What book changed your life?

[MPAsquared]

I am an avid reader. I'm always on a quest for a good book. But my preference is for books that will add something new to my life, specifically, a new perspective. I have been fortunate enough that the right book usually falls into my lap at the right time, when I need it's lessons most.

4 books have had a very significant impact on my life:

1. How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie

2. The Art of War - Robert Greene

3. The Secret

4. The 5 Love Languages - Gary Chapman


What books have had the biggest impact on your life, growth, perspective, & progress in your life? (amazon links are welcomed!!)

 

[Mr Bret]

You won't believe this, but The Secret.
I don't normally believe in "that kind of stuff", but someone who I cared about dearly suggested I read it.
I did so with a huge grain of salt, actually a nugget.

Whether or not my thinking changed is unknown, but I do know that just mere months after I read it, my career took off like a rocket and I landed a position I never expected to even get a sniff at.

Coincidence or a result of The Secret? Who knows?

 

[wazup]

i wait for the movie version

 

[kkelso]

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. Truly changed my life, read it over 15 years ago and still think about its lessons daily.

KK

 

[Mr Deeds]

The happy hooker it opened up a whole new world for me

 

[TESLAMotors]

This bad boy http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Our..._sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HQKJ5TBJCNKAWHBZJ1T

AWESOME read and life changing, I honestly can't give it enough of these-> :thumb:

 

[manni]

Gone Girl - taught me never to get married ....

 

[|2 /-\ | /|/]

Jane Eyre

 

[JackBurton]

Dirty White Boys - Stephen Hunter. Brilliant writer who opened up the boring genre of mystery and technical writing. He had a great 20 yr run before it started to go stale.

Crazy town: Robyn Doolittle - she confirmed in detail that I wasn't the only one who thought Rob Ford was a atrocious piece of shit who derailed any progress this city could have had for 4 yrs: spoiler alert he DID raise property taxes for all you Ford nation people. Documented right here.

The Hobbit: classic literature that wasn't too long and boring to read. Discovered it one summer when I was 13 and it ignited a love of reading I have to this day

If you are looking for some great summer reading, try Stephen Hunter. Start with Dirty White Boys.

Cheers!

 

[Spacealien2]

Not a book per se. But I discovered my Myers-Briggs type indicator and reading the analysis helped me learn about myself a lot better.

 

[Butler1000]

To Kill a Mockingbird. I still read it once a year.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Changed my game completely with Women. Finally figured them out(well as much as that's possible anyway).

 

[Insidious Von]

Anything by Dr Seuss.

Without his books I would have had a much tougher time learning English when my family immigrated to Canada.

 

[MissCroft]

Frankenstein

To Kill a Mockingbird


The Good Earth (taught me a lot about money and so-called 'wealth' and happiness)

Anything by Dr Seuss.

Without his books I would have had a much tougher time learning English when my family immigrated to Canada.

That's sweet. Loved Dr. Seuss as a kid.

 

[Malika Fantasy]

everything by Amélie Nothomb. I have 18 of her books.
Looking for Alaska
To kill a mockingbird

 

[diana <3]

I spent ages 9 through 11 living in Indonesia, so I missed a lot of the sexual and gender indoctrination that girls get socialized into at the end of elementary school. Instead I was introduced to Heinein's Stranger in a Strange Land as soon as my family returned to Canada. It was the first adult book I read that dealt with sexuality and relationships and it really shaped how I approach and think about them.

 

[TeasePlease]

I've never liked self-help books but find myself reading biographies all the time. I guess I don't like being told what to do but I am inspired by people who do great things.

A couple that stand out in my mind are Yeager (Chuck Yeager) and My American Journey (Colin Powell). The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie is also a terrific read.

A departed member of our community recommended The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch(sp?) a few years ago. It is an amazing piece of work. It is moving, and probably life changing. Except it's concepts are so big that I have trouble getting my head around it.

I have a bit of a challenge now with a friend reading the Koran and the Bible. The conversations are interesting, but I can't say the reading is engrossing.

 

[Mable]

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand;

Intellectuals in Society, Thomas Sowell;

Conflict of Interests, Thomas Sowell;

Anything by Milton Friedman.

 

[DaleyDDD]

The Little Prince (I know it's juvenile)
The Scarlet Letter
Paradise Lost

 

[oldjones]

I spent ages 9 through 11 living in Indonesia, so I missed a lot of the sexual and gender indoctrination that girls get socialized into at the end of elementary school. Instead I was introduced to Heinein's Stranger in a Strange Land as soon as my family returned to Canada. It was the first adult book I read that dealt with sexuality and relationships and it really shaped how I approach and think about them.

It's the book I've most often passed on with life-changing hopes for others. Heinlein's always felt like something of a wise and kindred spirit, from his boys books into the wilder fantasy stuff.

I was a Dale Carnegie fan too, in my youth, but the books that I now recall as true shaping influences were The Patrol Leader's Handbook and Scouting For Boys. Their straightforward and uncomplicated message of self-reliance, resourcefulness and commitment to larger purposes and the community and most particularly the functional knowledge and advice about leadership and management still serves me well. It's a shame it now presents as so dated, and that our age has separated itself so completely from that past that birthed it.

The other candidate is whatever book I'm currently past the first 50 pages of. Check out The Knowledge.

 

[danmand]

Assembler Programming