What book changed your life?

[StellaBlue]

I am trying to use some down-time I have while involunarily unemployed to catch up on all the reading I always meant to do but didn't. Now reading Howard Zinn's 'People's History of the United States', then I am on to 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' and the complete Thoreau (which I have read *some* of in the past).

Zinn so far is excellent (see Zinn thread!). Another book that affected me was the autobiography of MLK, which made me question whether my life was worth more as I was living it or as I knew I *could* be living it, if I had the nerve.

What about you? What book/s changed YOUR life?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. The Passover Plot

I read that book at age 13, and it caused me to shatter my concepts of Jesus and God. Before then, I had an almost magical view of Christianity-that if I simply "believed in Jesus" then I would have eternal life in Heaven.

I am very grateful that I read that book when I did, as it allowed me to grow spiritually.

[acmejack]

2. Without question, "Black like me"

by John Howard Griffin.

[Caoimhe]

29. ME TOO!

:thumbsup: great book and really made me think about things I had NEVER been exposed to. Another one was The Scarlet Letter. It was all so unJUST!

Thank Goddess for literature and Language Arts Class!

[Talismom]

3. I'm also in the middle of Zinn's book and love it.

Earlier on I was very moved by Edith Warton's books, especially "Ethan Frome", since they/it are all full of activists who are aware and sensitive and caring, but not strong enough to withstand the onslaught from the establishment. They are destroyed, in one way or another, after their weak attempts to stand up for their beliefs. These messages were very powerful, to me, when I read them in my youth and they remain important reminders of what it takes to stand up to "city hall".

[TahitiNut]

4. Well, I'm a (older) "child of the 60's" ...

... so, while perhaps somewhat embarassing, it was two books -- and the women who had me read them.

"Le Petit Prince" -- Antoine de St-Exupery (sp?)
"The Prophet" -- Kahlil Gibran


Go figure. Knowing (and respecting) those for whom these were special alerted me enough to pay attention. The seed was planted. Many years later, the roots are firm and deep. I regard it as a legacy of two women I had the good sense to love.

:toast: to Chris and Inez

[ret5hd]

5. the Bib...i mean aesops fables.

[DELUSIONAL]

6. Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring"

[illflem]

7. Not because I read it

but "my Pet Goat" has had much influence

[enlightenment]

8. I don't know if I'd call them life-altering, but you might add

these to your reading list (if you haven't already read them):
"The Souls of Black Folks" W.E.B. Du Bois

"Orientalism" Edward Said

"An Autobiography or the story of my experiments with truth" M.K. Gandhi
(this on is actually on-line, if you can stomach e-books"

"The Daughter of Time" Josephine Tey
(fiction from the 1920s -- a mystery. Good to read after Zinn, because it will give you some nice perspective on how historians operate. I am one, BTW, so I reserve the right to say nasty things about my profession!! :evilgrin: )

[JackintheGreen]

9. Manchild in the Promised Land

by Claude Brown

[Journeyman]

10. In no particular order. . .

How to Talk Dirty and Influence People: The Autobiography of Lenny Bruce

Walden / Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

Man's Search for Meaning (From Death Camp to Existentialism) by Viktor Frankl

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

Freedom's Frontier / Atlantic Union Now by Clarence Streit

Demian by Hermann Hesse

One Dimensional Man by Herbert Mancuse

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Johnny Got HIs Gun by Dalton Trumbo

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

[Child_Of_Isis]

11. Bringers of the Dawn eom.

[Shipwack]

12. Starship Troopers

by Robert A. Heinlein


Only place in school where I could learn about duty, service, and patriotism.

On edit:

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Introduced me to the concept that sometimes evil can play both sides of an issue...

[La Coliniere]

13. The first was

"Diet for a Small Planet" by Frances M. Lappe. Changed the way I eat forever.
Up there with "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson.

[closeupready]

14. "Your Money or Your Life"

Really made me take a look at my way of life, spending without thinking.

Also, maybe John Boswell's "Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality."

[More Than A Feeling]

15. Stranger in a Strange Land taught me to err on the side of tolerance

The Death of Ivan Illych by Tolstoy woke me up to the true nature of death, and made me realize how important it is to contemplate my own passing, and intregate that reality into my thinking.

The Nature and Destiny of Man by Reinhold Niebuhr is a explanation of Christianity that really opened my mind to more traditional interpretations of my faith.

[pstans]

19. The Death of Ivan Illych is a great book

Read it in a college course and it was very moving.

[Tafiti]

16. There are a few...

...including Zinn's A People's History.... I just got his Voices of a People's History..., so I'll be starting that after I finish the book I'm currently reading (Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World.

