The Non-Fiction Book List, 2024

One of the great delights of post-entrepreneurial life is that I can now spend entire days reading, if I so choose, which makes my book-loving heart intensely happy! Books have been my life-long companions -- beloved, mind-expanding, heart-opening friends who invite me into their worlds and share their bounty with boundless generosity.

Reading is joy, avocation, necessary as breath, a devotional habit cultivated since childhood. I was a girl enchanted by words and the worlds they conjured. I read constantly, everywhere — in bed, in each nook of our house, on the bus to and from school; at recess, meals, family gatherings; at parties; in the sheltering limbs of climbing trees; weaving my way through the crowded streets of Bombay with my nose in a book, oblivious to the cacophony of honking horns and ambling cows all around me.

That habit has never left me. Now, at age 75, I am more discerning in what I choose to read. But I choose with my heart, and my nose, following my curiosity into alleyways and ocean depths, exploring the pebble in my shoe and the far reaches of the universe.

Reading, for me, is a way of being in conversation with questing minds grappling with issues that are singularly important to me, of significance for all of us who are alive at this time in our collective story. Such conversations enlarge my perspective, synthesize new awareness, open new possibilities for ways in which we might contribute to a world that serves all life in becoming fully and exuberantly itself.

As in any good relationship, I read books with close and open-hearted attention, willing to be transformed by what they reveal. I ask questions to help me understand the nature of the book, the intentions of its creator, what it stands for, what it wants for its own life and the life of our world.

Here are some questions that bubble up when I’m reading:

• How does this book and the world it presents contribute to a deeper, more nuanced, refined, contextual understanding of what I know, and what I don’t yet know?

• Does it show me where my received notions are fossilized or simply out of date? Does it upend certainty and transform stagnation into curiosity and a desire to explore further? How does it change my mind, my heart? How does it engage my senses?

• Does it offer a portal into experiences and worlds which I know little about, which enrich my understanding of its world? Does it offer access to greater wholeness, interdependence, relationship, love, truth, the wisdom of the natural world, or multidimensional reality, among other gifts?

• What supports its theses, how robust is its research, what is the quality of its citations, how sound are its conclusions? Does it offer information or describe experiences that I can translate into creative action? Can I apply what I learn here to my own life and creative practice, however tangentially? Is it testable, can I craft ways to experiment with its principles to see how they might function in my world?

• Does its central thesis align with my values, and serve my soul’s purposes, and the purposes of my incarnation? Does it inspire, provoke, interrogate, expand, illuminate, or blow apart my understanding to positive effect? Does it bring me into more intimate relationship with the soul of the world?

• Does it speak to the questions that are foremost in my heart right now? Does it provide context for one or more of the urgent issues facing our world? Does it inspire actions I can take to address these issues directly and locally?

I imagine you have your own set of questions that you ask yourself when you’re reading, or learning in some other way.

In the spirit of sharing, here's a wholly idiosyncratic and wildly abbreviated offering of a list of non-fiction books that live on the shelves of my personal library.

These are books that have opened my eyes to the wonders and fractures of the world around me, and to the possibilities of creative transformation available through playful imagination, purposeful intent, generativity, generosity, and heart.

This book list is by no means comprehensive. I’ve chosen a brief collection of titles within each genre, and the genres themselves emerged through a contemplative process of attunement as I sat with the question: Which books might serve us, now, today, in developing a richer, fuller, more meaningful relationship with our world?

For those of you are deeply immersed in inner-world practices, as well as the energetics of transformation and collaborative co-creation, this book list offers contextual breadth to balance the terrain you traverse daily — a zooming out to take in the broader landscape in which we live and work.

Our souls want to experience, create, and serve. We work to weave wholeness in ourselves and to nurture it in all life. So, what can I offer you, an intelligent, deeply caring, creative person who wants to explore, reflect upon, and craft a way of living that is responsive and responsible, nourishing and nourished, in a world that often seems inimical to your soul’s purposes?

The selections in this book list reflect both my current preoccupations and curiosities and those that have been with me for most of my life. They are also one of several creative ways to develop a mature understanding of how we, as a species, arrived at this present moment; where we’re headed; the evolving forces that shape us and all life on this Earth; and what we need to do to restore health and well-being to our world.

There are dozens of other areas of enquiry that belong here. Since I cannot include all of them, I trust you will use this abbreviated list as a departure point, from which to explore whatever speaks to you.

I’ve selected a variety of voices in each genre. Most of the books listed here sprawl across the margins of genre, which are arbitrary at best, and dissolve in the face of reality.

So, with those caveats, wander through these stacks and let your curiosity and felt sense guide you to those books that might be significant for you now. At other times in your life, other areas of enquiry, other books, will call to you. I trust you’ll answer that call in whatever ways your heart guides you.

Like everything else, this is an organic and evolving list. Add to it your own areas of interest, research, and influences. Include books from your own collections, or ones you want to read. Create a resource library that is uniquely yours, and continue to curate and update it as you go.

May this collection inspire you to embrace your own questing, curious, adventurous nature wherever it leads you.

Click here to download the non-fiction book list.

Love,

Hiro