This quote by psychologist Jonathan Haidt expresses an argument for reading that I agree with. If I’ve picked my reads well there are many ideas that give me pause and help me understand both the world and my own views. Every once in a while, books themselves–in their entirety–permanently rearrange the mental structures in my mind. For me, those powerful books include: 1. The Lord of the Rings 2. Eknath Easwaren’s The Dhammapada 3. The Hays translation of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 4. The Social Construction of Reality by Peter Berger. Ken Wilber’s books, espcially A Brief History of Everything, The Marriage of Sense and Soul, One Taste, and Up From Eden were also seminal and profound.