“omnia mea mecum porto.”
Bias of Priene, one of the Seven Sages of Greece
About books I’ve read and plan to read soon.
Reading a book is like embarking on a quiet journey that only the mind and heart can fully experience. Every page turned reveals new worlds, ideas, and perspectives, connecting us with voices from across time and space. The pleasure of reading lies in this profound intimacy: a solitary act that feels anything but lonely. Words lift us from our immediate surroundings, inviting us to see through the eyes of others, often shifting our own views in unexpected ways. In those precious moments, the rest of the world fades as our minds become fully immersed, fully alive. It’s a simple joy, yet it offers boundless richness—a private, transformative escape that stays with us long after the final page.
I make a great effort before reading my books. I question what they can add to me. That’s why I read most of the books that I selected with great pleasure.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
my favourite Writers
The reasons I like these writers are the subjects they cover and the literary integrity in their works.
“In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
My Top Ten Books
While reading these ten books, I enjoyed so much. And most of the books has a great role in development of this world. A few of them are beautifully gripping books in an incredible fiction genre.
- On the Shortness of Life ~ Seneca
- The Essays ~ Michel de Montaigne
- White Nights ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Madonna in a Fur Coat ~ Sabahattin Ali
- The Intelligent Investor ~ Benjamin Graham
- The Prince ~ Niccolò Machiavelli
- Apology of Socrates – Plato
- The Republic – Plato
- Meditations ~ Marcus Aurelius
- The Social Contract ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau
““We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
PLATO, THE REPUBLIC
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
My Book List
Here is a list of books I will read soon… I hope…
- Oblomov ~ Ivan Goncharov
- Siddhartha ~ Hermann Hesse
- On The Perfect State ~ Al Farabi
- Gulliver’s Travels ~ Jonathan Swift
- Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme – Moliere
“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It
The Books I’ve Read Recently
| Original Title | English Title | Author | Year | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Principatibus / Il Principe | The Prince | Niccolò Machiavelli | 1532 | Italian |
| Les Essais | The Essays | Michel de Montaigne | 1580 | French |
| Romeo and Juliet | Romeo and Juliet | William Shakespeare | 1597 | English |
| Du Contrat Social ou Principes du Droit Politique | The Social Contract | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1762 | French |
| Le Dernier Jour d’un Condamné | The Last Day of a Condemned Man | Victor Hugo | 1829 | French |
| Записки сумасшедшего (Zapiski sumasshedshego) | Diary of a Madman | Nikolai Gogol | 1835 | Russian |
| Нос (Nos) | The Nose | Nikolai Gogol | 1836 | Russian |
| Фаитон (Fayton) | The Carriage | Nikolai Gogol | 1836 | Russian |
| Шинель (Shinel’) | The Overcoat | Nikolai Gogol | 1842 | Russian |
| Belye Nochi | White Nights | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1848 | Russian |
| Chuzhaya Zena i Muz pod Krovatyu | Another Man’s Wife and a Husband under the Bed | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1848 | Russian |
| Slaboye Sertze | Weak Heart | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1848 | Russian |
| Yolka i Svad’ba | The Christmas Tree and a Wedding | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1848 | Russian |
| Chestny Vor | Honest Thief | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1848 | Russian |
| Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street | Bartleby, the Scrivener | Herman Melville | 1853 | English |
| Отцы и дети (Ottsy i deti) | Fathers and Sons | Ivan Turgenyev | 1862 | Russian |
| Chem Iyudi Zhivy | What Is to Be Done? | Nikolai Chernyshevsky | 1863 | Russian |
| Записки из подполья | Notes from Underground | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1864 | Russian |
| Игрокъ (Igrok) | The Gambler | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1866 | Russian |
| Also sprach Zarathustra | Thus Spoke Zarathustra | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1883 | German |
| La Bête humaine | Human Beast | Emile Zola | 1890 | French |
| Palata No 6 | Ward No. 6 | Anton Chekhov | 1892 | Russian |
| Metamorphosis | The Metamorphosis | Franz Kafka | 1915 | German |
| My Inventions | My Inventions | Nikola Tesla | 1919 | English |
