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02-17-2014, 05:53 PM
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Location: Warwick, RI
3,612 posts, read 4,517,554 times
Reputation: 5840
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First, it was "One Up On Wall Street", by Peter Lynch, then later it was "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham.
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02-17-2014, 06:05 PM
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5,548 posts, read 7,196,804 times
Reputation: 11085
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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
I was born in 1951 and was in about the 3rd or 4th grade when I read this book. At this time all a girl would be able to be would be a teacher, nurse, secretary, or homemaker.
But reading this book I loved that Margaret and her Mother did things and had adventures. I think this got me started on my career track and glad it did.
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02-19-2014, 05:43 PM
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16,472 posts, read 7,281,618 times
Reputation: 10223
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MIKEETC
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
[i should read it again]
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I love Carl Sagan books. Now every time someone starts talking about their signs (Sagitarius, Libra, etc.), I think about him. I never say anything though. I guess he did change my thinking on a lot of things. Did you know they're doing a new Cosmos tv series? |
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02-19-2014, 07:01 PM
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3,565 posts, read 2,081,943 times
Reputation: 2265
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It is a long list, but here are a few to start:
2666 by Roberto Bolano--a five-novella novel that made me rethink the possibilities of genre fiction and realism. It is a profound exploration of violence, masculinity, art, and despair.
1491 by Charles C. Mann--a journalist surveys the last century of scholarship on the pre-Columbus Americas to tell the story of the people who lived, thrived, and died here. This really opened up my eyes to the Western fiction of the pre-contact Americans--people who were largely encountered after their civilizations were decimated by diseases inadvertently brought to their lands by early European explorers.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf--this book helped me start to appreciate literary modernism. I still consider Woolf the best of the modernists.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver--a beautiful, haunting collection of short stories about love, life, and loss. It made me realize how much can be said by leaving things out.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan--terrifying and illuminating; I don't look at food the same way anymore.
Emily Dickinson's Poems--reintroduced me to poetry. There is more craft, wisdom, and daring here than in everything that came after, probably.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X--this taught me about the story of race in the Northern cities, and his journey through different philosophical and religious beliefs strikes me as the American Confessions of Saint Augustine.
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02-19-2014, 09:01 PM
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4,456 posts, read 3,982,729 times
Reputation: 3125
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'Old Shakes', i.e the Bard
All human experience is there between his pages. You learn as you read. The words and cadences of his lines offer the reader the great thoughts in a deep and beautiful way. His works changed our inner world for all time.
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02-19-2014, 09:58 PM
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Location: South Florida
1,464 posts, read 946,360 times
Reputation: 703
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Some were more life changing than others at various stages of my life,
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
"To Kill a Mockingbird" Harper Lee
"Redwall" by Brian Jacques
"Watership Down" by Richard Adams
"Every Living Thing" by James Herriot (I loved all of his books)
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain
"Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose
"Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose
"The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz
"Night" by Elie Weisel
"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey
"The Book of Virtues" by William J. Bennett
"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Micahel Pollan
"How to Practice" by the Dalai Lama
"The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
"Seal of Honor" by Gary Williams
and many more.
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02-20-2014, 08:25 AM
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4,456 posts, read 3,982,729 times
Reputation: 3125
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02-20-2014, 08:51 AM
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2,178 posts, read 1,493,371 times
Reputation: 1452
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Another nod to the Bible.
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02-20-2014, 09:38 AM
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13,510 posts, read 15,595,931 times
Reputation: 37885
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Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race, T.W. Rolleston - These were read to me by my mother at the same time that she was also reading me children's Bible stories. I assumed they were as true as the Bible stories.
The Asiatics, Frederic Prokosch, and Victory, Joseph Conrad, the first I read before high school, and the second while I was in high school.
The Crock of Gold, James Stephens
What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula.
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