5 Books for Perspective + Meaning
‘Ignorance costs you more than you'll ever know’
- Anon
The books I have read over the years have had an immense impact on our work in more ways than I can express. It seems only logical to improve ourselves and learn from the mistakes of the past. To quote Socrates: “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have laboured hard for". The more we build the more it seems we read less about architecture and look for stories about life, because that’s where the heart of architecture resides.
These books are deeply meaningful and give an enormous sense of perspective on life. You will be richer for reading them in immeasurable ways. Enjoy…
Man's Search For Meaning
- Viktor Frankl
Written in 1946, this book tears through your soul and resets your reality.
To say it puts life in perspective is an understatement. Here is a horrific story chronicling the lived experience of a prisoner of war that survived the Holocaust. It rightly sits among the 10 most influential books of all time.
The story explores the importance of finding a purpose in life. A focus to feel positive about and then imagining the outcome, to ensure it becomes real. Viktor Frankl truly believed in this philosophical approach and was inspired by his direct experience.
He noticed the way a prisoner visualised his future and how this had a direct effect on his survival. Frankl believed that the ‘primary motivational force of an individual is to find meaning in life'.
Mans’s Search For Meaning teaches us two things. We must never forget what happened 70 years ago. And how important it is to find meaning and purpose in your life, your motivational force. It is a book that has stayed with me.
Humanity
- Jonathan Glover
Claiming to be one of the strongest works of moral philosophy of the last two decades. The book Humanity questions how we can create a social environment to prevent the darker aspects of human history and create a better future. Admittedly it's a concentrated read - but the result - if you stick with it, is a deeply moving book with great impact.
If This Is A Man
- Primo Levi
Primo Levi was transported to Auschwitz in February 1944. He remained there until liberation on 27 January 1945. If This Is a Man recounts his experiences.
Written in the form of a diary. The calm sober writing of Primo Levi considering the nature of the events he describes is emotional. All that can be said is that some books just need to be read.
Sapiens
- Yuval Noah Harari
I always wondered how we as a species got to ‘here’ on planet earth. This book attempts to answer that simple question. Think of this story as a journey from our foraging ancestors to the people that build the cities of today. Sapiens is beautifully written with endless facts and bites of knowledge that are astounding, such as: "We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us". Such statements are an inversion of our assumptions of human everyday reality and a healthy challenge to what we think we know.
The Happiest Man In The World
- Alec Wilkinson
Nowhere near as good as Walden by Henry David Thoreau, but The Happiest Man In The World is relevant here as it stands in stark counterpoint to some of the more recondite works above. This is a simple story about a man that chooses to wander his entire life. Keeping things simple, he builds rafts from driftwood to sail oceans, travels the world as a restless soul. A polymath and pauper engaged with endless adventure.
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Book List
Mans’s Search For Meaning - Viktor Frankl
Humanity - Jonathan Glover
If This Is a Man - Primo Levi
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
Walden - Henry David Thoreau
The Happiest Man In The World - - Alec Wilkinson
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