What book changed your life?

[notthemama]

In grade 9 or so I read, Catch 22. It made me aware of the absurdity that is out there.
To Kill a Mocking Bird.
Shakespeare. Amazing how insignificantly the human condition has changed from his time.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Coffee, Tea or Me? Got caught with a copy in 6th grade. Sexual awareness. I knew I liked girls, then I knew why.
I can't say how many times I started, Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It bored me.
My favorite, The Atlas.

 

[Yoga Face]

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!!)

I never found Carnegie to have an impact on me

To me he is the precursor of motivational speakers who are in it for the money IE Tony Robbins

What was his impact on you?


To answer your question, it is the Hardy Boys series

I would read a book in a few hours when I was a child

Read the whole series twice or more

Taught me to love reading

 

[kkelso]

Anything by Dr Seuss.

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

Very cool story!

 

[shack]

Dune--Frank Herbert
The Source--James Michener
Stranger In a Strange Land--Robert Heinlein

 

[Hiding]

Every book I read changes my life, at least a little bit. The most important was probably the first I fell in love with, which was a picture book about dump trucks and whose title I have forgotten.

Along the lines of what the OP is suggesting: you might like Rules of Seduction, Think and Grow Rich, In Search of Excellence, Mating in Captivity, The Ethical Slut, Opening Up, and maybe even The Game/Female Chauvinist Pigs/The Erotic Engine.

 

[trouble321]

Tom Sawyer
Art of War
48 Laws of Power

 

[TheDr]

I have to admit to being a voracious reader. I get through an average novel in 2-3 days during the week, probably within a day on a weekend.

Which one has changed my life? Each and every one that I have read.

Every book gives you moments of escapism, visions of fantasy and alternate reality. Is that not changing your life?

Every word read puts something into your life that was not there before and you truly do not know the effect further on in your personal timeline...

Books are a hard-bound drug with no danger of an overdose. I am a happy victim of books.

 

[fuji]

Assembler Programming

F Neitszche, Beyond Good and Evil. This can't be summarized. Read it and be changed for life.

Best two answers in the thread.

I think every working professional in a knowledge rich field can name the book that opened their eyes to the core ideas. It will be a different book for different people but certainly a good example.

Second, having read a lot of philosophy books and having found most of it irrelevant I really can't name another author whose ideas are as transformative as Nietzsche. If you really read it, it WILL change your outlook on almost everything.

I would add these ones:

"The Elements of Style", Strunk & White

" Where are the customer's yachts? A good hard look at Wall Street", Fred Schwed.

Though neither are as life changing as a good introduction to a career or an overhaul of fundamental assumptions about life.

 

[fuji]

BTW,

If you click the "blog entries" link under my name I have used that feature to quote from literary works, poems, and other material that I thought were transformative.

 

[Nickelodeon]

At age 55 and fed up with corporate life, I was surprised by the insights offered by Eckhart Toll in: A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.

 

[Shakeandbake]

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!!)

Your Erroneous Zones -Dr Wayne Dyer

The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

 

[stanleyross]

To Kill a Mockingbird

Cain Mutiny

 

[foxxxy lady]

A book called "Politics of Lust". I was going through a period were I felt less then because of my profession and I also felt guilty. Walking through the chapters one day a book stood out to me . It had a couple on the front the women covering her breasts and pussy and the man had a fig leaf on his cock. Its no wonder it stood out to me lol, however when I read it all my guilt famished and I realized how much society brain washes us sexually (among many other things]

xo

 

[Marla]

For Hope: "The boys in the Boat:" Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.

 

[danmand]

Maybe not life changing, but Freakonomics anyway.

 

[shakenbake]

Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot, "Transport Phenomena". It left my brain permanently altered.

 

[Lani]

Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan & Cacilda Jetha
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake

 

[tsgarp101]

There are so many great books out there -

Books that I have close by and reread on a regular basis - John Irving " The World According to Garp", " A Prayer for Owen Meany"
John Steinbeck "Of Mice and Men", " The Grapes of Wrath"
George Orwell "1984", "Down and Out in Paris and London"

and of course the old standby The Joy of Sex!

 

[MissCroft]

John Irving......." A Prayer for Owen Meany"

Another great one! I have it but haven't read it in years.

 

[AdamH]

George Orwell - Ninety Eighty Four