Book List

When you have looked around this website a little bit, you have found quotes everywhere. I just love quoting other people’s pearls of wisdom! Some of the quotes are from my favorite books, others I found online. And the Internet makes it so easy to access this wealth of wisdom, too. So below is a list with all the wonderful books—and some songs, too—from which I have quoted, here on this website or in my books. For some of the ancient Greek and Chinese classics there are several different translations; I just listed examples in this list.

Even though I read e-books, I just love to sit down with a real book in my hands. And I love spending time in bookstores, browsing through all the wonderful books there, inhaling the atmosphere. So should you want to acquire one of the books listed below, I encourage you to get it at your local bookstore. You can find an independent bookstore near you here.

But yes, of course I too buy online sometimes. And some older books are in the public domain now and accessible online for free. Thus you find links to public domain materials in the following list where applicable. For your convenience, the cover images link to Amazon.com for books—or music—available there. I participate in their Associates program.

 

Find 'Aesop's Fables' on Amazon.com Aesop (620 – 564 BCE), The Old Man and his Sons / The Bundle of Sticks. In: Aesop’s Fables.

E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and at Internet Archive.

Find 'As a Man Thinketh' on Amazon.com Allen, James (1902). As A Man Thinketh.

E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Find 'Earth from Above' on Amazon.com Arthus-Bertrand, Yann (1999). Earth from Above.
Find 'A Long Way Gone' on Amazon.com Beah, Ishmael (2007). A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.
Find 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' on Amazon.com The Beatles (1967). Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, from the album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.

Vimeo video from the 1968 movie “Yellow Submarine”.

Find 'Ich und Du' on Amazon.com Buber, Martin (1923). Ich und Du.

German original.

Find 'I and Thou' on Amazon.com Buber, Martin (1937). I and Thou. Translated by Ronald Gregor Smith.

E-book available online in different formats at Internet Archive.

Chesterton, G. K. (1911). Alarms and Discursions.

E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Find 'Four Quartets' on Amazon.com Eliot, T. S. (1941). The Dry Salvages, V. In: Four Quartets.
 Find 'Fragments' on Amazon.com Empedocles (1908/2009). The Fragments of Empedocles, translated into English verse by William Ellery Leonard.

E-book available online in different formats at Internet Archive.

Find 'Poor Richard's Almanac' on Amazon.com Franklin, Benjamin (1755). Poor Richard’s Almanac.

E-book available online in different formats at Internet Archive.

Franklin, Benjamin (n.d.). Unpublished letter to Mary Stevenson Hewson on January 27, 1783. In: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, sponsored by The American Philosophical Society and Yale University.

Digital edition by the Packard Humanities Institute.

Find 'Over the Rainbow' on Amazon.com Harburg, Edgar Yipsel “Yip” (1939). Over the Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”.

YouTube clip from the movie.

Find 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' on Amazon.com Hardy, Thomas (1902). The Mayor of Casterbridge – The Life and Death of a Man of Character.

E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Find 'Heart on Fire' on Amazon.com Howard, Aaron (2014). Heart on Fire.
Find Hume's 'Essays' on Amazon.com Hume, David (1741-2; 1748): Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary.

E-book available online in different formats at Internet Archive.

Find 'Eight Steps to Happiness' on Amazon.com Kelsang Gyatso, Geshe (2000). Eight Steps to Happiness: The Buddhist Way of Loving Kindness.
Find Mitchell's 'Tao Te Ching' on Amazon.com

Find Addiss and Lombardo's 'Tao Te Ching' on Amazon.com

Laozi (n.d.). Tao Te Ching.

There are many different translations of this Chinese classic. Some are available as e-books at Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, and Sacred Books of the East.

More modern translations are for example by Stephen Mitchell, which is contemporary, or by Addiss and Lombardo, who stay closer to the original text.

Find 'Imagine' on Amazon.com Lennon, John (1971). Imagine, from the album “Imagine”.

Original video (poor video quality) on YouTube.

Find 'The Third Day' on Amazon.com Marsden, John (1995). The Third Day, the Frost.
Find 'Über den Wolken' on Amazon.com Mey, Reinhard (1974). Über den Wolken, from the album „Wie vor Jahr und Tag“.

Recent YouTube video from a German TV show.

Find 'Becoming Madame Mao' on Amazon.com Min, Anchee (2000). Becoming Madame Mao.
Find 'Anne of Green Gables' on Amazon.com Montgomery, L. M. (1908). Anne of Green Gables.

E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Find 'Twas the Night before Christmas' on Amazon.com Moore, Clement Clarke (1822). Twas the Night before Christmas.

Also called A Visit from St. Nicholas. There are a lot of illustrated books with this beautiful poem. E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Find 'Cratylus' on Amazon.com Plato (360 BCE). Cratylus.

E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Find 'Rending the Veil' on Amazon.com Rumi, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad (n.D.). The Works of Shams of Tabriz.

Shiva, Shahram (1995). Rending the Veil: Literal and Poetic Translations of Rumi. Hohm Press.

Sackville-West, Vita (1926). The Land: Winter.

E-book available at Project Gutenberg Canada.

Find 'Hamlet' on Amazon.com Shakespeare, William (1603?). Hamlet.

E-book in different formats available at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Shakespeare, William (n.d.). The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In: Oakshot Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Illustrated, Inline Footnotes) (Classics Book 4) [free Kindle Version].

The Complete Works of Shakespeare online.

Find 'Man and Superman' on Amazon.com Shaw, George Bernard (1903). Man and Superman. A Comedy and a Philosophy.

E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Find 'Queen Mab' on Amazon.com Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1821). Queen Mab, Book II.

E-book available online in different formats at Wikisource and Internet Archive.

Find 'Roughing It' on Amazon.com Twain, Mark (1872). Roughing It.

E-book available online in different formats at Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive.

Find 'Journal d'un poète' on Amazon.com de Vigny, Alfred (1913). Journal d’un poète.

E-book available online in different formats at Internet Archive.

Find 'The Woman of Andros' on Amazon.com Wilder, Thornton (1930). The Woman of Andros.

E-book available online at Internet Archive.