The Toa of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff - read at a formative time and always recenters me though I am not at all a toaist in any way
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy - I was gifted this by a beloved for graduation and truly always return to it when I feel lower than nothing.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - little needs to be said, read this often to keep on living.
As the story goes, I was 15 and wanting to die when I stumbled upon the Tao Te Ching in my father‘s library. It saved me. it took me out of my suffering and made me realize that I had experienced so little of the world. I clung to this book and carried it everywhere. I used to post pages as my MySpace bulletins 😭
Eventually the light returned, and although I have wanted to die many times after that, I learned from that experience that it will always pass. And when my father died, this is the one thing of his that I asked for.
This book changed my life when I was 16, reframing the way I think about daily challenges and the ebb and flow of life and such. There’s an effortless clear-pilledness to these words. I return to them often and keep a pocket-sized version in my backpack at all times. Chapter 11 resonates the most with me right now.
