What books have changed your life?
Discussion
Any one else read a book or books that radically changed their attitude to life? There have been a few in my life and I'd like to hear about others' experiences.
My first was when I read Ayn Rand 's Atlas Shrugged as a teenager. Before that, I'd been quite socialist but the book pointed out a lot of the pitfalls of socialism and put forward some convincing right wing arguments.
The next was a short story by Jack London, I'm afraid I don't remember the title but it concerned a dying old native American. It helped me formulate my ideas on death, reason for existence, and religion.
The third was James Barke's Land of the Leal, A book recommended by my grandmother to my mother and then by my mother to me shortly after the death of my father. It helped explain the circle of life and relationships between parents and their children.
There have been others and I hope there will be many more, but these three stand out for me. How about you?
My first was when I read Ayn Rand 's Atlas Shrugged as a teenager. Before that, I'd been quite socialist but the book pointed out a lot of the pitfalls of socialism and put forward some convincing right wing arguments.
The next was a short story by Jack London, I'm afraid I don't remember the title but it concerned a dying old native American. It helped me formulate my ideas on death, reason for existence, and religion.
The third was James Barke's Land of the Leal, A book recommended by my grandmother to my mother and then by my mother to me shortly after the death of my father. It helped explain the circle of life and relationships between parents and their children.
There have been others and I hope there will be many more, but these three stand out for me. How about you?
Only one for me.
About 20 years ago I found a book in a second hand bookshop called "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" by Jeremy Wade (now of river monsters fame)
At the time he was unknown and his book at sold about 1 copy. It was about him travelling to the Congo in search of some giant mythical fish he had read about. I was riveted from start to finish and thereafter I could think of nothing else but doing the same. Almost daily.
Unfortunately 12 years of the worst civil war in the world made this all-but impossible to do until the last few years where things have calmed down a bit.
So last year I finally packed my rods and got on a plane. WHilst there I hooked 6 of these things and caught none and had the adventure of a lifetime ,and have now booked to go again next year.
About 20 years ago I found a book in a second hand bookshop called "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" by Jeremy Wade (now of river monsters fame)
At the time he was unknown and his book at sold about 1 copy. It was about him travelling to the Congo in search of some giant mythical fish he had read about. I was riveted from start to finish and thereafter I could think of nothing else but doing the same. Almost daily.
Unfortunately 12 years of the worst civil war in the world made this all-but impossible to do until the last few years where things have calmed down a bit.
So last year I finally packed my rods and got on a plane. WHilst there I hooked 6 of these things and caught none and had the adventure of a lifetime ,and have now booked to go again next year.
brrapp said:
...The next was a short story by Jack London, I'm afraid I don't remember the title but it concerned a dying old native American. It helped me formulate my ideas on death, reason for existence, and religion.
Was it this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_of_Life
Not read it, but sounds interesting.
MikeT66 said:
brrapp said:
...The next was a short story by Jack London, I'm afraid I don't remember the title but it concerned a dying old native American. It helped me formulate my ideas on death, reason for existence, and religion.
nWas it this one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_of_Life
Not read it, but sounds interesting.
Catch-22 for me, which I know is a little bit of a cliche; all tied up with a particular woman, as these things often are.
The other book is The Passing of the Armies by Joshua L. Chamberlain. It's really just the end of his diaries about the US Civil War (he accepted the confederate surrender), but what really grabbed me is his description of the final march past of the Union forces - all of them, some 200,000 men, marshalled, encamped, and then finally marched up Pennsylvania Avenue and mustered out of the army en masse.
The description, even though it's essentially factual, has a really poetic feel to it, almost elegiac in tone. The idea that these men would put their guns in a big pile, walk home, and then have to deal with having spent the last four years trying to kill his neighbours really affected me somehow.
