If you read it and aren’t profoundly changed by it, it’s probably because as Aurelius says “what doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.” You HAVE to read the Hays’s translation. It is the definitive text on self-discipline, personal ethics, humility, self-actualization and strength. Just imagine: the private thoughts of the most powerful man in the world, admonishing himself on how to be better, more just, more immune to temptation, wiser. The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Amazon) To me, this is not only one of greatest books ever written but perhaps the only book of its kind. And don’t forget to sign up for my Reading List Email which recommends a new set of life changing books each month. And then when you come to a dead end, come back to the list. Pick one of them up and let it lead you to another. It’s a list that has changed over time-and will continue to change-but it’s a good enough place to start. 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. The quake books- as Tyler Cowen put it -that shake you to your core. That’s how I found many of the books on the list below. 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.

My whole life and career, I’ve been seeking out, reading, and taking notes on books that can teach me things. There is a Latin expression: liber medicina animi (a book is the soul’s medicine). 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.

Obviously a big reason to read is because it’s fun. “I’m not saying that you have to be a reader to save your soul in the modern world.

Books like the 48 laws of power