You all have one book. Or three. What’s yours?

It’s that special book that influenced your life. Not just a good read, or even a favorite read. A book that helped to make you who you are, in a good way—a way that inspires you to buy used copies of it wherever you find ’em (cough: boycott Amazon) and gift them to folks you care about, in your life, for the rest of your life.

For me it’s Gift from the Sea, or Pema Chodron (anything by her). And here’s 143 other ideas.

What’s yours? Comment with your recommendation.

For all comments, and replies, go to the thread:

I asked, “What’s that book you buy extra copies of whenever you see it in a used bookstore to give to others?” Here’s the 143 comments (and counting).

We all have a book, or two, or three, but not too many, that we’d buy for every woman, child, man we know. So we buy it, again and again, for that loved one or colleague down the line.

~

Ellen
The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. The China Study examines the link between the consumption of animal products (including dairy) and chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and bowel cancer.

Waylon Lewis
Ellen I remember Jeanne you reading this!

Caitlin McColl
The 5 Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, by Frank Ostaseski

Ella
Caitlin McColl I love Frank. This is a wonderful book.

Rainbow
I have like 8 copies of timely Rain

Waylon Lewis
Rainbow, aw good one

Andrew
Cats Cradle

Kelly Chausovsky
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse

Waylon Lewis
Kelly never heard of it!

Kelly
Waylon Lewis It makes me teary every time. A perfect gift for kids, grads, friends going through hard times, etc.

Caitlin McColl
Waylon Lewis omg you need to go look up Charlie Mackesy right now!!! His book is AMAZING

Monica
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

Chris
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindburgh. I give a copy to every mother I know.

Waylon Lewis
Chris Yesss!

Waylon Lewis
Just wrote that one below

Waylon Lewis
Gift from the Sea
https://www.elephantjournal.com/…/quote-of-the-day…/
QotD: Anne Morrow Lindbergh on the mindful life. | elephant journal
ELEPHANTJOURNAL.COM

Waylon Lewis
Pema Chodron–any book by her

Hollie
Waylon Lewis same, especially When Things Fall Apart

Victoria
Waylon Lewis yep

Amy
Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth

Elise
A year of wonders by Geraldine brooks

Renée
*A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle
*Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield

Jeff
Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaimon.

Shelley
-The Four Agreements
-Meditations from the Mat

Roni
Radical acceptance

Jennifer
Naïve. Super by Erlend Loe

Dani
Soulcraft
Maiden voyage

Katarina
The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

Britton
Anything Trungpa. The War of Art. Think and Grow Rich. The Four Agreements. And Things I Would Like to Do with You.

Kathleen
The Time Travelers Wife

Noelle
Tuesdays With Morrie

Vinita Malik
Bird by Bird and Fountainhead

Vinita
Siddhartha

Kelly
Dating Greatly or You Can Heal Your Life

Kitty
Pema or Thich Nhat Hanh

Todd
The Prophet

Gary
A Room of One’s Own

Mikayla
Tuesdays with Morrie

Rachel
“Les forces de la vie” by Martin Gray (translate to “the strengths of life”)

Steven
The Myth of Continents by Lewis and Wigen, and Imagined Communites by Benedict Anderson.

Laura
The Knowing Body; Wherever You Go, There You Are

Melissa
Adult Children of alcoholics.

Christian
The Alchemist

William
Anything with my name in the acknowledgments. It’s happened!

Mark
The Best!
May be an image of text

Yashoda
A Goddess Among Us
The Alchemist

Jesse
Hakaguri way of the samurai. Or the Book of Five Rings.

Susan
The Gift of Fear, by Gavin De Becker

Sarah
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. It’s snort-your-juice funny

J.D.
The Velveteen Rabbit

Sarah
Cutting for Stone and Molokai.

Abbey
How Not to Die by Michael Greger

Ingrid
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky

Sara
I am her tribe. Beautiful poetry ❤️

Ava
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Edie
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Ella
It used to be always be a book by Pema, but recently is The Gift by Dr. Edith Eger https://dreditheger.com/the-gift-2/

Ella
Also- Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke is a favorite to give young graduates.

Brian
It would be “Gesture of Awareness” if I ever saw it in a used bookstore.

Laura
The monk of mokha

Angie
The Celestine Prophecy

Mary
The Four Agreements

Allyson
When things fall apart.

