The Non-Woke Books That Shaped Me
Reading These Fiction & Non-Fiction Books Is Like A Super Power
Coming up on September 6th is National Read A Book Day. So I thought I’d share the books that mean a lot to me.
What I Mean by Woke
Any moralistic virtue garbage that sacrifices artistic merit for the mores and taboos of the day. The equivalent in Shakespeare’s time would be a writer whose legacy didn't last...but who allowed their work to be handcuffed by absurd fashions of the day, such as by sucking up to some religious inquisition. Books like To Kill A Mockingbird have themes that today might seem woke (such as anti-racism) - but in their historical context were precisely the opposite. Harper Lee resisted the constraints of her era’s social mores and - importantly - sent out a message of colourblindness.
Books & Me
Before becoming a podcaster:
I studied English Literature (later French Literature).
I traveled the world, living alone in different countries, learning languages, and making documentaries about subcultures.
I spent much of this time alone, ironically obsessed with learning more about people, the world and life. My trusty Kindle lived beneath my pillow, coming out at night to keep me company into the early hours.
These are the books that helped form my mind.
Please share this list with friends and family, and tell me about the books that shaped you in the comments.
Fiction
10. Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki
As you’ll go on to see, I love time-bending, world-deforming narratives that take me on a journey - one that exists firmly outside of our dull world. This story of suicide, monks, Kamikaze pilots sees an American-Japanese girl feeling out of place in Japan. After a tsunami, her diary is discovered by a novelist in British Columbia. She becomes obsessed with the protagonist as their worlds soon converge.
9. Atonement - Ian McEwan
Just devastating. I thought of including one of McEwan’s other brilliant novels, such as Nutshell (the inner monologue of a fetus whose fate mirrors Hamlet’s), because Atonement is too obvious. But fuck that. I watched the film first and fell utterly in love. The book is devastating. McEwan is one of the best non-woke writers out there, and his story of a man wrongly accused of rape…and what goes on to happen to his prospects and his life. And that horrific ending. What an impact.
8. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
I love dystopian literature, and I love Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale has been spoken about to death, because of its scathing portrayal of extreme patriarchy and how easily we fall into groupthink. But Oryx and Crake was the first of her books I read, focussing on a post-apocalyptic landscape where no one is sure what is going on…until the end. It also deals with some highly controversial themes, which gets extra points for bravery in a world of wrong-think.
7. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
There’s a theme in this list. I like otherworldly literature. I like to be taken into the worlds of strange minds by strange authors. Bizarre and dream-like - but also at times hilarious and frightening - this Kafkaesque novel deals with death, shadow realms and the subconscious. It’ll expand your mind with its madness and beauty.
6. Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
The namesake story at the heart of this collection of short stories would possibly be my number one if it were an entire novel. It spawned one of my favourite films, Arrival, and both the book and the short story make me well up just thinking of them. I don’t want to give away the premise and ending, except to say this centres around time, linguistics, family and loss. Also, aliens, but ignore that; it’s not that kind of story.
The ending left me speechless, bereft. The other stories that make up this collection are also brilliant. You get to spend some time inside the mind of Chiang and his thought experiments. There are few places I’d rather spend an evening.
5. White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Sometimes, everything in a book just works. It's even better when it all comes together so beautifully in a debut novel. This book covers the subtle interactions of immigrants and multiculturalism without being preachy. She captures people so wonderfully, and on top of everything else, it’s funny and beautiful. There’s something of Rushdie in her work, but it’s more accessible. And I’m here for it.
4. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
This is highly relevant - and yet not - to the gender debate I often delve into. What a pleasure it was to read this epic that stretches through generations, and opens up taboos you never even considered. I want literature to sit outside our time’s group-think and Overton Window. It’s a respite from being told what to think. Well, the story of incest and intersex certainly hits the spot. Like its main character, Middlesex is undefinable. At its heart, though, it’s a coming-of-age story.
3. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
If you haven’t read it, chances are you rolled your eyes at this entry. But everyone I’ve recommended it to has adored Crime and Punishment precisely because it isn’t dense literature. It is somehow much easier to read than English-language books from the 19th century, such as Dickens. I put this down to the more modern translations, so it doesn’t feel like an old book. It’s a true page-turner, as the main character, Raskolnikov, wonders what it’d be like to kill a person…and then how a dark secret tears him apart.
2. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
Ok, I know I said I’m not into dense and pretentious literature, but this is just something else. Everyone goes on about Midnight’s Children, which I also love - but there’s something about this one that leaves a lasting impression. It’s work to read. And Rushdie is the most palpably pretentious writer I’ve ever indulged. When I was 21, I still had the patience to work through epics like this, and I’m so delighted I did. The bit about the Prophet Mohammed - which led to Rushdie going into hiding for decades and being stabbed in the eye - has long overshadowed one of the most incredible pieces of literature ever written. I can’t even tell you what it’s about. India? Islam? Thatcher? Sex? Riots?
1. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towels
This is it. It’s just the book. Utterly ruined by a Ewan McGregor spin-off, this book taught me everything about the fight between beauty and authority. The story of a Russian aristocrat who finds himself out of favour upon the arrival of the Bolsheviks is heroin for the soul (in a good way). On house arrest in Moscow, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov rebels against the grey group-think of Communism in the most subtle and charming ways. If you like The Gran Hotel Budapest, this should work for you.
Non-Fiction
10. The Psychology of Secrets: My Adventures With Murderers, Cults & Influencers - Andrew Gold
Come on, you didn’t expect me to exclude my own book from the list? Perhaps there’s some bias here. But if there is, I’m keeping it secret. You can’t trust my views on my own book of course. Take a look at the reviews (4.8/5) because that’ll give you a picture of the book that took me three years to write and dissects who we are (when no one is watching) as well as the origins of authoritarianism, cults, group-think and secrecy.
9. The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World - Andrew Doyle
Gosh these non-fiction titles are a lot longer than the fiction ones! Andrew Doyle is one of the biggest figures on TV now, as the face of Free Speech Nation. But what a lot of people don’t know is that Mr. Doyle was a teacher of literature at my school! Well, he joined after I’d left…but I do like how his and my world have come together, and in his book (as in his brilliant Free Speech) he holds a mirror to the religious movement of wokeness, and dissects its origins in witch-hunting and inquisitions.
8. Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter - Then, Now, and Forever - John McWhorter
I’ve deliberately placed nine next to an 8 to piss everyone off! Really, the countdown is a little less relevant in the non-fiction section. These are books that have shaped the engine that drives Heretics. I interviewed John on my old podcast, and was fascinated to learn how arbitrary and fashionable offence culture is. He traces how swear words have changed to reflect that, and where we might go in the future.
7. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed - Jon Ronson
Jon and I have had some disagreements around the noise of the culture wars. But that doesn’t change that his books have had a profound effect not only on my beliefs and opinions but my writing style. His obsession with never writing a dull sentence makes the reading experience a joy, with The Psychopath Test a favourite of mine. However, for this list, I’ve gone with Shamed because it predicted the cancel culture that followed.
6. Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women - Batya Ungar-Sargon
A modern companion for the next in the rankings - Hillbilly Elegy - Ungar-Sargon traveled the States to interview all manner of working class individuals. In general, she found that they despised wokeness and socialism - preferring the American Dream of working hard and making a life for oneself. But this doesn’t suit the elites who prefer cheap labour and mass immigration. A fascinating look at the real America.
5. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis - J.D. Vance
Back in 2016, this was my first foray into trying to understand why people would vote for Donald Trump. A remarkable portrayal of Vance’s Appalachian life gives an insight into the disaffected white men tired of being told they’re useless and horrible. Vance is now Trump’s running mate (having previously called Trump ‘America’s Hitler’. He’s fiercely religious and pro-life, which is as far from me as it gets. But for anyone who wants to understand why people vote for Trump, this is a great place to start.
4. Through The Language Glass: Why The World Looks Different In Other Languages - Guy Deutscher
I know, I know, I'm always showing off about languages. But I cannot overstate how important learning to speak them was in my social and intellectual journey! Yes, I sound like a cunt. But you don’t need to know other languages to enjoy this book by Guy Deutscher. It’s a fascinating analysis of how important language and the words we choose are. It’s funny, easy to read, fascinating and it will better prepare you for arguments about cults and ideologies.
3. Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism - Amanda Montell
This isn’t a non-woke book. In fact, it’s perfectly possible that Montell is, herself, a progressive or a magical thinker or who knows what. The beauty is that I don’t know. And that is relatively rare in a book about cults, because many of the ‘cult experts’ have been captured by - you guessed it - wokeness. Montell is an outsider in that respect, and has therefore received plenty of criticism for her brilliant assertion (which changed how I think about all things cultish) that cultishness is on a spectrum, from your local book club to Scientology.
2. The Status Game - Will Storr
One fascinating thing about my friend Will Storr’s book is that it didn’t really take off in the legacy media. It was through the YouTubers - including the Joe (Holy Grail) Rogan - that the book flew. And that’s because of its subject matter. Storr brilliantly picks apart the selfish reasons we do things. Although not explicitly anti-woke, it stands to reason that the woke literati didn’t care for the idea that even The Good Guys TM (the virtue signallers and champions of victimhood) may have selfish, biological motivations. The self-made YouTubers and entrepreneurs, however, saw it is a motivating guide book for understanding the world.
1. Hitch 22 - Christopher Hitchens
I was hesitant to place Hitchens’ memoir so high because it’s such an obvious choice for anyone running a heretics podcast. If I hope to follow in the footsteps of such a contrarian, then I really shouldn’t be including this book at all. That said, perhaps I’m double bluffing myself, or doing what Hitchens called ‘Double Accounting’. It’s just brilliant, from start to finish. Contrarian minds, unite!
Extra Mentions & The Books You Shouldn’t Read!
For paid subscribers, I’ve included a list of books that deserve a mention, as well as ones you should NOT read.
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