Day-43-101 Day Reading Challenge-Build a Library of Heroic Books--Who will cry when you die

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  Day-43-101 day Reading Challenge- a Mine2Shine initiative-9789186428

 Build a Library of Heroic Books

Few things make me happier than meeting someone who has read my books or listened to my audiotapes and hearing something like, “I was so moved and inspired after going through your material that I went out and bought ten more life improvement books and read them all. And you know what, they have completely transformed me.”

I not only write books on life leadership, I am a dedicated student of them. As I mentioned in an earlier lesson, I spend countless hours in large bookstores combing the shelves for the latest treasure that will enlighten and educate me. I also frequently used book ships where I have picked up some of my most valuable books for only a few dollars (as I write this paragraph, I have a “pre-owned” copy of Maxwell Maltz’s classic Psycho Cybernetics on my desk, which still bears the sticker price of $ 2.95. Also on my desk is a copy of Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic, a truly priceless work, which was purchased by my dad for $1.95).

While almost any reading will improve your mind, in a world where there is too much to do, you must be selective in the books you read. And so, I suggest you spend much of your time reading what Thoreau called “The Heroic Books” – those books that contain “the noblest recorded thoughts of man.” Let your mind drink deeply from the works of the great philosophers, such as Epictetus and Confucius. Study the poems of the wisest poets, such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Emily Dickinson and John Keats, and the novels of Leo Tolstoy,

Hermann Hesse and the Brontes. Read the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa.Connecting with such works for even a few minutes a day will keep you centered on what life is really about and will ultimately profoundly affect your character. Asked in an interview what his biggest regret in life was, talk show superstar Larry King replied, “I should have been better rooted in the great books.”

Here are some of the “heroic” books that helped me change my own life and gave me the wisdom and inspiration to live more deliberately and completely. If you read all of them, and act on the lessons contained within their pages, you cannot help but improve your circumstances profoundly.

Letters from a Stoic – Seneca

The Message of a Master, John Mc Donald

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

University of Success, Og Mandino

The Magic of Believing, Claude Bristol

Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse

Psycho – Cybernetics., Maxwell Maltz

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Joseph Murphy

As a Man Thinketh, James Allen

Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

Life is Tremendous, Charlie Tremendous Jones

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