But mainly, two books that forever changed the way I see the world:

Daniel Quinn's Ishmael (as well as the other two of the trilogy - The Story of B and My Ishmael).

Derrick Jensen's The Culture of Make Believe - incidentally, the only book that has brought me to actual tears.

After reading these two books, I felt like a completely different person, and saw the world more clearly than ever. I love those two men for giving me that...Do read these two if you get the chance. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

(By the way, someone told me about Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and I meant to grab it, but I had forgotten about it until I read your post. Thanks for the incidental reminder!)

[stevebreeze]

17. Catch 22

1984
slaughterhouse 5
I guess I just like books with numbers?
also The Hobbit

I have read many of th books that others have listed but only after becoming more of an activist so the mostly reinforced my opinions at the time, not that they where not valuable.

[dryan]

18. My list...

Several from childhood...
Red Badge of Courage
Persia is my Heart
5th Chinese Daughter--these 2 books opened up other cultures to me, the first book was written by a prominent dress designer in Tehran that was later jailed by Khomeni
All Quiet on the Western Front -- made me realize that all people suffer during war
The Song of Bernadette

[pstans]

20. "Dude, Where's My Country" and "Tao of Pooh"

Michael Moore's "Dude, Where's My Country" got me into politics. The questions for Mr. Bu$h at the beginning really opened my eyes. Even if 1/8 of that stuff was true, it is too much.

The Tao of Pooh is a great book that showed the Tao principles that were written in the Winnie the Pooh books. The book is great and a very good introduction the Taoism and all that Zen stuff. This book has helped me live a simpler life and adjust to change around me. Great read and fun.

[Politically_Wrong]

21. Your Call is Important to us...

The Truth about Bullshit...

[Pharlo]

22. 'The Horse Who Couldn't Say Neigh'

That was my absolute favorite book when I was young (still like it, in fact) and I wanted to read it myself. So, I HAD to learn how to read. And, once I started, I never stopped.

If you are actually fortunate enough to find a copy, it shouldn't take much more than five minutes to read. However, I don't think it's the type of book you had in mind....Then again, we do have a president who reads about goats while buildings are being blown up, so who am I to pre-judge what type of book you may like.

[Caoimhe]

30. Erica Jong

changed my life but in a way that probably would get a post deleted if I described it here.

:evilgrin:

[RoyGBiv]

23. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

It's almost trite to say reading this book will change your life because everyone I know who has read it and liked it says that. Interestingly, some people I know who've read it and didn't like it say the same thing with the addition of something like, "It'll will totally ruin your ability to appreciate philosophy."

I had an English professor recommend this to me when I was a freshman. This will sound totally bizarre, but this was the first book I read after reading Stephen King's _It_, and somehow my brain formed connections between the two. (I have views on the meaning of _It_ that tend to be bit weird to most, so I won't bother with a description.) The months that followed was one of the most intense and fruitful periods of intellectual exploration of my life. That period shaped a lot of what I am today, from an intellectual perspective.

[CrispyQ]

27. "It" -- was that the one with Penney Wise the Clown?

I read that book over 20 years ago & still remember it. I would love to know how you connect it to Motorcycle Maintenance, although admittedly, I haven't read MM, I have read quite a bit about Zen.


on edit: Unbelievably, I still will not walk near or park near a storm grate.

[RoyGBiv]

28. Connections ...

At this distance in time, I would find it very hard to offer a coherent argument connecting the two. I did so at the time of reading them, much to my English professor's delight, but I'm vague on the details now. That is, I haven't read either book for about 15 years, and I'm foggy on the details.

But, it's basically this. _It_ has a scene in it that defines the entire story for me, but which most people I've encountered don't seem to remember. Pennywise is devouring a victim at the edge of the Barrens. Close by on a porch, and in full sight, is a long-time resident of Derry who sees what is happening. The resident looks for a moment, then walks into the house, not acknowledging that a child is being murdered. It's a minor scene and doesn't involve the main characters, but the theme of that scene is present in various ways throughout the novel. Everyone knows something is wrong, but no one is willing to look at the minute details to figure out just what it is. Furthermore, they aren't willing to do anything about it, in part because the task seems so huge that they, individually, are not willing to take on the personal responsibility.

How this relates to _Zen_ is simply in the matter of "total picture" vs. "individual parts." Pirsig's book has a scene that I likewise think is demonstrative of the entire theme of the book but is actually minor when compared to various scenes. And this, I think, is part of the point actually. Working on a motorcycle is no more or less complicated than working on the individual parts. You can learn how to do all of it, but most people, seeing this huge, complicated, insurmountable task of "fixing a motorcycle" never bother to look past the generic big picture to see how the individual elements of that picture affect the whole. They may know how to change spark plugs, but they don't know how to clean a carburetor, so they don't do any of it. As a consequence, nothing gets done.

