Books like The Architecture of Happiness
12 books with a reading profile close to The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. Deep; a moderate read.
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1
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
personal growth, philosophy
Donald Miller presents a collection of essays documenting his personal shift from structured, legalistic Christianity to a more organic faith.
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2
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Also deep · personal growth, philosophy
Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, bridges the divide between objective biological study and Indigenous ecological knowledge.
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3
Walden or, Life in the Woods
Also deep · personal growth, philosophy
Henry David Thoreau details his two-year experiment in self-reliance beginning in 1845 on the shores of Walden Pond.
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4
Walden
Also deep · personal growth, philosophy
Henry David Thoreau documents his two-year experiment living in a self-built cabin near Walden Pond to practice deliberate self-reliance.
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5
Letters to a young poet
Also deep · personal growth, philosophy
This collection consists of ten letters written between 1903 and 1908 by Rainer Maria Rilke to Franz Xaver Kappus, a military student seeking literary feedback.
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6
Intimations
by Zadie Smith
Also deep · philosophy, literary
Written during the early months of the 2020 pandemic, this collection consists of six essays that analyze the sudden contraction of physical space and the expansion of internal reflection.
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7
The Prophet
Also deep · personal growth, philosophy
The narrative centers on Almustafa, a prophet who has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for twelve years.
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8
Three Daughters of Eve
by Elif Shafak
philosophy, literary
Peri is an Istanbul housewife in her thirties, married with a child, who is at a dinner party when a mugger takes her bag and she chases him.
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9
The Dharma Bums
by Jack Kerouac
philosophy, literary
Ray Smith, a fictionalized version of Kerouac, navigates the contrast between urban jazz parties and the solitude of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
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10
The Last Day of a Condemned Man
by Victor Hugo
Also deep · philosophy, literary
Focused on the final six weeks of a prisoner awaiting execution in nineteenth-century France, Victor Hugo’s novel follows an unnamed protagonist from his trial at the Bicêtre Hospital to the guillotine at Place de Grève.
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11
The Road Not Taken and Other Poems
by Robert Frost
philosophy, literary
Robert Frost’s 1916 collection, originally titled Mountain Interval, centers on the rural landscapes and social dynamics of New England.
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12
The Solitaire Mystery
Also deep · philosophy, literary
Hans Thomas travels with his father from Norway to Greece to find his long-lost mother.
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