War and Peace, Tolstoy. There are some tedious passages where Tolstoy develops a theory of history, but the realness of the characters, and their struggles to find themselves, is described better than any other book I've read. It's a beautiful story. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Don't need to be an alcoholic to see that our efforts to run and order our lives often can end up making us more miserable. Read the first 164 pages.
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