Name one book that changed your life, or your perception of the world.

For me it was "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," which changed my entire view of society.

changed the way I view war and nationalism. "The Grizzly Years" changed my views on wilderness and wildlife management, as did "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey.

"War is a force that gives us meaning" is a great book. The stories about Bosnia are really disturbing. It's sickening how easily we willingly can be conditioned to see no value in the lives of others.

His words about religious extremism I found to be extremely relvant and accurate.

when I was young - A Wrinkle In Time

Before college - The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge and Jonathan LIvingston Seagull - yeah, I know, it was the 70s.

Later - The Temple of My Familiar - Alice Walker.

Recently, nothing, actually.

These books had an effect on me, as did Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

the 70s ones are a little embarrassing now, but they did change the way I saw things.

:hi:

Did you read The Fountainhead, too? ;) oh, and Kafka! :hi:

I guess we are affected not only by what we read, but the era in which we read them. And our age, of course.

and a bit of feminism thrown in there, too.

maybe we were separated at birth, at least by the library shelves!

great books.

And no, I'm really not embarassed that I read them!

they are almost the literary equivalent of Frampton Comes Alive... ;)

rubber band, either one will keep me totally entertained for a while :)

Including books that are not of high literary standing. If something is meaningful to you, or to me, or to anyone, then that's what's important, don't you think?

maybe they might be worth a reread to see how 20 plus years of experience would effect how they seem now.... :)

I still have my copies so I might just do that.

About the colonization of space, using the L4 and L5 Lagrangian libration points to build massive habitats.

cheating since you asked for 'one').

Annals of the Black Company series by Glenn Cook
Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice
Drizzt's Line by RA Salvatore......

These books were both good, entertaining, but also made me think of the darker sides of life, and different looks and takes on the world...

The dark elf rules doesn't he.

trilogy was great, and so were a lot of the following books...lately, the Hunter Blade Trilogy was a joke, i hope RA gets his act together....

Btw I need a list of Drittz after the Dark Elf Trilogy. I am getting lost trying to keep up with them. Do you have or know where I can download one.

first books

Dark Elf Trilogy-Homeland, Exile and Sojourn

Next set

Icewind Dale Trilogy-Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, The Halflings Gem

Next set

Legacy of The Drow-The Legacy, Starless Night, Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn.

Next set

Paths of Darkness-The Silent Blade, The Spine of the World, Servant of the Shard, and Sea of Swords

Next set

Hunters Blade Trilogy-The Thousand Orc's, The Lone Drow, The Two Swords....

There are a few, each set can be bought in whole, meaning all the books are in one huge book...or you can look for the books individually....I am a big fan of huge books, but i usualyl get them all in hardback when they first come ...cause i'm not that patient...:) Also, the Clerical Quintent series by RA is fantastic also....

Btw is it me or is the print in the ebberon novels to dang small?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Discipleship. "when Christ bids a man to follow him, he bids him to come and die."

Then again, it might have been "Ramona the Pest."

I loved all the Henry Huggins books when I was little. Ate them up like candy!

My most life changing books had to be:

The People's History: 1492 to present by Howard Zinn
White Like Me: Perspectives on Race by a Priviledged Son by Tim Wise

was reading about Ramona and the little girl Susan in her class with the "Boing Boing" curls.

And when Ramona was learning her letters and kept adding whiskers and tails to all her "Q's", which made her teacher mad.

Ramona rules!
fsc

"It gives off a Lee Light, silly. Everyone knows that!" :)

Did a book report on it in the fourth grade and have read it once a year ever since.

:thumbsup:

I think I was still stuck with Nancy Drew then. :hi:

Read Nancy Drew then, too, but preferred my dad's old brown hardback Hardy Boys mysteries!

I was a voracious reader (still am) at that age, and it was just one of the books I found in an old box of my grandfather's books. Being from Alabama, it didn't seem strange that I would be interested in the adventures of Jem and Scout Finch and Boo Radley et al...

