As much as I have written about pain and addiction care over the past three decades, daily life for most of my readers is about even larger values. This current conversation is about values that may change and shape our lives.

I grew up in an age before computers, much less electronic books or Kindle or the internet. I am a dinosaur when it comes to remembering too many darned passwords these days. But I think that physically tangible books may have given me at least a few advantages over my grandkids.

Unlike many young people these days (and some of their parents), I am not a slave to social media or my iPhone. Nor am I a passive consumer of entertainment. I have instead become a writer in multiple fields (medicine and patient advocacy, military science, politics, photographic art, travel, human relationships, education, and others). I am a creator and at least on a small scale, an influencer through the written word.

At last count, my published work and online postings during 60 years have mounted up to something over three million words. When my wife encourages me to simplify the eventual liquidation of our estate by our kids, giving away most of the over 2,000 books still in our home library, it feels to me like parting in anger from old friends.

When I walk into our favorite local used bookstore, I deeply inhale the smell of musty, yellowing paper with gusto. I miss browsing in the stacks of university libraries. When I think about books, I recognize that many of them have significantly formed my life values, far more than either of my parents ever did, or even my teachers.

I began reading at about age four, in Little Wonder Books that my mother bought at thrift stores (or maybe shoplifted, since we were church-mouse poor and living in a really rough part of town). By sixth grade, I was reading at the graduate school level. My sixth-grade book report discussed the huge trilogy U.S.A. by John Dos Passos. None of my classmates had a clue concerning what I was talking about when I tried to explain the book. They also pretty much missed out on Grapes of Wrath. Both books were just too foreign to their 12-year-old experience. Understandably, I was a lonely kid. Books became a refuge after I was unkindly teased about being a “Mister Encyclopedia.”

Not all of my reading was heavy. In seventh grade, I discovered science fiction, really good science fiction and fantasy in pulp magazines and what were then called Ace Double Novels. Each book cost 50 to 75 cents and provided two complete novels back-to-back. I filled a three-shelf bookcase with classics by Robert A. Heinlein, Robert Silverberg, Arthur C. Clarke, A. E. van Vogt, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Poul Anderson, Andre Norton, and many others. Four years later when I left home for college, my mom donated those books to a Goodwill store. Today I shudder to think that some volumes I had kept in mint condition might sell today to collectors for over 35 dollars each.

Beginning in 1970, David Weber’s 30-year series on Honor Harrington introduced me to one of the strongest military officers and heroines in all fiction. She became a role model in my own 21-year military career. I have tried actively to emulate the moral and ethical integrity that Harrington characterizes. These days I still read for pleasure, mostly on a Kindle that one of my daughters gave me for Christmas a few years ago, with print size expanded to accommodate my senior citizen eyesight.

Books other than science fiction, as well as those by science fiction authors, have also influenced my life values. Some of the following tomes might at least inform yours. For a few of those that follow below, I have read only extracts. But they were interesting enough that I put them on my bucket list. So maybe you will choose to do the same.

European and U.S. history and culture

• SPQR: a history of ancient Rome by Mary Beard
• The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman (selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time)
• The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski

Military history and fiction

• Books by Tom Clancy (many films made from his books are also fascinating)
• Books by W.E.B. Griffin (U.S. Marine Corps life)
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• On War by General Carl von Clausewitz (famous for “war is the continuation of diplomacy by other means”)
• Thirteen Days: a memoir of the Cuban missile crisis by Robert F. Kennedy
• Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester

U.S. and world politics

• Escape From Freedom by Erich Fromm (1940 and the rise of Nazism)
• The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence
• A World of Ideas: conversations with thoughtful men and women about American life today and the ideas shaping our future (1989) by Bill Moyers

Religion

• Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliot Friedman
• Paul and Jesus: how the apostle transformed Christianity by James D. Tabor
• The Jesus Dynasty: the hidden history of Jesus, his royal family, and the birth of Christianity by James D. Tabor
• The Noble Eightfold Path: way to the end of suffering by Bhikkhu Bodhi (an exploration of Zen Buddhism)

Psychology and psychiatry

• The Psychological Society: a critical analysis of psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and the psychological revolution by Martin L. Gross (1978)
• Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud (originally 1930)
• New Passages: mapping your life across time by Gail Sheehy
• A Theory of Human Motivation (two books) by Abraham H. Maslow (originally 1943)
• Games People Play: the basic handbook of transactional analysis by Eric Berne MD. These games include classics like “Why Don’t You, Yes But,” “See What You Made Me Do,” and “Look How Hard I’ve Tried.”

Medicine

• Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Robert S. Mendelsohn MD
• Anatomy of an Illness: as perceived by the patient by Norman Cousins

Philosophy

• Tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson by Mitch Albom
• Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

Poetry

• The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (among the most influential books in four generations of Western civilization)
• Complete Works of Robert Frost

Love and sexuality

• The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
• Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort MD
• My Secret Garden: women’s sexual fantasies by Nancy Friday

Speculative fiction

• Clan of the Cave Bear, Earth’s Children (series of six books) by Jean M. Auel
• The DaVinci Code (and other books) by Dan Brown

As I have written in some of my postings to social media, much of this long list of books might be reduced to three simple but profound admonishments concerning rules for living a moral and positive life:

• First, do no avoidable harm (derived from the Greeks).
• Second, do unto others as you would have them do unto you (from the Bible).
• Third: All other real and lasting rules of life are simply elaborations on these two.

Still, I offer this list of books to shape our lives and values. Enjoy.

Richard A. Lawhern is a nationally recognized health care educator and patient advocate who has spent nearly three decades researching pain management and addiction policy. His extensive body of work, including over 300 published papers and interviews, reflects a deep critique of U.S. health care agencies and their approaches to chronic pain treatment. Now retired from formal academic and hospital affiliations, Richard continues to engage with professional and public audiences through platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and his contributions to KevinMD. His advocacy extends to online communities like Protect People in Pain, where he works to elevate the voices of patients navigating restrictive opioid policies. Among his many publications is a guideline on opioid use for chronic non-cancer pain, reflecting his commitment to evidence-based reform in pain medicine.