← The Daily Stoic
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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast where each day we bring you a Stoic inspired meditation designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is Based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women to help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit Dailystoic.com. Can you get inside Marcus Aurelius read Epictetus so many times it became a part of him. Chrysippus loved the play Medea so much and quoted from it so often that he joked that one of his essays was the Medea of Chrysippus. And of course, it's not just philosophers who do this. Musicians fall in love with songs from other artists and make them their own. Johnny Cash did this with Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. Luke Combs did this more recently with Tracy Chapman's Fast Car. The musician Phoebe Bridgers sings about this on her song Chinese Satellite, which we also have done a Daily Stoic email about. And in fact, on her album Stranger in the Alps, she covers the song you Missed My Heart, and as she explains about it in an interview, I have this thing where I listen to songs over and over again if I like them a lot and I have to listen to that song over and over and over. Then she says she was like, I just have to play this. It's an extra level, she says. I have to get inside it. She said the song totally resonated with her and she just couldn't stop listening to it. And you could say that this is what we need to do with the Stoics. Not just read them, but get inside them. Marcus Aurelius wrote about how the philosopher is one with their weapon, like a boxer more than a swordsman. Boxer just clenches their fist, he says, while a fencer has to pick something up through repetition, through absorption. We are trying to fuse ourselves with our philosophy, to make it instant, to make it instinctive, to make it inseparable from who we are. And this is why Seneca urged us to linger among a limited number of master thinkers and digest their works. Not skim, not sample, but digest, till the wisdom takes firm hold inside you and never to be dislodged. I've said before that the Stoics aren't something you have read. They should be something you are reading always, at every age, at every area in your life. Ideally every day, just a little bit here or There, the world's always changing. The texts stay the same, and yet we get something new out of them each time we pick them up. And that's what the Daily Stoic was designed to be, right? Not just this email, but the book itself. One page a day that you read out for a year and then never touch again. But ideally, year after year. And people have been doing that now for 10 years, which is absolutely crazy to me. I've seen books that are falling apart at the seams. I've seen people bring me their new Leather edition, which they're like, I just, I burned my other copy out. I needed a new one. That's the idea. Year after year after year, you're supposed to come back to the Stoics. The Daily Stoic is discounted to 299. Right now.
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They're doing a little special for the new year.
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Grab that on Amazon or ibooks, wherever.
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You get your ebooks. And if you want to sign the Leather Edition, you can grab that@store.dailystoic.com I'll.
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Link to that in today's show notes.
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A couple of years ago, one of my wife's words for the year, we try to think about a word that we're going to live by the next year. One of those words was systems. The idea was setting up better systems, putting systems in place that just make us better, more efficient, more effective, more responsible. And nowhere are systems more important than when it comes to your finances, right? Managing your money doesn't have to be a struggle. It can be automated, it can be accessible, it can be tracked. And that's where today's sponsor, Monarch, comes in. Monarch is an all in one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier. Brings your entire financial life from budgeting, accounts, investments, net worth and future planning all together in one dashboard, your laptop or on your phone. And if you want to start the year off on the right foot financially and get 50% off your monarch subscription, you can. With Code Stoic. Monarch helps you reach concrete, achievable goals you'll stick to for all 12 months of the year, not just January. And they've got some new AI tools that are built on Monarch Intelligence, which is designed to help you access authentic collective wisdom of certified financial planners and financial advisors 24. 7 Access to financial advice and insights personalized to you this new year, achieve your financial goals for good. Monarch is the all in one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code stoiconarch.com for half off your first year that's 50% off. Your first year with monarch.com code stoic. As you know, it's the start of the new year. We all have our resolutions. We want to exercise more, we want to eat healthier. One of mine is I love running, but I want to do some other working out. I want to be a little stronger in 2026. Well, that's where today's sponsor comes in. Tonal provides the convenience of a full gym and the guidance of a personal trainer anytime at home with one sleek system. It's designed to reduce your mental load, which, frankly is part of the reason I don't work out. It's like running this simple. I'm just going to do it. I go this place, I turn around and then I come home, right? I don't have to think about how much weight I'm going to lift, how many sets I'm going to do, am I doing it right? Is my form right? With Tonal, there's none of that. There's no focusing on workout planning and there's no second guessing your form either. Tonal gives you real time coaching cues to dial in your form and help you lift safely and effectively. And they set the optimal weight for every move and adjust in 1 pound increments as you get stronger. So you're always challenged. And right now, tonal is offering our listeners 200 bucks off their Tonal purchase with promo code TDS. Go to Tonal.com and use promo code TDS for 200 bucks off your purchase. That's Tonal.com promote promo code TDS for $200 off.
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Okay, so the perk of having your own bookstore is that you get to give people books that you know they're gonna love. I'm Ryan Holiday, and people come from all over the world to our little bookstore here in Bastrop, Texas, right outside Austin, which was my wife and I's dream to open about five years ago. Whether people are strangers passing through old friends, people here to do the daily Stoic podcast. My favorite thing is walking through the bookstore and picking out books that I think they're going to love. And so over the years, I have recommended a lot of books and that's.
