r/Stoicism · 2020

Most-mentioned books in r/Stoicism during 2020

This page ranks books by exact tracked mentions in r/Stoicism within the published source unit for 2020. Counts come from the reconciled subreddit-by-month matrix; a source unit may be a bounded sample.

Books ranked

289

Tracked mentions in 2020

Sort by upvotes = sum of comment scores on recognized mentions

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

A Roman emperor writes himself private notes on how to stop losing his temper, never expecting anyone else to read them, and two thousand years later everyone has.

86 in 2020

Enchiridion

Epictetus

A freed slave's 2,000-year-old field manual for deciding what you control — and letting go of everything else.

69 in 2020

The Daily Stoic

Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday turns Stoic philosophy into one page per day, and r/Stoicism argues about whether that makes it a gateway or a ceiling.

27 in 2020

Letters from a Stoic

Seneca

A retired statesman writes his younger friend more than a hundred letters on how to actually die well, and live before that.

23 in 2020

The Obstacle Is the Way

Ryan Holiday

A former marketing exec turns Marcus Aurelius' private notebook into a playbook for whatever just went wrong in your week.

20 in 2020

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

Donald Robertson

A psychotherapist rebuilds Marcus Aurelius's private notebook into cognitive-therapy exercises, then shows up in the comments to defend how he read the emperor's mood.

14 in 2020

How to Be a Stoic

Massimo Pigliucci

A philosopher who doesn't believe in a god teaches Marcus Aurelius's cosmology anyway, arguing Stoicism only ever needed a sense of natural order.

11 in 2020

A Guide to the Good Life

William B. Irvine

A philosophy professor spends a year actually living by Stoic techniques to test whether 2,000-year-old advice still holds up.

9 in 2020

Discourses

Epictetus

A former slave lectures Roman students that their misery comes from their own judgments, not their circumstances, and Reddit still cites him to settle arguments.

8 in 2020

#10

On the Shortness of Life

Seneca

Seneca wrote this letter to a friend who kept saying he'd live properly once he had more time — and explained why that day never comes.

6 in 2020

#11

Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle

Aristotle's 2,400-year-old argument that living well depends on virtue, leisure, and the company you keep — still the canonical text for the field.

4 in 2020

#12

Ego Is the Enemy

Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday's case for subordinating ego to craft draws 41 Reddit mentions, most from r/Stoicism, where the book is treated as a gateway to the primary sources.

3 in 2020

#13

Stoicism and the Art of Happiness

Donald Robertson

A psychotherapist walks Marcus Aurelius's own notebook back through the classical texts he was quoting from memory.

2 in 2020

#14

The Republic

Plato

A student dares Socrates to prove justice pays even with a ring that makes you invisible, and answering him takes nine more books.

2 in 2020

#15

A History of Western Philosophy

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell surveys 2,500 years of philosophers and never once pretends he doesn't have favorites among them.

1 in 2020

#16

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl

A psychiatrist survives three concentration camps and concludes the ones who lived weren't the strongest, they were the ones who still had a reason to.

1 in 2020