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Original poster

Have you ever read a book which significantly changed your life?

42 replies

sorkycake · 20/12/2007 19:43

If so what was it and why did it change you so?

My most recent is John Holt's "why children fail" and a close second comes Alfie Cohn's "Unconditional love".

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WanderingHolly · 22/12/2007 17:12

PYBF I loved The Peppermint Pig!

The book that changed my life was the Oxford English Dictionary.

I am a pedant.

oneplusone · 22/12/2007 16:57

The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller has transformed every single aspect of my life. Would highly recommend it together with all of Alice Miller's other books.

SantaBabyBeenAnAwfulGoodGirl · 21/12/2007 23:00

ive found it now it was this book malignant sadness

hope i havent driven u all away

SantaBabyBeenAnAwfulGoodGirl · 21/12/2007 22:38

there was a tv series or a programme which was intriduced by a guy who had written w book about his experience of depression was on tv in 1999...i saw the programme and in it he showed a neat empty bedroom in a hospital or a clinic where he had been treated for his depression...

i was on my own watching about 10 mor 11 at night and i had an overpowering urge to go to that room so i left the house in my bare feet no coat or anything and walked to the hospital about 4 miles away and as i went i had a bottle of pills in my pocket and every couple of steps i took a pill and i had in mind that it was like in hansel and gretel when he leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to find the way back

i thought that each pill i took was going to help me leave a trail back to my real life again when i had finished being in the room i was going to find in the hospital

i later bought the book but i cant remember what its called at the moment

Heathcliffscathy · 21/12/2007 22:38

the second sex god kathy yes. massive impact.

anais nin delta of venus

germaine greer the whole woman too.

you can heal your life louise m haye (kooky but made me really think about mind/body link)

TiStHeSeAsOnToBeTaLcY · 21/12/2007 22:29

here...well worth a read

TiStHeSeAsOnToBeTaLcY · 21/12/2007 22:27

...it made me change my nurse training to RNMH...which took me down a different career path and installed a different perspective on the job i was doing.

SantaBabyBeenAnAwfulGoodGirl · 21/12/2007 22:24

whats that about then sound sonteresting

TiStHeSeAsOnToBeTaLcY · 21/12/2007 22:24

The Comforts of Madness

By Paul Sayer

I read this during my nurse training.
It was an amazing read.

SpeccieSeccie · 21/12/2007 22:17

The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer clarified that I was a feminist.

But then my other choice would be The Little Princess by Frances Hodgeson Burnett which is all about being rescued from poverty by rich exotic men. So not a completely clear message then.

Oh, and I loved The Bitch Rules by Elizabeth Wurtzel, which I read at just the right moment - not sure I'd love it so much now though.

DogMa · 21/12/2007 22:11

Maybe not life changing but made me wonder and a delightful little read....5 People You Meet In Heaven. Can highly recommend.

SantaGotStuckUpTheGreensleeve · 21/12/2007 22:08

I love you snafu, and moony

SantaGotStuckUpTheGreensleeve · 21/12/2007 22:07

The Glass Bead Game

changed everything

JingEllBells · 21/12/2007 22:06

'Today' being some 22 years after I first discovered it. I probably read a bit of Dante nearly every day and am constantly amazed and gobsmacked at it and am pretty sure that I'll still find it interesting another 22 years from now.

JingEllBells · 21/12/2007 22:05

Well Dante's Commedia changed my life quite dramatically, in that I changed my original degree course in order to study it more, did a PhD on it and still write on it today. But I am guessing that its appeal is slightly limited.

ja9ladiesdancing · 21/12/2007 22:01

bible for me too! changing my life on a regular basis... well as regular as i let it

SantaBabyBeenAnAwfulGoodGirl · 21/12/2007 21:58

yep touched with fire and another of her books the u nquiet Mind

emdale23 · 21/12/2007 21:52

The Bible! I know that sounds trite, and perhaps odd, but absolutely true! I started with the gospel of Mark; it was amazing. (Which is probably not a word you might associate withe the Bible)......

Swedes2Turnips1 · 20/12/2007 21:30

Andre Gide - Strait is the Gate.

turquoise · 20/12/2007 21:27

The Second Sex - absolutely. Not so much the feminism, more the chapter about adolescence was the first time I realised that I wasn't an abhorrent freak of nature and that other people were as self conscious and full of self-loathing.

On a more shallow note - recently "He's just not that into you" has made the horror of dating again in my forties so much more simple, in fact it's my bible.

PaulaYatesbiggestfan · 20/12/2007 21:27

almost ashamed but YES

The Peppermint Pig by Nina Bawden
I have been vegetarian 26 years!

lennygirl · 20/12/2007 21:26

Message withdrawn

mummymagic · 20/12/2007 21:23

Lots of fiction books have renewed, inspired, and changed my life... but can I think of them right now?!

One of them though is Boxy an Star by Daren King - not sure why even.

manchita · 20/12/2007 21:18

The bone people by Keri Hulme just blew me away. So many undercurrants, the magical side of life written about in a very beautiful poetic way within a very realistuic and quite shocking story/subject

JingleyJen · 20/12/2007 21:14

The Magus - John Fowles.
I was pressured when I was a teenager to loose my virginity and there is a whole passage in there that totally helped me with the way I felt about it. Each time I felt pressured to do things I didn't want I have gone back to reading it.
I read alot but that book and that passage is stuck in my head forever.