Can You Recommend a Book?
The best books are timeless. They’re evergreen. They are perennial sellers.
You can read a book about your favorite political candidate, but chances are it’s a book that won’t age well. Issues will change. Candidates will be forgotten.
Timeless books answer life questions. They aren’t dependent on technology, and they aren’t about the current hot button news issue. Their value will increase with age.
The books that follow are four books everyone should read. They’re timeless, well written, and share useful lessons for all readers. Whether you’re the CEO of a company, a college student studying art history, or a factory worker on a production line, you’ll close the book feeling glad you read it.
I would be happy to recommend a book. Here’s a good place to start.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
We’re all going to die. We all have loved ones who will die. Many of us will be responsible for taking care of those loved ones as they reach the ends of their lives.
You can find hundreds of books teaching you how to live – how to be productive, improve your relationships, be a better communicator, eat better, exercise more, lean in to your career, lead your peers, be a good parent – but you won’t find many on how to die.
If you do, you probably won’t want to read them.
Death is scary.
It’s depressing.
It’s not fun to think about.
But we’re all going to do it.
For most of us, death will be a process. A slow but undeniable aging. A decrease in independence. A long battle with an unrelenting illness.
The current medical system is designed to keep people alive and safe. But longevity and safety are often at odds with happiness and comfort.
One last round of chemo.You know it won’t beat the cancer, but it will prolong your life a few months.
No more living on your own.Your kids are afraid you’ll fall and hurt yourself, so you have to move to the nursing home.
These are choices, not mandates, and we need to think about them well before we’re faced with the decisions.
Gawande explains the importance of the dying role – “People want to share memories, pass on wisdoms and keepsakes, establish their legacies, and ensure that those who are left behind are okay.”
We can close our eyes and never think about death, but in so doing, we shamefully deny our loved ones the opportunity to fulfil their dying role.
Death is uncomfortable, but it’s important. Being Mortal will enable you to have a better relationship with death.
Our Towns by James and Deborah Fallows
James and Deborah Fallows spent four years flying over the United States in their single propeller airplane. They visited big cities and small towns – east coast, west coast, mountains, lakes, plains,and deserts.
They visited libraries and pubs. They talked with civic leaders, teachers, businessmen, and regular citizens.
Then they painted a beautiful portrait of the country and presented it in my favorite medium: a book.
Written in a time when the United States was divided at the national level, they highlight the overwhelming sense of togetherness felt at the local level. The book teaches a deep rooted and timeless lesson about the importance of community.
Our Towns is perfect for:
a high school senior looking to gain perspective on the people with whom he will be sharing a dorm or classroom;
a college senior deciding where to move after graduation;
young parents planning a cross country road trip; and
retirees doing the same.
Our Towns is an introduction to America for people from other countries. It tells the true story of how we live, study, work, and play together. And it gives a more realistic and optimistic picture of our country than you will see on the evening news.
In one of my favorite chapters, the authors discuss what they call The Question.This is the second question you’re asked when you meet someone new. Turns out,it’s very geography specific. In New York City, for example, The Question is either, “What do you do?” or “Where do you live?”
Our Towns will change your view of the United States.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens is the most fascinating book I’ve ever read.
The full title is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, and Harari takes the reader through four major revolutions: Cognitive, Agricultural, Scientific, and Industrial.
Each revolution contributed something significant to the way humanity developed and how we live today. Understanding how these revolutions played out is invaluable when it comes to perspective,worldview, and how you approach daily interactions.
The Cognitive Revolution saw the development of language. Humans were able to progress more than other animals due to their ability, through language, to store the information required to track ever changing relationships. This ability perpetuated gossip and allowed the creation of shared fictions. Belief in a collective fiction (government, money, religion, etc.) enables humans to work collectively in large numbers and explains why sapiens have progressed further than any other species.
The Agricultural Revolution brought negative changes in diet and work.It caused an increase in violence and a population boom. Rather than existing as a constantly moving band of hunter-gatherers, humans began to settle in one area and raise crops. The Agricultural Revolution set the scene for many of the cultural phenomena we know today, but one of the biggest may be the unnecessary collection of junk.
As Harari eloquently explains, “One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally, they reach a point where they can’t live without it.”
The Scientific Revolution was spurred by an unprecedented admission: humans are ignorant. When religion ruled the world, humans held the belief that all the important things were already known. Progress didn’t happen because progress wasn’t the goal:
“Until the scientific revolution,” writes Harari, “most cultures did not believe in progress...As science began to solve one unsolvable problem after another, many became convinced that humankind could overcome any and every problem by acquiring and applying new knowledge.”
The Scientific Revolution led to the Industrial Revolution, as scientific innovations were used to increase efficiency and economic growth.This change enabled individuality. Humans could now rely on the government or the market to provide their basic needs, reducing or eliminating the need to live with families or in tight knit communities.
Books that teach timeless lessons will inevitably overlap. Just like in Being Mortal, the importance of community is also stressed in Sapiens:
“Family and community seem to have more impact on our happiness than money and health.People with strong families who live in tight knit and supportive communities are significantly happier than people whose families are dysfunctional and who have never found (or never sought) a community to be part of.”
Our individuality may have increased, but as a species that draws our happiness from relationships, the change wasn’t entirely for the better.
Sapiens will change the way you look at the world.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
For those who enjoy writing and do it as a hobby or a profession, read the whole book. Then practice what you learned and read it again.
For everyone else, read Part I, Principles, and Part II, Methods.
Regardless of what you do for work or fun,we all write. In a world that’s always moving in the digital direction, written communication is becoming more common than speaking.
Whether you’re writing an email, a text message, a Facebook post, an Instagram caption, a Tweet, or a birthday card,your message is better received if it’s well written.
Zinsser shares quick, useful tips we can immediately apply to our written communication.
He explains the importance of being concise.“Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds,” says Zinsser, “the writer is always slightly behind.” He also adds, “There’s not much to be said about the period except that most writers don’t reach it soon enough.”
Zinsser also advises writers not to, “go peeing down both legs,” meaning if you’re writing something that requires an opinion, give an opinion. Take a stand and support it, or don’t bother the reader.
Finally, Zinsser reminds us that, “Memories too often die with their owner,and time too often surprises us by running out.”
On Writing Well will help you put the right words on the page before time runs out.
“Can you recommend a book?” is one of my most frequently asked questions. If you don’t know a person very well, you can’t recommend a book that is specific to his or her interests.
But you can’t go wrong if you share a book filled with timeless lessons that broaden perspectives or improve the reader’s quality of life.
These four books check the boxes. Read them and recommend onward.
