I asked X: "Which book changed your perspective on life more than any other?"

After THOUSANDS of replies, these were the top 50.

The ultimate 2025 reading list… (bookmark this) 🧵 Note: Titles within each section are ordered roughly by how frequently they were suggested.

By FAR the most popular suggestion of all was the Holy Bible — so here are the top theological works...

The fall of Rome is widely misunderstood.

It wasn't invasion, disease or famine that truly brought it to its knees.

Rome collapsed because the birth rate did… (thread) 🧵 As with many nations today, Rome had a long period of prosperity followed by a decline in birth rates.

The same is true of urban populations throughout history...

This is "Christ the King" in Poland, Europe's tallest statue of Jesus (notice the people for scale).

It's 108 feet tall — but that's not even close to the largest of the world's colossi.

9 more you may not have seen before... 🧵 Poland's is not even the tallest statue of Christ. Indonesia unveiled one on Sibeabea Hill this year — 200 feet tall.

It's made of reinforced concrete set around a giant steel frame.

Did you know the Mona Lisa has a twin?

You don't realize how bad a state it's in until you see the two side-by-side.

And it shows why restorations in art are a major problem… (thread) 🧵 The Mona Lisa desperately needs to be restored. Its varnish has left it badly discolored and it continues to deteriorate.

But the varnish can't be replaced without risking taking Leonardo's incredibly fine layers away with it.

Hardly any of Ancient Rome's great wonders still stand today — they were lost to the Middle Ages.

But why couldn't medieval people recreate, or even maintain what the Romans had built?

An ancient technology had been long forgotten… (thread) 🧵 When you see reconstructions of Imperial Rome you have to wonder where it all went — a city of 1 million people with immense infrastructure.

How exactly was so much lost?

Reminder: this was built during what they told you were the dark ages. The dark ages produced the most divine vessels of light ever seen.

This is Sainte-Chapelle, just around the corner from the newly resurrected Notre-Dame.

Past societies produced so much beauty because they knew that math and beauty are deeply connected.

It all started when Pythagoras discovered something mind-blowing about reality:

The universe is not made of matter — but music... (thread) 🧵 When walking past a blacksmith, Pythagoras noticed a strange harmony in the sounds of banging hammers.

He realized that two hammers make a harmonious sound if one is exactly twice as heavy as the other.

The most spectacular church in every single state in the US... 🧵

1. Alabama: Cathedral of Saint Paul, Birmingham (1893) 2. Alaska: Church of the Holy Ascension, Unalaska (1826)

This weekend, the resurrected Notre-Dame finally reopens — but why is it so significant?

Well, it wasn't just priceless artworks and manuscripts rescued from the fire in 2019.

A truly extraordinary object is kept inside... (thread) 🧵 The Notre-Dame was built on the ancient, spiritual core of Paris — the Île de la Cité.

180 years after the cornerstone was laid in 1163, one of the world's tallest structures was completed.

The Great Pyramid is the oldest of the 7 Wonders of the World — and yet it's the only one still standing.

So what happened to the other six?

Here's what we know about them... (thread) 🧵 An "official" list of wonders was proposed by Greek writers like Antipater of Sidon over 2,000 years ago.

These lists survive to this day, and though they vary slightly, they tend to include the following seven...

At the end of the Roman Empire, inflation was out of control.

Huge state spending required endless money "printing" — until an entire bag of coins couldn't buy a sack of wheat.

Here's how inflation (and taxes) brought the empire to its knees... (thread) 🧵 Rome's monetary system required continual looting of silver and gold from conquered lands to supply its coinage.

But when the expansion of the empire stopped, wealth stopped flowing into the treasury...

Why is this one of the most famous portraits in history?

Partly, because it isn't actually a portrait. The girl you're looking at isn't real — nor is her earring.

Look closely and you'll realize it's all an illusion... (thread) 🧵 The "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is often called "the Mona Lisa of the North", owing to its famed status and mysterious qualities.

But just who is the girl, and why is she so famous?

America was founded to be the true successor of Ancient Rome.

But most don't know how deep the parallels run: from its grid plans to its constitution.

Here's why we still live in Rome — and why it won't collapse this time… (thread) 🧵 It's no secret the American Founders sought to emulate and perfect the Roman Republic.

They chose for their seal an eagle — Rome's symbol of wisdom and power — but one indigenous to North America.

C.S. Lewis, one of the 20th century's top intellectuals, considered himself too smart for Christianity.

So how, at age 32, did he suddenly become one of its greatest advocates?

He was struck by a strange feeling — and something Tolkien said to him late at night… (thread) 🧵 C.S. Lewis's conversion didn't begin suddenly. He first began to feel a deep longing, pointing him to seek out the most beautiful things in life: music, art, romance.

And yet, nothing he could find completely satisfied it...

To us, Ancient Greece is a distant culture of mystery and intrigue.

But the Greeks also lived in the ruins of a civilization they couldn't understand — or build themselves.

What Homer wrote about them will transform your understanding of history... (thread) 🧵 People living in Ancient Greece were amazed by the palatial ruins of their ancestors.

They couldn't understand how they were built, and assumed mythological beings had been involved.

New analysis recently revealed the Shroud of Turin (Christ's alleged burial cloth) to be 2,000 years old.

But that's just one of the relics of Jesus — the Vatican claims to have far more.

Here are the most interesting, and why they could be real... (thread) 🧵 Relics associated with Jesus are some of the most sought after objects in existence.

Countries have paid their entire annual budgets to get hold of them, or traded them off for armies...

Why is university education today so broken?

In the Middle Ages, it was profoundly different — it wasn't about acquiring skills, but about thinking.

By teaching you the 7 liberal arts... (thread) 🧵 Ancient and medieval societies had a vastly different idea of what higher education should be.

It wasn't about readiness for work, but cultivation of the moral and intellectual virtues that free the mind...

The Lord of the Rings is a deeply Christian story — once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Tolkien's elves aren't just mythical beings; they're Mankind before the Fall.

And Middle-earth is no imaginary world — it's our Earth, a long time ago... (thread) 🧵 Middle-earth is meant to be our world thousands of years ago. With LOTR and his legendarium, Tolkien was trying to create a mythology for England.

He said himself: "Middle-earth is our world..."

Reminder: this is how American cities looked 100 years ago.

Everything in this image was demolished.

Here's why — and how we can bring it back... (thread) 🧵 At the turn of the 20th century, exhibitions known as World's Fairs transformed American cities into vast architectural displays.

They were moments of immense civic pride and confidence for the future...

Ancient Greek thinkers like Socrates and Plato hated democratic elections.

They saw democracy as part of an endless cycle of regimes — destined to slip into mob rule.

But Polybius knew how to break the cycle... (thread) 🧵 Socrates likened the state to a ship. The uneducated voting in elections is like a ship taken over by a crew with no knowledge of sailing.

When selecting a captain, the crew is easily swayed by whoever is best at persuasion — not navigation.

The most disturbing art ever made is 500 years old, by a mysterious Dutch painter.

But these aren't just imaginative nightmares. They're warnings about human nature — and what a world without religion is like.

Click this thread if you dare... 🧵 Very little is known about Hieronymus Bosch, but his art is world-famous.

His paintings take us to Hell and back, revealing what sort of actions land us there, and the consequences...