What are some books that expand our mind?
Let me lead by saying this: Expand your mind by expanding the experiences you have, the places you go, the people you meet, and yes… the books you read.
My education is in business, and I run an online business, so guess what I mostly read about? Exactly. However, I go out of my way to read outside my discipline, opposing viewpoints, and even fiction.
Considering that there may be as many disciplines as people that ready this, I’ll bring up a book that I read when I was young that expanded my mind in all dimensions (you’ll shortly see the intended pun there)…
Flatland, by Edwin Abbott is a story about dimensions. If you read it, you will gain a new perspective about the 3-dimensional world we live in (or do we…). Furthermore, you will run into a wall in your brain that struggles to conceive a world of higher dimensions.
He does this through a cute story about lower dimensions—enter the 2-dimensional world of Flatland—with characters and details that make it entertaining as well. We see our main character, the square, struggle to conceive of a 3D world.
Even when given an example of how a 1D world—enter Lineland—would fit into his 2D world, he can’t understand how his 2D world would fit into a 3D world.
Obviously, the whole thing is a parable for our 3D world fitting into… something bigger?
But, here’s the kicker: Even as he leads us to understand the simple “truth” that Mr. Square struggled with, it is near mind-breaking to apply it to our own situation—to force our 3D-evolved brains to think on a higher plane…
No matter your discipline, I encourage you to read this book today. Then, read some philosophy, read some history, read some fiction. Just make sure you go out and have some experiences yourself, so other people can read about them someday.
I can’t compare myself to Mr. Abbott… yet, but know that I practice what I preach: Check out my #1 best-selling book here =)
