12 Compassion Quotes to Inspire Kindness for Others and Yourself
“There are certain emotions in your body that not even your best friend can sympathize with, but you will find the right film or the right book, and it will understand you.” – Björk
Stories are immensely powerful.
They move us, inspire us and expose us to exciting new ideas. They let us explore the world from the comfort of our armchairs and take us on a journey inwards to uncover our deepest feelings. Our brains are literally wired for stories. Through them, we learn from other people’s experiences, remember new information better and play out potential future scenarios in our mind without doing any lasting damage. But most importantly, great stories remind us that despite our unique differences, we all face similar struggles and emotions.
When you’re sick, when you’ve lost someone you loved, when your life has fallen apart and you’re feeling lonely, lost and misunderstood, reading the right book at the right time can change your course.
That’s where bibliotherapy comes in. Ever since the ancient Greeks, people have been self-medicating with books, as a band-aid for a broken heart or an antidote to many ailments.
And for good reasons. Studies show that reading puts our brains into a meditation-like state, making it one of the most effective ways to overcome stress. Besides the obvious cognitive benefits – improved memory, vocabulary and creativity – reading is also a rewarding emotional experience. By identifying with a story’s character, we can see our own situation from a different point of view, gain helpful insights or discover new ways to deal with our problems.
Of course you can pick up any novel when you’re in need of a healing dose of literature. But if you really want to read fiction for therapeutic effects, it helps to choose a story that’s directly related to your own troubles or one that will most likely put your in the mood you’d like to be in.
To help you get started with bibliotherapy, I’ve listed over 25 classical reads that will lift your spirits, inspire you and help you find meaning in tough times.
If you feel inspired to buy any of these therapeutic books through the affiliate links below, you will support both independent bookshops and The Health Sessions through your purchase, at no extra costs to you. Pretty cool, right?
Feel-Good Fiction
Happy endings or not, it’s no secret to avid readers that stories can evoke all kinds of positive feelings and warm memories. And although what’s considered funny is a matter of personal taste, the following books full of heart and humor are bound to make you smile:
The Rosie Project — Graeme Simsion
With his 40th birthday approaching, Don Tillman, a genius but socially challenged genetics professor, decides it’s time to get married. He just doesn’t know who to get engaged with yet. To help him find the perfect wife, Don designs a 16-page, scientifically-valid questionnaire to weed out anyone who doesn’t meet his high standards. And then the smoking, swearing, spontaneous Rosie Jarman enters his life on her own quest to find her biological father…
The Rosie Project demonstrates in the most funny and heart-warming way that sometimes you don’t find love, but love finds you.
And if you enjoyed this bestselling romantic comedy, check out its sequels The Rosie Effect and The Rosie Result.
Us — David Nicholls
When Douglas Petersen’s teenage son is leaving home to study, his wife Connie drops a bombshell: she will be leaving too. But they had one last family holiday touring Europe’s capital cities planned and Douglas resolves its the perfect opportunity to rekindle the romance and reconnect with his son.
Traveling with more emotional baggage than luggage, Us gives us a cleverly charming, humorous and authentic insight into the dynamics of marriage and family life.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry — Rachel Joyce
One day, the recently retired Harold Fry receives a farewell letter from a dying woman he hadn’t spoken to in twenty years. When Harold leaves his modest cottage to mail his reply, he finds himself passing mailbox after mailbox. Unexpectedly, he keeps walking and walking to deliver his message in person, 600 miles across England in just his deck-shoes and light coat.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a touching story about chance encounters, contemplation and the extraordinary journey of an ordinary man.
The Little Prince — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince is a beautifully illustrated fairy tale about love and loneliness, cherished by both children and adults. A pilot crashed in the Sahara desert meets a peculiar little prince who left his tiny asteroid to explore the universe. While the aviator frantically tries to repair his plane, the prince recounts his journey from planet to planet, each populated by one single adult.
Providing food for thought for readers of all ages, The Little Prince is a whimsical fable that will inspire you to stay open-minded and keep your imagination alive.
For more uplifting reads, check out Funny Story by Emily Henry, chick lit classics like the Bridget Jones series, hilarious essays from David Sedaris, or these laugh-out-loud books from Hollywood’s funniest ladies.
Transformative Journeys
Some adventures will not only take you around the world but also on a journey inwards. Whether you love armchair traveling to new places or going on inner pilgrimages, these transformative reads will show you why bibliotherapy can help you heal.
Eat Pray Love — Elizabeth Gilbert
When her (love) life falls apart, Liz Gilbert leaves the conventions of modern life behind to embark on a yearlong trip of soul-searching. She embraces la dolce vita in Italy, attempts to still her wandering mind in an ashram in India and finally seeks the balance between both pleasure and devotion on Bali.
In her heartfelt, candid and witty memoir, Elizabeth Gilbert takes readers on a journey of self-discovery to exotic destinations.
Wild — Cheryl Strayed
Devastated by the death of her mum and the end of her marriage, Cheryl Strayed makes the impulsive decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Unprepared for the adventure and carrying a heavy load – literally and metaphorically – she faces the wilderness and its rattlesnakes, bears and record snow fall in search of radical aloneness.
In Wild, Cheryl shares the layered story of her adventures and how a total immersion in nature helped her heal her emotional wounds.
Life of Pi — Yann Martel
Life of Pi is the enchanting tale of the 15-year old Pi, son of a zookeeper, who emigrates from India to Canada with his family – and all their zoo animals. When their cargo ship sinks, Pi finds himself adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, stuck in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra and an enormous Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker.
