"Omg! That book changed my life!"

[*Classic*Charm*]

heehee, yep, I guess I'm pretty immune to insight I'm still as arrogant and self-centred as I was the day I was born

Haha Sleepy. You don't strike me as self-centred at all.

[Bakiryu]

I just look it up in the dictionary myself.

I can't think of any books that have had a profound effect on me.

Have you read: The Book Thief? Or Night? Or Dawn?

[papayahed]

Have you read: The Book Thief? Or Night? Or Dawn?

Nope. Perhaps that's why.

Don't get me wrong, there have been books that made me think, even broaden my horizons but nothing that has made me change my views.

[BlueSkyGB]

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
Although I do not, at this moment, practice one faith over another...
this book really makes me think...

[Timur]

Siddhartha by Hermann Hess

[Virgil]

As much as I've read I can't say any single book has changed my life. I will say that Faulkner has been very profound to me, and D.H. Lawrence somewhat, and perhaps Joseph Conrad.

[jon1jt]

i've mentioned my favorites elsewhere so no sense in repeating them here. others that come to mind are:

Drinking the Rain, Alix Kates Shulman
Eric Sloane books, esp. The Diary of Noah
House by the Sea, May Sarton
On Grammatology/Dissemination, J. Derrida
Empathy, Edith Stein
The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt
Nature & Spirit, Robert Corrington

[Lullaby]

Have you read a book which changed your life, and if so, why?

For me, it's Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis. This book made me really aware of the destruction and downfall of society around me. Clay (the protagonist) is my anti-hero and embodies so much of how I too feel and think.

Also, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk; for the simple reason I could not relate to the protagonists in both of these novels (Esther Greenwood and Shannon McFarland) if I tried.

[Paulclem]

One book that changed my view of life was To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. It was the stream of consciousness that gave a new template to the internal dialogue. It seemed to be a more authentic representation of the inner workings of an individual.

[Three Sparrows]

The Shack, by William P. Young.
I was very deeply moved, there has been no other book that has changed my life so much. I would recommend it to everyone.

[Manchegan]

For me, it would have to be Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I don't entirely accept her ideas, and I think the book itself was barely above mediocre, but no other book has so drastically challenged my beliefs.

I used to be aggressively liberal, but now I find myself agreeing with conservatives more and more. Greed is virtuous, and welfare is armed robbery. I can't argue with her there. Atlas Shrugged transformed me from a bright eyed anarcho communist, to a cynical anarcho-individualist.

[DanielBenoit]

One notable book would be James Joyce's Ulysses.

I remember starting it in the early morning as I watched the sun rise on the beach. I remember reading Stephen Dedulas's thoughts while walking along the shore in chapter three, realizing that I was doing the same thing.

And after finishing Molly's epic soliloquy that I had went outside, and after being infiltrated by those words, my mind was racing and I just felt ultra-sensitive. It was like no other feeling in the world.

[sinjinjoe]

The book that changed my life was carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World. A great way to look at the world with a skeptical eye.

[stlukesguild]

I used to be aggressively liberal, but now I find myself agreeing with conservatives more and more. Greed is virtuous, and welfare is armed robbery. I can't argue with her there. Atlas Shrugged transformed me from a bright eyed anarcho communist, to a cynical anarcho-individualist.

So where wee you when I was being vilified on the Oxford-Cambridge thread... in spite of the fact that my own political views lean far more to the left than the right... for daring to suggest that there may be something inherently wrong with the notion that everyone is entitled to a share of what labor hard for? Further on this topic, my daughter in New York sent me the following:

I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes, and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to earn that pay check, I work hard. At any time I am required to pass a random urine test, with which I have no problem. HOWEVER, what I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Understand - I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sit on their a**, drink beer and smoke dope. Could you imagine how much money this country would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?

Hmmm???

[stlukesguild]

By the way... if there were a book or books that changed my life they most certainly must include Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal and J.L. Borges' Labyrinths. Just why will need to wait until I'm not so drunk.