#74 Balzac ruined my Kindle recommendations

I read Père Goriot on my flight to Paris.

The setup is simple. Eugène de Rastignac arrives in Paris from the provinces with a law degree, a noble name, and no money. He moves into a boarding house populated by the almost-ruined. He meets Père Goriot, a retired pasta merchant, and Vautrin, a man of unclear occupation who sees everything clearly. Paris glitters outside. Rastignac decides he wants in.

That's all I'll say. Read it.

What I can tell you is what it did to me.

I came back from that flight and picked up a business book I'd been meaning to finish. I put it down after six pages. Not because it was bad. Because it felt thin. Like someone had taken a real idea and inflated it to 250 pages with frameworks and case studies and chapter summaries telling me what I'd just read.

Balzac doesn't do that. He shows you people, with enough texture that you have to think about what they want and what they're willing to trade for it, and whether you recognize any of it.

I haven't finished a self-development book since. I'm not sure I'll go back.

I'm reading more in this direction now. Philosophical realism. Books that take society seriously and don't reassure you at the end.

What are yours? I'm genuinely asking.