Books that changed your life?

Books that changed your life?

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Speed_Demon

Original Poster:

2,662 posts

195 months

Saturday 12th March 2016
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I have just started reading a series books that are of the 'self-help' category. I have had little faith in such things in the past, I perceived them to be full of the obvious, though that was actually without reading any.

I am only on the 2nd chapter of this book "Communication skills training" (found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1515031918/ref... and already it has sparked a major change at how I look at well, everything. This in turn has already given me motivation to do the things that I have always wanted to do, yet struggled to follow through with. I very much look forward to the rest of the book and series as I can already see it has massive potential for changing a majority of my life for the better and digging my mindset out of a very unhelpful place.

Over to you!

perdu

4,885 posts

206 months

Saturday 12th March 2016
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Read Moby Dick and decided never to go to sea...


...in a Nantucket Whaler


wink

davepoth

29,395 posts

206 months

Saturday 12th March 2016
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perdu said:
Read Moby Dick and decided never to go to sea...


...in a Nantucket Whaler


wink
Or a coffin.

I think for me the book would be Catch-22.

yoshisdad

411 posts

178 months

Saturday 12th March 2016
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Waiting for Godot

m1dg3

128 posts

161 months

Saturday 12th March 2016
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If self-help is your thing then 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' is an absolute must. I bought a first edition for the kitsch fifties casual sexism but once I'd picked it up I couldn't put it down. I'm absolutely certain I wouldn't be running my own business if I hadn't read it.

g3org3y

21,107 posts

198 months

Sunday 13th March 2016
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The God Delusion.

944fan

4,962 posts

192 months

Monday 14th March 2016
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Speed_Demon said:
I have just started reading a series books that are of the 'self-help' category. I have had little faith in such things in the past, I perceived them to be full of the obvious, though that was actually without reading any.

I am only on the 2nd chapter of this book "Communication skills training" (found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1515031918/ref... and already it has sparked a major change at how I look at well, everything. This in turn has already given me motivation to do the things that I have always wanted to do, yet struggled to follow through with. I very much look forward to the rest of the book and series as I can already see it has massive potential for changing a majority of my life for the better and digging my mindset out of a very unhelpful place.

Over to you!
That book looks like exactly the sort of thing I need. I have been suffering with anxiety for some time and part of what I have been talking about the counselor with is how my communication skills cause a lot of it.

I tried that chimp paradox that loads of people rave about but had little impact on me.

I hope this book has the same impact on me as it did on you.

As for my choice, I think changing my life might be pushing it but the book that really opened my eyes to reading proper classic fiction was Don Quixote. Its a great book and I couldn't put it down. It started for me a love of reading fiction. Previously the only books I read were factual.

Patch1875

4,935 posts

139 months

Monday 14th March 2016
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Not exactly life changing but the book that turned me into a reader as a child was 'The Machine Gunners'

Orchid1

878 posts

115 months

Monday 14th March 2016
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Posting random comment so I can come back to this later.

Ezy Rider

13 posts

113 months

Tuesday 15th March 2016
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For me it has to be Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a trilogy in 5 parts.

Devastingly funny, incredibly creative and it provided me with an entirely different perspective of myself and my position in an inifinite universe.

It makes you realise you are an infinite speck on an inifinte speck, so you may as well stop worrying about the bigger picture and start enjoying the miniscule amount of time you have on this tiny blue/green planet. Sounds initially depressing, but is actually very liberating as it puts a lot of things into perspective.

The imagery is also fantastic - it's almost as if Adam's described things deliberately incredibily beautiful and intricately just to show he's more than just a comic writer - he has srs literary chops too!

The story makes no sense, which fits perfectly with the tone - the interjections and side notes are even funnier than the plot itself.

The TV show is great too - but the movie is hack.

Aerate

280 posts

155 months

Thursday 17th March 2016
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Patch1875 said:
Not exactly life changing but the book that turned me into a reader as a child was 'The Machine Gunners'
That is a good shout. 'Thunder and Lightnings' by Jan Mark was also great.

'Prayer for Owen Meany' was a novel that changed my outlook on life.

Aerate

280 posts

155 months

Thursday 17th March 2016
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944fan said:
As for my choice, I think changing my life might be pushing it but the book that really opened my eyes to reading proper classic fiction was Don Quixote. Its a great book and I couldn't put it down. It started for me a love of reading fiction. Previously the only books I read were factual.
Always meant to read 'Don Quixote' - grabbed the surprisingly slim volume off my Dad's bookshelf to take on a month sailing round the Baltic. It wasn't until I got to around page 80 (halfway through) that I realised that it was a study guide / synopsis. Still haven't read it for real.

davepoth

29,395 posts

206 months

Sunday 20th March 2016
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Apparently it's even better in Spanish; there are many places where there are toilet-humour related puns that don't quite translate properly.

944fan

4,962 posts

192 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2016
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davepoth said:
Apparently it's even better in Spanish; there are many places where there are toilet-humour related puns that don't quite translate properly.
I have heard this said before. I would love to be able to read a book like this int he original language but have no other desire to learn Spanish.

The toilet humor is still funny. But for me the funniest parts of the book are his misunderstandings. The chapter when he attacks the monks because he thinks they are enchanters who have captured the princess is very funny.

Bradgate

2,952 posts

154 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2016
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It's such a cliché, but mine is To Kill a Mockingbird. It opened my eyes to racism and discrimination, and helped turn me into a proper little Guardian-reading pinko liberal.