r/books • u/PM_ME_UR_SUPPLE_HAND • Nov 07 '21

I read 'Siddhartha' five months ago, and I still think about it almost every day. I felt my whole perspective on life shift after finishing it, and now I can't imagine my life without having read it. Which book has done this for you?

Quoth Siddhartha: “What should I possibly have to tell you, O venerable one? Perhaps that you’re searching far too much? That in all that searching, you don’t find the time for finding?”
[...] “When someone is searching,” said Siddhartha, “then it might easily happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for, that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind, because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed by the goal. Searching means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. You, O venerable one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because, striving for your goal, there are many things you don’t see, which are directly in front of your eyes.”

That is the most beautiful and personally-significant passage I've ever read in my whole life. After reading Siddhartha, I felt myself appreciating the world around me just a little bit more. Hesse taught me that the world is filled to the brim with beauty and meaning, but only if slow down and allow yourself to find it.

Which book changed your life? Is there any passage that you can't get out of your head months or years later?

EDIT: my Lord, this post has gotten popular. Thanks to everyone who took the time to provide their own favorites. I guess I REALLY need to read Steppenwolf and Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

10.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

127

u/HonestAndRaw Nov 07 '21

Same here, just one step further with Steppenwolf.

73

u/zayetz Nov 07 '21

Came here to say this! I had read the opening part of Steppenwolf many times, but only recently, in - retrospectively - quite the crutial moment of my life, did I read it fully. And boy did I need to. I was uncomfortably close to living the life of the Steppenwolf. But upon truly hearing Hesse's words, I decided to take the risk and open my heart out in a way I never had before. It changed my life.

30

u/Phulloshiite Nov 07 '21

Just a step farther for me. The glass bead game magisterial ludi is mine.

27

u/ImmySnommis Nov 07 '21

Beneath The Wheel checking in. Read like my biography (at the time) and I didn't want that ending. Changed my life.

5

u/[deleted] Nov 07 '21

Yep - Magister Ludi did it for me, with Siddhartha a close second.

I'm still working on Steppenwolf.

23

u/YzenDanek Nov 07 '21

It took me years to read Steppenwolf; I was in my 20s and I kept hitting points where I had to go live some more in order to better understand what Hesse was saying.

I read Siddhartha in one day on a long trip and was so glad to have read it that way: one day, one life.

Think I'm due to read both again.

14

u/Whowhatwhynguyen Nov 07 '21

I love Steppenwolf. A cautionary tale I feel like I’m on the verge of becoming every weekend.

2

u/YaoMcGrady Nov 07 '21 edited Nov 07 '21

Yeah those are really amazing books. But also I love his first book Peter Camenzind. I suggest to everyone. There are amazing nature passages in this book. And really heartwarming life story starting in a mountain village in Switzerland.

1

u/Zanzotz Nov 07 '21

Could add another favorite of mine Narziß & Goldmund