Yoko Ono's 56 Favorite Books Reveal Her Secrets to Longevity and More

Yoko Ono turned 93 in February 2026. Ono has long been a major figure in avant-garde art and radical peace activism. She emerged in the early 1960s with groundbreaking experimental art installations such as 1964’s Cut In, which invited audience members to cut pieces of her clothes off with scissors and is often interpreted as a reflection on femininity and vulnerability. She rose to international fame due to her relationship with John Lennon, and famously, the pair collaborated on Bed-In, an anti-war protest that involved the pair staying put in bed in their honeymoon suite. 

Over the years, Ono has continuously shared innovative art and music with the world. In 2007, she created the Imagine Peace Tower on an island near Reykjavík, Iceland, which shines a beam of light into the air and serves as both a memorial to Lennon and a symbol of world peace.

Ono’s favorite books reflect her unique worldview and include a mix of texts about spirituality, science, history, and philosophy. As the artist once said, “Words are power. And a book is full of words. Be careful what power you get from it. But know that you do.”

Yoko Ono’s Favorite Books on Health and Longevity

Many of Ono’s favorite books illuminate aspects of her perspective on health, the mind-body connection, and living a long life. On this subject, one of the books she has praised is 50 Secrets of the World’s Longest Living People by Sally Beare. 

“I am 77 years old and feeling better than ever. This book has proved to me that longevity has everything to do with one’s state of mind,” she wrote of the text. “I just make sure to release all my anger and resentment whenever it hits me, and take a walk. I also dance in my mind to keep myself in good health. Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life. The best advice is to do three things a day to make somebody happy. Do that for three months, and your life will be totally changed. These 77 years are just a prelude to my life!”

Another book that influenced Ono’s perspective on well-being is Louise Hay’s Love Your Body, which is based on the theory that self-love can influence physical health and healing. Ono shared that she and her daughter both read affirmations from the book every day. “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,” she reflected. “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!’” 

Ono has often reflected on how positive thinking and compassion for herself and others have helped her survive challenges, including the intense scrutiny she faced due to her relationship with Lennon. “The whole world hated me so much,” she wrote in an essay for The Times UK in 2004, reflecting on the backlash she experienced at the time. “If I am angry, it creates a poison in me. So, before I sleep I say ‘Bless…’ and the first name that comes to me. It’s usually the person hurting you.” Reciting these “blessings,” she continued, helps her to calm down and sleep well. 

Science and Politics

In addition to self-help and wellness books, Ono’s favorite reads contain hard-hitting histories and non-fiction works that expose various deep-rooted societal problems. She praised the book The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources, writing “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.” 

From neuroscience to histories of carbon, Ono’s recommended reads include deep dives into some of society’s major problems and some of the ways they might be fixed. One such book she recommended is Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

“This is a very important book. It is the only book about the oppression of [women] in Asia and Africa, so far that I have read, that gives the work of women turning the oppression into opportunity for them to create economic independence for them and for all women of the region,” Ono wrote of the text. “Every book on the same subject I’ve read just described the horrors. But this is about the women fighting back successfully without bloodshed! The title, taken from a Chinese proverb, says it all: ‘Women hold up half the sky.’ This book is different from others about gender oppression: It illustrates how women in Africa and Asia are leading a courageous, strong crusade. It is a story of empowerment. We can learn from their wisdom. This book takes a sad song and makes it better, so to speak.”

Yoko Ono’s 57 Favorite Books

The Women by Hilton Als

Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves by Kevin Bales

The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today by Kevin Bales & Ron Soodalter

Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke

Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin & Rory Freedman

50 Secrets of the World’s Longest Living People by Sally Beare

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

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertold Brecht

War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier by Smedley D. Butler

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

MAO – The Unknown Story by Jung Chang & Jon Halliday

Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis by Christopher D. Cook

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

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

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge

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

Classified Woman by Sibel Edmonds

The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto

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

The True Story of the Bilderberg Group by Daniel Estulin

Every Man Dies Alone: A Novel by Hans Fallada

India – A Portrait by Patrick French

Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s by Otto Friedrich

The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka

Windfall – Booming Business of Global Warming by McKenzie Funk

Creative Visualisation: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life by Shakti Gawain

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

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

An Earth Saving Revolution by Teruo Higa

Brain Trust: The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease by Colm A. Kelleher

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

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility by Ellen J. Langer

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin

Ultraprevention by Mark Hyman & Mark Liponis

The Revolution is to be Human by Walter Lowenfels

Your Brain Is (Almost) Perfect: How We Make Decisions by Read Montague

And Justice For Some: An Expose of the Lawyers and Judges Who Let Dangerous Criminals Go by Wendy Murphy

Journey of Souls – Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Michael Newton Ph.D

Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System by Raj Patel

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World by John Perkins

Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman

The Carbon Age: How Life’s Core Element Has Become Civilisation’s Greatest Threat by Eric Roston

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book by Don Miguel Ruiz

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

When the World Outlawed War by David Christopher Naylor Swanson

Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light – The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta by Mother Teresa

The Way of Life by Lao Tzu

Overcoming Speechlessness by Alice Walker

Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams, Danny Penman and Jon Kabat-Zinn

Violence – Six Sideways Reflections by Slavoj Žižek