Reading

“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary." – Jim Rohn

I have been reading books since I can remember. I always carry a book with me, just in case I have a 10-minute break and can get a coffee and read another chapter. I buy books, exchange books, borrow books, talk to other book lovers about books and have too many books at home – or too few bookshelves… The best thing for me is to read a book in the original version so I read in 5 languages: Polish, English, Spanish, French and German. If you see me reading a book while drinking a cappuccino, please do not disturb!

Books I recommend

“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book." – J.K. Rowling

I must have read thousands of books in my life, but there are some I remember more than the others: those I could not put down and read the whole night, those that moved me so much I could not stop thinking about the story and those that gave me a different view on myself and other people.

I have tried to choose 10 or 20 favourite books, but it is impossible as each of them is different. The result is a list of authors and their books that I would recommend. I decided to put them in a random order to make the search more interesting and I am sure this list will grow.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry “Le Petit Prince”
J. R. R. Tolkien “Lord of the Rings”
J. K. Rowling “Harry Potter” series
James Clavell “Shogun”
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt “Oscar et la dame rose”, "M. Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran"
Kazuo Ishiguro “Never Let me Go”
Ann Patchett “Bel Canto”
Emily Bronte “Wuthering Heights”
Ildefonso Falcones "La mano de Fátima", "La catedral del mar”
Susan Cain “Quiet. The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking”
Margaret Atwood “The Handmaid’s Tale”, “The Testaments”
Philip Pullman "His Dark Materials" series
Gaston Leroux “Le fantôme de l'Opéra”
Suzanne Collins “Hunger Games” series
Daniel Keyes “Flowers for Algernon”, "The Minds of Billy Milligan"
Andrzej Sapkowski “Saga o Wiedźminie”
Nicolas Sparks “The Notebook”, “The Walk to Remember”
Vikram Seth "An Equal Music"
Robin Sharma "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari"
Jojo Moyes “Me Before You”, “Me After You”
Mario Escobar “Canción de la cuna de Auschwitz”
Daphne du Maurier “Rebecca”
Jodi Picoult “House Rules”, "Nineteen Minutes"
Marcus Zusak “The Book Thief”, I Am a Messenger”
Lion Feuchtwanger “La judia de Toledo”
Lucinda Riley “The Seven Sisters” series, “The Love Letter”
Heather Morris “The Tatooist of Auschwitz”, “Cilka’s Journey”
Carlos Ruis Zafón “La sombra del viento”
Kim Edwards “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter”
Sarah Gruen “Water for Elephants”
Florence Littauer “Personality Plus, “Your Personality Tree”
Yann Martel “Life of Pi”
Charlotte Link “Die letzte Spur”, “Schattenspiel”
Groom Winston “Forrest Gump”
Guillaume Musso “Et après”
Khaled Hosseini "Kite Runner", "A Thousand Splendid Suns"
Andrzej Ziemiański „Achaja”
Elaine N. Aron “The Highly Sensitive Person”
Dan Brown “Angels and Demons”, “The Da Vinci Code”
Oliver Sacks "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat"
Adam Higginbotham "Midnight in Chernobyl"
Matt Haig "The Midnight Library"
Rachel Joyce "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry"
J.P. Delaney "The Perfect Wife"
Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller "Attached"
Lucy Adlington "The Red Ribbon"
James Frey "A million little pieces"