Episode
Chapter 38: Ryan Holiday bashes beachy books and builds a balanced base
- Podcast
- 3 Books With Neil Pasricha
- Published
- Jan 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4489
- Processing state
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- https://threebooks.libsyn.com/chapter-38-ryan-holiday-bashes-beachy-books-and-builds-a-balanced-base
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Summary
Thirteen years ago I was surfing online when I stumbled on a blog post called " How To Read More — A Lot More " by someone I'd never heard of named Ryan Holiday. I started reading the post and got sucked in. He had a point! Many great points, actually. And he was young. 26 years old! A 26-year-old young man telling the world to read more books? In an era where most twenty-something men read, uh, none? I found Ryan to be a breath of fresh air. I immediately began to copy everything he did! He launched a monthly book club . I launched a monthly book club ! (With his blessing, of course.) He was talking about reading fifty then a hundred and then hundreds of books a year. Well, I started reading five books and then ten books and then fifty books a year. I began cancelling news subscriptions and consciously put my phone away. I installed a bookshelf at my front door. I moved my TV to the basement! And, of course, I started this podcast—all about reading. In a way 3 Books would not exist without Ryan Holiday. In some ways I can probably trace my rediscovered passion for reading all the way back to that 2013 blog post. But Ryan is not just a blogger anymore. He's not just a writer guy on the internet anymore. Ryan Holiday has sold over 10 million books (!) and essentially leads the repopularization of stoic philosophy. Some of his books include ' The Obstacle Is The Way ', ' Ego Is The Enemy ', ' Stillness Is The Key ', ' Discipline is Destiny ', and his new book, out just a few months ago, ' Wisdom Takes Work '. Ryan also runs DailyStoic.com , the consulting company Brass Check , Daily Dad , and The Painted Porch indie bookstore in Bastrop, Texas. He and his wife Sam live with their two sons in nearby Austin. He's become a fri…