I have carefully written several book lists. Each book list probably recommends dozens of books. Excluding overlapping ones, there are about eighty or ninety books. In the comments on these book lists, from time to time someone will respond: "There are too many. I can't read so many. If you only recommend one, which one would you recommend?"
This article is exactly what it should be. Born out of necessity - I would like to recommend the best books I have read in the past few years, the most useful books, and the books that give people the most pleasure in reading, to people who like reading. Those that I personally prefer, but the public may not like so much, and those that are too difficult to understand, will not be included.
This article will be recommended in the following categories: literature, Buddhism, psychology, enlightenment, history, and growth.
Strictly speaking, this is not a novel, but a set of books that tells the nearly 300-year history of the Ming Dynasty in a humorous and playful way. When I was in high school, I didn’t read many extracurricular books. Among them, "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty" is my favorite, and it is still deeply imprinted in my heart.
Even though I have a lot of experience now, looking back, I still think this set of books is very exciting. The story is very strong, effortless to read, and at the same time very profound. Moreover, reading it can greatly deepen your understanding of human nature and Chinese history.
Unfortunately, it has been almost ten years since the last "Ming Dynasty" was published. The author still didn't publish a new book even though he was in the moonlight, which made those Zhuzi-type writers famous and rampant. If anyone asks me now which author's new book I am most looking forward to, I will answer without hesitation: That Year of the Bright Moon.
Jin Yong’s masterpiece. This book is very beautiful and very touching. Books like "Sunflower Collection", "The Invincible East", etc. have become daily idioms of many Chinese people - this is a state that can only be achieved by top novels.
I once asked a friend who also likes reading: "Which book have you read more than twice?" He said: ""The Swordsman" and "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty".
"Siddhartha" tells the story of: the mental journey of a sincere seeker, which is full of ups and downs and is amazing. The author is the great German writer Hesse, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
After reading this book, I have a feeling: Buddhism and Taoist philosophy are originally connected with the highest truth in the universe.
"Siddhartha" is by far the most profound and most enlightening novel I have ever read.
According to my current observation, it seems that few people read Shakespeare anymore. Maybe it's because Shakespeare is too far away from us and too tall. On the contrary, Marquez, Borges, Calvez...oh nonono, Calvino and others are more popular.
With all due respect, compared with Shakespeare, Ma, Bo and Ka can only be regarded as small writers - this is the truth I have after carefully reading their major works. Feel. As for those writers who are currently surrounded by the market and public opinion, I don’t want to talk more.
"Shakespeare's Tragedies" is Shakespeare's masterpiece. 99% of people do not understand this truth: In fact, the greater the people and their works, the closer they are to us ordinary people. Entering the depths of Shakespeare's tragedy, you will surely find places that bring you strong excitement and great shock - this is difficult to find in the books of any other writer in the history of world literature.
"Soul Matters" is a collection of Shi Tiesheng's essays. Perhaps many people's impression of Shi Tiesheng still remains on "The Temple of Earth and Me" because it was included in middle school textbooks.
In fact, the most valuable and remarkable thing about Tiesheng is his deep thinking on many metaphysical issues.
When recommending Shi Tiesheng's books to others, I always quote the following two paragraphs of my own:
Through rigorous thinking, Shi Tiesheng entered the hinterland of wisdom. Through a pious soul, one glimpses the ultimate truth. Embracing suffering, living optimistically, and dying fearlessly - his depth of understanding of life and death is rare among people in the world today. "At the extreme point of thinking, life and death are the same." Shi Tiesheng's works are a glorious victory of human dignity.
Shi Tiesheng is quite good at metaphysical questioning and the search for ultimate answers. Through logical contemplation, he presents wise insights and clear words, which often give people profound inspiration in life. In addition to joy, people are also amazed at the great power hidden in reason and calmness.
One of the most serious mistakes a person can make while living in this world is to have a serious prejudice against Buddhism. What is lost is not Buddhism, but the opportunity for him to gain inner peace and life wisdom through Buddhism.
The book that really made me step into the door of Buddhism and made me marvel at Buddhism was Nan Huaijin's "What Does the Diamond Sutra Say". Note: The exclamation here is not a rhetorical device, but a real experience. When I read Nan Huaijin's words, "Why should clouds live? How should clouds subdue their hearts? They should live in this way, and they should subdue their hearts in this way." An incomparable wonderful realization came to me spontaneously.
"What Does the Diamond Sutra Say" is one of the best books on Buddhism. The author Nan Huaijin has reached the pinnacle of cultivation in the field of Buddhism.
The book that can best eliminate ordinary people's prejudices against Buddhism is not "What Does the Diamond Sutra Say", but "Monks and Philosophers".
This book is about a dialogue between monks and philosophers. Monk is the biological son of a philosopher—a PhD in biology in his twenties—who has received top scientific training in the West. Why did he suddenly decide to give up scientific research and choose to become a Buddhist disciple in the distant Himalayas when his future was very bright? Why do Buddhism and Buddhism have such amazing appeal? Isn’t Buddhism a superstitious and backward religion? Is this doctor of science possessed by a demon? Has his sanity gone on vacation?
"The Monk and the Philosopher" is a wonderful and unusual collision between Western rationality and Eastern wisdom, which is very profound and convincing. The most powerful thing is that it can greatly eliminate ordinary people's ignorance and huge prejudice against Buddhism.
What is the significance and benefit of eliminating ignorance and huge prejudice against Buddhism and Buddhism? Let you truly enter Buddhism - a knowledge that frees people from endless troubles and deep-rooted shadows, and a knowledge from which we can obtain peace, fulfillment and joy that echo our deepest nature. Truly entering Buddhism can give you hope of complete liberation from infinite confusion, pain and emptiness.
