Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Recommended reading from The School of Life, featuring 100 books that offer therapeutic insight and enlightenment.
Books, however familiar, are amongst the strangest objects on the planet: little portals that open directly into the ideas, feelings, loves and sorrows of writers from all times and places.
There are many reasons to love reading. But boldly, we emphasise one: we read for emotional guidance and support. The right book can bring consolation or courage; it can locate fresh sources of generosity or confidence; it can help unlock our half-forgotten reserves of creativity or resilience. But time is precious, and opportunity is limited.
That's why The School of Life has put together an ideal library that can speak helpfully to our individual needs and longings. Ranging across history and drawing on world literature, we've found our group of book-friends. A few may be acquaintances already, many will be new companions.
But all, we hope, offer the same essential thing: they will go with us as true friends through the complex, fascinating (and sometimes painfully hard) places of life with kindness and wisdom.
Synopsis
How to build a true library for happiness - recommended reading from The School of Life, featuring 100 books that offer therapeutic insight and enlightenment
There are about 130 million books in the world - and they are being added to at a rate of 4 million a year or so.
Which ones should we really read? What are the books that count? Which ones are going to make a real difference to us in the limited time we have?
This is The School of Life's answer: a definitive list of the 100 books that we feel should truly matter to anyone who cares about their development and growth, 100 books that are guaranteed to inspire, console and uplift us. We find books from all over the world, some very well known, others fascinatingly unfamiliar, united by a common ability to help us grow into the best versions of ourselves and to combat anxiety, despair and loneliness.
This book answers one of the great questions we all face: how to assemble the perfect set of books with which we can acquire self-understanding, calm and emotional maturity.