The question i ask whenever i open a book
Here's a question i ask myself when i open a book:
“Am i going to dangerously change my mind?”
I don't want to just feel elevated. I want to feel a bit of fear. A bit of dread. A bit of “i’m in over my head”, even if just so slightly.
I call these types of books ‘dangerous books’.
They are books that do more than build you. First, they kinda break you. Not because they’re bad, but because they rewire your brain in a new way. So you feel alienated. Out of place. Like what came before is all a big lie. They don’t aim to incrementally change you, but to rip your mind apart.And then build it back up, under a new wiring.
That is, if you’re patient enough.
Over the years, some books did this for me:
Antifragile
The Body Keeps The Score
The Course of Love
Ego Is The Enemy
Hired
Please Yourself
Present Shock
Prisoners of Geography
Sapiens
Scattered Minds
Start Where You Are
Ultra-Processed People
When The Body Says No
Wilful Blindness
Not because they made me feel comfortable. Quite the opposite. They fundamentally reflected this idea, whose author i couldn’t find:
“We are poorer if all we can do is agree with the books we read.”
Dangerous books do that: they elevate you, by first pulling you apart. The other part of this equation is knowing how to sit with that process. It’s not rushing to conclusions, being able to face the discomfort. Even if just for a little while. And over time, like with meditation, a fresh mental pattern starts to emerge. Slowly, you re-emerge from the ashes, and get to apply some newfound danger to your own thinking too.
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