August 2022.
Half, a little more than half of the year is gone by now.
How are your New Year’s Eve goals going? Heheh
Going to the gym as you promised?
Eating healthier?
Talking to that one relative you promised yourself you’d talk to at least once a week or month?
Anyway… whatever your goal was for your ‘new self’ in January 2022, just reminding you than those goals are something you consciously, I hope, promised yourself to accomplish.
So just do it.
It’s a promise you made to yourself, and letting yourself down is just not fair play with yourself.
This is not the main point to this post, but to the ones’ whose purpose was maybe reading more this year or start to read,
Here are some of the BEST books I’ve read so far this year and why I consider them to be so good!
Just some context before;
I must admit, I have always grown up surrounded by books.
Everywhere I went, either my mom had a book ‘while she waited for me so she didn’t get bored’, my dad doesn’t miss out on having books EVER, my step-sister is a writer, and I have always been taught that knowing about history, culture, art, music, and overall what has happened and what is happening in the world, is something that is essential to being a ‘tolerable’ human being.
Being dumb and ignorant has never been an option.
And I can now say I’m glad cause damn… I couldn’t bear, with the current of myself, to be ignorant towards the world.
We do not lack ignorant people here on Earth, and even more now, so yeah…
I’ve always liked the idea of reading and immersing myself in a good book.
Although, for a long time, I was very lazy about it.
I mean, I don’t know if this happens to everyone, but it is just one of those things that you like and you know you enjoy and does you well, but you are just lazy about it and don’t do it.
This year, since I moved out of my home country, for some reason, I have started to read more than I ever remember to before.
Maybe it’s because of the fact I’m growing and evolving more and in different forms I ever did before… but still… I’ve gotten to be less ‘lazy’ about it, and actually seeking it in my day to day.
I would say it has been one of the best decisions I could take on myself for different reasons.
That’s another topic anyway, and I have a post *here* about it, just in case you’re curious heheh.
This can also be useful for any of you whoa re just looking for something new to read, finished your stashed book que, simply want to go to a bookstore and look for something, whatever you’d like to do with this information, it’s up to you!
Just for the record, most of the books I read are non-fiction, philosophical -ish, psychological, informative, and thought-provoking…
I don’t really do a lot of fantasy or romance or comedy… although I do include some which include these topics too 🙂
This is a website for you, and you can do whatever you like with the things I post hehehe.
I’ll stop my gibberish and tell you my absolute best reads so far and why.
(Many of the books I mention here, are also in the *Recommendations* section)
12 books, including MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE BOOK EVER!
- Before anything, I updated the ‘Recommendations‘ tab 😉 and all of the books are there!!!
List:
- 101 essays that will change the way you think
- La magia del silencio
- Brief Answers to Big Questions
- They Both Die in the End
- When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People
- El Mundo de Sofía
- The Power of Now
- Karma
- The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fuck
- Lost Connections
- Estaré Sola y Sin Fiesta
- Ensayo Sobre La Ceguera
*hehehe this is a long post, so in any case do F4 or commandF and look for the title that calls you 😉
- 101 essay that will change the way you think
Author: Briana Weis
Genre: Personal Development
I remember when I read this, it was a year ago, or almost two.
What I love about this book is, first of all, it changes the way you think about certain topics in life or situations you go through while starting to hit your 20s, mostly, but it can also be for any age gap I’d say… you’d just have a different perspective over it, which makes it just as interesting!
Second of all, Briana Weiss has this form/style of writing about the topics that just make it so humane, relatable, and overall they open up the eyes of the reader to say ‘Oh yeah… that is completely true! And I never thought about this in that way!’.
Third, this book heals. I promise it has some magic to it. And three quarters, we can say, hehehe, it is a. Book you can just grab again in any point of your life and it feels like a big sister’s advice.
You are stressed about – whatever -, look for the chapter title that relates to your situation and it clears your mind a bit about it, and by the end of the chapter you say, ‘she’s right’.
