> Life is so short, read nothing but the cornerstones (this may not be that) of western thought.

I'd like to recommend Bryan W Van Norden's book "Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto" for those willing to concede that maybe life is not short enough to ignore everything but Western thought.

https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Back-Philosophy-Multicultural-...

edit: my original comment was asking "Why only western thought?" I removed it as it wasn't substantial enough.