For 227 days, Pi must muster all his courage, faith and ingenuity to survive the elements, the shark-infested waters and his wildlife companions. But, as you’ll discover, there’s so much more to this imaginative parable than just another survival story…
The Salt Path — Raynor Winn
When Raynor and her husband Moth lose their home and receive devastating news, they impulsively decide to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path along the rugged shores of Devon and Cornwall, bringing only their rucksacks and determination. Battling exhaustion, bad weather and uncertainty, their journey becomes a pilgrimage to process their grief, test their resilience and embrace the healing power of nature.
Told with raw honesty, The Salt Path is a reminder that even when everything falls apart, the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other can lead you home again.
Other life-changing travelogues include The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck and Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. You may also enjoy the coming-of-age memoir The Good Girls’ Guide to Getting Lost by Rachel Friedman or From Scratch by Tembi Locke, the touching story of finding love in Sicily that’s turned into a Netflix series.
Books Giving Meaning to Life
When you feel lost and overwhelmed by your problems, there’s nothing like absorbing the wisdom from timeless tales to help you make sense of your situation. Take a look at thoughtful books about the meaning of life.
The Alchemist — Paolo Coelho
The Alchemist is a powerful parable about a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago, who dreams of exploring the world in searching of a hidden treasure. Combining mysticism and meaning, this magical story featuring omens, gypsies and kings will encourage you to listen to your heart and pursue your own Personal Legend.
Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl
Imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps, after losing all his worldly possessions and ultimately his family, prominent psychiatrist Viktor Frankl discovered that Nietzsche was right: he who has a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any ‘how’.
More than a haunting account of the Holocaust, Man’s Search for Meaning is a tribute to hope, written to help us all find a deeper meaning and purpose in life during the darkest of times.
The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success — Deepak Chopra
In this short book, Deepak Chopra shares 7 timeless spiritual principles for living a more meaningful life. Each law helps you to align your actions with purpose and to find balance in our busy world. Through examples and meditative exercises, he shows how you can live in harmony with these 7 universal truths every day.
The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success is both a philosophical and practical guide to cultivate fulfillment and deeper meaning in everything you do.
Sophie’s World — Jostein Gaarder
Sophie’s World is a chronological introduction to Western philosophy wrapped in a fictional story. Sophie, a 14 year old girl from Norway, starts receiving mysterious postcards addressed to another girl, asking “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?”.
Intrigued by these fundamental life questions, Sophie begins corresponding with the sender, covering philosophical concepts from the Ancient Greeks to Jean-Paul Sartre, while simultaneously trying to figure out who this Hilde, the intended recipient, is.
Although Sophie’s World is a long and dense novel that’s difficult to read at times, exploring timeless questions about the world through different schools of thought can help you see your own struggles from a new perspective and in a bigger picture.
Find more profound insights in the moving memoirs The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie. You could also turn to age-old wisdom in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations or read self-help classics like Start with Why from Simon Sinek, Ikigai by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles, and The Power of Now written by Eckhart Tolle.
Motivational Memoirs
Identifying with characters who overcome obstacles to reach their goals can help you to take action in your own life. And some people managed to survive and thrive against insurmountable odds, as the memoirs and biographies below show:
Unbroken — Lauren Hillenbrand
Unbroken tells the gripping story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who joined the Army Air Corps during World War II. When his bomber airplane crashes into the Pacific Ocean, Louis faces miles and miles of open sea on a disintegrating raft, with circling sharks, thirst and starvation. And an even greater trial awaits him ashore…
Unbroken is the captivating and heart-wrenching testament to a man who somehow kept getting up when life knocked him down, hard.
Other survival epics that showcase the resilience of the human spirit are The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan.
Mud, Sweat and Tears — Bear Grylls
Mud, Sweat and Tears gives us a peek into the action-packed life of Bear Grylls, the daredevil of the hit survival series Man vs. Wild. Born with a passion for adventure, Bear has been undertaking climbing expeditions and mastering martial arts from a young age. When he signs up for the British Special Air Services (SAS), the brutal selection course pushes his body and mind to the limits.
But nothing puts his faith and perseverance more to the test than breaking his back in three places in a parachute accident. It’s unsure if he’ll ever be able to walk again, but Bear still dreams of climbing Mount Everest… An inspiring autobiographical story about the power of determination, resilience and stepping outside of your comfort zone.
More military-style motivation? Read The One That Got Away from Chris Ryan, a true story of escape and evasion behind enemy lines during the Gulf War, or dive into the SAS mission to save hostages from the Taliban in The Rescue from Andy McNab.
When Breath Becomes Air — Paul Kalanithi
Just as he’s about to complete his neurosurgeon training, Paul gets diagnosed with stage IV Lung cancer. In a moment, he goes from being a doctor saving people’s lives to being a patient struggling to survive. After more than a decade of working towards his dreams, Kalanithi now has to embrace an uncertain future. Because, as he put it, “Death may be a one-time event, but living with terminal illness is a process.”
In When Breathe Becomes Air, Paul gracefully reflects upon his lifelong quest for meaning and the philosophical questions that surface after his cancer diagnosis. His memoir is a poignant reminder of both the impermanence of life and the lastingness of memories.
Take insights and inspiration from medical memoirs like Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan, Everything Happens for a Reason – and Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler and Within These Four Walls by Mindfully Evie.
Bibliotherapy can be an unexpected tool to help you navigate life’s challenges. From uplifting fiction and armchair travels to philosophical reads and motivational memoirs, reading provides a fresh perspective, new meaning and of course joy. Whether you’re seeking comfort or new insights, reading the right book at the right time makes you feel better.
Check out The Novel Cure: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You for tailor-made reading prescriptions to help you heal any physical or emotional problems.
Which book has helped you through tough times? Which work of fiction or true story inspired you, lifted your spirit or made you smile through your tears?
Love books but struggle to focus? Learn how to get back into reading with brain fog.
