What are some books that have changed your life?

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The discussion centers around recommendations for transformative and essential books that every literate person should read, spanning various genres and languages. Participants highlight classics such as Dante's "Divine Comedy," Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment," and philosophical works by Plato and Nietzsche, emphasizing their profound impact on readers. Additionally, there are mentions of modern literature and influential texts like "1984," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and "Catch-22," which have shaped perspectives on society and human nature. The conversation also touches on the importance of childhood literature and encyclopedias in fostering a love for reading and knowledge. Overall, the thread serves as a rich resource for anyone looking to expand their literary collection with impactful works.
  • #61


epenguin said:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140134832/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Read that, long ago. Need to find it myself and re-read. Didn't change my life, knowingly, so it is safe. He was a successful barrister (top court lawyer in UK) which is an aggressive and highly lucrative profession, so that always struck me as incongruous. Heard him speak once many many yr. ago. I must say that, fairly or unfairly, the memory I have carried from that and connected with the above apparent incongruity was rather of him saying Bhuddism was good for other people, i.e. that the peasants of Burma and the then undeveloped Thailand were happy as they were, don't disturb their souls with all this development (which was the rage and our scientific religion) what good is it?
I don't remember the title. It was a small blue book. It seems to be out of print.

I have to read western books on Buddhism while remembering that they are western and looking in from the outside.

However along that theme a book I do recommend and which could be life-changing is Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. (I think they have inserted one or two "i"s into the author's name for sales purposes).
I read that one. An English grad student told me that it had nothing to do with Zen. But then she came from a fundamentalist Baptist background. I don't think she really understood the book or Zen.

She was also contemplating a divorce from he husband, and a relationship with some other guy on the west coast. She was pretty stressed out.
 
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  • #62


I'll add a couple . . .

1) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

2) The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

3) Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

4) Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

5) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
 
  • #63


If you are at all interested in cosmology and the intersection between GR and quantum theory, get a copy of "The Philosophy of Vacuum" by Saunders and Brown. You can get it in as-new condition from Amazon for about $40. My copy arrived recently, and I'm browsing.
 
  • #64


Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is very inspirational and always leaves me highly motivated.
 
  • #65


Has anyone ever read/found a book called:

Lucifer's Psychoanalysis and Resultant Cure by Arthur <something>, J.S.P.S*.
(Just Some Poor Shmuck)

...or something like that. It's very Kurt Vonnegut-esque.

I read this book years ago, lost it and have never found refernce to it again.
 
  • #66


DaveC426913 said:
Has anyone ever read/found a book called:

Lucifer's Psychoanalysis and Resultant Cure by Arthur <something>, J.S.P.S*.
(Just Some Poor Shmuck)

...or something like that. It's very Kurt Vonnegut-esque.

I read this book years ago, lost it and have never found refernce to it again.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/059514506X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

It was a trick finding that. I actually used "Just Some Poor Schmuck" for the search criteria.
 
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  • #67
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  • #68


Astronuc said:
I don't remember the title. It was a small blue book. It seems to be out of print.

If it was paperback it was probably a Penguin Book :biggrin:.

That was the one I read.

I've given link above where you can find one.
 
  • #69


I can sincerely list two books that changed my life, although one has nothing to do with content and the other is much more for what it inspired, rather than the profoundness of it's content.

As a child I read everything I could get my hands on, but somewhere in jr high (grades 6-8) it just hurt my eyes too much to read for any extended period, so my reading away from school dropped to almost nothing. Long story short, when I was about 19, I picked up a Tom Clancy Splinter Cell novel (absolutely horrible piece of writing) so that I could look over someone at a hospital overnight and stay awake. I was able to read the unbleached paper novel through to completion without problems. I ended up finding out a few months later that I have a slight scotopic sensitivity (basically for me it simply becomes painful to read bleached white paper after a short while) that had been diagnosed back in elementary, but no one had taken notice or told me. Reading that book brought about the realization that I could read for extended periods without discomfort, and therefore my renewed love of reading actual books. WOOHOO!

The second book would be The Left Hand of the Electron by Isaac Asimov. I read this shortly after I rediscovered my love of reading. This book opened my eyes to the fact that nonfiction (even pure science/math) could be enjoyable. This was the turning point where I went from simply being able to do calculus/physics/etc (even though I understood the material and did well) to REALLY starting to understand the subjects and applications they had (I actually enjoy my old textbooks that I used to despise). It was then that the floodgates opened, and although now I try to squeeze some fiction in, my real passion lies with nonfiction.
 
  • #70


The Elements of Style (Strunk and White)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style
Since I've read it I can't write a thing without being influenced by it's rules . It's truly amazing that such a short book can contain so much valuable information.
 
  • #71


epenguin said:
If it was paperback it was probably a Penguin Book :biggrin:.

That was the one I read.

