What book changed your life?

[Moviefan-2]

I have hesitated to post in this thread, as I don't know that I can truly say that a single book ever changed my life. Some of the titles that did make an impact (in various ways) over the years have included:

-- The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson
-- All the Trouble in the World by P. J. O'Rourke
-- Herzog by Saul Bellow
-- Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
-- Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
-- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
-- Tenth of December by George Saunders

Perhaps I should try reading it again, but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance didn't do anything for me.

 

[MissCroft]

A couple others I thought of that haven't been mentioned...


The Old Man and the Sea

Love in the Time of Cholera

 

[K Douglas]

A couple others I thought of that haven't been mentioned...


The Old Man and the Sea

Love in the Time of Cholera

I loved the Old Man and the Sea, my favorite Hemingway piece. Short but gripping. He saved the best for last.

 

[legmann]

On the Road (Kerouac): Never a best-seller and hardly mainstream, but hugely influential. Exciting, groundbreaking, motivating.
The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger): Hardly a book as revered and reviled. Not much that can be said about this one that hasn't been written already.

 

[Titalian]

NO books, people though, that I've met personally, have changed my life, whether it be good or bad !

 

[TheDr]

A book is as dangerous as any journey you might take.
The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front.

 

[train]

Opposite for me. I have read so many books and enjoyed or learned from many. Can't be as dramatic as saying they changed my life, although they each became a small part, I guess. I actually almost suspicious of people you are so easily swayed as to have individual books change them. There must have been a big void there.

Some women I was trying screw gave me The Secret and told I must read it. I think took me one plane ride to Vancouver. I stop trying to see her after so maybe you can say that a booked changed my life. It was Dr Phil-like crap pop psychology disguised as a book .

 

[red]

The book made it much easier for me to quit. I looked at it like this; if it didn't work, I was out $20 and the time it took to read. If it worked (which, for me, it did), I'd be a non-smoker. I think smokers that want to quit should really give this book a try before they start using gums, patches, pills etc.

You know what's weird. Sometimes I dream I am smoking and I wake up coughing

 

[red]

A couple others I thought of that haven't been mentioned...


The Old Man and the Sea

Love in the Time of Cholera

Old man and the sea- oh I hate that book. Ugh.

 

[red]

I have hesitated to post in this thread, as I don't know that I can truly say that a single book ever changed my life. Some of the titles that did make an impact (in various ways) over the years have included:

-- The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson
-- All the Trouble in the World by P. J. O'Rourke
-- Herzog by Saul Bellow
-- Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
-- Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
-- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
-- Tenth of December by George Saunders

Perhaps I should try reading it again, but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance didn't do anything for me.

Some good books- as for zen- I think it requires a good basis in plato's writings and in raising kids. It evokes. A lot of memories for me.

 

[DirtyDaveII]

Penthouse letters, swank and hustler

 

[MissCroft]

The best seller of all time is possibly the most unread book
in history. A lot of people just put the bible on the shelf to
collect dust. Did you read the holy book from cover to cover
or selectively?

I was forced to endure a few years of Sunday school as a kid. My mom would make me go and one day my grandma (her mom) said, "Why do you force her to go when you never go to church?" And I never had to go to Sunday school again. LOL

But I read a lot of the bible as a kid and sometimes enjoy reading bits of it now. I'm not religious but it is an interesting book. Revelations is fun.

 

[oil&gas]

Penthouse letters, swank and hustler

Who in his right mind would buy an issue of Penthouse for the letters?
There was a time I would try to sneak a peek into each and every issue of
Bob Guccione and Mr Hefner's magazine. I must have been mentally
deranged if the letters were the first thing I read.

 

[JanHammer]

John Irving - " A Prayer for Owen Meany"

That made me cry like a baby. Wonderful book.

 

[TeasePlease]

But I read a lot of the bible as a kid and sometimes enjoy reading bits of it now.

Likewise. I enjoy discussing it at an intellectual level, especially with biblical scholars. I have difficulty with people who impute meaning beyond the words (i.e., preach). Like you know better than me because....you actually know Jesus? Maybe they do (metaphorically speaking). But no one died and made them a prophet...lol.

 

[Moviefan-2]

Penthouse letters, swank and hustler

Who in his right mind would buy an issue of Penthouse for the letters?

I sent a letter to Penthouse once in the hopes it might get published. I started it by saying, "I never thought this would happen to me...."