Want to Read About Happiness or Habits? Check Out These 15 Outstanding Books

15 books about happiness and good habits

15 Books about happiness and habitsMy favorite thing to do, by a long shot, is to read books — and then to try to persuade other people to read the books I love. So I get great joy from my monthly book club, where I recommend three books: one book about happiness, habits, or human nature; one outstanding work of children’s literature; and one eccentric pick.

People often ask me for various lists, so here’s a list of some of my favorite books about happiness, habits, and human nature.

As you’ll see, there’s a big range here. Non-fiction, fiction, essays, journals, serious, light…but in one way or another, these books shed light on some big questions:

  • How do we build a happy life?
  • What do we owe other people?
  • How can we change?
  • What habits will tend to make us happier?
  • How do we learn about ourselves?

Oh, how I love all these books.

15 Books About Happiness, Habits, and Human Nature

1. The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell

Buy from IndieBound; BN.com; Amazon

2.  Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You’re So Tired by Till Roenneberg

Buy from IndieBound; BN.com; Amazon

3. Here Is New York by E. B. White

Buy from IndieBound; BN.com; Amazon

4. The Journal of Jules Renard

Buy from IndieBound; BN.com; Amazon

5. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Buy from IndieBound; BN.com; Amazon

6. Pack of Two: the Intricate Bonds Between People and Dogs by Caroline Knapp

Buy from IndieBound; BN.com; Amazon

7. The Diary of Anne Frank

Buy from IndieBound; BN.com; Amazon

8. The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

Buy from IndieBound; BN.com; Amazon

9. Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection by John Cacioppo and William Patrick.

Buy from WORD; BN.com; Amazon

10. How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton

Buy from WORD; BN.com; Amazon

11. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Buy from WORD; BN.com; Amazon

12. Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes

Buy from WORD; BN.com; Amazon

13. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

Buy from WORD; BN.com; Amazon

14. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Fankl

Buy from WORD; BN.com; Amazon

15. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Buy from WORD ; BN.com; Amazon

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