Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Did you ever do something new or change your life as a result of a book you read? Or did a book make you see the world in a whole new way? Or did a book connect you with a new person or subject area?

I have some minor examples -

The summer after high school, I read War and Peace and because of that book I decided to study Russian in college (though I don't have a dramatic story about it like traveling there or anything.)

When I read The Mists of Avalon, at the very end of the book, there was information about modern women's spirituality groups. I had never heard of such a thing but got involved with one for several years.

To a lesser extent, books got me interested in new subjects. For instance, after I read The Kite Runner, I followed the news from Afghanistan, which I hadn't done before. And after I read The Martian, I got more interested in the space program.

When I was a junior in high school I read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment for a class assignment. I was always that student that balked at assigned reading, but this one grabbed me and I flew through it in a weekend. I was so fascinated by Raskolnikov's thinking and rationalizing that I decided to study psychology in college (before this I thought I'd go pre-med), and even took a psychology class my senior year instead of physics.

Many books have inspired me to travel places or visit specific locations in places I visit. Still do. The first of those was when I was a student in Paris and on the spring break (and since this was 1976, students were out on strike, shutting down the schools for 3 to 4 weeks), I packed a tote bag with a change of clothes, a few toiletries, Let's Go Europe Budget Travel Guide, and my Interrail pass to see more of Europe. One of my destinations was Venice for at least a day to relive scenes in St. Mark's Square from The Venetian Affair by Helen MacInnes. As I was exiting the platform having just come in on early teain from Florence, I struck up a conversation with two elderly ladies who had just exited a sleeping car on the opposite track. They had run away from their tour in Vienna taking the sleeper on a one day jaunt doing the same thing! Since I was taking the same train on to vienna that night, we shared itineraries and looked out foe each other. Of course I was 2nd class couchette and they were sleeping car. I broke away from them at one point as I also was going to visit the Lido where Death in Venice by Thomas Mann was set.

Those are just wonderful travel memories. A real change of life story from reading a book belongs to a roommate of mine in the late 1980s, and all because I lent her Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry! I read it one wintry weekend and it was so good, so atmospheric in its setting in Alaska and on the race, I insisted my roommate Brooke read it. Next thing I know, she is reading Alaska by James A. Michener, dropping out of her PhD program at Columbia University, selling her possessions, setting up a seasonal job in a cannery, and relocating permanently to Alaska, all because of that book. Brooke was in her 30s - not flighty, but it sparked something. She is still in Alaska, flies her own plane, is a librarian.

Great stories! I know people who got empowered to assert their identities decades ago after reading some of the few novels or memoirs of the era featuring gay or transsexual characters.

I come from a left-leaning family but I feel like my reading of Les Misérables in high school confirmed my thoughts on social justice (someone being imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family). On the other hand, some people took their politics from books by Ayn Rand.

I wouldn't say one book, but reading in general can change your life if you are open to reading all subjects/genres as you will gain knowledge and perspectives about a wide variety of topics/issues

Yes and no. Many books gave me ideas of what I wanted to do when I grew up. This ranged from being Queen of England (when I was in kindergarten--fairy tales for that one and I was going to do it by marrying one of Charles' younger siblings since I had no clue about how that stuff actually worked), becoming a brain surgeon and a biochemist at the same time when I was 10 and read my first Heinlein novel (not the one with the wealthy man who got the brain transplant even though it was already out, but a different one involving DNA & RNA) and then to live out in the woods in a cabin and have 12 kids (Where Nests the Water Hen

On a more serious note, yes there were a number of books that had a big impact on my life in various ways, but so hard to list them all.

I can't think of any direct life-changing impacts like some of those mentioned. I always give a shout out to Bridge to Terabithia for making me "a reader". I first had that book read to me in 4th grade and I loved it. It was the first time a book wasn't a cute little story that ended happily ever after. It was the first time it dawned on me that books could be more than fairy tales or morality tales where good always wins and bad always loses. I was hooked. :)

Great thread!

I ready Night by Elie Wiesel when I was 18, and it really opened my world up to thinking about how such horrible atrocities could happen in our world.

Robin P wrote: "...When I read The Mists of Avalon, at the very end of the book..."

This was on my TBR for a while until I learned more about the author. She has some... issues. Could make for an interesting question of the week next time, authors with issues, and how they affect the readers' perception of their work.

Ana AZ wrote: "Robin P wrote: "...When I read The Mists of Avalon, at the very end of the book..."

This was on my TBR for a while until I learned more about the author. She has some... issues. Could make for an ..."

"Issues" is right! Yuck. I don't feel badly reading her books now though because she's dead and her children (who were some of her victims) are getting her money. If she were alive and profiting, then I would have a problem!

I read "Night" by Elie Wiesel when I was 18, and it profoundly expanded my perspective, making me reflect deeply on how such dreadful atrocities could occur in our world.

Ana AZ wrote: "This was on my TBR for a while until I learned more about the author. She has some... issues. Could make for an interesting question of the week next time, authors with issues, and how they affect the readers' perception of their work."

Well, I finished it today, and honestly, I think my knowledge of MZB as a person may have colored my view of her work. I am glad I read it, and like I said, since she is dead and it is her children who were also her victims who get any royalties, I didn't feel bad reading it. However, it really wasn't that good. I kept talking to my daughter while reading it, and I do wonder if I had thought differently of the book if I hadn't know what a terrible person MZB was. I'm not planning on reading any of the sequels.