What we know about an author affects how we read their books. Ryan Holiday is a young businessman, a college dropout, who lives on a ranch in Texas and writes about things like marketing. Had I know that, would I have picked up a book he wrote about philosophy? Probably not. But I knew nothing at all about the author when I read this book, which is a good thing. Holiday is on a mission to make the writings of the ancient Greek and Roman stoics seem cool. To do that, he tells stories — very much like Malcolm Gladwell, though not as good — using well-known figures like the late Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Martin Luther King and endless American sports figures I’ve never heard of. The stories are often quite good, sometimes even moving. As the author intended, the book (the second in a series he’s writing about Stoic virtues) has awakened my interest in the subject of Stoicism. It has also strengthened my own commitment to increased self-discipline. The writing style is very informal, the examples pretty much all American, but it’s a fast read, very accessible, and you will learn stuff.