Has your life ever been changed by a book?

Well?..... wrote:

Personally, I've never experienced this. I'd like to hear if anyone has experienced some sort of dramatic change by reading a book, or watching a movie, or experiencing any other art form for that matter.

I think the OP poses an interesting question.

Lots of people have listed books they have been influenced by, or that have made them think about things they really hadn't thought that deeply about before.

But I think what the OP was getting at was, did you ever read or experience some other art form that really, genuinely changed who you are? Perhaps you were a rabid racist, hated all minorities, and then were made to read Wounded Knee and became a legal aid lawyer working on the Rosebud reservation? Or you were a real estate developer and read Archdruid, quit your job, and went to work for Greenpeace? Or you were a murdering, drug selling gang banger, but then read the Bible, gave up all your worldly belongings, and joined Mother Teresa in Calcutta?

I think many of us have read books that have made us deeper persons, but I suspect for most of us, our basic personalities and orientations and lives really didn't change that much. I think personality is formed very early in life and most of our world view really comes from our parents and our very early childhood environment.

I could list books like Walden and Siddhartha that I read in high school, and they certainly deepened my thoughts, but I suspect that they didn't 'dramatically change me.'

Lorenzo the Magnificent wrote:

I was heavily affected by Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for much the same reason -- the unyielding integrity of the protagonists.

I've always thought Moby Dick had some of the most compelling language, especially the metaphors, in American literature (James Wood has a wonderful essay on this.) It is a beautiful book with one of the greatest tragic figures in literature.

1984 scared the piss out of me, and still does.

Are you the guy from the bar scene in Good Will Hunting?

Well?..... wrote:

Personally, I've never experienced this. I'd like to hear if anyone has experienced some sort of dramatic change by reading a book, or watching a movie, or experiencing any other art form for that matter. Obviously, the Bible is probably a pretty big one, so let's try to leave that out in order to avoid this thread degenerating into some pointless argument.

I don't think this is what the OP was getting out, but I'll throw this out anyway. Put this in the category of 'influence a lot' rather than 'dramatically changed.' I think so, anyway.

I am pretty sure that my mom reading Charlottes's Web, Stuart Little and Wind in the Willows with me when I was very young really molded who I am. I have an almost irrational soft spot in my heart for small animals, became vegetarian when quite young, and tend to anthropomorphize way more than I should. I can recognize some irrationality to some of this, but it's like it's deeply ingrained in who I am. Maybe this is the same for people growing up with the church and the Bible - I don't know.

Anyway, just a plug for a few children's books that had a big impact on who I am. Not profound works of literature like some others are mentioning, but influential for me.

Interesting thread. Thanks.

The Art of Loving - Eric Fromm

If you haven't read it and are over 25 years old go get it and read it. If you are under 25 you won't understand it anyway so you may not want to bother.

Fromm's a beast. I liked "Escape from Freedom". It didn't change me, but it sure is an interesting concept.

Yes. "Fast Food Nation" (should be required reading for every high schooler)

"Advanced Marathoning" by Pfitzinger & Douglas

Yes, it actually did change my life. Turned me from hobby jogger to semi-serious runner (I know 2:30s isn't "serious" on letsrun) which in turn led to me meeting my wife who was also a serious athlete. So one day when someone asks my son this same question, he needs to mention this book because it changed his life from non-existent to existent.

Actually the Bible also changed my life in the sense that no sane person can read it and not think "what a load of preposterous bulls\hit!" So it's the book that opened my eyes to how stupid and gullible otherwise educated grown-up people can be. I might not have had a successful career in marketing without that realization.

"If I did it" by Lance Armstrong

Relevant changes correlate with writing books, painting and drawing - just one exception: "I Am That" by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj which I read 15 years ago.

Voice from the future wrote:

"If I did it" by Lance Armstrong

LOL

Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard

Time for a bump of this semi-classic thread.

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe- funny, intriguing, inspiring.

I might never blast off but damn if I'm not trying.

Cheaters are people my friend wrote:

Voice from the future wrote:

"If I did it" by Lance Armstrong

LOL

or it's not about a spike

Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys

Therapists Kindlon and Thompson argue that boys desperately need a new standard of "emotional literacy," showing how our culture's dominant masculine stereotypes shortchange boys and lead them toward emotional isolation. The authors turn a spotlight on the inner lives of boys, debunking preconceptions about gender, explaining the importance of nurturing communication skills and empathy in boys as well as girls, and steering boys toward a manhood of emotional attachment, not stoicism and solitude. They also challenge the ways in which, in their view, traditional school environments put boys at a disadvantage (why not hold off on reading instruction a year or two? they ask; why not five short recesses a day?). Such issues as drinking, drugs and the "culture of cruelty" among adolescents, in which "anything a boy says or does can and will be used against him," also meet with sensitive treatment. Separate chapters examine the relationships between fathers and sons and mothers and sons, and show how these can be protected and redefined.

50 Shades of Grey: nuff said

dontrun wrote:

50 Shades of Grey: nuff said

More like 50 Shades of Misogyny

How can women actually read and enjoy this sh*!

jessica wrote:

dontrun wrote:

50 Shades of Grey: nuff said

More like 50 Shades of Misogyny

How can women actually read and enjoy this sh*!

LOL! Jessica, If you want a real classic try "The Story of O" by Pauline Reage, or anything by the Marquis de Sade.

I'd say several works have changed my life:

"Green Eggs and Ham" - I taught myself to read this at a very young age (3?) - so young, in fact, that my parents (who are both very well educated) didn't believe me at first. Started my lifelong love of reading.

"Buried Child" a play by Sam Shepard - Not so much how the play changed my life, but how my interaction with it changed my life; I wrote my first collegiate paper on this play and received my first (and only) F grade on a paper. I still have the paper and, while it is clearly the work of a young, inexperienced writer, it isn't an F paper (more like a C or C minus). From my discussion with the professor afterwards, I realized he was sending me a message with the grade that I strayed too far from the orthodoxy of his viewpoint and the grade was, basically, to nudge me back in step. I regurgitated his viewpoints on subsequent papers in the class and finished with a B+ but never felt like I truly earned that grade. I vowed that I would remain true to myself in the future and now be cowed so easily.

"A Passage to India" by E.M. Forster - Again, not so much the work itself (although the passage ending with "We must exclude someone from our gathering, or we shall be left with nothing" still influences my thoughts today) but, rather, that this was the first work about which I wrote a truly outstanding paper and found my voice as a writer.

"Death on the Installment Plan" by Louis-Ferdinand Celine - I read this while working at a cannery in Alaska and it opened my mind to the use of humor in describing misery and the human condition; his stream-of-consciousness style and, specifically, use of ellipses seemed to truly capture the way minds function.

I'd also like to comment on two other works mentioned by others:

"Atlas Shrugged" - I had a couple big problems with it, and am always amazed when others cite it as and influence: 1) I found the philosophical viewpoints simplistic in the sense that, in order for them to hold water, one had to imagine a world so utterly mechanical and "logical" that they ceased to have grounding in reality; 2) from a literature standpoint, Rand is at best a mediocre writer; and, 3) it was twice as long as it really needed to be - part of what I found mediocre about her writing is that Rand is long-winded. I admit, however, to not having read any other works by Rand and am not proud that I allowed my strong negative reaction to Atlas Shrugged to color my perspective on Rand. I suspect that her works of non-fiction and/or shorter works of fiction (like Anthem) might convey her message more effectively.

"The Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker - I kicked myself when I saw this in an earlier post (having already composed much of the above in response to the OP); this had a huge influence on me by changing/evolving my perception on personal motivations - both my own and others.