What books should someone read to learn how to be open minded?
I read all 13 answers (so far written), and they seemed to have missed the point (to some point). The prime desire of most people is to be comfortable, no matter what personality theory is your favourite. This means absence of mental confusion, dissonance and conflict. Some people are so close-minded that they will engage in catastrophic physical conflict rather than have their comfortable conceptions disregarded. The past is to most people a simpler time. But what most contemporaries fail to understand is that the time then seems simpler because now the individual has experienced the results of actions made then, and conjecture what different results might be more favourable now if the actions then were different. Since you cannot travel to the past to change now, your choice is either that the present is not really different in essence, and so the we should have done this instead philosophy applies (and that includes repeating mistakes); or change the present so it responds to past solutions. I have interacted with people who were resident in mental institutions, and with people who managed multi-million dollar companies successfully (and would have been in those mental institutions if they did not have staff who managed to solve their problems), and could not comprehend - and sometimes not even hear - anything that contradicted their mindsets. This generally did not cause them problems, unless they were faced with an issue that went beyond their mindsets. I can think of no one books that will open a closed mind. I have suggested books I recently read to others, which showed in passing (as a minor theme) how a slightly different view of an issue could produce a better understanding. Invariably, even though those books were quite readable even without that minor theme, they were returned with the comment I couldnt get into that book. Rather than a book, you can use a technique I stole from architect Frank Lloyd Wright (which I read as a teenager in an article about him), which suggested a yes, but incremental approach. The example given was in dealing with a developer who wanted a large, square, office tower designed. Wright suggestions began along the lines of yes, right-angled corners would be very functional, but wouldnt a circular building offer more advantages? Alternatively, attempt to add minor changes to a persons reasoning in such a way that the person thinks they are his/hers, is another successful way of introducing incremental change. If all else fails, try using any large book by applying it with force to the head of the person. It may not open the mind, but it should close the mouth for a while.