What’s on My Mind (and My Reading List) — June 2024
I find myself increasingly returning to the collected works of a select few authors.
It is natural when one develops a love of reading to want to follow wherever your whims lead you. This often leads to the reader accumulating a vast library of books by a large variety of authors. Some of those will be read in full. Others will only be read in small snippets and pieces. And, to great tragedy, many will go completely unread.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca — a philosopher I return to often — describes the dilemma like this, in On Tranquility of Mind:
The mass of books burdens the student without instructing him, and it is far better to devote yourself to a few authors than to get lost among many.
With this in mind, I once again find myself focusing on the works and life experiences of a few key people.
Those familiar with my lists will recognize some of the names included on this month’s list. This list is, in many regards, a continuation of my list from April 2024. If you have not checked out some of the titles included there, I encourage you to do so. I will be building on a few of the themes addressed there.
James Baldwin
This month, I continue my studies on the work of the prolific James Baldwin. I’ll continue exploring both his collected and previously uncollected nonfiction works. I’ll also be diving further into Baldwin’s most prominent fictional works.
Another Country by James Baldwin
The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin edited by Michele Elam
The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948–1985 by James Baldwin
Figures of the Civil Rights Movement
In the past three months, I’ve returned to a few key figures of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-1960s. This month, I’ll dive into the works of prominent civil rights organizers, A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. I’ll also read about the lives of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) former chairmen, John Lewis and Stokley Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture).
Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics edited by Michael G. Long
For Jobs and Freedom: Selected Speeches and Writings of A. Philip Randolph edited by Andrew E. Kersten and David Lucander
Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker edited by Valerie Boyd
His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham
John Lewis: The Last Interview and Other Conversations by John Lewis
Saying It Loud: 1966 — The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement by Mark Whitaker
Stokley Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism by Stokley Carmichael
Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin by Bayard Rustin
Walking in the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis with Michael D’Orso
Ryan Holiday’s Stoic Virtue Series
I have been a fan of Ryan Holiday’s work since I read Ego is the Enemy in my early college years. Holiday excels at bringing the ancient wisdom of Stoicism into a modern context.
In 2021, Holiday published the first in his series on the four cardinal virtues of Stoic philosophy, Courage is Calling. Holiday followed with 2022’s Discipline is Destiny.
The third book in this series, Right Thing. Right Now., is set for release in mid-June, tackling the cardinal virtue of justice. The fourth and final entry in the series on wisdom has yet to receive an official publication date.
Courage is Calling: Fortune Favours the Brave by Ryan Holiday
Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control by Ryan Holiday
Right Thing, Right Now: Good Value. Good Character. Good Deeds. by Ryan Holiday
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Notes:
The passage from Seneca’s On Tranquility of Mind was translated by C. D. N. Costa. This translation is included in On the Shortness of Life by Seneca, published by Penguin Books.