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A review by almondcookies
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday
1.0
I started reading this book on Jan 1 2022. Whilst I can’t say I checked in every single day, I definitely revisited it multiple times a week. I dnf'ed at the beginning of September, and all I can say is I feel like I wasted 9 months of my life trying to slog through this book and obnoxious author that I have come to hate him (yes hate. It’s a strong word, but I’ve been putting up with his nonsense for 9 months, I think that’s long enough). That one star is for the quality of descriptions and the repetitive quote selection - the actual quotes themselves were, for the most part, pretty good.
The format of this book is every day you’re presented with a quote from one of the many great stoics, and a description - either describing or elaborating on the above quote. Each month tackles a different topic, and the quotes for that month all revolve around that topic in one way or another.
Let’s talk about the descriptions first - they’re longwinded, go round in circles to describe points that are, for the large majority, perfectly understandable in the quote itself. I found the descriptions effectively useless, and oftentimes added more confusion than if I hadn’t read them at all. The author obviously tried to help interpret or elaborate on each quote, but for me it comes across like he’s trying to meet a word count in a university essay than help the reader at all. Most of the time the author starts describing the quote with one interpretation, then segues into another, leading to lack of clarity, mixed messages and the impression that the author doesn’t understand it himself. I stopped reading the descriptions in February, and I recommend fellow readers do the same.
The quotes themselves were good, there’s a lot of food for thought in them. Especially the shorter ones, where the reader has to think more to understand their meaning and let it really sink in and is delivered in a short punch that really hits home - my personal preference are definitely the shorter quotes.
However, the choice of quote topics was extremely repetitive, and I feel this is another failing of the author. This is such a shame because each topic is very broad, and is extremely nuanced. The quotes did not reflect this, oftentimes the within one month, there would be 5+ quotes pertaining to the same niche within that topic. What a letdown! Even worse, I often felt some quotes, whilst relevant to the topic of the month, actually had more relevance to a topic in a different month!
Stocicism is supposed to be about not letting outside influences affect us and our thinking, and (tldc) realising we’re in charge of our own lives and to stop being the victim. In my opinion, if you want to slog through this book and obnoxious author for a year, be my guest - but you’re much better off just going to therapy than giving this guy your money.
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I can't take it. This book, (and especially this author) is not for me and I'm not going to waste anymore time trying to slog through it.
Review to come.
The format of this book is every day you’re presented with a quote from one of the many great stoics, and a description - either describing or elaborating on the above quote. Each month tackles a different topic, and the quotes for that month all revolve around that topic in one way or another.
Let’s talk about the descriptions first - they’re longwinded, go round in circles to describe points that are, for the large majority, perfectly understandable in the quote itself. I found the descriptions effectively useless, and oftentimes added more confusion than if I hadn’t read them at all. The author obviously tried to help interpret or elaborate on each quote, but for me it comes across like he’s trying to meet a word count in a university essay than help the reader at all. Most of the time the author starts describing the quote with one interpretation, then segues into another, leading to lack of clarity, mixed messages and the impression that the author doesn’t understand it himself. I stopped reading the descriptions in February, and I recommend fellow readers do the same.
The quotes themselves were good, there’s a lot of food for thought in them. Especially the shorter ones, where the reader has to think more to understand their meaning and let it really sink in and is delivered in a short punch that really hits home - my personal preference are definitely the shorter quotes.
However, the choice of quote topics was extremely repetitive, and I feel this is another failing of the author. This is such a shame because each topic is very broad, and is extremely nuanced. The quotes did not reflect this, oftentimes the within one month, there would be 5+ quotes pertaining to the same niche within that topic. What a letdown! Even worse, I often felt some quotes, whilst relevant to the topic of the month, actually had more relevance to a topic in a different month!
Stocicism is supposed to be about not letting outside influences affect us and our thinking, and (tldc) realising we’re in charge of our own lives and to stop being the victim. In my opinion, if you want to slog through this book and obnoxious author for a year, be my guest - but you’re much better off just going to therapy than giving this guy your money.
------
I can't take it. This book, (and especially this author) is not for me and I'm not going to waste anymore time trying to slog through it.
Review to come.