To ask which book changed your life?

[SunshineYello]

I'm after some inspiration, as I realised I haven't read a good book in so long, mostly due to being glued to the same old rubbish on my 'smart' phone. Coupled with lockdown, I think my brain is grinding to a halt.
I will offer up Wuthering Heights; bit of an obvious one, but I love how my perception of it changes year to year, from 'how romantic' (impressionable teen) to 'dysfunctional much'?!

Maya Angelou 'I know why the caged bird sings'

Utterly shocking to 16 year old me when I read it, it opened my eyes to prejudice and injustice in a more than theoretical way.

Later it showed me how a common experience of abuse can create a sense of understanding (? sisterhood for want of a better word) between very different women, and that others sharing their pain can help you come to terms with your own and feel less alone.

The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir ( Best analysis of need for Feminism )
Persuasion - Jane Austen ( Perhaps her best book?)
Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens ( heart rending story of young girl living with her father in debtor's prison.)
La Condition Humaine -( Man's Estate (or Fate ) 1933 . Failed insurrection in Shangai 1927 by Andre Malraux (Prix Goncourt)
(Warning - Traumatic. I read this years ago and it still haunts me. Unable to pluck up courage to re read it yet. But, if you're brave have a go.

Ways of Seeing by John Berger - read it at school - it introduced me to art criticism and my mind was blown that a painting could say so much!

Other very formative books were The Female Eunuch, Sophie's World and 1984

A bunch of books that really changed my life were the DL Sayers Wimsey books and Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen books. I read them as an impressionable teenager (and have read them regularly ever since), and having done so it never occurred to me that I wouldn't go to Oxford.

No member of our family had ever been to university before, but parents were big readers and very supportive.

I was so naive! It never occurred to me to question this assumption.

And I did go to Oxford. And it was lovely.

Reality kicked in eventually.

@fancyginglass
I love the Greek Islands

The third life of grange Copeland by Alice Walker. Taught me people can grow and change

@PenguindreamsofDraco

Women who run with the wolves The secret history Surely you're kidding Mr Feynman

(And Twilight, which is obviously shit, but meant I met some fucking awesome women on here )

Surely you're joking Mr Feynman FFS. Honestly it's a great book

If I was unhappy at school I used to lose myself in National Velvet.
I can remember getting so absorbed in books as a child I wouldn’t hear if someone spoke to me - as an adult I’ve lost that ability.
I loved The Goldfinch - I wish Donna Tartt didn’t take so long to write books!

Another vote for 'Feel the Fear' (all the books she did after said exactly the same thing in only slightly different ways. Becoming Human by Carl Rogers, also helped me further develop but is a big big book

Maya Angelou 'I know why the caged bird sings' was fabulous - I bought all the rest and they were pale imitations.

Terry Pratchett is I think the writer that has given me the greatest insight, along with the most laughs and the absolute thrill of having books that I can reread time and time again. I just wish I could read his books for the first time again. I'd also love to read the discworld version of a pandemic.

The books that actually changed my life are 'Six pillars of self esteem', 'Feel the fear and do it anyway' and 'Untamed'.
I feel I need to defend 'The Witcher' a bit. I'm Polish and the best thing about the books was the language. Never read the English translation but guessing it's crap

James Herriot's books. They made me want to move to UK😂 Damn him

Touching the void.

@nannygytha which Terry Pratchet book would you say is a good one to start with for adults? Always hear such good things about his books

One hundred years of solitude
Midnights children
Life of Pi
The remains of the day

@Fortunefavours1I’d suggest Guards, Guards as a good entry point.

I feel I need to defend 'The Witcher' a bit. I'm Polish and the best thing about the books was the language. Never read the English translation but guessing it's crap.

That's so annoying! I just tried for the second time to read it and gave up again because I can't stand the writing. I speak several languages, but not Polish, so it's not like I can read it in the original!

@KiposWonderbeasts ta very much, will have a look!

Janice Galloway 'The trick is to keep breathing'

The female eunuch
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Existentialism is a humanism - Sartre

And for balance - Marie Kondo

When I was about 10 I read a book belonging to my elder sister called Elli that was an autobiographical account of the experiences of a teenage Hungarian Jewish girl during the Second World War. It was the most shocking and horrifying book, and I can still remember it really vividly nearly 40 years later

@AftonGlen - That is a wonderful book.

@thebiggestmoose I read Elli at a similar age (are you my younger sister?) and it had a lasting impression on me too.

Sons and Lovers D H Lawrence
Education and the Working Class Brian Jackson and Dennis Marsden
The Women's Room Marilyn French
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Why Love Matters Sue Gerhardt

Slaughter house 5- Vonnegut
Jitterbug perfume- Tom Robbins
I captured the castle- Dodi Smith
Magus- John Fowles
God of small things
Almost any by Margaret Atwood but especially Oryx and Crake
Poisonwood Bible

So so many more...

So so many more

So many books made an impact on me, but Another Country by James Baldwin is the first I remember reading into the night and breaking my heart over; the first where I really felt connected with characters whose lives were utterly different from mine but were completely real as I read about them.