This book uses 40 relatively popular experimental stories to tell the 40 most famous research results in the history of Western psychology.
If, before reading this book, your understanding of people and human nature is thirty or forty points (out of 100), then after absorbing the essence of this book, your score will suddenly jump to six. Seventy points.
However, please note that it is not easy to completely digest the essence of this book, because it requires repeated reading and in-depth thinking.
Love is the meaning of life for all people. But most people's knowledge and understanding of "love" remains at a very superficial level. This is undoubtedly related to our education system.
Teachers and education departments force us to spend hundreds or thousands of hours studying ideological and political textbooks. But he didn’t give us a good talk about the art and knowledge of love. "The Art of Loving" is the masterpiece of the famous psychologist Fromm.
Looking back decades later, the lack of "love science" in today's open university courses may be as absurd as the common practice of bound feet among women hundreds of years ago.
One measure that can help us get rid of this absurdity in advance is to read the book "The Art of Loving".
Poor self-control is the root of most problems in human society. How to improve self-control? The book "Self-Control" gives very detailed, profound and scientifically based answers.
Although "Self-Control" is a best-selling book, I think it is very informative. Reading it carefully will give you a great cognitive improvement in self-control.
I have read a similar book called "Willpower", but I found "Self-Control" to be better.
"Self-Control" is one of the most useful books I have ever read.
The title of the book is a bit confusing, which is the fault of the domestic publisher and translator. The original version of the book was written in English and was called Dying To Be Me. It tells the story of a cancer patient's near-death experience and miraculous recovery.
This is a book that can fundamentally refresh people’s outlook on life and death. When I finished reading this book, I even felt ecstatic that "I will die without regrets in this life."
When I read the most exciting part of this book, I felt an unprecedented sense of wonder deep in my heart: I am so close to everyone's heart in this world. "All living beings are one" turns out to be more than a concept or a myth.
It is not without flaws, and there are indeed clichés in the book, but there is no denying that it is a wonderful and enlightening book.
Reading Krishnamurti does not have to be limited to this book. But this book, both in layout and chapter arrangement, is very in line with contemporary people's reading habits.
Who is Krishnamurti? One of the greatest spiritual teachers of the 20th century. ——Initially, when I read this introduction, to be honest, I was a little repulsed and even disgusted. But after carefully reading Krishnamurti's words, I found that he really deserves this title.
"Krishnamurti advocated that truth is purely personal realization, and people must use their own light to illuminate themselves. His lifelong teachings are designed to help people free themselves from fear and ignorance and realize The realm of compassion and bliss."
The picture below is the evaluation of this book by two Douban netizens.
If you are a member of the human race, you should read this book carefully. It allows us to know: Where do humans come from? Where will humanity go?
To be honest, I am a little surprised that this book was published. Because this book puts forward a lot of criticism of human beings as a whole, which is quite "anti-human". But it cannot be denied that what the author said is very reasonable.
What is good about this book? Three points: full of boundless kindness and love, magnificent content and vision, full of amazing thoughts and profound insights.
Reading it can greatly broaden our horizons and prompt us to have a deep understanding and reflection on ourselves.
May 27, 2017. Ke Jie's complete defeat marks that mankind has completely entered the intelligent age.
The changes in the next few decades will far exceed the imagination of most ordinary people.
How should we, who have been unknowingly coerced into the intelligent age, embrace the changes in the intelligent age? How to seize the opportunities of the intelligent era? How to deal with the challenges of the intelligent era? ——Dr. Wu Jun gave a very rational analysis and a very clear answer through this book.
Not only that, the author also profoundly discussed the close relationship between big data and machine intelligence, as well as causal thinking and strong correlation thinking - strong correlation thinking is a change in the traditional way of human thinking.
"Intelligent Age" is a book that explores the near future. Reading it is really eye-opening. Just like 20 years ago, when 99.99% of the people in the world didn't know what the Internet was, suddenly there was a far-sighted foreign expert who patiently explained everything about the Internet to you.
Did you know? In the past year or two, payment for knowledge has quietly emerged, and one of the leaders is Get app founded by Luo Pang of Luoji Thinking. The core brand of Get App is its paid columns. There are currently 25 of them, each priced at 199 yuan.
Do you know how awesome Li Xiaolai is? He not only ranked first in column sales, but also ranked first, leaving the second place far behind. In less than a year, he earned more than 15 million from this column. Even more admirable: He decided to donate all proceeds from his column. Because Li Xiaolai is the richest man in Bitcoin in China, he is not short of money at all.
This column by Li Xiaolai is called "The Road to Financial Freedom". What is financial freedom? That is, you no longer have to do things you don’t like for the money you need for life.
But "The Road to Financial Freedom" does not teach you how to make money specifically, but teaches you how to make yourself more valuable. What's even more remarkable is that Li Xiaolai did not stop at the level of "value", but went deep into the level of "personal growth" and changing the way of thinking.
Although it costs 199 yuan, after subscribing myself, I found that it was really worth it. Because such precious content cannot be found on the current book market. How do you feel after reading hundreds of articles? It's like taking more than 30 personal growth and financial freedom classes at Harvard University. With that said, this column is so cheap.
"The Road to Financial Freedom" is not just about giving you some inspiration about personal growth and financial freedom, that's it. It upgrades your entire operating system—your fundamental way of thinking. If you have a discerning eye, you will definitely realize the great value of this column.
This is not a book about time management. Li Xiaolai emphasized: Time cannot be managed, only yourself can manage it. This is a book about how to liberate the mind and how to grow as an individual. Very in-depth and very valuable.
Although Li Xiaolai is not very famous. His sincerity and thinking ability leave writers of the same type far behind.
A Douban netizen said this about "Treat Time as a Friend":
-end-