Philip S. Pang, MD
Cell 2 Soul. 2005 Winter; 1(4):a13
- The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
A toast to the imagination and to life.
- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
Life's meaning, questioned, answered, questioned.
- The Power of Patience by The Dalai Lama
What we should ask of ourselves; that thing called happiness.
- Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter Bernstein
Understanding human nature, our decisions.
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Heinlein's exercise in freeing the mind, best read when a teenager.
- You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen
A practical guide to understanding how not to let small people take you down.
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Harper Lee's guide to maintaining and relearning perspective in life.
- The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard
The reality and wonder of that thing called love, called being alive.
- Poems New & Collected 1957-1997: Wislawa Szymborska
Poems to live by, digest over a lifetime.
- The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Because you need to remember to go out and play.
In late 2005, the editors of Cell 2 Soul and Dermanities launched a new section, "Why Read? — Personal Canons," which is a forum to catalog those works of art which instruct and enrich us as care givers and individuals. We invited some friends, colleagues and teachers to share those they deem canonical — books, poems, the occasional movie to which they keep returning.
The background for these selections is found in a recent editorial entitled: Why Read? An Emerging Canon.
We welcome your Personal Canon. Please click on Canon Guidelines. Kindly follow the format you see here.