:hi:

I don't recall when I read it, but it was early as well. It was the first book that really SPOKE to me.

Actually, my mom had me read it as it is her favorite book. I reread it often as well. :thumbsup:

Collection of poetry. Touched my soul.

I think that book signal handedly cured my depression I at that point in my life.

Songs of the Gorilla Nation : My Journey Through Autism by Dawn Prince-Hughes Phd

Put it together with The Spiral Dance and you've got an excellent explanation of why some of us are pagans.

Khash.

maybe someday people will wake up ...

We can only hope it's before it's too late.

:hi:

1: I am still me, by christopher reeve. I firmly believe that anyone who has a disibility or knows a person with a disibility should read this book.

2: Lord of the Rings - this is the book that got me into recreational readding. I really have to thank my English teacher for forcing me to read it.

3: Black Like Me, opened my mind to bigotry that people of color face.

4: The autobiography of the singer Marvin Lee Aday or Meatloaf
if you want dark stuff read that. Youll take away new respect for the man.

Read it in high school.

"A Practical Approach", that is.

Sorry, if I am being a smart-ass! *big smiley*

Appreciation of snark is very important here in the Lounge. I welcome you to the Lounge because it appears that you already understand what is important. Here, you will need these:
:toast: and :popcorn: Please use 'em wisely.

I have a copy of just "Burden and Faires" from '90s. That one is a bit esoteric and the Notation is different from what I'm used to, but it does cover more ground.

And refuse to go fighting windmills and knights who are not there.

It made me really, really despise anyone who adopts a casual attitude about the complexity and unfairness surrounding the health decisions every woman in this nation faces as soon as she become sexual active, as well as any asshole who DARES to express anything other than compassion and support for women who must make the difficult and often deeply emotional choices surrounding pregnancy.

To those on this board who have exposed your vile condemnation for the female half of the species, or have the arrogant, ignorant nerve to judge women who must exercise their right to choose, who fail to express care for the women you have sexual relationships with, who cannot find the nominal humanity or maturity to offer the requisite support to the women who risk their lives to gestate, give birth to and raise your children--READ THIS BOOK NOW. Please be ADULT enough to do at least that. It may save the psyche or life of a woman in yours.

To the humane members of DU, especially our female parents--READ THIS BOOK. It recognizes, appreciates, and cherishes the labyrinthine inner architecture or motherhood, the nature of the sacrifices you make for your children, and the myriad of emotions parents and child-free women have about raising kids in America, especially in financially uncertain times and in an age when so many of the choices we should be allowed to make in peace are brutally restricted. Then make as many men in your life read it as you can. Particularly those you feel have no concept of what you find joyful or painful about your existence on this planet.

Bitter much? We men aren't ALL bad, and there are those of us who wake up every day trying to make our SO's life easier.

I'll check out the book.

Cut through the BS, this is what it's really about.

Made me want to burn every Richard Bach book I had at the time

fricking amazing

And a short story that changed my life was "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," by Ursula K. LeGuin.

It was my "gateway" book into "experimental" fiction and poetry, which started me writing, and led me to where I am today. Which is really, yet, not that far. But not bad.

which I read when things were falling apart. It showed me how to take a journey through hopelessness to find compassion, forgiveness, even gratitude for my sorriest state of being.

Amazing stuff...

I'm a huge fan of hers. She has a new book out and I hope I'll get it for my birthday.

:thumbsup:

I'd love to hear her speak...

"When Things Fall Apart." It really helped me through a difficult time and changed my perspective about a lot of things. Also liked "Start Where You Are" and "The Places That Scare You" - she makes Tibetan Buddhism very accessible.

Wisdom of No Escape.

I don't always make the time to meditate, and sometimes when I do, my plans are thwarted. Reading a little at the start of the day reminds me to seek mindfulness, at least. :-)

I haven't read Start Where You Are yet. Thanks for the tip! :hi:

"The Neverending Story" - Michael Ende. Mind you, the book, not the movie. If you're a kid and you read the book, it opens up an entire world of creativity because it starts just about 300 stories Mr. Ende never finished. He left it up to you. It's still one of my favorites, but his second book to break in America, "Momo" was very good as well. I believe "Momo" was written before "The Neverending Story."

"A Prayer for Owen Meany" - John Irving. Odd kind of Christ tale wrapped around the Vietnam War, but it helped me appreciate what my father had to go through when he was drafted in '68. Again, read the book, don't watch the crappy movie with Kevin Spacey.

"The Life of Pi." - Yann Martel. Literary snobs bitch about the book and it's relatively slow first 150 pages, but if you live in anything that remotely resembles a multicultural environment, the whole book is an allegory about learning to live with and respect something you cannot change. Add in a fantastic twist ending, and you've got a story that, as the author states, "will make you believe in God."

When I turn 40 I fully expect another book to get added to the list. Go nuts with those, you won't go wrong.

I prefer the movie. The book also seemed to cover the 2nd movie, but the 2nd movie pretty much stunk, except for Bastian's last wish which struck me as sublime. The third movie, of course, was a travesty of a mockery of a sham.

There's one. Two movies. The third movie was bullshit they could pass off as the same story becuase the studio owned rights to the name. There is ONE book. Read it, then get back to me.

Don't read the adaptations of the movies, find a copy of the one book and read it. Do yourself a favor, since the movies blew in terms of getting the story out.

Must have missed that one...

The crap ass movie they made about Owen Meaney.

Go nuts.

When I first read the Principia Discordia, I was annoyed and confused. Then I got it. At least I think so :-)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintentance...
The Gnostic Gospels...
The March of Folly... Barbara Tuchman
Slaughter House Five....
All Quiet on the Western Front...

Different times of my life... Different result...

"The Razor's Edge" by Somerset Maugham



"Winesburg, Ohio"- Sherwood Anderson



"Burning In Water/Drowning In Flame"- Charles Bukowski

sorry, bad Lit major joke. :hi:

cool picks.

Do you believe in reincarnation? I did not but do now.
Do you believe in organized religion? I did not and still do not.
Do you believe we each have an inner spirit? I did and still do.
Do you believe that your life has "higher" a purpose? I did not but do now.
These are the changes and confirmations I found through Michaels teachings. Here is an excerpt from the first chapter of the first book:
http://www.caelumpress.com/mfm_excerpt.html

:scared:

"The Plague" Camus.
"Steel Beach" John Varley.
"Ficciones" Jorge Luis Borges
"The Lazarus Heart" Poppy Z. Bright (also "The Elder")

also "Semiotics", "Intellectuals", "The Books of Blood ".

Khash.

Totally changed my whole outlook on breakfast foods.

Seriously though . . .there are many. I think from a philosophical perspective, "Stranger in a Strange Land" was a major mind-shift.

edit: or the short essay, "The Hacker's Manifesto" (astalavista.box.sk may still have it)

herbert marcuse

I know a lot of people are bored to tears or completely confounded by it, but this was the first book that really made me consider how much "reality" we actually create by assigning meaning to things.

and because people want so much for the meaning they desire to prove true.

I thought that book was one of the more fascinating I've ever read.

I think the book is very mis-represented. Republicans would read that book and see that it is about about capitalism, greed, selfishness. I read it and saw a book about working hard for your convictions and always trying to be better then you were the day before.

I really hate that most of the books written by that author Ayn Rand are misinterpreted in to rationalization of greed. I personally don't see that.

Particularly The Fountainhead - I got the same message as you did from it.

I have to say though, I reread Atlas Shrugged twice in the last month because I didn't understand why everyone goes crazy about Ayn Rand. I understand now why people react the way they do, but I don't agree 100%. Her vision of free-market is a lot different than the one we are being subjected to all the time and is impossible for the same reason that the collectivism she rails against is impossible.... human nature.

I was asked that once in college and drew a blank. Do you have an answer? Just curious.

Initially I drew a blank too, but here's what I've come up with. Human nature is kind of like instinct, but more. I think of instinct as more physical and human nature more psychological/spiritual... Its inherent knowledge, there are certain things we just know and certain responses that are 'hardwired'. Extremes of any kind trigger these subliminal responses, though what constitutes 'extreme' varies between individuals.

That's the best I can do right now. :shrug:

in regards to built-in instincts. My thought was that in other respects we are a blank slate and it is maybe more nurture and environment that shapes our personalities. Some comination of this. I was worried you were going to come up with something like Original Sinful Nature tc>

There is certainly a lot to it, and I am no expert... I have never tried to sit down and actually define 'human nature' before this morning. It was a challenging exercise. :)

Animal Farm - I've read this a few times now, I'm really due to reread it. I think as the years go by you can get something new from it each time.

1984 - For obvious reasons.

Diary of Anne Frank

Jane Eyre - I would usually never go for this type of book but in college I was assigned to read it. It was pretty damn good and I got into it.

Maybe "The God Chasers" by Tommy Tinney. He made it alright for me to leave the church, and alright for me to come back.

also, The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Well, that one kind of confirmed my world-view, rather than changing it so much...but it made me laugh my ass off, and I couldn't put the damn thing down until I finished it, so many years ago.

immediately comes to mind.

Read it when I was 15 and spending a lot of time out in the woods camping. Not that I totally believed it but that it made me view the world differently.

Made me think twice about abortion and womans rights in general.

is hands down the most important book I've ever read.

was an eye-opener.

It blew my little teenage mind.

Not that I thought people were always selfish, but this book made things damningly clear. :(

Richard Bach.

Robert A. Wilson

Primarily "Cat's Cradle".

;)

n/t

Running from Saftey too, BTW. Have you read?

My pleasure reading has been scant lately! x(

Tell me more!

Sorry it took a little while for me to answer.

n/t

Johnny Got His Gun
Slaughter House Five
The Jungle


And the ever present The Joy of Cooking

helped change the way I look at religions.

Before reading that book, I had absolutely no idea how much of a stranglehold the RW has had on the media over the last decade.

or She's Come Undone
Can't decide.

And Merlin Stone's "When God Was a Woman." Both completely altered my perceptions of Christianity and its history (I was raised in a fundamentalist, independent Baptist church and had never heard of things like the Gnostic Gospels, pre-Christian religion in the Middle East, the similarities between bible stories and Sumerian myths, and so on).

I always think of the portion of the book which stated: "Don't take things personally". It was a good, simple, insightful read.

nothing was ever the same again

A little later: "The Milagro Beanfield War"

short stories.

Western Edition.

Yes, the little red photo guide. :D

By Lester Bangs

From a practical standpoint, a musician I found out about because of that book taught me the easy way to open shrink wrapped CDs.

His essay about racism inspired me to be more careful about the language I use, not because it’s PC but because there’s already enough hatred in the world and no sense in adding to it just due to linguistic laziness.

Lastly, there have been times when I’ve been close to the abyss, thinking that everything is hopeless and that I might as well throw myself under the nearest speeding bus. This passage is what keeps me alive:

Just for the record, I would like to have it be known by anyone who cares that I don’t think life is a perpetual dive. And even though it’s genuinely frightening, I don’t think Richard Hell’s fascination with death is anything else but stupid. I suspect almost every day that I’m living for nothing, I get depressed and I feel self-destructive a lot of the time and a lot of the time I don’t like myself. What’s more, the proximity of other human beings often fills me with overwhelming anxiety, but I also feel that this precarious sentience is all that we’ve got and, as simplistic as may seem, it’s a person’s duty to the potential of his own soul to make the best of it. We’re all stuck on this miserable earth where life is essentially tragic, but there are glints of beauty and bedrock joy that come shining through from time to precious time to remind anyone who cares to see that there is something higher and larger than ourselves. And I am not talking about your putrefying gods, I am talking about a sense of wonder about life itself and the feeling that there is some redemptive factor you must at least search for until you drop dead of natural causes. And all the Richard Hells are chickenshits who trash the precious gift too blithely, and they deserve to be given no credence, but shocked awake in some violent matter. Either that or be spanked and put to bed.

Completely opened up my awareness of most aspects of life -- principally with respect to all the little thoughts and details and worries and concerns of every single person you pass on the street every single day.

honestly for me, it is/was the Bible.

and 1984

:)

I read this when I was very young, and deep into martial Arts, I saw a religion in the meaning, an developed my own.

see my post above^^; have you read any of his others? Illusions, One, Bridge, Running from Saftey? I especially reccommend the last one.

as well as To Kill A Mockingbird AND One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

All 3 equally so.

truly changed my perceptions of life:
1. Be impeccible with your word
2. Don't take things personally
3. Don't make assumptions
4. Always do your best

but it is SO HARD for me atm; working to change that meme too....(big grin)
I have to leave this one and come back to it; because it challenges me so much. I love that,though....

cool color plates, and it was the first book I learned to read (at about 3) - it just all clicked for some reason, and I loved being able from then on to read pretty much anything I wanted to read, and being a big reader has definitely been a plus in my life.

It made me decided to start writing about Indians again, and to write stories, not just screenplays.

Read it and see.

Richard Bach.

Tao of Pooh; Benjamin Hoff

and for some reason; the PREFACE of The Mists of Avalon.

Sorry, I'm a hopeless fantasy idealist...but it works for me!

:)

London purposely living in abject poverty in the east end of London in the early 1900's.

You can read some of it online at: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/PeopleOfTheAbyss/

I'm bookmarking this thread, there's lots of winter reading for me.

..of Seneca.

Also:
The Bible (believe it, or not! -- it's nutty!)
Little Dorrit and/or Dombey & Son (social conscience)

For some reason, those are the ones that come to mind....

"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and Whitehead's "Anarchist Reader"
I read them both while bunking off school in my teens.

after that my treks outdoors had a shape and a purpose -- so i was motivated to actually get outdoors a lot more often

i had never seen all those shapes and colors before, suddenly i was actually seeing not just looking

of course i have better bird guides now but it was the first

Viktor E. Frankl revolutionized the world of psychiatry with his new approach to psychotherapy, known as logotherapy. It was partly a result of the horrors he experienced at the hands of the Nazis' in Auschwitz that the eminent psychiatrist developed this groundbreaking psychological theory. At its core, it believes that man's motivating force is the search for meaning. A best-seller, Man's Search for Meaning is a fascinating volume that tells Frankl's incredible story.


About the Author
Viktor E. Frankl was a man who persevered in living, writing, and helping people, despite suffering for years at the hands of the Nazis. He was born in Vienna on March 26, 1905, and received his doctorate of medicine in 1930. As a psychiatrist, he supervised a ward of suicidal female patients, and later became chief of the neurological department at Rothschild Hospital in Vienna. Frankl's successful career was halted temporarily in 1942 when he was deported to a Nazi concentration camp. In Auschwitz and other camps, he witnessed and experienced daily horrors until 1945. Although he survived, his parents and many other family members did not. Returning to Vienna in 1945, he resumed his work, becoming head physician of the neurological department at the Vienna Polyclinic Hospital. Frankl wrote more than 30 books, the most famous being Man's Search For Meaning. As a professor, he taught at many American universities, including Harvard and Stanford. He is credited with the development of logotherapy, a new style of psychotherapy. He died in Vienna in 1997.

Great book. My husband passes copies on to students from time to time when he feels they need some comfort. Can't recommend it enough.

read it twice for assignments in two different college courses. Gratitude giving, life altering, amazing book.

in the world and then read that book. I started to look at people and what we do to each other because of our differences. I got into my first and last fight at school that year defending my best friend, the only black child in the school, when someone called her n***er. I have since learned to make my point with words.

I read this book years and years ago, and its impact has never left me.

There have been a few other books which have had great impact on my life and on my understanding of life, but that one was the most important. I shudder to think of where I would have been in my life now, if I hadn't read that book when I did.

is one that comes to mind. I read it in highschool and was blown away by the beauty and raw emotion of the book.

There were a few parts that 'changed' me. Celie and Shug's relationship was portrayed as beautiful, tender and loving. I knew right then that anybody that tried to tell me there was something unnatural about a same sex relationship was simply unworthy of understanding the depth and beauty of opening one's heart and life to another person.

The other moment touched on religion. This didn't 'change' me as much as put words to something I always felt about religion. This was the passage where Shug describes her feeling that she thinks god just gets pissed off when one misses the color purple in a field. (sorry that I am paraphrasing, haven't read this one in ages). But that moment meant a lot to me--to see Alice Walker describe acknowledging the profound, the beautiful, the sacred in life as far more important than subscribing to any religious idea or another. At least that was my interpretation. lol.

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/s97/carey.html

"Taking the Risk Out of Democracy
Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty"

It's a boring history book, detailing the history of propaganda in the U.S. but it helped me see the reason why there are so many brainwashed consumers and bushbots.

Government and corporate propaganda rule the lives of millions of people and this book explains how in very easy reading.

"Holistic Resource Management" by Alan Savory, for the big picture

and "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn, for the story of the big picture.

Quinn's "Beyond Civilization" is good too.


Lots of others but these involved MAJOR shifts.

Got me to drop my religion right-quick. A very useful thing, that.

by Steinbeck

When I was 18.

I've met others who say the same thing. Bradbury is the man. (But his best book is Dandelion Wine.) :loveya:

...absolutely phenominal. Especially Narcissus and Goldmund.

in my mid-teens.

& The Myth of Sisyphus (Camus)

Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac.

I went roaming around big cities to see what I could see and also a bit of hitchhiking with a friend.

Howl by Ginsberg was a great liberator too.

The Last Fox and Unlikely Liberators- One is fiction and the other is nonfiction. Mom and Dad never talked about their time in the internment camp, and Dad never said anything about his service in the Army in Europe. Both these books together gave me a gripping, chilling and heartbreaking look at what they went through to win back their freedom. I just hope that I and my children never forget their stories and manage to live up to their example of courage, grit, determination and true patriotism.

Makes freedom, prosperity, and equality all work.
http://www.henrygeorge.org/chp1.htm

70 yrs after a religious dictatorship has taken over America, the people rise up and overthrow it. One of the main themes is that the powerful always use propaganda to control the weak, and that everyone is susceptible to it. Made me look at advertising, news, movies etc with a new understanding.

"The Aladdin Factor" is written by the guys who wrote "Chicken Soup For The Soul," but don't hold that against the book ;-). "The Aladdin Factor" recommends that we learn to ask for what we want in life instead of passively allowing things to just happen.

I'm going to take the advice of someone upthread and read "The Prince". I have been reading "The Art of War" off and on for awhile. I had to put Jon Krakauer's "Under The Banner of Heaven" down for a bit; it's very, very dark. I loved "Into Thin Air".

I'll bet I've read 10,000 books in my lifetime. Every one I've read has had an effect on me.

Julie

I would have to say the top two contenders are "Catcher In The Rye" and "Animal Farm." And "Animal Farm" wins. Ultimately, they turn into the farmers they want to escape from, or actually worse.

The story of a transgendered woman. But that's not all it deals with. (Although that itself makes it worth reading.) But she solidified my understanding that hatred of homosexuals has little to do with homosexuality and much to do with being percieved as a gender traitor. I also never realized how much male privilige has affected my life before.

But it's not heavy going.... it's chatty, personal and very entertaining.

Khash.

all influenced me greatly in terms of how I view the role of the individual in society and on our (humanity's) place in the environment.

Moby Dick and pretty much anything by Faulkner changed how I look at literature.

hey, I was 13...

The Social Contract...