World Book Day: Top 10 Books to Get Your Reading Practice Started
If you’re here already reading this blog then you already took the first step. So, you’ve decided to take the leap of forming that reading habit. Maybe you haven’t picked up anything outside of a school read, or a PDF on your phone, in years, or perhaps you’re just wanting to get back in touch with that love of words. If that’s true, then this year’s World Book Day is the ideal opportunity to participate in reading silence, lay your phone down, and STOP SCROLLING!
But where do you begin?
Right here – with this reliable set of 10 amazing reads, handpicked to satiate your curiosity, provoke your emotions, and encourage you to read more. From existential philosophy to binge-read fiction, you will discover your guide to fantastic books that not only begin your reading habit but enable you to fall in love with books and reading forever.
Non - Fiction
1. Ikigai - Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles
Have you ever wondered what is the secret to living a fulfilling and long life?
Ikigaigives you an interesting insight into the philosophy behind it developed by the Japanese. The book walks you through the concept of ‘ikigai’ – your reason for being – and how living a life aligned with your passions and values leads to happiness and longevity. It blends science with ancient wisdom, and digs into the practices of long-lived individuals from Okinawa, Japan. The writing is gentle, a form of reflection for the reader and possibly you will find yourself stopping the book and re-examining your own daily decisions.
2. Power - Robert Greene
The 48 Laws of Power is bold, unapologetic, and even a bit dangerous (in a good way). Greene takes hundreds of years of strategies, political gamesmanship, and raw human behavior and condenses everything into 48 powerfully effective laws for you to use to get ahead in ambition, leadership, and influence.
The book is loaded with historical anecdotes from Machiavelli to Napoleon, and reads like a handbook for mastering the plays and pieces that make up power. You may not agree with every one of Greene’s laws, but you will be intrigued by what he can show you. It is a good fit for those who love psychological nonsense and the ugly side of winning.
3. Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens is a challenging journey to understand the entire human history. Harari combines anthropology, evolutionary biology, and economics to describe how Homo sapiens evolved from an insignificant species of narrow ape to the most powerful force on Earth. Sapiens integrates our myths, the rise of empires, and the birth of capitalism in a humorous and engaging way. Intelligent, provocative, often humorous, this book is a must-read for those who wonder who we are and how we got here.
4. House of Gucci - Sara Gay Forden
This is more than a fashion story, it is a gripping drama filled with ambition, betrayal, family wars, and even murder. House of Gucci tells the rise and fall of the Gucci family, and how a brand that was once about elegance and craftsmanship became a hotbed of power struggles. With abundant detail and insider intrigue, Forden takes you into boardrooms and courtrooms, telling a story in a way that feels fast-paced and dramatic. This is a glamorous, gritty, and thrilling read.
5. I am Gita
In I Am Gita, spiritual teacher Nitya Shanti, offers a contemporary version of the Bhagavad Gita. The text includes short readings, brief reflections and gentle questions that help the reader find some calm in life’s chaos. If you are looking for religious aspects, this book is not for you.
It seeks to find and define your own fundamental truths and respond to your life in an intentional way. Whether you are experienced or inexperienced with reading spiritual material, or want to read a modern version of a piece of ancient wisdom, this book offers you wonderful, quiet clarity in a loud world.
Fiction
6. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
This story, A thousand Splendid Suns is an emotional journey set within Afghanistan’s tumultuous past. Through the lives of Mariam and Laila, Hosseini demonstrates female endurance, sacrifice, and love. The story is gut-wrenching but also hopeful, and it sheds voice to women who are otherwise silenced. The beauty of this book is complemented by poetic prose and incredible characters. This story will stay with you for complex reasons after you have closed the cover.
7. White Nights - Fyodor Dostoevsky
White Nights is a short but monumental novella that exemplifies the fragility of love and the vulnerability of humanity that is ingrained in each of us. Set in the vaguely unreal St. Petersburg, this narratively poetic tale chronicles the ephemeral encounter between a profoundly lonely dreamer and a young woman, over four nights. Dostoevsky’s complexity emerges through the conversations–longing, imagination, yearning, and the ache of unmet yearning. If you want to read in Russian, this is the story to read as an initial entry: humanized, beautifully written, and self Analyze:.damage in violent terror.
8. Three Thousand Stitches - Sudha Murthy
Sudha Murty‘s collection of true stories is touching, inspiring, and has real life lessons within it. Each essay shows readers her work with the Infosys Foundation and some personal background, with essays covering social issues surrounding her travels and examples of day to day human kindness.
From changing the lives of devadasis to humorous meetings during her travels, the stories are simple but impactful. Murty is easy to read and real, and this book would be an easy read with meaning for someone who is beginning their reading journey.
9. Malgudi Days - R.K Narayan
A collection of short works taking place in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi, this book reveals the lives of the ordinary in wonderful formats. From shopkeepers and students to beggars, Narayan depicts people with charm and warmth; those who love the written word will instantly engage with his subtle humor. His narratives are gentler, and hold deeply human contexts, to tell how ordinary people are never completely ordinary. For newer readers who enjoy a rich story without entrenched prose, This is the novel for you.
10. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
What if you could live every life you could have lived? This is the idea at the heart of The Midnight Library.
The hero, Nora, finds herself in a library of sorts between life and death, with infinite books symbolizing her life, the paths she could have taken. Each path leads her to alternative lives, and through each new reality she discovers a primarily reflection on the appropriate level of her own regrets and choices. Beautifully imaginative and emotionally uplifting, this book will inspire you to live your own life with kindness.
To The New Reader
Choosing your first book is often the hardest part of beginning any reading habit, and it’s our wish that this list eases that burden. You don’t have to finish all ten. You don’t even have to pick one! Choose whichever book resonates the most with you at the moment. Read a page or ten, and if it doesn’t resonate you can always move on to another.
Reading is not a race, it is a relationship. A relationship that only deepens in time.
So this World Book Day, consider giving yourself a quiet corner in your life, a steaming cup of something wonderful, and a story that is yearning to be freely written. Who knows, one book could change your life!