Chapter 38: Ryan Holiday bashes beachy books and builds a balanced base

About this episode

Neil Pasricha discusses the impact of Ryan Holiday on his reading journey and the repopularization of stoic philosophy.

Thirteen years ago I was surfing online when I stumbled on a blog post called " ​ How To Read More — A Lot More ​ " by someone I'd never heard of named Ryan Holiday. I started reading the post and got sucked in. He had a point! Many great points, actually. And he was young. 26 years old! A 26-year-old young man telling the world to read more books? In an era where most twenty-something men read, uh, none? I found Ryan to be a breath of fresh air. I immediately began to copy everything he did! He launched a ​ monthly book club ​ . I launched a ​ monthly book club ​ ! (With his blessing, of course.) He was talking about reading fifty then a hundred and then hundreds of books a year. Well, I started reading five books and then ten books and then fifty books a year. I began cancelling news subscriptions and consciously put my phone away. I installed a bookshelf at my front door. I moved my TV to the basement! And, of course, I started this podcast—all about reading. In a way 3 Books would not exist without Ryan Holiday. In some ways I can probably trace my rediscovered passion for reading all the way back to that 2013 blog post. But Ryan is not just a blogger anymore. He's not just a…

People in this episode

Host: Neil Pasricha

Guest: Ryan Holiday

Topics covered

• reading
• stoic philosophy
• book clubs
• self-improvement
• personal development

Keywords

• reading
• Ryan Holiday
• stoic philosophy
• book club
• self-improvement

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, Stillness Is The Key, Discipline is Destiny

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