How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World
Ray Jardine recommended this in the same breath as Tom Brown, Jr., so I had to
try it. It is essentially a self-help book, but he has such a well developed,
novel way of looking at relationships and responsibility in society, that it
makes interesting reading. I think of his "philosophy" as social capitalism.
No matter how wacky you think his ideas are, I think this book will teach you
something and at very least make you reexamine your beliefs more closely.
Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist
This is Coehlo's best. It is a classic almost fairy tale of a shepherd in
southern Spain who sets off on a long wandering journey looking for his
destiny. Its message is clear: above all else you must follow your heart.
It is a beautiful, moving story.
The Fifth Mountain
This is a reworking of the biblical story of Elijah. It is very enjoyable,
with lots of morals and wholesome wisdom.
The Pilgrimage
Weird. It sure seems to be a true story of Coelho's personal experience, but a
lot of wacky stuff happens. It is a very spiritual journey with lots of
supernatural underpinnings. It is characteristically mystical and deep
writing.
Veronika Decides to Die
I think this is a true story. Veronika becomes disillusioned with life and
tries to take her life, ending up in a mental institution. The doctor treats
her more in spirit than in body and she ends up making a spectacular recovery.
In the process of Veronika rediscovering the excitement of being alive, the
reader is carried along with her and emerges the better for the journey.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience
Oof, the author's name is quite unpronounceable. However, this scientific
exploration of the concept of flow is superb and eminently applicable to
everyday life. Flow, loosely speaking, is the state of mind you are in
when you are functioning at your optimal level, when you are happiest and most
at peace. The psychologists of this field believe that it should be possible
to live your entire life in flow. Here he examines properties common to
all people in this state, what factors generally lead to it, and cites numerous
interesting experiments and statistics supporting all the claims. I used this
book as a self-help book. I won't say it was life-altering, but it was very
interesting, and I think I live a little bit better as a result.
Rene Descartes
A Discourse on Method
This includes his essay where he presents and defends his famous statement:
"I think therefore I am". I was surprised to find his logic particularly
circular and full of bullshit. Whaddaya know, who woulda guessed it?
Jostein Gaarder
Sophie's World
This is an extremely creative story that is really a school text on western
philosophy in disguise. It takes a long time for the "plot" of the story to be
anything more than just a series of letters, each giving an overview of a
different philosopher, but when Sophie's story starts to get moving, it
actually turns into a cool work of almost science-fiction, with some rather
mind-warping twists. Excellent fun.
Kahil Gibran
The Prophet
I know several people who call this the greatest book ever written. It is a
classic poem of a prophet's last teachings before leaving his people to journey
on. He speaks eloquently and wisely of everything from marriage to morality
and religion.
Eugen Herrigel
Zen and the Art of Archery
This is a fascinating story of a guy who learns the art of archery from a Zen
master in Japan. It is supposedly true, but some of the feats of the master
are simply unbelievable.
Herman Hesse
Narcissus and Goldmund
This is written in the same style as Siddhartha. It is about two
friends; one is an inspired romantic artist who leads a bohemian existence; the
other is a respectable industrious man who ends up head of the monastery the
friends met in. It is their stories and tells how each evolves spiritually.
The exquisite plot and the two vivid characters are as good as it gets. Again,
this is very "eastern" in nature; apparently Hesse tells of his own personal
spiritual crisis in all of his books, looking at it from different points of
view each time.
Siddhartha
Hesse writes very dryly, seemingly merely reporting all the events of the main
character's life. But what emerges is a beautiful moving portrait of one man's
religious evolution, from faith to disillusionment and despair through crisis
to eventual enlightenment. There are obvious strong influences from eastern
philosophies.
Franz Kafka
Metamorphosis
Wow, what a bizarre acid-trip! Depressing beyond words and even weirder than
it sounds, this is a classic everyone should subject themselves to at least
once. The "protagonist" finds himself transformed into a cockroach and tells
of how he tries to hide this fact from his family. Way too deep for me.
Krishnamurti
(some lecture series)
Krishnamurti is a deeply religious spiritual man who doesn't really belong to
any of the eastern religions as far as I can tell. This lecture series takes
place in Switzerland. He teaches the precepts common to all eastern
religions. He talks of the equivalence of truth, beauty, and love, the
importance of faith, the oneness of the universe, and so on. He is a very
wise and carefully-spoken man.
