Charlie's reading list - January, 2025
The reading list is back... with a podcast.
It’s been a minute… The reading list is back now with a podcast about epic stories and the people who tell them. Every week, I sit down with my fellow ghostwriters, editors, authors, and adventurers to talk about the art of storytelling and lessons from story-worthy lives.
Some favorites so far include:
Dave Fielding - Author, Green Beret, “American James Bond” on spycraft, mental health, and Massachusetts pride.
Maria Coffey - Writer, adventurer, chronicler of grief. Maria wrote a book about the widows and orphans of climbing accidents after losing her partner on Mt.Everest. We talk about risk, the adventurous life, and why “comfort is just not enough for the soul.”
Steven Pressfield - Author. Friend, mentor, and bestselling author of The War of Art and Gates of Fire talks about getting creative work done, how research can become procrastination, and how he became a citizen of Sparta.
This month on the podcast
Benjamin H. Milligan - Author, Navy SEAL, Historian
Gemma - Author, publisher, wellbeing specialist
Kourtney Jason - Book publicist, author
Ariel Gazarian - Kayaking around Ireland
Training updates from The Lap
24 things sea kayaking taught me about life in 2024
Side quest: Co-authoring with a 9/11 hero
What I’m reading
Hunting the Jackal: A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism By Billy Waugh with Tim Keown
Waugh lied about his age and joined the U.S Army at the end of WWII. He celebrated his 72nd birthday in Afghanistan, hunting Bin Laden with the first CIA team on the ground after 9/11. He describes the way the cold wind in the Hindu Kush made him ache in the places where he was still carrying around Vietcong shrapnel.
Man Against Himself and God Against All: a Memoir by Werner Herzog
Get the audiobook for reasons that will be obvious if you’ve seen any of the films he narrates. Herzog claims his writing will be remembered long after his films are forgotten. Based on this title and his Guide for the Perplexed and Of Walking on Ice, I’d say he could be right. It’s a masterpiece and a must-read for anyone who’s interested in a rigorous approach to learning and creativity.
Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe
Essays by a living master of the “writearound,” which is the art of writing a feature about an uncooperative or unreachable subject. The best ones in this collection aren’t about grifters or crooks but good guys like the author’s late friend Anthony Bourdain and Ken Dornstein, who devoted his life to solving the PanAm 103 bombing.
How to Make Love Like a P*rnstar: a Cautionary Tale by Jenna Jameson with Neil Strauss
A classic of co-authorship. This book had a profound effect on how tell-all memoirs are written and how the publishing industry treats them. It’s an unhinged story of addiction, survival, and a look at one of the highest-grossing and least talked about branches of the entertainment industry.
Economical Writing: Thirty-Five Rules for Clear and Persuasive Prose by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey
This now lives on my desk and is highlighted to death.
Nine-Headed Dragon River: Zen Journals by Peter Matthiessen
Chronicles of a lifetime of meditation practice by the author of The Snow Leopard, starting with his legs falling asleep at his first sesshin to ordination as a Zen teacher.
Articles & Blogs
My buddy Josh is blogging about knots.
A classic documentary on Dick Proenneke, who lived alone in a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness.
The MS Estonia ferry disaster (nightmare fuel).
What I’m streaming
Bad Monkey - A hilarious adaptation of a Carl Hiaasen novel starring Vince Vaughn as a washed-up Key West detective on the trail of a crooked developer and his sleazy girlfriend.
Say Nothing - Based on Patrick Raden Keefe’s history of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The show does a great job of portraying a complex war through a few lives affected by it instead of being all over the place. The disclaimer about Gerry Adams’ denial of IRA involvement following each episode is a brilliant, unintentional endorsement.
Ted Lasso - I’m late to the party with this one. It’s pretty cool to see a show about sports psychology.
What I’m working on
I just turned in the first draft of I Will Follow You Anywhere: A Comedian, a Responder, and the Fight for 9/11 Healthcare by John Feal with Charles Daly——foreword by Jon Stewart.
You can read more about it here.
Do you or someone you know have an epic story or a great book idea? I’d love to help you make it happen. Reach out through DalyProse.
Note: This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org, which supports indie bookstores.
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