I don’t know… I find it as such a comfort book. It feels like a hug really when you read back on it.
The first time you read it your eyes and mind just wide and you are in a constant state of ‘wow’.
- La magia del silencio
Author: Kankyo Tannier
Genre: Spirituality
I think this might have been one of the first ’spiritual’ books I read – ‘cause if you haven’t noticed in previous posts, I’m what most people would describe as a spiritual geek/seeker – and it is just a very nice book to read.
It’s written by a monk, who doesn’t consider herself to be a monk, read it up to figure out what she means by this ;), and she essentially talks about the magic in silence, her journey with this element of life, and the importance of having it and practicing it in our everyday life.
I never thought someone could write an entire book on silence, but there is really a lot to say about silence and the types of silences that exist!
There is not the I don’t speak and stay in a quiet place, type of silence.
It is very interesting and it invites people to incorporate this practice into their day to day.
I have become with time more aware of the power of this practice and it really has brought a lot of positive attributes to my life.
Overall, I think it makes us appreciate and contemplate life more, as well as become more present, observational, attentive, and eventually I’ve found myself to become more reflective and grateful in this state. 🙂
- I don’t think it’s in English, unfortunately :(, but if you look for it and find it – take a chance on it!
Brief Answers to Big Questions
Author: Stephen Hawking
Genre: Non-fiction and like… universe, physics, and answers to human questions (heheh idk he was a genius ! This is part of his legacy)
This is a book that basically blew my mind all the time and just rolled and folded my brain up in so many different forms.
He basically provides some answers on some questions that have haunted humans forever, basically.
Questions such as: ‘Does God exist?’, ‘what is inside a Black Hole?’, ‘How did it all start?’, and questions of these sort which we might never get to really know the actual answer because we are part of all of those questions so we can not know the REAL and TRUTHFUL answer to these questions, ever… at least as the mortals we are… but he provides his answers to these questions and hypothesis to them with scientific basis and don’t be thinking that it’s a book that is hard to understand, because he was actually a pretty funny guy who managed to answer these questions in a simple form for everyone to understand, and even make it funny from time to time!!
I found it overall mind blowing and I loved getting some answers to those questions with ‘evidence’ or ‘scientific’ basis.
And if you think about it, it basically is a piece of the thoughts, investigations, teaching, and a piece of his mind! Left for us! As one fo the most intelectual people from the XXI century men!
I find this fricking amazing and absolutely interesting to dive like this into a piece of discover and thinking of such an individual.
They Both Die in the End
Author: Adam Silvera
Genre: Fiction/Romance/YA Novel/(low-key part of #booktok)
Ok, I mentioned how I don’t really read fiction, but hey, I gave this one a try and it was just a (sorry) FUCKING EMOTIONAL ROLLOVER.
MEN WHAT THE HECK!
The idea of the book is pretty interesting because it is a book about ONLY ONE DAY of life in the life of two teens which meet online.
It’s actually their last day on earth. (TW!)
*This book, I must admit talks about a lot of delicate subjects, including suicide, death, teen pregnancy, and more…
And no, I didn’t spoil anything to you with this because, as the title says, ‘they both die in the end’.
You know the ending.
BUT THE STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE STORY MEN
It captures you and you get to be so involved in the character’s thoughts, emotions, and everything that goes on in this day is just… magical, sad, happy, exciting, frustrating, confusing, everything at once…
I would definitely recommend it if you feel like smashing your entire feelings against a wall of concrete, watch them break, tear you down, and wish you could read it all over for the first time again.
And also, again, be aware it talks about a lot of sensitive topics!
When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How can philosophy save us from ourselves
Authors: Steven Nadler, and Lawrence Shapiro
Genre: Non-fiction, philosophy
This book I think was, first of all, one of the books that helped me the most in my first year of university.
But overall, I don’t think it is a necessarily ‘entertaining’ book, but it a very important book to read.
