One book I am currently reading is Nietzsche’s Untimely Meditations.

I consider this a deep read—one I do with pencil in hand, with extensive highlights and notes in the margin.

I have read a fair amount of Nietzsche in piecemeal fashion over the past 30 years, but this book reading is part of a year-long project in which I am systematically going through his major works with one question in mind: what is Nietzsche’s concept of “health?” This ties into a much broader writing project in which I am attempting to review the various definitions of health from a scientific, cultural, philosophical, and historical perspective.

And why is Nietzsche important in this? Because he is one of the root philosophers of our modern world, and a large portion of his writing is about health—physical, mental and spiritual. Understanding his thoughts about health (which are often radical) acts as both lens and foil to understanding much of the debate about health in the twenty-first century.