Over the last several years, my daily reading practice has been a high priority in my life—where I intentionally carve out chunks of my day devoted solely to the ritual. However, it was only over the last few years where I’ve completely overhauled how I approach my reading goals.

I used to set numerical book targets, but found myself rushing through the content, and not absorbing or remembering much of what I read—just so I could add another book to my reading repertoire. I’d retain a bit of the information and the general gist of the book, but certainly missed out on getting the most of what the author had to offer.

Since I started reading more philosophy in recent years—I had to change my mentality to regularly remind myself to “go slow baby, go slow”—a maxim that has gotten me much more out of my reading habit. By switching my focus to absorption vs. consumption, I now take my time with books; rereading passages where I had spaced out, marking up important quotes and ideas, using supplementary material (ie. courses, podcasts, Wikipedia pages, the translator’s introduction, etc.), writing out my thoughts in the margins (marginalia), and so on. I’ve transformed my habit from passive to active, and as a result, have been rewarded tenfold with more knowledge, better understanding, and life wisdom.

I’d say that 2022 was my best reading year yet (in terms of the quality of content). I’ve compiled a list of all the books I’ve read throughout the year, plus my top 10 favourites (well technically, 11). I chose my top reading list based on books that had a) had a profound impact on my life b) were paradigm-shifting in some way or c) I just simply really enjoyed. So without further ado, here’s the full list of everything I read over the last year broken out by month:

January
Phaedrus – Plato
Protagoras and Meno – Plato
Timaeus and Critias – Plato
The Body is Not an Apology – Sonya Renee Taylor
The 33 Strategies on War – Robert Greene

February
On the Nature of the Universe – Lucretius
Me and White Supremacy – Layla F. Saad
The Metaphysics – Aristotle
Clarity & Connection – Yung Pueblo
The Science of Self-Control – Menno Henselmans

March
The Art of Loving – Erich Fromm
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge
Escape from Freedom – Erich Fromm
The Art of Thinking Clearly – Rolf Dobelli
Ion Hippias Minor, Laches – Plato

April 
The Laws – Plato
The Ethics of Ambiguity – Simone du Beauvoir 
Dopamine Nation – Anna Lembke
Talk Like Ted – Carmine Gallo

May 
The Gay Science – Frederich Nietzsche
The Birth of Tragedy – Frederich Nietzsche
Human, All Too Human – Frederich Nietzsche
Candide or Optimism – Voltaire
The Places That Scare You – Pema Chödrön

June
Thus Spoke Zarathustra – Frederich Nietzsche
Faust Part I – Goethe
Women, Race & Class – Angela Y. Davis
Daybreak– Frederich Nietzsche
The Joy Choice – Michelle Segar

July 
Do Hard Things – Steve Magness
The Plague – Albert Camus
The Stranger – Albert Camus
Beyond Good & Evil – Frederich Nietzsche
On the Genealogy of Morals – Frederich Nietzsche
Ecce Homo – Frederich Nietzsche

August
The Fall – Albert Camus
The Myth of Sisyphus – Albert Camus
Untimely Meditations – Frederich Nietzsche
The Case of Wagner – Frederich Nietzsche
Dionysus Dithyrambs – Frederich Nietzsche
Nietzsche Contra Wagner – Frederich Nietzsche

September
The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
Faust Part II- Goethe
Do the Work – Steven Pressfield
Essays and Aphorisms – Arthur Schopenhauer
The Castle – Franz Kafka

October
Discipline is Destiny – Ryan Holiday
The Trial – Franz Kafka
Wild Mind – Natalie Goldberg
Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg
On the Fourfold Root of The Principle of Sufficient Reason and Other Writings – Arthur Schopenhauer

November 
Fragments – Heraclitus
The Sons – Franz Kafka
The World as Will and Representation Volume I – Arthur Schopenhauer
The World as Will and Representation Volume II – Arthur Schopenhauer

December
The Good Ally – Nova Reid
Late Bloomers – Rich Karlgaard
Parerga and Paralipomena Volume I – Arthur Schopenhauer
Tim—The Official Biography of Avicii – Mans Mosesson

My Top 10 Favourite Reads of 2022:

1. Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
2. The World as Will and Representation Volume I by Arthur Schopenhauer
3. Parerga and Paralipomena Volume 1: Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer
4. Twilight of the Idols by Friedrich Nietzsche
5. Faust Part I + Faust Part II by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
6. The Stranger by Albert Camus
7. Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings
8. The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
9. The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir 
10. Do Hard Things by Steve Magness

What’s the best book (or books) you’ve read over the last year? 🙂