Paperback || Audible

"Every art and every inquiry, and likewise every action and choice, seems to aim at some good, and hence it has been beautifully said that the good is that at which all things aim. But a certain difference is apparent among ends, since some are way of being at work, while others are certain kinds of work produced..." ​— Aristotle, Book I of Nicomachean Ethics
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I love the ancient Greeks and I have loved them since discovering Edith Hamilton's illustrated Mythology in 7th grade at a school book fair. The stories of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun, Narcissus, the young man who fell in love with himself, and the trials of mighty Hercules enchanted me. These and many other myths were just the beginning though. 

The summer before high school, I sailed the wine dark sea with Odysseus and watched the story's prequel, Troy, dozens of times. I soon encountered other stories too: Sophocles' Antigone, the original star-crossed-lovers tragedy Pyramus and Thisbe, Shakespeare's inspiration for Romeo and Juliet. I found the parallels between Oedipus and the original Star Wars saga. I sought out Disney's re-imagined versions of Hercules and Atlantis. Later, Zack Snyder's 300.

Beyond the plays and verses and myths, I also devoured historian Victor Davis Hanson's not chronological but conceptual account of the West's first civil war between Athens and Sparta—and what it can still teach us. I revisited The Tortoise and the Hare, and Aesop's other timeless fables, which I hadn't even realized came from Greece. I encountered Atlas, the titan who shouldered the earth in Ken Levine's magnum opus—and soon after Ayn Rand's. All these stories of gods and mortals, truth and beauty, right and wrong, captured me completely and continue to capture me, as they do much of the world to this day. 
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Aristotle's Poetics was my introduction to the philosopher's works, which is an exploration into the arts. I deliberated picked it up since it was such a hot topic in Umberto Eco's spectacular novel, The Name of the Rose. The 1986 movie adaptation staring Sean Connery is also spectacular. Rose is a murder mystery set in 14th century England. Deeper, it's a philosophical battle royale between reason and faith. The Franciscan monk's Aristotelian thought process leads him to discover the truth of the murders at a monastery, based on induction (evidence) and deduction (logic). In contrast, the Catholic priests' faith leads them to blindly obey orders, like hiding evidence, burning a library containing Aristotle's original works, and killing people who dare to disobey. 
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It's been said by some that Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is the greatest self-help book ever written. Nicomachean is the Greek word for "victor in battle," and so while courage does count in Aristotle's ethical system as one of four major virtues (courage, justice, temperance, practical judgement), the philosopher begins with an exploration of happiness. I found his approach refreshingly down-to-earth and insightful. I'm grateful to highlight below some of the key takeaways rather than try to map out precisely his virtues, which he warns about in ethics generally. 

Aristotle says that moral virtues are the means to achieving various ends—all of which are some form of good—and lead to a state of happiness. Living virtuously, he emphasizes, is to engage in an active state or condition, not hit a perfect destination and stay there, passively. Humans, he argues have a unique way of properly living:

1. Seeing an end. 
2. Thinking about the means to achieve it.
3. Choosing an action or series of actions to reach it. 

To engage in this uniquely human process is to live virtuously. We as humans both pursue and also experience the good, that is, if one has seen, thought through, and chosen the means and ends that are proper to a human life. 

My favorite virtue that Aristotle explores surprised me. He views friendship as an integrator of cities and entire civilizations. Justice, a major virtue of Aristotle's system, he argues is necessary, because not all humans are friends. In those cases between strangers or enemies, goodwill is not the default state, and requires deliberate, difficult, virtuous action to treat one another properly. I found this point very interesting, and probably true. 

Aristotle contends that there are primarily three types of friendships:

1. Use: those who love one another for what is useful, and for what could come to them through the friendship. 

2. Pleasure: Those who love doing things together or how one makes them feel. Charm, witty conversation, experiencing the same kind of music or food. 

But these two types are "incidental," and not likely to last. The complete form of friendship is that between people who are good and are alike in virtue, "since they wish for good things for one another in the same way insofar as they are good, and they are good in themselves." In this way, "...genuine friendship" for Aristotle "becomes a measure of closeness to good character," writes the editor. 
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A professor at Hillsdale College recommended to use the Joe Sachs translation, and I am so glad that I did. These three words below are crucial to understand when reading Aristotle, but often translations or interpretations skew the spirit of them: 

1. HEXIS
​The Greek word "Hexis" is mistranslated often as "habit," which robs the active-minded, rational process that Aristotle is identifying. This active process can in time  then become integrated with his moral character, but it is not at first, if ever, a passive, thoughtless process to establish those habits. Sachs quotes from Hamlet here:

Assume a virtue if you have it not, 
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habits evil, is angel yet in this, 
That to the use of actions fair and good 
He likewise gives a frock or livery, 
That aptly is put on. Refrain tonight, 
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence; the next more easy; 
For use almost can change the stamp of nature... 

