I’ve always wanted to ask somebody if they like reading and they reply with “Word”. I think that’s a fantasy to be fulfilled back in California. Any-who, look at this I made a list of books. “5 books that will change your perceptions of reality” is a bold title, but I intend to back it up. The authors are really the ones who are doing all the work but I can look cool by association. They have changed my life in countless ways and these in particular will change yours. If none of these have any impact on you, email me with a compelling reason as to why and I will buy you any book of your choice. I am serious, these are the paradigm-shifting, “I’m not sure who I am or what I am doing” books that will keep you up at night and staring into space during the day.
The thing about a good book is it’s ability to hit home right when you need it, just like those songs that literally feel like they are singing to your life at that very moment. “They know me!”
One of these may hit closer to home at your current point in life, but they will all hit something.
Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means For Modern Relationships by Dr. Chris Ryan: This one is high on the list for a reason, mainly because I have a man crush on the co-author and want to meet him. Dr. Ryan if you read this, I will fly out to talk to you and have you on the show. Back to the book, and be warned about this one. It will drastically shatter MANY pre-conceived notions you have about relationships, sex, and the basics of human nature. You will question everything about your love life and the way the system is set up in contrast to core human nature. Or is it truly human nature? Therein lies the dilemma and can lead to a lifetime of questioning the repercussions of advancements we have made as humans.
The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson : Best self-improvement book I have read to date, but I am always saying that after I read a self-improvement book. It’s an addiction. Have you ever had a goal in mind, a far away but very real dream of something you want to acquire, a skill you want to learn, the person you want to become? The vision you have in your head all day, thinking “if only…” or the extremely dangerous and pervasive “Tomorrow…” Here is the answer, and not in a drastic Tony Robbins kind of way, in fact what Olsen lays down is pretty boring. You change it all by changing the small, mundane tasks you do every day. Over time they compound into breathtaking accomplishments. Think of something you have done fairly consistently in your life for multiple years. Perhaps you often eat fast food and it has made you kind of fat and unhealthy. From one burger?! No, from multiple burgers over the course of a few years and look at that, you’re fat. You brush your teeth every day and they are hopefully in decent shape today because of YEARS of the same activity, day in and day out. He does a much better job with making all this inspirational and motivational stuff seem very, very possible.
Breaking Open the Head by Daniel Pinchbeck: Other-dimension psychedelic 1960’s trippy-ness at its finest, join the author as he escapades around the world trying the strongest hallucinogenic substances plants can offer. Go to Africa, South America, and the US to see, feel, and hear how these chemicals can literally alter your sense of identity, reality, and the core fundamental of the universe and our place in it
The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz: If you read this under the influence of basically anything except for coffee or cocaine, you will most likely shed a tear and start to reevaluate the reasons why you have walls up pertaining to the amount of love you are willing to accept and give. You will also probably write these reasons down and then look at them the next day wondering what the hell you were talking about because they were written in marijuana language. I may or may not be speaking from experience.
Brave New World/Island by Aldous Huxley: You have heard of the first one but probably not the second. Huxley wrote the classic “Brave New World” towards the beginning of his literary career and it focused on a dystopia in the near future and the ways in which the state controlled the behaviors of its citizens. It was published in 1932 and remains the only classroom assigned book that I never read but actually wish I had once I did. “Island” was his absolute last published work before he died and was released in 1962, a whole 30 years later. It focuses on the utopian version of humanity, what society and the control, or lack thereof, of humans looks like. How are natural instincts and behavior managed? It brings together the contrast between our current system and what could be possible by giving a tour of the utopian Island to a stranded man from the mainland.
I am ALWAYS looking for more suggestions to add to the old Amazon Wish List and buy when I don’t have any money. Let me know if you have some to add to this list below in the comment section!
