There’s a state of mind you reach when you’re fully focused on what you’re doing and forget the outside world for a while; That state in psychology is called: Flow state
Reading is one of the activities that can easily get you in that flow state, and help you escape the stressful situation that we’re living nowadays while learning something new.
In this blog post, I wanted to share with you some of the books I read/ still reading, that I found quite captivating, instructive, and flew me to another world!
The forty rules of love (Elif SHAFAK)
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religionor cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or upfrom the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or anyorigin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.
That was Rumi‘s most known poem, Only Breath. If you liked it, then you’ll definetly enjoy reading The forty rules of love. I was looking for an “exotic” voyage and have always liked Rumi’s verses which I found very often on my social media feeds, but this book took me deeper into the world of derviches. Quite a spiritual and poetic book by the Turkish writer Elif Shafak.
Sophie’s world (Jostein GAARDER)
What if I told you that there’s a book that explains philosophy in a simple way? YES, it exists, and teenagers can read and understand it so why wouldn’t you?!
“I wanted to give you a present that will help you grow.’’
This book is both interesting for the amount of information about philosophers across centuries, and fun because they come in a story that is full of suspense. I felt as if I was going to lose a best friend on the day I reached the last page …
The subtle art of not giving a f*ck (Mark MANSON)
As shallow as it might seem from its title, this book will prove the contrary to you with every page. No, I didn’t feel sad when I finished the book because I learned that I shouldn’t care much about this (I also had another cool book waiting in the queue by Mark Manson), but I felt detached from a lot of useless emotions and I had tangible reasons for that! Also, if you haven’t heard of Mark Manson, you’ll discover a great story teller while reading this one!
Thinking, fast and slow (Daniel KAHNEMAN)
If you come from a scientific background and have worked a lot with statistics, you’ll have a lot of pages to relate to! I, so far, think that if you’re considering a career in AI, this book will be VERY interesting for you. I just read the first 3 chapters so far and I’m amazed how much Math can explain about the psychology of human beings.
I won’t spoil it for you nor for myself, but this book was worth mentioning! However, it requires a great deal of concentration and interest!
By the way, I prepared a playlist of music that help me reach the flow state, you might want to check, it’s on SoundCloud.
Cheers,
Nesrine
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