- Dishonesty Is The Second-Best Policy and Other Rules to Live By” by David Mitchell
- “Michael Palin In Venezuela” by Michael Palin
- “Happiness: Lessons From A New Science” by Richard Layard
- “The People on Platform 5” by Clare Pooley
- “Encyclopaedia of Narrow Gauge Railways of Great Britain and Ireland” by Thomas Middlemiss
- “Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System” by Martin Sixsmith
- “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged Thirteen and Three-Quarters” by Sue Townsend
- “The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole” by Sue Townsend
- “Adrian Mole: The Collected Poems” by Sue Townsend
- “How To Live Like A Stoic” by Tom Hodgkinson
Started: 16th February 2026
Finished: 25th February 2026
4/5 stars
I’m a big fan of Hodgkinson’s writing, especially How To Be Free and How To Be Idle, which I regularly revisit when I need a bit of cheering up. I was greatly looking forward to this coming out, and I’m pleased to say I wasn’t disappointed.
It’s a very interesting tour around a lot of Stoic ideas, and what they can teach us in the 21st century. It contains a lot I didn’t know much about, so I’m very keen to read more widely on the subject. While some Stoic ideas are a bit too stiff-upper-lip for my liking, a lot of them are quite palatable to those of us looking for peace, fulfilment and an easy life – the key to a happy, idling existence. I particularly like the emphasis on accepting what happens to us, and focusing on our response to it, as a key to being happy.
There’s lots of great quotes here, my particular favourite being from Marcus Aurelius:
Most of what we say and do is unnecessary: remove the superfluity, and you will have more time and less bother. So in every case one should prompt oneself: ‘is this, or is it not, something necessary?’ And the removal of the unnecessary should apply not only to actions but to thoughts also: then no redundant actions either will follow.
This guy was Emperor of Rome! He probably knows what he’s talking about. It’s a brilliant rebuke to those who try to convince you to be busy and hustling all the time – very much a sentiment I can get behind. The book was worth reading for that alone!
Certainly it’s a book I’ll go back to and dip in and out of every now and again, like a lot of Hodgkinson’s work. It’s a bit different to those earlier books, though, in that it does feel a bit more serious. It’s still funny and readable, but maybe the tone feels different because the author is a bit older these days. Either that, or it’s because the world has gone to hell in a handcart over the last twenty years. Whatever – it’s a timely and relevant read, with plenty to chew over and reflect on.
