Reddit reviews Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained (SkyLight Illuminations)

The only one I can help you with is religion. For Christianity, I always suggest The Bible. I know this is obvious, but it seems that very few people read it from cover to cover. This may be going away from what you want, though. Personally, I read The Bible as literature, so that does, for me, place it in fiction. If you want an atheist perspective, I highly recommend The God Delusion; for some shorter pieces, I think one should look at Existentialism is a Humanism (if you like this read, it is basically taken from his book Being and Nothingness). If you want to get into some Asian faith, maybe get a copy of the Tao Te Ching to better understand Taoism. Just to add another, and this is one of my favorites; look at Food of the Gods. This is a really interesting read about how substances have affected cultures and their beliefs. It ranges from different foods to the most illicit intoxicants. For me, it really gave me a greater perspective of the uses and benefits to "drugs" that go beyond taking them simply for a good time. If any of these interest you, I can list more for what specifically interests you. It's not much, but I minor in religious studies, so I guess I have a decent grasp on what is worth one's time.

I'm working slowly through the Tao Te Ching. I will never truly get it, but perhaps I can smooth the stone of my understanding.

This is the copy I own, and it's great. I read this each night along with Buddhist Boot Camp by Timber Hawkeye, another excellent book. I just picked up the stoic book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, so I'll be reading that next. Also plan on getting The Dalai Lama's Cat, that should be great, hahaha.

> I mean with zen he even made it clear that in Japan they sit and sit and sit. Formal zazen. And that he wasn't a fan of that style of zen. He then went on to share the older chan Chinese Zen

You mean the one 'officially' founded by Bodhidharma, famous for allegedly having sat in front of a wall for years? If you are interested in Chan you are better off reading Cleary and people like Sheng Yen. Cleary is good for Taoism as well. He also regularly warns against certain cultic practices involving an undue focus on sitting, stupidly 'emptying' and surpressing the mind, etc etc. You might find his work interesting.

Btw if you are interested in a 'practical' translation of the Tao Te Ching I can recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Ching-Annotated-Explained-Illuminations/dp/1594732043

Since you are interested in stories, I will just add that Cleary has whole anthologies of Zen, Chan and Taoist stories. There are also translators like "Red Pine" who should have some nice translations of various Chan and Taoist texts. Just throwing this in here. It might benefit someone.

Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained (SkyLight Illuminations) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594732043/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_Z.RQub1NS07Q4

Favorite translations of the Tao Te Ching, anyone?

If you're only going to read one, my suggestion is Derek Lin's annotated translation. It's dreadful poetry, but explains the concepts and messages of the verses (some of which are quite alien) well and concisely.