📚 13 Books mentioned in "Thomas Chatterton Williams on Practical Philosophy and Embracing Contradiction" of The Daily Stoic

So he took money that in retrospect I realized he didn't always have, and he paid us handsomely, for our age, to sit and study and to read Aesop's Fables when we were really young and then to get on to more sophisticated things later.

In this segment, Thomas Chatterton Williams recounts how his father incentivized him and his siblings to read by paying them. One of the earliest books he engaged with in this way was 'Aesop's Fables', which laid the foundation for their later exploration of more complex literature.

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But there's an astonishing kind of passage in Between the World and Me where he basically sees a kind of caricature of an upper-class or wealthy Frenchman in a beautiful car smoking a cigarette.

The guest recounts a striking passage from Ta-Nehisi Coates's book 'Between the World and Me,' where a caricature of an affluent Frenchman is depicted, showcasing a flawed perspective.

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I feel like we also have this kind of one-size-fits-all approach: everyone should read The Great Gatsby in high school.

During the discussion, guest Thomas Chatterton Williams critiques the educational practice of requiring all students to read the same texts, exemplified by 'The Great Gatsby'.

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Well, the type of school that I went to, I mean, yeah, The Great Gatsby, I fell in love with in high school.

In this segment, Thomas Chatterton Williams shares how he fell in love with 'The Great Gatsby' during his high school years, reflecting on his school experience.

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For my dad, like enormously impactful books for him were like Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, which I have to admit I used to talk to him about Maimonides and stuff, but I never actually read.

Thomas Chatterton Williams speaks about the significant impact of 'Guide for the Perplexed' on his father, expressing that although he often discussed Maimonides with him, he personally has never read the book.

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And that's actually really one of the main arguments in my second book, Self-Portrait in Black and White.

The guest discusses the central arguments of his second book, titled 'Self-Portrait in Black and White,' in relation to the ongoing conversation.

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Then I read The Brothers Karamazov and it was just an astonishing reading experience for me, and it kind of shattered my faith.

In this segment, the guest, Thomas Chatterton Williams, shares his thoughts on the profound impact that reading 'The Brothers Karamazov' had on his life, describing it as an astonishing experience that ultimately shattered his faith.

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The Brothers Karamazov was like this link to the world for me.

The guest reflects on how 'The Brothers Karamazov' profoundly influenced him, describing it as a vital connection to the world.

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And I was reading lately, I've been reading David Halberstam's book, The Children, on the sit-in movement.

In this episode, the host discusses reading David Halberstam's book, 'The Children,' which explores the sit-in movement.

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So, my dad, when one of the—I mean this is probably a little bit cliché or maybe obvious to some of your listeners, but when I was 15 or 16 and my best friend and I were studying all the time with my dad and we were navigating our social context and trying to figure out how to manage and maneuver around peer pressure, my dad gave us Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, this short story about this public stoning, you know that the whole town participates in.

The guest, Thomas Chatterton Williams, shares a pivotal experience from his youth when his father introduced him and a friend to Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'. This powerful short story, centered on a chilling public stoning, served as a crucial tool in helping them understand and cope with peer pressure.

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So The Lottery is something that I can still see myself sitting at the kitchen table and him handing to me on a Xerox printout to think through and underline and then talk about later when we were done.

In this segment, Thomas Chatterton Williams recalls receiving the book 'The Lottery' from his father, describing a vivid memory of sitting at the kitchen table, working through the text together.

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Basically, before the age of 10, the story that we’ve always understood from him was that in a neighbor's house, he came across a copy of Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy.

Thomas Chatterton Williams recounts how, before he turned 10, his father found a book titled 'The Story of Philosophy' in a neighbor's house, which ignited his passion for philosophy.

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You know, when you immerse yourself in War and Peace or something like that, it requires hours and hours of investment before you start to feel this world that Tolstoy conjured up around you out of sheer language.

Thomas Chatterton Williams discusses the transformative power of reading by highlighting 'War and Peace' as an example of a book that demands a considerable investment of time to fully appreciate its depth and the world created by Tolstoy.

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War and Peace when you're 11 versus War and Peace when you're 22 could be profoundly different reading experiences.

The guest, Thomas Chatterton Williams, discusses how a book can leave different impressions based on the reader's age, using 'War and Peace' as an example.

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It was very difficult for me to see, even as somebody coming from a house full of books, why at that age I was reading Wuthering Heights, for example.

In this segment, Thomas Chatterton Williams reflects on his experience with the classic novel 'Wuthering Heights' and expresses the struggle he had in understanding why this book was assigned to him during high school.

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