Don’t get me wrong, it is very interesting, but you will not be just laughing and having an amazing time reading it (you know what I mean, I hope)…
It talks about how in the world, currently (it’s actually a pretty actual book because it talks about COVID-19 and everything) we have so many problems because we do not know what to believe and where to find information which isn’t b*llsh*t.
Talks about how even the most educated people can be leading incorrectly because they do not know and/or understand where they are getting their information from, and believe whatever they find first.
It’s written by two college professors in the philosophy field from Princeton University.
Again, it may sound boring, but you guys have no idea how much it made me understand how not everything you see everywhere is true, and how many people have foolish arguments to stupid decisions.
Very smart and important book to read, I’d say.
I think that if most people read this book, we would have so many less problems, and people would stop being so ignorant and believing everything they listen/read first in any source.
El Mundo de Sofia / Sophie’s World
Autor: Jostein Gaarder
Genre: Novel, philosophy, history
THIS BOOK! Oh my. I just recently finished it and let me tell you ITS SUCH A GOOD BOOK!
A friend gave it to me, and I’m very happy he did because damn…
It’s basically a story on how a philosophy teacher, explains the history of philosophy to a 15 year old girl.
So he explains the entire history in a very simple way to understand, and the story the book has be the hand of the philosophy is just so beautiful.
I would describe this as such a sweet book. It’s so sweet!
You fall in love with the characters’ personality, you laugh, you cry a little (I did lol), and you learn about the entire history of philosophy all the way from Socrates, Platon, Aristoteles, to Darwin, Freud, Nitzsche and more…
I didn’t want it to end :’)
But all things come to an end eventually.
No more words for this one.
Just a very good book, which teaches how to think, have a wider perspective over things in life, and a beautiful story besides it.
*shoutout to the person who gave me this book lol
The Power of Now
Author: Echkart Tollee
Genre: Spirituality but intense intense!
GEEEEEZZZZZ THIS BOOK MEN. THIS BOOK.
I don’t know where to start explaining this book to be honest… I would say it lead me to a spiritual awakening to some BIG extent.
Damn, this book I remember I read it a year ago, almost, and ever since, I have been living differently or at least with a different perspective over myself, my relationships, the abstractness of life, my spiritual position in this world, and just the idea on how we live in the past or the future but the mind – with our help – makes it so difficult, when unaware, to be present and what really is present.
What is the now?
What lives and what doesn’t in the now?
Why should we care about the now?
Just… talks about the power of now – legit.
It’s like a big slap in your face, but a bigger one in your life over the perspective you have on it.
Like, one day you feel you know and understand everything perfectly, and then you read this book and get f**ked over.
Decide you actually don’t know anything, and reconstruct your fricking mindset and reality lol.
But after that you’ll be ok heheh don’t worry.
Hold a lot of wise teachings.
Little scared book for me.
Made me realize a lot about how I view life… in general.
Whoever is seeking to become enlightened, read this!
Karma
Author: Sadhguru
Genre: Spirituality
This is a book I recently finished as well, and oh boy.
It basically talks about what karma really is and not what we tend to think it is.
It’s not ‘I give good, and get good. I do bad, I get bad.’
It goes way beyond that and it has a greater and deeper meaning than what we are taught.
It’s not black and white. Dog or cat. Yes and no. Good or bad.
These are all things our brain does to ‘understand’ it because we have to create categories for things, as human beings in order to remain sane and not have a mess.
Like a computer, basically.
But karma, in short, is your action, your responsibility, and everything you have accumulated throughout lives you may not even be aware you have lived in this existential plane or even dimension.
It just felt like it opened my third eye, lol, for real! Heheh
Sadhguru makes all of this information digestible and honestly just tells you how everything you want to achieve, get, and do in life is in your hands, as well as everything that has happened before for you.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck.
