Questions
The things people ask
- What is the Stoic Fundamentals series?
- Stoic Fundamentals is a book series that gives one foundational Stoic idea a whole book. Book 1, In Your Control, covers the dichotomy of control. Book 2, Love What Happens, covers amor fati. Book 3, The Time You Have, covers memento mori. Each book establishes the idea, tests it against the cases where it gets hard, and turns it into daily practice.
- Where can I buy In Your Control?
- In Your Control is out now on Amazon in three editions: Kindle ebook, paperback, and hardcover. It is also free to read with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. The ebook is exclusive to Amazon; there is no other ebook retailer.
- When do Love What Happens and The Time You Have come out?
- Both are written and edited, and are being prepared for release now that In Your Control is out. No date is announced yet. The mailing list on this site hears first — one email per book, on release day.
- What order should I read the books in?
- Book 1, then 2, then 3, if you are starting from scratch — the ideas build. But every book stands alone and assumes no philosophy background, so start with whichever idea is the one you are actually dealing with. Someone in the middle of a setback should start with Love What Happens rather than working up to it.
- Do I need to have read Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus first?
- No. The books assume no philosophy background and no prior reading. Every quotation is given with its source and explained in plain English on the spot.
- Which translations do the books quote?
- Only public-domain translations, locked one per work: George Long (1862) for the Meditations, Elizabeth Carter (1758) for the Enchiridion, W. A. Oldfather (1925) for the Discourses, and Aubrey Stewart for Seneca's Dialogues. Every quotation is verified against that edition before it is printed. Modern in-copyright translations are never reproduced.
- Why does the translation matter?
- Because most Stoic quotations in circulation are not accurate. The wording people remember usually comes from a modern translation and is often reproduced without a source or a locus, and sometimes without the words the translator actually wrote. A quotation you cannot trace is a quotation you cannot trust.
- How is this different from Ryan Holiday or The Daily Stoic?
- Depth per volume rather than breadth. Where a survey gives an idea a chapter, these books give it sixteen — following it into the places where it is hardest to use, and sourcing every quotation to a public-domain edition rather than to anecdote.
- Is this a religious or self-help book?
- Neither, exactly. Stoicism is a philosophy, not a religion, and it makes no supernatural demands. The books are practical rather than academic, but they do not promise transformation or offer life-hacks.
- Who writes the series?
- Kristian Fennessy, published by Vitality Press. He also writes the companion series Stoicism at Work, which brings the same ideas to working life.