Book - Letters to a Young Contrarian

What is the one book that profoundly improved your life/yourself?

Alzbeta Ze, 28, teacher, secularist, lover of science, reading, traveling, hiking and tea.

Alzbeta is a Most Viewed Writer in Book Recommendations.

Hey everyone, thanks for all your wonderful and inspiring answers! I’ll also answer my own question because I’d like to make you aware of a book that has not been mentioned here yet - Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens. There are a lot of books (some of them mentioned by others) that have helped me live a better life and/or be a better person, but this is my latest discovery.

Christopher Hitchens does not need any introductions. He was the face of the war on bullshit.

In Letters to a Young Contrarian, he advises the reader how to recognize bullshit (especially the kind of BS that has been repeated for generations and now is often considered a fact) and how to, with the help of logical argument and actual facts, reject it.

Also, he draws your attention to keeping an eye on especially the kind of BS you yourself might have unconsciously accepted as a fact or a default setting - beliefs/people/things that are is some respect close to you or you (even if just partially) identify yourself with.

Finally, one of the things that I appreciated the most about Letters to a Young Contrarian is Hitchen’s numerous reading recommendations and suggestions on things that are worth checking out, several of which he casually mentions on every page. Such a great read and so much inspiration for further reading! I loved it!

It’s a great book and I wish I had discovered it earlier than at the age of 28. An inspiring text all of us should read (just to be more aware of all the BS we are fed by society, media and - most alarmingly and dangerously - by ourselves), I would especially recommend it to teenagers and young adults figuring out where they really stand in terms of their world views and opinions on politics, religion and just society in general.

You don’t have to agree with Hitchens on everything (even though his bulletproof logic is very hard to argue with), but exploring your own awareness/acceptance/rejection of BS can only help you and is always worth it!

Edit: Speaking of recognizing BS, I have just come across a very interesting article on this very topic by Michael Shermer. Definitely worth reading! The True Meaning of BS. Btw, Shermer is the author of The Moral Arc (2015), an excellent book discussing how scientific thinking has significantly helped our understanding of morality and how we can develeop and improve it further. If you haven’t read it, check it out! It’s brilliant!

Edit 2: I’m reading The Horrors and Absurdities of Religion by Arthur Schopenhauer at the moment and it’s wonderful! Anybody interested in exploring ethics and psychology of religion, check it out! (As its obvious from the title, the author rejects the idea of theism and considers it harmful - particularly in terms of religion allowing people to deny their responsibility for various acts of evil.)