What Book Changed Your Life?

[sally_sparrow]

My book list is growing after catching up with these. So many wonderful contributions

 

[RickTango]

When I was in college I became fascinated with Herman Hesse’s work.
Probably the Glass Bead Game had me most look at life with a new lens.

 

[blulilacgrl]

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.

I taught me to trust my instincts. That gut reactions to a person or a situation is normally your subconscious processing danger cues before your conscious brain can catch up. As well as tips on how to handle dangerous situations.

Most importantly it taught me that I do not owe anyone comfort. If I am uncomfortable then I am within my rights to act upon it. A stranger does not deserve the benefit of a doubt. I can't tell you how many times the reminder, that I do not have to be nice or put a stranger at ease at the cost of my own safety, has helped me to stand up to someone that was being creepy as hell.

 

[bookworm69]

So many good works already mentioned above ...

Here's mine (in no particular order)

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Descartes' Error - Antonio Damasio

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Best and the Brightest - David Halberstam

Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas R. Hofstadter

Metaphors We Live By - George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

Consilience - Edward O. Wilson

 

[sally_sparrow]

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.

I taught me to trust my instincts. That gut reactions to a person or a situation is normally your subconscious processing danger cues before your conscious brain can catch up. As well as tips on how to handle dangerous situations.

Most importantly it taught me that I do not owe anyone comfort. If I am uncomfortable then I am within my rights to act upon it. A stranger does not deserve the benefit of a doubt. I can't tell you how many times the reminder, that I do not have to be nice or put a stranger at ease at the cost of my own safety, has helped me to stand up to someone that was being creepy as hell.

I need this one

 

[peterherring425]

Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

 

[sally_sparrow]

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.

I taught me to trust my instincts. That gut reactions to a person or a situation is normally your subconscious processing danger cues before your conscious brain can catch up. As well as tips on how to handle dangerous situations.

Most importantly it taught me that I do not owe anyone comfort. If I am uncomfortable then I am within my rights to act upon it. A stranger does not deserve the benefit of a doubt. I can't tell you how many times the reminder, that I do not have to be nice or put a stranger at ease at the cost of my own safety, has helped me to stand up to someone that was being creepy as hell.

Though this is somewhat unrelated, the title of the book you recommended reminds me of a book I read years ago called The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Phillip Zimbardo.

It centers on Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment and putting people in certain situations with certain levels of power and how it can change them. It's frightening to see the drastic shift within the students through the simulated experiment- which was eventually cut short because it started to become too realistic. It makes me wonder what has the power to shape us more- nature vs nurture. Very interesting and thought provoking read.

 

[RunningJib]

Fountainhead

Ayn Rand's "Fountainhead."


FH is the first book that Rand wrote. No, I don't buy her entire philosophy and in fact, there are portions of FH that are just nonsense (trail of Howard Roark). However, still worthy of your time.

 

[n8Romantic]

A few that influenced me:
"Atlas Shrugged", Ayn Rand
"Stranger in a Strange Land", Robert Heinlein
"Be Here Now", Baba Ram Dass
"The Innocent Man", John Grisham (nonfiction) A man's ordeal on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Our justice system needs an overhaul.
And lately, "Crisis of Conscience", Tom Mueller. This is an excellent read about "whistle blowers" and the bludgeoning they take for revealing unpopular truths.

 

[Shi_One81]

There are several -

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
A Separate Peace
50 Shades of Gray - though not a literary work of art, it opened my world to learning about BDSM, fetishes, and kinks.
I started reading Danielle Steel in 5th grade. Star and Zya are two of my favorite books by her.
When I was a teen, I read all of Lurlean McDaniel’s books. They were mostly shouts teens with cancer and I was able to relate

 

[jeff_is_smiling]

Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. It came out about 2-years after I left the US Navy submarine service. The details in the book were considered top secret when I was in the navy a few years earlier, and it obviously showed Clancy had supremely good contacts in the sub force. It made me think that someone with detailed knowledge of a topic could write a book, and gave me the enthusiasm to try my hand at writing.

 

[tigger_lover]

there are a lot of books but the main one recently is 50 shades of grey, it opened my mind

 

[TheMrBurns]

There have been a few...

George Orwell's 1984, one of those books that just haunts you as you see its monstrous reflection in every aspect of our lives especially in social media. Though it certainly helps you look at things critically. This was the first book to give me a jump scare even though I had read dozens of Stephen King's books.

Les Pensées by Blaise Pascal was also a very important read as it made me realize that I was a pyrrhonist. I mean it's mostly a bunch of 17th century shower thoughts but that revelation was important to me.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the first time I discovered British humour and have loved it ever since.

I would not have completed my Master's thesis without Aristotle's Poetics... It also left me way too critical of movies and novels.

Most recently it would be the album/graphic novel The Secret Path by Gordon Downie and Jeff Lemire about the death of Chanie Wenjack. Left me questioning everything I believed about Canada and being Canadian.

 

[mnbreastluver]

Masturbation For Dummies 101 by Jack E. Handie

 

[haha_on_me]

The book American Steel and the Springsteen song The Factory made me change my career.

 

[sally_sparrow]

The book American Steel and the Springsteen song The Factory made me change my career.

Is this the book that you read? I just read the synopsis and it looks really interesting. I just added it to my queue. Thanks for sharing.

 

[haha_on_me]

Is this the book that you read? I just read the synopsis and it looks really interesting. I just added it to my queue. Thanks for sharing.

This is
the book that I read, but The Factory looks really good.

This is the song I referenced. https://youtu.be/plaOhNjJeBg

 

[sally_sparrow]

This is
the book that I read, but The Factory looks really good.

This is the song I referenced. https://youtu.be/plaOhNjJeBg

Oh I'm sorry, I misread your original post. A happy accident though Thank you!

 

[bw699353]

The time machine.

I was never taught to read until my teens. It was the first book i ever read on my own. I fell in love with reading and science fiction forever.

 

[MrsPassion]

The most impactful book I have ever loved, and read is “God Help The Child” By Toni Morrison

 

[caitiff1969]

Wicca: A guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cuningham.
The path, through his guide, felt right to me.

 

[Jeb56]

No book changes your life more than the first book you learned to read.

 

[Paligirl]

Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Green Eggs and Ham-by Dr. Seuss

 

[Deleted member 6607120]

The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.

 

[fma20fma]

my employers sarlary payment cheque book.