What do Jonny Wilkinson, Brian O’Driscoll and Justin Langer have in common? Come to think of it, what do they also share with Ian Holloway, Steve Borthwick, Mikael Forssell and New York Mets star Carlos Delgado? The not-so-obvious answer is a common taste in literature. Or rather, one book in particular.

That book is The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, by Robin Sharma. During the rugby union World Cup, Wilkinson admitted that he had become intrigued by Buddhism: “[Its] principles have been fascinating and there were shared principles from writers such as Robin Sharma and Deepak Chopra. How does all that impact on a game of rugby? I can’t answer that. All I know is it’s enough to help me to proceed in a way that makes me happy enough to go out there and be proud of who I am and what I hope I can bring to this team.” Last week, in an interview with The Times, he confirmed that The Monk Who . . . had been on his reading list.

He wasn’t the only fan in the England squad. Bath lock Borthwick has also enthused about its “lessons in life, lessons in development”.

Naturally, the book has, on the surface, nothing to do with sport. Subtitled “A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny”, however, its appeal to the more philosophical sportsman looking for a mental edge and spiritual enlightenment is not so hard to understand.

The novel, if it can be called that, tells the story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer with little more in his life than his career and the enormous wealth it brings. But a heart attack forces Mantle to reappraise his life. Cue the rejection of worldly possessions and a trek through the Himalayas, where gurus are helpfully on hand to offer such pearls of wisdom as: “What lies behind you and what lies before you is nothing compared to what lies within you,” and: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” In short, it slots neatly into a burgeoning sector of the 21st-century books trade: self-help, therapy, new-age mysticism – call it what you will. It also caters to sportsmen who fancy adding a cerebral side to their profile (remember Tony Adams’s postretirement “renaissance man” phase?). Unsurprisingly, Amazon’s “customers who viewed this item also viewed” list shows up Paolo Coelho’s novel The Alchemist, which proved a big hit a few years back (it is Everton midfielder Lee Carsley’s favourite book).

Delgado described The Monk Who . . . as the one of the most inspirational books he has read – although we’re not sure if he was choosing from a particularly long list. Langer was no less effusive, telling this newspaper: “My wife and I were staying at Matty Hayden’s beach house on Stradbroke Island about four or five years ago and she went into a local bookshop and found it and bought it for me. I read it in a weekend. It was a life-changing experience. It made me reassess how I approached life and my cricket. I’m sure my game improved as a result. I passed it on to Matty too. I have read Robin Sharma’s subsequent two books. In fact I gave a speech to a business conference just the other week and found myself quoting a lot of what he has written. Is Jonny Wilkinson a fan as well? That’s interesting.”

Langer is a martial arts black belt and has often spoken about his penchant for meditation; while Wilkinson, not being a drinker, has to have something to keep himself occupied outside rugby. So their interest is perhaps not surprising. More curious is that of Mikael Forssell. The former Chelsea striker said of it: “Books like that keep your mood up. You have to have your priorities in life.” He added with an honesty one doesn’t usually associate with a footballer: “If your motive for playing football is getting a fast car, then I don’t think that’s right.”

Does Forssell’s endorsement signify that footballers are becoming more discerning in their reading habits? Or, perhaps more likely, are they simply developing reading habits? The annual Reading Stars survey asking one player from each Premier League club to name his favourite book threw up some interesting nominations this year.

There were the usual suspects from the sporting world – perennial favourite It’s Not About The Bike, by Lance Armstrong, was in there courtesy of Manchester City’s Nedum Onuoha, and Tim Cahill was a fan of Shane Warne’s autobiography. Less predictably, Jens Lehmann went for The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel set in Afghanistan, and Watford’s Malky Mackay nominated The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. Mackay may well have been tipped off by his manager, Adrian Boothroyd, who, along with Alan Pardew, is a fan of Gladwell.

Then came the news this month that Wayne Rooney has hired a tutor to help him study for his English and maths GCSEs. Rooney hopes to pass his exams next year. So we look forward to his entry on the survey next spring. The Manchester United player has said he likes nothing more than to sing along to the film Oliver! Maybe someone will tell him there is also a book based on the musical.

The philosophers and their influences

Clive Woodward

Paddi Lund was an Australian dentist who turned his life around after contemplating suicide. In a 2002 speech Woodward explained the influence that Lund’s Building the Happiness-centred Business had had on his own style of management

Adrian Boothroyd

Has said that Michael Lewis’s book about baseball, Moneyball, taught him that ‘everyone is in the matrix of what a footballer looks like, but when you get down to it – the stats of it – the question is what does he actually do’

John Buchanan

The Australian cricket coach left a 10-page memo filled out with the fifth-century BC Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu’s aphorisms and their significance for Test cricket under the hotel doors of his players during the 2001 Ashes tour

Eric Cantona

The Manchester United striker said the poet Rimbaud was his hero: ‘[He] wanted to seek flashes of inspiration, to enjoy different ideas and live with different philosophies. I believe in that’