Honestly this book is exactly what it talks about. How to not give a F*ck about things that honestly we, as humans, tend to put a lot of weight on. It’s non sense. I don’t feel like I can say much abut this, because you have to read it to understand what I mena, but it honestly is that. Stop giving so much of a F*ck about nonsense things, and everything solves itself out. Besides, the author is even funny in some parts.A very humanistic and real author. We love that!
Lost Connections
Author: Johann Hari
Genre: Non-fiction, report (?)
I’m just going to say this briefly, this book saved me when in my darkest hole. It is a very intersting report about how we have never been taught anything proper about mental health. How doctors and articles all over the internet and everywhere has always said that the problems in our mental health are always because we are the problem, and that is just not the case. The author created a super wide investigation and talked with lots of scientists and the book is just very interesting, and, I repeat, it really helped me a lot when I needed it. He also mentions how the ‘anti.depressants’ (I think that’s how you write it.. anyway) are just a cover up to these problems, and they just help the industry grow by not really solving your problem. Anxiety and depression are two illnesses which are vastly connected and they all come from disconnections from our environment in different forms. Will always recommend this!
Estaré Sola y Sin Fiesta
Author: Sara
Genre: Novel – romatic-ish, philosophical-ish
I ate up this book completely. I loved it! Its a novel from a woman from Spain, where she finds a diary in a garbage dump, starts reading the diary, and finds out it belongs, or belonged ;), to a woman who was longing for a man for a long time. Its like if the guy just left her and somehow disappeared. She writes on how she is hurt and wishes for him to just reach out to her. The lady, who found the diary, gives herself the mission to solve this mystery and find the disappeared guy. I love it for the way the author wrote the story. She has a master degree in philosophy, so it’s like a romance, with philosophy, drama, mystery, and it just makes you not be able to stop reading it. I think I finished it in a matter of days. Love it! Would definitely re-read (and I usually don’t).
Ensayo Sobre La Ceguera (Blindness)
Author: José Saramago <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3
Genre: Novel
THIS FUCKING BOOK RIGHT HERE. THIS ONE, IS JUST MY MERE FAVORITE BOOK EVER AND I WOULD JUST TELL ANYONE TO FRICKING READ IT BECAUSE JOSÉ SARAMAGO KNEWS WHAT HE WAS DOING! Best for the end. Jose Saramago was a Portuguese writer, and he is my favorite of all time. His entire portafolio received the Nobel Price in Literature in 1998. He is the shit. Honestly. AND HE IS JUST A FRICKING GENIUS. I’ll stop, sorry… but for real… this book is just amazing!!!!!!
Must admit!!!! It is a book which touches a lot of delicate topics (rape, death, loss of humanity, etc).
It is a book which basically talks about what would happen to society if we got a blindness pandemic. And not a regular blindness, but a white blindness… everything humanity would turn itself into and how surviving without one sense, sight, would make humanity start acting like. Its just amazing. The thing is… the way he writes and talks about the story… the way he narrates, the characters, the scenes, everything is absolute art!
*Surprise*
I also recently finished one of his other books called, ‘The Double’, and I’m just going to say few this about it because THIS BOOK IS A FRICKING PIECE OF ART AS WELL!!!!!!
- What would you do if you would find out that there is AN EXACT COPY OF YOU IN YOUR CITY AND YOU HAVE NO RELATION BLOOD WISE…?
- You get to the end, and simply say ‘geez… I wasn’t expecting this…’, AND THE YOU GET TO THE END AND YOU SAY WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED.
- I couldn’t read anything after finishing his books because I always need to process everything that just happened.
Shout out to Saramago… we love him in this blog <3
ANNNNNYYYYWAYY
I hope you enjoyed this post and hopefully feel like buying something new to read this second half of the year, learn something new, and if you do, please send me your opinion on the book you chose!
Would love to talk about all of your thoughts on any of these!
And if you have read any of these, also let me know what you think! 🙂
Recommend them to a friend, or give them as a present!
Recommend me new books or readings down in the comments 🙂
Geez if you can all the way here, I honestly love you.
Sending you love and light always <3
Milena.
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