I wasn’t intending on writing this review for some time. My plan was to read the Daily Stoic reader, and use the journal for the better part of a year before making a review. I’m most of the way through January, however, and I believe I have enough of a feel for the two books to review them adequately.
I liked that the journal meshed with the daily reader, that’s a nice touch. The journal is three prompts and a short space to write what you’d like related broadly to the reading for the day. It was a little disappointing that each day is mostly just a re-hash of the previous days. I was expecting some else, but it is what it is.
For the Daily Reader itself, I cannot any longer recommend it. I had previously described some of these style books as fine introductions, the shallow end of the Stoic swimming pool. However, in reading through the Daily Reader, there are recurring … misinterpretations of core Stoic doctrines. Most of these are fine business practices and mindsets for the self-help go-getter. But Stoic positions, they ain’t.
I’ll be removing the Daily Stoic from my list of Stoic Books, which wasn’t something I was really ever imagining I’d do.
I don’t wish the author any ill well, or anything like that. But it seems to me as if when his work adopted the Daily Stoic brand, it jumped a shark. These works are not Stoic works, they are business oriented self-help and mindset training programs. As such, I do not recommend them to the practicing Stoic.