What I’m reading (or reflecting on):

  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

  • The Lord of The Rings: Hobbit, Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

  • Tao de Jing by Laozi (Stephen Miller translation)

  • State Change by Robin Berzin

  • Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas

  • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

  • 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy by Hamilton Helmer

  • The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell

  • Atomic Habits by James Clear

  • The Outsiders by William Thorndike

  • Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

  • Essentialism by Greg McKeown

  • The Acts of the Apostles by Saint Luke

  • Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

  • To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue

  • Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

  • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

  • Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

  • Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

  • The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

  • The Republic by Plato

  • Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

  • Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

  • Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

  • Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

  • The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

    Recent reflections:

    • The Alchemist:

      • It’s worth crossing the desert to seek your treasure. The crossing will reshape you into one worthy of the treasure (+ you will find love and friendship along the way). It’s one’s duty in life to seek your personal destiny. When you pursue your personal destiny, the universe will conspire in your favor —> when you begin to see life this way, you could get robbed day 1 in a city and see it as a blessing. I needed that one - the worst days become the best and the blessed.

    • Tao de Jing:

      • Success is as dangerous as failure...
        Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
        your position is shaky.
        When you stand with two feet on the ground,
        you will always keep your balance.

        Hope and fear are both phantoms
        that arise from thinking of the self...
        See the world as yourself...
        Love the world as yourself,
        then you can care for all things.

    • The Fellowship of the Ring:

      • The world, life as an epic journey taken on by little people with a big purpose. Fighting for good, committing to friendship… leaving the comfort of the Shire to go out and live a story worth telling. This book was an important reminder to me that we all have a purpose and that while we bumble about the Shire, there are real battles of good and evil happening just beyond our noticing. Made me want to join forces with good and set out to change the world for the better (with a band of merry friends of course).