There are currently four books that I consider to be my all-time favorite ones. If my house were on fire these are the books I would grab on the way out, even though theyre probably quite easy to replace.
They are:
The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart
The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
Our Universe by Roy A Gallant
The following excerpts are from The Tao of Pooh. From a chapter titled Bisy Backson (my favorite one). This is something Ive been meaning to share for sometime. I wish I could make you read the whole chapter, but youll just have to go out and buy the book for that.
There was a man who disliked seeing his footprints and his shadow. He decided to escape from them, and began to run. But as he ran along, more footprints appeared, while his shadow easily kept up with him. Thinking he was going too slowly, he ran faster and faster without stopping, until he finally collapsed from exhaustion and died.
Heres another:
Ouch! said Pooh, landing on the floor.
Thats what happens when you go to sleep on the edge of the writing table. I said. You fall off.
Just as well, said Pooh.
Whys that? I asked.
I was having an awful dream, he said.
Oh?
Yes. Id found a jar of honey, he said, rubbing his eyes.
Whats awful about that? I asked.
It kept moving, said Pooh. Theyre not supposed to do that. Theyre supposed to sit still.
Yes, I know.
But whenever I reached for it, this jar of honey would sort of go someplace else.
A nightmare. I said.
Lots of people have dreams like that, I added reassuringly.
Oh, said Pooh. About Unreachable jars of honey?
About the same sort of thing, I said. Thats not unusual. The odd thing, though, is that some people live like that.
Why? asked Pooh.
I dont know. I said. I suppose it gives them Something To Do.
It doesnt sound like much fun to me, said Pooh.
No, it doesnt. A way of life that keeps saying, Around the next corner, above the next step, works against the natural order of things and makes it so difficult to be happy and good that only a few get to where they would naturally have been in the first place --Happy and Good-- and the rest give up and fall by the side of the road, cursing the world, which is not to blame but which is there to help show the way.
Those who think that the rewarding things in life are somewhere beyond the rainbow-
Burn their toast a lot, said Pooh.
I beg your pardon?
They burn their toast a lot, said Pooh.
I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I fact I think Im just going to buy fifty copies and give them out as Christmas and birthday gifts to everyone I know, just to get them to read it. And if they dont, then I can just roll it up and smack them over the head with it until they do.
Whatever I going to go practice some Taoism by not washing my dirty dishes. 
Kisses