Are there any books you read when you were younger that helped you find yourself? I’m losing all motivation and honestly can’t imagine life past thirty. I need some sort of meaning, or something to fight for, or anything. Everyone seems to go through this, so is there any book that really gave you a “eureka” moment when you were younger? Any genre is fine.
by A_Big_Rat
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This is going to sound super lame, and maybe it is, but during a time I felt listless and lost and overwhelmed with my daily rut, I stumbled upon House on the Cerulean Sea. It wasn’t some life changing novel, but it made me feel good and warm and love. Kind of like a Ted Lasso hug of a book. It helped me reset my brain, and I dunno, I guess break out of my funk.
Here are some books that helped me work through some rough emotional turmoil:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Especially alongside A Whaler’s Dictionary by Dan Beachy-Quick)
Ethics and Infinity by Emmanuel Levinas
Of Silence and Song by Dan Beachy-Quick (especially if you are dealing with insecurities surrounding growing older)
Ulysses by James Joyce also helped me through lockdown while I was studying in Ireland, but I think you have to approach that book on your own terms and not as a recommendation.
My go-to is The Alchemist by Paola Coehlo. It’s a fast read and one that I return to when I’m in a rut.
The words – Risale-i nur
Moby Dick, though I was a bit older than you.
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Consider reading ‘Convenience Store Woman’ by Sayaka Murata. Also seconding Paul Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’.
Siddhartha by Herman hesse
The book of Roads and Highways 1988 , it was a roadtrip.
Self-help: Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck. Her latest, The Integrity Cleanse, is also great for this and is organized around Dante’s Inferno.
Non-fiction: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Fiction: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
I recently read Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed and it was such a book full of wisdom and motivation.
Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela’s autobiography).