The Top 10 Spiritual Books On My Shelf Right Now

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An early love for spiritual books

Growing up I was a huge book lover – I was always maxing out the number of books I could take from the library at one time. Looking back, there were some very distinct phases. Elementary school covered everything from hamsters to horses to sharks, middle school I wanted to better understand outer space, theoretical astrophysics, and so on. I think that was my first indication of leaning towards spiritual books, but wanting scientific answers to things that are unknowable. In high school and college I went hard the other way, reading finance and business books almost exclusively. Then I started working in finance, and pretty much stopped reading completely. A few years into that, feeling completely disconnected, I turned back to spiritual books as a source for inspiration in my life.

The top ten spiritual books might not be overtly categorized in the “spiritual self-help” section, but I found them spiritually impactful nonetheless. And some of them did, in fact, come from the self-help section 🙂

The first five are tiny and easy to pack when traveling

1. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran – I recommend this book to everyone always! IYKYK this is hands-down my favorite of my spiritual books.

2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – I had wanted to read The Alchemist while on my pilgrimage to Morocco and my husband Alex said that my brother had had it in his book collection (that was moved to my house after he passed away). On the day we were leaving for our trip, Alex brought The Alchemyst up for me to pack – but it was not the same book. Still really good and meaningful in a different way! But when I got home I picked up The Alchemist with an i, not a y.

3. To Bless The Space Between Us by John O’Donohue

To Bless The Space Between Us by John O’Donohue – Not quite poems, but blessings for different occasions and seasons of life. I was really sad to learn that John O’Donohue passed away suddenly at a relatively young age, and it’s interesting to think about what we leave behind when we’re gone and how it may impact total strangers years later.

4. Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God – Just a classic, and one that I think everyone should own. The film JoJo Rabbit quotes one of the poems and it’s one of my favorite lines ever as well:

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

5. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz – Short, sweet, spiritual and practical – four of my favorite qualities in literature! For those of you who just can’t wait to read the whole thing, the four agreements are: Be impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. Always do your best.

These next five spiritual books are a bit larger but worth the read

6. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – I just love it and knew I would need to own it to refer back to again and again rather than rent from the library to read once.

7. A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle – I started with listening to the full podcast series Oprah and Eckhart did years ago when this book came out. I bought the book but didn’t read it for a long time. My toxic trait is buying books years before I will ever actually read them haha! It was worth the wait.

8. A Course In Miracles

A Course In Miracles – Designed to cover one lesson per day over the course of an entire year, and interestingly I just happened to resolve to study it in 2020. We can all agree that 2020 did not feel miraculous from a global perspective, but some pretty incredible personal things did happen that year. I also liked having the structure and consistency of a daily spiritual insight and reflection period.

9. Journey of Souls by Michael Newton

Journey of Souls by Michael Newton – Reading this years ago blew my mind wide open and was the first bit of evidence I had to support my lifelong feeling (despite religious upbringing) that we incarnate more than once. I ultimately trained with renowned past-life regression therapist and researcher Carol Bowman, to facilitate past-life regressions for clients.

10. Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach – This is such a great example of the intersection of spiritual and cognitive behavioral coaching that we do at Umoya Institute. Acceptance is not acquiescence or condoning, but is an essential first step in shifting our thoughts, feelings and experiences.