# Chapter 38: Ryan Holiday bashes beachy books and builds a balanced base

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/3-books-with-neil-pasricha-230850/chapter-38-ryan-holiday-bashes-beachy-books-and-builds-a-balanced-base.md
Podcast: [3 Books With Neil Pasricha](https://stenobird.com/podcast/3-books-with-neil-pasricha-230850)
Published: 2026-01-19T00:52:00+00:00
Episode link: https://threebooks.libsyn.com/chapter-38-ryan-holiday-bashes-beachy-books-and-builds-a-balanced-base
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/clean/secure/threebooks/3Books_Rerelease_RyanHoliday_3.mp3?dest-id=671382
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Duration seconds: 4489

## Resource

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…

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