Plenty of books have blurbs on the back cover calling them “life-changing.” But have you ever read a book that’s literally changed the course of your life?
Last year, I wrote an essay called Read Literature, Not Self-Help, about why fiction, biography, and other genres can actually be more transformative than self-help books. Today I’m going to share five books that actually changed my life when I read them—shifted my perspective, put me on a totally different trajectory, and permanently changed the way I think about my life and the world. Here we go:
Siddhartha: When I was sixteen, I was depressed. I hated school, struggled with social relationships, and wore a lot of black. Reading Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha in my sophomore English class opened my eyes to the possibility that there was something more to existence than I had seen before. Siddhartha is a novel about a young man living in ancient India, in the time of the Buddha. He goes through various stages in his life—student, lover, employee, wanderer, philosopher—learning different lessons in each before finally arriving at his own truth. Siddhartha gave me hope that I, too, could grow and change, and also awakened my interest in Eastern philosophy.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: James Joyce’s semi-autobiographical first novel portrays the inner life of a sensitive young man, Stephen Daedalus, in lush sensory and psychological detail. Reading this novel was my first inkling that—maybe—I could be a writer. I identified with the protagonist, Stephen, and by the end of the novel thought perhaps I, too, could turn my inner experiences into writing something of value.
Be Here Now and It’s Here Now (Are You?): Be Here Now is an acid trip in book form, and I mean that in the best possible way. Published in 1971, this book describes former Harvard psychology professor Richard Alpert’s journey to India to meet his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, and become the beloved spiritual teacher Ram Dass. This book introduced millions of people to meditation and Eastern philosophy. I read it when I was 18, and it made a deep impression on me. While I’d already been studying Eastern thought for a couple of years, this was the book that fanned the flames of my nascent interest in the spiritual path into a burning passion.
One of the characters in Be Here Now is the Californian hippy-turned-yogi Bhagavan Das, the guide who introduced Alpert to his guru. But few fans of Ram Dass know that Bhagavan Das later published his own, equally illuminating spiritual memoir, humorously titled It’s Here Now (Are You?). Unlike Ram Dass, who traveled to India as a distinguished (albeit recently fired) Harvard professor, Bhagavan Das made the journey as an 18-year-old kid. His extraordinary (and sometimes harrowing) story is what inspired me to go to India myself, when I was 20. Pair this book with Bhagavan Das’s album Now, produced by Mike D. of the Beastie Boys, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of my state of consciousness as a 19-year-old.
Letters to a Young Poet: I found a battered, used copy of this book on the “leave one, take one” shelf in a run-down guesthouse in Darjeeling. I’d never heard of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke or this book, but as one of those young people who carried a notebook full of poetry with me at all times, I knew it was for me. Originally written as a series of letters to 19-year-old poet Franz Xaver Kappus, it’s the closest thing to a self-help book on this list. But Rilke’s advice isn’t about self-improvement: it’s about what it really takes to lead the life of a creative person. I read Rilke in Darjeeling and Calcutta that winter, as I sat in cafes, drinking endless cups of chai and writing pages and pages of notes in my journal. Rilke’s advice to “go into yourself” shaped my journaling practice and my path as a writer for years to come.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections: Carl Jung’s autobiography is the story of a man who let his dreams and inner visions guide his path in life in a way that few modern people have done. Jung traveled the world, corresponded with some of the greatest minds of his time, and plumbed the depths of his own unconscious. This book, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, tells his story in his own words. As I mentioned in my essay Why I Became a Psychotherapist, I read this book for my Religion & Psychology class in college. It sparked the interest in Jungian psychology that would eventually lead me to grad school and my career.
Looking back on this list, I can see that there’s a clear bias toward books I read when I was younger. In fact, I read all of these books in a five year period, between the ages of 16 and 21. Perhaps the books I read during this formative period of my life have had the deepest and longest-lasting impact on me. And perhaps I’ll have to write another post at some point in the future, to share the books that have influenced me most as an adult.
Have you read any of the books on this list? What books have had the deepest impact on your life? Leave a comment below to let me know—I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Be Here Now literally fell off the shelf at my feet in a used bookstore in the small town where I was going to university. I had no idea what I was buying, but I took the hint from the universe. Literally life-changing, as you say.
I'm going to give you a book that you might like Chris. It's called "How do you live" by Genzaburo Yoshino.
It is a Japanese classic—a piece of fiction, and one of the books that has changed my life.