The Next Best Book Club discussion

Which would you say is the book that changed your life and/or changed your view on how you think of something?

Life-Changer:

To Kill a Mockingbird is the book that made me an attorney. I saw the film for the first time when I was 11 or 12. Of course, I didn't understand it fully. I read the novel for the first time when I was 16. That first reading set me on a path to being a lawyer, though I didn't know it at the time. I actually have a plaque on my desk now with the following lines from Atticus Finch:

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

I honestly have not read "To Kill a Mockingbird"... ::bows head:: However, I do have it on my shelf to pick up and read. In high school, I was never much of a reader until my early adulthood.

The Shack
by William P. Young was an excellent book and although it didn't necessarily change my life, I read it because a waitress in Las Vegas who noticed my Kindle told me to read it because it had changed her life. After reading it, I can understand how it could change people's lives.

I actually bought that book b/c someone also recommended it to me. I've heard mixed reviews on it. Luckily, everyone is different so maybe I'll really enjoy it. Thanks Karen!

Fahrenheit 451. After reading this I vowed to spread my love of books to others and have become my own little lending library.

I guess I have to recommend one more book...THE RED TENT. It certainly changed the way I look at the New Testament. And Certainly on my top ten best books. Absolutely loved this book and will reread this book from time to time. Something I never ever do!!

Michelle, I read that so long ago I don't even remember what it was about. Burning of books? I remember it was a reading assignment for school and me being the slacker I had been b/c I did not enjoy reading (what was wrong with me?)...I read the cliff notes version.

Karen wrote: "I guess I have to recommend one more book...THE RED TENT. It certainly changed the way I look at the New Testament. And Certainly on my top ten best books. Absolutely loved this book and will re..."

You know... I glanced at this book while taking a stroll in Barnes and Noble and it just didn't strike my interest. Maybe I'll borrow my friends and give it a shot.

Joyce wrote: "Michelle, I read that so long ago I don't even remember what it was about. Burning of books? I remember it was a reading assignment for school and me being the slacker I had been b/c I did not enjo..."

Yes, it's about a fireman that burns books and sort of wakes up out of his sheep-like stupor and realizes the government has taken all choices and knowledge away and nobody seems to care. Mostly it struck a chord with me when it comes to the stuff that is fed to us through the media. How so many people don't think for themselves, just believe what they hear on TV. And Good God! What would I do if books were illegal? Probably have some crying fetal-position mental breakdown! :)

Haha! I hear you. Will definitely put it into my 2010 book challenge :)

It's not available on Kindle....:( I requested it though.

Karen wrote: "It's not available on Kindle....:( I requested it though."

Oh, I have yet to enter into the Kindle world but that's another topic entirely. lol. Part of what I enjoy about the book experience is just sitting down and cozying up with a book in my hand. I'm soooo torn because I do want a Kindle or Nook at some point!!! They are just too expensive for me to justify in my budget right now :(

Hello Joyce: I would have to say A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It's about 1 widow, 2 brothers and 1 student in India. All four people(from different backgrounds)have to learn to trust each other. It's a heart breaking story but beautifully told, and there are many lessons to be learned from it. It has certainly changed the way I view others.

I have a few books hidden away that I teasingly "blame" for changing my life:

Grade school -
Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh.
I was Harriet. Except I just thought something was wrong with me for the first several years of my life. I wrote about everything, everyone, everywhere. It was the only thing that really helped me process whatever I was feeling. I was teased mercilessly for it. And then I read Harriet the Spy. And re-read it. And read it again. And realized that the torment I was experiencing because of other kids was actually somewhat normal, and my behaviors were (almost) normal. It was okay to write about everything, plus it taught me how writing about everything can be used for EVIL and how to avoid that. Anytime I feel like people are being particularly mean to me, I wind up reading this book.


High school:
City Boy, Herman Wouk.
I'm not sure I can even verbalize why this book impacted me so much. It's much more of a "boy" book, but reading it in high school seemed to be just the right time to read it. An ex-friend/coworker borrowed it from me a few years ago (he was probably about 35 at the time), and he raved about how much it affected him, and he felt it changed his life, even as an adult. Then I found out he was just trying to get in my pants and he turned into a creepy-weird-stalker-type, but that's probably beside the point. Doesn't change the fact that this is a great book.


