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Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

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Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#101

Post by aizatto »

I can say I've got through something similar.

A book that made me very introspective was David Brook's The Road To Character . It made me ask my self a lot of questions which I have documented here https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/55/david-brooks-humi...

Another book was Paul Kalanathi's When Breath Becomes Air I also copied some quotes, questions, and answers here https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/135/paul-kalanithis-...

I'd recommend reading biographies because they can help you give perspective about how a person leads their life. The ones I found thoroughly fun was Trevor Noah's Born a Crime, Phil Knight's Shoe Dog.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#102

Post by JasonFruit »

Majestic121 wrote: post #15

The Enchiridion of Epictetus is one of the main books of stoicism. It has really changed the way I see life and face adversity. It is very short and easy to read, despite being quite old, and contains actual down to earth wisdom about life It somehow goes quite well with the teachings of Frankl, if you replace "God" by meaning.

I modernized a public-domain translation of Epictetus and had a nice printing done for my nephew's graduation. It's an amazing book on how to live.

Marcus Aurelius's Meditations reads like the daily thoughts of someone attempting to live according to Epictetus's handbook. (Obviously, they're both Stoic works, but they make a better pairing than that alone would make you expect.)

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#104

Post by andersthue »

The most important book I have read currently is “The Anatomy of Peace” by the arbinger institute. This book teaches me how to stay out of interpersonal conflicts and become a person pthers want to be together with.

“Crucial Conversations” is another really important book that teaches how to safely deal with very hard conversations.

For my own personal development/relationship with women I must say that “No more mister nice guy” and “the way of the superior man” has both helped me.

Lastly the letting go e-book by Leo Babauta from zenhabits also is really good.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#105

Post by jkingsbery »

emodendroket wrote: post #83

If I'm being honest, I read a lot of books, but the only one I can think of really substantially changing my worldview was the Bible. Since you probably do not want to read the entire thing I am particularly a fan of Ecclesiastes, and maybe you could try some of the gospels if you still have steam after that.

A couple related suggestions: - https://www.amazon.com/Seeking-God-Way-St-Benedict/dp/081461... - If you're religious, this book is great. If you're not, I think you can still take away from it the values of balance in life, being open to life's changes, and doing daily routines with love. - https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Storey-Mountain-Thomas-Merton/d... - It's meant by the author as a sort of confessions for the 20th century. Also, Merton lived a pretty interesting life, so it's an entertaining story from that stand point.

Generally, what I've found is that most helpful introspection books say a lot about getting out of one's own head and focusing on one's relationship with others (and, for the religious, one's relationship with God).

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#106

Post by elcapitan »

jimhefferon wrote: post #39

I have learned things from some of the ones mentioned. But I also have one that is a bit different than the others here so far. In 2001 I came down with a heart condition. I was 42, had two young kids, a good job, and basically did not know what to do. Spent a lot of nights up at 2 am. I read through the Aubrey-Maturin series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series . On their face, they form an ad…

Interesting - those are the books that the "Master and Commander" movie is based on. I liked that movie, is it close to the books?

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#109

Post by chandu1504 »

The Supreme Yoga: A New Translation of the Yoga Vasistha by Swami Venkatesananda. The content is very dense. Even the author recommends reading one page per day. It helped me in bringing a very different perspective to life and reality. I highly recommend it amongst my circle.

p.s: The content has nothing to do with religion or yoga or mythology. Just go with the flow.

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