I agree, Sue. John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and, in particular, Of Mice and Men opened my young mind to a piece of life I hadn’t imagined. I began to understand what compassion meant.
The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson
Published the year I was born ('52), but I didn’t see it until I was about ten. Both my parent weren’t artistic (total philistines) but my uncle was, and I used to like to look at this when at his house, and he was delighted I liked it. This is a book of pictures but pictures like I’d never seen before, of people totally foreign to me.
And that’s how books hit me
There’s not one that really stands out as a life changer but actually getting a book that made me want to keep turning the pages has made me a life long reader
The book that changed my life a long time ago was a book about anxiety called Self Help For Your Nerves by Dr Claire Weekes. I’ve suffered with my nerves and anxiety all my adult life and I battle with it on a daily basis. When I read that book I swore that lady was talking about me, she described my symptoms and how I feel during panic attacks to a tee. The book helped me understand what was happening to my body. I still struggle but I don’t fear the anxiety as much as I did because I know now that I am not going to die during an anxiety attack after all. The book taught me how to deal with my anxiety.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, I bought it in the mid 90s and have used it ever since. Introduced a few people to it and try to live by the habits. I really believe that this helped me to be a good leader at work and care about those that I worked with and also be a good mother and wife. I don’t always get it right but I know that I always do my best and I believe this book helped me to be a better person.
Honest answer to the Question
NO
The local A to Z, it opened up a whole new world (and still does).
Tibetan book of the Dead - brings you down to earth then lifts you up where you belong!
Probaby Black Beauty .
It engendered in me a life long love of horses .
Two other books I have made me love wild places.
Far away and long ago by W H Hudson ( a childhood in Argentina)
Hell West and crooked by Tom Cole a young man’s life in the Northern Territories ,Australia .
can we start again??
Mahjong for beginners by Frank Mah and Albert Jong - gave me a life long love of gambling the way the chinese do - noisy - 'the twittering of the sparrows"
how did it change my life - I won a fortune within the first year and have never looked back and it gave me an everlasting love of the Chinese!
Wuthering Heights…I read it as a teenager and it had a real impact on me…I have been fascinated by the Brontes ever since.
Playboy?
It’s a spiritual book in my case
REACHING OUT by Henri Nouwen
[FONT=“Century Gothic”]
Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life Paperback – 31 Jan 2000. … Nouwen views our spiritual “ascent” as evolving in three movements. The first, from loneliness to solitude, focuses on the spiritual life as it relates to the experience of our own selves[/FONT]
[FONT=“Comic Sans MS”]All my life I have been complaining
that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered
that my interruptions
were my work.
Henri Nouwen
[/FONT].
I guess that as well as the books I mentioned a couple of years ago on this thread, Catch 22 by Joseph Heller should be up there. My teenage friends fell into two groups - those who loved Tolkien, and those who loved Catch 22. The Tolkien group tended to be wannabe hippies , while those of us who liked Catch 22 were the political rebels. Until reading Catch 22, I hadn’t fully understood the cynicism and inhumanity of the profit motive. Strange that some 57 years after its publication, a Milo Minderbinder figure (with less intelligence) has become president of USA Inc.
It was my father who encouraged me to read “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” and although it did not change my life, I do believe that every MP should have to read it before entering the House of Commons.
The book is about a group of painters and decorators over a century ago, but unfortunately it could just as easily have been about today. Thus, showing that for the ordinary working class people very little has changed in all that time.
My father had been an officer in the Navy in the 1930’s through to the 1950’s and experienced life working with some very illustrious people including Lords and Sirs but on board a ship especially when it came to the War time service he also knew that everybody on board had a role to play and without that happening things could easily go wrong.
He always ingrained on me that no matter how lowly someone may appear that everyone has their importance and that they should never be treated any different to those at the top.
Both my father and I went on to be active Trade Union members where we both had to negotiate with top management in Multi-National Companies on behalf of ordinary workers and ensured that we kept to our beliefs.
Well said comrade !!!
Conversations with God by Donald Neil Walsch - quite illuminating particularly for biblical scholars perhaps of the old school - certainly gives one a fresh and new perspective - the many is either a loony who has made a lot of money or a modern convert who has also made a lot of money - just read book one first and see how far ya get!!
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Sounds interesting, he’s been married 4 x and has nine children from previous marriages,
didn’t even know that but his explanation of how he came to write the first book is quite strange and unusual!
Oh really, I must check that out.