Ten books to read (or reread) in retirement

There are books that open at twenty and strike you. There are others that open at sixty and only then begin to make sense. Maturity is—among other good things—the age of reading better. You have a life behind you that gives texture to the pages. You have silence. You have the freedom to close the book that is not for you and return to the one that is. This is a list thought out slowly: ten books to read (or reread) in the next ten years. They are not the bestsellers, but they are the ones that yield the most.

To start the conversation with yourself

1. Marcus Aurelius — Meditations

A Roman emperor, on campaign, writing to himself each night. It is one of the most intimate and serene texts ever written. It is about how not to become exasperated, how to accept what cannot be changed, how not to dwell more than necessary. It fits in a pocket, can be read in any order, and improves with every rereading.

2. Cicero — De Senectute (On Old Age)

Cicero wrote it at sixty-two, defending—against the common complaints of his time—that old age is the best age for many things: thinking, reading, conversing, deciding. We have spent twenty-one centuries without listening to this book properly.

To return to the big questions

3. Josef Pieper — Leisure: The Basis of Culture

The German philosopher defends something scandalous for our time: that leisure—understood as time dedicated to contemplation, not consumption—is the foundation of culture. For someone who has just retired, it is almost a manual.

4. Thomas Aquinas (selection) — Summa Theologiae

There is no need to read it entirely (it is thousands of pages). But there are selected editions—especially the questions on virtues, happiness, and the good—which are among the pinnacles of Western thought. Reading one article a day for a year changes the mind.

5. Romano Guardini — The Stages of Life

A 20th-century Italian theologian dedicates this short book to describing the different ages as distinct worlds. The section on maturity and old age is, without exaggeration, one of the finest things written about what you are living through.

Novel and memoir

6. Penelope Fitzgerald — The Bookshop

A short and luminous novel about a mature woman who opens a bookshop in an English coastal town. Almost nothing happens, yet everything happens. Reading for a winter evening with a blanket.

7. Marilynne Robinson — Gilead

One of the most beautiful novels written in the 21st century. It is the letter of an elderly Protestant pastor to his young son, whom he will not see grow up. About faith, about memory, about ordinary beauty. It is read slowly—it is meant for that—.

8. Stefan Zweig — The World of Yesterday

Zweig's memoirs, written just before his suicide in 1942, are a masterly portrait of what the Europe that was lost was like. An indispensable read to understand the 20th century—and a special book when one reaches an age where the personal intersects with the historical—.

Nature and beauty

9. John Muir — My First Summer in the Sierra

The father of American conservationism left this journal of a youth summer in Yosemite. It is nature, mysticism, and attention. If you are lost to haste, this book realigns you.

10. María Zambrano — Claros del bosque (Clearing in the Forest)

To finish, a Spanish voice. Zambrano writes in a prose that is difficult at first and wonderful once you enter. It speaks of poetic reason, of silence, of the clearing as the place where truth appears. A book to reread for years.

Reading in maturity is not a review. It is an encounter.

How to read these books (without getting overwhelmed)

Three pieces of advice given by almost everyone who has read extensively in maturity:

• Thirty minutes a day, no more. Ten pages well-read are worth more than fifty rushed through.

• Take notes. Keep a notebook by your side, with sentences that have marked you, doubts, associations. What is not named is forgotten.

• Read them with someone. A partner, a friend, a book club. Conversation doubles the book.

If you feel like reading them in company and with an orderly plan, on the Thenomba Senior journey there is a reading plan for each of the twelve stages, prepared by our partners, with many of these books among those recommended. It is one of the easiest—and most beautiful—ways to not read in solitude.

Cover image generated with artificial intelligence.