Has your life ever been changed by a book?

Atlas Shrugged By Ayn Rand

the new renato canova book Canovathon

I didn't think I would be the first to say Into The Wild. Had I read this book near the end of college, I would probably be 10 years deep into a voyage without end.

It is an easy, fast read and keeps me from becoming too domesticated/sterile/secure.

Stella, I'm bleeding wrote:

When I was in high school, I went out and bought a copy of Infinite Jest. I can honestly say that my life was changed by this book. As my mom drove us home from the bookstore, the book slid off of the front bench seat of our car and became lodged beneath the brake. At just that moment, the driver in front of us slammed on his brake. Unable to stop, my mother veered off the road and struck a phone pole. Both of my parents were killed instantly and I spent some time in the hospital.

HOW WAS THE BOOK?

MortQ wrote:

I didn't think I would be the first to say Into The Wild. Had I read this book near the end of college, I would probably be 10 years deep into a voyage without end.

It is an easy, fast read and keeps me from becoming too domesticated/sterile/secure.

Are you ten years deep into a voyage without end? Or would you be in a voyage ten years deep if you read the book at the end of college?

And what sort of voyage are we talking about?

Stella, I'm bleeding wrote:

When I was in high school, I went out and bought a copy of Infinite Jest. I can honestly say that my life was changed by this book. As my mom drove us home from the bookstore, the book slid off of the front bench seat of our car and became lodged beneath the brake. At just that moment, the driver in front of us slammed on his brake. Unable to stop, my mother veered off the road and struck a phone pole. Both of my parents were killed instantly and I spent some time in the hospital.

I hope you eventually got to read Infinite Jest. I don't consider it a life changer, but I thought it was pretty brilliant and some of the concepts still make me laugh.

The Golden Mile by Alan Trengrove (the Herb Elliot story) had the biggest impact on me as a runner. So much so that I couldn't imagine life without it, so I stole it from my high school library right before I graduated. I intend to send the library a large donation some day.

A book called "Go For It" by Dr. Irene Kassorla gave me the strength I needed to change my life and get out of my small town rut. I left my job of 4.5 years (where I was on the fast track) and my girlfriend of seven years, cashed in my 40lK and went to school in California. My life has never been the same and I've never regretted it. A few years ago I tried to read the book again, but now it seems too schmaltzy for me. But at the time it was what I needed and I'm glad I found it.

My favorite sports autobiography was Jim Brown's. I don't remember why, just that I made a mental note that it was really good.

I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged for the read. My one quibble is that she never deals with the military. What were they doing while society crumbled?

lonely bachelor wrote:

"Microwave for One" by Sonia Allison changed the way I viewed cooking. No more ramen, frozen pizza, or fast food drive through. Finally, I can come home to a real meal.

On a related effect, I read "The Paleo Solution" and began thinking way too much about what I ate and eventually drove me nuts. There were a lot of interesting details about bodily synergistic processes at the molecular level but it definitely had me thinking twice about a lot of the normal foods I had eaten before reading the book. Ignorance is bliss?

OJ's Book: If I did it.

that changed my life so much

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - read it at the right time in my life and I felt like he wrote it just for me; inspired lots of major changes

For Whom the Bell Tolls and Siddhartha were pretty powerful too

Several moved me quite a bit: Siddhartha; Catcher in the Rye; Welcome to the Monkey House; The Bible(New Testament).

Green Eggs and Ham

High School Life changer: Ishmael by Quinn. Good read for the youngster though the philosophies are pretty basic and uninteresting for an older reader (kind of like ALL of Rand...)

Early College: Once a Runner and As I Lay Dying. (vastly different outlooks I know)

I took a Paradise Lost class in my undergrad years. I love the part where Satan is confronting God and wondering why God made him so ambitious and prideful. Destined to fail. woo wee controversy!

I am a HUGE Tennyson fan...'To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield' (corny but effective).

I also liked Shakespeare's The Tempest for those cloudy roomed thoughts.

Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy are my current life changers.

Poems are always the game changers for me though, this little rhythmic masterpiece always finds its way into my races...

From too much love of living,

From hope and fear set free,

We thank with brief thanksgiving

Whatever gods may be

That no life lives for ever;

That dead men rise up never;

That even the weariest river

Winds somewhere safe to sea.

- Swinburne

Tell me that doesn't send goosebumps down your crooked runner spines...

The Law of Attraction

by Jerry and Esther Hicks

This book changed my life

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Jewish-Christian-Rift-Growing-Wounded/dp/159473139X

Many books (Sci-Fi, distopian, high fantasy, etc.) are implausible but are still impactful, and contain clear, strong messages. Orwell comes to mind, and then there is Tolkien, and on the sci-fi side there are countless others. Do you sit down to read (or hell, watch) the Lord of the Rings or Dune and leave in a huff saying "this is so implausible!!!"?

You're just coming from some pre- (or, who knows, post-) conceived bias. That's not the story, or at least not the story I take away from it. The story I took (and if I recall, the story Rand wanted to write) is about good, strong, enterprising individuals fighting a system. It's not about paying or not paying taxes. If you got "taxes" as the primary message in the book, I think you missed something.

I don't get where you're coming from here. The characters in her book are specifically written to be better than everyone else. That's basically the point of the book, building the "perfect person" (in her eyes, at least). This has very little to do with what libertarians think or don't think. If you think that Rand is the primary text or basis for libertarianism, you need to read more.

And let's not be foolish here, many great works are based on some story around a person who is described or built up as "better" than those around them. Good men fighting injustice is a pretty common theme, you apparently just don't like it in this socio-political context...

if you take the song lyric/section

"love you all time and never leave you..."

from The Beatles, "I Need You" sung by George Harrison

in reverse he says, "if you love then you should read the Holy book."

if you take the song/section

"...but i feel fine" from the Beatles, "I feel fine"

sung by John Lennon in reverse he says, "You're my lezzies"

if you take the song/lyric, "...about the things that you do"

from the Beatles, "Think for yourself" sung by John/Paul,

in reverse they sing "Burn this Bible".

Roughly in chronological order:

Old man and the sea

Shakespeare sonnets

Beat the dealer

Introduction to psychology

The mac bible, first edition (better writing and more useful lessons than the other bible)

The violent bear it away

Le nausea

The trial

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas

Peoples history of the united states

manufactured consent

Keeping track

The worldly philosophers

Mindsprings

The having of wonderful ideas

UNIX for dummies

Long walk to freedom

1 2 3 magic

No but a rap song has.

"But anything is possible, if 50 ****ed Vivica"

believer! wrote:

The Bible.

And second to the Bible, Thomas Brooks' "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices" -- absolutely beautiful English

Did you become an atheist? I ask because everyone knows that the fastest way to make someone an atheist is to have them actually reading the bible.

Book: Watch for me on the mountain