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Books that changed your life

wyrdsister

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Please add any books that changed your outlook/philosophy on life.

1. The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

2. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

3. The Universe in a Nutshell - Steven Hawking
 

bluebell

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Families and how to survive them
Life and how to survive it
both by Robyn Skinner & John Cleese

These books completely changed how I view myself, other people and the world. I read these books about 5 years ago and I am still thinking and processing the content and slotting it into how I see the world.
 

Littlelostnf

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Please add any books that changed your outlook/philosophy on life.

1. The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

2. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

3. The Universe in a Nutshell - Steven Hawking


Whenever someone asks me this question the first book I think of I read when I was 8.

A Wrinkle In Time - It was the first book I'd read that wasn't down to earth...it was beyond a fairy tale. I loved it!

The Bible

Brave New World
 
Last edited:

cafe

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1.) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (from it I learned that I love to read)

2.) The Boundaries Book (from it I learned when it was okay not to help people)

3.) The Bible (has pretty much shaped my thoughts on morality, etc)
 

wyrdsister

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1.) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (from it I learned that I love to read)

2.) The Boundaries Book (from it I learned when it was okay not to help people)

3.) The Bible (has pretty much shaped my thoughts on morality, etc)

I read the whole series of those CS Lewis books. I loved them.

:wubbie:
 

cafe

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I read the whole series of those CS Lewis books. I loved them.

:wubbie:
They're pretty great, aren't they? I hooked my younger daughter up with The Horse and His Boy last night when she was looking for something to read. :D Don read the entire series to the kids several yeas ago, but I think only our oldest daughter remembers it.
 

Geoff

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The Hobbit. It awoke an interest in a whole new world (I was about 5).

Life on Earth by David Attenborough, it taught me the story of life, and evolution and all kinds of things I never really thought about before. I was 7.

The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, it introduced me to a wacky, sarcastic wonderful sci fi world of humour I fell in love with. I was 7 too.
 

hereandnow

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The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman, PhD, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
 

Ivy

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The Hobbit. It awoke an interest in a whole new world (I was about 5).

Life on Earth by David Attenborough, it taught me the story of life, and evolution and all kinds of things I never really thought about before. I was 7.

The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, it introduced me to a wacky, sarcastic wonderful sci fi world of humour I fell in love with. I was 7 too.

You read these things at 5 and 7?

Fine. I read Caunterbury Tales in the 6th grade. *hairflip*

Seriously-- you must've been a pretty advanced kid. I was a remarkable reader but I was still on Little House and Nancy Drew at 7.

As for the thread topic, I've been changed by many books. Many have already been mentioned in this thread. The bible, yes. Maybe not for the reasons people might think. Frederick Douglass's autobiography helped me to shake off the vestiges of racism I was brought up with. And A Wrinkle In Time and Ender's Game introduced me to sci-fi, NF style. :)

Also, I read a book a few years ago that I've carried with me since: Children of the Self-Absorbed, which helped me in the way that cafe said her boundaries book helped her. My parents and in-laws can be difficult to get along with and it has helped to know where I end and they begin.
 

Geoff

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You read these things at 5 and 7?

Fine. I read Caunterbury Tales in the 6th grade. *hairflip*

Seriously-- you must've been a pretty advanced kid. I was a remarkable reader but I was still on Little House and Nancy Drew at 7.

As for the thread topic, I've been changed by many books. Many have already been mentioned in this thread. The bible, yes. Maybe not for the reasons people might think. Frederick Douglass's autobiography helped me to shake off the vestiges of racism I was brought up with. And A Wrinkle In Time and Ender's Game introduced me to sci-fi, NF style. :)

Also, I read a book a few years ago that I've carried with me since: Children of the Self-Absorbed, which helped me in the way that cafe said her boundaries book helped her. My parents and in-laws can be difficult to get along with and it has helped to know where I end and they begin.

I can't actually remember not being able to read, while my mother taught my sister (she is 18 months older) how to read, I must have been listening and absorbing, because when she tried to introduce me to words at 3 I could already read.. apparently.

As for fairly scientific treatises...like Life on Earth, I can remember it freaking the teacher out that I was reading it at 7. She basically accused me of just looking at pictures (I'd brought it in from home) and recommending I stick to stuff like Peter Rabbit. After I'd explained to her in some detail about the chapter on Protozoa and its place in early life, she left me alone with my books ;)

By way of balance, I got my words late... I didnt speak until 3 or so, and even then i was composing and using my own nonsense language (did I ever stop :D ), apparently because of intellectual boredom, but it could just be I'm odd....

It's difficult to know what's normal, or not, when you have only yourself as an example.

