The Seven Storey Mountain
The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders—the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. At the abbey, he wrote this extraordinary testament, a unique spiritual autobiography that has been recognized as one of the most influential religious works of our time. Translated into more than twenty languages, it has touched millions of lives.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
4mentions
4people
2015–2022years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Besides Dostoevsky, there is abundant wisdom and deep truths to be found in the classics of Christianity. The apologetics of C.S. Lewis (Screwtape Letters, The Problem with Pain, The Great Divorce), Augustine's Confessions and City of God, Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton and G.K. Chesterton's Everlasting Man.
These are seldom read (or known) by young people today and I see that as a tragedy. Western spirituality was demolished and nothing substantial has emerged to fill the void left, besides a coterie of self-help charlatans and intellectual tricksters, with the predictable results that we see all around us today.
This is also something that Nassim Taleb (a voracious reader and lifelong student of the Western classics but also an Orthodox Christian) frequently outlines.
- A couple related suggestions: - https://www.amazon.com/Seeking-God-Way-St-Benedict/dp/081461... - If you're religious, this book is great. If you're not, I think you can still take away from it the values of balance in life, being open to life's changes, and doing daily routines with love. - https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Storey-Mountain-Thomas-Merton/d... - It's meant by the author as a sort of confessions for the 20th century. Also, Merton lived a pretty interesting life, so it's an entertaining story from that stand point.
Generally, what I've found is that most helpful introspection books say a lot about getting out of one's own head and focusing on one's relationship with others (and, for the religious, one's relationship with God).
- For anyone looking to learn more about Trappists, "The Seven Storey Mountain" by Thomas Merton is quite a famous account of the life of a Trappist monk.
- I've curated my 2020 list over the last few months, eventually splitting it in two; 2021 has been started, but below is my 2020 list.
Brave New World
Catcher in the Rye (3rd read)
Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
War and Peace
Catch-22
Stranger in a Strange Lan
The Hobbit (3rd read)
The Illiad
The Odessey
Walden
Leisure, The Basis of Culture
The Seven Storey Mountain
Confessions
The City of God
Ways of Life St Augustine
Catechism of the Catholic Church
These Truths
Battle Cry of Freedom
The Complete Guide to Fly Fishing
The Lure and Lore of Trout Fishing
The Duck Huntingest Gentlemen
Related
The Great Divorce
5 recommend · 13
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
8 recommend · 25
The Everlasting Man
12 recommend · 19
Orthodoxy
22 recommend · 44
The Screwtape Letters
18 recommend · 45
Walden
49 recommend · 148
The Wisdom of the Desert
4 recommend · 4
