Need a Recommendation on a Life Changing Book

[Mugwump101]

I'm looking for a book on just carrying out living, enjoying life and just discovering what it means to be human.

I'm not looking for any genre in particular. Just about how one sees the world.

Am I making sense? lol.

Thanks!!

[dfloyd]

Myra Breckenridge.

[AllyFizzle]

Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Eat Pray Love - Elisabeth Gilbert (directed towards females mainly)

[chrissy613]

I'm looking for a book on just carrying out living, enjoying life and just discovering what it means to be human.

I'm not looking for any genre in particular. Just about how one sees the world.

Am I making sense? lol.

Thanks!!

KJV Bible :)

[DanielBenoit]

Rumi.

[BienvenuJDC]

KJV Bible :)

Why the KJV?

[DanielBenoit]

Why the KJV?

Because the translation itself is a one of the great works of literature.

[ConstantReader]

Of COURSE you are making sense! For me, that book is The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. Life-changing.
When I was 22 or so it was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I also like Googling "quotes" about any subject I can think if.
Words are so powerful.:hurray:

[TheFifthElement]

Obvious choice would be On the Road by Jack Keruouac. I'd recommend reading the original scrolls version.

Pretty much anything by Richard Brautigan - but perhaps Trout Fishing in America and/or A Confederate General at Big Sur best fit your bill.

[Katy North]

For me it was the God Delusion. :p

If you're younger, the Catcher in the Rye.

Also Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.

[mal4mac]

Read the Dickens thread!

[AllyFizzle]

the prophet is amazing.i received a copy on my 16th birthday from someone who was given it on theirs.

[flakjack]

I'd very much agree with:
'life of Pi'
'Catcher in the Rye'

Both fantastic and visionary works, albeit on different levels! for me the book that's affected me the most is 'dice man' by 'Luke Rheinhart'.

The book is an account of an American Psychiatrist who decides to abandon his middle class securities and start making all of his life decisions by the roll of the die. It's an excellent and gripping journey and really makes you delve deep into your own social condition and nature of life.
After reading, I started involving dice decisions into certain aspects of everyday life, some of them have brought about massive change. Can't recommend it enough.

[janesmith]

For me it was "Jude the Obscure".

[chrissy613]

Because the translation itself is a one of the great works of literature.

I agree. Also enhances your vocabulary if you will. KJV is an "easy-to-read" book and yet after reading it the first time you don't have complete understanding of what was just read. This book is one you could read a lifetime and find new wisdom every time you read it.

[Sally Brown]

Snow : A Novel by Maxence Fermine. About it I agree with this statement: "is a novel that reads like a poem. Limpid, delicate, and pure like its title".

Bye,
Sally

[the facade]

I felt that "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera was quite life changing. Also, "The Stranger" by Albert Camus happened to fall on my lap just as I needed existentialist philosophy in my life.

[Rosie Cotton]

I think one of the most life changing things I've read recently was I read "Sofia Petrovna" by Lydia Chukovskaya and then right after finishing it, I read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It just really changed my life to read them right after each other and the thoughts that brought up for me.

[Alexander III]

I would suggest On The Road, I found it marvelous :)

[*Classic*Charm*]

I think having a Life-changing experience is something pretty personal. What does it for one person may not do it for another. For myself, there were two moments when I felt reading something really slapped me across the face:

The Crucible- Arthur Miller
East of Eden- John Steinbeck (after swearing I'd never read Steinbeck again after The Red Pony several years before)

[PeterL]

Maybe The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream or maybe Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

[Rores28]

Check out "Days of War Nights of Love" or "Expect Resistance" both by the writing collective Crimethinc.

If you believe is God read some atheist non-fiction (I actually wouldn't suggest Dawkins here, I haven't read any of his books but I've seen and read many lengthy interviews and I just don't think his position is particularly persuasive)

If you don't believe in God then read "Darwin's Black Box" this has its own logical holes but one of the more balanced arguments I've heard from the position of God existing

Basically find something you believe in and then read a book that seeks to completely deconstruct that something. Its why I recommend "Days of War Nights of Love" it will cast a pretty big blanket over your beliefs and is bound to contradict more than a few.

[Revolte]

Check out "Days of War Nights of Love" or "Expect Resistance" both by the writing collective Crimethinc.

If you believe is God read some atheist non-fiction (I actually wouldn't suggest Dawkins here, I haven't read any of his books but I've seen and read many lengthy interviews and I just don't think his position is particularly persuasive)

If you don't believe in God then read "Darwin's Black Box" this has its own logical holes but one of the more balanced arguments I've heard from the position of God existing

Basically find something you believe in and then read a book that seeks to completely deconstruct that something. Its why I recommend "Days of War Nights of Love" it will cast a pretty big blanket over your beliefs and is bound to contradict more than a few.

I couldnt agree more on Days Of War Nights Of Love. One of my all time favorites.

[Rores28]

I'm shocked that someone else has read this. Also that quote by Keats is excellent.

[NotWoodhouse]

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

[Satan]

^Excellent!

I'll add Notes from Underground, Nausea and The Myth of Sisyphus as well. Sartre's Being and Nothingness tops the list, 'cause by the time you finish* it you'll have become a changed man with lots of patience.


*- I have yet to.

[hack]

The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa

[JuniperWoolf]

Hmm... for me:

The Grapes of Wrath
Swamp Thing
Of Human Bondage (and I'm really not the only one, I think of this book pretty often. It made me look at a lot of things differently, especially death, life and atheism).
Heart of Darkness (again, I'm not the only one here... pretty effective. It made me uncomfortable inside of my own head for a while).
Call of the Wild

[hack]

"Look Homeward Angel" made me think that
I have a lot of nerve to even pick up a pen.

[Rores28]

JuniperWoolf, I know swamp thing has been penned by various authors over the years, whose portrayal was it that you found life-changing?

Swamp Thing has been on my to read list for some time.





Hmm... for me:

The Grapes of Wrath
Swamp Thing
Of Human Bondage (and I'm really not the only one, I think of this book pretty often. It made me look at a lot of things differently, especially death, life and atheism).
Heart of Darkness (again, I'm not the only one here... pretty effective. It made me uncomfortable inside of my own head for a while).
Call of the Wild

[Tolstoy's Beard]

Doctor Zhivago. Ripped out my soul immediately.

[Zhu]

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.