What I’ve Been Reading and Why

I thought I would take a little break this week from politics and economics. As you all know, things have been getting pretty heavy on that front, and every once in a while, it’s good to remind ourselves that life always goes on and in much, much bigger and more important ways than we often realize. For me, it’s books that most often bring me back to this wider, healthier life perspective. Fortunately, I’ve been reading a lot lately! 

What I thought I would do this week is share with you all what I’ve been reading, why, and what I’ve learned along the way.

Notes From the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

After reading Crime and Punishment during the depths of the COVID lockdowns, I became a Dostoyevsky fanatic. He’s an absolute master storyteller, of course, but what makes him so special is his uncanny understanding of human nature and psychology. No one quite gets us like Dostoyevsky does. 

“Notes from the Underground” is a work that has long been on my list. It’s a book that dares to examine the depths of male psychology holding almost nothing back. In Dostoyevsky’s troubled narrator, we see man in a depraved state, not just from the outside looking in but in ingeniously imagined inner monologue. By daring to imagine what a truly pathetic man would look like—weak, narcissistic, delusional, unkind, crass, hiding underground figuratively and almost literally, fantasizing but doing nothing in the real world, not accepting any responsibility for anything, full of opinions with no basis or experience to back it up…—Dostoyevsky helps us see precisely what not to be. 

While not really autobiographical, it’s a book where I think we get a glimpse of something rather personal to Dostoyevsky. He often lived on the edges of life, was destitute on several occasions, and was even almost executed by the Tsar for revolutionary activities and was saved only at the last minute, probably on account of his extraordinary genius. What makes Dostoyevsky a hero is that he’s someone who danced with the dark side, so much so that he could show us all in vivid, cautionary terms what that really looks like but found a way to avoid being destroyed by it himself. Of course, we’re all better off as a result.

Confessions by Saint Augustine 

I’ve spent the last decade reading widely from the great spiritual and religious traditions of the world. I’ve left no stone unturned but somehow hadn’t read Saint Augustine seriously until just recently. To leave him out would’ve been a big mistake! 

Saint Augustine is not for everyone. His writing is dense and often philosophical, like Meister Eckhart. I tend to prefer mystical poets, like Rumi or David Whyte, and practical mystics like Eknath Easwaran or Thomas Kempis. But I must admit that I found Saint Augustine’s radical candor both humanizing and inspiring. So often, these spiritual figures present rather opaquely. As a modern individual engaged in mostly worldly pursuits, it’s hard to relate. Just what does it mean to live like a Saint anyway?

The fact that someone like Saint Augustine struggled so much with things like the desire for wealth, fame, and sex makes me feel a lot better about my own inner struggles. It’s also a great reminder that there’s a kind of magic that happens when someone is willing to be vulnerable in front of others. Indeed, if there’s a superpower in life, it might be this. 

Beyond this humanizing effect, Saint Augustine reminds us over and over again that humility is the path to wisdom and that if we want to make spiritual progress, we must train and strengthen our willpower. It’s not some coincidence, after all, that individuals like Jesus and Buddha pushed themselves to the absolute limit physically and mentally along the way to spiritual enlightenment. We should learn from their example and find ways every day to test and strengthen our willpower. 

Another great book in this vein is Gandhi’s Autobiography, a profound must-read work and one that has had a huge, ongoing impact on my own life. 

The First Frontier by Scott Weidensaul

While not one I’d recommend for everyone—it’s very long, overly detailed, and hard to follow narratively—I’m glad I read “The First Frontier” because it gave me some important context for just how violent of a process colonialization can be. This is something I probably already knew but mostly in an intellectual way. Weidensaul does a masterful job of really personalizing things by telling in (almost painstaking) detail the stories of individuals who played a part in this troubling historical process. 

The America that we know and celebrate today was born out of a period of incredible violence and suffering. Weidensaul helps you see what that really meant for the men, women, and children alive during that time. Life is always precarious but it was especially so on America’s first frontier, where war, suffering, disease, starvation, privation, and vengeance were the stuff of daily life. Without apologizing in any way for the behavior of the colonists, the book catalogs great moral and spiritual transgressions on both sides and shows decisively that war is hell, especially war of this nature, where the price of losing is existential, both in the traditional sense and culturally.  

While much of this story is terrible and disturbing, reading this doesn’t make me hate America and what we stand for. Despite these historical and humanitarian crimes, there’s still good in us, what we’ve done, and what we stand for. If anything, it makes me feel even more inspired to dedicate my time and energy to the task of building an ever more perfect Union. That’s the best way we can honor the sacrifices of all those who suffered so much for so many. 

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

I wanted to read this one because as a father of two boys who are growing up fast, I find myself increasingly concerned about all the data coming in for just how bad phone-based technologies like social media have been for our mental health. Also, I’m interviewing Zach Rausch, the lead researcher for the book, on the podcast soon and hopefully, Jonathan Haidt later in the year and it always helps to be prepared for such things! 

While much of the book is disturbing and depressing—in short, social media really, really messed up our culture and hurt our kids—I walked away feeling optimistic because, unlike many of the issues we’ve examined, the solution is so simple: don’t let kids use social media. I’ll be publishing a full review of this book in a few weeks when we release the Zach Rausch episode so stay tuned!

Like what you’re reading? Join us on our socials for more content throughout the week. 🙏 Thank you!