Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered, by Austin Kleon
The Writing Life, by Annie Dillard
The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield
Turning Pro, by Steven Pressfield
The Artist’s Journey, by Steven Pressfield
If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland
The Buddha and the Badass, by Vishen Lakhiani
To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction, by Phillip Lopate
Think Like a Monk, by Jay Shetty
Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy, by Sadhguru
Favorite Nonfiction on Travel and Place:
To Shake the Sleeping Self, by Jedidiah Jenkins
Shadowed Soul: Wandering to Find Your Inner Compass, by Melissa Jennewein
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig
Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell
A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
The World Is My Home, by James A. Michener
The Lady and the Monk, by Pico Iyer
The Pilgrimage, by Paulo Coelho
Shark Drunk, by Morten Stroksnes
World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, by Anthony Bourdain
All-time Favorite Nonfiction Books:
Notes of a Native Son, by James Baldwin
The Heart of Emerson’s Journals, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
A collection of profound, light-hearted, thought-provoking journal entries by the 19th-century transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. I’ve kept this as a Kindle edition book so I may read it on my phone, when, on the train, or with a few minutes when I’d otherwise be scrolling Instagram. This book has brought tears to my eyes, love to my heart, and freedom to my spirit.
The Immortality Key, by Brian C. Muraresku
Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda
Greenlights, by Matthew McConaughey
Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow
The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
12 Rules for Life, by Jordan B. Peterson
Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, by Jordan B. Peterson
The My Struggle Series, by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Autumn, by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Can’t Hurt Me, by David Goggins
Sapiens, Homo Deus, & 21 Lessons for the 21st-Century, by Yuval Noah Harari
Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, by Walter Isaacson
The World of Yesterday, by Stefan Zweig
Erasmus of Rotterdam, by Stefan Zweig
Montaigne, by Stefan Zweig
The Surrender Experiment, by Michael A. Singer
The Untethered Soul, by Michael A. Singer
Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight
Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
All-time Favorite Fiction Books:
Dune, by Frank Herbert
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
The Wise Man’s Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
Siddhartha: a Novel, by Hermann Hesse
1Q84, by Haruki Murakami
The Source, by James Michener
Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham
Inferno, by Dan Brown
The Odyssey, by Homer
The Aeneid, by Virgil
A Time for Everything, by Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Morning Star, by Karl Ove Knausgaard
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
The Book of Disquiet, by Fernando Pessoa
Tai-Pan, by James Clavell
Shogun, by James Clavell
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel, by Amor Towles
Spring Snow, by Yukio Mishima
The Magus, by John Fowles
Shibumi, by Trevanian
The Pillars of the Earth Series, by Ken Follett
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, & Inheritance, by Christopher Paolini
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
The Red Rising Trilogy, by Pierce Brown
In this eerily futuristic tale of a color-coded Milky Way civilization, high-born Golds dominate. Reds, those at the bottom of the social hierarchy, toil the mines of Mars. The trilogy’s main character, Darrow, is a Red. He’s out to forever change the universe and I feel I’m out there with him.