"Read the sidebar."

Probably the most common response you'll see on here, and for good reason: if you're not willing to read, you're not willing to work, which means you're not willing to change.

But you shouldn't stop at the sidebar. Reading books is like lifting: the heavier the shit, the stronger you get.

Reading increases your supply of mental models, which directly impacts your power to affect the world around you. As long as you're acting on what you learn, reading - and specifically, reading outside your comfort zone - will make you better at whatever you care about.

I'm going to recommend some books below that I think have something to add to your MRP journey, either as prescription (stuff to do) or as proscription (stuff to avoid). This is my list; there are many like it, but this one is mine.

I challenge you to comment with your own recommendations, provided that:

1.) It is not standard self-help-NYT-best-seller-regurgitated-secondary-sources-non-fact-checked-feel-good-horse-shit; and

2.) It has something to say/add to someone's understanding of sexual strategy (however that is defined...and I define it broadly).

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BOOKS THAT MAKE ME WANT TO FUCKING MURDER SOMEONE

Half of MRP is just not blowing your brains out (metaphorically or literally) before you get to the good parts. You know, showing up at the gym late at night even though you'd rather do anything else. Managing your feelings while the person you thought you loved tries to pick you apart. Posting in OYS for the 467th time just so some autistic internet retard can tell you to "lift more."

Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins

Tells the story of one man's transformation from abused child to overweight fuck up to Navy SEAL, army ranger, and multiple world-record holder in endurance running.

This is a story about training yourself to suffer, told from someone who has legitimately fucking suffered. Every single chapter in this book leaves you wondering what the fuck God has against David Goggins. And yet, you leave inspired to do more with yourself, and to accept no less than what you're capable of.

I strongly recommend the audio book. The narrator is the co-author, and has a good sense of the flow of the material; secondly, Goggins chimes in in between chapters to add context. His attitude is palpable.

You can also do what I did: listen while running, so you feel like an absolute piece of shit for giving up.

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander

Do whatever you can to find this book in hardcover. The pictures are worth the price of admission alone - they will take your breath away.

Ernest Shackleton sets sail for the South Atlantic to try and be the first to cross Antarctica on foot. Suffice to say, shit does not go as planned.

Shackleton's subsequent journey of survival - twenty months trapped in one the most inhospitable places on earth - is a marvel. The extent to which his leadership and vision not only kept his men together but kept them alive is incredible.

The strength of will to keep going in the darkest of times, when ALL hope seems lost...it comes back to me at least once a month, particularly when I'm dealing with my own petty bullshit.

Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure by Richard E. Byrd

Another "guy gets real cold" book, but VERY different from Endurance.

Byrd was already world-famous before the period in which this memoir occurs. Frustrated by fame and responsibility, he sets off with a plan to spend six months alone in a remote area of the Arctic, taking weather measurements.

Things go immediately and terribly wrong. Isolated at the bottom of the world, trapped in a period of never-ending night, Byrd begins to suffer from signs of mental and physical illness. Weakened, hallucinating, and depressed, Byrd engages in a life-or-death struggle to save his own life...and sanity.

If Endurance is the story of men helping one another survive against all odds, Alone is a story of one man diving as deeply as is possible into the recesses of his own mind. It is harrowing, beautiful, moving, terrifying, and inspiring. Based off of diary entries written during the experience, it puts you in this situation in a way that's hard to describe.

BOOKS ABOUT NARCISSISM, LIVING FULLY, AND BLOWING EVERYTHING UP

I've always felt that the idea of "swallowing the pill" was for intellectual light-weights who need someone to do their thinking for them. My personal intellectual heroes were always people whose personal philosophies would be difficult to describe and impossible to place into any convenient "us vs. them" dichotomy.

An example: in my (personal) opinion, the romanticization of "dark triad" traits in RP is stupid as ever-loving fuck. I cringed even writing the words "dark triad." Not saying there's nothing of value there, it just feels like "Baby's First Stab At Applied Psychology."

But there is an undeniable attraction that comes from narcissism, and reading about it is a good way of both getting at what's useful there and seeing the inevitable consequences of living it out.

Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain

You absolutely MUST, MUST, MUST get the audiobook. If for nothing else than the sheer, uninterrupted joy of having Anthony Bourdain in your ears for 6+ hours or whatever it takes.