The other book is The Passing of the Armies by Joshua L. Chamberlain. It's really just the end of his diaries about the US Civil War (he accepted the confederate surrender), but what really grabbed me is his description of the final march past of the Union forces - all of them, some 200,000 men, marshalled, encamped, and then finally marched up Pennsylvania Avenue and mustered out of the army en masse.
The description, even though it's essentially factual, has a really poetic feel to it, almost elegiac in tone. The idea that these men would put their guns in a big pile, walk home, and then have to deal with having spent the last four years trying to kill his neighbours really affected me somehow.
The most powerful idea in the world, by William Rosen.
Great book I found it on a list recommended by Bill Gates.
It charts the flaws in our current intellectual property regime.
Giving businesses the freedom to innovate drove the growth of the rail network and with it the industrial revolution.
Great book I found it on a list recommended by Bill Gates.
It charts the flaws in our current intellectual property regime.
Giving businesses the freedom to innovate drove the growth of the rail network and with it the industrial revolution.
All of them.
Education and self development via the written word is a cumulative process.
However, in the spirit of the thread I think it's the books you read during your formative years that perhaps have the greatest impact.
As such, having books like To Kill A Mocking Bird as part of the national curriculum can have a massive impact.
Certainly did on me.
Education and self development via the written word is a cumulative process.
However, in the spirit of the thread I think it's the books you read during your formative years that perhaps have the greatest impact.
As such, having books like To Kill A Mocking Bird as part of the national curriculum can have a massive impact.
Certainly did on me.
Edited by DoubleSix on Wednesday 5th October 11:47
Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions, both by Richard Bach. The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J Schwarz
All three are about boundaries being mostly in our mind and the artificial limitations we let those we live and work with impose upon us.
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. He shows how putting yourself in other peoples shoes and finding common ground with them makes life so much easier.
All three are about boundaries being mostly in our mind and the artificial limitations we let those we live and work with impose upon us.
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. He shows how putting yourself in other peoples shoes and finding common ground with them makes life so much easier.
GliderRider said:
Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions, both by Richard Bach. The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J Schwarz
All three are about boundaries being mostly in our mind and the artificial limitations we let those we live and work with impose upon us.
When you say changed your life do you mean "and now I don't let people upset me/overcame my fear of public speaking" level of change? All three are about boundaries being mostly in our mind and the artificial limitations we let those we live and work with impose upon us.
Or did you jack your job in, become the awesome musician you always wanted to be and now gig the world/ made your first million in two years level of change?
I was given a book when I was a teenager by a friend of my parents. It was called The Magic of Psychic Power and I don't remember who it was by.
Instead of anything supernatural, it was just a self help book on positivity but the first I'd read and one that I referred back to in later years. I think it gave me the confidence to pursue a career in IT despite having left school early with no qualifications.
Many years later I found it again and passed it to a friend who was stuck in a rut at work. He read it, resigned and went on to bigger and better things. He still mentions the book sometimes when we catch up and has since passed it on to someone else.
Instead of anything supernatural, it was just a self help book on positivity but the first I'd read and one that I referred back to in later years. I think it gave me the confidence to pursue a career in IT despite having left school early with no qualifications.
Many years later I found it again and passed it to a friend who was stuck in a rut at work. He read it, resigned and went on to bigger and better things. He still mentions the book sometimes when we catch up and has since passed it on to someone else.
DoubleSix said:
All of them.
Education and self development via the written word is a cumulative process.
A point of view I have to agree with.Education and self development via the written word is a cumulative process.
I am not sure if I could count any book as being quite on the scale of "life changing", but highly influential to my thinking/reasoning and personal 'philosophy' would be;
Orwell: '1984', 'The Road to Wigan Pier'
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: 'The Gulag Archipelago'
Dostoevsky: 'The Brothers Karamazov', 'Notes From Underground'
Christopher Browning: 'Ordinary Men'
Harper Lee: 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
Edited by Goaty Bill 2 on Friday 27th July 08:22
as a child we read The Hobbit as a class and that opened a world of imagination and colour which lead to LOTR et al.
