I’ve gotten hundreds of messages from readers of The Comfort Crisis asking me for book recommendations. The messages are all some variation of: “I loved your book. Can you recommend some books like The Comfort Crisis?”
I always struggled to answer this. Then my friend Dr. Trevor Kashey posted the perfect answer. In answering the question, “What book do I read after The Comfort Crisis,” he responded, “None. Go USE it. Insight gets you nothing unless you do something with it. Transformation takes action.” Follow his advice. Try everything you learned from my book.
Next step: Sign up for my 2 Percent Newsletter. I send an email every Thursday expanding on topics in The Comfort Crisis or exploring new ideas that can improve your life and expand your thinking.
Now let’s assume you’ve put ideas from my book into practice and signed up for the 2 Percent Newsletter. What should you read?
When we were putting the final touches on The Comfort Crisis, my publisher had no clue what category the book would fall under. It’s part adventure, part memoir, part research-backed investigation, and it touches on topics ranging from nutrition and exercise to nature and boredom. It’s a tough one to pin down. Which also means that giving recommendations based on it is hard! Below, I’ve separated recommendations for books like The Comfort Crisis into categories. Enjoy!
If you liked the adventure narrative read: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
When I was 13, my mom left this book out on a table. I started reading. Once I’d finished, I decided that I wanted to be an adventure journalist. Krakauer does an incredible job weaving the adventure of a tragic Everest climb with the history and science of the mountain. P.S. his book Under the Banner of Heaven is probably my favorite non-fiction book of all time.
If you liked the Misogi chapter, read: The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
Campbell was a scholar of mythology and religion. This book will help you understand why Misogi works—why it’s a powerful modern take on an eternal practice. Note: This book is a series of conversations between Campbell and journalist Bill Moyers. For that reason, it’s best to listen to the audio version of the book.
If you liked the nature chapter, read: Devotions by Mary Oliver
Nature is a spiritual experience that’s impossible to adequately capture with words. Mary Oliver came closest. This book is a collection of her best work from 1963 to 2015. I read it nearly every day.
If you liked the humor, read: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
There is nothing funnier. It’s a work of comic genius.
If you liked the history/anthropology, read: The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
This book is heady and a slow read. But it changes a lot of what we thought we knew about human history and how humans of the past lived. Another option: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari
If you liked the exercise chapter, read: Exercised by Daniel Lieberman
I don’t always agree with Dan Lieberman’s points of view in this book, but it’s a tour de force of health information and where we’ve gone wrong. He puts all sorts of health and fitness myths to rest with deep anthropological and health research. It’s also an easy read, despite all the scholarship.
If you liked the section on boredom and technology, read: Attention Merchants by Tim Wu
Your attention is your most valuable resource. But our lives are now shaped and assaulted by what Wu calls “Attention Merchants.” These are industrial-scale harvesters of our attention. Firms whose business model is the mass capture of attention for resale to advertisers. Wu expertly explains how attention capture has changed over time and why we’re in such a strange space today.
