RE: What If Everyone Reads These Three Powerful Book?
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Two books changed my life. The first one is "The Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse. The passage that I love is on page 162 of my edition. It's about empty happiness, and fulfilling unhappiness. It's a passage that very much shaped me and my understanding of happiness, that I can be sad and devastated and in bad shape and yet be happy, yet find a productive energy in that.
The second one is recent - "The Burn-Out Society" by Byung-Chol Han. I read it when I was recovering from a burn-out, and it sped up the process dramatically. His arguments, though well hidden within a lot of complicated and sometimes unnecessary sentences, are compelling and describing my generation very well, especially me. The absolute focus on self-optimization, defining myself not over material stuff, but productivity. And, of course, his argument against superficiality. That was an eye-opener, too, but a cruel one, that moment when you step out of the cave and see the sun and know that you can never go back, because you know that it was false.
Herman hesse is the author that influenced me too. I see myself a lot in The Steppenwolf which is why I always find it a bit difficult to read just because it's like seeing yourself in the mirror. My favorite is definitely Siddhattha. It's a book I always recommend others to check out.
Yes, Siddharta is the beautiful brother of the Steppenwolf. Shiny and light. Steppenwolf is the grumpy, hurting, dark part. At least I see it like that. Oh, and the "Traktat" (don't know the translation) at the beginning of the Steppenwolf doesn't make things easier, that rambling over a lot of pages. But after that, it's just a great book.