When I find the opportunity to chat with a stranger for an extended period of time, one question I like to ask is, “what book has influenced you the most?” Most people don’t read much and say something generic, or provide TV and music recommendations instead. But occasionally, I meet an avid reader, and when they deliberate and recommend a book, and I see that this book has truly touched them, I’ll buy it and give it a go. Bonus points if I’ve never heard of it before.

I’ve read three books this year from recommendations like these: two from patients, one from a colleague. One was a lovely short non-fiction piece called The Listening Book by W.A. Mathieu, which helped spark my experiment in open-earedness. Another was a collection of short stories by sci-fi author Ted Chiang called Stories of Your Life and Others, of which my favourite is the Tower of Babylon, a dystopian take on the Biblical story of Babel. The last was a fiction piece called The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Dauod. This is a sequel to The Stranger by Albert Camus, written from the perspective of the victim’s brother. I reread The Stranger followed by The Meursault Investigation and the dyad provides a wonderfully nuanced picture of the absurdist philosophy.

All these texts were fine by themselves, but were elevated by the fact of their reverence by people I barely knew. In reading these books, I felt connected to these fellows on a level unattainable by conversation. A favourite book is a very personal thing, I think, and when someone else receives this offering as a recommendation, your souls gently overlap. As your world expands with reading these books, the people tied to them become part of your world also.

One of the greatest gifts of reading is the ability to enter different worlds. Not only the author’s world, but fellow readers’ worlds as well.