Books that changed your life

[wyrdsister]

Please add any books that changed your outlook/philosophy on life.

1. The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

2. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

3. The Universe in a Nutshell - Steven Hawking

[bluebell]

Families and how to survive them
Life and how to survive it
both by Robyn Skinner & John Cleese

These books completely changed how I view myself, other people and the world. I read these books about 5 years ago and I am still thinking and processing the content and slotting it into how I see the world.

[Littlelostnf]

Originally Posted by wyrdsister

Please add any books that changed your outlook/philosophy on life.

1. The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

2. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

3. The Universe in a Nutshell - Steven Hawking

Whenever someone asks me this question the first book I think of I read when I was 8.

A Wrinkle In Time - It was the first book I'd read that wasn't down to earth...it was beyond a fairy tale. I loved it!

The Bible

Brave New World

[cafe]

1.) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (from it I learned that I love to read)

2.) The Boundaries Book (from it I learned when it was okay not to help people)

3.) The Bible (has pretty much shaped my thoughts on morality, etc)

[wyrdsister]

Originally Posted by cafe

1.) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (from it I learned that I love to read)

2.) The Boundaries Book (from it I learned when it was okay not to help people)

3.) The Bible (has pretty much shaped my thoughts on morality, etc)

I read the whole series of those CS Lewis books. I loved them.

[cafe]

Originally Posted by wyrdsister

I read the whole series of those CS Lewis books. I loved them.

They're pretty great, aren't they? I hooked my younger daughter up with The Horse and His Boy last night when she was looking for something to read. Don read the entire series to the kids several yeas ago, but I think only our oldest daughter remembers it.

[Geoff]

The Hobbit. It awoke an interest in a whole new world (I was about 5).

Life on Earth by David Attenborough, it taught me the story of life, and evolution and all kinds of things I never really thought about before. I was 7.

The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, it introduced me to a wacky, sarcastic wonderful sci fi world of humour I fell in love with. I was 7 too.

[hereandnow]

The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman, PhD, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics

[Ivy]

Originally Posted by Geoff

The Hobbit. It awoke an interest in a whole new world (I was about 5).

Life on Earth by David Attenborough, it taught me the story of life, and evolution and all kinds of things I never really thought about before. I was 7.

The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, it introduced me to a wacky, sarcastic wonderful sci fi world of humour I fell in love with. I was 7 too.

You read these things at 5 and 7?

Fine. I read Caunterbury Tales in the 6th grade. *hairflip*

Seriously-- you must've been a pretty advanced kid. I was a remarkable reader but I was still on Little House and Nancy Drew at 7.

As for the thread topic, I've been changed by many books. Many have already been mentioned in this thread. The bible, yes. Maybe not for the reasons people might think. Frederick Douglass's autobiography helped me to shake off the vestiges of racism I was brought up with. And A Wrinkle In Time and Ender's Game introduced me to sci-fi, NF style.

Also, I read a book a few years ago that I've carried with me since: Children of the Self-Absorbed, which helped me in the way that cafe said her boundaries book helped her. My parents and in-laws can be difficult to get along with and it has helped to know where I end and they begin.

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by Ivy

You read these things at 5 and 7?

Fine. I read Caunterbury Tales in the 6th grade. *hairflip*

Seriously-- you must've been a pretty advanced kid. I was a remarkable reader but I was still on Little House and Nancy Drew at 7.

As for the thread topic, I've been changed by many books. Many have already been mentioned in this thread. The bible, yes. Maybe not for the reasons people might think. Frederick Douglass's autobiography helped me to shake off the vestiges of racism I was brought up with. And A Wrinkle In Time and Ender's Game introduced me to sci-fi, NF style.

Also, I read a book a few years ago that I've carried with me since: Children of the Self-Absorbed, which helped me in the way that cafe said her boundaries book helped her. My parents and in-laws can be difficult to get along with and it has helped to know where I end and they begin.

I can't actually remember not being able to read, while my mother taught my sister (she is 18 months older) how to read, I must have been listening and absorbing, because when she tried to introduce me to words at 3 I could already read.. apparently.

As for fairly scientific treatises...like Life on Earth, I can remember it freaking the teacher out that I was reading it at 7. She basically accused me of just looking at pictures (I'd brought it in from home) and recommending I stick to stuff like Peter Rabbit. After I'd explained to her in some detail about the chapter on Protozoa and its place in early life, she left me alone with my books

By way of balance, I got my words late... I didnt speak until 3 or so, and even then i was composing and using my own nonsense language (did I ever stop ), apparently because of intellectual boredom, but it could just be I'm odd....

It's difficult to know what's normal, or not, when you have only yourself as an example.

-Geoff