The best books I read in 2022
It’s surprising how much you can read in a year when you read a little bit every day. I read ~50 books this year and I still feel like I could have been more disciplined about it. Good books have changed my life, and reading them helps me be a better person. Below are the best books I read this year. And I recommend you read them as well!
Buddha by Karen Armstrong
This is a wonderful, readable biography of the Buddha. We tend to think of enlightenment as the final destination. (What’s left to accomplish after reaching nirvana?) Maybe the Buddha believed this as well. But when he reached enlightenment, his sense of self disappeared. He saw at once the connectedness of all living things, and realized that “to live morally was to live for others.” It wasn’t enough that he reached nirvana—he had to help others reach it as well. He spent the next 45 years traversing the Ganges plain, spreading his dhamma to any and everyone he came across. His teachings survive today thanks to this “compassionate offensive”.
Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday
No author has inspired or taught me more about life and philosophy than Ryan Holiday. This book on temperance (moderation) is the second in his four-part cardinal virtues series. He tells inspiring stories of people like Queen Elizabeth, Lou Gehrig, and Winston Churchill to illustrate the beauty of temperance, and contrasts it with cautionary stories of people like Alexander the Great and King George IV, who lacked temperance. I guarantee you’ll find something in this book that will enhance your life. Same with all of his books. This is one of my favorites of his, along with Ego is the Enemy, The Obstacle is the Way, and The Daily Stoic.
The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Edith Eva Eger
This book is just amazing. I gifted it to 2 friends and they couldn’t stop raving about it. Holocaust survivor Dr. Edith Eva Eger recounts the horrors of watching her parents be marched to the gas chamber, how she talked to herself through the unbearable realities of her imprisonment—“If I survive today,” she repeated to herself, “tomorrow I’ll be free.”—and how she ended up thriving in spite of it. Now a world-renowned psychologist, she gives her patients the advice that she learned long ago: the key to happiness and freedom is already within you. Life always gives you a choice. And as long as you have a choice, you’re free.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
The average human lifespan is about four thousand weeks. Because of this “insultingly short” period of time, Burkeman says we have to neglect almost everything to get anything done. Good time management, therefore, is basically knowing what to neglect. Burkeman gives us practical philosophy about the best ways to spend our time, and therefore, our life.
How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy
This is a fun little book on creativity that Amazon recommended. As the title implies, it’s mostly about songwriting, but I found a bunch of useful gems on creativity. Tweedy starts the book with a story of himself at 7 years old, telling people he’s a songwriter. Not that he was going to be one when he grew up, but that he already was one. Never mind he’d never written a song. This idea of becoming who you already are, as opposed to molding yourself into a vision you have, is something I plan on writing more about.
Other great reads this year:
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis
Open by Andre Agassi
How to be Content by Horace
The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness by Sharon Lebell
How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur
That One Should Disdain Hardships by Musonius Rufus
Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy by Sadhguru
Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be by Steven Pressfield
Discourses by Epictetus
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
The Art of Happiness by Epicurus
The Perfect Pass by S.C. Gwynne
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro
Wild Problems by Russ Roberts
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford
And my all-time favorite books I read yearly:
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius