Name the book that changed your life.

[Toast]

I really liked the banned book post. So this is a spin off. Name the book or books that changed your life. Me? Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein around 1966. Oh Interview with a Vampire also threw me around 1976, I think. Oh and Brideshead Revisited, oh my.

[David McLeod]

Stranger in a Strange Land, excellent. Most of Heinlein, also excellent. Life changing? No. Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, perhaps. No, not they, either. It takes more courage than I have for them to change me.

[Nephylim]

I don't know if I can say that there is any book that has changed my life as such... I mean there are books that have gripped me and held me, and books that have stayed with me for years but changed my life? I don't know... I suppose the book that made the biggest change to my life was the Bible... and I don't admit THAT too readily. I was not brouht up in a religious home but at I accepted everything I was told in school, tv etc...and then at about sixteen I actually read the Bible. I read every word and I got angry. I began to question everything and everyone. However, it was not until I was in my early twenties that I actually started to think about the questions and the answers I was receiving and started reaching conclusions. I haven't looked back since.

 

I have been through rabidly anti christian and anti christianity phases both of which I fully apprecaite are hypocritical and fruitless and come to an uneasy truce after a lifetime of struggle which all began with a book... so I guess yeah that Book certainly changed my life.

[David McLeod]

...I began to question everything and everyone...

 

Let's hear it for Anshelm (or St. Anshelm)! Questioning leads to answers! Question everything.

[PlugInMatty]

/Letters From The Inside by John Marsden.

 

I was only about 12 years old when I read it, and it was the first book I'd ever read that didn't have a happy ending. More than that, it was the first book I'd read that didn't have everything wrapped up in a perfect little bow. Basically, this one book took all of my perceptions/prejudices up to that point (i.e. 'and they all lived happily ever after'), and turned everything on its head.

 

I'd like to think that book shaped the stories I write today.

[Red_A]

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

In 1964, I borrowed the first volume from the library. I read it overnight. I borrowed the second volume that day. I read it overnight. I borrowed the third volume and read that overnight. Since I have been able to, I have always had a copy. I can list the books that I have read twice on my hand. I am now on my third copy of the Lord of the Rings.

 

I am Dyslexic, with a great ability in maths, and a good memory. This book taught me how to avoid the petty inability to actually read indivual words, but to read sentences and use this to understand the whole.

 

The philosphy in that story, has stayed with me. And I cannot understand why a book which tried to propogate christian beliefs (sucessfully??) was BANNED.

[Toast]

Stranger in a Strange Land, excellent. Most of Heinlein, also excellent. Life changing? No. Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, perhaps. No, not they, either. It takes more courage than I have for them to change me.

 

 

Well I did read Great Expectations by Dickens in the 7th grade. I didn't know how wonderful books were until then. Comic books in the 50's were quite different back then and so was pulp sci-fi. I don't think the same book can do all for everyone. But sometimes it can sure trip you up. Make you change directions.

[JamesSavik]

As an adult: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Howard Roark is the man.

 

 

As a kid: The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien changed a redneck jock kid into a bookish, redneck jock kid..

[Toast]

I don't know if I can say that there is any book that has changed my life as such... I mean there are books that have gripped me and held me, and books that have stayed with me for years but changed my life? I don't know... I suppose the book that made the biggest change to my life was the Bible... and I don't admit THAT too readily. I was not brouht up in a religious home but at I accepted everything I was told in school, tv etc...and then at about sixteen I actually read the Bible. I read every word and I got angry. I began to question everything and everyone. However, it was not until I was in my early twenties that I actually started to think about the questions and the answers I was receiving and started reaching conclusions. I haven't looked back since.

 

I have been through rabidly anti christian and anti christianity phases both of which I fully apprecaite are hypocritical and fruitless and come to an uneasy truce after a lifetime of struggle which all began with a book... so I guess yeah that Book certainly changed my life.

 

 

I questioned at an early age also. Religion doesn't like questions. Or answers.

[AFriendlyFace]

Is it lame if I say The Ordinary Us by our own Domluka? It really is the first one that springs to mind!

[Graeme]

Is it lame if I say The Ordinary Us by our own Domluka? It really is the first one that springs to mind!

Not at all

 

For me, it would be For the Love of Pete by Dewey and the other stories in the 'series' over at Deweywriter. Those stories, plus the ones by Drake Hunter (sadly no longer available on the Internet) are what allowed me to finally accept my sexuality and come out to my wife. That was only five years ago.

 

I read too much in my younger years to pick a book that made a difference I can identify. Some books affected me more than others, but I can't pick one (or even a handful) that changed my life.

[Y_B]

The Outsider by S.E.What'sherface

 

It wasn't groundbreaking or superb by any means, but it delivered all it could it a 12 year old kid. I've lost count of the number of times I've read it.

Edited September 28, 2009 by Yang Bang

[Phantom]

The Giver... my all time favorite book...

 

 

I forget who the author is, but I'll post it when I get home...

[JamesSavik]

The Outsider by S.E.What'sherface

 

It wasn't groundbreaking or superb by any means, but it delivered all it could it a 12 year old kid. I've lost count of the number of times I've read it.

 

 

S.E. Hinton- she has a website :>>http://www.sehinton.com

 

I knew that I liked you.

[Arpeggio]

The Giver is my favorite book as well.

 

Lois Lowry is the author, I think

Edited September 28, 2009 by ArpeGGio

[thatboyChase]

the catcher in the rye by Holden Caulfield duh

j.d salinger

[oneoftheguys]

That's a tough one. I thinks its between The Giver and Of Mice and Men.

[Phantom]

Yup it was Lois Lowry! Thanks Lacey

[Hoskins]

On the hokey side, I'd say The Little Prince, which was read to us as kids by our brand new stepmom. It got us closer to her and taught me a lesson or two about life - there really isn't a whole lot of difference between a drawing of a hat, or a drawing of a snake eating an elephant, you just have to change your focus a bit.

 

On the practical side, the big book of AA has stories by recovering drunks in it. One of them changed everything.

Edited September 28, 2009 by Hoskins

[Krista]

the catcher in the rye by Holden Caulfield duh

j.d salinger

 

 

I love that book.

 

 

---

 

Now on to the book that changed my life? I guess the Bible affected me the most, but heh.. I wouldn't say a book has that ability. Maybe I need to purchase a self-help book.. Mostly reading is just recreational, I don't put much depth in fiction.

 

A Separate Peace - by John Knowles is a book I remember enjoying as well.

[Tarin]

Oh boy. If I say The Lord of the Flies (Golding) I wouldn't be telling the truth, however that was the first book to pop into my head when I read this thread. The Giver (Lowry), as mentioned earlier, is another one that was very good, as well as Brave New World (Huxley). However, I am afraid if I said these books I would also be telling a lie, as much as I wish it was the truth.

 

I might say Exile (Logston), that is the book that got me hooked on reading when I was 14. It helped me realise I did in fact like books, however it wasn't the best book ever. So I guess this is one. Then again there are several that made me wish i was illiterate; Dhalgren (Delaney) and Invisible Man (Ellison), for example.

[Toast]

I love that book.

 

 

---

 

Now on to the book that changed my life? I guess the Bible affected me the most, but heh.. I wouldn't say a book has that ability. Maybe I need to purchase a self-help book.. Mostly reading is just recreational, I don't put much depth in fiction.

 

A Separate Peace - by John Knowles is a book I remember enjoying as well.

 

 

I read Rye and Peace in the early 1960's around 14 I think. They were required reading in an advanced English class. My parents had to sign a waiver before I could read them though. Is it the age most of us read them that enbeds them so in our minds.

[Toast]

Oh boy. If I say The Lord of the Flies (Golding) I wouldn't be telling the truth, however that was the first book to pop into my head when I read this thread. The Giver (Lowry), as mentioned earlier, is another one that was very good, as well as Brave New World (Huxley). However, I am afraid if I said these books I would also be telling a lie, as much as I wish it was the truth.

 

I might say Exile (Logston), that is the book that got me hooked on reading when I was 14. It helped me realise I did in fact like books, however it wasn't the best book ever. So I guess this is one. Then again there are several that made me wish i was illiterate; Dhalgren (Delaney) and Invisible Man (Ellison), for example.

 

Mysterious Skin (Heim) might just be the book, however. The emotion in that book was powerful and helped me realise a lot about myself, though not in a positive way. Then Joel (Louis) was quite the opposite in that respect. It helped me to understand that I can turn what most view as a negative into a positive. However, I read Joel first (online, not in print).

 

Asking me to pick just one book is unfair. So I'll take your cop out and name several. Music and movies have been more life-changing for me, though those are a different thread indeed. I guess books take a tertiary position to movies and music.

 

 

 

If I am unfair, I am sorry. Please tell me all the books you love.

[myself_i_must_remake]

mmm. at seventeen, catcher in the rye.

 

at eighteen, beloved.

 

at nineteen, fall on your knees.

 

at twenty, lolita.

 

twenty-one is up for grabs, but there are definitely contenders.

[Mark Arbour]

"Beat to Quarters," by CS Forester. It wasn't so much the deep meaning of the book (it isn't a book with deep meaning), rather, it so interested me it fired up my desire to read. I was 10 years old when I read it. Prior to that, all the stuff I read was assigned, I'd never really dove into something of my own volition. After that book, I did.