Welcome back to Book Break! This video is all about books for morning people. We made a video
last week on books for night owls so I will leave the link to that video in the description box
below, but now early birds it is your time to shine! All of these are books that I think are
perfect for reading early in the morning while you're waiting for everyone else to wake up. So
the first book i've got here is Ten to Zen by Owen O'Kane. This is a great way to start your morning.
It's a little ten minute routine for your mind to start your day in the right headspace. So
the routine uses a combination of mindfulness, CBT, psychotherapy and EMDR therapy which is
eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, so it's a really useful therapy for trauma and
also for panic disorders. So it's basically like a 10 minute workout for your mind each morning,
which is just as important if not more important than a workout for your body.
So if you are a morning person who already has a really great morning routine and you feel up
and ready to start your day, this I think is the perfect thing to do absolutely first thing,
so that even when you move on to your morning washing routine or having your breakfast, you're
already in this really calm happy headspace. And then Daily Rituals by Mason Currey is a really
fascinating glimpse into the daily rituals of loads of really successful people. So maybe
you'll find some inspiration in here for things to add into your own morning routine. So for example,
did you know that Benjamin Franklin took daily naked air baths? Maybe something you
want to give a try. Gertrude Stein could only ever write for 30 minutes at a time,
whereas Freud likes to work for 16 hours every day, which sounds exhausting. Edith Sitwell
would have been really good at lockdown life because she did her best work in bed.
And there's also Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey, which I will link to below as well,
which focuses on the daily rituals of successful creative women. So you never know, you might find
your new morning routine in here. Something that I have recently added to my routine is colouring,
so this is The Mindfulness Moments colouring book. A really really relaxing way to start your day. I
mean look how gorgeous these pages are. And it also includes little mindfulness activities for
you to try. Adult colouring books have been really popular for a few years now, but I love that
this one is really focusing on the anti-stress aspect of it. Then I've got a fascinating one,
In Love with the World by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche who is a Buddhist monk who chose to set out on a
four-year wandering retreat to really learn more about himself. But just three weeks in he became
very very ill and nearly died, so the book is all about everything he learned from this journey and
this near-death experience, and the really joyful approach to life that he took from it. So a fab
book full of shimmering loveliness. Look at that. Inside and out a lovely book to read early in the
morning just as the sun is coming up to really appreciate the beauty of our world every day.
And then to do some self-discovery of your own, Journey by Paolo Coelho is a journal of discovery,
so a really lovely thing to fill out just a few pages maybe every morning. It's all about really
looking at yourself and reflecting on yourself and your life. So here's an example page. How
do you express your power? And we have a lovely quote here from Paolo Coelho himself and then you
can use this page to really think about how you express your power. Such a wonderful way to start
your day, because then by the time you get up you're feeling so ready and powerful for the day.
And every page has a really different theme, so I think a really wonderful journey to go on with
yourself. And then a whole other area that's perfect for morning people is short stories,
or novellas maybe, something short that you can read just one of every morning as part of your
routine, or something to read while you're waiting for everyone else to wake up and join you. So I've
got a gorgeous short story collection here, The Short, The Long and The Tall by Jeffrey Archer.
Jeffrey Archer is beloved for his short stories, and this is such a gorgeous book. On every page
you have these beautiful illustrations by Paul Cox to really really bring the stories to life,
so just a wonderful way to start your day. And then continuing with the short books or novellas
I have here A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler which is set in nature. And I think that morning people
in general are the people who are going to get the best chance to get friendly with nature. You are
the people who see the sun in its whole journey across the sky, you are the ones most likely to go
for a quiet walk by yourself before everyone else wakes up, so books set in nature I think really
appeal to a lot of morning people. A Whole Life is about Andreas who is born and lives his whole
life in the Austrian Alps. He has two major events that happen to him, and the book covers these and
also spans the simple quiet life that he leads in between. It's a really simple and beautiful book,
The Little Prince by Antoine de-Saint Exupery is set up in the stars, so you might think
that makes it better suited for the video for night owls where I did include other
books set in space, in the stars, but I think the hopefulness and parable-like quality of this one
makes it such a lovely morning read. So night owls or morning people both get their times of
solitude, but whereas night owls like to wile away their hours on their own in the dark,
morning people are up early waiting peacefully for someone to come and join them. So I think that
this story of a little prince living on a planet all on his own and waiting for a friend is such a
lovely fable to read early in the morning, to fill you with wonder at the day that's about to start.
And talking of solitude, The Art of Solitude is an anthology of classic writing, all about the
art of being on your own. And these were collected and edited by Zachary Seager, and first of all is
just a beautiful book, a lovely little gift book, a lovely book to have on your bedside table to
pick up first thing in the morning. So you'll find in here a mix of essays, autobiographical pieces,
short stories and poetry, all offering different interpretations of what it means to spend time on
your own. Or maybe while you're waking up with the sun, you might want to read the latest book
from Kazuo Ishiguro who is an amazing writer. His latest book is called Klara and the Sun,
and it's about an artificial intelligence who loves the sun. Kazuo Ishiguro is such an amazing
and such a versatile writer, he writes in so many different genres, so many different spaces,
but what all of his books have in common is allowing you to really reflect on what it
means to be human, so that might be something you want to spend your morning reading time
pondering. And then I also have a recommendation from Elle, the other half of the Book Break team,
who is a self-proclaimed morning person and hasn't been able to be on the channel in person for ages
while we've been working from home, and we miss her! I will link below to all of the videos where
she came onto the channel to play games, but for now the best we can do is have a special
recommendation from her. So that is Forest of Wool and Steel by Natsu Miyashita, which is about
a piano tuner in training. And when I was looking up a bit more about this book I found a quote that
made me so want to read it. It said that it's a warm and mystical story for the lucky few who
have found their calling, and for the rest of us who are still searching. And the searching part
sounds a lot like how I spend my early mornings. And then finally one more recommendation,
just so you can feel a little bit smug about all of that restful sleep you're getting while
the night owls are still awake, a book on why we dream. It's called Why We Dream by Alice Robb.
So this book explains why dreaming matters, why it's so important, and even how we can
improve our dreams. Dreams can help us process grief and trauma, they can alert us subconsciously
to things going on within ourselves, but this is all grounded in scientific research, so a really
fascinating book. So let us know in the comments below, are you a night owl or a morning lark?
I will link here to our video on books for night owls, and I will also link to a playlist of all of
our guide to life videos, maybe some more things you morning people might want to incorporate into
your daily routines. So click through and have a browse and we'll see you next time!