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What books helped you deal with the anxiety of life's uncertainties?
Be it fiction or non-fiction, what books did you find helpful for accepting the uncertainties of life? I used the word anxiety in the title, because that's the angle I'm mainly interested in right now, but in no way I'm just asking about psychology books. All kinds of books are welcome.
I found the Stoic school of philosophy to be the greatest aid in accepting the uncertainties in life, in particular Aurelius' Meditations and Seneca's On the Shortness of Life. For moving beyond acceptance and into taking a more proactive approach towards life, I found the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre to have the greatest influence on me. Nausea hit me at an age where it described a peculiar dissatisfaction I felt with the world but could never quite articulate, and from there I moved onwards into developing the mindset of creating my own meaning in an inherently meaningless universe (which I consider to be a wonderful 'blank slate' rather than any source of anxiety).
This worked for me, but I'll admit a good deal of it was a matter of 'right time and place.'
My favorite Stoic quote on this is from Seneca
There's enough things to worry about in the present, don't spend all your time being tormented by yourself in the future.
I think Alain de Botton's Consolations of Philosophy might be the best English-language overview of the major schools of philosophy that help deal with life's anxieties:
It is a very accessible book, and although it has a focus on Western philosophy, it covers a lot of what you are interested in.
I ended up reading the English language versions of Seneca's letters and Epicurean philosophers after this book, as they really help me deal with the anxiety of living in an uncertain world, and finding contentment.
The same author's book 'Status Anxiety' was also a great read for me as a young person dealing with how I fit into the world relative to everyone else.
I find comedy to be the best relief from an uncertain and cruel world. My all time favorites are:
Discworld series by Terry Pratchet
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Rob Grant
Discworld definitely soothes my anxious soul and I could probably be quite content living by Pratchett's philosophy (or by Granny Weatherwax's)
If you haven't read it yet, A life with Footnotes the authorized biography is very well done and incorporates memoir material from Pratchett and his long time assistant who authored the biography
I haven't yet. I also haven't read the last Discworld novel, sort of keeping it for a day I can handle finishing the series, ya know.
I know. I've read them both, but there were tears.
I stumbled upon "The Book" by Alan Watts at the right time in my life and it was a comforting, accessible introduction to some core Vedanta philosophy concepts. It's about the illusion of ego, the interconnectedness of everything, and the necessity of opposites. It has a "stoner" vibe to it that could be off-putting, but that was part of the appeal for me. It felt like getting a soothing life lesson from a cool uncle, and I really needed that.
Have you tried listening to his lectures? I find them oddly comforting for the times when I really get stuck in my own head.
I have, and I also find them really comforting. He really has a way with words. By the way, just in case you haven't heard of it, you might enjoy "Everything". It's a chill exploration game inspired by his work that plays audio clips of his lectures as you roam.
An exploration of making mistakes called Being Wrong Adventures on the Margin of Error,
Some others I hope to come back to add later.
Range by David Epstein.
Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl.
Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah are a couple of my feel-good favorites. They feel like fluffy stories, but then one of the remarks will hit me just right and I'll have to think about my life for a while.
"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours."
Yes! I came here just to say Jonathan Livingston Seagull because I just finished it two days ago. Part four of the book felt tonally different from the first three but I still got something out of jt.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius helped me a lot, but it's been quite some time. I need to revisit it.
But just accepting things is not ideal to me. What helped me understand the world was Marx, Engels and a lot of other Marxist authors. The problem is that there is no coming back and the way you will look at the world will change forever. Sometimes I wish I remained in ignorance.
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State - Frederick Engels
Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher
State and Revolution - Lenin
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism - Lenin
Reform or Revolution - Rosa Luxemburg
Against Neoliberal Misery - Rubens Casara (this one is Brazilian Portuguese)
These are written by therapists, but fit the mold:
Staring at the Sun by Irvin Yalom
Things Could Go Terribly, Horribly Wrong by Kelly Wilson
These two seem the most interesting to me among the discussed books so far. Thanks!
I don’t know if this fully counts, but in college I had a rough patch and really valued Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” which was formulated, at least partially, during his time in Nazi concentration camps.
For me, there are two subjects that have helped "level" me out and aid my thinking when it comes to life's problems.
Stoicism, as pointed out by others here, helped me appreciate that most of our problems are made up in our mind, and those that aren't are definitely approachable despite how large they may seem.
The second subject is spirituality, mainly focusing on books by Eckhart Tolle. Specifically, The Power of Now and A New Earth. Both of these books hammer home the fact that we live so much in the past or the future (which brings unecessary anticipation, anxiety, suffering etc), that we give very little attention to the now. And the Now is all that exists until it comes from the future or becomes the past. I'd recommend The Power of Now first and then A New Earth if you're going to read them - thats the order they were written in and whilst both relevant even now, A New Earth expands on the ideas from TPON so it makes less sense to work backwards.
I see a lot of more serious literature, but when you're dealing with anxiety and stress, you might not look forward to picking up a mountain of a book. So I'll suggest an alternative: The Cat Who Taught Zen, by James Norbury.
It's about a cat, looking for inner peace, meeting different animals on its journey, with tiny stories and leaving tidbits of wisdom. It's beautifully illustrated. If you want, you can read it in half an hour. But I see it as something that needs to be savored, experienced at a slow pace. Read a couple of pages, enjoy the illustrations, and leave the rest for another day.
My favorite is Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. You can find a good free audio version from Librivox.
https://librivox.org/siddhartha-by-hermann-hesse/ (Credit to the narrator, A Praetzellis)
House of Leaves helped me through a time of rapid losses in 2020. I don't remember the order, but my beloved Public Transportation (a convertible Mustang) was totaled in a hit-and-run, my cousin died after someone ran over his motorcycle, and one of my bunnies crossed the rainbow bridge—all within a month. Somehow the extra effort required to read that book combined with its ending to make me understand things would be OK.