What Books Can I Read to Break Out of Loneliness

I have been taking this time during lockdown, our mandatory at-homeness during COVID-19, to do what I can by sharing with you some of my favorite books. These are books that have impacted me over the years.

So, here I am again to share with you my love of books.

I was listening recently to a podcast called “On Being.” If you haven’t heard it, it’s worth listening to.

They were interviewing someone who frequently mentioned the French philosopher, Montaigne. The podcast referenced that in English, we have a distinction between loneliness and solitude built into our language. 

Not all languages have this. It’s the same word for the act of being alone and the act of being lonely, and I think that that’s a really important distinction for a lot of us.

Just because you’re alone, just because you’re isolated, just because you’re away from others doesn’t mean that you are lonely, or that you are alone without support.

We’re all here for each other, and videos like the one below hopefully can help you feel that.

So, as he mentioned Montaigne—and he’s a huge fan of that philosopher—I thought, I’ve read a book by Montaigne, so I went and I dug it out.

However, I read it in French. You don’t have to be a geek like me and read it in French, but he’s got some really important and poignant things to say, and one of the quotes that was mentioned on the podcast was talking about our minds and how in our society our minds can also almost gallop away from us.

Our minds can be out of control and bogged down in the hustle and bustle of our busy lives.

Maybe your brain feels like that. Mine certainly does from time to time, and one of the things that I do recall about Montaigne, who was French nobility and was really on a search for what we would call today, in a postmodern world, “self-realization.”

He shares his thoughts. And this particular book in English is just called Essays, so you can look it up. It’s in the public domain, because it’s hundreds of years old at this point.

So, if you’re feeling like maybe you’d like to get some connection around solitude, this might be a way for you to read somebody else’s thoughts on what it is to be alone, how to deal with solitude, how we can really find ourselves in the quiet, and the kind of questions that we can ask ourselves.

So, that’s my book recommendation for today. French philosopher Montaigne and his book called Essays–in English.

What are you reading these days? I’d love to know.

Until next time, Happy Reading!