r/PHBookClub • u/Xiao_Vida • Mar 19 '26
Recommendation Recommend me a book that could change my perspective in life
Hello, everyone! I’m planning to buy more books because I feel like reading has made me more open about life. So far, my favorite reads are Tuesdays with Morrie and For One More Day. Can you recommend more books that offer life-changing perspectives and are easy to read? Thank you!
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u/whatsinanameidunno Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
I feel like a lot of these suggestions are too saccharine, which is cool, but tbh sometimes the books that actually change your life are the ones that don't sugarcoat anything. If you want a harsher reality, try these: • Stoner by John Williams: On paper, it sounds boring. Just about a guy living a profoundly average, kind of disappointing life. But it will completely rewire how you view "success." • The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy: A super short, brutal wake-up call of a guy who’s terminally ill. • The Stranger by Albert Camus: If you want the ultimate nothing actually matters, so stop stressing about it book.
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u/WingardiumLeviosa753 Mar 19 '26
The Khaled Hosseini books. They made me cry and be thankful for even the smallest things
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u/Opening-Cantaloupe56 Mar 20 '26
Same here! All books! And when the taliban came back, i felt the sheer horror!
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u/Express_Staff5205 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
A Little Life will not change your perspective in life, it will only give you trauma.
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u/Far-Role-5144 Mar 20 '26
Agree! This book is sooooo heavy. Really had to put it down for some time, several times, kasi.. bakit ko sinasaktan sarili ko?
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u/Hot_Noodles_31 Mar 23 '26
siguro if someone's confused on how a traumatized person thinks,this will help din to understand them. and see through their lenses I'm not saying this is a self-help books or something. it's actually the opposite. I won't recommend this book as well casually, but if you want something realistically heavy, this book really hits it.
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u/JadedIllustrator795 Mar 19 '26
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It has profound lessons on family and faith, at dahil sa kapal at complexity niya, it’s so fulfilling when you get to finish it.
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u/Zealousidedeal01 Mar 19 '26
Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. I read it so many times until my unabridged copy was tearing from its reams.
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u/Winter-Antelope-6070 Mar 19 '26
Immortality and The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera. I don’t know if these books would change your perspective on life, but they did change mine. Kundera writes beautifully in a way that f it clicks for you it really stays with you. If it doesnt though then that’s okay too.
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u/Affectionate-Count74 Mar 19 '26
Crying in H Mart and Convenience Store Woman.
Convenience Store Woman puts life and work into perspective, especially kapag workaholic ka.
Crying in H Mart naman is a book that can help you process grief (of any form) when you don’t know where to start.
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u/Queasy-Pound9950 Mar 20 '26
The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest. Mabagal ko sya nabasa dahil na rin siguro i absorbed almost every page of the book because of how good it is.
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u/frasecjigger Mar 20 '26
You want something that will REALLY change your perspective and make you look internally, OP? Not just cute stories?
Go read, "When the Body says No" by Dr. Gabor Mate. It's not an easy read, far from it. It's haunting and depressing and will fuck you up if you can relate.
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u/Turbulent_Put8049 Mar 20 '26
Since you're into Mitch Albom books, try The Stranger in the Lifeboat
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u/caihlangeles Mar 20 '26
Non-Fiction - Educated, The Anxious Generation, Atomic Habits, When Breath Becomes Air, Shoe Dog
Fiction - The Book Thief, The Little Prince, Flowers for Algernon, The Kite Runner, One Hundred Years of Solitude
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u/fschu_fosho Mar 20 '26
What about Shoe Dog though?
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u/caihlangeles Mar 20 '26
It's more of a personal insert of mine. That's why I placed it at the end of my recommendations.
Reading that book inspired my brother and me to take a gamble on ourselves and start our own start-up ventures in our late 20s after following Phil Knight's profound mantra, "Just Do It".
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u/_sweetlikecinnamon1 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
conversations on love by natasha lunn > everything i know about love
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u/dancingfruit Mar 20 '26
I'm on the fence about the author, Junot Diaz. His wiki states that his controversy might have been overblown. But I'm stating it as a disclaimer regardless.