It's not nature that needs to be changed but our own habits—with new habits. 

2. ERGON
The Greek word "Ergon," is mistranslated often as "function." But this smuggles in the idea that humans serve a function and are a means to an end. Instead, Aristotle contends that man's happiness is an end in itself and they are not merely tools. 

3. ENERGEIA
The Greek word "Energeia" is sometimes mistranslated as simply "activity." This, the editor contends, robs the true meaning, which is better understood as "to-be-at-work." 
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​1. THE MEAN

Often, Aristotle is misunderstood to advocate for a balance in all things, sometimes referred to as finding The Golden Mean. This, Translator and Editor Joe Sachs argues, is imprecise. For Aristotle, the proper mean is not purely quantitative. That is, ethical behavior is not all on a sliding scale or mapped on a spectrum. Rather, it is qualitative, and proper action is largely based on the context. There is never a singular right piece of content or quantitative measurement of ethics. "Principles are wonderful things," he writes, "but there are too many of them, and exclusive adherence to any one of them is always a vice." This is because there is an inflexibility to them if misapplied to the wrong context. So, achieving ends requires an understanding of the context in which you're operating to achieve a desired end. 

2. THE NOBLE

Sachs argues that often times translators misunderstand Aristotle's view of the good and the beautiful, which is sometimes mis-appropriately wrapped in language like "noble," which could smuggle in a lofty, sense of virtue detached from happiness and one's life. "Aristotle," Sachs writes, "considers moral virtue the only practical road to effective action..." and additionally that, "[The philosopher] is always alert to the natural way that important words have more than one meaning." For example, calling something a beautiful thing could be both an esthetic judgement and an ethical one. But noble actions, properly, are not divorced from practical results. This is a major philosophical difference from his teacher, Plato. 
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"Greatness of soul, even from its name, seems to be concurred with great things, and let us first take up what sort of great thing they are...Now the person who seems ot be great-souled is one who considers himself worthy of great things, and is worthy of them, for one who does so not in accordance with his worth is foolish, and among those who answer to the description of virtue there is no one who is foolish..." Aristotle, Book IV of Nicomachean Ethics
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Paperback | DVD​

Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 Vertigo is one of my favorites since film school, and so cracking open the novel was just a matter of time. Originally penned by France's hottest thriller duo for Hitchcock himself in 1954, the novel D'entre Les Morts (The Living and the Dead) disorients and frightens through a nightmare of twists and turns. 

Gevigne, a shipping magnate, asks his old friend, police officer Flavieres to follow his wife, Madeleine. She's been acting strangely as she approaches her twenty-fifth birthday—so strangely that her husband is convinced she is possessed by a ghost of her ancestor, one who killed herself—at age twenty-five. The next morning, Flavieres follows her as she frequents an old cemetery to pray at the grove of this deceased relative. And from there he stumbles into a maze of mysteries that blur the lines between the living and the dead—a maze that leads to a tower at its center. [JG]
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Boileau-Narcejac is the nom-de-plume of Pierre Boileau (1906-89) and Thomas Narcejac (1908-98), one of France's most successful writing duos, whose careers spanned four decades and led to over fifty thrillers. I want to read their debut, She Who Was No More, which inspired French filmmaker's Henri-Georges Clouzet to adapt it to screen as Les Diaboliques.
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Paperback  |  Audible
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Jacques Lusseyran was blinded at the age of seven.

It happened one day at school in 1916. A fellow schoolboy accidentally shoved into little Jacques from behind in the hallway, smashing his face against the wall. The boy's eyeglasses shattering, and despite surgeries and time to heal, Lusseyran's vision was gone forever. From that day on though, he discovered a new world amidst the darkness. 

"I remember well when I first arrived at the beach two months after the accident. It was evening and there was nothing there but the sea and its voice, precise beyond the power to imagine it," Lusseyran writes. "...It spoke to me in layers all at once. The waves were arranged in steps, and together they made one music, though what they said was different in each voice. There was rasping in the bass and bubbling in the top register. I didn't need to be told about the things that eyes could see...what the waves said they said twice over." 
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History marks May 1940 as when the Germans invaded France. But Jacques felt the invasion years earlier in 1934, when he was just thirteen, as he listened to the radio. He knew they would come, and looming closer to home was the reminder of his blindness by way of Jean and his boy friends who had discovered girls. "I told myself stories of boundaries that could never be crossed," but "I ridiculed my childhood dreams," Lusseyran writes. He was aware that those childhood days of "double, triple, countless, and forever new" were gone. 

