The P2P Reading List (2025 July)
Read the best books first, otherwise you will find you do not have time.—Henry David Thoreau
Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner
I started learning French recently, and this time, I wanted to figure out how to effectively and efficiently do that. This led, via Tim Ferris, me to Gabriel Wyner's book. It has lots of unorthodox advice, coming from a former opera singer who learned languages for a living. Highly recommended.
P.S.: I never thought that I would ever say it, but learning the IPA made a huge difference in deciphering French pronunciation.
Also see:
Why French is Easy by Benny Lewis
Another book on French, also inspired by Tim Ferriss. It's a short and practical guide with great examples and (free) resources like Yabla.
The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know by Shawn Coyne
Writing is different from editing. After reading a lot about writing, I wanted to see what I could learn about writing from an editor's perspective. The book is a no-nonsense guide to editing principles - although for fiction in general, the storytelling part applies to non-fiction.
The Hannibal Trilogy by Thomas Harris
As Shawn Coyne uses Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs to illustrate how the story grid looks like, I read it and the other Hannibal Lecter books as well. There is a fourth book, too, on diving into Hannibal Lecter’s past.
Internal Family Systems Therapy by Richard C. Schwartz
What if we were to see our fears, struggles, and traumas in the context of an internal family? As if each of us is composed of multiple personalities trying to serve the well-being of the Self. This is what IFS does. Interesting read, but way too verbose.
If you are interested in all the books that piqued my interest, you can also visit my Goodreads profile.