I know this is very generic. However, recently I've come to want to read something that will make me push my limits as to what i know.
I'm tired of all the generic books that people suggest. Think and grow rich, the art of war, how to make friends and influence people etc.
I find these books very annoying. People seem to worship these books. I don't get the hype. I've read them all. Most of them are 200 pages long with the same message. That could be summarized in less than 20 pages. Edgy at best.
Enough with my rant, if you could please name me one book or textbook that you've come upon and read. That has taught you a lot. I need it. Let me know.
Tldr: One book or textbook that has made you smarter (nothing that tries to make up random unrealistic social scenarios. Edgy ahh, "I can read everyone's mind" bs.)
by Softy_981
5 Comments
Following…. For same reasons.
*The Bighead* by Edward Lee
Learned a lot about the ocean, its critters, and how important that ecosystem is to our survival from Shark by Paul De Gelder and The Blue Wonder by Frauke Bagusche
Learned about the history of treating mental health from A Cure for Darkness by Alex Riley
What About Men? by Caitlin Moran is a great feminism book that explores why some men are so resistant even tho they could really benefit from feminist concepts
Those mostly sound like self-help books. Are you looking for self-help books that will challenge you more, challenging novels, nonfiction, or academic books?
I don’t read self-help books because I usually find them to be gimmicky, but I did read Ordinary Goodness by Edward Vijoen several years ago and I think about it a lot. He is a New Age minister, so he does include some religious references but they are from several major religions and the book is not preachy. The book is not meant to make you feel good about yourself, and it is not a pep talk. It helped me slow down and be intentional about noticing others. I was surprised by how much kindness I actually saw when I was actively looking for it. I was also surprised at how noticing kindness helped me with little acts of kindness and goodness in situations where I may not usually think about offering kindness or even in situations where I may not want to. He also talks about a time when he did not help someone even though they knew helping was the right thing to do. He listened to other bystanders who told him it would be safer for himself not to intervene instead of acting on his instinct to help. He talks about how that still affects him and how he remembers that person and how he deals with his guilt. This made me think about times when I had seen others who needed help for various reasons and did not help even though I thought, “I should help them.” I felt like the book really made me examine my actions and how I treat others and myself.
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein and The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby are good.
Not really challenging, but I also learned a lot from Nomadland by Jessica Bruder. All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell is also good and you learn a lot of cool stuff about the death industry.
If you like memoirs, Let it Bang by RJ Young includes research and data. Fox and I by Catherine Raven wasn’t really challenging, but she is a biologist and I liked how she described things in a way I understood. There is a lot of attention to nature.
If this is not what you’re looking for, maybe some academic or theoretical texts on philosophy, religion, history, rhetoric, sociology, gender and queer theory, critical race theory, etc. Or books in STEM fields.
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 is a very tremendous read. I wasn’t quite expecting it to make the NYT’s top books of the century, though.