On June 14th, 1940, Nazi tanks entered a nearly deserted Paris. Jacques was just nineteen. Many French citizens adapted to the new reality, even allying with their conquerors. "Paris under the Occupation looked to me as if she were praying. She seems to be calling on someone, but hers was a voiceless cry." 
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But some would give her a voice.
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97% of the French resistance were men. 3% women. The majority were under 30 years old. 14% were under 18. There were different levels of resistance—violence, sabotage, financial support, logistical support (like bicycling weapons beneath greens to escape detection). Emerging from the resistance effort were young heroes who have since become immortalized. 

Guy Moquet was a young man executed randomly at the hands of the Germans, and whose letters of courage emboldened his generation. Maroussia Naitchenko was a political activist adept at sensing and escaping Gestapo traps. The "sudden courage" that thousands of young men and women felt to resist the Nazi invaders was staggering. Their work included sabotaging Nazi supply lines and radio communications, hiding Jews and other refugees, assassinating officers and guards, stealing weapon caches, and helping Allied forces in 1944 onward. But, as Lusseyran recounts, "A country in disaster is swarming with traitors," and so secrecy and loyalty were paramount.

Lusseyran was voted by his teenage comrades in the resistance to be in charge of all recruiting, because he had "the sense of human beings." During the resistance, Lusseyran interviewed 600+ potential recruits. "People would not easily deceive me. I should not forget names or places, addresses, or telephone numbers." Always before joining the resistance, candidates were told, "Go to the blind man. When he has seen you, I shall have something to tell you." French jazz clubs, a.k.a. 'Zazous,' were a popular recruiting location. During the war, Lusseyran helped build one of the largest underground networks in France. ​

Lusseyran was eventually arrested, betrayed by a young spy. The Nazi SS arrested him and interrogated him 38 times. They had compiled a 50-page report on his travels and activities, which they had been tracking for weeks. He declared his innocence, and, lying "twenty times per minute," managed to keep his stories in order. Still, they jailed him for six months. 

"In prison, more than ever before, it is within yourself that you must live. If there is a person you cannot do without, not possibly—for instance a girl somewhere outside the walls—do as I did then. Look at her several times a day for long time...And for a long time you will not even realize you are in prison." 

Eventually though, the Nazis transported Lusseyran and 2,000 frenchman to Buchenwald. There he stayed for fifteen months. When the American's liberated the concentration camp under General Patton, only thirty of those Frenchman had survived. Jacques was one of them. During the war, 380,000 men had been killed at Buchenwald alone. Jacques best friend, Jean, died of starvation the day before reaching Jacques on a train from another prison. 

Lusseyran's memoir ends abruptly after recounting the war. He catalogs the first 20 years of his life, which he believes belongs to the world—especially America, to whom he is a "guest" and lived in for time as a professor. He closes his book with two truths: 

1. "Joy does not come from outside, for whatever happens to us it is within." 
2. Light does not come to us from without. Light is in us, even if we have no eyes." ​[JG]
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Jacques Lusseyran ((1924-1971) was blinded at age seven, formed a French Resistance group at age seventeen, and endured fifteen months at Buchenwald. After World War II, he became a professor in the United States at Case Western Reserve University. 

​He wrote one other work in his lifetime, Against the Pollution of the I, a collection of six essays that chronicle the heroism at Buchenwald by fellow inmates and experiences with his inner vision throughout this life.






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James Clear || Audible || Hardcover

The #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 50 languages. It's also the *only* book I read back-to-back. Ever. 

It is short, direct, practical, informative, and perhaps one of the most actionable books you'll find in the self-help section (see below's list of resources for next steps after reading). I want to share a bit about habit formation from the book, and also James' mantra: “When making plans, think big. When making progress, think small.” 

HOW TO CREATE A GOOD HABIT: 4 Steps. 

1. Make It Obvious:
Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current habits to become aware of them. Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]." Use habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].” Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.

Example: I will run three miles after work in my neighborhood three times a week. After closing my work laptop I will fill up my water bottle and put on my running shoes. 


2. Make It Attractive:
Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do. Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior. Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit. 

Example: After running I will cook dinner, my biggest meal of the day, with some healthy favorite options from my refrigerator and pantry. I will ask my neighbor to run with me instead of her going to the gym. I love to eat, so running beforehand will temptation bundle it all together. 


