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What book has been most meaningful to you?
Will Schwalbe has a question he asks everyone he meets: What book are you reading? He calls it the best question imaginable.
Especially now, because we live in very confusing, complicated times, Schwalbe said. There is something about books that really help us reset ourselves, and help us figure out what's important. Books, he said, also help us to better listen and be more empathetic.
In Books for Living, Schwalbe wrote about 26 books that were meaningful to him, that he said found me when I really needed them.
The books range widely, from children's books like Stuart Little to suspense thrillers such as Girl on a Train to a 1938 book by a Chinese scholar about the art of leaving things undone, called The Importance of Living.
Schwalbe says is also fascinated by how people find the books that become meaningful to them. He discovered the novel Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin, after a school librarian left it on a cart. The novel, which explores homosexuality and bisexuality among a group of men in Paris, showed me a kind of life that I didn't think was possible, he said.
Really any book can be the right book for you as long as it speaks to you and helps you figure something out, Schwalbe said.
What book has been most meaningful to you?
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