Three Books That Changed Your Life

MrSquared

MrSquared

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MBTI
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As the title says, please disclose three books which have changed (or greatly impacted) your life.

Got the idea from this video:
[video=youtube;dpDl4RQuQYg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpDl4RQuQYg[/video]

My three are as follows:

House by Ted Dekker & Frank Peretti
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Redwall by Brian Jacques

House was creepy and re-readable, Coraline introduced me to Neil Gaiman (who I adore), and Redwall was probably the first book (and series) that actually held my attention in my early teens.

How about you?
 
Philistine and Genius by Boris Sidis
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Passport to the Cosmos:Human Transformation and Alien Encounters by John Mack
 
i read Le Guin's first four "Earthsea" novels when i was 9. they were the first "real" books i read, and they had a huge effect on the course of my life. they were my first glimpse as a child into what literature could be, and that it could be more than just a story. without having read them, i dont think i would ever have studied literature at university. i still think they are excellent examples of modernist fiction.

in university i read Ovid's Metamorphoses, the great literary work on change, and it really changed the way i saw a lot of things. i think this work is so foundational to so many aspects of story in western culture. it opened my mind. it taught me to understand analogue in literature. i think Ovid was the first magic realist and one of the greatest artists of all time.

during a university class i studied on gothic, my teacher mentioned Richardson's Clarissa, which i read a few years ago and enjoyed greatly. its simulation of interiority is the finest i have ever encountered in literature, and even all these years after its publication it is still the defining literary account of consent. also, it taught me so much about the world of the 18th century, and of 18th century literature. but it affected me personally in that it taught me to value myself more appropriately, as i recognised parts of myself that i could value in Clarissa, and as i saw other aspects of her that caused me to aspire to treat myself better and be a better person.
 
Great thread!

1. Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson - I didn't read this book actually, but my dad read it to me frequently before I could read. It made me love language, poetry and plants. It instilled a playful approach to interaction with the English language and literature which has stayed with me always. Delphiniums are not just blue to me, they are delphiniums blue.

2. The Sunlight Dialogues, by John Gardner - I did my undergrad honor's thesis in meta-fictional strategies in the works of Gardner (and some other 70s writers). This book turned me onto postmodern literature which occupied years of my life, much food for thought and many hours of entertainment.

3. Various works by Borges- I return and return to Borges, some poems I know by heart. I read Borges to sooth my soul and lift up my spirit in bad times. He somehow restores faith in humanity to me. I think I read him the way some people read the bible or other religious works.
 
Catch-22 - the absurdity of war and fighting, read it when I was 10 or 11 and helped set me on a good path

Anne Frank Diary - put into perspective true strife, read it at age 12 and it made the rest middleschool and highschool more bearable (a blessing actually in comparison)

Atlas Shrugged - my life, my terms and conditions
 
Interesting question. The ones that actually changed me, once I thought about it, are unexpected and not the ones I liked best.

The Children's Bible. I was a devout child but after I read about old testament death and vengeance at God's hands with illustrations, I began to wonder why it was possible for me, a seven year old, to forgive wrongdoing and not retaliate but God couldn't do the same. No one could answer my questions to my satisfaction. I began examining religion at this early age and stopped attending church by age 14.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I read this at age 13 and it opened my eyes to so many different things concerning ethics, philosophy and love. I really enjoyed this novel. I might break it out and read it again.

Love's Tender Fury by Jennifer Wilde. This is an historical romance novel I read in secret when I was 12 and staying with my aunt. It was on a shelf in her bathroom. I knew absolutely nothing about sex except the mechanics but couldn't imagine actually doing that with anyone. This book made me think it might be, uh, not so bad. I read a few other romance novels after that but they were all rather insipid. That first one was the best one.
 
1. The Happiness Prescription by Deepak Chopra- First book that I've read when I was deeply depressed and it made me realize a lot of things- enough for me to humble myself and to ask for sincere apologies to my mother and my first cousin that I have a one year dispute with. The book that healed me- gave me a first nudge during one of my darkest days in life.

2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho- Hmm.. I picked it up to read for pleasure (mainly curious why it's famous) and I wasn't expecting that it speak to me at that time.. enough to give me courage to follow my heart, to take my own path and well- long story short; it flipped my direction in life.. a huge career switch.

3. Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss- It blew me away! I have a deep obsession or fascination with the idea of reincarnation and this one is really very interesting to me. It gave me a different look in life.. hard to explain here but if you are into soul searching mode like me then it's worth reading..
 
Well I suppose I'll add all of these to my reading list! But mine would have to be:
1. DEFINITELY The Work by Byron Katie. Just wow. If I followed her instruction every day would I ever have problems? ...probably not

2. Black Butterfly by Robert Drake OR The Night Circus by Eric Morgenstern. There's two here because well...the night circus is my favorite book of all time but I can't say it's been particularly life changing. Just absolutely wonderful. And Black Butterfly because it made me feel not alone. It made me feel a lot of things which always effects me in the long run.

3. I Need Your Love--Is That True by Byron Katie. I hate to be redundant here but I would practically worship this woman. It opened my eyes to EVERYTHING. And practically ended my last relationship which is one of the best things to ever happen to me. This is the most life changing on the list but you kinda gotta start out with her first book. But man this one will turn your world upside down!!
 
I read Brian Jacques' Mossflower when I was 12 and it catapulted me into the world of reading. I never realized what I was missing

I absolutely adored Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey. Every scene leapt off the page with vivid descriptions and imagery

Michael Cisco's The Divinity Student is my favorite standalone novel by any author. His prose ranges from hallucinatory and dream-like to absurd and surreal.
 
Oliver Twist as a child.
If you could see me now by Cecilia Ahern as a young adult.

not so sure about the others but these two really stuck with me up until now.
 
1984
The Parable Of The Sower
Number The Stars

There is kind of a theme, there...

White Oleander was mentioned, too. I read it at 18 and it was the book that really made me think about writing style. I fell in love with the style, more than the story.
 
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