3. Make It Easy: 
Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits. Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier. Master the decisive moment. Optimize the small choices that deliver outsized impact. Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less. Automate your habits. Invest in technology and onetime purchases that lock in future behavior. 

Example:  I will have my water bottle, running shoes, and airpods ready to go on my kitchen counter after work. The decisive moment is after work when I come into the kitchen and living room. If I turn on the TV I will likely stall from getting out the door. So I will hide it out of sight. If I need to, I will buy Strava app to record my runs or a gym membership to further lock in my habit of running. 


4. Make It Satisfying: 
Use reinforcement. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete your habit. Make “doing nothing” enjoyable. When avoiding a bad habit, design a way to see the benefits. Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and “don’t break the chain.” Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately. 

Example: I will track my habits in Strava app and watch for new PRs in distance, time, or total miles in a month. I'll compete with last year's month. When I complete my habit I eat as much healthy food as I want, and on Fridays dessert. 
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• All Atomic Habit Resources (from annual Integrity Reports to data visualization of studies cited and much more)
• The Habits Scorecard (For ranking your current habits positive or negative)
• The Habits Cheat Sheet (For habit formation or destruction) 
• The Habits Contract Sheet (For next-level accountability partners)

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James Clear is a writer and speaker focused on habits, decision making, and continuous improvement. He is a regular speaker at Fortune 500 companies and his work has been featured in places like Time magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and on CBS This Morning. His popular "3-2-1" email newsletter is sent out each week to more than 1 million subscribers. It includes 3 short ideas from Clear, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question to ponder during the week. 
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Walter Tevis || Audible (6.5 hours) || Paperback (240 pages)
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...There's cigar smoke. There's "fat brass spittoons lining the walls" and a bar of flowing whiskey. There's a white cue ball and 15 other ones, striped or solid. Racking them are two men circling a great, green pool-table made of mahogany and magic. This is where Fast Eddie and Minnesota Fats square off in the beginning of The Hustler. It's a normal Tuesday in Chicago. The mounting tension though belongs to duel, like angry cowboys looking to draw quick. 

So far, Eddie has Fats beat. He's up 18 games and $18,000. This is more than his $10,000 goal, but he gets cocky. He keeps obliging Fat's request for just one more game. As the hours drag to over a day straight of alcohol, pool shots, and sheer willpower, Eddie slips more and more. He gets boastful. Then he starts missing angles, not just the tough ones. He's tired and growing frustrated at himself. And soon enough, rejecting his friend's warning to walk away while he's ahead, Eddie goes from winning $18 grant to down a few out of pocket. Fast Eddie, the hustler was out-hustled by Minnesota Fats. 

And he wants a second shot. But he'll need help. If he's to ever beat his rival, he's going to have to find a whole bunch of self-awareness and get out of his own way. As Bert, a pool coach tells him later, "Self pity: one of the best indoor sports" is keeping Eddie from greatness. This central conflict is what I really enjoyed. The story is fast and sharp. The writing is visual and clear. But the relentless build-up to Eddie's shot at redemption, with pitfalls and detours, never wavers from this central conflict:

This passage in the back-half of the book struck me like a shot from Eddie's pool stick:
​"To love the game itself is a fine thing; it is loving the art you live by. There are many things to love in the art—the excitement of it, the difficulty, the use of skill—but to work at it only for those would be like [a loser]. To play pool, you had to want to win and to want this without excuses and without self-deceptions. Only then did you have a right to love the game itself.And this reached further. It seemed to Eddie now, sitting in Bert's car, his body sore and his mind tremendously aware, that the need to win was everywhere in life, in every act, in every conversation, in every encounter between people. And the idea had become for him a kind of touchstone—or a key to the meaning of experience in the world." [JG]
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Walter Stone Tevis (1928 - 1984) was an American novelist and short story writer. He is perhaps best known now for The Queen's Gambit, which was turned into a fantastic miniseries by Netflix starring Anya Taylor-Joy as an orphaned chess prodigy in 1950's America. 

But he also wrote a sequel to The Hustler called The Color of Money, which continues the tale of Fast Eddie in Chicago years later. In 1986, Martin Scorsese directed the movie adaptation with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise. Two of his other novels sound particularly interesting to me: The Man Who Fell To Earth, a science fiction tale of an alien who amasses a fortune in America, as well as Mockingbird, a dystopian novel in which humans use electronics and drugs to sedate their anxieties and satiate their pleasures. No children. No art. No reading.