2016 was a busy year of writing for me (and reading—but that’s in a different post). Not only did I publish two books, and launch the new daily newsletter for DailyStoic.com, but I wrote something like 100 articles. Back of the envelop math, that comes to roughly 2 articles per week, and ~150,000 words (all in that’s probably 275,000 words not including ghostwriting). There were times where I felt a little bit like I was stretching myself too slim, but I’m actually hoping to do more, and do even better writing in the year to come.

Anyway, in case you missed any of them or are looking for something to read, I thought I would put them here—all in one place. I also recently put up a page on this site that highlights some of my favorite posts I’ve written from the last ten or so years. You can also sign up to get the posts via email when they happen by clicking here.

More to come in 2017. Enjoy!

THOUGHT CATALOG 

If You Only Read A Few Books In 2017, Read These 

23 Things I Learned About Writing, Strategy And Life From Tim Ferriss

The Relationship Between ‘Talk’ And ‘Work’ Is That One Kills The Other

Here’s Why I Won’t Be Exploiting My Kids On Social Media

Please, Please, For The Love Of God: Do Not Start a Podcast

37 Wise & Life-Changing Lessons From The Ancient Stoics

Sorry, Offering To Work For Free Is A Really Bad Strategy (But Not For The Reasons You Think)

16 Rules That Every Kind, Smart and Compassionate Traveler Follows When They Fly

29 Lessons From The Greatest Strategic Minds Who Ever Lived, Fought, Or Led

Hey Dad, Here Are 49 More Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Vote For Donald Trump

21 Life Lessons Learned From Some Of The World’s Greatest Sports Coaches

12 Books of Aphorisms, Sayings & Moral Reminders That Belong In Every Library

25 Ways To Kill The Toxic Ego That Will Ruin Your Life

The Moments No One Wants to Experience But Everyone Needs To Succeed

29 Pieces Of Life Changing Advice I Collected By My 29th Birthday

Don’t Follow Your Passion, It’s What’s Holding You Back

There’s Only One Way To Kill The Jealousy That’s Ruining Your Life 

44 Writing Hacks From Some of the Greatest Writers Who Ever Lived

The Most Important Part of The Creative Process That Everyone Misses: A Draw-Down Period

The Best Way To Learn Is To Ask — Even The Dumb Questions 

If You Do This, You Should Be Banned From Email

Don’t Say ‘Maybe’ If You Want To Say ‘No’ 

19 Marvelous, Unbelievable Books About The Strange History of Man and Animals

The Obstacle Really Is The Way

If You Don’t Take The Money, They Can’t Tell You What To Do

15 Short, Powerful and Provocative Books Everyone Should Read

31 Ways To Get More ‘Deep Work’ Accomplished

What Books To Base Your Life On (From Someone Who Reads A Lot)

Read This If You Just Need Someone To Give You A Chance At Your Dream Job

Did You Actually Read That? The Joy of Reading Really Really Long Books

NEW YORK OBSERVER

We Are Living in a Post-Shame World—And That’s Not a Good Thing 

We Don’t Have a Fake News Problem—We Are the Fake News Problem

Want to Really Make America Great Again? Stop Reading the News.

Mike Cernovich Exclusive Interview: How This Right-Wing ‘Troll’ Reaches 100M People a Month

100 Things I Learned in 10 Years and 100 Reads of Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Meditations’

Interview: Inside the World of Influencer Marketing With a Don Draper of Social Video

The Timeless Link Between Writing and Running and Why It Makes for Better Work

When Will YouTube Deal With Its Audiobook and Podcast Piracy Problem?

The Biggest Threat to Your Success Is the Story You Tell Yourself About Success

The Difference Between NBA Stars and Flame-Outs Is the Secret to Success in Any Field

The 3 Ways Ego Will Derail Your Career Before It Really Begins

Doing the Work Is Enough: Stop Letting Others Dictate Your Worth

Hypocrites, Much? How Gawker Reported on Other Crippling Bankruptcies and Lawsuits

The Toxic Force That Poisoned the Uber and Lyft Battle in Austin

Peter Thiel’s Reminder to the Gawker Generation: Actions Have Consequences

Behind the Stunt: How a Fake Book Cover Got 5 Million Views

How Tim Ferriss Became the ‘Oprah of Audio’—Behind the Podcast With 70M-Plus Downloads

Meet the Man Who Sold Hundreds of Thousands of Books With Blank Pages in Them

Meet the Man Who Rejected Advertising and Still Runs a Profitable Media Site

Goodbye and Good Riddance: Sociopathy of Gawker and Gawker-Like Media Finally Exposed

Interview: After 11,000 Posts, This Blogger Reveals All the Problems With the Media

