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Top books that changed your life

#21
Not sure all these books changed my life, but they would all have influenced it.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Actually, all of Douglas Adams books

Still Life with Woodpecker - and all the early Tom Robbins

Dave Barry - 'Nuff said

Hunter S. Thompson/P.J. O'Rourke

Godel, Escher, Bach

Atlas Shrugged

The Medusa and the Snail - just to pick one Lewis Thomas

Bloom County - Comics, but what the heck

EDIT: Illusions

EDIT redux: The Mythical Man Month
 
#22
The Republic - Plato (everyone should read this, not just philosophers or armchair philosophers)
Reinventing Your Life (really fantastic self-help book grounded in cutting-edge contemporary psychology)
Too Perfect (same)
Wuthering Heights
Being and Time - Martin Heidegger (see comment on the Republic)
Meditations on First Philosophy - Rene Descartes (same)
Critique of Pure Reason - Immanuel Kant (same)
The Hebrew Bible (I'm Jewish)
Flowers for Algernon
Civilization and its Discontents
some stuff by Marx

...that's what comes to mind right now.

Incidentally, for anyone who might want to read the philosophy books I've mentioned: the Kant and the Heidegger will be incomprehensible without a commentary or guide of some kind, but extremely rewarding with one.
 
#25
1. The Bible - God
(Others, in no particular order)
2. Classic Christianity - Bob George
3. No More Christian Nice Guy - Paul Coughlin
4. God of the Possible - Gregory Boyd
5. Is God to Blame? - Gregory Boyd
6. Lifetime Guarantee - Bill Gillham
7. The Lie: Evolution - Kenneth Ham
8. The Saving Life of Christ - Major Ian Thomas
 
#26
Fahrenheit 451
Slaughterhouse 5
Animal Farm
Lonesome Dove

It's been almost 25 years since I read Lonesome Dove. I have read 100's (maybe thousands) of books since then......... It remains the finest book I've read. I've never been so attached to characters in a novel.

The mini-series by CBS was an exceptional piece of work, too.
 
#27
BeyondFiredUp said:
1. The Bible - God
(Others, in no particular order)
2. Classic Christianity - Bob George
3. No More Christian Nice Guy - Paul Coughlin
4. God of the Possible - Gregory Boyd
5. Is God to Blame? - Gregory Boyd
6. Lifetime Guarantee - Bill Gillham
7. The Lie: Evolution - Kenneth Ham
8. The Saving Life of Christ - Major Ian Thomas
Click to expand...
I'm sensing a theme.:hmm:

Some recent books I've enjoyed, but wouldn't consider life changing:

God is Not Great - Hitchins
The God Delusion - Dawkins
The Bible Unearthed - Finkelstein and Silberman
Don't know much about the Bible - Davis
Psycho Bible - Favazza
 
#30
Unrepresented said:
Rand's work is a large influence on a particular political leaning, one I happen to frequently disagree with.
Click to expand...

cdef said:
I believe Unrepresented was referring to the fact that Rand's books are simply ultracapitalist propaganda poorly disguised as literature. And that's why discussing this further will get the thread closed.
Click to expand...

Oh, now I get it.
No, I like her stuff more for the "think for yourself/don't just go with the crowd/be an individual" kind of message. I don't really tend to think of things in political terms hence my confusion.
 
#31
geeza said:
Oh, now I get it.
No, I like her stuff more for the "think for yourself/don't just go with the crowd/be an individual" kind of message. I don't really tend to think of things in political terms hence my confusion.
Click to expand...
I want to be an individual, just like the other eight people in this thread that stated her book was a favorite too.:hmm:
 
#33
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, - Carl Sagan
This book fundamentally altered my perspective of humanity and all life on Earth.

The Bosch Automotive Handbook - Robert Bosch
Practical hands on engineering information for automobile applications. It's the Bible to many automotive tweakers. I've found information useful to some of my projects that I couldn't possibly have found anywhere else.

