Books that shape life values: a lifelong reading list

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 compu…

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. 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. Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

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