5 books that teach you how to die well — by living better

Every now and then, if you’re lucky, you’ll encounter a book that changes your life. History’s great novels have earned a reputation in this regard. While the stories of Homer, Virginia Woolf, Fyodor Dostoevsky, or Jane Austen may not be for everyone all the time, an education in the classics can change people in profound ways and give our minds a meeting place in the world of ideas.
Some books take a more direct approach: They explicitly aim to change how readers live their lives. They may be shelved in philosophy, psychology, or self-help, but their goal is to help you find perspective, search for meaning, or guide you to find your purpose so that when the end inevitably comes, you can look back on your life with gratitude and contentment.
Here are five books that have helped millions of people do just that. Use them as you will.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (1946)

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but