Reading

The Last Lion: Visions of Glory by William Manchester

/ History, Reading

★★★★☆ | History | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I read William Manchester’s massive biography of Winston Churchill in the evenings over many months.  I think of this an a pleasure read because the writing is so lyrical and evocative of another time and place.  So many leadership and life lessons to be gleaned from studying Churchill.

I am patiently waiting to reach the end of the Story of Civilization before resuming this amazing biography of Churchill with the second volume.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

/ ★★★★★, Literature, Reading

★★★★★ | Literature | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A beautiful, wise book touching so many themes: true love, societal pressures, women’s rights, nobility excesses, religious zealotry, jealousy, the fruitless search for the meaning of life, angst over landowner privilege, thinking vs. feeling/living, capitalism vs. communism. Reading Tolstoy is the study of life.

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On Friendship by Marcus Cicero

/ Philosophy, Reading

★★★★☆ | Philosophy | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Friendship is one of life’s greatest blessings, but are seldom accounted for as such.

True friendship is selfless and must be predicated on virtue with no expectation of gain.

Riches and success tend to change a person. If he forsakes his friends for possessions, he’ll one day wonder who he bought all this stuff for, and will have no one to enjoy them with him.

In the face of a true friend a man sees as it were a second self. So that where his friend is he is; if his friend be rich, he is not poor; though he be weak, his friend’s strength is his; and in his friend’s life he enjoys a second life after his own is finished. This last is perhaps the most difficult to conceive. But such is the effect of the respect, the loving remembrance, and the regret of friends which follow us to the grave. While they take the sting out of death, they add a glory to the life of the survivors. 

How to Live by Derek Sivers

/ Philosophy, Reading

★★★★☆ | Philosophy | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A quirky book full of dense wisdom.  Thinking in such extremes is interesting.  The ending was anti-climactic (and weird).

Highlights

We overestimate what we can do in one year. We underestimate what we can do in ten years.

One of the best feelings in life is to meet someone who grew up in an opposite culture but has your same humor, thoughts, or taste.

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The Lessons of History by Will Durant

/ History, Reading

★★★★☆ | History | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I read this before undertaking the epic 11-volume Story of Civilization that Durant wrote over the course of forty years. He boils down the critical themes of history that he learned over the course of his lifetime of study. If you don’t have the time or inclination to read his opus, this is a good primer.

Highlights

Biology and History

Freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies. Leave men free, and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, … only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom; and in the end superior ability has its way.

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The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

/ Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

My third book by Amor Towles who is an inspiration to me.  He published his first  novel, The Rules of Civility, at 47 after spending a career in investment banking in New York. Imagine that!

This one has some dear characters: Emmett, Duchess, Billy, Wooley, Sally, and a few other incidentals thrown in.  Duchess is a borderline psychopath that I came to adore by looking at his situation through his own perspective.

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The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday

/ Philosophy, Reading

★★★★☆ | Philosophy | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Favorite Highlights

“The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.” 

Where one loses control of emotions, another can remain calm. Desperation, despair, fear, powerlessness—these reactions are functions of our perceptions. You must realize: Nothing makes us feel this way; we choose to give in to such feelings. 

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