C. S. Lewis
In Search of Joy (autobiography)
Lewis writes superbly and candidly of his religious development. Unknown to
most, Lewis experienced a deep crisis of faith early in his life. He explores
this in depth in this book and shows how his quest for "joy" (he gives a very
explicit technical description of what he means by "joy") transformed into a
quest for faith and ultimately Christianity. It is an extremely interesting
and deep work. Unfortunately I am not familiar enough with classic western
philosophy to follow a lot of it around the critical period of his crisis of
faith.
Mere Christianity
Lewis attempts to "prove" Christianity. It works if you "want" to be a
Christian, but of course the logic has to be a little bit circular at some
point, because Christianity is by very nature unprovable. It is certainly
worth reading as much as you can stomach, even if you are violently
anti-Christian. It is a superb attempt to prove a religion's validity,
and he makes you think deep and hard about your own beliefs and examine the
role of any good religion, in the process.
Screwtape Letters
You know, I don't remember what this was about, but I distinctly remember that
I really liked it.
Adeline Mah
Falling Leaves
This is the heartbreaking autobiography of an unwanted Chinese daughter. It
gives a good view of China before, during, and after the Cultural Revolution,
and a good view of traditional Chinese culture.
Watching the Tree
This is a general treatment of how traditional Chinese culture differs from
Western culture. It really is a just discussion of Chinese culture aimed at a
Western audience. Interesting and thoughtful.
Robert Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
I only vaguely remember this story. The main character wanders about the west
on his motorcycle, slowly going insane, if I remember right. It is very deep
and introspective and a little disturbing. It was very interesting, although
I don't remember it having much to do with Zen.
Daniel Quinn
Ishmael
This is told as a series of conversations with a gorilla. Yes, a gorilla.
Ishmael expounds with painful slowness and deliberateness on all the reasons
why modern society is doomed to self-destruction, possibly dooming the entire
earth in the process. It sounds like typical wacko eco-terrorist propaganda.
It isn't. It is a rather fresh viewpoint on the matter. It'll probably make
you think deep and hard about some things you'd never really thought about
before. Some people resonated with it a bit better than I did, but it was
still an interesting experience.
Ayn Rand
Artistic Manifesto
If you thought Ayn Rand's economic and political philosophies were weird, wait
till you see how she extrapolated them to art!
Atlas Shrugged
What a long-winded story! This is the ultimate statement of Rand's philosophy
of objectivism. Rand has more faith in capitalism and personal freedom than
anyone else I've ever read or met. It would probably be impossible to read
this monstrous book if you are a socialist at heart, but I would recommend it
to everyone anyway because it is such a superb statement of her radical
beliefs. I thought it had a good plot with deep characters and well-written
prose, although others strongly disagree.
Bertrand Russell
Problems of Philosophy
I find Bertrand Russell's writings to be highly enjoyable in all cases. This
particular book lists several of the most important "problems" in philosophy
and goes into detail describing their background and what the contemporary
thoughts were when he wrote the book. As someone who prefers to read about the
questions and come to my own conclusions, instead of reading someone
else preaching about them, this book was perfect for me.
Jean Paul Sartre
The Words (autobiography)
This is rather interesting, although it doesn't really go into his philosophy
or explain how he led up to it; it is better for presenting a snapshot of life
in Paris during his childhood.
Neale Walsch
Conversations with God
I gave this to a born-again aunt one time; she didn't make it two pages before
throwing it down in disgust. Hmmm. Well, as a non-Christian who has "issues"
with a lot of petty squabbles and neuroses of The Church, I thought this was a
brilliant attempt to present "mere" Christianity without reference to
denomination or strict fanatic devotion to the Bible.
Alan Watts
In My Own Way (autobiography)
I like Alan Watts's writing and speaking style immensely. His autobiography is
very introspective and deep, including lots of material on the equivalence of
eastern and western religions and other spiritual matters. His books are all
extremely engrossing and enjoyable to read. Watts has a distinctly eastern
bent when it comes to religion, so it is very interesting to read of his
experience as an ordained Christian priest! (I forget which denomination -- I
can hardly tell 'em all apart, anyway!) He is an unabashed irreverent mystic.
It is also worth checking out tapes or rebroadcasts of his radio programs and
lectures; he has an incredible presence while speaking.