Books That Changed Your Life « Books Worth Reading

Books That Changed Your Life

June 30, 2008 at 10:01 am | In Books, Reading Lists | 8 Comments
Tags: Albert Camus, Anne Lamott, Ayn Rand, Dale Carnegie, David Allen, Douglas Adams, Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Herbert, George Orwell, Harper Lee, Jared Diamond, JK Rowling, Joseph Heller, JRR Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, Orson Scott Card, Oscar Wilde, Paulo Coelho, Richard Bach, Richard Dawkins, Robert Heinlein, Robert M Pirsig, Stephen Chbosky, Stephen King, Sun Tzu, William Gibson

LifeHacker has posted a list of books that changed their readers’ lives. I love book lists of all kinds, so I had to see which of these books I had read. Of course, I discounted the #1 and #2 spots (the Bible and the works of Ayn Rand) because they always end up at the tops of such lists. (I have nothing against the Bible, but it’s a cliched answer to the question. I won’t go into my feelings about Ayn Rand, except to say that reading Atlas Shrugged changed my life by convincing me never to read anything written by Ayn Rand again.)

Here’s the list minus the top two and my reactions:

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Yes, I’ve read it and loved it, but can’t say it changed my life.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig – I tried to read it once because of its life-changing properties, but I had to abandon it.
The Stranger by Albert Camus – No, I never read it; I got enough French existentialism in my high school AP course, thank you very much.
1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell — I have read 1984 and liked it, but not life-changing; Animal Farm is on my to-read list.
The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins — I haven’t read them and don’t really plan to.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – Read them, loved them, not life-changing.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – One of my all-time favorite books; not life-changing, though.
Dune by Frank Herbert – Another all-time favorite, but I couldn’t say it was life-changing.
The Art of War by Sun Tzu — Haven’t read it.
The Gunslinger [Dark Tower] Series by Stephen King – Read it, loved it, King is one of my favorite authors, but this series did not change my life.
Getting Things Done by David Allen – OK, I can see how this book might change your life if you put its ideas into practice, but it didn’t change mine; I was already pretty organized anyway.
Neuromancer by William Gibson – Another great book that didn’t change my life.
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – Childhood classic; didn’t change my life.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein — Nice read, but I have to say that I’d be a little leery of anyone whose life was changed by this book.
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – I have adamantly refused to let this series change my life (or even to read them).
the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe — Poe is a terrific read, but alas, not life-changing.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – I never even heard of this one.
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach – Ugh! yes, I read it in high school like everyone else.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde — Another great classic but not life-changing for me.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie – I have no intentions of reading this.
Tao Te Ching – I would like to read this but probably never will.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – Huh?
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond — Another huh?

Let me just observe that 14 of these entries are speculative fiction of some kind.

Whew, life-changing is a tall order. Even staring at my bookshelves and seeing all the books that I have loved over the years, I am hard-pressed to come up with a title that literally changed my life — where my life would be radically different if I hadn’t read that book.

I guess I will have to confine my list to those books that most strongly influenced me. And they would be:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee — because this is the most perfect novel ever written
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – for teaching me about the absurdity of war and life
The Stand by Stephen King – for its mythology and the characters who have become old friends
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – the best book about writing I have ever read

Have any books changed your life? If you blog about this, please let me know in the comments.

The Books That Changed Your Lives ["What]

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I agree with you about To Kill a Mockingbird. I think 1984 frightened me enough that it altered how I looked at politics. The Great Gatsby changed my life if for no other reason that it opened my eyes to how good books could be.

Comment by dylan555 — June 30, 2008 #
“…reading Atlas Shrugged changed my life by convincing me never to read anything written by Ayn Rand again.”

Har! I feel the same way about Rand. What a hack!
“Lord of the Flies” and “A Separate Peace were biggies for me.”

Comment by chartroose — June 30, 2008 #
The books I’ve read on that list are: Animal Farm, The Selfish Gene, The Hobbit & LOTR, Ender’s Game, and Dune.

Have any of those changed my life? It depends on what you mean by the phrase. I don’t think any book has ever changed my life in a big, grand, transcendental way — the way most people use the phrase. But in smaller, more personal ways, sure.

Dune and its surrounding series represents, to me, the pinnacle of science fiction, and it showed me just how much quality and intelligence is possible in the genre.

LOTR did the same thing for fantasy.

The Selfish Gene is single-handedly responsible for igniting my long interest in evolutionary biology. I’ve subsequently read most of Dawkins’ other books, although not The God Delusion (no need, that would just be preaching to the choir).

There are several other books on the list I WANT to read, though: 1984 (just never got around to it), Stranger in a Strange Land, and the Jared Diamond book (which I keep forgetting about whenever I’m picking out non-fiction).

The ones I’ve never even heard of: The Alchemist, The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Comment by Bill the sci-fi guy — July 4, 2008 #
Bill, I would say that igniting a lifelong interest in evolutionary biology qualifies as life-changing.

Comment by Shannon — July 5, 2008 #
Hey – the Alchemist by Paul Coehlo is a light quick read, life changing perhaps not, but worth reading! Led me to read some other books by the same author, recommend the Witch of Portobello and The Pilgrimage.

Comment by Barkha — July 10, 2008 #
Thanks for the recommendation!

Comment by Shannon — July 11, 2008 #
the perks of being a wallflower changed my life

Comment by schwee — February 4, 2009 #
The God Delusion definitely changed my way of thinking. I was an agnostic before reading and a firm atheist after. Its an eye opener and a great read too.

Comment by Al — July 16, 2009 #