I've given link above where you can find one.
Thanks. That may be it, but the cover is different. The published dates seem to be correct for the one I read in the early 1970s.
 
  • #72


daniel_i_l said:
The Elements of Style (Strunk and White)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style
Since I've read it I can't write a thing without being influenced by it's rules . It's truly amazing that such a short book can contain so much valuable information.

Looked it up, seems like a good book. Will try and get, if I'm done with my current read(s).

Alot of the books suggested here are very good and I would like to add to the list:

- Discourse on Method... by Descartes
 
  • #73


I wouldn't put it up there with the 'great books' of our time, but Taleb's 'Fooled by Randomness' certainly gave me a greater understanding of chance and how it affects our lives. There are some hokey bits but the premise is quite good.
 
  • #74


Into The Wild about the man who made reality of what so many people wish they did. After reading it I bought Thoreau's Walden, whose ideas are now a big part of my life philosophy. Reading the final chapter I was overwhelmed, never before had I come upon thoughts that I agreed so much with.
A living dog is better than a dead lion. Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can? Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made. Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

The Feynman Lectures has really fueled my interest in physics.

Crime and Punishment made a deep impression on me. My experience is that many of the "heavy classics" are outside one's horizon and don't really touch upon things that are relevant for a young person living in the world of today. But Crime and Punishment was so real, and Raskolnikovs thoughts and feelings made so much sense to me.

The Immigrants is a book written by Swedish historian Vilhelm Moberg portraying a farming family migrating to Massachusetts in the 1850's. I was fascinated by how these people just took a piece of land, worked really hard, and became a part of founding one of the world's most powerful and influential nations.
 
  • #75


Astronuc said:
Thanks. That may be it, but the cover is different. The published dates seem to be correct for the one I read in the early 1970s.

Traditional Penguin or Pelican Books design are like those seen here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books especially 4th photo.
 
  • #76


The book that has opened my eyes the most is The Last Lecture by Professor Randy Pausch from Carnegie Mellon. It really changed how I viewed things.
Site:
www.thelastlecture.com/[/URL]

Or you can watch it here:
[url]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo[/url]
 
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  • #77


The Razor's Edge, by Somerset Maugham. It made me think, about a lot of things that are very important.

Resurrection, by Tolstoy. I thought it was a really boring read but there are about 10 pages that are simply revolutionary.

And Harry Potter ;)
 
  • #78


The writings of Henry David Thoreau.

One of the most under appreciated men of the last 200 years.

To listen to him describe his baking of home made bread, his night in jail, how birds would eat from his hand on call, watching massive battles between ant armies, or his own battle against a pesky critter that kept eating his bean plants; and then to hear the clear and flowing logic of "A Plea for Captain John Brown" or "Resistance to Civil Government" will show the true depth of this great enlightenment thinker.

His words are worth far more to me than any of Emerson's, Thoreau's long time and much more celebrated friend.

I am currently saving up to purchase his complete two million words life long journal.
 
  • #79


Plato and A Platypus Walk Into A Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Along with a bunch of other books that others have named.
 
  • #80


I would have to say Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien really changed me (I used to be a huge LOR fan when i was 13). The book was challenging with the imagery and vocabulary, and i got used to always having a dictionary beside me while reading. It made more of a reader, while reading Crime and Punishment when I was 15 made me into a reader of classics and works that were challenging in the sense of philosophy and concepts.

Also:
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (loved it)
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Short Stories of Anton Chekhov
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (Funny, sad, and interesting)
Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

I am currently reading Ulysses by James Joyce, but I have no idea when or if i'll finish it (I'm an aspiring Joycean as well as theoretical physicist. Somehow I feel those two go together well). Personally, I would recommend anyone to make an attempt to read at least
one book, or at least short story by Joyce, but that's just me. :smile:
 
  • #81


With the Old Breed At Peleliu and Okinawa, E. B. Sledge

I recommend not reading reviews of it, just read the book and see what you think. It is a nonfiction book that contains truth in a manner that can be hard to come by. It caused me to reflect on my duty to myself and my country and also on how I would live my life.
 
  • #82


There is a Western World number one best-seller that no one has mentioned. But it has such a stigma nowadays no one will read it anymore but everyone talks about it as if they know what it's all about...

I had to point it out o:)
 
  • #83


To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.
It explains discrimination on many different levels. And the story itself is written so well that it just pulls you in. I'm not sure if this is a plus or a minus, but the court scene and the passionate description of the rural south reminded me of Grisham.
 
  • #84


drankin said:
There is a Western World number one best-seller that no one has mentioned. But it has such a stigma nowadays no one will read it anymore but everyone talks about it as if they know what it's all about...

I had to point it out o:)

Mein Kampf!? It is a very stigma-heavy book. Good luck trying to find a surviving copy though~

The Bible's boring and preachy. If it titillates someone to read through such a doorstop, be my guest but I rarely meet people who consider it a 'book' in the modern sense these days. It's rather like the dictionary in that people rip the bits they like out of it without going through the whole thing and it seems to work for them.

To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.
It explains discrimination on many different levels. And the story itself is written so well that it just pulls you in. I'm not sure if this is a plus or a minus, but the court scene and the passionate description of the rural south reminded me of Grisham.

Agreed! Actually, in freshman year of high school we were assigned to read To Kill a Mockingbird and A Time to Kill at the same time and I got the two mixed up because I found the themes/settings very similar. Both are good books and I recommend them without hesitation.
 
  • #85
MissSilvy said:
Mein Kampf!? It is a very stigma-heavy book. Good luck trying to find a surviving copy though~

The Bible's boring and preachy. If it titillates someone to read through such a doorstop, be my guest but I rarely meet people who consider it a 'book' in the modern sense these days. It's rather like the dictionary in that people rip the bits they like out of it without going through the whole thing and it seems to work for them.
I'm pretty sure you can still get Mein Kampf though perhaps not in European countries where Nazi propaganda is banned.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/817224164X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

And Ivan I believe mentioned the bible though Drankin may have missed that if that is the book he is referring to.


MissSilvy said:
Agreed! Actually, in freshman year of high school we were assigned to read To Kill a Mockingbird and A Time to Kill at the same time and I got the two mixed up because I found the themes/settings very similar. Both are good books and I recommend them without hesitation.
When I read A Time to Kill it reminded me very much of To Kill a Mockingbird.
 
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  • #86
TheStatutoryApe said:
I'm pretty sure you can still get Mein Kampf though perhaps not in European countries where Nazi propaganda is banned.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/817224164X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

You can also easily get it online: http://www.crusader.net/texts/mk/

It's a very good book for anybody who doesn't mind reading authors with different points of view.
 
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  • #87


MissSilvy said:
Mein Kampf!? It is a very stigma-heavy book. Good luck trying to find a surviving copy though~

The Bible's boring and preachy. If it titillates someone to read through such a doorstop, be my guest but I rarely meet people who consider it a 'book' in the modern sense these days. It's rather like the dictionary in that people rip the bits they like out of it without going through the whole thing and it seems to work for them.



Agreed! Actually, in freshman year of high school we were assigned to read To Kill a Mockingbird and A Time to Kill at the same time and I got the two mixed up because I found the themes/settings very similar. Both are good books and I recommend them without hesitation.


Mein Kampf is freely available in north america. In fact I know a friend who had to read it for class once. From my understanding (i've never read it) it's really a crappy book. Like not offensive so much as just poorly written and meandering.
 
  • #88


MissSilvy said:
The Bible's boring and preachy. If it titillates someone to read through such a doorstop, be my guest but I rarely meet people who consider it a 'book' in the modern sense these days. It's rather like the dictionary in that people rip the bits they like out of it without going through the whole thing and it seems to work for them.

I tried it once (in an attempt to combat ignorance) but couldn't even get through Genesis...perhaps if there was a version out there without the "this dude was the son of so and such twice removed from...yaddayaddayadda" it would go easier.
 
  • #89


@phyzmatix, you can skip the geneology parts lol the are extremely boring important if you STUDY it but not necessary for you to understand the stories in the bible, mots of the stories tell you who the people they are speaking of are anyways.

@OP
I never knew other ppl had read through encyclopedias because they were bored. I received a set of Britanica encyclopedias, a pretty huge set like 20 someodd books, it was quite outdated though. I read it whenever I was sick or bored. I also had a medical encyclopedia, THAT was really interesting stuff.

As for regular books I've read that I would suggest to other people here's my list:
To kill a mockingbird
The Handmaid's Tale
Oryx and Crake
1984
The God Delusion
Harry Potter < i read the first one when i was in grade 5 nd idk i read every single one whenever i was feeling down... it's weird it allowed me to like remove myself from this world which I needed pretty much everyday.
Lord of the Rings
The Fabric of the Cosmos < I think brian greene is really good at explaining things to normal people.
Taming of the Shrew/Hamlet/Macbeth
Lord of the Flies

the list could go on and on but i feel I'm putting too many books now haha
 
  • #90


daniel_i_l said:
To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.
It explains discrimination on many different levels. And the story itself is written so well that it just pulls you in. I'm not sure if this is a plus or a minus, but the court scene and the passionate description of the rural south reminded me of Grisham.

I remember reading this book in grade 10 for English class. The teacher didn't think we were all doing our reading so we read some parts out loud as a class. It just happened that I was the reader who had to say the N***** word first. So instead of saying it I decided to say the big tall black person. Since I was relatively new to the school and I always grew up being told to NEVER say that word. Needless to say my English teacher FREAKED out on me.