20 Years Ago, I Spent $8 on This. My Life Was Never The Same.
Brief
Ryan Holiday recounts how a $8.25 copy of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations he bought circa 2006 at age 19—now taped, stained and heavily annotated—became the pivot of his career and practice of Stoicism. He frames books as investments with outsized ROI, citing Warren Buffett’s reading of Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor at 19 (late-1940s hardcover ≈ $1.30) and Buffett’s ~$140 billion fortune as evidence. Holiday outlines his methodology—close reading, repeated rereads, margin notes, following translations (Gregory Hays, Robin Waterfield), secondary scholarship (Pierre Hadot, Donald Robertson), interviews, and travel to Rome—and offers a practical path via his 11-module How to Read Meditations digital guide during Meditations Month (April 2026), with a deadline of April 26 for access to a live Q&A on April 27; he also lists a 2026 Stoicism speaking tour across US cities, Australia, and New Zealand.
Why it matters
Ryan Holiday bought a heavily annotated copy of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations for $8.25 around 2006 at age 19 and credits it with changing his career and writing trajectory.
Key details
- Holiday is running 'Meditations Month' in April 2026: his 'How to Read Meditations' digital guide includes 11 in-depth modules; buy before April 26 to get access to a live Q&A on April 27.
- He traces a reading-to-freedom lineage from Epictetus and Rusticus to Marcus Aurelius, cites Warren Buffett reading Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor at 19 (a late-1940s hardcover ≈ $1.30) and notes Buffett’s current net worth of ~$140 billion as an example of books as high-ROI investments.
- Methodologically, Holiday emphasizes deep reading—rereading, annotating, following rabbit holes (translations by Gregory Hays and Robin Waterfield, scholarship by Pierre Hadot and Donald Robertson), interviews, and even travel to Rome—and he announces a 2026 Stoicism speaking tour including Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Australia, and New Zealand.