The motorcycle doesn't get fixed. The children continue to die.

[kweerwolf]

24. "Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality" by John Boswell

This was the first book I read that made me see how organized religion gets twisted and that the anger I felt toward Christianity was misdirected because it's message had been changed from compassion and love to cold, unyielding dogma. As a result, I learned that there a wide gulf between calling oneself "Christian" and being a follower of Christ's teachings.

[StudentOfDarrow]

25. "Tuesdays with Morrie." n/t

[raccoon]

26. When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Harold Kushner.

It helped me to resolve some issues that were really bothering me.

[BL611]

31. The Vital Center

By Arther Schlesinger. This book completely changed my perception toward the left and politics in general. There was a time in which I counted people like Zinn & Chomsky among voices I was sympathetic toward. This book completely severed me from that sympathy, IMO the best book on American liberalism ever.

[donheld]

32. People's History of the United States

This book really opened my eyes to things.

[really annoyed]

33. Zinn is great

I read "A People's History." His book exposed me to a new realm of thinking about our history.

[Stargleamer]

34. "Feminism Unmodified" by Catharine MacKinnon

I was amazed by it and its ability to elucidate how women are being hurt/oppressed and what it is that is hurting/oppressing women. The author is just so apt in her descriptions of what is going on in this country.

[tulsakatz]

35. American Jihad by Steve Emerson

After 9/11, I decided it was time for me to start paying attention to what was happening around me. Up until that point, I never paid attention to politics.

Anyway, after 9/11, I started thinking that I should start learning about what is happening in the world around me. Emerson's book was the first one I read after 9/11. At the time, I wanted to learn about terrorists and the ways in which they operate.

Of course now, I'm not so focused on terrorism.

I'm not really sure if the book itself changed my life, it just gave me a broader understanding of the world around me. And out of that grew an interest of politics and current events.

[Davros]

36. Sidhartha by Hermann Hesse

This book changed my life in so many ways. It brought me closer to Buddhism and an understanding about finding one's path in life which may not be the obvious one.

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. Stranger in a Strange Land

by Robert Heinlein

Totally changed the way I looked at religion and its impact on my life.

[jeffrey_X]

38. Autobiography of Malcolm X

...

[agincourt]

39. Another Herman Hesse Sidharta here too

Influential because it changed the way that I look at life. The laughing river part always stayed with me.

[CornField]

40. 'A Grief Observed' by CS Lewis

Fair warning to those reading: This is going to get a bit personal. If you don't like that type of thing, you might wish to stop reading now.

When this book found its way to me, I was a very angry, bitter and frustrated person. Five years earlier I had been a Sunday school teacher and choir member in a Protestant congregation. I was married to someone I loved and we had one daughter. When we discovered the second child I carried (a boy) had terminal defects, the world began to crumble for me. I was told I could try to carry the child to term or I could terminate the pregnancy, each choice holding its own risks. While my husband and I debated those risks and options -- even as we grieved the child who would never live -- it was requested our family leave the congregation because our "situation" was "causing a rift in the congregation." I've never been one to stay where I wasn't welcome, so we left the church.

It was three years later before I was willing to attempt another pregnancy. Even then, no one outside of my husband and I knew about the pregnancy until we could have an ultrasound rule out major problems. In September, three days before our due date, our son was stillborn due to placenta abruption. There was no reason. There was no warning. It was just ruled another "fluke" and we were told to try again.

Three months later I was pregnant once again and we settled in for the roller coaster of emotions. It was a short ride. At what should have been a 12-week appointment, we learned this child had stopped developing at about 8 weeks. That would be when the anger set in. I was angry at my husband, the doctors, my body and everything else possible (and quite a few impossible).

The book was on my porch and I was immediately drawn to it. (It was months later before I learned a friend had left it there for me.) This book is raw and honest -- a walk though the same type of hell I'd been dancing in for five years. Most importantly, it provided me the permission/understanding I needed to own my feelings and give them a voice. I had a right to be angry and I could even be mad at God.

C.S. Lewis helped me understand the loss was horrible, but it wasn't also the loss of me. I was still here and there were still things I needed to do. It helped me realize that through all the pain and anger, there was still goodness. Even if you only get to be with those you love for a very short time, it is still time you wouldn't trade. It's still important and it is still meaningful.

Ah well... you get the idea. This book didn't lift me up. This book helped me lift myself up and out of grief.

[CrispyQ]

41. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I like how you said that the book didn't lift you up -- it helped you lift yourself up. Also what you said about even if you only get a short amount of time with those you love, it's time you would never trade. So true.

:hug: