The best books of 2024

This list is part of the best books of 2024.

Join 1,365 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Experiments in Mystical Atheism: Godless Epiphanies from Daoism to Spinoza and Beyond

Hans-Georg Moeller ❤️ loved this book because...

This is a philosophy book--and yet very important and timely. It outlines a "deep atheism," that is to say what's the problem (including the religious problem) of having a monotheistic religion) with the belief in an ultimate purpose of meaning. As an alternative, the book introduces a 'deep mysticism" that allows us to appreciate the indeterminacy, ambiguity, and multifariousness of being.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Originality 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Brook Ziporyn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Experiments in Mystical Atheism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A new approach to the theism-scientism divide rooted in a deeper form of atheism.

Western philosophy is stuck in an irresolvable conflict between two approaches to the spiritual malaise of our times: either we need more God (the "turn to religion") or less religion (the New Atheism). In this book, Brook Ziporyn proposes an alternative that avoids both totalizing theomania and atomizing reductionism. What we need, he argues, is a deeper, more thoroughgoing, even religious rejection of God: an affirmative atheism without either a creator to provide meaning or finite creatures in need of it-a mystical atheism.

In the legacies…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes

Hans-Georg Moeller ❤️ loved this book because...

Although written in the 1960s, this book in uncannily timely. It outlines how the society we live in is shaped by propaganda--not just political propaganda, but also a wider propaganda for certain "way of life" that seems very individualistic but is in fact the opposite. It helps not only in recognizing propaganda, but also in escaping it as much as possible.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Originality 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Jacques Ellul,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Propaganda as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This seminal study and critique of propaganda from one of the greatest French philosophers of the 20th century is as relevant today as when it was first published in 1962. Taking not only a psychological approach, but a sociological approach as well, Ellul’s book outlines the taxonomy for propaganda, and ultimately, it’s destructive nature towards democracy. Drawing from his own experiences fighting for the French resistance against the Vichy regime, Ellul offers a unique insight into the propaganda machine.


My 3rd favorite read in 2024

Book cover of An Insular Possession

Hans-Georg Moeller ❤️ loved this book because...

This is a fantastic novel, not just about Hong Kong, Macau, and the Opium war, but about the shift toward modern society and modern people, the shift from a world of painting to photography, and about the power of modern media. The language and the level of historical and psychological illumination is absolutely amazing.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Timothy Mo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked An Insular Possession as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The author of the acclaimed Sour Sweet presents a sweeping historical novel about corruption and greed, class, race, love and treachery set in Macao and Canton before and during the Opium Wars of the 19th century. Nominated for England's prestigious Booker Prize.


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

You and Your Profile: Identity After Authenticity

By Hans-Georg Moeller, Paul J. D'Ambrosio,

Book cover of You and Your Profile: Identity After Authenticity

What is my book about?

More and more, we present ourselves and encounter others through profiles. A profile shows us not as we are seen directly but how we are perceived by a broader public. As we observe how others observe us, we calibrate our self-presentation accordingly. Profile-based identity is evident everywhere from pop culture to politics, marketing to morality. But all too often critics simply denounce this alleged superficiality in defense of some supposedly pure ideal of authentic or sincere expression.

This book argues that the profile marks an epochal shift in our concept of identity and demonstrates why that matters. You and Your Profile blends social theory, philosophy, and cultural critique to unfold an exploration of the way we have come to experience the world. Instead of polemicizing against the profile, Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio outline how it works, how we readily apply it in our daily lives, and how it shapes our values—personally, economically, and ethically. They develop a practical vocabulary of life in the digital age. Informed by the Daoist tradition, they suggest strategies for handling the pressure of social media by distancing oneself from one’s public face. A deft and wide-ranging consideration of our era’s identity crisis, this book provides vital clues on how to stay sane in a time of proliferating profiles.

Book cover of Experiments in Mystical Atheism: Godless Epiphanies from Daoism to Spinoza and Beyond
Book cover of Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes
Book cover of An Insular Possession

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