Books That Shaped My Life

I sorted this list in the sequence that I read these books (and what my age was when I read each one).

Every year I end up reading a book that shapes my life for that particular pocket of time. I am highly selective with which books I read, and go off mostly a feeling-based intelligence, instead of some sort of list of recommendations.

You will not absorb much of the wisdom that each book contains if you read them as fast as you’d read other books (minus The Alchemist). I usually take 2-4 months to read books of this variety.

1. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki (30-present)
2. Letters from a Stoic by Seneca (29-present)
3. The Book of Life by Jiddhu Krishnamurti (29-present)
4. David Whyte Essentials by David Whyte (28-present)
5. Freedom from the Known by Jiddhu Krishnamurti (29)
6. The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts (27)
7. Loving What Is by Byron Katie (26)
8. Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche (26)
9. Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach (26)
10. Awareness by Anthony de Mello (25)
11. When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön (25)
12. A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (24)
13. Entering the Stream (22-24)
14. Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman (23)
15. Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh (23)
16. Waking Up by Sam Harris (23)
17. The Moral Letters to Lucilius by Seneca (22)
18. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (20)