EXCLUSIVE: How This Marketer Created a Fake Best Seller—And Got a Real Book Deal

The Cause of This Nightmare Election? Media Greed and Shameless Traffic Worship

How Rumblr’s Marketing Agency Gamed the Media for $100k in Business

EXCLUSIVE: Meet the Social Media Genius Behind Dan Bilzerian and Verne Troyer

This Is the Hollowed-Out World That Outrage Culture Has Created

DAILY STOIC

3 Stoic Exercises That Will Help Create Your Best Month Yet

Stoicism Can Help Put Criticism In Perspective

How Does A Stoic Respond To Failure

Translating The Stoics: An Interview With “The Daily Stoic” Co-Author Stephen Hanselman

On Stoicism and Not Giving a F*ck: An Interview with Mark Manson

An Interview with the Master: Robert Greene on Stoicism

Stoicism In Professional Sports: An Interview with NFL Exec Michael Lombardi

Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking: An Interview with Oliver Burkeman

A Guide To The Good Life: An Interview With William B. Irvine

Philosophy for Life: An Interview With Jules Evans

Doing the Right Thing Can Cost You Everything

Who Is Marcus Aurelius? Getting To Know The Roman Emperor

Who Is Seneca? Inside The Mind of The World’s Most Interesting Stoic

Who Is Epictetus? From Slave To World’s Most Sought After Philosopher

BOING BOING

Here’s an ancient philosophy so simple even a 5-year-old could understand it

The fascinating and ego-killing existence of human wormholes

THE GUARDIAN 

How would the Stoics cope today?

THE DAILY BEAST

Gay Talese Isn’t Alone: Why Aren’t More Books Factchecked?

99U

Do You Have to Be a Jerk to Be Successful?

CRACKED

5 “Geniuses” Who Drove Their Legacies Into the Ground

FAST COMPANY

The Crucial Thing Commencement Speakers Get Wrong About Success

How To Advance Your Career While You’re Stuck Doing Grunt Work

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

Meet Your Worst Enemy

How to Beat Perfectionism, Make Progress, and Find Happiness

ENTREPRENEUR 

5 Truths of Ancient Wisdom That Will Make You a Better Entrepreneur

The 3 Ways Ego Will Derail Your Career Before It Really Begins

4 Ways To Push Through Adversity and Failure Without Ego

5 Deadly Kinds of Ego That Prey Upon Your Success

MEDIUM

7 Stoic Meditations To Get The Most Out of Today (and Life)

Here’s Why Smart People Believe The Nonsense That Trump Might Win

Here’s Why You’re The Only One Who Gets To Define What Success Is

The Maxim For Every Successful Person: ‘Always Stay A Student’

HUFFINGTON POST 

Dear Dad, Please Don’t Vote For Donald Trump

Why Ego Is the Enemy in Business and in Life

MINDBODYGREEN

How To Shut Down Your Ego + Tap Into The Immensity Of Your Potential

NEWSWEEK

What’s Wrong With Today’s Media?

INC.

58 Books That Will Make You Better, No Matter Who You Are

BUSINESS INSIDER 

The philosophy of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is supposed to help you be more resilient and at peace — here’s how to master it in 7 days

LINKEDIN

An ancient guide to solving all work problems once and for all

The Canvas Strategy: The Quickest Way to Career Success

You’re Not Stuck, You’re Just Using Your Time Wrong

Here’s the Strategy Elite Athletes Follow to Perform at the Highest Level

Every year, I try to narrow down the hundred plus books I have recommended or read down to just the three or four best. I know that people are busy, and most of you don’t have time to read as much as you’d like. There’s absolutely no shame in that–what matters is that you make the time you can and that you pick the right books when you do.

They are books that I and the 70,000 readers on my reading list email have enjoyed and learned from. If they had been all that I had read over the last twelve months, I’d have considered 2016 a successful year of reading.

Anyway, let’s get to it. Read these books!

The Years of Lyndon Johnson (4 Volumes) by Robert A. Caro and The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill (3 Volumes) by William Manchester

In January, I picked up my first book in this Caro’s series on Lyndon Johnson. It wasn’t until June that I finished my fourth, but I consider finishing all of them to be one of my proudest reading achievements. (FYI, I started with The Passage of Power, then read The Path to Power, then Means of Ascent and Master of the Senate. The order didn’t seem to matter.) It’s unquestionable to me that Caro is one of the greatest biographers to ever live. His intricate, complicated, sprawling investigation into Lyndon Johnson will change how you see power, ambition, politics, personality and justice. If there is one line that sums up the whole series it’s this: It’s that power doesn’t only corrupt. That’s too simple. What power does is reveal. It’s also easy to be disillusioned by politics right now but for me, getting lost in these Lyndon Johnson books has been a helpful and educational process. Because you learn two things 1) that things have always been complicated and confusing but they tend to turn out alright 2) that our system, whatever its flaws, can still produce good results from bad men.

