2021 Book List

The Almanac of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson - Nonfiction

• Subtitled "A Guide to Wealth and Happiness," it's the most compact, practical life advice out there imho. Naval is a great thinker, but it's his ability to take wisdom from others, distill it down, and apply it to specific useful life situations that puts this on my top shelf. This is a compilation of podcast interviews, tweets, and talks from Naval helpfully organized by topic.

Freedom From the Known by Jiddu Krishnamurti - Nonfiction

• The most impactful book I read this year. I dog-eared more than half of the pages, thus negating the purpose of doing so. He advocates for taking a brutally hard look at the things that you think you know. This pairs well with "Think Again" by Adam Grant. One takeaway is when asked what makes him happy he said, "I don't mind what happens," summarizing all of the talk of presence and living in the moment and being still. Expectations lead to unhappiness, and nothing is exempt from that statement. Just when you think that you've peeled back all of the layers to your onion, there are more.

On the Shortness of Life by Seneca - Nonfiction

• Core Stoic wisdom: "You will hear many men saying: 'After my fiftieth year I shall retire into leisure, my sixtieth year shall release me from public duties.' And what guarantee, pray, have you that your life will last longer? Who will suffer your course to be just as you plan it? Are you not ashamed to reserve for yourself only the remnant of life, and to set apart for wisdom only that time which cannot be devoted to any business? How late it is to begin to live just when we must cease to live! What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to postpone wholesome plans to the fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point to which few have attained!"

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle - Nonfiction

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle - Nonfiction

• Gold standard must-reads if you want to learn about what it means to be present. He discusses that the best way to change the world is to collectively change our inner world. I treat these two as one book.

Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl - Nonfiction

• A classic true story of perspective - one can find peace, happiness, and meaning even in the worst possible circumstances such as, in this case, in a Nazi concentration camp.

Think Again by Adam Grant (audio) - Nonfiction

• "A hallmark of wisdom is knowing when it’s time to abandon some of your most treasured tools—and some of the most cherished parts of your identity."

• "Thinking like a scientist involves more than just reacting with an open mind. It means being actively open-minded. It requires searching for reasons why we might be wrong—not for reasons why we must be right—and revising our views based on what we learn."

Thinking In Bets by Annie Duke (audio) - Nonfiction

• Thinking advice from a poker champion

• "The secret is to make peace with walking around in a world where we recognize that we are not sure and that’s okay. As we learn more about how our brains operate, we recognize that we don’t perceive the world objectively. But our goal should be to try."

Raising Freethinkers by McGowen, Matsumura, and Metskas - Nonfiction

• Teaching your kids through questions, not answers.

Awareness by Anthony de Mello - Nonfiction

• Wisdom on being aware of what's going on inside of us from a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist.

• “We see people and things not as they are, but as we are.”

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - Fiction

• WWII satire and origin of the expression. Milo Minderbinder is my favorite character.

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari (audio) - Nonfiction

• Sapiens was about the history of humanity - this is about the future. Almost as good, but Sapiens it tough to beat.

clarity and connections by Yung Pueblo - Nonfiction

inward by Yung Pueblo - Nonfiction

• Stories and aphorisms from a thoughtful writer about stillness, happiness, and looking inward.

• "Happiness is being able to enjoy the things you worked for without slipping into thinking about what is missing or what you want next."

The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Nonfiction

• A book of aphorisms from the maestro.

On Writing by Stephen King - Nonfiction

• Memoir about his process and craft.

Untamed by Glennon Doyle (audio) - Nonfiction

• Memoir discussing LGBT issues, religion, and finding oneself.

How To Love by Thich Nhat Hanh - Nonfiction

• "The first element of true love is loving kindness. The essence of loving kindness is being able to offer happiness. You can be the sunshine for another person. You can’t offer happiness until you have it for yourself. So build a home inside by accepting yourself and learning to love and heal yourself. Learn how to practice mindfulness in such a way that you can create moments of happiness and joy for your own nourishment. Then you have something to offer the other person.”

The Return Of The Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen - Nonfiction

• A Dutch Catholic priest analyzes and interprets Rembrandt's painting of the prodigal son.

Love Without Conditions by Paul Ferrini - Nonfiction

• "You cannot experience joy in life by opposing the ideas or actions of other people. You can experience joy only by remaining faithful to the truth within your own heart. And this truth never rejects others, but invites them in."

Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer - Nonfiction

• "Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.”

• "As young people, we are surrounded by expectations that may have little to do with who we really are, expectations held by people who are not trying to discern our selfhood but to fit us into slots.”

How Jesus Became God by Bart Ehrman - Nonfiction

• A look into the historical Jesus. Pairs well with Zealot.

• “All we would need to do would be to read the Bible and accept what it says as what really happened. That, of course, is the approach to the Bible that fundamentalists take. And that’s one reason why you will not find fundamentalists at the forefront of critical scholarship.”

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (audio) - Nonfiction

• Memoir on surfing around the world.

What Are People For by Wendell Berry - Nonfiction

• My favorite is his back and forth with critics about not buying a computer.

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben (audio) - Nonfiction

• Fascinating story about how trees work. Favorite parts were about how they communicate with one another and how little we know about the seemingly simple things, such as how water actually makes its way up the tree to the top.

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks - Nonfiction

• “In my life I’ve discovered that if I cling to the notion that something’s not possible, I’m arguing in favor of limitation. And if I argue for my limitations, I get to keep them.”

The Time Machine Did It by Jon Schwartzwelder - Fiction

• The first of the Frank Burly humor series from the most prolific Simpsons writer in the show's history.