57 Books Recommended by Yoko Ono

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Yoko Ono’s had a long and storied career as an avant-garde multimedia artist, author and peace activist. And at the age of 85, her dedication to spreading messages of love and understanding through the arts shows no sign of stopping. Throughout her life, Ono’s had a love affair with books that’s carried through much of her work.

In fact, Ono first met John Lennon while helping John Cage work on his 1969 book, Notations. A collection of graphical scores and holographs with text by over 200 composers, Ono first approached Paul McCartney for a possible submission. He declined but referred her to Lennon, who gave Ono his original handwritten lyrics for the Beatles song, “The Word.”

Speaking once of her and Lennon’s relationship, Oko said, “John and I felt that we were like people in an H. G. Wells story. Two people who are walking so fast that nobody else can see them.”

And recognizing the mercurial nature of the written word, and celebrating its evolutions, she mused, “People say that this new generation is so used to the Internet that their heads are already different. They can’t read a book from beginning to end. That is not a tragedy. The book changes form.”

Perhaps the best example of her elastic interpretation of books can be seen in her 1964 artist’s book Grapefruit (pictured above), which became famous as an early example of conceptual art. A “small but whimsical” book, it’s a collection of poetry, drawings, philosophical musings on life, and delightful activities for grown-ups. It came out over a decade after her first book, An Invisible Flower, a heartwarming tale she wrote and illustrated at the age of 19, and more than fifty years before its sequel, Acorn.

On the influential nature of reading, Ono says, “Words are power. And a book is full of words. Be careful what power you get from it. But know that you do.” Her selected titles largely deal with hope, the human condition, healthy living, clean eating and finding the strength to overcome life’s pain.

Read on for a list of books that made a difference to Yoko Ono, and complement with John Lennon’s Library.

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The Women by Hilton Als

“This is an incredibly powerful book. Once I started reading it, I had to go on reading until dawn. The author is so much in pain, his pain virtually gets under your skin as you read. For a know it all, I have surprised myself for having learnt so much from this book about us women. It was a humbling experience.” -YO

Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin & Rory Freedman

“This and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan are two great books for you to understand how to care about what you are eating and why.” -YO

The Ancient Art of Self-Healing by Yogi Bhajan and Siri Amir Singh Khalsa

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertold Brecht

Plundering Appalachia: The Tragedy of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining by Tom Butler & Doug Tompkins

“Once our valleys were green… now they look like the bomb-destroyed cities we created in Iraq. Buy this book and see what is quietly being done to middle America because of a few people’s greed.” -YO

Days That I’ll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono by Jonathan Cott

“Jonathan Cott is somebody we all know in our circle to be a quiet genius. Rolling Stone asked him to interview us a few times. This book is a collection of those interviews. Nothing more. Reading it, I thought “Wow, we weren’t bad at all.” Because most writers wanted to sensationalize us, thinking that if they didn’t do that, it might be boring – and nobody would buy the book! So their ‘interviews’ usually came out nothing like what we were like. I have never recommended any books about John and Yoko. But this book made me choke up. I heard John in my ears and felt him in my heart. This is a good book for Lennon fans. And I.. Well, I come out as the second banana (okay, okay!) You will get an inkling of two people in love, sometimes making daring remarks, yet not forgetting to protect each other in the interviews. In fact, this is really the way we were, folks! Have a good read.” -YO

What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite by David DiSalvo

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters by James W. Douglass

“I was crying reading the secret letter exchange Kruschev and John Kennedy quite extensively. Together, they thought they could create World Peace. They almost did, just before Kennedy was assassinated. If you want to read all the correspondence between those two, there is a separate 200 page book of it. This book only mentions a few. But it gives the picture of John Kennedy we didn’t know.” -YO

Classified Woman by Sibel Edmonds

“A tell-all book by a former FBI translator. A must-read. It’s frightening that this is the reality.” -YO

Healing Visualizations: Creating Health Through Imagery by Gerald Epstein M.D.

“Using the power of IMAGINE, you can improve your health and the health of others using Creative Visualisation. This is a book that gives you the practical usage of IMAGINING. It gives you titles like this: Depression, Diabetes, Dizziness, Fear, Ending a relationship… I am just putting them without any order, but you see that it will be so good if you can cure those symptoms without chemical drugs and/or an operation.

When I read what he claims you can do to fix a cataract without any operation, I was flabbergasted. At the same time, I really wished that I could have given the information to a friend of mine who recently went through a cataract operation. It’s incredible!” -YO

India – A Portrait by Patrick French

A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness by Nassir Ghaemi

“At first this book first gives you a ‘reader’s digest’ version of how the world leaders really were. That’s interesting enough. But it goes on to show you how the brain works when a person is depressed, and how to overcome it. It is fascinating and full of important information. I kept reading thinking “great to know the other side of our leaders we didn’t know.” But then, in the end, there is a surprise! It shows the current scientific findings of the link between depression and empathy, we knew only as a moral and idealistic trait. Now it seems they found a point of brain that corresponds to empathy, scientifically, which is connected to depression, its cause, and also as its cure.” -YO

Love Your Body by Louise Hay

“I recently shared this book with my daughter. Now we both read the affirmations daily. Love your body to make it happy and healthy and whole! Here’s an example of how easy it is to practice these ideas: I love to put my feet up at the end of the day and watch them looking kinda good. In my mind I say to them: ‘Thank you for taking me around for so many years to so many places—with happy steps. You’re the best!’ This is a very practical book. Every page just lists a part of your body and one or two lines of blessings you can repeat. Repeat out loud. When you need it quickly – like you had a rough night,  your kidney is hurting,  your liver is feeling heavy but you have to go into the subway/the tube as soon as you can –  go to the pages in Louise Hay and just bless your liver and kidney before your morning starts. Isn’t that great? Don’t feel guilty if you forget to do it! I forget, too, you know. But my liver and kidney seem to understand me by now, that I do care about them.” -YO

The Warmth of the Heart Prevents Your Body from Rusting – Ageing Without Growing Old by Marie de Hennezel

The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources by Michael T. Klare

“As Earth’s ever-decreasing non-renewable resources diminish, we must alter our consumption patterns or we will all end up with nothing. This book shows us where we are currently standing and the unfortunate reality we don’t want to face. Reading this book will make you not only face the horrors of reality but will make you feel that you want to work to make a good future.” -YO