Books That Changed My Life discussion
Most influential books
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Pierce
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 11:29AM)
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Jul 05, 2007 08:40AM

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Omnivore's Dilemma - Eating became a political act.
Think about the world (the people in it, at least)?
Moral Animal - helped me understand the origin of people's behavior (including my own)

The Vagina Monologues
A Round Heeled Woman
A Hero's Journey
A Pilgrams Almanac
The Ethiopian Tatoo Shop



It made me think about fear in a differnt way. I had always thought that if you were afraid of something that you should avoid it. But his opinion was that fear is just like anger or any other emotion. It can be useful but it can be harmful too and its best to use it and discard it rather than build your life around it. I started to di that and my life improved a lot.

It really set in motion my value system and has really influenced the way that I deal with people in general ...

p.s. The film truly didn't do the book justice (as often is the case).

i pick up his journals when i feel worn out and find him invigorating. highly recommended.



Not only did it throw me into a whirlwind of so many new thoughts, but it also revealed to me a totally amazing literary style...one that I have yet to be more affected by. So it goes...


The Communist Manifesto. The Prophet of Khalil Gibran. But nowadays, I both hate and love William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

and
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Hill's book opened my eyes to the world's possibilities and Card's book helped give me humanity and spirit.

Probably also changed my life since I read it for the first time when I was nine... But then again, I've read it two times since and it's managed to change my life, again, each time.
Ria: why do you hate Lord of the Flies? I love that book, so I'm curious.

and yes lord of the flies has to be one of the best. no reason to hate it at all.:))
Sara, its not that i absolutely hate LOF; am ambivalent of it, tha's all. It is a very beautiful and awful tale.

Also
Illusions - read it at just the right age, I was like, 18 and it made me think that maybe anything was possible.





"Leota's Garden" by Francine Rivers helped me understand the elderly a bit better.
The Holy Bible is a big influence on my life--it's my guidebook for living!


jen

Spiritually, "Seeds of Hope: A Henri Nouwen Reader" changed the way that I viewed God, especially with respect to my own chronic illness. No one conveys the limitlessness of God's love the way that Nouwen does.

For me, it's truly a timeless classic whose power lies in its simplicity.


The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
I read this in my early teens and because of it, I grew up not judging people in superficial terms. "On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOA7Cc...

Check out the overview at www.nightengale.com in their store to get a sense of what I have written. Fair warning, it is a very emotional story which reads like fiction but is absolutely real. Having taken me well over twenty years of writing and rewriting and then finding the right publisher and editor, this book has been a true and exhausting labor of love.
It is currently only available through their website but it will be in barnesandnoble.com, borders.com, amazon.com, and others shortly and will be in the book stores in 2009.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I truly appreciate it.
Carl David

To date, everyone who has read the book has had the same "Oh My God" reaction. It has impact and reads like fiction but as we all know, truth is far more powerful than fiction.
If my book helps even one person, then I have done my job and have "paid it forward." I am certain that it will bend the minds of a great many people; in a good way, through the shared experience of my own life struggles overcome.
Thank you for caring.
Carl


Ok, so this is going to be a bit hokey, but the most influential books I have read are what I think are the most influential books in history - the Bible (any version), and the Koran (any English translation). Coming from a semi-atheist background, I somehow missed the religious upbringing of the church- and synagogue-goers around me, and came to traditional religious texts later in life. I would now consider both these books to be essential reading for anyone who would have pretensions to understanding spirituality in any sense, as much to convince you that you don't believe as that you do.
On to less ivory-towered regions, I think that Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel is a perfect book to start out in the spiritual quest. Conrad's Heart of Darkness is also hugely thought-provoking (unlike Lord of the Flies which I think is trite). Julian Jaynes 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind' is a mouthful but an eye-opener. Finally, Friedrich Hayek's 'The Road to Serfdom' is a great challenge to youthful conceit when you're a firebrand student (as many of us were).
Zen in the Art of Archery


Ominvores Dilemma by Michael Pollan-the importance of conscious eating and the giant commodities machinery.
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu-launched me into a whole new realm of spirituality.
...so many more!!


and
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Hill's book opened my eyes to the world's possibilities and Card's book helped give me humanity and spirit."
my husband just read atlas shrugged and the fountain, he just think those are his favorites, I am going to start reading myself.

Since reading this book, I have discovered the ability to make a conscious decision about how I will react to events in my life rather than let the most primitive parts of my brain decide for me.
It convinces you to choose a better attitude rather than allowing events in your life to decide whether you are optimistic or pessimistic.

-An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
-The Hours by Michael Cunningham
-Any of William Wordsworth's poems (Although especially "The Tables Turned")
-Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
-The Giver by Lois Lowry

Yeah, me too- reads like a mythic tragedy- and how he comes to see the errors in his ways at the end is so deep.

Books mentioned in this topic
V for Vendetta (other topics)Zen in the Art of Archery (other topics)
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (other topics)