The question whether meditation can be learnt by book has been raised many times. Many people are of the opinion that Meditation can not be learnt from a book and a real teacher is required. Though I agree that the presence and guidance of a real teacher can be of immense help in our meditation practice, it’s not very difficult to meditate from a book also. This website (Meditation is Easy.com) is also a sort of online book and thousands of people have learnt meditation from various meditation articles and techniques mentioned on this website.
In my opinion meditation is a journey of our inner self. A journey, which we all have to travel alone. A teacher or a book, no matter how effective they are, can only provide you guidance to a certain extent. Ultimately, you’ll have to sit and meditate by your own. Your progress depends upon how honest you have been in your meditation practice.
Books on meditation, however, can be of great help for beginners. When somebody has just started out, when he doesn’t know even about the alphabets of meditation, a book can be of real help to him.
There are certain points, however, which we should consider while reading a meditation book. First thing is that we should not be impressed by the book just because it is written by a famed authority. I have seen many books on meditation by famed author that have no value in them. I have also seen many books written by almost unknown persons with great insight of meditation.
The rule of thumb is to decide whether a particular book on meditation helps you find some inner peace in within.