The Daily Stoic
Book Recommendations

The Daily Stoic

For centuries, all sorts of people—generals and politicians, athletes and coaches, writers and leaders—have looked to the teachings of Stoicism to help guide their lives. Each day, author and speaker Ryan Holiday brings you a new lesson about life, inspired by the thoughts and writings of great Stoi...

Episodes 2,240
Books 1,272
Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World Cover

Irene Vallejo

Papyrus

The Invention of Books in the Ancient World

The book, about the history of paper and early writings, was discussed in relation to the limited surviving works of ancient playwrights like Aeschylus, and the possibility of discovering more of their writings.

"

I was just reading this book called Papyrus, which is about the history of paper and the early writings.

— Episode: Francis Ford Coppola Opens Up About How...

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Episode: Francis Ford Coppola Opens Up About How Philosophy...

The book, about the history of paper and early writings, was discussed in relation to the limited surviving works of ancient playwrights like Aeschylus, and the possibility of discovering more of their writings.

"

I was just reading this book called Papyrus, which is about the history of paper and the early writings.

P.S. You're Intolerable (The Harder They Fall) Cover

Julia Wolf

P.S. You're Intolerable (The Harder They Fall)

This book was mentioned as possibly the author's best work, and the speaker also mentioned writing a screenplay for "The Disenchanted" which Schulberg enjoyed.

"

My other favorite Hollywood novelist, and maybe you know this person too, so I'm just nerding out here. I love Bud Schulberg too. What makes Sammy run is incredible, but I loved The Harder They Fall i...

— Episode: Francis Ford Coppola Opens Up About How...

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Episode: Francis Ford Coppola Opens Up About How Philosophy...

This book was mentioned as possibly the author's best work, and the speaker also mentioned writing a screenplay for "The Disenchanted" which Schulberg enjoyed.

"

My other favorite Hollywood novelist, and maybe you know this person too, so I'm just nerding out here. I love Bud Schulberg too. What makes Sammy run is incredible, but I loved The Harder They Fall is I think his actually his best one. And then he wrote one about his time with Fitzgerald also.

I wrote a screenplay, a very unusual screenplay for the disenchanted, which he loved.

William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life Cover

James Lee McDonough

William Tecumseh Sherman

In the Service of My Country

The book is cited as the source for a quote from General Sherman about never returning by the same road, highlighting the importance of seeking new challenges and avoiding complacency. The podcast host initially misattributed the quote to Grant, using Chat GPT to verify, and later discovered the correct source.

"

And it turns out it's not in Sherman's memoirs. It's a line in this letter that he wrote to a friend.

— Episode: Always Try To Do It The Hard Way

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Episode: Always Try To Do It The Hard Way

The book is cited as the source for a quote from General Sherman about never returning by the same road, highlighting the importance of seeking new challenges and avoiding complacency. The podcast host initially misattributed the quote to Grant, using Chat GPT to verify, and later discovered the correct source.

"

And it turns out it's not in Sherman's memoirs. It's a line in this letter that he wrote to a friend.

General Sherman, the great military strategist and Civil War hero once wrote in a letter to his friend that he had an old rule never to return by the road he had come.

P.S. You're Intolerable (The Harder They Fall) Cover

Julia Wolf

P.S. You're Intolerable (The Harder They Fall)

Ryan Holiday considers this novel about a corrupt boxer and his publicist one of his all-time favorites. He credits it with inspiring him to leave the marketing world and pursue writing and Stoicism.

"

This is one of my all time favorite books, The Harder They Fall by Bud Schulberg. It's this novel about this corrupt boxer and a public relations agent.

— Episode: Attention Wars: How Lies Spread Online H...

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Episode: Attention Wars: How Lies Spread Online Have Real-W...

Ryan Holiday considers this novel about a corrupt boxer and his publicist one of his all-time favorites. He credits it with inspiring him to leave the marketing world and pursue writing and Stoicism.

"

This is one of my all time favorite books, The Harder They Fall by Bud Schulberg. It's this novel about this corrupt boxer and a public relations agent.

And I remember reading this book and I remembered it having changed my life. So I reread it recently. I thought it was the book that spurred me to leave the sort of corrupt, broken marketing world behind and become a writer.

I was just racking up gradually instead of all at once. Like Gus Leonard, a boxer who figured to take an awful beating from Stein for $65,000, coast through the Toro fix for an easy $36,000 and then live out his days on a farm like a country squire.

I was just thinking like a moon struck freshman when I was out there on the edge of town deciding to blow Nick off. That's a corrupt mobster. He says this wasn't selling out. This was just playing it smart. And I even wrote here, I said, is it? Is this you? That's what I wrote to myself.

I know the goddamn trouble with me. I have enough brains to see it and not enough guts to stand up to it. Thousands of us, millions of us, corrupted, rootless, career-ridden, good hearts and yellow bellies, living out our lives for the easy buck, the soft birth, indulging ourselves in the illusion that we can deal in filth without becoming the thing we touch.

Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon Cover

William D. Cohan

Power Failure

The Rise and Fall of an American Icon

It discusses the history of GE, focusing on Jack Welch and his successors. The interviewee found it fascinating and connected it to Stoicism, particularly the concept of "imperialization."

"

I was reading it and I noticed the name and then I realized that actually read a book by the author before his name was William Cohen and he wrote this fascinating book about the fall of Bear Stearns...

— Episode: William D. Cohan on Power, Ego, and the...

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Episode: William D. Cohan on Power, Ego, and the Imperial C...

It discusses the history of GE, focusing on Jack Welch and his successors. The interviewee found it fascinating and connected it to Stoicism, particularly the concept of "imperialization."

"

I was reading it and I noticed the name and then I realized that actually read a book by the author before his name was William Cohen and he wrote this fascinating book about the fall of Bear Stearns that I read called House of Cards, a tale of hubris and wretched excess on Wall Street in 2009.

Check out Power Failure. I think you'll really like his book, House of Cards, his book Four Friends, Promising Lives Cut Short has some real memento more themes in it. And he also wrote a book about the Duke lacrosse scandal which you can check out. It's called The Price of Silence.

It's about the century plus history of GE. It's a lot about Jack Welch and his successors as well. It's fascinating. Look about power, about excess, about hubris, about money.

he talks about Jack Welch as the imperial CEO and William and I talk a lot about this idea of imperialization, which Marcus talks about in meditation.

The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game: Volume 1: Big Game Cover

Steven Rinella

The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game

Volume 1

This book, actually two books (one about big game and one about smaller game), was described as fantastic and highly recommended; the recipes from these books have been used over the years.

"

And then his two cookbooks, the complete guide to hunting, butchering and cooking wild game. William One is about big game and the other one's about smaller game. Also a fantastic book very highly rec...

— Episode: Steven Rinella on Hunting, Self-Discipli...

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Episode: Steven Rinella on Hunting, Self-Discipline, and Fi...

This book, actually two books (one about big game and one about smaller game), was described as fantastic and highly recommended; the recipes from these books have been used over the years.

"

And then his two cookbooks, the complete guide to hunting, butchering and cooking wild game. William One is about big game and the other one's about smaller game. Also a fantastic book very highly recommend it. We've used a bunch of the recipes over the years.

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History Cover

S. C. Gwynne

Empire of the Summer Moon

Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

It was mentioned by the podcast host as one of his favorite books, comparable to the guest's works in quality and storytelling.

"

the only book I would compare yours towards and it's one of my absolute favorites to is is Empire of the Summer Moon.

— Episode: Author Candice Millard on the Moments th...

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Episode: Author Candice Millard on the Moments that Define...

It was mentioned by the podcast host as one of his favorite books, comparable to the guest's works in quality and storytelling.

"

the only book I would compare yours towards and it's one of my absolute favorites to is is Empire of the Summer Moon.

The White Album by Joan Didion (1979-06-19) Cover

Joan Didion

The White Album by Joan Didion (1979-06-19)

A passage from this book, detailing Didion's encounter with Jim Morrison, was discussed; its focus on emotional truth and subjective storytelling was highlighted.

"

it reminds me of kind of a gentle way but you know the passage in Didian's The White Album where she's with Jim Morrison yeah you know and you know how she writes about it it's she goes recording sess...

— Episode: Timothy Denevi on the Power of Reading a...

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Episode: Timothy Denevi on the Power of Reading and Learnin...

A passage from this book, detailing Didion's encounter with Jim Morrison, was discussed; its focus on emotional truth and subjective storytelling was highlighted.

"

it reminds me of kind of a gentle way but you know the passage in Didian's The White Album where she's with Jim Morrison yeah you know and you know how she writes about it it's she goes recording session they're waiting for Jim Morrison he shows up he doesn't talk to anybody you know he's like should we do this and you know and they're like we can't and Didian's like I don't even know in whose favor the conversation you know was determined in real life what happened Evie Babet's her friend talks about those who dated Morrison brought her there she was flirting with Jim Morrison he was throwing the matches that hurt it was such a different reality than how she articulated it that pieces emotional truth is mind-blowing I love that passage about how she captures what the doors are expected to be what they are yeah they're like should we go they're like making like trap they're supposed to be this revolutionary artistic you know whatever group and then it's like should we drive back from West covenants exactly it's just this it's so she presents them as so pedantic and ordinary that it essentially like flays them yeah and yeah why is she doing that that's I guess a different question but yeah the idea that it could have happened very differently exactly and then still everything's true there she had a fact checkers she just chose to leave out certain other parts and I think she did a very nice job of capturing what we thought a rock band was yeah another pants yeah sex and death you know and then the kind of everyday nature of it and that you know is like four co-workers or whatever yeah exactly and there's like they're eating like boiled eggs out of a paper bag you know like she's counting the number of buttons on the control panel but even then she's narrowing from reality all the different things that did happen that night into her version of what she wants to say and nothing is untrue yeah without that it's just leave all she leaves out to get there and I think we are even struggling to understand that in terms of subjectivity and nonfiction and truth yeah present right now