Field Guide to Birds of North America - Golden
I've had it for 20 years and I have referenced it so many times I've had my nose in it more than any other book, reference or otherwise. Learning about different bird species from this book and then seeing these same birds in nature helped me understand evolution more intuitively.

The Science of Sound - Rossing, Moore and Wheeler
College textbook for a course taught by professor Rossing, thoroughly explains the interdisciplinary nature of acoustic science with particular emphasis on how it applies to music. As a musician, I love this book and I reread it at least a couple of times a year just for the fun of it.

A Spell for Chameleon - Piers Anthony
My dad gave me this novel when I was ten years old and it was my introduction to the world of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I remember taking it to school to read it between classes and was made fun of by some of my classmates (and one of my teachers!) In spite of them, I continued to read SF&F books and it's still a big part of my life 30 years later.




I'd like to see a lot more comments about how and why a book changed your life rather than just a list. I think that would be the most potentially interesting part of this thread
 
#34
Unrepresented said:
I want to be an individual, just like the other eight people in this thread that stated her book was a favorite too.:hmm:
Click to expand...


Agree with its premise or not, that book is one of the most influential books of all time, because of the ideological content of the plot.


As a huge fan of science fiction, I tried reading it once in that context and couldn't finish it - I thought it was just a bad novel and far too bloated to keep me interested in turning pages. IMO.
 
#36
The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien. My starter on the fantasy genre.

Lots of stuff by Terry Pratchett. Comedy, often satirical, (not so) cleverly disguised as fantasy. Lots of observations about politics, society and life in general in his stuff.

Animal Farm by Orwell. Made me think a lot about the way things have often turned out after revolutions in countries. Very sad book.

Imagica by Barker. One of my favorite books to this day, an interesting and imaginative take on fantasy, with some horror elements. Just sticks in my mind.

Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell them by Franken. Very funny and revealing book about politics and media.

The Wheel of Time by Jordan. My favorite series so far, complex, with fairly realistic characters and shades of grey often unseen in fantasy books. Yes, there's the big bad, but there are a ton of other factions and characters that are very much in between good and evil. Including the main characters. It was a good thing to start reading when I was finishing high school. Helped me think of politics in less black and white, absolute terms.

Various collections of Molly Ivins stuff. Hilarious observations about how politics really works.

Space Odyssey series by Clarke. It's one of the only science fiction pieces I can stand, as it's very well written. Sort of makes me think about life on Earth, and elsewhere, about both humanity's significance and paradoxically, its puniness and insignificance in the grand scheme of things.
 
#37
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan

Sagan was a huge influence, all of his works, but those two in particular were strong. Cosmos came along at a time when I was casting about for a direction in my life, it was a gift from my parents, and in more ways than one. The Demon Haunted World helped me frame WHY I think and live as I do and explain it to others coherently.

The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
The Descent of Man - Charles Darwin

How all of the glory of life around us came to be, for real, explained clearly, accurately, for the first time.

A Brief History of Time - Steven Hawking

I read it about once a year, and see a bit more of our universe each time. An amazing mind trapped in a body that it is so much larger than.
 
#38
Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
Goedel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofsteder
The User Illusion - Tor Norretranders
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
There is Nothing Wrong With You: Going Beyond Self Hate - Cheri Huber

The last one is a self-help book with an introduction to Buddhist meditation. It's so short and simple that it looks almost childish, but it changed my life more than all the others combined.
 
#39
hbarcat said:
Agree with its premise or not, that book is one of the most influential books of all time, because of the ideological content of the plot.
Click to expand...
Or because it's got a narrative that is easy enough to appeal to the vanity of the common man, no matter how misplaced that vanity is.
Gard said:
The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
The Descent of Man - Charles Darwin

How all of the glory of life around us came to be, for real, explained clearly, accurately, for the first time.
Click to expand...
You've reminded me how much I enjoy the book "Life" by Richard Fortey. I've reread it a few times. It's amazing the diversity of beings that have shared this planet over the millions of years.
 

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