-Geoff
 

Varelse

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You read these things at 5 and 7?
My mom wouldn't even teach me to read until I was five.:cry:

Speaker for the Dead
Bible
Hyperion Cantos
The collections of Hugo-winning stories at our local library
(Yes, there's a trend there)
 

Jasz

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"politicus zonder partij" (politician without a party) by menno ter braak (see avatar), published in 1934

i was 15 and this was my first encounter with a like-minded person. it was an apocalyptic moment for my life until then.

i am convinced now that the author was an INTP. i had no knowledge of MBTI until much later.

the author was on the ten most wanted list of the nazis for his fierce critique of the movement. when the nazis invaded holland, ter braak hung himself.

ter braak got me interested in political philosophy, art/literary criticism and social issues. he also introduced me to nietzsche which caused a second eruption in my life.

boy, those were the days ...
 

Falcarius

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"All Quiet on the Western Front" By Maria Remarque
"Nineteen Eighty Four" By George Orwell
"Animal Farm." By George Orwell
"Being and Nothingness" By Jean-Paul Sartre
 

disregard

mrs
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tao te ching
ender's game/ender's shadow
tarzan of the apes
catcher in the rye
fight club
rebecca
 

Rajah

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This sounds like a throwaway response, but I mean it. Every book I've read has changed my life. Even if the book doesn't stick with me for the long haul, it's impacting my life at that moment.

Atlas Shrugged caused me to end a relationship when my ex said he wouldn't read a book that long. Superfudge made me want to be a writer. The Cat Ate My Gymsuit was given to me by the author, Paula Danziger, at a Young Authors' Conference, and it was like I'd met the Beatles. Beowulf was the first book I hated, and I loathed that feeling. The next time I read it, I fortunately thought it was brilliant. Billy Budd taught me that great literary works just sometimes aren't so great (and that you can write an A essay stealing bits about "light and dark imagery" from the Cliff's Notes). Even Scarlett, by Alexandra Ripley, was a truly horrid book, but it still had such lush descriptions of Ireland, it inspired me to pay a visit.

If you're really asking me to pick the greatest literary work, then I don't know. I guess I'm not willing to choose.
 

disregard

mrs
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This sounds like a throwaway response, but I mean it. Every book I've read has changed my life. Even if the book doesn't stick with me for the long haul, it's impacting my life at that moment.

exactly. that's why i read... for that impact and insight.
 

ptgatsby

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I can agree with the C.S. Lewis books - they were one of the first I read. I can also say, along with those, the hobbit (my parents read it to me very young and I've never forgotten it!)... and then in grade 6-8, LOTR and Watership down became my refuge from the world... among a bunch of others, but I remember those distinctly.

And for sure, the whole Bunnicula series. We had a book fair in elementry school, and I bought the entire series for myself, instead of selling it to anyone else...

More recently, I can't say many books have influenced me... Other than the foundational books, I've read so many, they tend to just blend together. I guess I'd have to pick some of the philosophy books, or pseudo philosophy like Rand.

(Many of the books talked about here bring back memories... I had no idea how deep they ran till now... I'm kind of shocked. I remember reading A Wrinkle in Time when I was very young, and having my mom explain it to me. I remember the science magazines my grandmother used to collect, and I remember her explain them to me then too. Almost all my connections to my family seem to hover around books. Just recently, my dad dropped off a bunch of audiobooks for me... amazing I never realized it... /F)
 

Rajah

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And for sure, the whole Bunnicula series. We had a book fair in elementry school, and I bought the entire series for myself, instead of selling it to anyone else...
I LOVED Bunnicula.

The Celery Stalks at Midnight? Classic.
 

ptgatsby

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I LOVED Bunnicula.

The Celery Stalks at Midnight? Classic.

I can't even explain what these books meant to me. They are single handedly responsible for me wanting being able to write. Anyone who has children should get these books... and that's something I can't say about any other book out there.

(Beware the white celery... bewarrrre. And I loved Harold... and the steak... oh yes... AHHHHHHH...... I'm going to have to get the series again now...)
 

Rajah

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I can't even explain what these books meant to me. They are single handedly responsible for me wanting being able to write. Anyone who has children should get these books... and that's something I can't say about any other book out there.

(Beware the white celery... bewarrrre. And I loved Harold... and the steak... oh yes... AHHHHHHH...... I'm going to have to get the series again now...)
I've mentioned them to friends before, and nobody knows what I'm talking about!

I picked up the first Bunnicula book at one of those RIF (Reading Is Fun!) things that came through school... It was way better than the next year's Beverly Cleary (though I'll own up to having liked Ralph S. Mouse).
 
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