Five books that changed Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert is the best-selling author of the memoir Eat, Pray, Love and the recent novel The Signature of All Things.

One of five books that changed her, as shared with the Sydney Morning Herald:

The Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

I am never very far from a copy of this book. I find something incredibly soothing about the notion of a long-dead Roman emperor worrying about the same stuff I worry about - namely, how are we to be? What makes a good person? What is honour? What is duty? How do we endure disappointment? How do we find comfort despite chaos and impermanence? He does not necessarily always have the answers, but the eternity of the questions themselves always calms me (and reminds me yet again why they call the study of classics "the humanities".)

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue