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If I Could Read Only 7 Books for The Rest of My Life, I’d Read These

Insightful, engrossing, and beautiful ones that I’ll never tire of

My love for books first began as a preschooler when my mom read to me every night before bed. I would doze off lost in my world of talking animals, glistening treasures, and thieving goblins.

Over the years, this love would only grow and I’d go on to read more than 400 books across different genres — primarily fantasy, mystery, classics, self-help, and philosophy.

Yesterday, an interesting question popped up in my mind — “If I was forced to read only a few books for the rest of my life, which ones would I choose?”, and the answer was far from easy.

What do I choose? The most insightful books, the ones that have been the most life-changing, the most educative, or the most captivating ones?

After much deliberation, I decided to include a few of each and I am certain that I’ll never tire of this well-rounded motley of books. Here they are in no particular order.

Sapiens: A Brief History Of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari

The first fifty or so pages felt boring but after that, I was hooked.

It was a long read and my first thought after completing it was, “Yuval can’t be human. Producing a piece of work like this is certainly beyond a human mind.”

Calling this book a masterpiece would be a gross understatement.

No book has widened my perspective and increased my knowledge as much as this has. I doubt any book ever will.

Starting from the time we were chimps, this book covers evolution, religion, cultures, politics, empires, wars, capitalism, technology and ends with a scary glimpse into the future.

No, not in the manner of a detail-heavy boring encyclopedia but in the manner of a compelling narration that makes you go “Wow that’s deep”, “This makes so much sense.”, “Holy cow!” every now and then. Here are a few quotes I love:

“Hierarchies serve an important function. They enable complete strangers to know how to treat one another without wasting the time and energy needed to become personally acquainted.”
“One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations.”
“Evolution has made Homo sapiens, like other social mammals, a xenophobic creature. Sapiens instinctively divide humanity into two parts, ‘we’ and ‘they’.”
“Money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.”

Aptly titled Sapiens, this book will be able to answer almost any and every question you would have ever had about our species, Homo Sapiens.

One read isn’t enough to grasp even close to what this book has to offer. I just started a second read and I’m already discovering so many new things. I bet I can read this all my life and every single read will yield something new.

1984 by George Orwell

I remember finishing this book, having my hair blown back a kilometer, and silently going to bed only to stay awake all night.

No, I am not kidding, that’s just how powerful the book is.

The dystopian world portrayed in it is so damn perfect that it’s outright scary. In this world, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.

Big Brother, the omnipotent “ruler” feared by everyone doesn’t even exist. There’s a perpetual war to maintain “peace”. The past is constantly rewritten. Every single thought is monitored. “Newspeak”, the official language curbs and seeks to eventually eliminate thinking.

And the scariest part is how possible these seemingly outlandish things are. This one book taught me more about totalitarianism, world politics, the dynamics of power, human psychology, etc. more than any class could.

Moreover, very few books have blown open my perspective as much as this one has. Here are a few quotes I love:

“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”
“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.”
“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull. ”

This book is a goldmine of powerful ideas coupled with a compelling plot that I can dig through all my life.

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

At just around 50 pages, this timeless classic is a very short yet powerful book.

With eloquent writing, beautiful analogies, and lucid ideas, James powerfully impresses upon you — the astounding power of the mind and how you can control your life by controlling your mind.

Here are a few quotes that I love:

“Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.”
“A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.”
“Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry”
“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state…Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”

This book of self-help poetry lives on my desk and whenever I am feeling low, uninspired, or negatively ruminating, it pumps me up with inspiration and conviction in the power of thought.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

Who would’ve thought that a story set in a mental health ward would be this powerful and emotionally stirring?

The kind that leaves you with a punch in the gut and in a stupor of thought.

The ever-cheerful new inmate McMurphy refuses to submit and fights against the tyrannical ever-smiling Nurse Ratched. This intense power struggle is narrated by a 7-foot tall Indian inmate who has been mentally reduced to the size of a tiny ant.

Kesey wraps the book up with what I felt was one of the most beautiful, heart wrenching yet inspiring climaxes. The kind that leaves you with a punch in the gut and in a stupor of thought.

This masterpiece of a book shook me from within and took me into the depths of the human psyche. It taught me that insanity wasn’t only not being sane enough but also being too sane.

Every sentence spoken by McMurphy is a life lesson in disguise.

Deep down, it’s an allegory of society itself. McMurphy refuses to submit to anything in life, the nurse, adversity, and fate itself. As the narrator says, “He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”

McMurphy represents the struggle to break out of societal conditioning and he isn’t only the messiah of the mental ward but of humanity itself. Every sentence spoken by McMurphy is a life lesson in disguise. Here are a few of his words of his that I loved:

“All I know is this: nobody’s very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.”

“That ain’t me, that ain’t my face. It wasn’t even me when I was trying to be that face. I wasn’t even really me them; I was just being the way I looked, the way people wanted.”