| Der Amokläufer | The Royal Game | Stefan Zweig | 1922 | German |
| Phantastische Nacht | Fantastic Night | Stefan Zweig | 1922 | German |
| Brief einer Unbekannten | Letter from an Unknown Woman | Stefan Zweig | 1922 | German |
| Mein Kampf | My Struggle | Adolf Hitler | 1925 | German |
| Sternstunden der Menschheit | Decisive Moments in History | Stefan Zweig | 1927 | German |
| Vierundzwanzig Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau | Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman | Stefan Zweig | 1927 | German |
| Down and Out in Paris and London | Down and Out in Paris and London | George Orwell | 1933 | English |
| The Hobbit | The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien | 1937 | English |
| Kuyucaklı Yusuf | Yusuf from Kuyucak | Sabahattin Ali | 1937 | Turkish |
| Ten Little Niggers | And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie | 1939 | English |
| İçimizdeki Şeytan | The Devil Within Us | Sabahattin Ali | 1940 | Turkish |
| Schachnovelle | The Royal Game | Stefan Zweig | 1941 | German |
| Le Petit Prince | The Little Prince | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | 1943 | French |
| Kürk Mantolu Madonna | Madonna in a Fur Coat | Sabahattin Ali | 1943 | Turkish |
| Sparkling Cyanide – Remembered Death | Sparkling Cyanide | Agatha Christie | 1945 | English |
| Nineteen Eighty-Four | Nineteen Eighty-Four | George Orwell | 1949 | English |
| The Intelligent Investor | The Intelligent Investor | Benjamin Graham | 1949 | English |
| My Left Foot | My Left Foot | Christy Brown | 1954 | English |
| Lord of the Flies | Lord of the Flies | William Golding | 1954 | English |
| Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü | The Time Regulation Institute | Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar | 1961 | Turkish |
| Göğe Bakma Durağı | The Stop to Look at the Sky | Turgut Uyar | 1963 | Turkish |
| Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada | Chronicle of a Death Foretold | Gabriel García Márquez | 1981 | Spanish |
| O Alquimista | The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho | 1988 | Portuguese |
| Sinan | Sinan | Abidin Dino | 1993 | Turkish |
| Kurtuluş – Kuruluş | Liberation – Foundation | Turgut Özakman | 1995 | Turkish |
| Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira | Blindness | José Saramago | 1995 | Portuguese |
| Investing 101 | Investing 101 | Kathy Kristof | 1998 | English |
| Tarihsel Süreç İçerisinde Dünya Ekonomisi | World Economy in Historical Process | Korkut Boratav | 1999 | Turkish |
| Freemasons | Freemasons | Jasper Ridley | 1999 | English |
| Afuta Daku | After Dark | Haruki Murakami | 2004 | Japanese |
| Kuran, İncil ve Tevrat’ın Sümer’deki Kökeni | The Sumerian Origins of the Quran, Bible, and Torah | Muazzez İlmiye Çığ | 2004 | Turkish |
| Örneklerle Kolay Ekonomi | Easy Economics with Examples | Mahfi Eğilmez | 2006 | Turkish |
| Beden Dili ve Konuşma Sanatı | Body Language and The Art of Speaking | Cemalettin Sarar | 2011 | Turkish |
| Aşk Yüzyılı Bitti | The Century of Love is Over | Nuran Yıldız | 2013 | Turkish |
| 101 Things Learned in Engineering School | 101 Things I Learned in Engineering School | John Kuprenas | 2013 | English |
| Managing Negative People | Managing Negative People | Dealing with Difficult People | 2013 | English |
| Beynine Format At | Reformat Your Brain | M. Barış Muslu | 2014 | Turkish |
| Minimalists İnsanları Sev Eşyaları Kullan | Love People, Use Things | Joshua Fields Millburn | 2016 | English |
| Bazen Olmaz Başarısızlık Hikayeleri | Sometimes Failure Stories Do Not Happen | Serdar Tuncer | 2018 | Turkish |
| Hesap Lütfen | Check Please | Uğur Batı | 2018 | Turkish |
| El-Yezidîyye ve Menşeu Nihletihim | The Yazidi Sect and Its Origins | Unknown Author | – | Arabic |
| سفرنامه روسیه (Safarnâme-i Rusya) | The Travelogue of Russia | Abbas I of Persia | 17th century | Persian |
| Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν (Ta eis heauton) | Meditations | Marcus Aurelius | 180 AD | Greek |
| Петербургские повести (Peterburgskie povesti) | Petersburg Tales | Nikolai Gogol | 1830s | Russian |
| Nikola Tesla Aphorism | Nikola Tesla Aphorism | Nikola Tesla | 20th century | English |
| Melankoli | Melancholy | Sabahattin Ali | 20th century | Turkish |
| Πολιτεία (Politeia) | The Republic | Plato | 380 BC | Greek |
| Apologia Sokratous | Apology of Socrates | Plato | 399 BC | Greek |
| De Brevitate Vitae | On the Shortness of Life | Seneca | 49 AD | Latin |
| 孫子兵法 (Sunzi Bingfa) | The Art of War | Sun Tzu | 5th century BC | Chinese |
“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.”
Sabahattin ali, Madonna In A Fur Coat