Seven Books to Read Before You Turn 22 - The Atlantic
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here.<br>Young people on the cusp of adulthood are full of big questions: Who am I? Who do I want to be? And how do I find my way through the world? There aren’t always firm answers to be found—I wish I’d understood, in my 20s, that “figuring things out” is a lifelong endeavor with no guarantee of success. But even though there’s no one predetermined path to follow, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from the examples of those who have come before us.<br>Notice that I said “examples,” not “advice.” As a recovering women’s-magazine writer, I’m suspicious of anything that reeks of prescription or self-help. Most smug articles and books that claim to provide quick fixes come off as tone-deaf or even counterproductive. I believe that the best way to locate inspiration is by looking to writers who illustrate what you might want to emulate, rather than those who lead by edict or exhortation. The authors of the seven titles below all fit that bill. Their books demonstrate that preparing for the future requires understanding the past and developing a patient, attentive disposition toward the here and now.<br>On Writing , by Stephen King<br>King’s memoir and writing manual is now older than most undergraduates, and, in some respects, it shows. But it remains an entertaining, accessible, and necessary read. Even those who aren’t King fans or fellow writers will find something to take from it: the importance of persistence in one’s work, the teachable moments that can come from negative experiences, the power of brevity. After recalling his own beginnings as a writer, King demystifies his process (don’t force good ideas, he says, but “recognize them when they show up”). Most broadly applicable is his argument against overreliance on premeditation when trying to figure out how to get from A to B. Creative spontaneity is crucial, he contends, and narratives “pretty much make themselves,” so the job of the writer “is to give them a place to grow.” This, I think, is powerful advice for how we approach life. The point isn’t that we can’t chart our own paths—just that advance planning isn’t everything.<br>On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft<br>By Stephen King
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Start Where You Are , by Pema Chödrön<br>For some young adults, being set free to follow their dreams (while also needing to pay their bills) means coming to terms with their past and being honest about who they are in the present—which requires, yes, sweating the “small” stuff. Chödrön’s Start Where You Are may not be as well known as her later title When Things Fall Apart, but it is just as relevant—perhaps even more so—for younger readers, or anyone who feels like they just can’t get beyond the struggles and indignities of their youth. This book guides readers toward the practice of cultivating compassion for ourselves and others, something that feels especially significant in a polarized society. Plus, it argues for a return to oneself, a reengagement with our instincts. After years of encouragement to lead with their mind via exams, theses, and admissions tests, new graduates might find it both clarifying and cleansing to learn how to lead with their heart.<br>Read: The best graduation speech is one nobody remembers<br>Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living<br>By Pema Chodron
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Devotions , by Mary Oliver<br>Oliver’s most quoted line is so ubiquitous that it’s become almost cloying. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet asks in 1990’s “The Summer Day.” And although Oliver’s inquiry is beloved for good reason—it challenges readers, directly yet generously, to be a passionate architect of their own experiences—a close read of the poem suggests she’s communicating something softer and much less striving: that doing nothing, that simply existing, is a legitimate answer to that question. This is in keeping with the quiet ambition of the lines within Devotions, a 2017 collection representing more than half a century of Oliver’s verse. This volume adorns a huge number of bedside tables for a reason. The poet’s exquisite insights into nature drive home what she said in 2015: that by appreciating the small elements of the universe—a blade of grass, a meadowlark, a beetle, a resting grasshopper—she “got saved by the beauty of the world.” May we all be so lucky.<br>Devotions<br>By Mary Oliver
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The Source of Self-Regard , by Toni Morrison<br>The title of this collection of essays, public speeches, and “meditations,” which bundles work from four decades of the Nobel Prize–winning author’s career, comes from a lecture of the same name. Speaking about her 1987 novel, Beloved, at a 1992 lecture series in Portland, Oregon, Morrison detailed how the process of researching and writing that book imbued her with a renewed sense of pride and dignity, as she moved from “data to...