Books I am Reading

As I mentioned elsewhere on this site, around 2019, I began an autodidactic self-study. I have put a list of books that I have studied below. To be considered "studied," I usually take comprehensive notes while reading through each book. I have hundreds of pages of notes from all the books I've read, and at some point, I may make them available. However, for now, I am just listing the titles that I've studied. I have also included the ones that are currently underway.

I also listen to audiobooks, but I have not included them on this page as I don't consider a listen-through of an audiobook enough to warrant saying I have truly studied or comprehended a piece. To see all the audiobooks I have also listened to, click here. Often, I start by listening to an audiobook, and then if I find the book very interesting, I will read it and study it closely in textual form.

This blog page is a living document, so as I have more time and complete more content, I will add to it.

I've grouped the items into two sections, longer pieces and shorter pieces. Longer pieces tend to be entire books, often 100 pages or so or more. Shorter pieces tend to be research papers, brief essays, or excerpts from larger works; imagine around 20 pages or so, but the length may vary. Within each section, I have listed the pieces chronologically, with the older, more classic pieces appearing first, followed by the more modern pieces.

The list is not comprehensive; I have mainly included works that I have read in my leisure, and I have not included the readings I have done for school. I may add these later if I have time to review and organize my notes.

I am sharing this so that people can understand what thought may have informed my own thinking, to inspire others to investigate the pieces listed here and to begin a dialogue. Please recommend pieces to check out or provide your interpretation or feedback on the items listed here.

Longer Pieces

Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) (c. 563–483 BCE)

• The Dhammapada: Compiled c. 3rd century BCE

Confucius (Kong Fuzi) (c. 551–479 BCE)

• Analects: Compiled c. 475–221 BCE

Sun Tzu (c. 544–496 BCE)

• The Art of War: Compiled c. 5th century BCE

Plato (c. 428–348 BCE)

• Complete Works of Plato, ed. John M. Cooper: Published 1997, including:

• Apology

• Crito

• Euthyphro

• Phaedo

• Meno

• Gorgias

• Symposium

• Republic

• Phaedrus

• Timaeus

• Laws

• Parmenides

• Theaetetus

• Sophist

• Statesman

• Philebus

• Charmides

• Lysis

• Laches

• Ion

• Euthydemus

• Cratylus

• Menexenus

• Hippias Major

• Hippias Minor

• Protagoras

• Alcibiades I (spurious)

• Alcibiades II (spurious)

• The Lovers

• Theages

• Clitophon

• Minos

• Letters (spurious)

Vyasa (c. 4th century BCE–2nd century CE, traditional attribution)

• The Bhagavad Gita: Composed c. 2nd century BCE–2nd century CE

The Bible’s Various Authors (c. 1200 BCE–100 CE, collective authorship)

• The Bible: Hebrew Bible compiled c. 165 BCE;

• New Testament compiled c. 100 CE (currently underway reading)

Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (43 BCE–17 CE)

• Metamorphoses: Published c. 8 CE

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180 CE)

• Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Published posthumously (circulated after 180 CE)

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469–1527)

• The Prince: Published 1532

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

• Antony and Cleopatra: Published 1607

John Milton (1608–1674)

• Paradise Lost: Published 1667

François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) (1694–1778)

• Candide: Published 1759

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

• Critique of Pure Reason: Published 1781

• Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals: Published 1785

• What is Enlightenment?: Published 1784

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)

• On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason: Published 1813 (revised 1847)

• The Emptiness of Existence

• Thinking for Oneself

• A Short Dialogue on the Indestructibility of Our True Being by Death  

• Religion

• Metaphysics of Love

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

• Circles: Published 1841

• Friendship: Published 1841

• Nature: Published 1836

• Self-Reliance: Published 1841

• The Over-Soul: Published 1841

Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882)

• On the Origin of Species: Published 1859

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813–1855)

• Either/Or: Published 1843

• Fear and Trembling: Published 1843

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900)

• The Birth of Tragedy: Published 1872

• Untimely Meditations Published 1874 (currently underway reading)

• Human, All Too Human: Published 1878

• Daybreak (or The Dawn of Day): Published 1881

• The Gay Science: Published 1882

• Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Published in parts 1883–1891