After the Caro series, I started William Manchester’s equally epic three volume set on Winston Churchill (Visions of Glory, Alone, Defender of the Realm) which Robert Greene gave me as a wedding present last year. Like all truly great long reads, you learn not just about the subject but every intersecting one: the history of British peerage, the Victorian era, the British Empire, Colonialism, modern warfare, international relations, evil, the nature of genius, the effects of absent parents. The book is masterfully written about a masterful man—Churchill was a soldier, a writer, a politician, a statesman, a strategist and a true great man of history. Each book in the series is equally distinct and interesting. The first is Churchill as a young, ambitious man. The second is his time in the political wilderness, when his ego has driven him from power and into writing and thinking. The third is his time back on the world’s stage, in what was perhaps the finest hour of any empire in any era. The last book is probably the best. It features the famous bulldog version of Churchill: rescuing the troops at Dunkirk, persevering through the Blitz, vowing to fight on the landing grounds and the beaches and in the streets, whatever the cost may be. The sheer determination of this man, to take an entire country on your back and defy a horde which had overrun the European continent in a matter of months…it’s almost breathtaking to think about.

As I said, if you were to only read one thing in the next year, you could do a lot worse than either of these series. They contain dozens of books within them and will teach you about so much more than just the man they are ostensibly about. Please, please read them.

(Two bonus related recommendations: I also read Lincoln’s Virtues by William Lee Miller which was heart wrenching and amazing. I truly loved both books he wrote on Lincoln. I also wrote a paean on the joy of reading really really long books which you may enjoy)

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

As a general rule, most new memoirs are mediocre and most business memoirs are even worse. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight is an exception to that rule in every way and as a result, was one of my favorite books of the year and favorite business books ever. I started reading it while on the runway of a flight and figured I’d read a few pages before opening my laptop and working. Instead, my laptop stayed in my bag during the flight and I read almost the entire book in one extended sitting. Ostensibly the memoir of the founder of Nike, it’s really the story of a lost kid trying to find meaning in his life and it ends with him creating a multi-billion dollar company that changes sports forever. I’m not sure if Knight used a ghostwriter (the acknowledgements are unclear) but his personal touches are all over the book—and the book itself is deeply personal and authentic. The afterward is an incredibly moving reflection of a man looking back on his life. I loved this book. It ends just as Nike is starting to turn into the behemoth it would become, so I hold out hope that there may be more books to follow. In terms of other surprising memoirs, I found JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy to be another well-written gem and despite its popularity, When Breath Becomes Air is actually underrated. It’s make-you-cry good.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

I thought I’d read this book before but clearly they gave me some sort of children’s version. Because the one I’d read as a kid wasn’t a 1,200 page epic of some of the most brilliant, beautiful and complicated storytelling ever put to paper. What a book! When I typed out my notes (and quotes) after finishing this book, it ran some 3,000 words. I was riveted from cover to cover. I enjoyed all the stuff I missed as a kid: the Counts struggle with his faith in light of what was done to him, the Hundred Days of Napoleon’s return, his rants against technology, the criticism of newspapers, the influence of ancient philosophy, ultimately, a warning against being consumed by revenge. Please—if you’re going on a long trip or looking to check out of modern events for a while—get this book. I recommend the Penguin Classics edition.

Revenge books seemed to be a trend for me this year. I loved Michael Punke’s The Revenant, about a man who bravely challenged his fate in the wilderness just as Edmond Dantes did in prison. This year I also re-read Walker Percy’s Lancelot, a dark story of revenge and an attempt to go to the heart of evil. Less dark, but equally epic, I also loved (and raved about repeatedly) Aaron Thier’s new novel Mr. Eternity. If you read a lot of non-fiction, do yourself a favor this year and set aside some time for some serious fiction reading. You can learn just as much and be changed just as much by a truly great story as you can by any business or self-help book.

Misc.

I loved Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck. There’s a reason this book is blowing up. It’s that good. Same goes for Cal Newport’s Deep Work—this book has changed my priorities and confirmed a lot of my life and work decisions. If you haven’t built up the ability to sit quietly and work with great focus to develop deep, creative insights—the next few decades are going to be very difficult for you. I really liked John Seabrook’s study of the future of music industry (and really, all creative businesses) in his book The Song Machine; Cass Sunstein’s book The World According to Star Wars is another interesting look at the economics of creative work. If you want to be scared about the next four years, pick up Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here (because, well, it may have just happened here). To balance out that depressing book, I highly recommend David Brooks’ The Road To Character, Sebastian Junger’s Tribe and Chuck Klosterman’s What If We’re Wrong.

And of course, I’ve also got lists of my favorite books from 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011. 

Enjoy and looking forward to reading with you in 2017!

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