Books as Therapy

A writer friend recently told me about a project a past colleague of hers had developed in the UK – the use of books in therapy. It draws on the very real idea that whatever the malaise, there is a book that can be prescribed that if read by the client will provide some sense of insight or shift. I love this…

So it got me thinking about all the books that I have been blessed by in some way in my life – from before I could read until today.

Listing them seemed a natural next step.

Here they are  – fifty books in no apparent chronology or importance – each one has touched me in an indelible way to make me not only the writer, but also the person, I am today.

1. The Tao of Equus – Linda Kohanov
2. Ensouling Language – Stephen Buhner
3. The Little Prince  – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
4. Inspiration Sandwich – SARK
5. La Vita e Bella (screenplay)
6. Cinderella 1940s pop up book that belonged to my mother
7. Canyon Winter – Walt Morrey
8. Folk of the Faraway Tree – Enid Blyton
9. The pictorial book of Horses
10. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
11. Little House on the Prairie series – Laura Ingliss Wilder
12. Care of the Soul  – Thomas Moore
13. Man and his Symbols  – Carl Jung
14. The Red Book – Carl Jung
15. A Woman’s Worth  – Marianne Williamson
16. The Prophet  – Kalil Gibran
17. The Essential Rumi – Colman
18. Philosophy of Love  – Hafez
19. Death Sentence  – Don Watson
20. Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
21. Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering  – Sarah Buckley
22. Women Who Run with the Wolves – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
23. Memoir and Poetry  – Pablo Neruda
24. Under the Tuscan Sun – Frances Mayes
25. The Writer’s Journey – Christopher Vogler
26. Callings: finding and following an authentic life – Greg Levoy
27. Consolation of Joe Cinque – Helen Garner
28. Art as Medicine  – Shaun McNiff
29. To Kill a Mocking Bird  – Harper Lee
30. The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
31. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying – Sogyal Rinpoche
32. Approaching the Corporate Heart – Margot Cairnes
33. Dad’s Bubbles the monkey stories
34. The Hare and the Tortoise fable
35. Consolations of Philosophy  – Alain de Botton
36. The Invitation – Oriah Mountain dreamer
37. Inferno – Dante
38. Symposium – Plato
39. The Tao of Pooh – Benjamin Hoff
40. Yum – Terry Durack
41. The Horse Boy – Rupert Isaccson
42. Way of the Superior Male – David Deida
43. The Story of my Life – Helen Keller
44. The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
45. Siddharta – Herman Hesse
46. The Divided Heart; Art and motherhood – Rachael Powers
47. Princess Smartypants – Babette Cole
48. Danny the Champion of the World – Ronald Dahl
49. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
50. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis