Has a book changed your life?

[llareggub]

Chatting with RL friends the other day, we got talking about books that have changed our lives in some way.

I could think of lots of books that have changed the way I think about things, but not a single book has changed my life in any way.

My mother told me that "The Women's Room" changed her life and told me to read it, but reading it as a teenager in the late 80s/early 90s didn't really have the impact on me that it did on her life as a SAHM in the late 70s.

I remember reading a book about the suffragettes as a child and that certainly changed the way I viewed things but I still can't think of a book that changed my life.

Can anyone think of a single life-changing book?

[Kayteee]

If we can include "self-help" books then mine was Toxic Parents by Susan Forward.
It really DID change my life.

[MuppetsMuggle]

Tuesdays with Morrie - changed the way I think about my relationship.

[llareggub]

Oh yes, self-books are fine.

I've heard Toxic Parents mentioned a lot on mumsnet.

[Takver]

The Disposessed by Ursula le Guin (indeed my mnet nn is stolen from the book)

I have read and thought a lot about politics from teenage years onwards but I think that I would have been less directly politically active without that novel.

I think the range of feminist novels (mostly Women's Press) I read as a teenager also changed the way that I acted and decisions that I made then. But that's an accumulation of books rather than one book IYSWIM

[janeite]

How To talk didn't really change the way I parent but I think it did help to change the way I teach.

"Pride And Prejudice" read as a teenager convinced me to read English at uni (first of my family to go to uni) so was a pretty big deal in the scheme of things.

[mrsrawlinson]

For me it was The God Delusion. I'd spent years in various churches with questions about 'the big stuff' but never really felt as though the answers were wholly satisfactory. Within 2 chapters of TGD, I felt like I'd uncovered more truth about the world than in all the time I'd spent grilling priests and vicars! I'm now an active member of the British Humanist Association and am living an extremely fulfilling life as a tub thumping atheist.

[Kayteee]

ooh, Mrsrawlinson, I may have to get a copy...sounds interesting.

[mrsrawlinson]

It really is!

[thumbwitch]

My first Georgette Heyer I suppose - turned me into an avid fan and after reading a few of them I notice antiquated phrases slipping into my everyday language - but I'll say no more on that head.

Marian Keyes "Rachel's Holiday" was a biggie for me - started off as standard chicklit and rapidly became an excellent book about rehab - very obvious that Keyes had insider info (she was an alcoholic herself, I discovered later). Although not an alcoholic, it opened my eyes to a lot of issues and I was training to be a counsellor at the time so made a big impact.

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

mrsrawlinson - your post really resonated with me. I,too have been reading the BHA site a lot recently, and keep returning to it. I think I will join and will order 'The God Delusion' as well.

[RenagadeMum]

Having to get used to being hard of hearing and wearing hearing aids has meant that reading David Lodge's hilarious 'Deaf Sentance' made me feel much happier to know that other people are experiencing the same irritations. My DH read it too and now understands how frustrating it can be at times for me.

Also, Marian Keyes 'That Charming Man', I gave it to my mum recently and I think it opened her eyes about how her increasing alcoholism was affecting us all.

[DaisyBagthorpe]

Affluenza by Oliver James - it really opened my eyes to how we judge ourselves & others & how unhappy consumerism makes us. It also made me look at the way I was brought up in a new light.

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

This Game Of Ghosts by Joe Simpson inspired me to start rock climbing which totally changed my whole life. My friends, my DH nad therefore my DD wouldn't be known to me if I hadn't started climbing.