Later years:
Man's Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl.
About six years ago my boyfriend (back when we were "just friends") loaned me his copy of this book. We had been having a lot of talks similar to this one about which books changed our lives, whatever, and at that point I was in a pretty dark place with a lot of stupid crap going on with a break-up, the aforementioned stalker, family drama, physical health problems, yada yada yada, and two things wound up helping me get my act back together: this new friend in my life (not to mention his two dogs) and this book he let me borrow. (And then we fell in love. Aww.) The book helped me realize that really no matter what kinds of drama I had in my life, it in no way compared to the horrors Frankl and so many others experienced during the Holocaust. On top of that, Frankl created an entirely impressive way of dealing with living in a concentration camp by restructuring the way he lived his day-to-day. Blew my mind. Not only did it completely diminish what I was dealing with, but helped me restructure my thought process too. So yeah, when life blows big chunks I just remember what Frankl went through and what he did about it.


There are lots of other little books in between these that I also consider as being life-changing to me in some way, but these are the Top 3. Probably. I think. I read a lot, and so many things affect me on so many different levels at such different times in my life that it's so hard to put specific value on that.

Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet Boxed Set

It doesn't matter what your spiritual beliefs are, these books just show you how important it is to actually enjoy the moment you are living, that some things can not be changed, it's okay to let go and that blame is not always neccesary to assign. They are beautifully written and I can pick either of them up at any point and feel calmer, despite having read them many, many times.

All of these books have changed the way I view things, and opened my eyes another perspective.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt,
Night by Elie Wiesel,
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Little Bee by Chris Cleave

astrangerhere,

Did you see the Malcolm Gladwell's article on Atticus Finch in the New Yorker?

I wasn't convinced. I'm just curious to see what you think of it as a lawyer and lover of Mockingbird.

Oh wow:

When I was a kid:
The Upstairs Room introduced me to the Holocaust.

Memoirs of a Geisha began my fascination with books about Southeast Asian cultures.

The Red Tent started my love affair with historical fiction.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk I love this book - helped me really understand how to communicate with little people (both my daughter and my students)

Eat, Pray, Love helped me see that there was life after divorce.

Joint Custody with a Jerk: Raising a Child with an Uncooperative Ex, A Hands on, practical guide to coping with custody issues that arise with an uncooperative ex-spouse yeah. Enough said. :)

The book that cahnged my life has got to be The Grapes of Wrath as it seemed to really make you begin to question what a thought about almost everything and just made me feel so anger at injustices that were going on.

Not sure about changing my life but a couple books growing up changed the way I look at things in life.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

Katie wrote: "astrangerhere,

Did you see the Malcolm Gladwell's article on Atticus Finch in the New Yorker?

I wasn't convinced. I'm just curious to see what you think of it as a lawyer and lover of Mockingbird."


I am familiar with this story and the Michigan Law Review article he references. I, too, am unconvinced.

One of the first lessons any good English degree teaches you is to analyze a book in context. What Gladwell has done is take Ms Lee's story out of the time in which it was written and try to force feed it today's social standards. I am even a little surprised that he did not criticise her for not also including a homosexual as she was, at the time, very close to and working with Truman Capote on his work In Cold Blood.

There is also something to be said for understanding the Southern psyche from a point of being Southern. He disagrees with the way Folsom and Finch had the attitude of "treating all men the same" because it was not enough. But in the South, defying a social class rule IS revolutionary. Mr. Gladwell is Canadian, and while I do not dispute his ability to discuss a story about a southern book that was written before he was born, I do question his ability to fully appreciate the historical and geographical context.

I suppose he would have wanted Finch to throw a tantrum a-la Henry Fonda in Twelve Angry Men. But that's not what the law is about. Finch knew he was going to lose. He was waiting for the appeal. For the more rational men who would see the truth. He did not expect it of the local townsfolk jury.

At any rate, thanks for indulging me through my little diatribe. But it all goes back to context. I am loathe to berate an author for not being brave enough or good enough or activist enough. Harper Lee had no more responsiblity to make Atticus any of those things than a modern author does. I don't want to force authors to be politically correct or to adhere to current social standards. To do so would be to devalue their freedom of speech and perhaps keep them from the expressions that Mr. Gladwell might begrudge them for in another 50 years.

Here's the book that changed my life: I don't remember the name, but it was by Dean Koontz. I picked it up for a plane ride, and I loathed it. (Sorry, Koontz fans, no offense.) I hated it with such a burning passion that I swore midway through that plane ride that I was never going to read a crap book again. And I never did. That was five years ago.

Thanks, Dean Koontz!

astrangerhere wrote: "Katie wrote: "astrangerhere,

Did you see the Malcolm Gladwell's article on Atticus Finch in the New Yorker?

I wasn't convinced. I'm just curious to see what you think of it as a lawyer and lo..."


From The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan:

I can only suppose that if writers were responsible for people's thoughts and for creating positive role models, we would then be in the business of writing propaganda, not art as fiction. Fiction makes you think; propaganda tells you how to think.

