.jpg)
Books To Base Your Life On
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only once.” – George R.R. Martin
Tolstoy wrote that he couldn’t understand, “how some people can live without communicating with the wisest people who ever lived on earth.” That’s what a good book is, the chance to learn from the wisest who’ve ever lived.
Anything you aspire to be or problem you need to overcome, someone has written a book on how to do it.
You want to be a billionaire? Read the biography of John D. Rockefeller. You want to be president? Read Robert Caro’s series on Lyndon Johnson and how he rose to power. You want to live on the beach and never wear a suit? Read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
The goal of this article is to recommend books that will stick with you long after you’ve finished them. More than just sticking with you, my hope is that they’ll lead to useful action. Whether that’s changing the way you think or something you use tactically out in the world.
The Books
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-king, is known as the last of the “good” emperors of Rome. Meditations was a wartime journal that was never intended for publication. The biggest revelation and reminder from these writings is that he was just a man. He was the most powerful man in the world, and he was struggling to get out of bed in the morning, to be patient with others and to handle everyday annoyances. If you enjoy Meditations, follow it up with The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday.
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson: The ultimate guide to learning to trust yourself. The reason you don’t do what you really want to do in life is fear, usually fear of what other people think. We doubt our own ideas because they’re ours. Self-Reliance is about shedding the need for approval and trusting yourself as a guide. No one knows you better than you. This book will teach you to recognize and listen to your own voice and instincts.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: This is the book you need to become the person you want to be. Your habits form your identity and every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you want to be. Clear explains that the word identity comes from the Latin words, “essentitas, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly. Your identity is literally your repeated beingness.” This book will help you build great habits and kick the ones taking you in the wrong direction.
Letters From A Stoic by Seneca: If read closely, this book will cause you to reevaluate your life. Letter 49, On the Shortness of Life, will change the way you think about time and hopefully instill a bit of urgency into your day. Seneca was one of the wealthiest men in Rome and an advisor to Emperor Nero. These letters cover a range of topics, and you can apply them to your life instantly.
12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson: More than rules, these are 12 things to aim at in life. Aim to stand up with your back straight, aim to be the most reliable person are your father’s funeral. Jordan Peterson might be the most misunderstood figure in modern times. This is a non-political book about taking responsibility for yourself, aiming higher and daring to live a meaningful life. This is the kind of book that can change your life if you take its lessons and act on them.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield: There’s an unlived life that you aren’t pursuing because some force stands in the way, Pressfield gives that force a name, the resistance, and then he teaches you how to overcome it. All creators feel the resistance, the ones who make it through are the ones who sit down and face it and know that on the other side of the resistance is the work they’ve always wanted to create. Follow this up with Pressfield’s other books, Turning Pro, Do The Work and Nobody Wants To Read Your Sh*t.
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene: The most requested and banned book in US prisons. Power is a force that is being leveraged all around us and you can help yourself by understanding how. This is really a book about dealing with people and avoiding the pitfalls that come with trying to achieve something in life. Robert Greene is one of the greatest living writers and I recommend all his work, especially Mastery and The Laws of Human Nature.
--
All books are different to different people in different times. A book that was amazing to me at 20, might not mean anything to you at 45. This list is bound to change, but these are the ones that have most impacted my life thus far.