Gene “Malice†Thornton’s Top 5 Books for Spiritual Growth
In addition to a new career path, rapper-turned-author Malice (born Gene Elliott Thornton, Jr.) the critically acclaimed lyricist has also gained a new spiritual connection. This new perspective on life is evident in his debut novel, Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind, and Naked, which was named after a verse in the book of Revelations. BlackEnterprise.com recently caught up with Thornton, who shared his top five books for spiritual growth. —Anslem Samuel
In addition to a new career path, rapper-turned-author Malice (born Gene Elliott Thornton, Jr.) the critically acclaimed lyricist has also gained a new spiritual connection. This new perspective on life is evident in his debut novel, Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind, and Naked, which was named after a verse in the book of Revelations. BlackEnterprise.com recently caught up with Thornton, who shared his top five books for spiritual growth. —Anslem Samuelmore
BLINK BY MALCOLM GLADWELL
“I like Blink because it teaches you how to pay attention to your subconscious. What I learned from the book is that the reason you feel the way you feel about a certain thing comes from something, whether your regular conscious is able to pick up on it or not it deserves that you pay attention to it… It’s a card theory. [Gladwell] had these deck of cards. One was the winning deck, one was the losing deck and you would bet your money. Before you actually figured out which was the losing hand you would get nervous, get anxious, your palms would get sweaty and that was like your body telling you something’s not right. A lot of times you feel like something is not right there’s a reason you feel that way, so pay attention to it. I think that book has definitely sharpened me a little bit, you know, more just to really pay attention to my subconscious. You don’t always have to see what’s wrong to go off of how you feel sometimes.â€
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THE SEVEN SPIRITUAL LAWS OF SUCCESS BY DEEPAK CHOPRA
“I like that book because when I read it, [Chopra] touched on a lot of the things I felt made me successful and it kind of shed some light as to who I am and why I’m in the position that I am today. Because I definitely know I am successful and the things I paid a lot of attention to, the principles he spoke about and one of which is if you take something… You know, everybody has a gift. If you use that gift and you use it to benefit humanity all of your wealth and all that stuff comes into play after you do what it is you can do and what you can enjoy and share it and use it to help someone eventually you can be successful.â€more
48 LAWS OF POWER BY ROBERT GREENE
“It’s a book that I’ve read, but I just feel like it’s too cutthroat. I feel like it may work in society, but I feel like you definitely sacrifice…I guess, a loving, embracing… You sacrifice a connection or emotion that I think we’re suppose to have towards each other. If you’re just trying get ahead and you’re just trying to win, yeah, all those things might work, but I don’t think I want to win at the expense of stepping on someone else. That’s just not me.â€
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WRETCHED, PITIFUL, POOR, BLIND, AND NAKED BY GENE ELLIOTT THORNTON, JR.
“My book is definitely needed at this time and for the hip-hop generation specifically. It’s not a book of, ‘This is how you should live your life.’ It’s not a book of, ‘This is what you need to do.’ It’s a book of what happened to Gene Thornton, decisions that he made, where it got him, and what it got him out of. There’s always that fork in the road and you can go down one way and you’re just doing what everyone else is doing, and you’re doing what you think the norm is, you’re doing what it is you want to do and a lot of times you’re putting on airs. You’re constantly wearing a façade and when you take that mask off, when you take the suit off it’s just so liberating and you never know you my find a better way of doing things, which was my case.â€
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