2023 wasn’t a great reading year. It was just average. Yet, I did read some excellent books. I already shared a top 10 on X à few weeks ago. Now is time to share the whole list. I decided to organise it thematically for clarity.
“Reading the Greats” Challenge
What’s the “reading the Greats” challenge ? An insane challenge to read one books from the 100 best authors of humanity. So far, we’ve read 28 of them. I will soon do an update on the whole project.
The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu
Outlaws of the Marsh (4 vol.), Shi Nai’an
Songs of Kabir, Kabir
La Flûte de l’infini, Kabir
The Song of Kieu: A New Lament, Nguyen Du
De la démocratie en Amerique (2 vol.), A. de Tocqueville
The Bible
Readings around the Challenge
Just reading the greats is not enough for me. I want to learn more about the authors and their context, so I try to always read books about the authors we’re reading, and the times they were living in.
On Japanese History and Literature
The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, I. Morris
The Tale of Genji: A Reader’s Guide, W. J. Puette
The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion, M. McCormick
As I Crossed a Bridge of Dream, Lady Sarashina
The Pillow Book, Sei Shonagon
On Indian Poetry
Sur’s Ocean: Classic Hindi Poetry in Translation, Surdas
Three Bhakti Voices: Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir in Their Time and Ours, J. S. Hawley
On the Bible
L’invention de Dieu, T. Romer,
When Christian Were Jews: The First Generations, P. Fredriksen
Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed and Invented Their Stories of the Savior, B. Ehrman
After Jesus Before Christianity: A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements, E. Vearncombe et. al.
The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture, K. Schmid and J. Schroter
Other books related to the Challenge
Augustine: A Very Short Introduction, H. Chadwick
Avicenna, J. McGinnis
Psychoanalysis and Jung
This is the beginning of a long project. I want to develop a full critic of psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic framework. I recently wrote a thread where I sum up the ideas I want to develop further.
Jung et les archétypes: Un Mythe contemporain, J.-L. Le Quellec
Psychologie de l’Inconscient, C. Jung
Dialectique du moi et de l’inconscient, C. Jung
Les Patients de Freud: Destins, M. Borch-Jacobsen
The Rise and Fall of Civilizations
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, F. Fukuyama
The World Imagined: Collective Beliefs and Political Order in the Sincentric, Islamic and South Asian International Societies, H. Spruyt
The Collapse of Complex Societies, J. Tainter
The Sources of Social Power, Vol. 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760, M. Mann
End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, P. Turchin (I wrote a book review of it in French for La Vie des Idées)
The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, J. Ober
Miscellaneous
A Different Kind of Animal: How Culture Transformed Our Species, R. Boyd
Humananimal: How Homo Sapiens Became Nature’s Most Paradoxical Creature, A. Rutherford
Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to do about it, R. Reeves
A Myriad of Tongues: How Languages Reveal Differences in How We Thing, C. Everett (I have a forthcoming book review of it in French, for La Vie des Idées)
The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America and the Triumph of Identity Politics, R. Hanania
La flute d’infini? Just 9 from this list :(