Chad Sexington Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Is there one book you have read that has changed the way you think about things? A book that has taken previously held beliefs you may have had and either hugely reinforced them or radically altered them. For me, it would be the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I started reading it as an agnostic and finished it a full blown atheist. I found his argument against a higher intelligence battered me into submission with its sheer logic. This isn't a thread about atheism/believing by the way. We've had enough of them. I'm just wondering what books folk might have read that had a profound effect on the way they think about things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boomstick Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Excellent novel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feeno Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I think they only exist in movies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makateer Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Allen Carr's 'Easy Way to Stop Smoking' helped me stop smoking. Does that count? I started reading 'The God Delusion' and 'No Logo', and although I generally agreed with everything I found them pretty boring and never finished them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Benoit Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 The bible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rand Paul's Ray Bans Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 The Qu'ran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorgiewave Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 No one book that changed my life. The books I return to again and again are: Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty and War Eduardo Mendoza, Sin noticias de Gurb (a humorous diary about an alien living in Barcelona). I used to go back to Huckleberry Finn all the time, but I haven't for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pohang Jambo Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 The Kama Sutra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Das Root Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 See Spot Run. Masterful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Sexington Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 The bible The Qu'ran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmfc_liam06 Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 50 Shades of Grey. I just can't please the wife anymore.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clanmac Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Where the mountain casts it's shadow-Maria Coffey Dealing with the aftermath of losing her professional climber boyfriend (Joe Tasker)on Everest in 1982.At that point I had never dealt with death in my life and the booked certainly asked questions.Plus the climbing aspect of it was a great read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William H. Bonney Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 'House Of Leaves' by Mark Z Danielewski changed the way I think about novels. RJ Ellory reignited my love of reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldar Hadzimehmedovic Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Death of a Salesman changed the way I view some family shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamboSean Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I'm going to get ripped for this, but The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry. It's James Dean's favourite book though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budgie. Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johanes de Silentio Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 The bible This. No more wonky tables in my gaff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Look, the children's book. It helped teach me how to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Gin Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 The bible The Qu'ran. The Twits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamboinglasgow Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Look, the children's book. It helped teach me how to read. Was that the one with the circus car, and in every double page some new character appeared in the car with the words look above it? If so it was the first book I ever read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Napoleon Wilson Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Dunno about being a life changing experience but the best novel I have ever read is "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck. Read it loads of times, I love all the characters and little sub plots in it. It reads like a Tom Waits song come to life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jambos are go! Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 The Wind in the willows was the first book to enthrall me and I realised that reading could be a pleasure rather than Homework. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rand Paul's Ray Bans Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Shiny happy Muslims. Although, I prefer the more radical interpretation. DEATH TO THE WEST! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanauskas33 Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Dunno about being a life changing experience but the best novel I have ever read is "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck. Read it loads of times, I love all the characters and little sub plots in it. It reads like a Tom Waits song come to life. This is a brilliant shout. Builds such a clear picture of the little community that they're all living in. Have you ever read Sweet Thursday? The sequel to it. I've been planning to for ages, but I'm worried it'll be nowhere near as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Draper Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Nice idea for a thread A book that truly made me change the way I think about a particular issue (the mentally handicapped, in this case) was The Incredible Adam Spark by Alan Bissett. It also happens to be a fantastic book; would thoroughly recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Draper Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Death of a Salesman changed the way I view some family shit. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2NaFish Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Death of a Salesman changed the way I view some family shit. It had a huge affect on the way i viewed society and what i want out of life, but i never really got much out of it with regards to families. This is probably because I was quite young and had never really had any family issues to hold it up against. I'll read it again soon and see if it resonates in any new way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Draper Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Is there one book you have read that has changed the way you think about things? A book that has taken previously held beliefs you may have had and either hugely reinforced them or radically altered them. For me, it would be the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I started reading it as an agnostic and finished it a full blown atheist. I found his argument against a higher intelligence battered me into submission with its sheer logic. This isn't a thread about atheism/believing by the way. We've had enough of them. I'm just wondering what books folk might have read that had a profound effect on the way they think about things. http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/5004208fc3d4ca5b21000000/sri-lankans-name-new-fish-genus-after-atheist-dawkins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desmondo Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Read King Rat and Flashman at the charge when I was 14/15 never bothered reading anything bar sport prior both books are indelible and it encouraged to read lots more, still a b um though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leginten Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Dunno about being a life changing experience but the best novel I have ever read is "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck. Read it loads of times, I love all the characters and little sub plots in it. It reads like a Tom Waits song come to life. Of all the great 20th century American writers, I think Steinbeck is the best. It's a clich? and a half, but the book below changed me for good. I went from the boy who had been through all the usual stuff from the time - in my case, and not necessarily in any order, E. Nesbitt, Enid Blyton, the Narnia books, all the Agatha