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What I read on my vacation

I’ve been away. I’ve been neglectful. I have been busy, but I’ve also been distracted.

However, I did manage to read some great books. Here’s a selection of loosely relevant books I enjoyed over the past couple of years.

Stoicism

  • Marcus Aurelius, The Stoic Emperor by Donald J. Robertson – a fascinating and accessible biography from cognitive-behaviour therapist, writer and Stoic, Donald Robertson.
  • The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday – A well-deserved modern classic that’s (apparenty) sold over two million copies and which I should have read years ago. It’s packed with practical insight, quotes and examples. I’ve been lending out my copy ever since I finished it.
  • Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman – I had a big birthday. Friends bought me book-related vouchers and I bought books. This is fascinating if you’re interested in where Stoicism came from. It covers the philosophy from its founding by Zeno of Citium up to the time of Marcus, and explores the lives of famous and lesser-known Stoics and near-Stoics including Cicero, Cato the Younger, Seneca and Epictetus.
  • Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar – Not altogether Stoic, but a beautifully written fiction purporting to be the memoir that a dying Hadrian wrote for his adoptive heir Marcus Aurelius. It’s both visceral and delicately sensual. Remarkable.

Random interests

  • Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard – When I finished this I wasn’t sure I’d enjoyed it, but it’s stayed with me. Covering a 280-year stretch from Julius Caesar to Alexander Severus, Beard manages to illuminate life as a “Roman Emperor”. Worth a read for an understanding of the realities of life at the time.
  • Man and his Symbols, edited by Carl Jung – I bought this, I think, in the 1990s. It certainly has the yellowed edges of respectable age. Coming at it afresh, via Joseph Campbell, Christopher Vogler’s Writer’s Journey, Brian Boyd’s On The Origin of Stories, and an insightful passage from Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, it made much more sense. Definitely worth persevering with to get an understanding of the psyche and pre-consciousness depths of the mind.
  • The DOSE Effect by TJ Power – Scientific self-help. This is another book I’ve been recommending and lending out. In a deceptively simple and accessible fashion, Power describes how to master the effects of those critical chemicals dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. It explained things I thought I already knew and altered my daily routines.
  • How to Win an Information War by Peter Pomerantsev – This one comes from the other side of my life. It’s the story of the WWII propagandist Sefton Delmer who created authentic, short-wave radio stations that were listened to by German troops and civilians. The stations broadcast real news stories, often before the official German channels, alongside scandal and scurrilous rumour to sap German morale. It’s a fantastically interesting exploration of propaganda and perception change that has relevance to today’s fake news world.
  • Colonialism, A Moral Reckoning by Nigel Biggar – Real facts and objective analysis of the evil and good of the British Empire. The author – now fully and officially The Reverend Canon and Right Honourable The Lord Biggar CBE, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at University of Oxford – debunks many of the assumed evils of empire while acknowledging the mistakes made and atrocities committed. From here, amongst many other things, I learned that Britain spent more on suppressing the slave trade than it ever earned from the trade itself.
  • Can We Be Great Again by Jeremy Hunt – Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, Health Secretary and Culture Secretary, Hunt gives a positive analysis of the UK’s role and potential role in the world. Grounded in data and rich with personal anecdotes, it’s a very persuasive read.

I managed some fascinating fiction too, but I may come back to that later.

Photo by Akshay Chauhan on Unsplash