The Books canon

Sourced and shelved.

Every book chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 1,178 books or filter by subject, era, place, and author.

The Bhagavad Gita

Author unknown
150 BC · 140 pages

Facing his cousins across a battlefield, Arjuna drops his bow. Krishna tells him to act without grasping at results, then takes a form of countless mouths with the worlds burning inside.

★ 7.6

On Friendship

44 BC · 384 pages

Cicero gives the argument to Laelius, a statesman grieving his dead friend: real friendship binds only good men, is wanted for nothing beyond itself, and makes fortune brighter and hardship lighter.

★ 7.0