Books for children (recommended by Dm. Morozov)

Article by Dmitry Morozov

​For me, reading is a way to live several lives, to try out different paths, to gather the best material for building the Image of the World, corresponding to the tasks of personal self-improvement. Based on this task, I selected books for my son Svyatoslav. For those who are interested, I recommend:

From 4 to 7 years old, an adult reads and comments:

• Tales of Pushkin, L. Tolstoy, Gauf
• Marshak’s poems
• The Jungle Book (Mowgli)
• Bambi,
• N. Nosov «Dunno», etc.
• «Gulliver’s Travels» (adapted)
• «Robinson Crusoe»

I do not advise reading numerous modern fantasy for children. These books lead away from the real laws on which the life of man and society is built, which means they disorient the developing personality. Take books that are closer to real life, to the challenges that you will face.

Books read by Svyatoslav on his own:

from 8 years

• Seton Thomson — stories about animals,
• «Adventures of Tom Sawyer»
• «Bogatyrs» — 2 volumes K. Pleshakov — I highly recommend finding it!
• History textbooks for grades 5-7 with my comments
• Textbooks of natural history and biology for grades 3-7
• Three musketeers
• Lord of the Rings
• Harry Potter
• L. Voronkova «Trace of fiery life», etc.
• Maria Semenova — «Valkyrie» and the whole cycle about the Vikings. «Wolfhound» — only the first part, I do not advise the rest. Better than The Witcher.

List of books that my older children read with pleasure

From 13 — 14 years old

• A. Tolstoy — «Nikita’s Childhood»
• A. Green — «Scarlet Sails»
• Stevenson — «Black Arrow», «Treasure Island»
• «White Squad» Conan Doyle
• Jules Verne, Jack London, Kipling — «Kim», H. G. Wells,
• Angelica and the whole cycle (good for girls, but requires mom’s comments)
• Mary Stuart «Hollow Hills», etc.

In the 11th grade —

• «It’s hard to be a god» and, in general, the Strugatskys.
• «The Razor’s Edge» «On the Edge of the Oikumene» — I. Efremov, after watching the film «Alexander the Great» — «Thais of Athens».
• «Shogun», «Tai Pan» — J. Klevel — then watching TV shows (after, not before!)

With my comments, “The Master and Margarita”, “War and Peace”, “Quiet Flows the Don” were read with great pleasure. After the book, it is useful to watch a movie — all together and with a discussion!

Somehow, it’s even inconvenient to write about it, but we recommend starting to read world literature from the novels The Master and Margarita, Quiet Flows the Don, War and Peace, The White Guard, The Brothers Karamazov, as well as I. Bunin, A. Chekhov, Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin.

If you have the impression that you have already read all this in your school years, then anyway, try to re-read it. Most likely, it turns out that due to your youth and lack of life experience, you have missed a lot of things. I re-read War and Peace at the age of 45 and was shocked by the power of Tolstoy. I don’t know what kind of person he was, but he knew how to reflect life in all its contradictions like no one else.

If you get tired at work and are generally not yet accustomed to serious reading, then you can start by reading the Strugatskys, «Inhabited Island» and «Monday Starts on Saturday» — for children and youth, but if you have not read before, then I recommend it at any age. And only then «Roadside Picnic» and «Doomed City» and others.

Books that help to overcome the instinct of a loser and a coward in oneself, a hymn to work and risk, plus an educational program on the economy of capitalism — J. Level: «Shogun», «TaiPen». Mitchell Wilson — «My Brother Is My Enemy», «Live With Lightning»

In terms of self-knowledge, the works of the ethnopsychologist A. Shevtsov helped me a lot to rethink. If you understand his unusual terminology, it’s great, although not familiar.

If you haven’t read books related to spirituality at all before, then still don’t start with Maigret’s “Anastasia Chronicles” or free “tickets to bliss” distributed by shaved Hare Krishnas, and even more so numerous books written by our compatriots, under the names “Rama ”, “Sharma”, etc. There is more spirituality in the novels of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy or the lives of Russian saints. But if you are looking for “lightly spiritual” literature, then read R. Bach “The Seagull named Jonathan Livingston”, “Illusions” or P. Coelho — “The Alchemist”, but I don’t recommend it in large doses, otherwise you can stay like that at this level.

I recommend starting the search for oneself and the meaning of life with the books of Nikolai Kozlov — written with humor and to the point. He does not write about the spiritual, but teaches him to see the real world and not to deceive himself. And this is the first step to the higher.

Malyavin’s books — «Confucius» and the translation of the biography of the Taoist patriarch Li Peng. According to Qi Gong — books by master Chom (he is ours, Russian, so his experience is more edible).

It is better to read books that are serious and demanding. But they bring to a new level of awareness of themselves and the world. Among them, in my opinion:

• «Living Ethics».
• G. Hesse’s «Game of Beads», and, however, the whole.
• G. Marquez «One Hundred Years of Solitude».
• R. Rolland «Life of Ramakrishna».
• «Twiceborn» is mine, but not bad either.

Spiritual literature, in the protective coloring of fiction —

• R. Zelazny «Prince of Light», G. Oldie «Messiah clears the disc», «The hero must be alone.»
• Five volumes F. Herbert «Dune».
• K. Castaneda. (except for the first volume — there it is more about drugs to increase circulation).

About psychology — books by N. Kozlov — easily and with humor. For those who have a penchant for the philosophy of A. Maslow, E. Fromm, L. N. Gumilyov, Ivan Efremov — «The Hour of the Bull» and «The Andromeda Nebula» — these books are much smarter than it is customary to notice.

D. Balashov «The Burden of Power», «Holy Russia», and all other volumes. A very complex language, stylized as Old Russian, but if you break through the verbal delights, then this is the best that has been written about our history.

And whoever writes about our history, the classics still have a taste of truth and life:

• M. Sholokhov «Quiet Don»
• A. Tolstoy «Walking through the agony».

According to modern history —

• Solzhenitsyn «The Gulag Archipelago», «In the First Circle».
• «White Sun of the Desert» — the book is even better than the movie!

Just real literature

• R. Warren «All the King’s Men».
• D. Steinbeck «The Winter of Our Anxiety», «Cannery Row» — not at all spiritual, but everything is about life and brilliantly written.
• T. Tolstaya «Kys»
• V. Pelevin «The Life of Insects», «Generation of Pepsi», and much more.

Once again, I will make a reservation, I have listed far from everything, and the ones listed vary greatly in quality, but they do not argue about tastes.