On the side:

I really like Amy Tan's idea to say that Fiction makes you think and propaganda tells you how to think.
I have just complete the reading of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. After reading it my thoughts brought me beyond the story touching the reality of Asians-immigrants.It really made me think farther about parents'expectations to their children.A good fiction book always makes me think and connect it inside the world we are living.I think propaganda writing definitely stop the reader thinking beyond.

Kandice wrote: "astrangerhere wrote: "Katie wrote: "astrangerhere,

Did you see the Malcolm Gladwell's article on Atticus Finch in the New Yorker?

I wasn't convinced. I'm just curious to see what you think of..."

Bravo! Excellent quote from an excellent woman and author. You managed to make my point in a much less stuffy and pretentious way.

astrangehere wrote: "But it all goes back to context. I am loathe to berate an author for not being brave enough or good enough or activist enough."

Amen. I recently tried to make that point about Joseph Conrad, though not nearly as well as you just did.

I think we also have to remember that our narrator in Mockingbird is not unbiased. What we have is a little girl talking about her dad and that time when she saw him stand for something. Lee isn't saying Atticus was a great civil rights hero, Scout is.

Anyway...I didn't mean to turn this into a one book thread. I'm glad I asked, though. I've been wanting to hear someone else's reaction to that article for a while. As you were.

El wrote: "I have a few books hidden away that I teasingly "blame" for changing my life:

Grade school -
Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh.
I was Harriet. Except I just thought something was wro..."

Loved your explanation of Harriet the Spy. I was also that person who wrote down everything :)

I read Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson after my father died, which in itself is an event that changed my life. However, I think the book would make anybody look at life differently after reading it.

While I've read many books that have given me new ideas or expanded the way I perceive things, I can only think of two that I would say have actually changed my life. The first would be The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Motley Crue. It's not so much the content of it but prior to reading this I had not read a book simply for pleasure since primary school (about 10 years before), but since reading this I have never not had a book on the go, so naturally I have a debt of gratitude to this for reinvigorating my love of reading.
The other book is Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century by Hunter S. Thompson. This was the first book I read by the good doctor and is single handedly responsible for my obsession with politics, which subsequently led to my interests in history, religion and science.

I have always loved to read. I remember my freshman year in high school when we read The Catcher in the Rye. My teacher, Ms. Shryock, had such passiona nd excitement. It was contagious. I remember it being the first time I realized it was ok and "grown up" to get excited about a book. At the time things weren't going great in my homelife. Thankfully, Holden's life was way worse.

Kate - I love that, that your teacher was so enthusiastic that you're still giving her props now. I've had that feeling: a few teachers who cared so much that they transcended whatever shit was going on outside of class. In this case it's not about the book, it's about the teacher, and that's so important, huh? Great post.

And Gary, there's only one thing to do when someone cites Motley Crue in a thread about books that've changed lives: high five.

Several books mentioned here already are certainly big ones for me. It's kind of funny that a lot of books I found to be enlightening (if not life changing) were a little on the dark side. Many of them, I read in high school or college - fertile ground for many of us. Lord of the Flies, The Jungle, Fall of the House of Usher, The Scarlet Letter, several Faulkner works, To Kill a Mockingbird, Where The Red Fern Grows... I could go on. These books opened me up to either characters I couldn't imagine in my own life (yet still found something familiar about them) or they resonated deeply with my own feelings.

As an adult, Julia Cameron's Artist Way truly changed a lot for me in my creative life, as did Sonia Choquette's Diary of a Psychic. And here goes - dare I say it in a group setting? Understand that I mean this in a non-religious way (if you can), but the Bible, specifically the Gospel of John really did change my life. It's mystical qualities resonated with me on such a deep level & I felt a profound shift take place in me.

And, Kate, I'd have to agree that a high-five is in order for Gary's changed life due to a Motley Crue book! Rock on!

Oops, almost forgot the Diary of Anne Frank. Wow!

I have been moved and entertained by a great many books, written some myself, but no single book has actually changed my life. Reality remains reality, despite what I read. I do enjoy the vacations from reality reading affords, however.

I don't know the title or the author, but the first book I ever read was a life changer. I've been hooked ever since.

Some good suggestions here I will have to check out. I am moved in some way by every book I read. I love learning new things and I think books play a huge part in this. The ones that had the most impact on my life were probably the ones I read when I was younger that got me addicted to reading!

astrangerhere wrote: "Life-Changer:

To Kill a Mockingbird is the book that made me an attorney. I saw the film for the first time when I was 11 or 12. Of course, I didn't understand it fully. I read the ..."

Oh I love that book... it is probably my favorite of all time. I read the other posts regarding the book, and it was a book that one may have to know the Southern history behind it. Alabama has such a history of civil rights and if someone didn't grow up here or know about that history, I can see where some would not "get it". Scout was the civil rights person in the book.

