There is a huge misconception that non fiction is synonym to self help, as much as there is a misconception that fiction doesn’t teach un anything. Reading is both something we should enjoy to do and also something we should push ourselves to do, it has too many benefits not to give it a solid try, and whatever we like to read should be exactly what we should read .
I was listening to Ryan Holiday speak on a podcast recently, and he talks about the importance of reading but specially to raise readers. He mentions two things to achieve that: one is if you want your kid to be a reader, first be a reader yourself, and second make reading enjoyable for them, if they want the Minecraft book versus —insert a classic here— , let them pick, let them enjoy, let them feel safe and seen in their bodies and minds and in their reading too.
So, this list took longer to put together because I have not read a lot of non fiction in the last few years and the great books I have read of non fiction I can count with one hand, but, I made an extra effort and searched within for TEN absolutely life changing books, which shaped my life, and they still do; some I have re-read many times, others I keep their lessons close to my heart, and many of these I have given as gifts to friends and family.
The heart of the Buddha’s teachings by Thich Nhat Hahn
This is the book. The book that keeps me sane, the book I go back to, the book I’d suggest be put in the drawer of every hotel room instead of the Bible. This book is my bible. Buddhism and Thich That Hahn’s words are what the world most needs right now and this book is a comprehensible, friendly, profound guide on how to live a simple and better life.
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
This book had me crying on page three. Cheryl Strayed is an incredible human being with a super power: to write about her beautifully flawed life. In this book we follow the letters she anonymously answered for a magazine advice column back in the day. The advice she gives, honest and blunt accompanied by her own life experiences is gold.
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Wild is the book that when I closed after finished made me realize one of the most important things I have ever realized in my life: I am a writer too.
The book follows our very own Cheryl Strayed after losing her mother and her sanity basically and her adventure walking the Pacific Crest Trail with cero experience or money. We go back and forth to there past with the enormous role that her mother played in her life, her death, and the decisions she made and makes that lead her up to where she is now: lonely, divorced, homeless and grieving. This is one of the books whose lines I remember vividly almost every day.
The Four Agreements by Dr. Miguel Ruiz
Life is simple, like we mentioned in the first number of this list but here’s some help to get there. Miguel Ruiz is a toltecan doctor who figured out life way before many of us and kindly put it into words or more precisely into four concepts that I promise made my life simpler and better as soon as I read them and understood how they related to me and how I could connect better through them. I f you read and apply this book to your life I guarantee you with absolute confidence, you’ll have a better life.
Maybe you should talk to someone by Lori Gottlieb
I read this book in the pandemic and I had no idea how much I needed this book. We follow Lori’s life and her decision to become a psychiatrist later in life. She takes us along her life both in her professional therapy sessions, her personal therapy and her life as a mother and human. This book inspired me to go back to school, to become a student again and I am forever grateful I met and got to know Lori through her words.
Untamed by Glenn Doyle
The first time I read Glennon Doyle she wasn’t the phenomenon she is today, she had just launched Love Warrior, her first memoir, where she confronts the very difficult decision to forgive her cheating husband and ‘save’ her family of five, or ‘save’ herself. Spoiler alert: she forgives him, spoiler alert number 2: she leaves him, falls in love with a woman and this book is about the journey unbecoming everything she was supposed to be and becoming exactly who she was meant to be. And a beautiful invitation for every woman to do the same in their own unique way. This book opened my eyes, made me realize how small I had been programmed to be and how much space I am meant to take.
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
I think this is one of the first books I read that made me fall in love with writing. Mitch Albom debuted with this book about him having a major young adult crisis and visiting his old college teacher for guidance. Morrie, the teacher, has a disease that will end him soon, so he wants to make every second and every story count. This book reminds me of Big Fish, one of my favorite movies ever. Of how close we are to life and death and how intertwined and ordinary life is with an extraordinary one. Reading this book made me feel like Morrie was also my teacher and it impacted my life enormously, he was truly an extraordinary ordinary man.
Man’s search for meaning by Viktor Frankl
This book I read whether for and assignment at school or probably because my mom loves it so much. Frankl tells the story about his time in a concentration camp in WWII. After being stripped of absolutely everything a human can be robbed of, he found there was something left, and that helped him survive the ultimate hardship a human can go through and he came out on the other side of it because he was meant to share his story, to show us a path, to have purpose.
The Sum of our days by Isabel Allende
I love Isabel Allende, when I was in University I wrote an essay about her and sent it to her assistant and she kindly responded it and it made my life. Isabel Allende is the kind of woman every girl should aspire to be: a determined, stubborn, creative and ingenious artist that made history in this case with her complex and magical stories. This book, however, is a memoir, of her life, of the loss of her 20 year old daughter Paula and how grief transformed her forever. Her writing of her life is blunt, honest and full of magic and love. Please read her.
Hunger by Roxane Gay
If you’re a woman or a man who wants to better understand women please read this book. In this memoir Roxane Gay shares the very difficult story of her past, of the people and events that made her who she is today and one of the battles many women find themselves in: existing in peace in your own body. Something no one taught us and society punished us for. This is an opportunity to question ourselves how we process feelings and trauma and life, and also to choose a path towards accepting and living ourselves unconditionally.
Going back in time to when I read each of these books has been emotionally exhausting, and also I need to re-read every single one of them!
Which book shaped your life?
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Until next time!
Happy reading,
C.