So well articulated, I think about it every time I see a post how reading will change anyone’s life. I’ve been reading all my life and I’m not a billionaire or particularly wise when it comes to my own life. Checkmate you well meaning optimists! Jokes aside, I do think books have a lot to offer but I’d also say that I got more out of fiction than self help books (the lack of direct teaching in great fiction makes it a better teacher, just like real life).
There’s some research that reading fiction helps develop empathy…. Most of all, I think reading more (especially good books) helps make you a better reader, just like seeing a lot of paintings makes you appreciate art more and develop better taste with time. It - perhaps - enriches life more in the long run than practical advice that we can extract from books.
Well, I’m sure some of my personal favorites are on every list, but here’s a few books or authors that were pivotal in my life regardless:
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead
The Tao of Pooh
Siddhartha
Paul’s letters in the New Testament
The Divine Comedy (but specifically Inferno—I read it with a guide book, which helped me power through)
Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov
Not exactly a novel, but the Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis—and The Screwtape Letters.
Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Cat’s Cradle by Vonnegut.
Hemingway and Eliot. And F Scott Fitzgerald.
Nerdy I know, but The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
Into the Wild
Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
I like Mark Twain’s short stories. Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience, Huxley’s Why I am not a Christian—read it all—read many sides of Political and religious writers.
Shakespeare— you’ll be amazed at the sheer volume of phrases we think of as modern were coined by him. The Taming of the Shrew, Othello.
If you read in public, people will sometimes stop you and give you book recommendations based on what you’re reading. These aren’t in any particular order and don’t amount to any particular life philosophy or religion—-but they all gave me something to think about in a profound way that changed me forever. Having the courage to read original sources and decide what I think about them instead of what someone else tells me to think is the most powerful form of self-help.
Thank you for the recommendations! Some stuff I’ve also enjoyed and some stuff I’ve never heard off which is great :) I fully agree with your last point as well has been really empowering so far.
I get way more wisdom from classic literature lately than from self-help/“advice of others” books. The long-form of a novel gives the reader time to develop real empathy and decide for themselves in the context of a novel whether the decisions made were good or bad, and if they should like to make those life choices or not.
Granted I have read many personal development books and I do find them useful in a “tips and tricks” sort of way, but to answer the really big questions—What’s my purpose?, Is there a God?, How should I truly live? What do I hold to be sacred? Of course no answers to questions such as these will be found in a self-help book, or likely any other kind of philosophical writing. It’s something like the accumulation
So well articulated, I think about it every time I see a post how reading will change anyone’s life. I’ve been reading all my life and I’m not a billionaire or particularly wise when it comes to my own life. Checkmate you well meaning optimists! Jokes aside, I do think books have a lot to offer but I’d also say that I got more out of fiction than self help books (the lack of direct teaching in great fiction makes it a better teacher, just like real life).
Thanks Alena! I agree. I do think there are "benefits" to reading (entertainment aside) but I'm still trying to figure out what they are :)
There’s some research that reading fiction helps develop empathy…. Most of all, I think reading more (especially good books) helps make you a better reader, just like seeing a lot of paintings makes you appreciate art more and develop better taste with time. It - perhaps - enriches life more in the long run than practical advice that we can extract from books.
I don't know what to say. So I'll just say thank you for this.😀
Really enjoyed reading this. Also one of the funniest headlines I've ever seen 😂
Thanks Erman! That means a lot :)
Well, I’m sure some of my personal favorites are on every list, but here’s a few books or authors that were pivotal in my life regardless:
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead
The Tao of Pooh
Siddhartha
Paul’s letters in the New Testament
The Divine Comedy (but specifically Inferno—I read it with a guide book, which helped me power through)
Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov
Not exactly a novel, but the Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis—and The Screwtape Letters.
Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Cat’s Cradle by Vonnegut.
Hemingway and Eliot. And F Scott Fitzgerald.
Nerdy I know, but The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
Into the Wild
Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
I like Mark Twain’s short stories. Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience, Huxley’s Why I am not a Christian—read it all—read many sides of Political and religious writers.
Shakespeare— you’ll be amazed at the sheer volume of phrases we think of as modern were coined by him. The Taming of the Shrew, Othello.
If you read in public, people will sometimes stop you and give you book recommendations based on what you’re reading. These aren’t in any particular order and don’t amount to any particular life philosophy or religion—-but they all gave me something to think about in a profound way that changed me forever. Having the courage to read original sources and decide what I think about them instead of what someone else tells me to think is the most powerful form of self-help.
Thank you for the recommendations! Some stuff I’ve also enjoyed and some stuff I’ve never heard off which is great :) I fully agree with your last point as well has been really empowering so far.
I thought I might err on the side of a big list! What is some of your favorite literature?
I appreciate that! My list is a bit on the shorter side:
The Stranger by Camus
Siddartha
Candide by Voltaire
Pensees by Pascal
Seneca’s Letters
Essays by Montaigne de Michel
Brave New World
The Pocket Oracle by Baltasar Gracian
Thanks for sharing!
..dang it I fat fingered the send button 😂
The accumulation of life experiences, what you read and how seriously you retrospect that can help a person determine a better outcome for themselves.
Although I agree that in the end, we will all still be fools.
Thanks for your comment Kyla :) any recommendations for classic literature? Stuff that is maybe not recommended in every list?
I get way more wisdom from classic literature lately than from self-help/“advice of others” books. The long-form of a novel gives the reader time to develop real empathy and decide for themselves in the context of a novel whether the decisions made were good or bad, and if they should like to make those life choices or not.
Granted I have read many personal development books and I do find them useful in a “tips and tricks” sort of way, but to answer the really big questions—What’s my purpose?, Is there a God?, How should I truly live? What do I hold to be sacred? Of course no answers to questions such as these will be found in a self-help book, or likely any other kind of philosophical writing. It’s something like the accumulation