And also, the town of Monroeville, AL does the court room scene every year. It actually started this past weekend, and is playing every weekend through May. You can actually be a part of the scene.

Kat wrote: "astrangerhere wrote: "Life-Changer:

To Kill a Mockingbird is the book that made me an attorney. I saw the film for the first time when I was 11 or 12. Of course, I didn't understand..."

I always wanted go to Monroeville for the play. I saw it when it came to the Virginia Samford theater, and it had much of the same cast.

It isn't great literature but it did change my life. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! came to me at a time in my life where I was severely depressed and having a difficult time adjusting my small town upbringing to big city life. Though I wasn't so bad as to choose to retreat back into a smaller world, this book helped me see that integrating the two was a need I hadn't realized I'd had. It helped me to embrace my origins and to seek the beautiful in a citylife that can so often lead to cynicism.

I'm not sure if a book has changed my life, defiantly given me different perspectives.

Though if I had to choose. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This was the book where fell in love with reading. It opened up a whole world of possibilities and imagination.

Like others yes 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. How could it not? I was 15 reading lots of Stephen King, this was a complete eye opener on how literature can work.

Also by that token The Rules of Attraction by Brett Easton Ellis. This book is shocking, proactive, and its characters are entirely without soul. But as a 19 year old moving out of home, this was amazing. It was gritty, it was making a statement, it begun and ended half way through a sentence. Brent Easton Ellis writes a completely self involved arrogant world, perfect for the 19 year old brain.

I would have to agree To Kill A Mockingbird changed the way I viewed the world. I first read it when I was 15 years old. I recall in 1960 my family went to Georgia to visit an aunt. We were from Ohio and I was shocked at the signs in the stores. My mother kept trying to shush me. I could not understand why there were two of everything . One for white and one for colored.

My first Rex Stout book made me fall in love with detective fiction, which I now write and derive great pleasure from. The Tomorrow File by Lawrence Sanders (a futuristic thriller) made me think about how great social ideas taken too far can be damaging to society. A Time to Kill by John Grisham painted a clear picture of how anyone can be driven to kill under extreme circumstances. Hermann Hesse had a great influence on me too. There are so many!

Mine would be the Harry Potter series. I pretty much grew up with them (was about 12 when I first read them, I think. Or 13 or 11...). I was a bit of a loner at school but I always had Harry Potter :) As Harry grew, so did I. Then, when I discovered internet, I also met other HP fans and who then became my friends. Some of them I've lost contact but some others, even after 8 years, I still talk to and have become my best friends :)

In terms of how it changed me - besides giving me friends, it also made me read more books, become fluent in English and meet new people. Meeting people changed the way I view and see things. In a way, it opened my mind so much.

I can't remember the exact title, but it was an early Sidney Sheldon novel, and my first "adult" book. I was in junior high. My dad found the book in his lost and found at work, and knowing I was an avid reader, brought it home for me. He had no idea what it was... all full of sex and abortions and all SORTS of things. It was QUITE the eye opener! LOL!

Miss GP wrote: "I can't remember the exact title, but it was an early Sidney Sheldon novel, and my first "adult" book. I was in junior high. My dad found the book in his lost and found at work, and knowing I was..."

Haha, that must have been quite the surprise!! That reminds me of my mom who recently gave my little 12 yr. old sister The Loop to read which has sex scenes, etc. in it. I told my mom that it probably wasn't appropriate for her age and my little sister chimed in and told my mom, "Mom, that book was full of all kinds of things you wouldn't let me read." It was kinda funny ;)

I have to pick Where the Red Fern Grows. It is still the book I consider my favorite book. My teacher read it to us in 4th grade, and I think it was the first time that I realized there was more to a book than just the words on the page. I'd always loved books and reading, but this was really the book that opened my mind to understanding the emotional element of the story. I cried so hard at the end of this book (still do, every single time I reread it) and I really developed a connection to the characters that went beyond the basic reading of their story. It was the first time a book became an experience.

Man Ashley, I must've read that book 20 times when I was a kid.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I first read it as a highschool student, so I was a bit older than the book's main cast of characters (aged 6 to 11)...but it was incredibly powerful seeing these young children being forced to "grow up" before their time. I felt major kinship with Ender and his impossible plight. To this day, it's my absolute favorite book (well...it's technically been a tie with Pride & Prejudice since about the same time...).

Michelle wrote: "Joyce wrote: "Michelle, I read that so long ago I don't even remember what it was about. Burning of books? I remember it was a reading assignment for school and me being the slacker I had been b/c ..."

Michelle wrote: "Joyce wrote: "Michelle, I read that so long ago I don't even remember what it was about. Burning of books? I remember it was a reading assignment for school and me being the slacker I had been b/c ..."

Would that be "Farenheit 451" by Kurt Vonnegot?