Reading fiction might help, well, certain fiction. My first thoughts are to Tolstoy's War and Peace. It seems like it would be hard to come out of a sincere rea

Reading fiction might help, well, certain fiction. My first thoughts are to Tolstoy's War and Peace. It seems like it would be hard to come out of a sincere reading of this book and still be entirely self-centered. If not War and Peace I'd avoid genre fiction here and go for literary greats with real depth honestly trying to plumb the human experience. You'll understand why I'd tend to suggest books in the third person with multiple protagonists, full and round characters. By the way if you choose War and Peace, avoid the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation (wooden) and choose instead either Briggs (more modern and flexible) or the Maude translation (precision at the risk of being overly-grammatical). An interesting point about Tolstoy is that all of his characters are unique, even the most minor ones, and at the same time they are all branched in to human, cultural and historical experience and moment.