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Arthur Brooks's Reading List

Harvard professor of public leadership; social scientist and prolific author on happiness, meaning, and the second half of life.

Books from The Tim Ferriss Show: Arthur Brooks — Finding The Meaning of Your Life (2025)

Extracted via LLM from auto-captions of The Tim Ferriss Show (2025-12-23).

Source: www.youtube.com

The Meaning of Your Life

Arthur Brooks · 2026 · Buy on Amazon

"Over the past 5 years I've been writing a book about: what is the meaning of life? Where do you find it? And how do you have to live differently so that you can actually find it in modern life?"

Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

Dacher Keltner · 2023 · Buy on Amazon

"Dacher Keltner has a book called Awe — A-W-E. It's a great book."

The Master and His Emissary

Iain McGilchrist · 2009 · Buy on Amazon

"Iain McGilchrist at Oxford — probably the most visionary cutting-edge neuroscientist living today. He wrote The Master and His Emissary back in 2010."

Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

Arthur C. Brooks · Buy on Amazon

"My earlier book Strength to Strength is the prequel to this one — about navigating the second half of life."

Books from Conversations with Tyler: Arthur Brooks on Reinvention, Religion, and the Science of Happiness (2026)

Extracted via LLM (gemini-2.5-flash) from auto-captions of Conversations with Tyler (2026-04-15).

Source: www.youtube.com

The Principles of Psychology

William James · Buy on Amazon

"the best way to live I think according to to find the right balance of this is came about from the teachings of William James um who really is the first social psychologist the the father of modern psychology. He wrote the principles of psychology"

On Death and Dying

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross · Buy on Amazon

"She had a comprehensive study in the 1960s and 1970s and wrote a fabulously best-selling book that is not stood up extremely well to to the subsequent uh research but it's a great book nonetheless and it's worth reading."

Leisure, the Basis of Culture

Josef Pieper · Buy on Amazon

"I'm reading the work of Yseph Peeper the great uh mid mid 20th century German philosopher who wrote leisure the basis of culture."

Books from The Daily Stoic: Arthur Brooks' Ultimate Philosophy Masterclass | The Daily Stoic Podcast (2025)

Extracted via LLM (gemini-2.5-flash) from auto-captions of The Daily Stoic (2025-08-18).

Source: www.youtube.com

Bhagavad Gita

Unknown · Buy on Amazon

"So a a lot because it's this huge it's like the odyssey. It's like the Odyssey basically. And what it is is that it's supposed to teach you about life itself."

Self-Reliance

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Buy on Amazon

"Self-reliance is everybody. Everybody should read Self-Reliance. Self-reliance is like a tall glass of cool water on a on a summer day in Bastrop, Texas."

The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus · Buy on Amazon

"If we read one chem we'll read the myth of Sisphus, right? Yeah. That's the one thing to read. I remember trying to read it in eighth grade. If we're talking happiness, that's the one we should read."

A Confession

Leo Tolstoy · Buy on Amazon

"And by the way, probably the most interesting thing that informs a lot of the stuff from Toltoy is his autobiography. Yeah. Where he talks about his near suicide at 51 and he's looking for meaning."

The Meaning of Your Life

Arthur Brooks · 2026 · Buy on Amazon

"I have a book coming out on meaning in March, the end of March called The Meaning of Your Life."

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