EPIC BOOKS LIST HOW TO

“No person should be defined by his or her worst act.” “What inmates need is for someone to believe in them.” “The more eyes there are on any specific place, the safer it tends to be.” “I’ve always appreciated nature, but now I find myself saying ‘Stop. “No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.” “The mortality rate of homeless people is four times higher than that of housed people.” “Many homeless people in Toronto would rather sleep outside in the winter than take a bed inside some of the shelters available, just because of the conditions there.” The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” The question to be asked here is, of course, What do we live for if not to make life a little less difficult for one another? Whether the issue is homelessness, environmental degradation, the ineffectual criminal justice system, or infectious disease, Scanlan is continually face to face with overwhelming need. This is the story of journalist Lawrence Scanlan’s year of volunteering for twelve different Canadian charitable organizations, dedicating a month to each one. The Epic Book List: A Year of Living Generously by Lawrence Scan lan Enjoy the list below, and always remember that reading, in its purest form, shouldn’t be an “escape” from your real life it should be a “discovery” of your real life. Supporters of my Patreon page are able to get monthly updated notes on every single book I read, along with the thousands of pages of notes I already have.Īlright, so let’s get to it. That book/document alone is over 400 pages long! I’ve even distilled the very best notes from each book into one “master” document that I’d like to give you for free. Since I’ve started taking notes on every single book I read, I’ve amassed thousands of pages of study-notes. I list each book below in alphabetical order, summarize it in a few sentences, and reproduce some of the personal study-notes that I took for each book, along with a representative pull-quote here and there. If I were to mix my metaphors, which I do often, I would say that these edge pieces are the books that pack the strongest one-two punches I’ve ever experienced in all my years with the printed word.

So, with some measure of sadness concerning the finitude of human existence and the immensity of available knowledge, I present to you what I believe are the greatest “edge pieces” that I’ve read so far. Myself, I’ve set the worthy goal of reading 1,000 books before I turn 30, but I’m quite sure that there are probably tens of thousands of books that are WORTH reading. What this all boils down to is that this list is necessarily incomplete. You’ll never find all the edge pieces (because most of them haven’t even been written yet), you’ll never be able to explore every room, and you’ll never get to the bottom of the rabbit hole.īut the attempt itself is the intellectual adventure of a lifetime. If you think of what you “know” right now as one giant room, each book you read leads you into an entirely different room.Īnd once you get to THAT room, you’ll find that it opens up into three (and often more) ADDITIONAL rooms that you didn’t even know were there.Ĭlearly, reading is a giant rabbit hole, and no single individual will ever reach the bottom. The funny thing is though (albeit maddeningly frustrating at times) is that you’ll soon realize how much you didn’t even KNOW that you didn’t know! The edge pieces give you an idea of how big the puzzle might be, what its basic structure looks like, and then, if you want to dive deeper and really “fill out” your knowledge, you can keep doubling down on your reading and read more books on the puzzle in question, even if those additional books aren’t as paradigm-shattering as the edge pieces you started with. To continue with the metaphor that I’m inordinately pleased with myself for having thought up on my own, the best books are like “edge pieces” that help you develop your macro-level worldview, and the lesser (though by no means unimportant) books serve to fill in the details of whichever puzzle you’re trying to solve.

EPIC BOOKS LIST HOW TO

If the “puzzle” you’re trying to solve is the fundamental nature of reality (which is the most fascinating puzzle around, to be honest), how to live courageously in the world, how to achieve worldly success, or whatever else, then reading the best books will help illuminate your path. It struck me one night that, in many ways, great books are like puzzle pieces.

Epic books list