I read quite alot as a kid as I worked on a bookstore on Rotherham Market. Guy N. Smith read quite a few of his and that moved me along to James Herbert.
i think the Rats trilogy especially the third one Domain hooked me in from start to finish stands alone and as part of the trilogy and i think is right up there in the horror genre.
we read TKAM as a class in big school and I read out loud to the class most of the book as others read along which was nice.
as an adult, I think The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan blew me away and inspired me to read Chaos and Faster by James Gleik, Dawkins, Gell-Mann, Hawkins etc i love "popular science" genre.
currently plowing through the jack aubrey series - they are so good.
I read quite alot as a kid as I worked on a bookstore on Rotherham Market. Guy N. Smith read quite a few of his and that moved me along to James Herbert.
i think the Rats trilogy especially the third one Domain hooked me in from start to finish stands alone and as part of the trilogy and i think is right up there in the horror genre.
we read TKAM as a class in big school and I read out loud to the class most of the book as others read along which was nice.
as an adult, I think The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan blew me away and inspired me to read Chaos and Faster by James Gleik, Dawkins, Gell-Mann, Hawkins etc i love "popular science" genre.
currently plowing through the jack aubrey series - they are so good.
Fred Bodsworth's The Strange One.
I was given a pre-publication edition. I was in my middle teens and it was a book I was reading for the sake of doing so; as Dylan said - With no attempts to shovel the glimpse into the ditch of what each one means. The essence of English literature classes.
It's not particularly brilliantly written. It is purely the narrative that pulled me in. In essence, it said that you are not bound by your birth. It focused on race but the message was clear, at least to someone born in east London of poor parents.
It just stuck with me.
The author obviously loved the Canadian wilderness.
I was given a pre-publication edition. I was in my middle teens and it was a book I was reading for the sake of doing so; as Dylan said - With no attempts to shovel the glimpse into the ditch of what each one means. The essence of English literature classes.
It's not particularly brilliantly written. It is purely the narrative that pulled me in. In essence, it said that you are not bound by your birth. It focused on race but the message was clear, at least to someone born in east London of poor parents.
It just stuck with me.
The author obviously loved the Canadian wilderness.
GliderRider said:
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. He shows how putting yourself in other peoples shoes and finding common ground with them makes life so much easier.
Dale's book and the two below changed my life, because they helped with client communication which is getting me an early promotion. They helped me deal with family issues for good. They also helped with empathy and assertiveness.Eric Berne M.D. - Games People Play. This short book introduces you to dozens of mind games that you observe in everyday life. Examples are 'Now I've got you, you son of a b
h', 'Let's you and him fight', 'I'm only trying to help you'. Ok, some of the examples are a bit old fashioned, but this book's a classic. This book taught me to recognise when I'm being manipulated - very useful to know.David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest (long), or Oblivion (short). You are a kind of fly on the wall of someone's mind, observing their entire unfiltered stream of consciousness as they go through life's challenges (ranging from mundane to horrifying). The books explore the idea that suffering is one of the only concepts truly shared among all humans. I am a firm believer that the 'same s**t different bucket' mindset makes you happier with what you have and less focused on what other people have. It also helps with empathy where it's deserved.
DoubleSix said:
All of them.
Education and self development via the written word is a cumulative process.
Agreed. Education and self development via the written word is a cumulative process.
+1 for Catch-22 and 1984 (although that is overdue a re-read)
Add to that The Little Prince and Vol de Nuit by St Exupery.
Also Cormac McCarthy's The Road, especially as I read it just after our first child was born and was already (as any new parent knows) going through a bit of emotional turmoil at the time.
From a more practical and less philosophical perspective, as a child of the cold war I would have to add War Plan UK by Duncan Campbell. Taught me to simultaneously fear and embrace the inevitability of nuclear annihilation. For sure this has changed my life in many ways.
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