By Jilles, new Consciousness Buyer in Amsterdam

Taking over a section as a buyer can sometimes be a challenge, because all of a sudden you have to know everything about a subject you know nothing about. Just think about buying for the Science section when you have a creative soul – an almost impossible combination. For me taking over the Consciousness section from Femke was moving into the house I already lived in. Of course I don’t know how many books of certain titles sell in a week or a month, but learning that, to me, is peanuts compared to buying Science books.

The reason for this article is to let you know – if you are interested in living and becoming more conscious – what the best books are in the Consciousness section. Many books have been written about this subject, but not all of them explain it as well as the titles on this list below. It’s the best of the best if I may say so myself.

The best book I read in the last couple of years about awareness is The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. Published in 2007 it only recently appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List a couple of months ago after an interview with Oprah on ‘Super Soul Sunday’.

A Return to Love, the classic by Marianne Williamson, stays an amazing read. Inspired by A Course of Miracles, Marianne makes these teachings so much more accessible in her upbeat an perky writing style. With a bit of luck she will come to Amsterdam in the summer of this year and the ABC will organize a lecture. We will keep you posted on that.

A Thousand Names For Joy is the only book by Byron Katie (well actually her husband Stephen Mitchell wrote it) that is not about the technique of The Work. This book a but her thoughts on certain excerpts from the Tao Te Ching. Her answers are deep and profound, and show the more philosophical part of Katie that is sometimes missing in her other books.

Practicing The Power of Now is not just a rehash of The Power of Now which is in a question and answer form, but a book in its own right and actually even better, because the ideas that Tolle explains here are more focused and resonate deeper than in the question and answer format. Every sentence in this book is a lesson in itself, so the fact that this book is 140 pages, makes it a huge read that will last for months.

In the late nineties Paul Ferrini published four books about the teachings of Christ in the same vein of A Course in Miracles that together where called Reflections of the Christ Mind books. Now published in one volume under the title The Gospel According to Jesus, this is a collection that is so inspiring and has so many entrance points to start living a life based on love that it is almost a sin to not have it. Should the title put you off, just know that these books have nothing to do with the Jesus that the church preaches about.

One of my all time favourite Buddhist writers is Pema Chödrön, and especially her book When Things Fall Apart. This is classic Buddhist teaching but with the sensibility of a Western woman who doesn’t pretend to be anything else than a divorced American housewife who became a Buddhist. The depth with which she explains sometimes difficult subjects is her power. This is a woman who tells you to “lean into the pain” when you want to grow in life.

If meditation is your thing, a book you don’t want to miss is Turning the Mind into an Ally by Sakyong Mipham. This young Buddhist master really knows what he is talking about. In his other book Running With the Mind of Meditation he combines his love for running with meditating, creating a really interesting new way of looking at meditating…and running.

The new kid on the block is Jeff Foster with his really interesting book The Deepest Acceptance which basically deals with only one thing: accepting what is. Simple lesson, very difficult to actually practice. He explains really well how we all live a story we all made up and what we have to do – nothing! – to get out of that made up reality.

The most interesting part of Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself is not so much to part about the law of attraction in this book by Joe Dispenza, but how to break the habit of being yourself. He delves into the connection between the body and the mind, how toxic we have made our own body by the thoughts we think, and of course what to do about this. Very interesting stuff.

No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten is a real gem, published in 2007 by a small publishing company and picked up this year by big publisher Random House to be published this summer. This is a combination of Jeff Foster and Joe Dispenza but from a Buddhst perspective. Very clear but dense writing, so every sentence is a gem.

You can find all these titles in the White Room on the second floor of our Amsterdam store. Most of them are also part of the collection in our store in The Hague. Enjoy these beautiful books!