Person
Every book Dan Jones recommended on podcasts
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Dan Jones appears on, in one place — not just one.
Dan Jones’s most recommended books
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoi
- Anna Karenina by Лев Толстой
- How to Build Stonehenge by Mike Pitts
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
- The King Must Die by Mary Renault
- The Year 1000 by Valerie Hansen
Dan Jones is a British composer and sound designer working in film and theatre. He read music at the University of Oxford, studied contemporary music theatre at the Banff Centre for the Arts and studied electro-acoustic composition and programming at the Centro Ricerche Musicali in Rome. Having explored various means of generating music algorithmically, he is the author of one of the earliest pieces of software for generating fractal or self-similar music. He has won BAFTA and Ivor Novello Awards. He composed the score for the Peabody Award-winning documentary film Bobi Wine: The People's President. On podcasts, Jones recommended Mike Pitts's 'How to Build Stonehenge' for its insights from experimental archaeology, and Leo Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina' following commentary from a previous podcast guest. He also discussed Valerie Hansen's 'The Year 1000' to illustrate medieval global travel, Yuval Noah Harari's 'Sapiens' as a commercially successful history book, and Mary Renault's 'The King Must Die' to evoke the atmosphere of the Bronze Age.
Books recommended by Dan Jones
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War and Peace
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is an epic novel that chronicles the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society through the intertwined stories of several aristocratic families.
Recommended“He blogged quite a few years ago, maybe four years ago now, about Tolstoy, and I went on a real slow burn Tolstoy jag through 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina.'”
Where to get it
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Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a monumental 19th-century masterpiece of Russian literature that explores complex themes of love, adultery, social class, and tragic human choices.
Recommended“I'd try and read his substack read his because I think he's an original thinker um and a good and interesting writer and he blogged a few years ag quite a few years ago now maybe four years ago about Tolstoy and I've I went on a real slow burn Tolstoy Jag through War and Peace and an karen because”
Where to get it
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How to Build Stonehenge
How to Build Stonehenge by Mike Pitts is a nonfiction exploration that investigates the ancient construction methods behind one of the world's most famous prehistoric monuments.
Recommended“and there's there was a great book called How to build Stonehenge which came out two years ago which really got close to okay this is I think this is how we can get quite close to how sort of a bit of experimental archaeology a bit of sort of theory”
Where to get it
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War and Peace
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a sprawling Russian epic novel that chronicles elite society and military conflict during the Napoleonic era.
Recommended“I'd try and read his substack read his because I think he's an original thinker um and a good and interesting writer and he blogged a few years ag quite a few years ago now maybe four years ago about Tolstoy and I've I went on a real slow burn Tolstoy Jag through War and Peace and an karen because”
Where to get it
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Sapiens
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is a sweeping exploration of how Homo sapiens evolved, dominated the planet, and constructed complex imaginary orders like religion, money, and nations.
Discussed“what's been one of the most phenomenally successful history books of of the last 10 15 years it's you Val no Harari sapiens series and and so on very attractive book to Big popular audiences tens of millions of copies sold across the world”
Where to get it
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The King Must Die
Discussed“if you read though that mary renault book the king is dead”
Where to get it
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The Year 1000
The Year 1000 by Valerie Hansen is a popular history book that explores how globalization began centuries earlier than commonly thought, arguing that around the turn of the first millennium, human societies across different continents were already interconnected through trade, exploration, and cultural exchange.
Discussed“and then you'll you know there's you know a lot of global history historians now would say well Valerie Hansen was the most popular um book recently well no actually a product you know around the time of the Vikings could theoretically travel from the Americas all the way around you know yeah the entire world”
Where to get it
Books Dan Jones wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| How Old Is Stoicism? | Dan Jones | The Daily Stoic | 2024-11-20 | 2 |
| The Untold Story Of England’s Greatest King - Dan Jones - #852 | Modern Wisdom | 2024-10-17 | 5 |
| Is Genghis Khan Harder Than Jocko Willink? - Dan Jones - #380 | Modern Wisdom | 2021-10-04 | 1 |
Other mentions (8: passing, ad reads, own books)
“so early in my career I wrote a book called The plantagenets and that was like a dynastic history of the great English medieval Dynasty that started in the 1150s with Henry II founder of the Dynasty and worked up to II who was deposed in 1399”
“eight of them have been about the middle ages including this one powers and thrones”
“um but you know you throw the lens open to a book like powers and thrones which you know i've tried to go as broad as possible”
“there are lots of reasons why the roman empire in the west fell in the 5th century in powers and thrones”
“and when i was writing i'm writing this big book a thousand years of medieval history and i've tried in this more than i've tried in other books”
“and so so i think those two i give i gave a chapter to each of those in in powers and thrones”
“it's called the tale of well i've called it the taylor taylor the tale of the taylor and the three dead kings”
“it's called essex dogs and it's about it's the the all three books are set in 100 years war”