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This book changed my life . . .

Jared Lash

Jared Lash

Born under punches
Aug 21, 2006
15,588
5,157
Denver, CO
#1
I can't be the only person who has had a friend or family member tell them this. And while I have read some books that I would consider really great or ones that really made me think, I can't really think of one that "totally changed my life".

Is there anyone here who has really felt like a book changed their life?

Not counting religious texts obviously.
 
#7
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I haven't even read it... but I can tell that it would rock. :D
 
#8
TheBigO said:
I can't be the only person who has had a friend or family member tell them this. And while I have read some books that I would consider really great or ones that really made me think, I can't really think of one that "totally changed my life".

Is there anyone here who has really felt like a book changed their life?
Click to expand...
Well, I can almost give just as strong of an endorsment as yours... however: up until page 594, I was merely skim-reading, as the TV was proving to be too much of a distraction. But exactly on pg 594, all bets were off! What a page turner.. I forgot to eat or sleep after that! ;)
 
#11
I remember reading a series of books several years ago that made me feel uncomfortable for days.

The author of the series had written a stand-alone book that I had read a year or two earlier. They were all SF novels, intended to be time-killers.

The problem is that the author must apparently have some powerful sexual kink and a deep burning need to share it with the world. EVERY relationship in the book was skewed HARD toward serious DOM/sub pairings. All of them. Meet a random stranger? Either he'll be practically a rapist or she'll dismiss him as a wimp. Someone you know from school or work? Judge them the same way.

It bugged me. And it made me wonder about the friend who loaned them to me.
 
#17
A few people (mostly in college) told me how much one of Nietzsche's books changed their lives or their outlooks, usually Zarathustra but I've also heard "Birth of Tragedy" or "Antichrist" mentioned.

Other "life-changing" books I've heard mentioned are something by Ayn Rand (a Rush favorite as I understand it), usually Atlas Shrugged, but sometimes The Fountainhead.

I even had a friend who told me that Jonathan Livingston Seagull changed her life. She even got me to read another of Bach's books "Illusions" I believe. In my defense she was very cute. But neither book was anything more than a decent read for me.

And of course, there are tons of self-help books that people have tried to convince me to read and I have no interest in obliging.

I realize, looking at some of what I've written that I could be construed as mocking people who have had a book change their life, and that's not where I'm coming from. I'm genuinely interested, especially since I've never had the experience myself.
 
#18
Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace.
Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon
The Recognitions, by William Gaddis
Underworld, by Don Delillo
The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson
Philosophy in the Bedroom, by the Marquis de Sade
Sun Signs, by Linda Goodman
Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut (along with many other Vonnegut books)

though not necessarily in the above order, all of these books had a huge impact on my life in some way.
 
#19
"The Alchemist", by Paulo Coelho.

It changed my life in a positive way, when I was faced with the opportunity to leave the country that I was born in and start a new life in a foreign country.

I had a lot of doubts and fears about it, but the book made me realise that I would be a "richer" person for choosing to take the risk. Happily, it all worked out!

THE END.
 

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