[tbjohnston]

1. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - practical advice on how to arm yourself every day.

2. Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl - no matter how bad you think you have it, it can be worse, and you can find meaning.

3. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen - it's the journey (not the destination) and <i>pay attention!</i>

[leoh]

The Snow Leopard was so beautiful. I read it slowly, over the course of several months. My girlfriend at the time teased me for reading it so slowly. But it was one of those books I didn't want to read quickly because it was so dense with meaning.

[hazz99]

I tried getting through Meditations, but I couldn't. Maybe I'm more used to long-form writings, rather than the short paragraphs? I could read them, but I felt like they didn't "sink in", even if I felt they were profound at the time.

[Thersites]

I don't know which translation you read, but maybe give the Gregory Hayes version a chance. It is more recent and more straightforward, less stylized in terms of phrasing. I felt that the language got in the way less when reading it.

[jayalpha]

Oh, lordy lord. Then don't read Gomez DaVila.

Meditations is an outstanding book. You don't have to read "through". You can browse and see what connects with you. What made a strong difference to me: the translation. First, I could not connect with the book. Then I found another translation and started liking it. Later I realized that the fist translation, while harder to read and understand, was much better. It was, like he wrote. Short. No unnecessary words.

[ioddly]

It's actually his personal diary, written often while he was on campaign. From that perspective I think it's impressive how insightful he managed to be in short bursts. But if you are looking for something more long-form, you might try Seneca's Letters or Epictetus Discourses.

[bytematic]

Do we know he wasn't just practicing philosophy by writing down what he heard others say?

[phaus]

>no matter how bad you think you have it, it can be worse, and you can find meaning.

I agree. I have a personality where when something bad happens I just assess my potential courses of action and act accordingly. Sometimes I get depressed, but I usually snap out of it and get back to work. However, I am married to someone with a chronic, debilitating illness. I'm struggling to help her keep hope. I think one of the tricky things to get around is that people with legitimately terrible situations don't want to hear "It could always be worse." They kind of have a point. Just because there's a person that has it worse doesn't mean they aren't suffering also. I think Frankl's book might be helpful, but I wouldn't really know where to start trying to convince her that it might help.