Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

TSE

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
4,105
3,747
St. Paul, Minnesota
Anyone have any suggestions of books or biographies of people conquering life obstacles?

i've been ruminating a lot lately and need something to distract myself when I do.
 
Anyone have any suggestions of books or biographies of people conquering life obstacles?

i've been ruminating a lot lately and need something to distract myself when I do.

Would you like recommendations from the world of fiction, or recommendations for self-help books, or actual biographies of real people? Or would you prefer a spot of good, old-fashioned escapism - which is one of the reasons I read fantasy?
 
Would you like recommendations from the world of fiction, or recommendations for self-help books, or actual biographies of real people? Or would you prefer a spot of good, old-fashioned escapism - which is one of the reasons I read fantasy?

I'd like non-fiction biography, and I'd like not overly depressing stories... just a story of someone who overcame a lot, has an interesting story, and good ending. And is real.
 
I'd like non-fiction biography, and I'd like not overly depressing stories... just a story of someone who overcame a lot, has an interesting story, and good ending. And is real.

Alright.

Try Primo Levi's astounding, moving and very powerful (first) book, published in Europe, as 'If This Is A Man.' The original US edition - missing the point completely which, unfortunately, is not all that unusual - published it under the deplorable title 'Survival in Auschwitz'.
 
I'd like non-fiction biography...
You could give this a try.

http://www.amazon.com/What-Should-Do-My-Life/dp/0345485920/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

50 mini-biographies of people at a crossroads. A wide cross-section of real people in real situations. Easy to pick up and put down. I enjoyed it. Lots to reflect on.

I recognized several people (or rather "types") I knew in the book. Individuals desperately clutching for "success", but not really having their heart in it. Others not even understanding why they wanted "success" (or if they even really wanted it at all). Others starting to realize they'd been sold a dud definition of "success". Good material for reflection.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Probably not exactly what you're looking for, but Born to Run is what inspired me to start running a few years ago.
 
I'd like non-fiction biography, and I'd like not overly depressing stories... just a story of someone who overcame a lot, has an interesting story, and good ending. And is real.

A simple and fun read is books written by Peter Jenkins. As a young man he was sort of lost and wanting to find his own way. Thus, he decided to walk across America and take in all that the experience could bring. It's a neat and fun real human story.

"I started out searching for myself and my country," Peter Jenkins writes, "and found both." In this timeless classic, Jenkins describes how disillusionment with society in the 1970s drove him out onto the road on a walk across America. His experiences remain as sharp and telling today as they were twenty-five years ago -- from the timeless secrets of life, learned from a mountain-dwelling hermit, to the stir he caused by staying with a black family in North Carolina, to his hours of intense labor in Southern mills. Many, many miles later, he learned lessons about his country and himself that resonate to this day -- and will inspire a new generation to get out, hit the road and explore.

Link to his first book on Amazon
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.