Christie and Alistair McLean books, Commando comics, Stig of the Dump, The Hill of the Red Fox etc - to the young teenager who from then on couldn't wait to explore whatever else I could find. Up to this point I'm pretty sure I didn't realise you could write a book that was just so cool it ached. My first anti-hero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walrus Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Draper Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I'm going to get ripped for this, but The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry. It's James Dean's favourite book though! Why would you get ripped for that? It's a classic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoJack Horseman Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Couldn't finish that. I moved to Hungary and worked with a load of guys who are well known in the scene, one of them is actually in that book. It convinced me to give it a read and it was guff. Watching them trying to pull is the most awkward cringeworthy thing I've ever seen (should add that to the other thread). I'm half way through this and it's already changing my life; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovecraft Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Either 1984 or Animal Farm. I read them both when I was an impressionable teenager. I have been a miserable ******* ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmo Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Probably Orwell's 1984. I wasn't very politically switched on as a young teen at High School, and as a bit of a dreamer tended to think the world should be like it was in the various films I'd watched up to that point. Also a lot of reading you did at that age was all very black and white - no grey shades or conflicted characters in The Famous Five or Tintin (I did read other stuff but I don't think it ever clicked with me and was just a story or adventure). Then I read 1984 and it shocked me to my core. Horrifyingly real, so unsentimental as to the human condition, and unrelenting in it's bleakness. And entirely plausible, that was the kicker - there is NO redemption or hope. I'd never read anything like it before. I started seeing the world and people as it was, the hidden and not so hidden agendas, the wiring and glue that barely holds the machinery together. All the naivety and optimism was jack-booted out of me and replaced by realism bordering on nihilism. If I'd read Watchmen first I daresay it probably would have had a similarly enlightening and broadening affect on my young mind, but then again I might, as I had done up till reading Orwell, read it as just a comic book and spectacularly missed the point. The folly of youth, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovecraft Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Probably Orwell's 1984. I wasn't very politically switched on as a young teen at High School, and as a bit of a dreamer tended to think the world should be like it was in the various films I'd watched up to that point. Also a lot of reading you did at that age was all very black and white - no grey shades or conflicted characters in The Famous Five or Tintin (I did read other stuff but I don't think it ever clicked with me and was just a story or adventure). Then I read 1984 and it shocked me to my core. Horrifyingly real, so unsentimental as to the human condition, and unrelenting in it's bleakness. And entirely plausible, that was the kicker - there is NO redemption or hope. I'd never read anything like it before. I started seeing the world and people as it was, the hidden and not so hidden agendas, the wiring and glue that barely holds the machinery together. All the naivety and optimism was jack-booted out of me and replaced by realism bordering on nihilism. If I'd read Watchmen first I daresay it probably would have had a similarly enlightening and broadening affect on my young mind, but then again I might, as I had done up till reading Orwell, read it as just a comic book and spectacularly missed the point. The folly of youth, eh? Funny you should say that, as that was my response to reading it too. I think I was maybe about 14 at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desmondo Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Got me thinking this thread, amazing what you forget, 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' had me fascinated at the time and 'The loneliest of a long distance runner' sprang to mind I mentioned King Rat and the LOALDRunner, both had films made about them were not that bad either Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primavera Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 A few books have had profound impacts on my world view. James A Micheners "The Drifters" was one that I read in my early 20's and felt blown away by, its a coming of age novel that might not impress me so much now. Steinbeck - I cant even pick which had the most impact, he was truly brilliant at making people think about the human condition. "Clouds from both sides" by Julie Tullis, who died on K2 in 1986 shortly after writing it. The book inspired me to get out and drag my butt up a few Munros, I've done a lot of walking since and it all comes back to that book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franco Fascione Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Viz - the annual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Napoleon Wilson Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 This is a brilliant shout. Builds such a clear picture of the little community that they're all living in. Have you ever read Sweet Thursday? The sequel to it. I've been planning to for ages, but I'm worried it'll be nowhere near as good. I've never read Sweet Thursday, I'll have a look for that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Riva Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Penthouse Sorry cancel that it's a magazine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaun.lawson Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 1. Toxic Parents by Susan Forward 2. Stop Thinking Start Living by Richard Carlson 3. All Played Out by Pete Davies. Just about my entire footballing worldview - including on where I am right now - originated from reading that book. It's the modern footballing Bible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Stinkfinger Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Read it over 400 times now, even shaved ma heid as a mark of respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GforGallo Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I wouldn't say it changed my life but slaughter house 5 and various other works by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Have challenged the way I look at certain things such as our existence and the way our minds/bodies work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budgie. Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 2. Stop Thinking Start Living by Richard Carlson This was basically the forerunner to Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and is also a fantastic book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T.F.Robertson Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Read it over 400 times now, even shaved ma heid as ah was gawn baldy anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Kidd Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 The Doors of Perception made me stop taking LSD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desmondo Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 The Doors of Perception made me stop taking LSD. Taking a tab just before we played Rangers away made me think about dabbling again, got the train( a day trip )never ever again, horrific Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 1984 and Animal Farm both changed me as a young teenager and gave me an interest in politics, which has developed into an interest in humanitarianism, the only reason politics should exist. I like to think Orwell would be happy enough. Obviously for me The Bible (so important it gets a definite article capitalised) but that's to be expected so I'm going to say a book that has helped me enormously in understanding the bible, A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren. If you want to read 21st century Christian understanding, this is the guy I think. Ultimately though I think every book you read changes your life in some small way, that's why I love to read. Except Jeffrey Archer, his books are the literary equivalent of a Big Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naecups1902 Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Bring out your riot gear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.