“If you don’t watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite.”

“You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself”

This is a book that will pull you in, make you read with bated breath, and punch you in the stomach with life lessons every few pages.

Insanity wasn’t only not being sane enough but also being too sane.

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday

The philosophy that has had the biggest impact on my life is undoubtedly Stoicism.

It has helped improve my self-control, reduce my anxiety, develop a better perception, and better deal with suffering.

This book, with 366 excerpts from the teachings of the Stoic masters serves as a daily reminder of what it is to be Stoic.

I like to start my day with a page or two and when I feel low, I’ll flip through a few more pages. This serves to reaffirm and help me become more mindful of my beliefs. Here are a few quotes I love:

“All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.”
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
“Control your perceptions. Direct your actions properly. Willingly accept what’s outside your control.”
“You must reclaim the ability to abstain because within it is your clarity and self-control.”
“If we can focus on making clear what parts of our day are within our control and what parts are not, we will not only be happier, we will have a distinct advantage over other people who fail to realize they are fighting an unwinnable battle.”

This book is also a great way to get started with Stoicism. With one teaching for each day of the year, implementing it every day can radically change your life in a year.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This book is just beautiful.

Not in the “Disney-princess-in-an-utopia” kind of way, but in a “brutally-honest-tragic-reality” way.

It follows the story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant.

There’s betrayal, the price of betrayal, and a beautiful struggle for redemption.

This book showed me that no matter the mistake, there’s always a chance for redemption. It’s never too late to make amends. Also, here are a few quotes that I loved:

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime…”
“There is only one sin. and that is theft… when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.”
“I’m so afraid. Because I’m so profoundly happy. Happiness like this is frightening…They only let you this happy if they’re preparing to take something from you.”

This journey of love, sacrifices, family, and friendship against the devastating backdrop of a country being torn apart by war will surely grab and wring your heart.

No matter the mistake, there’s always a chance for redemption. It’s never too late to make amends.

I’ve already read this book thrice and no matter how many times you read it, the magic and beauty of the book stay intact.

War And Peace By Leo Tolstoy

After much reluctance, I picked up this 1000+ page behemoth and it took me quite a long time to finish.

But it was worth every second spent and even more as it completely changed the way I viewed history and life.

The characters of this book have a depth that most real-life people lack.

Primarily chronicling Russia’s struggle with Napoleon in a fictional manner, this philosophy heavy book goes above and beyond — chronicling love, happiness, sacrifice, treachery, struggle, and conflict, both internal and external. To quote Goodreads, “War and Peace is an affirmation of life itself, `a complete picture’, as a contemporary reviewer put it, `of everything in which people find their happiness and greatness, their grief and humiliation”

The characters have a depth that most real-life people lack and this masterpiece will take you on a journey through time and life. All the while, hitting you in the face with profound wisdom. Here are a few quotes I love:

“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
“It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.”
“What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person. On what condition are the wills of the masses transferred to one person? On condition that the person expresses the will of the whole people. That is, power is power. That is, power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand. ”
“A man on a thousand-mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, ‘Today I’m going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.”

Thanks for reading! I hope you like these recommendations. Also, what books would you choose if you could read only 7 for the rest of your life? I would love to know.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

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To be considered ‘well-read’, one is expected to get through an endless number of books. Instead, like the Ancients, we should focus on the quality not the quantity of one’s reading. Sign up to our new newsletter and get 10% off your first online order of a book, product or class: https://bit.ly/2TMs0dT For books and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://bit.ly/3eKffJo Our website has classes, articles and products to help you lead a more fulfilled life: https://bit.ly/3pinfGw Join this channel to get access to exclusive members perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog/join FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/35fcAUV “The modern world firmly equates the intelligent person with the well-read person. Reading books, a lot of books, is the hallmark of brilliance as well as the supreme gateway to prestige and understanding. It’s hard to imagine anyone arriving at any insights of value without having worked their way through an enormous number of titles over the years. There is apparently no limit to how much we should read. We might – logically and ideally – be reading all the time and get ever cleverer with every moment we do so. The number of books we have managed to read by the day we die will tell us pretty much all we need to know about the complexity and maturity of our minds. This so-called maximalist philosophy of reading enjoys enormous cultural prestige. It is backed up by enormous publishing and journalistic industries that constantly parade new titles before us – and imply that we might be swiftly left behind and condemned to a narrow and provincial mindset if we did not rush to read four of this year’s major prize winning books as well as seven fascinating titles that have received ardent reviews in the Sunday supplements since March. As a result, our shelves are overburdened and our guilt at how far behind we are intense…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://ift.tt/299E3em Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://ift.tt/29tp8dV CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://ift.tt/2MXt37l Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://ift.tt/2Ix9eTZ by The School of Life

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