Good things to read

Here are some things to read that I have found useful, valuable, or fun.  I hope you do too.

For the most part I have tried to avoid self-consciously "philosophical" works because often they are stuffy, academic, and boring.  And the whole point of philosophy, by my lights, is to be practical ... to offer something you can take away into your life.  That's how I have approached compiling this list.  Also I looked for books that I enjoyed.


Bryant, Dorothy

• The Kin of Ata Are Waiting For You

• Confessions of Madame Psyche

Didion, Joan

• "On Self Respect" in Slouching Towards Bethlehem

• "On Morality" in Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

• "Who Thinks Abstractly?" (Yes, Hegel is a regular philosopher. But this piece is very funny, and also makes a good point.)

Heinlein, Robert

• Stranger in a Strange Land

Lewis, Clive Staples

• The Abolition of Man

• The Great Divorce

• Till We Have Faces

Pirsig, Robert Maynard

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

• Lila

Rich, Adrienne

• "Women and Honor" in On Lies, Secrets, and Silence

Ulph, Owen

• The Fiddleback: Lore of the Line Camp