Fiction
Alamut by Vladimir Bartol
“Nothing is true, everything is permitted”
War and Peace by Tolstoy
“let the dead bury their dead, but while there is life we must live and be happy”
Samarkand by Amin Maalouf
“The Rubaiyaat on the Titanic! The flower of the Orient borne by the jewel of the Occident! Khayyam, if you could only see what a beautiful moment has been granted to us!”
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.”
Non-Fiction
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
- all around terrific self-help book that is based on hard evidence. Very well researched, clear, and easy to understand.
A History of Religious Ideas Vol 1 by Mircea Eliade
- super detailed and comprehensive overview of major religious themes. Nothing about this book is sub-par
Afghanistan - A Cultural and Political History by Thomas Barfield
- I’ve read several books on Afghan history and this is the best one