The Manhattan Mayhem

Manhattan was my home base in 2018. It was the most stressful, high-octane year of my life while I was living and studying in the city that never sleeps. Honestly, I still find myself falling back into that 2018 bubble, reliving the grind of the world’s busiest borough.

It was during that time that I walked into one of the first physical Amazon stores and saw a bright orange book. It stood out immediately. It was sitting at number two on the charts, and it had a massive „FUCK“ plastered on the cover. That was my introduction to The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson.

I bought it on the spot. Whenever I wasn’t buried in university assignments, I was buried in that book. There is nothing more „New York“ than sitting on the subway, ignoring the chaos around you, and reading a book that tells you exactly how to stop caring about the wrong things. New York, baby.

I have been following Mark Manson ever since. While his podcast episodes can sometimes be a bit long and repetitive, I usually lean on the Snipd AI DJ to catch the highlights and keep my workflow efficient. I still watch every video he drops, especially when he steers away from the typical self-help noise.

If you are like me, your „To Read“ pile is probably a mountain of self-help titles. If you haven’t even read The Subtle Art yet, stop what you are doing, go grab it, and actually read it. But Manson’s latest video takes a different turn. He moved away from the „fix your life“ bubble and shared 14 books that are not self-help but will still change your perspective.

As someone who spends all day focusing on Personal Knowledge Management and productivity, sometimes I just need to turn my brain off. Whether it is reading some wild fiction like Manacled or a deep non-fiction dive, I would rather have a stack of books waiting for me than not know what to read next.

The Big Four: My Next Reads

From Manson’s list, these four are officially moving to the top of my stack.

• War and Peace* by Leo Tolstoy: Manson calls this the greatest book ever written. It is a tapestry of people fumbling through life while history rolls over them like a wave. It is a lesson in humility and accepting that none of us really know what is going on.
• Open* by Andre Agassi: This is widely considered one of the best memoirs ever. It starts with a shocking admission: Agassi hated tennis. It explores the complicated relationship between being world-class at something and the resentment that comes with that success.
• Homage to Catalonia* by George Orwell: Before the famous novels, Orwell actually went to fight in the Spanish Civil War. This book is about the brutal reality of testing your beliefs in the real world and the disillusionment that follows when your ideals do not match reality.
• Lolita* by Vladimir Nabokov: This is a dark, uncomfortable masterpiece. It uses beautiful, seductive prose to tell a story through the eyes of a monster. It is a haunting study of manipulation and how dangerous people often show up as charming rather than scary.

The Rest of the List

If those do not fill your shelf, the rest of the video covers everything from bugs to military strategy:

1. Mosquito* by Timothy Weingard: A look at how the mosquito, not leaders or wars, shaped human history.
2. The Art of War* by Sun Tzu: A guide on how to win by making the actual fight unnecessary.
3. Siddhartha* by Hermann Hesse: The story of a man trying every extreme before realizing the goal is to stop chasing.
4. Deep Survival* by Lawrence Gonzalez: A study on why experts die and beginners survive, focusing on the need to be flexible when a plan fails.
5. Endurance* by Alfred Lansing: The incredible story of Shackleton’s Antarctic survival and how routine keeps people sane.
6. The Master and Margarita* by Mikhail Bulgakov: A secret Soviet-era novel about how evil is often just the cowardice of not saying the truth.
7. Brave New World* by Aldous Huxley: A dystopia where people are controlled by pleasure and distraction rather than fear.
8. Washington: A Life* by Ron Chernow: A biography of George Washington that explores the „Great Man“ theory of history.
9. The Metaphysical Club* by Louis Menand: The story of how pragmatism was born from the trauma of the American Civil War.
10. The Myth of Sisyphus* by Albert Camus: An exploration of finding meaning and joy even in repetitive, endless tasks.

Final Thought

My book stack just got significantly higher, and I have no idea where the time will come from to finish them all. But that is okay. I would much rather be overwhelmed by great ideas than bored by none.

Check out the full video by Mark Manson here: 14 Books (Not Self-Help) That Will Change Your Life.

What is on your „to read“ pile right now? Let me know if you are diving into fiction or sticking with the deep non-fiction stuff.

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