12 Unexpected Yoga Books for a Mindful Read

Updated October 3, 2025 05:50PM

The more you learn about yoga, the more you realize that it touches every aspect of life. In fact, it’s a way of life—one that exists well beyond the studio. The principles of the practice show up in unexpected ways in your routines, relationships, even within the pages of some less-than-obvious yoga books.

The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali may be the seminal yoga text, but subsequent centuries have delivered a ceaseless stream of titles that discuss yoga and all that it encompasses. As you have likely discovered, a book doesn’t need to explicitly be about yoga to do the practice justice.

From a Kerouac classic to a bestselling romantasy, these unexpected books feature yogic principles throughout their pages.

12 Unexpected Yoga Books

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

The path of creativity is paved with self-awareness and attention. Music producer Rick Rubin knows this well, and his musings on the creative process are full of spiritual wisdom very much aligned with yogic philosophy. Ultimately, Rubin’s book reminds you that your daily life is art, habits matter, and showing up mindfully through each moment is a sure way to catalyze your creativity.

2. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen

If you’re a seeker, you’ve likely come across The Snow Leopard. The memoir finds Matthiessen, a zen Buddhist, and biologist George Schaller exploring the Himalayas, their physical quest serving as a vehicle for a spiritual one. Matthiessen’s insights touch on existence, authenticity, awe, presence, meditation, and more.

3. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

Romantasy books are full of characters who embark both internal and literal battles, demonstrating resilience and self-awareness. The practice of mind-stilling, which the main character practices for 10 minutes each morning and night, is simply meditation renamed. Add to that her workouts, a series of graceful movements designed to promote strength and balance, and it’s safe to say that the spirit of yoga is present throughout A Court of Silver Flames.

4. This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can’t by Augusten Burroughs

Augusten Burroughs writes in a real, relatable, and sometimes raw and racy way. Yet all of his advices comes back, essentially, to finding a way to be in the moment. Each chapter of This Is How delves into a life situation you might encounter, with Burroughs helping you understand what staying present could look like in each instance.

5. The Goddesses by Swan Huntley

A yoga class in Kona, Hawaii, serves as the meeting place for this novel’s main characters: transplant Nancy and yoga teacher Ana. Although the women’s friendship starts in a beautiful space, it takes sinister turns throughout the book, offering a nod to the subtle, though inherent, power dynamic of the student-teacher relationship.

6. Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

This well-loved book from Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD, is all about reclaiming the wild feminine through myth, storytelling, intuition, and connection to the body, concepts that play particularly well with yoga. Women Who Run With the Wolves has inspired yoga classes and workshops around the world, encouraging yogis to take to their mats to breathe deeply, reignite sapped energy, and tap into a more primal (and powerful) way of being.

7. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac is best known for On the Road, a book that chronicled his train-hopping tramp across the country. But once the author made it to the Bay Area, he fell in with some spiritual seekers. Those are the characters and conversations that inspired The Dharma Bums. As Kerouac and Japhy Ryder (a character based on poet and naturalist Gary Snyder) scale Matterhorn Peak in the Eastern Sierras, the author muses on yoga as a natural complement to mountaineering—a means of quieting the mind while aligning movement with the breath.

8. How to Be a Living Thing: Meditations on Intuitive Oysters, Hopeful Doves, and Being Human in the World by Mari Andrew

Sometimes, the experience of being human can be understood more deeply through looking to the natural world. How to Be a Living Thing highlights the importance of mindfulness, awareness, and the connectivity of all living things. Yogic, indeed.

9. “Teddy” by J.D. Salinger

You got us—this is short story, not a book. Still, J.D. Salinger’s “Teddy” (who can be found in the author’s iconic collection, Nine Stories) earns a place on this list. The story centers on a child prodigy who is a master of Vedanta Hindu philosophy and touches on non-attachment and inner divinity.

10. A Discovery of Witches

This is a book about witches and vampires. That said, it also features a yoga class for humans and creatures alike—and isn’t inclusivity what it’s all about?

11. The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest

Brianna Wiest applies age-old wisdom to everyday life, distilling transformative concepts to their simplest forms and inviting you to see past your stories (and your self-sabotaging ways). Think of her books, particularly The Mountain Is You, as a cheat sheet full of the sort of insights you might glean from a therapist—or a sage.

12. Island by Aldous Huxley

Yoga is a dominant theme throughout Aldous Huxley’s Island, at least conceptually. Like Salinger, Huxley’s interest in Vendanta inspired the world-building of this story, which discusses “the yoga of love,” “the yoga of play,” “the yoga of danger,” “the yoga of letting go,” and more. Essentially, Huxley explores how yoga is an all-encompassing approach to life and awareness.

12 Surprising Books That Remind Us Yoga Is Everywhere