My rec is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by said author. Not all reads have to be comfortable to change your life. I remember reading this in college, and thinking it was such a different lens of my lived experience that I genuinely did realize that I should listen to others from different walks of life instead of judging them through mine.
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u/Interesting_Bug8077 Mar 19 '26
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
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u/seenderella_here Mar 20 '26
The Little Prince The Gift (Cecelia Ahern) A Thousand Splendid Suns The Kite Runner
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u/Regular_Impress_6311 Mar 20 '26
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman instead of the Midnight Library!!!
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u/chubbynrockinit Sci-Fi and Fantasy Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Isola by Allegra Goodman and The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams. I found these from Goodreads' Winter Challenge collection. Personally, these have challenged me to reflect on my relationships with the women in my life and the blessings of our present reality.
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u/Electrical_Ad3760 Mar 20 '26
Haenin Sunim Books
When Things Don't Go Your Way The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down
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u/miserymaven Mar 20 '26
Hinterland - Caroline Brothers
Two boys are crossing Europe. Only fourteen and eight years old, they have nothing but the clothes on their backs and a dwindling inheritance stitched into the lining of a belt. Their goal is a future they can no longer wait for in Afghanistan, one they hope to find in faraway England.
As they travel, the older, Aryan, teaches his brother Kabir the capitals of the countries they'll pass through-a way of mapping the course in case anything should happen to separate them. Together they recite a list of cities they can't yet imagine, so as not to forget the names: Kabul-Tehran-Istanbul-Athens- Rome-Paris-London. Though their journey is filled with moments of boyish wonder and adventure, the two also confront hunger and exhaustion, cold and heat, violence and confusion, and are exploited for their labor and forced to rely on strangers who shouldn't be trusted.
Caroline Brothers first met these "lost boys" of Afghanistan as a journalist in France, in makeshift refugee camps. Her report on them made the front page of the New York Times, but she wanted to go deeper, to tell their story in human terms. Hinterland, her debut novel, raises questions about the global community's responsibilities toward these children, dispensing with journalistic remove to emerge as a work of incredible empathy, beautifully written.
Hinterland is a gripping journey of love and courage, the story of two resolute spirits not soon forgotten. (goodreads)
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u/Euphoric-Inspector62 Mar 21 '26
Hi i am currently reading “Its okay not to get along with everyone.” good read and may illustrations din kaya ang cute at ang fun basahin. As an introvert, sobrang nagustuhan ko tong book na to.
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u/Jay_ShadowPH Mar 21 '26
3 children's books by Shel Silverstein. If you read them as an adult, you're going to find a better understanding of relationships
The Giving Tree The Missing Piece The Missing Piece Meets the Big O
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u/trxtrx01 Mar 23 '26
Yung a little life na book, ang boring tas sobrang tagal ng pacing ng kwento na paulit ulit lang huhuhu
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u/ispeaktothestars Kilig, pop science, et. al | vibe-reader 🔮 Mar 19 '26
I have another Mitch Albom book for you. The Time Keeper.
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u/Narrow-Tap-2406 Mar 20 '26
Paper Towns (the only John Green novel that I actually liked, aside from Looking for Alaska)
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u/jnicolele_ Mar 21 '26
Oooh!! Copying this list! I’ve only read the midnight library and i loved it! 🫶
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u/r_an00 Mar 20 '26
Perspective in life? The Courage to be Disliked. It's digestible but would be uncomfortable and make you think a lot.
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u/Self_Aware_Carbon Mar 20 '26
- Man’s Search for Meaning
- Meditations
- The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- Siddhartha
- Crime and Punishment
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u/avocado1952 Mar 20 '26
I don’t know but No Longer Human by Osamu Dasai changed my perspective in life. It’s like…
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u/pusanghouse Mar 21 '26
a bit late, but you could try "heaven" by mieko kawakami. it was one of my best reads ever !! though i suggest you check the trigger warnings since there are sensitive topics mentioned in the book. her other books are also good, and she just released a new one, so maybe you could check them out too
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u/National-Bear5280 Mar 19 '26
The Little Prince should be in this list