How to Invest: Masters on the Craft Cover

David M. Rubenstein

How to Invest

Masters on the Craft

The podcast host discussed David Rubenstein's new book, "How to Invest," mentioning its investment tips and ways of thinking about money and growing wealth, from a very successful investor's perspective.

"

He has a new book called How to Invest, which has all sorts of fascinating investment tips and ways of thinking about money and growing wealth from a very wealthy successful investor.

— Episode: David Rubenstein on Investing and Design...

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Episode: David Rubenstein on Investing and Designing the Op...

The podcast host discussed David Rubenstein's new book, "How to Invest," mentioning its investment tips and ways of thinking about money and growing wealth, from a very successful investor's perspective.

"

He has a new book called How to Invest, which has all sorts of fascinating investment tips and ways of thinking about money and growing wealth from a very wealthy successful investor.

But as I tell him at the beginning of the episode, I've been reading quite a bit about Jimmy Carter who is a character a little bit in the discipline book, very much a character in the Justice Book.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir Cover

Ina Garten

Be Ready When the Luck Happens

A Memoir

The book by Nicholas Rescher, published in the late 1990s, discusses the need to label luck as good or bad, and to recognize that luck is just luck.

"

One of the things that he really talks about is that uh you know we have this need to label luck as good or bad um and that we need to recognize that luck is just luck for two reasons...

— Episode: Poker World Champion Annie Duke On Choos...

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Episode: Poker World Champion Annie Duke On Choosing the Tr...

The book by Nicholas Rescher, published in the late 1990s, discusses the need to label luck as good or bad, and to recognize that luck is just luck.

"

One of the things that he really talks about is that uh you know we have this need to label luck as good or bad um and that we need to recognize that luck is just luck for two reasons...

it's a great you would actually love it um so i really recommend that you read it if you haven't and your listeners would love it and one of the things by uh nicholas resher and the the name of the book is luck it's short it's a very quick read uh not that well no it's like about the size of like a seth godin book like it's not um but it's amazing

The Truth: Sex, Love, Commitment, and the Puzzle of the Male Mind Cover

Neil Strauss

The Truth

Sex, Love, Commitment, and the Puzzle of the Male Mind

The podcast host mentioned it as one of his favorite books by Neil Strauss, describing it as a great book about relationships.

"

Because it was like seven or eight years ago now I was out in Los Angeles to see my friend Neil Strauss, studying some marketing work on what's actually one of my favorite books of his, The Tr...

— Episode: Rick Rubin on The Creative Act Part One

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Episode: Rick Rubin on The Creative Act Part One

The podcast host mentioned it as one of his favorite books by Neil Strauss, describing it as a great book about relationships.

"

Because it was like seven or eight years ago now I was out in Los Angeles to see my friend Neil Strauss, studying some marketing work on what's actually one of my favorite books of his, The Truth, which I think was selling the pain of porch to a great book about relationships.

On Freedom Cover

Timothy Snyder

On Freedom

It details the author's 400-mile journey along the railroad lines of the American East Coast, exploring the complexities of freedom in a practical, not theoretical, way. The book focuses on the essence of freedom and its unexpected consequences, clocking in at approximately 150 pages.

"

I've never read a Sebastian Younger book and I loved Freedom and I loved his last book Tribe. I've never read one of his books and thought that could have been shorter.

— Episode: Sebastian Junger on the Wonder of Existe...

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Episode: Sebastian Junger on the Wonder of Existence and th...

It details the author's 400-mile journey along the railroad lines of the American East Coast, exploring the complexities of freedom in a practical, not theoretical, way. The book focuses on the essence of freedom and its unexpected consequences, clocking in at approximately 150 pages.

"

I've never read a Sebastian Younger book and I loved Freedom and I loved his last book Tribe. I've never read one of his books and thought that could have been shorter.

He reduces things down to their essence. He really thinks about them.

It says, to my beloved family who taught me the true meaning of freedom.

And his book clocks in at a whopping 150 pages give or take.

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.