Bourdain pursues hedonism and applied technical skill in equal measure. He pursues them to the detriment of everyone around him, and ultimately, himself. Listening to this book in the wake of his later suicide is like spending an evening with a ghost; disturbing, fascinating, heart-breaking.

You know how this ends. You know where it's going. But you can't help but go along for the ride, thrilling to the ups and downs, reveling in the victories, cursing the defeats.

Bourdain had a vision, and he lived it. It wasn't healthy, and it didn't end well, but he fucking did it, no matter the cost.

Ernest Hemingway: A Biography by Mary V. Dearborn

Here we go, right???!!! MEN AM I RIGHT!!!

Dearborn was the first woman to biographize Hemingway. I'll be the first to admit, I haven't read enough Hemingway history to know how her work stacks up against the more traditional biographies, and you should probably read those for good measure.

Dearborn's take, however, is important precisely because she isn't fucking in love with him. She is MORE than happy to point out what an indisputable piece of shit Hemingway could be.

This was a man who abused his lovers, friends, and enemies alike; who was so cripplingly insecure that he held grudges over even faint criticism; who was so jealous and petty that he sabotaged his friends whenever he felt they might be pulling ahead of him. Half the shit people say about Hemingway is made up, and most of it was made up by Hemingway.

And yet...what is it about this gigantic gaping asshole that makes him an object of fascination? It's because he lived. He acted - or at least, people think he did. He was an undeniable talent, and he let everyone know it. He distorted the reality of those around him, and his charisma was legendary.

This is another one where you know the ending: sooner or later, Hemingway meets the barrel of a shotgun. But it still feels shocking when it happens, and by the end, despite, not because of, everything he did, you end up loving "Papa", too.

BOOKS THAT MAKE YOU SMARTER (AND BELIEVE ME, YOU FUCKING NEED IT)

Sadly, Porn by Edward Teach

I've mentioned this book on here a few times. I've linked here to a review of the book, rather than the book itself...I feel like the review will give you a sense of it before you jump in.

How to fucking describe this thing? It's unlike anything I've ever read, for one. Here's my best shot:

The smartest person you've ever met is lecturing you on porn, psychoanalysis, popular culture and ancient literature...but they're doing it with the tone of someone kicking your ass in OYS.

That's it in a nutshell. Teach is pissed, and he's pissed at you, and he's going to let you know about it. He thinks you're a petty piece of shit that's being manipulated by technology, media, and the mob. He thinks you're weak, that you don't deadlift, and that you're afraid to learn math. And he's going to kick your ass in book form until you straighten the fuck up.

I experience joy reading this book, but it isn't for everyone - it's deliberately difficult. It opens up with a 30 page cuckold erotica story to "scare away the plebs." It's deliberately antagonistic.

Remind you of anywhere?

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist

Your brain has two hemispheres, and Gilchrist believes they aren't just responsible for different cognitive tasks...but for entirely different ways of perceiving the world.

Gilchrist is a neuroscientist who spends a LOT of time talking about Hegel, so if that sounds even remotely interesting to you, this book is going to fuck you up. This was probably the single most impactful book on me from the last five years - it gave me an entirely different way of thinking about the world around me.

Gilchrist's basic thesis is that the left hemisphere is analytical, and divides the world into its component pieces. The right hemisphere, however, sees the ineffable "whole," with no sense of time or division. Math and science belong to the left hemisphere, but insight, dancing, love, humor, etc, all belong to the right - you can't divide them up and analyze them without destroying what made them special in the first place.

Being highly analytical myself, this book made me stop and reassess the tools I use, and whether those tools are actually helpful or not.

This is a deep book, hard to describe, and much harder to summarize - I'm not doing it justice. Read it, highlight it, then read it again.

Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger, 3rd Edition 3rd Edition by Peter Bevelin

This book is like a crash course in the best that the Western mind has to offer.

Simple summaries and descriptions of the major insights of science, philosophy, and business; almost like a Clif Notes on all the shit you really should know and understand, but don't.

Bevelin is well-known to Mungerheads - he's the editor of Poor Charlie's Almanack, which was a hugely influential book in my life. If you enjoy reading the wit and wisdom of either Munger or his partner Warren Buffett, you'll enjoy this book.

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That's it folks, I'm out of time.

Looking forward to see your recommendations as well.