• Beyond Good and Evil: Published 1886

• On the Genealogy of Morality: Published 1887

• The Case of Wagner: Published 1888

• Twilight of the Idols: Published 1889

• Nietzsche Contra Wagner: Published 1889

• The Antichrist: Published 1895

• Ecce Homo: Published 1908

• The Will to Power: Published 1901 (currently underway reading)

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

• Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex: Published 1905

• Civilization and Its Discontents: Published 1930

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872–1970)

• A History of Western Philosophy: Published 1945

Carl Jung (1875–1961)

• Modern Man in Search of a Soul: Published 1933

• Answer to Job: Published 1952

• Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle: Published 1952

• Memories, Dreams, Reflections: Published 1962

• Man and His Symbols: Published 1964

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955)

• How to Win Friends and Influence People: Published 1936

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889–1951)

• Philosophical Investigations: Published 1953

Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971)

• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Published 1970

Viktor Frankl (1905–1997)

• Man’s Search for Meaning: Published 1946

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)

• Existentialism is a Humanism: Published 1946

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)

• The Ethics of Ambiguity: Published 1947

• The Second Sex: Published 1949

Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997)

• The Hedgehog and the Fox: Published 1953

Albert Camus (1913–1960)

• The Stranger: Published 1942

Alan Watts (1915–1973)

• The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are: Published 1966

Ernest Becker (1924–1974)

• The Denial of Death: Published 1973

Michel Foucault (1926–1984)

• Discipline and Punish: Published 1975

Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007)

• Simulacra and Simulation: Published 1981

• The Transparency of Evil: Published 1990 (currently underway reading)

David G. Myers (1942–)

• Psychology - 11th Edition: Published 2018

Gloria Jean Watkins (bell hooks) (1952–2021)

• The Will to Change: Published 2004

John Gray (1951–)

• Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: Published 1992

Marshall B. Rosenberg (1934–2015)

• Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Published 1999

David Loy (1947–)

• Lack and Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism: Published 1996

Richard Delgado (1939–) & Jean Stefancic (1940–)

• Critical Race Theory: An Introduction: Published 2001 (co-authored with Jean Stefancic)

Christopher Ryan (1962–) & Cacilda Jethá (1965–)

• Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality: Published 2010 (co-authored with Cacilda Jethá)

Robert Greene (1959-)

• Mastery 2012

Grant Hardy (1967–)

• Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition: Published 2008 (The Great Courses lecture series)

James Clear (1986–)

• Atomic Habits: Published 2018

Jordan Peterson (1962–)

• 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos: Published 2018

Shorter Pieces

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BCE–65 CE)

• On the Shortness of Life: Published c. 49 CE

Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)

• Of the Art of Discussion: Published 1580 (in Essays, Book III)

• On the Art of Conversation: Published 1580 (in Essays, Book III)

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)

• A Modest Proposal: Published 1729

Various Authors (American State Papers) (c. 1730–1800, collective authorship)

• The Declaration of Independence: Published 1776

• The Constitution of the United States of America: Published 1787

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891)

• A Season in Hell: Published 1873

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)

• Street Haunting: Published 1927 (in The Yale Review, later in The Death of the Moth and Other Essays, 1942)

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)

• The Question Concerning Technology: Published 1954 (in The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays)

Leo Strauss (1899–1973)

• Persecution and the Art of Writing (first chapter): Published 1952 (in Persecution and the Art of Writing)

Mortimer Jerome Adler (1902–2001)

• Happiness, from The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World, Published 1952

• Will, from The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World, Published 1952

• Wisdom, from The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World, Published 1952

Alan Mathison Turing (1912–1954)

• Computing Machinery and Intelligence: Published 1950 (in Mind journal)

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995)

• Spinoza: Practical Philosophy — Chapter 2: On the Difference Between the Ethics and a Morality: Published 1981 (English translation 1988)

John Rogers Searle (1932–)

• Minds, Brains, and Science: Published 1984

Thomas Nagel (1937–)

• What Is It Like to Be a Bat?: Published 1974 (in The Philosophical Review)