I love reading… but I also love books. I still prefer to hold a physical book in my hands (and use super cute bookmarks) than read on a digital format considering I’m looking at screens so often, it’s a nice change.
Sometimes I read a book a month or three a month, depends on my mood. My favorite books are usually where I’m learning something about life or relationships or human behavior or business or money and generally fall in the personal growth category. I find they enrich my life, keep me learning and growing, help me mentally stay positive and just help guide me through this ever-changing life.
I also love biographies, spiritualism and meditation and books by Malcolm Gladwell, Paulo Coelho, Pema Chodron and Nora Ephron and also books like The Alchemist, which through storytelling share life-lessons. In fact, the first time I read The Alchemist I was 15 and have read it every few years since. It’s my favorite book in the world. If you haven’t read it, I totally recommend it.
There are a few books I’ve included (or will continue to include) that are still on my reading list, but most of the books I include here as recommendations, I’ve read myself… maybe more than once!
Books that Seriously Changed Me when I was Young… that Shaped me as an Adult
- Go Ask Alice was not only juicy and interesting because I felt like I was reading someone’s actual diary, it did a fine job of making me terrified of drugs (which I think it was technically written for, but I didn’t know when I was 13-14 years old)
- The Alchemist as I stated above, this book was a life changer for me. I read it when I was 15 and it showed me how to think about life in a way that no one in my world could have done. It shaped me. As I’ve read it over and over through the years, each time I get something new from it. The last time I read it (last year) I realized its fable has Buddhist teachings within it, which I was unaware of for so many years. It’s a game changing book. Highly suggested.
- The Celestine Prophecy I was 19 when I read this book and it too changed my life and opened my eyes to new ideas about life and human existence and human behavior… and it was at a time when I had just started questioning everything I had been taught and looking for my own beliefs in life. I read it as if it were real and it was life changing. It too, as I look back, has ties to Buddhist teachings. There’s obviously a common thread in my life 🙂
- Conversations with God I read these books around the same time, maybe early twenties, when I was looking for answers about why we are here.
- The Tao of Pooh another life-changer… read at a young age when I was looking for answers about life and how to live. I grew up catholic and honestly was questioning everything at that time. I didn’t realize until I typed all of out how much in common all of these book are, with exception of the first one. I’m sure there are more… but there are the ones that come to mind now.
Books on Meditation…
Endometriosis Books…
Beautiful Coffee Table Books…