I WISH I'D READ THESE BOOKS SOONER

If you’ve ever searched for “books I wish I’d read earlier”, this is my honest list of the ones that won’t let go of me. Instead of a generic “best books of 2025” list, I’m sharing a handful of books I genuinely wish I’d met sooner in life. Each one carries an idea strong enough to stay with you for years: from Czeslaw Milosz’s The Captive Mind on how ideology takes people hostage, to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics as a blueprint for building character, to Jung’s Psychology and Alchemy on why the psyche speaks in symbols. Perfect if you’re a reader, a sundoku book-hoarder, or someone quietly rebuilding their inner life through reading. We visit Michelangelo’s inner world through Marguerite Yourcenar, argue with Nikolai Berdyaev about reason and freedom, walk with Edith Hamilton’s Greeks who “think deeply because they lived deeply,” and let Schrödinger’s What Is Life? turn physics into a moral question about where your energy really goes. Nick Spencer’s Magisteria then teaches us to distrust overly neat stories about “science vs religion”. I close with a reflection on unfinished books, ideas that linger, and three candidates for 2026 mini read-alongs: Milosz’s The Captive Mind, Sophocles’ Antigone, and Tolstoy’s Confession. 0:00 Intro – why this isn’t a normal “best books” video 0:52 Czeslaw Milosz – The Captive Mind 3:21 Aristotle – Nicomachean Ethics 4:53 Marguerite Yourcenar – Michelangelo & inner genius 6:17 Nikolai Berdyaev – Philosophy of Freedom 8:13 Edith Hamilton – The Greek Way 9:14 Erwin Schrödinger – What Is Life? 10:17 Nick Spencer – Magisteria 11:31 Carl Jung – Psychology and Alchemy 12:27 Reflections on reading & 2026 mini read-alongs 🔔 Subscribe for more videos on books, philosophy, and reading as a way of life. 💬 Which one of these books do you feel most drawn to right now – and why? Tell me in the comments.