Life-changing books

[noela]

The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch; Women as Lovers by Elfriede Jelinek; We the Living by Ayn Rand; The Fall by Albert Camus; Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig; Franz Kafka's Diaries; Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

[Gypsyrhydyr]

I grew up as the child of a police officer in the 60's & early 70's. A man with very strong, very black & white ideas of right & wrong (no grey in his landscape!) and not a few prejudices....

For me, Serpico (the book, not the movie altho that was good) was a real eye-opener. I read it when I was 14...and began to - finally - understand whence and where many of his attitudes began. And ended. It didn't stop the turbulence of the following years of rebellion...I was too head-strong for that. It was the begining of learning to see the from another's point of view.

The "best" books for altering my life were:
Hugh Prather Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person
Thich Nhat Hanh Anger
Sam Keen Fire in the Belly and Hymns to an Unknown God

"One day, out of nowhere, you realize you don't know who you are and none of the cards in your wallet provide the slightest clue to your real identity." Sam Keen

[jertheber]

Walter Benjamin At The Dairy Queen, by Larry McMurtry, If you are a book lover this is a must, it is the closest thing to an autobiography Mcmurtry has written or will ever write according to him. Books that move people to change their thinking are the most profound of all good writings, that said, we can learn so much from others that it seems a pity to waste time on anything that isn't enlightening. I don't mean to say that all good books are going to fall into that category, but it seems as though most American's can only find time to entertain themselves, unfortunatly that seldom includes reading. I am a book lover from way back in my grade school years, one book that changed me was the Thor Heyerdahl book, Kon Tiki, it was the first time I was swept away into a book and out onto the Pacific Ocean, thrashing about on a raft of dubious construction quality. When I finished that book I went on a spree of adventure book reading, I traveled the world in all kinds of weather and "met" many people of different cultures and backgrounds, I laughed one moment, and the next found me terrified, too afraid to put down the book for fear I'd miss something. All that travel without ever leaving the bedroom of my youth. I'm old now, that seems to be the way we all end up, but I will always have those memories of the wild times I spent, mesmerized by the writing of Hemmingway, Kerouac, Steinbeck, and tons of others who posessed the knack for keeping you awake at night enthralled in their world and sharing their minds.

[Trkstp Tina]

"Mere Christianity," "Animal Vegetable Miracle" (eye-opening about how food is treated and grown in our society) "Bowling Alone," "The End of Racism" (controversial, not sure I agree with all of it, but lots of food for thought), "The World Without Us." Someone mentioned "The Road"--I just finished that and think about it a lot--that could be one for the list, but may be too soon to tell. I'd also say "We Were the Mulvaneys"--I think about it often, how a small incident can lead to the unraveling of a family. Very sobering to think about now that I have a family of my own.