My top five favourite books 

The following five books are five of my all time favourites.  This is not an easy task and quite frankly I could change it over and over again.  Right now I choose these five;

Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell

I chose Gone with the Wind because I love Scarlett O'Hara.  In fact I wanted to be Scarlett O'Hara.  She was passionate and strong willed.  She was willing to take risks and she believed in herself.  She was an inspiring role model for a young woman.  Scarlett controlled her own destiny in spite of constant calamity such as the civil war (of which she was on the losing side) and her self awareness developed over time.  Dare I say it, she may have been humbled a few times by the dashing Rhett Butler.  Quite frankly a story for the ages to be read again and again.



The Misleading Mind
Karuna Cayton

When I was on my own as a single mother I used to cycle a lot.  One of my destinations was a Chapters in downtown Toronto just off of Queen Street.  It's no longer there to my dismay.  It had wonderful floor to ceiling windows and you could curl up with a book and watch people go by.  As I was perusing the shelves one Saturday afternoon I came across The Misleading Mind.  I bought it and cycled home.  I read it in one night.  It changed my life.  I learned about how the mind, the ego, shapes our perceptions.  How our thoughts are not real but merely feelings that drift like the clouds.  How we often distort our reality with our minds and fall prey to anxiety and depression or a distorted perspective on what is happening in any given moment.  The book provides me with tremendous comfort to this day and reminds me that this too shall pass.


David Copperfield
Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens's David Copperfield is a literary classic, some would argue the greatest book ever written in the genre of fiction.  I've read it three times and will go back to it again and again for comfort.  The story of of an orphaned eight year old boy set in Victorian England the reader gets to watch David grow up and become a man.  Dickens was an incredible story teller and his characters were so well depicted you felt like you knew them.  As a teenager I loved the detail and the vivid description that peopled his world.


The Philosopher and the Wolf;  Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death, and Happiness
Mark Rowlands

I came upon the The Philosopher and the Wolf later in life.  I wish I'd found it sooner.  It was roughly three years ago.  Rowland's is a philosopher who also happens to be an avid and devoted long distance runner.  In his twenties he adopted a wolf cub and hand raised him.  Rowland's is an incredibly likable follow and his escapades with Brenin are out of this world.  What I took from the book is how love transforms all of us and how looking for happiness in external gratification is a waste of time.
Rowlands hammered home the importance of intrinsic satisfaction.  Prior to reading this book, I'd never really thought about what happiness meant beyond getting what I wanted.  Essentially, external happiness has been my barometer but what I've realized over time is that it's fleeting.  As I read The Philosopher and the Wolf it dawned on me that happiness or contentment is only possible through intrinsic rewards.  Brenin strengthened that perspective for Rowland.  In order to discipline and manage the wolf he took him running.  The joy they both felt in those hours of silent companionship defined happiness for Rowlands.  That was such a pivotal moment for me when I realized that my circumstances have nothing to do with my ability to find joy.  It's how I choose to fulfill myself that will ultimately lead to contentment.


The Millionaire Next Door
Thomas J. Stanley
William D. Danko

I may have mentioned that I have somewhat of an interest in money.  I read a lot of books on finance.  My all time favourite is The Millionaire Next Door. If you really want to find out how people become millionaires read this book.  It is life changing.  They don't drive the fanciest car and they are very family oriented.  They shop at Costco and they don't live in monster homes.  The key is to live below your means and don't compete with the Jones.  Usually the Jones are broke.  It goes back to the prevalent theme in my blog.  In fact as I write this blog it's becoming clearer to me.  Happiness is not a tangible.  You can't feel it, buy it or own it.  You have to figure out, day by day, what makes you happy.  It means perseverance and strength of character.  It means failing and feeling bad.  Then digging deeply and going back to what you love.  That may be reading, running or collecting stamps.  Whatever it happens to be it has to be a place you can go to, find comfort,  regroup an find the strength to face another day.