Rebecca
When the Chocolate Runs Out by Lama Zopa
Also, The Prophet by Kahil Gibran

Billy Manas
The Easy Way To Quit Smoking —Allan Carr. Many people have finally quit after they read it.

Jessie K
The Princess Bride

Stephanie M
Anam Cara by John O’Donohue

Fionna
Spell of the Sensuous

Gillian Cranehahn
Marian Wright Edelmen, “The Measure of Our Success”. Sidney Poitier, “The Measureof a Man”…”Night” by Elie Weisel… Daniel Hughes, “Building the Bonds of Attachment”…somany!

Damien Ruud
Jitterbug Perfume

Alyssa McGarry
Little Women

Kathy Bolte
Siddhartha. I’ve given it to each of my kids and grandkjds when they turn 15. Such a great coming of age read.

Connie Chaudhry
Illusions – Richard Bach

Paul
Connie, that’s a good one!

David
Smile at Fear by Chõgyam Trungpa

Donna
How to Survive the Loss of a Love

Waylon Lewis
Small Giants

Kevin
Good Chemistry by Julie Holland

Leah
Love Without Conditions by Paul Ferrini
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Elizabeth
Elements of Style; The Lottery; Night (I have 4 copies right now); The Thurber Carnival; Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.

Waylon ooh, good ones! Elements is a must-read classic for anyone who cares about writing.

Elizabeth
A beloved old professor of mine prescribed it to all of her students. Whilst shaking her cane in the air, she’d command, “Sleep with it under your pillow every night!”

Linda Lewis
Elizabeth Sara Love that! I used “Elements” when I taught two levels of Writing Skills and Autobiog. at Naropa University (decades ago) and more recently, (only a decade ago) at NSCC in Halifax.

Hollie
jonathan livingston seagull

Linda Lewis
Again, AWWwww.

Jackie
Four Agreements and The Power of Now

Redmond Jeanie
Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav

Dylan
Illusions, Tao of Pooh, letters to a young poet

Linda Lewis
Tao of Pooh!

Becca
Catcher in the Rye and Brave New World

Shanly:
Shambhala: Path of the Warrior; Wisdom of No Escape; Gifts from the Sea; Denise Levertov: Eyes in the Back of your head; Waking the Tiger: The Waves by Virginia Wolf
Waylon: yes, yes, yes! Some good new ones to me here, too.

Mari
“The Gold Cell,” Sharon Olds

Timothy
A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe.

Danilo L
Power of Now
But I only gift it in e-book or audiobook.
I enjoy planting seeds of more sustainable reading to my loved ones.

Timothy
https://www.betterworldbooks.com/…/The-Hundred-Year-Old…

Fionna
Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka. A magical book.

Darina
Best of Rumi

Robert
Birth and Death of Meaning

Louise
Birthing from within

David
Fervent and Full of Gifts, the Life of Althea Warren. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/618981 I am enjoying getting to know this amazing woman. Though our lives overlapped for but five years her influence on my life was profound – through her relationship with my mother, her niece.
Fervent and Full of Gifts: The Life of Althea Warren. Martha Boaz | The Library Quarterly: Vol 32, No 1
JOURNALS.UCHICAGO.EDU
Fervent and Full of Gifts: The Life of Althea Warren. Martha Boaz | The Library Quarterly: Vol 32, No 1
Fervent and Full of Gifts: The Life of Althea Warren. Martha Boaz | The Library Quarterly: Vol 32, No 1

Linda Lewis
“Cutting through Spiritual Materialism”!

Linda Lewis
Beautifully written novels: “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr; M.L. Stedman’s “The Light Between Oceans”–both = #1 NY Times Bestsellers. The first set in a lighthouse in SW Australia; the second WWII before, during, and after through the eyes of a young blind girl and a bright German boy.

Marietta
Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner; Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke; Ordinary Magic by John Welwood; The Beautiful World we All Know is Possible by Charles Eisenstein; Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore

Kristine
Crystal singer

Em
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. It was a particularly good book to re-read in peak pandemic isolation as it is a dystopian novel set post-pandemic on the front range.

Julie
Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself by Dr JD!!

RA
Four Agreements

Lisa
“Ahab’s Wife, or the Stargazer” by Sena Jeter Naslund

Ashley
“The Book” Alan Watts. It really is THE book.

Kathleen
The Stand by Stephen King.