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What we're going to do.
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In today's video, I'm going to show you some of my absolute favorite books in all different categories that I think you're going to like. Some books that are so good, you'll have trouble believing that they're true, but they are. And they're so well written, they'll rip your face off, literally. That's true for this one. This is Night of the Grizzlies, which is about a series of grizzly bear attacks that happened on one night in 1967 in Glacier national park, the first time it had ever happened in the park. When you read about the lead up to it happening, you realize it was inevitable. Like, they would have shows where they would feed the bears trash every night, and then they let people camp right next to the shows. Mind blowing. Of course, The Best Animal vs. Man's Narrative Nonfiction book is the Tiger by John Valantine. I just can't tell you how good this story is. And if you haven't read it, I don't know what you're doing with your life. I just read Marriage at Sea, which is about this couple sailing from London to New Zealand. And then halfway through, a whale sinks their boat. Like, really like Moby Dick, which is also what in the Heart of the Sea is about. Like, the true story of Moby Dick, but that hundreds of years later, basically the same thing would happen again. And they spend many, many days in this inflatable raft. They catch turtles and sharks, and they somehow managed to survive against all odds. And it's this sort of interesting look at their marriage that is under strain throughout all of it. Absolutely incredible. The Stranger in the woods and the Art Thief, both written by the same guy. This guy steals literally billions of dollars worth of art from tiny museums all across Europe, and then he just keeps them in his apartment until I. I won't spoil it. Incredible. And then one day, some guy just drives off into the woods in Maine, and then he doesn't come out for 27 years. Everyone knew there was someone who was breaking into their houses and stealing supplies. And there were whispers and rumors of it, but no one saw him. Just absolutely incredible book. This is the Black Count, about a black general in Napoleon's army who also just happened to be the father of Alexander Dumas. Three Musketeers, the Count of Monte Cristo. Incredible book. And let's close this out with the river of Doubt about Theodore Roosevelt exploring a river in South America where he almost dies post presidency. Just mind blowing. And by the way, he took a copy of Epictetus with him. Books with shitty titles that are actually great. This is called the Colossus of Maris. I don't even know how you say this word, but it's actually Henry Miller, the novelist, the controversial novelist, wrote like one of the greatest travel books of all time. And this is this sort of Rhapsodic, beautiful book about traveling through Greece as World War II is breaking out. I discovered this when I was in Greece. I'd never heard of it and probably never heard of it because it has a shitty title. It should just be called Henry Miller Travels Through Greece or something like that. I don't know. You can't do worse than what he has. Invisible man, one of the great novels of all time. But everyone thinks you're thinking the invisible man. They think like, is this literally about an invisible man? No, this is about figuratively, an invisible man. One of the all time great novels by Ralph Ellison that everyone should read and people don't because they think they read it or they think they know that it's about the guy with the bandages all over it. Notes to John. This book sounds incredibly boring, but it's actually one of the greatest writers of. Of all time writing these letters to her husband. They're notes from therapy sessions as her daughter is drinking herself to death. But it's also a reflection on Didion's early life and her childhood and her child's early life. This was a controversial book when it came out. Most of Didion's books, like A Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights, most of her books have amazing titles, but she obviously wasn't alive to choose this title. Maybe she wouldn't have even published it. But it's a great book with a not so good title. Here are some books that aren't movies, but they should be. Tunnel 29, about people in West Germany tunneling under the wall to help people from East Germany escape. And then actually a documentary crew from CBS was funding the tunnel without telling their superiors. Like, just super good. Amazing book about the Cold War. Like, just fantastic. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel is insane about this guy that steals nearly a billion dollars of art from tiny museums across Europe and then he hides it in his apartment. Is an insane book that you almost cannot believe it's happening. What Makes Sammy Run by Bud Schulberg, who wrote on the Waterfront. This is one of the famous Hollywood novels that Hollywood has been trying to turn into a movie for decades. I think Ben Stiller had the rights for a really long time. I was just reading in the New York Times yesterday that Jason Bloom, it's his dream to make this into a movie. It's one of my favorite novels. It would make a great movie. So as a bookstore owner, unfortunately, one rule about books is usually the better the title, the worse the book is. But there are some exceptions to this rule. And I'm going to give you some books with incredible titles that live up to how good the title is Fish that Ate the Whale. Incredible title. It's about a little company swallowing a big company or the little guy beating the big guy. David and Goliath. This is about the creator of United Fruit. I know maybe that doesn't think. Doesn't seem like it would be interesting, but it is absolutely incredible. Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller. I wouldn't spoil what it's about, but the idea is like, fish don't exist as a category. They're not related as animals at all. Like salmon has nothing in common with another fish except for they all live in the ocean. But we don't have a category of animals that live on mountains. So one of the insights is that fish don't exist. But it's about this crazy taxidermist and his life's work. I can't tell you how good this book is, but it's very good. Forget the Alamo. Great title, great book. 40 years a gambler on the Mississippi. Not many people know about this book, but it is a crazy memoir of a riverboat gambler in the 1800s. A Confederacy of Dunces, of course. Incredible novel by John Kennedy Toole. The epigraph. When a true genius appears in the world, you will know him by this sign that the dunces are all an example. Confederacy against him. That's Jonathan Swift, but he means it's satirically because Ignatius Riley is a dunce. Oh. By Grand Central Station, I sat down and Wept. What a fucking title. This book is a fever dream, but it is beautiful and it lives up to the title. Although I gotta be honest, I don't totally understand what happens. Everything is tuberculosis. Crazy title, Crazy good book. The Baby on the Fire Escape, which is about female artists. Also very good. Oh, how to Raise Kids who Aren't Assholes. That's the whole job. These are books that are totally weird stylistically, but absolutely amazing. This is a biography of Edison by Edmund Morris. He wrote an amazing biography of Theodore Roosevelt. But it's in reverse chronological order towards the end, as at the beginning, he lived only on milk. I've never read a biography like that. I don't know why he decided to do it, but it fucking works. All right. Charing Cross Road is. This would seem so boring. Some lady in New York is looking for an old out of print book and she starts writing letters to a rare bookseller in the UK right after World War II. And this is their letters back and Forth as this friendship emerges, they never actually meet. And yet somehow they strike up this not just lovely friendship, but it captures all the things that are amazing about books and what's happening in the world right then, because Britain is reeling from the Second World War. Just an amazing book. I actually went to Charing Crossroad not that long ago. It's now McDonald's. Okay, so there's basically never been a book like this ever, in human history. You have the most powerful man in the world writing private notes to himself, never thinking they're going to be published. And somehow it turns out this book where it is ultra specific. A guy thousands of years ago worshiped as a God, controlling the largest army on earth, unlimited wealth. There are literally statues of him. Everywhere is writing these thoughts about virtue, about honor, about how no one's going to ever remember him, and that fame doesn't matter. And yet from this specificity comes one of the most relatable and accessible works in all of philosophy. Just an absolutely amazing book that everyone should read. He'd probably be mortified that we're even reading it. It was not intended for our eyes, but again, because of that, it's so honest and authentic and unperformative. So there aren't a lot of very good books in the second person, but Walker Percy's Lancelot is. It starts, come into my cell. Make yourself at home. Take the chair. I'll sit on the cot. No, you prefer to stand in the window.
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I understand.
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It is a man who has committed an unspeakable crime, confessing to a priest in his cell, looking out over a cemetery in New Orleans. I actually have the opening page of this book signed by Walker Percy, on the wall in my office. But this, and maybe Bright Lights, Big City, are the only two good second person novels. Of course, Lightning Round the Road doesn't have any punctuation in it. That's weird. I might throw James on there. I mean, stylistically it's not that weird, but it is. Taking one of the great classic novels, Huckleberry Finn, and doing it from the perspective of what was previously a minor character. But then you get Jim James the Slave, from his perspective, and it turns out he is incredibly well read and articulate, and he's just been putting on an act. Lovely book. This is also a series of letters, but it's between two German art dealers, one Jewish, one not. And it tracks their friendship as one goes to one in one political direction and the other goes in another direction. And to me, it is a beautiful, very important novel on radicalization and what fascism and bigotry can do to a person. And then we should probably give a nod to Montaigne, who before this no one had written an essay before. Obviously. Now the idea of just riffing on a handful of topics and using them as a jumping off point to speak philosophically about something, it's obviously very well established because. Because what was once transgressive became commonplace. But if you haven't read Montaigne's essays, you should. They have been a staple for more than 500 years for a reason. Some great biographies of women that you should read. I've read many, many books about Churchill, but Sonia Pernell's biography of his wife Clementine is incredible. Churchill would say that his greatest accomplishment was getting his wife to marry him because none of the other accomplishments would have been possible without it. I think he's very right. This is a great book. This is Julia Barrett's bio of Queen Victoria. Again, maybe you've heard of the Victorian age, but doesn't seem interesting. She was an incredible woman, incredible leader in. This book is fascinating. Really, really liked it. Another Queen biography, this one on Queen Elizabeth is very good. It's not the perfect one. I. I think I read something like 4,000 pages on Queen Elizabeth II when I was writing Discipline is Destiny. That one had the most of the stuff that I used, but was by no means the complete story. Maybe you read Anne Frank's diary when you were in elementary school or middle school or high school, but Melissa Muller did a beautiful and haunting biography of Anne Frank, who would not be that old even now, which is a haunting idea. Every year that passes, more and more people don't know what the Holocaust was, don't even know who Anne Frank is, and you have to read this book.
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